Most people in Chattanooga are unaware that they are sitting on a gold mine: Chickamauga Lake. This is one of the most valuable resources in our area and needs to be taken care of.
After spending time on the lake, you will notice trash floating after storms and after busy weekends. The condition of the lake is worsening as more people use it. If we want the large fishing tournaments that bring so much revenue to our community to continue to come, we need to stop polluting. It is a serious issue because of how valuable the lake is. If the lake is filled with trash, the many large fishing tournaments and hundreds of anglers will stop coming. The many small tackle shops, RV parks and marinas that rely on these tournaments will lose income.
Chickamauga Lake is known as one of the best fisheries in the world because the TWRA takes good care of it and stocks it every year with Florida bass, but with more people going out on the weekend and littering it is becoming harder to keep the lake beautiful. We all need to do our part and keep our waterways clean.
Jake Shelton
Lower drinking age to 18 again
I believe the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) in the U.S. should be lowered to 18. Between 1970 and 1976, states lowered the age from 21 to 18. It was increased to age 21 in 1984.
In high school to college, underage drinking is quite popular. In the U.S., once individuals turn 18, they are considered to be adults; therefore, the ability to consume alcohol should be their own decision.
The MLDA in the U.S. has not stopped teens from underage drinking. According to Court Appointed Special Advocates, underage drinking has resulted in $22.5 billion of consumer spending in the U.S. But American teens are not properly educated on alcohol consumption. Implementing mandatory courses about alcohol consumption would help prepare teens for the future. In addition, our nation faces trouble with alcoholism, and teens receive petty charges for infractions of the law.
I will soon be 20 years old. What difference would it make to wait one year to drink? I have learned about the risks of drinking from health class and crucial advice from adults. It is absurd an 18-year-old can purchase a gun but must refrain from purchasing alcohol until 21.
Jordan Morris
Supply needles? What insanity!
I saw on TV this morning that some organization is supplying drug addicts with needles and syringes so they will have clean needles. That is exceptionally stupid since needles will be passed around. Last I heard, paraphernalia is illegal.
While it's on my mind, if government ever takes guns away from lawful people, scumbags will keep theirs because they are not registered. Big Brother doesn't know where those guns are.
Use your heads, people. Don't listen to kids that eat soap pods and keep their head buried in smartphones or playing video games.
Herbert Braswell
Waiting for prison photos of president
Another news outlet in Chattanooga recently published an opinion letter from a reader.
"I would like to know why the pictures of our president and vice president have not been hung in our federal courthouse.
They have been approved by the White House. Every time I call they tell me they are on order."
Signed,
xxxxx-xxx
After considering the situation, I have a response.
"Sir,
The Mueller investigation is waiting to see if the president and vice-president photograph better in black-and-white stripes or orange jumpsuits."
Stephen Greenfield
Cleveland, Tenn.
Hey, Trump: Russia is still our enemy
In 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik, the United States was caught off guard. Aware the Soviet union was an existential threat, in 1958 President Eisenhower responded to the political furor by creating NASA, and the U.S. quickly surpassed the Soviet Union.
In 1983, President Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the U.S. developed an array of advanced weapon concepts and command and control systems. Our resolve and willingness to confront an enemy led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Unable to match the economic power of the U.S., the Soviet Union simply quit, and the liberal democracies won without firing a shot.
Russia, the successor of the Soviet Union, is still our enemy and has developed a more subtle and cost-effective way of combating the United States - targeting elections and infrastructure using cyberwarfare.
We are, once again, engaged in a Cold War, but we have a moron (according to Rex Tillerson) in the White House who is either too naive or so compromised by his alleged entanglements with Russia he is incapable of facing an aggressive enemy or even acknowledging Russia is our enemy.
T. William Alexander
Capital punishment should be stopped
The plan recently put forward by President Trump to address opioid abuse has commendable components such as expanding access to addiction treatment. However, its promotion of the death penalty for convicted drug kingpins is misguided and wrong.
Rather than accepting the president of Singapore's opinion that the death penalty deters drug trafficking, the president should review a University of Colorado study, which found 88 percent of American criminology experts do not view capital punishment as an effective deterrent.
There are multiple reasons for abolishing capital punishment for any offense. First, due to the increasing availability of DNA evidence, 161 death row inmates have been exonerated and released from death row since 1973. As long as capital punishment is implemented, there can be little doubt some individuals will be wrongfully executed for crimes they did not commit.
Second, conservative estimates indicate it costs states at least three times more to implement death penalties compared to life imprisonment sentences. Third, a moral argument may be made that the fundamental human right to life should not be abrogated by judicial action. Such facts and sentiment likely account for the abolition of capital punishment by virtually all other advanced democracies.
Patrick Lavin
Hixson
Let experience be guns determinant
I think the issue with guns is not about what people can buy but who and when they can buy them. I know it's becoming a cliche to say guns aren't the problem but people are. There is some amount of truth in that statement, but it's not the answer.
I've been around guns all my life, understand them, respect them and think that's what we need to bring back - the respect and understanding of guns. I think buying guns should be more of a process - a progression of starting with long rifles and shotguns, and as you own guns longer and become more comfortable owning them and being safe with them, you can buy more advanced guns.
You should have to take classes and courses with trained instructors before buying guns, so they can see how you are with guns.
I don't think any type of guns should be outlawed; how accessible to people those guns are should be modified. And once you're an established gun owner and own many guns and different type of guns, you can buy guns without much problem, but you must take classes to get to that point.
Parker Hailey
Lookout Mountain, Tenn.