Viral video snake a helpful reptile
A local viral video shows a nonvenomous gray rat snake striking because the camera is too close, and it feels threatened by the camera hovering over it. When scared, rat snakes will coil, inhale, grow in size, and hiss like a rattlesnake, and even vibrate its tail to try to scare you to leave it alone.
The cosmopolitan rat snake is common in Chattanooga because we have so many rats and mice. Snakes have a great sense of smell and seek places where rodents exist. Many rat snakes worldwide are bred in captivity and kept as tame pets that can be handled safely.
Rat snakes can get 8 feet long. If you see a rat snake, marvel at the encounter, but don't kill. They help control our rodent population. To learn more about rat snakes and others, check out http://www.tennsnakes.org/tn_ratsnake.htm
Chris H. Jones
Civility requires weapons ban
How many mass murders do we have to witness before our legislators in Tennessee and Washington stand up to the warped thinking of the NRA and the false reasoning behind the interpretation of the Second Amendment? Does anyone really believe the founders of our country would want to be responsible for enabling the senseless killing that goes on today?
There is no reason for anyone to purchase an assault weapon except to kill people. No hunter ever needs or carries a weapon of this kind. I urge all legislators, and especially the Republican members in Nashville and Washington, to take strong and decisive action - to support the recommendations of the law enforcement community and to support the wishes of the vast majority of your constituents.
Will a ban stop all killings? Of course not, but it could save the lives of many honest and law-abiding citizens and help to bring a measure of civility back to this country. What could be more important?
Pat Brock
Lookout Mountain, Tenn.
Budgeting revamp to help disabled
I am delighted to see both sides of the editorial pages endorse student-based budgeting (SBB), which was discussed recently in a presentation by Metro Nashville Public Schools. If SBB improved academic outcomes in a system larger, more urban and poorer than our own, surely it will work here.
However, school leaders must understand that piloting SBB also means piloting inclusion for students with disabilities. Hamilton County uses self-contained classrooms and cluster sites for students with disabilities, with some disabilities segregated at rates far above state and national averages. A few years ago, Metro Nashville had the lowest inclusion rates in Tennessee.
To correct this, Metro eliminated self-contained classrooms and cluster sites, and simultaneously implemented SBB to allow students with disabilities to be integrated into home-zone schools and classes with their neighbors and friends.
The result is that the achievement gap between Nashville students with and without disabilities has been cut in half while overall achievement continues to rise. This fits with decades of research showing the academic benefits of inclusion for all students.
So, yes, let's pilot SBB in Hamilton County, but that means piloting inclusion for our children with disabilities.
Cale Horne
Lookout Mountain
More not fewer guns the solution
Per their usual, President Obama and Hillary Clinton are shrilly calling for more gun control due to the horrific massacre in Orlando. Clearly murder is illegal, and that law did not deter this Islamic terrorist. How in creation do you expect an anti-gun law to deter or stop him?
Let's analyze how these violent events usually end. Oh, yeah, the perpetrator is shot by someone with a gun. Contrary to your stupid politicians, the solution is more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens.
As has been quoted, "You may not believe in God and you may not believe in guns, but when there is an event like this you immediately call someone with a gun and pray to God they arrive in time."
The real problem is Islamic terrorism. Obama's solution is to import thousands more of these types, such as Syrians. I am a third-generation immigrant. I speak English, shave and my ex-wife doesn't wear a habib. I am not a hyphenated American.
How well did it work for America last time we imported a large ethnic group to do our labor? These hyphenated people burden us still today.
Jim Howard
Move WWII marker to Coolidge Park
I am a nine-plus year Navy veteran of the Vietnam era. I am a member of various veterans groups in our area.
My concern deals with honoring our Chattanooga World War II veterans. I wonder how many people in our city know there is a monument honoring them on Patten Parkway?
My biggest complaint is the condition of the monument. It is sad to see how we've let it go.
I would like to suggest to the city that we move the monument to Coolidge Park. There it would be seen by thousands of visitors to the park, and hopefully it would be maintained as it should be.
I'm sure Mr. Coolidge would be in favor of placing this monument in his park.
Alan Syler
Trump lacks proper moral development
Mental health professionals have written papers and commented on Donald Trump. Someone with seemingly little sense of self and so much power is truly terrifying.
Kohlberg's moral development theory looks at three levels of reasoning: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. Most children and young adolescents are at the pre-conventional level of development (as are some adults), where the individual views what is right as "that which I want." The person at this level solely acts in accordance with his or her own self-interest. Also, according to his theory, "persons are valuable only for what they do for me."
How many times has Trump said publicly he is nice to those who are nice to him? When he does, I visualize a 2-year-old in a large man's body.
Also, at this stage, the world is seen in a "morally relative" way. So self-interest controls how the world is viewed, moment by moment. Can you imagine a foreign policy that says "If you're nice to me, I won't drop a bomb on you today?" What happens on the day he believes "he is not being treated fairly?"
Think before you vote.
Marilyn D. Phelps, LCSW
Sewanee, Tenn.
Focusing on the wrong problem
It's serious and common; so pervasive that we're blind to it and so popular that it is embedded in our thinking. "Gun Violence" is headlined in print, and proclaimed with excited urgency by TV news' talking heads.
Blaming violence on the implement hides the real problem: violent persons. Focusing on the tool allows us to separate ourselves from the living persons who kill. We take comfort in vilifying inanimate objects rather than becoming involved with violent real persons.
Do you demand "gun control" because "personal control" is so unattractive? So embarrassing? So painful? So personal?
Bill Laudeman
Red Bank