The Thanksgiving season is a perfect opportunity for us at Chattanooga Goodwill Industries to thank our donors, shoppers and supporters for helping make possible the services we offer at no cost to recipients throughout Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia.
The sale of your gently used donated items helps fund programs that allow us to assist people with disabilities and other barriers to employment with job training services, medical equipment and more. We helped more than 11,000 people last year. That set a record in our agency's 90-plus-year history.
It was due to your support we accomplished this achievement. We believe in helping people reach their fullest potential through the power of work. But this noble mission, especially in these uncertain economic times, would falter if not for our donors' support.
On behalf of our wonderful board of directors, dedicated employees and, most importantly, the people we serve, we say from the bottom of our hearts, "Thanks for giving." We are grateful.
Dennis Brice
President and CEO
Chattanooga Goodwill Industries
USA - Land of compassion: Will we ever return?
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Poet Emma Lazarus' beautiful words of hope on the Statue of Liberty will remain in perpetuity unless the purity squad succeeds in demolishing their spirit
More poor people? With dark, veiled eyes? Don't we have enough problems with our own children without adding another boatload? Mentors in oversized headdresses? Who knows what evil they hide? Maybe they don't yet read, but they've learned well how to disrupt our serenity.
So, thank you, all you brave governors and congresspersons who mirror what America is in danger of becoming. Thank you for turning back those who want to take our guns away. Who knows when we might need them!
But let us truly thank those who see this for the tragedy it has become. May your hope and spirit prevail. There are still many Americans whose hearts beat with peace, who look with compassion - not hatred - to a world we might become. Again.
Caroline B. Cavett
Lookout Mountain, Tenn.
Beyond 'extreme, radical Muslims'
"It is only the extreme, radical Muslims who are the problem."
All those who believe this are thinking like true Muslims (i.e., ISIS and many Chattanooga Muslims) want you to think. I say "true" because like many who call themselves Christians and Jews, many Muslims do not know their own faith.
According to Islamic religious texts (Sira 26 percent, Hadith 60 percent and Koran 14 percent), Mohammed - the perfect Muslim in Islam - mandated that every Muslim pursue jihad until there are no "nonbelievers" on the face of the Earth.
Muslims who do not pursue jihad, as with all nonbelievers, are doomed to the fires of eternal hell. As violence and hatred in Islam continue to increase (e.g. Chattanooga, Paris, Mali), more and more terrorism will arise out of our own population as less aggressive Muslims join their more aggressive believers. Islam is not a typical religion. Islam is a theocracy. Islam is primarily an army. And all Muslims know Barack Hussein Obama is the most effective jihadist in the world.
Roger Catlin
Don't expand law; sunset it quickly
A Sullivan County district attorney recently stated he wants to expand a Tennessee law that jails women for using drugs while pregnant even if there is no harm to their child. This law was pushed with the purported goal of getting people into treatment, but nothing has actually been done to increase access to recovery programs.
The law created a defense where, if people complete a treatment program, they can avoid incarceration, but there are very few licensed treatment facilities in Tennessee that provide care to pregnant women. This is a recipe for long wait lists, delayed care for women and an increase in the number of women forced into the criminal justice system because they have no other option.
Threatening mothers with jail does not open up more beds or ensure quality, evidence-based care. This is not a policy we should be expanding. It is a law we should be allowing to sunset, so we can focus our efforts on incorporating evidence-based protocols for the treatment of mothers and their children and expanding access to treatment.
Katie Garcia
Term limits: 1 in office, 1 in jail
During a Saturday "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" interview on WUTC, Kinky Friedman, entertainer, author, philanthropist and former candidate for governor of Texas, noted the Bloods and the Crypts have taken over government in America. Then he said that he supports two-year term limits for elected officials: the first term in office, the second term in prison.
It seems Tennessee politicians heard of his efforts, closed brutal Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary and invested the people's money in the new prison in Morgan County to insure they will have access to secure and comfortable future residency.
Friedman also stated that President John F. Kennedy urged all Americans to participate actively in the governance of America and that now few citizens are so engaged.
He omitted the fact JFK was assassinated, as was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Each one, an exemplary advocate of participatory constitutional democracy, was assassinated. Who benefited politically, economically, socially and/or personally from their assassinations? Advocates of Jim Crow, plutocrats, elitists and/or demagogues? "Blowin' in the Wind!"
"Reef the mainsail! Hard alee! We run before the wind for the port is waiting."
Rev. Leroy T. Griffith
Firebirds service is exceptional
A huge thank you to Firebirds Restaurant at Hamilton Place for its kindness to all our veterans on Nov. 11. While most other restaurants in our area (with the exception of Applebee's and a few others) were offering a free drink, appetizer or dessert, Firebirds served all veterans a full meal.
There was no special menu or price restriction. All of these brave men were told to order anything they would like from the menu. My husband enjoyed a full rack of ribs, while I chose the portabella sandwich. When the bill arrived, imagine our surprise when we were only charged for my sandwich!
We had expected to pay for the higher-priced meal, and the lower priced one would be free. Not so. And for an added bonus, we had a very pleasant server, named Alyssa. So thanks again to the management and staff of an outstanding restaurant.
Teresa Howard
Hixson
Ignore the fuzzy math; preserve the planet
The Chattanooga Times Nov. 8 editorial "Five Decades of Climate Denial and Counting" is a very interesting read. The title puts the climate discussion in perspective. It is a formidable challenge to predict the behavior of such a complex system as the Earth's climate.
The editorial uses 1880 as the reference point for temperature. The editorial neglects that the majority temperature increase occurred before the mid-1950s when carbon emissions increased. Another revealing consideration is only a discussion of carbon emissions, neglecting other major contributors. Also, no discussion of percentage of carbon emissions attributable to human activity, which is 1 to 2 percent of the total emissions; about 95 percent comes from ocean-atmosphere interface, animals and plant decay. If mankind eliminated all carbon, the emissions would change little.
Though I am skeptical of the climate change community, I firmly believe in preserving our planet. I encourage conservation, developing alternative energy and being good Earth stewards.
I am against placing a severe economic burden on humans based on questionable models. The lack of predicting existing temperatures shows their shortcomings.
Grady B. Nichols
Signal Mountain