Thanks, 212 Market; you showed the way
Thank you, Sally and Susan Moses, and all the fine folks at 212 Market for leading the way in downtown Chattanooga for 25 years.
You were pioneers with vision, passion and a commitment to providing delicious meals with a conscience. You were my go-to whenever I had guests in town, scheduled lunch meetings or celebrated birthdays, and I always felt far more like a friend than a customer when I walked through your doors.
You inspired and challenged other restaurants and chefs to follow your lead, and that example will be sorely missed.
Your business ethics and concern for local economy (including energy production and the arts, as well as food production) set standards for Chattanooga and beyond. To say you will be missed is a gross understatement.
Today I am sad for this great loss, but I am not disappointed in you. You have earned the right to drop the mic and walk off stage. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you choose for the next chapters of your lives.
Jim Pfitzer
Rising Fawn, Ga.
Why a statue for a failed idea?
All evolutionary and origin ideas have to face the reality the information required to run all living cells is stored in its DNA. Simple life forms like bacteria function on something less than 100,000 nucleotides of DNA. Humans on the other hand run on 6 billion nucleotides.
This is the gap evolution must bridge. The only possible known mechanism for this is successive beneficial mutations in the DNA.
Dr. Richard Lenski at University of Michigan grew 12 cultures of E. coli through 44,000 generations over a 20-year period, a feat impossible by observing humans. The expectation was to see beneficial mutations occurring, thus giving laboratory support to Darwin's natural selection idea.
Not a single information-increasing event was observed! The loss of sight in cave fish is an example of evolution's gross misinterpretation. It is impossible to increase information by losing it. Darwin mistook adaptation to loss of information as if it were an advance. Darwin's idea that natural selection produced evolution, then, is wrong.
So why put up a statue to a supporter of a foolish, failed idea as is proposed for Dayton? Are not such people best forgotten?
Dr. Ker C. Thomson
Dayton, Tenn.
1-man, 1-vote principle needed
I still can't, and never will, accept that any candidate running for president in this country can lose the election by winning it. This is Alice in Wonderland stuff. We do not have a democracy, but you can call us a republic for which it stands.
The two biggest threats to citizens of the United States are climate change and the Electoral College. We need clean air to breath and the return to the principle of one man-one vote.
Mike Bodine
Hold Trump accountable
During the campaign, Trump used his audit-in-process as an excuse not to release his tax returns. There still has been no disclosure. Congressional investigations, an independent commission or a special prosecutor with subpoena power for his tax return may determine whether there were financial deals for Russian political favors, among other issues of concern.
On another subject, where is the tea party with its demand for debt reduction and a balanced budget? Trump wants a trillion for infrastructure, an increase in defense spending, expenditures for health care - all with new debt - just as taxes are being lowered.
Mexico will not pay for a border wall, and consumers will not buy Mexican products costing 20 percent more for these imports when they can be bought cheaper elsewhere. So do taxpayers pay for the multi-billion wall?
Reducing the size of government and bringing more jobs to business and industry would be good, but doing so will not offset the cost of Trump's extravagant expenditures, the only hope being Congress holding him accountable.
John Bratton
Sewanee, Tenn.
Feeling fumes of pending gas hike
Well, we will have a huge tax increase this summer. It may be needed to improve the roads - they do need work. However, I certainly do not want to pay a penny if it used for bike trails or lanes.
Let the bikes pay for using the roads like we drivers pay. There is a tax added on electric cars because their owners pay less in gas taxes but use the roads. Bikes, then, also should be taxed for using the roads and not get a free ride.
On another gas price issue - every spring, the price goes up for the summer blend of gas. Has it ever gone down in the fall when the summer blend is decreased?
Roger Thompson
Tullahoma, Tenn.
Equal protection law has our backs
A recent letter writer (April 20) stated the U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee same-sex marriage. The 14th Amendment prohibits states from denying to any person the equal protection of the laws. Thus, the U.S. Constitution does indeed guarantee that everyone (including same-sex couples) should be treated equally under the law (including marriage laws).
Greg Gloss
Cleveland, Tenn.
Tax loopholes killing America
The perpetual Republican lie is America's 35-percent tax rate is destroying industry but, according to the Government Accounting Office, 288 of the largest profitable companies in America have effective tax rates that average 12.6 percent.
Corporate income taxes as a share of the Gross Domestic Product dropped to 2.6 percent in 2011, 11th lowest among wealthy nations. Twenty-seven profitable companies on the S&P 500 paid no income taxes in 2015.
George W. Bush in 2004 allowed a one-time, 5.25-percent tax repatriation of offshore money supposedly to be spent on job growth and investment. The repatriated money went to buy back shares and dividends, not new factories nor employees, who spend proportionately more at small businesses.
Dave Camp, R-Mich., former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, proposed a flat 25-percent corporate tax in 2014 that went nowhere. In 2016, President Obama proposed a 14-percent tax on offshore profits and a flat 19-percent corporate rate that Republicans rejected. If somebody writes that American corporations pay 35 percent, stop reading; it's a lie. Special interest tax loopholes are killing America.
David Bean
Chatsworth, Ga.
Music education in schools needed
I appreciated a recent letter praising the virtues of music education, which extend well beyond music curriculum. Have you considered how many parts of the brain are engaged by music education/performance?
The notation on the music score is a symbolic language requiring intellectual interpretation, just like any spoken language. This understanding generates a physical action (playing or singing), which relies on another store of information and physical skills. The performance engenders an aesthetic response, which engages a completely different part of the brain. And running through all of this is discipline, curiosity, self-esteem, confidence, history, risk-taking and yes - love. What else does this? We need music in our schools!
Eddie Gwaltney
Lookout Mountain, Ga.
Cemetery thief: Return the bench
These words are written in sadness and regret that someone would take or steal a concrete bench from a grave in the Ooltewah Cemetery sometime between noon April 20 and 9 a.m. on April 21.
This bench was placed there by dear friends and the cemetery owner. When I visited Eloise Lewis's grave, I, as a permanently handicapped, elderly lady, wasn't able to sit down. It is a sad world when someone stoops to the depth of stealing from a gravesite.
Please return the bench if God is dealing with you to do so. God wills it because it was so wrong.
Reta Bennett
Ooltewah