Be thankful for our police
Many years ago, I was in the Navy aboard a destroyer. We pulled into port at Long Beach, Calif., for a weekend. I was asked to work with the shore patrol.
When I saw how mean and nasty some of the sailors were when they were being arrested by the Navy police, I realized they had to be treated very rough. I am tired of hearing how some of our police are being too rough on some men they are trying to arrest.
If they are resisting arrest in the simplest way, they are going to be treated roughly and they deserve it. We had better be thankful we have police who are willing to put their lives on the line in order to protect us from criminals and crazy people.
Brian Jones, Ringgold, Ga.
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Preserve Coolidge Park the way it is
Coolidge Park is an A-rated park because it is fully utilized, its edges are optimally developed and the neighborhood is thriving. It does not require further development or stimulus.
The proposed 4,000-square-foot Coolidge Heritage Center may sit on just one-tenth of an acre, but constructing it will require cutting down a beautiful grove of trees and reducing the eastern field by 25 percent. There are only two open fields in the park, and this one is routinely used by residents and youth groups for sports activities.
The people who use the park are not "Frisbee throwers and dog walkers." Dogs are not allowed in Coolidge Park. The people who frequent the park are families who come from all over the city to play outdoors and have cookouts.
The park was never intended to be a military park and no one ever promised to build a museum there. It was designed to be a community park, named for Charles Coolidge to honor his service.
Sheila St Aubin
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Support heritage center at Coolidge
Can it be? In the rare air up here, I may miss much, but can there be opposition to dedicating a corner of Coolidge Park to honor our vets?
Those opposing probably never had to "fall out" in the company street before daylight, in fear to face "noncoms" because you had a missing glove or a boot untied. They likely never awakened to find a little ice in the butt cans at the foot of their bed.
Today's military is different. At Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in the mid '50s, as a surgical tech, I worked with and for many of our greatest generation. They had been through the wars.
Shame! Shame! You can't do enough to honor them. If you can find one, ask an Inchon or "Bulge" survivor what they faced. Or thousands of others. Today the ignorant, incompetent and greedy are fiddling away our freedoms while a few argue over creating a hallowed spot dedicated to those who paid the price.
Let's not forget Desmond Doss, a local who saved scores of soldiers because he carried a medic's bag and, as a boy, learned how to tie knots.
W. Richard Barger, Monteagle, Tenn.
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Don't blame teachers for poor performance
Shocked is all I can say. I cannot believe the "slamming" of teachers. It is a classic example of shifting the blame to the "victims," the teachers.
Another classic example of management blaming the worker. Poor leadership results in this terrible injustice of placing blame on teachers. The teachers identified as "least effective" were in poor schools with tons of other factors that should have been noted as contributing to subpar performance more than anything else.
There is a giant problem in the Hamilton County Schools system. It is not the fault of teachers but a combination of factors, including top leadership in the system.
Mike Carter