Give gift of life to Blood Assurance
Since the day after Thanksgiving, I have rendered seven apheresis donations to Blood Assurance. I am thankful my health is good enough for me to do so.
I urge all healthy donors of platelets, plasma, red blood cells and whole blood to come forward to share their precious gift of life to those in so desperate need.
Harry Geller
Senate should hold hearings
Sen. Lamar Alexander, in a statement about President Obama's recent nominee to the Supreme Court, said, "It's about whether to give the American people a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice." Sen. Alexander and Sen. Corker want to wait until next year to nominate and confirm the new justice.
Sen. Alexander, the American people elected President Obama for four years, not three years. We also elected Sen. Alexander for six years, expecting him and Sen. Corker to do their jobs for all six years. The president selected an excellent nominee, and the Senate should now do the job it was elected to do and start confirmation hearings now, not next year. The Supreme Court should be above politics.
Pat Hagan
Real third party should be begun
Trump's and Sanders's appeal in the primaries suggests a third political party.
A 2015 Gallup Poll revealed 60 percent of Americans (78 percent independents, 47 percent Democrats and 45 percent Republicans) feel our two major parties no longer represent them. And they don't want just a protest party, no Ross Perot or Ralph Nader types, but a party capable of electing a president and Congress.
Voters don't entirely blame the two major parties for economic downturns; there are other factors. But they resent being lied to and seduced into invading a country that posed no military threat, plus the casualties, bloodbath and refugee crisis.
Third parties don't work? The Whig Party, a third party begun in 1833, elected two presidents. Lincoln was a Whig congressman before becoming a Republican. And the GOP, a third party in 1856, hasn't done too badly.
We also must make changes in our 18th-century system of government intended for an agricultural, slave-holding plutocracy. The unrepresentative Electoral College, the Senate filibuster and the bizarre gerrymandering of congressional districts must go.
Does anybody believe those bozos presently in Washington, mostly of legal and accounting backgrounds, can reform themselves? Come on!
George B. Reed Jr.
Rossville, Ga.
Don't be caught in police fund scam
I just got a call from someone saying they are with the "Police Services Fund," a nonprofit organization soliciting money to help police departments with funerals. This is a scam as there is no such fund listed in charities (nor Google). These worms come out of the woodwork when there are multiple reports of officers being killed in the line of duty, and there have been several lately. Callers are preying on your emotions. Don't fall for their con.
Anytime callers say they are affiliated with a law enforcement agency and ask for money, please do not make a donation until you have checked with your local police department. It is a rare occasion when a department solicits money; it would be in the local news media with information about the cause for solicitation.
Helen Cooper
Signal Mountain