Memorial, heart care exceed expectations
I think that it is important to share with Chattanooga and surrounding areas my praise for one of your medical facilities.
This area is fortunate to have several excellent facilities. I am a resident of Cleveland (and proud of Tennova) but needed further medical care in Chattanooga. My few-day stay turned into nine days at CHI Memorial Hospital. I cannot express the amazing, top-notch, kind and compassionate care I received. I owe my life to Dr. David Wendt and the hospital staff.
I am a registered nurse and tend to be picky about medical care. I have not one complaint about the care I received or the staff who gave it. It was obvious to me that those who cared for me love what they were doing. I was treated like the most important person they had to care for.
Thank you, Chattanooga, for this wonderful facility and all who work there.
Sue Partain
Cleveland, Tenn.
Scenic City has ties to free press
Chattanoogans should have a deep appreciation for a free, independent press. This part of the country did not always have it. During the Civil War, the Confederate States of America limited types of public discussion it once had known.
Following the crushing and demoralizing loss of Chattanooga by the CSA that followed other strategic losses at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, Ulysses S. Grant reflected years later, "If the same license had been allowed the people and press in the South that was allowed in the North, Chattanooga would probably have been the last battle fought in the preservation of the Union."
The leaders of the South suppressed that talk, put out alternate facts on battles and more loss ensued. Our nation has spilled blood and treasure to ensure that a free press long endures.
John Myers
Soddy-Daisy
Constitution is Gorsuch's ruler
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne told a big, fat lie in his March 25 Chattanooga Times commentary. Judge Neil Gorsuch was truthful. While many liberals say the Constitution is a living, breathing document that "changes" with the times, Judge Gorsuch decides cases based on what the Constitution actually says. As a judge, he doesn't take sides like Mr. Dionne seems to require for his approval. Judge Gorsuch will decide cases based on the law, not on feelings.
Clinton Grant
Rossville
Walk in shoes of the disabled
Paul Ryan's proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act would have reduced the amount of subsidies that help families afford insurance. It would have reduced coverage for people on Medicaid. It would have jeopardized the incomes of tax-paying caregivers who contribute to the health and welfare of many deserving recipients.
Unless you've had a family member who is severely disabled, you may not know Medicaid is insurance for people who are completely disabled and have less than $650 in assets (in Georgia). At costs of nearly $10,000 per day for intensive care, it doesn't take long to get below that limit.
To qualify, an adult must be catastrophically disabled and assessed before being brought into a state-run program.
Before we make decisions regarding those complex issues, we owe it to ourselves to visit a severely disabled person and spend some time talking with caregivers.
Watch as they feed and clean them, transport them to doctors, deal with medications and endless paperwork. Then we will be ready to consider the growing problems we have regarding health care. Easy answers are for those lucky enough not to know the reality of total disability.
Joel Blevins
Tunnel Hill, Ga.
Bullies Are Us is city's moniker
WUTC reporter Jacqui Helbert was recently fired by UTC after pressure by our representatives Mike Bell, Kevin Brooks and Todd Gardenhire. She was in Nashville with a small group of Cleveland High School students discussing the pending bathroom bill, designed to discriminate against individuals who had changed their gender, with Brooks and Bell.
Though Helbert wore a press pass, carried a mike and radio equipment and obviously was older than the school seniors, the congressmen whined she didn't identify herself and attempted to discredit her report. Gardenhire, who wasn't at the meeting, voiced his displeasure later.
UTC administrators, who hired Helbert to report stories of interest, also fumbled. When reminded by our elected "wise-guys" that much-needed funding for the station had been allocated by the state, instead of siding with her, the college gave her the axe.
I've lost respect for our representatives in Nashville and the UTC administration. Smearing someone in order to keep your hand in the cookie jar is as unsettling as our elected representatives using their power to muzzle the press. Although Chattanooga has been praised often by outsiders, Bullies Are Us would be a better moniker.
Tom Baker
Hixson
Sewage water tanks? Oh, please!
Chattanooga is considering a project that will make us the laughingstock of the South by building 75-foot high sewage water tanks close to the west side of Interstate 75 between Standifer Gap Road and Shallowford Road to greet all entering the city from the north.
Commercial development in the vicinity on Lee Highway is finally commencing and will be impeded because of this proposal.
Kirk Johnson
Scientists can't be this wrong
Starting 42 years ago while I was an Earth science major at Ohio State University, I attended technical lectures about human-caused climate change given by researchers at the school's Byrd Polar Institute. That is how long the research has been showing human-caused climate change.
I am often overwhelmed with the profound ignorance of conspiracy theorists. They have no comprehension of how scientific papers are vetted for publication or even how the scientific method works.
Essentially, to assume scientists are conspiring goes hand in hand with the belief cats can be herded. Scientists relish bickering with each other and in general are reluctant to agree.
To prove that thousands of those scientific papers are wrong and thousands of scientists are wrong, you need to start publishing papers that refute the basic rules of nuclear physics.
We are causing climate change - period. I love this meme circulating on the internet: "Plot idea: 97 percent of climate scientists contrive an environmental crisis but are exposed by a plucky band of billionaires and oil companies!" Go ahead, stick with your conspiracy theories at all our peril.
Jenny Rytel
Socialism is fine, but fear fascism
Government labels can be a bit confusing. To start with, Venezuela is a Federal Republic, Cuba and North Korea call themselves socialist-communist states, which is different than a socialist state.
The top socialist countries - 1: China, 2: Denmark, 3: Finland, 4: Netherlands, 5: Canada, 6: Sweden, 7: Norway. The happiest countries - 1: Norway, 2: Denmark, 3: Iceland, 4: Finland, 5: Netherlands, 6: Canada.
Noticing any overlap here?
It's sorry that Americans have become so fearful of "socialism:" The U.S. has traditionally been a fairly socialist country itself, with our socialist roads and bridges, socialist libraries, socialist school system, etc.
What we Americans should be afraid of is becoming a fascist state, which is very different from a socialist one.
Larry Marek
Dayton, Tenn.