We’ve got to try a little kindness
As a child growing up in Tennessee, I clearly remember my mother saying, “If you cannot say anything nice about someone, then do not say anything at all.” For me, I have tried to make that my motto in most circumstances. The times I have ignored her direction are when I have gotten in the most trouble.
I am so concerned about our current trend to discredit and malign anyone. Whether it is called “cancel culture,” bad manners or just plain being rude, we have to stop tearing each other apart. Jesus said in Mark 12:30-31, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength … and love your neighbor as yourself.”
This needs to be a national conversation. Unfortunately, the only ones getting attention are the ones with the most disruptive words.
Words do matter. Find someone to affirm. Find someone with whom to share kindness. Maybe, just maybe, our simple acts of kindness will spread.
Linda Wyatt
Signal Mountain
Impressive salary for Venue pastor
“Pastor” [Tavner] Smith’s divorce proceedings list his monthly income as $16,666. Is someone sending us a message?
Tom Evans
Hixson
Supporting Biden’s voting rights bills
Bradley Gitz’ editorial, “What Threat To Democracy?” (Jan. 27), insinuates President Biden lacks intelligence and is contemptuous of the American people in making the case for protecting voting rights. Aside from contemptible language, arrogant intellectualism from a college professor (Lyon College, Batesville, Ark.) is offensive and has been decried for decades by the Republican Party.
Gitz’ argument focuses on defending “voter ID” laws, a tiny part of the two current bills that will correct flagrant voting rights violations. Recall, our Constitution created a democratic republic ruled by qualified white men. To achieve democracy of, by and for all people, we need to restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act, discard racial gerrymandering, instill full rights to District of Columbia residents, restore voting rights to former felons and make it as easy as possible for citizens to vote.
If Biden’s bills fail to pass, Gitz astoundingly suggests Biden might declare a lost 2022 election to be “illegitimate,” and Biden would have “done more to destroy faith in our elections than anyone before him, even Donald Trump”? Even Trump! – who questioned Hillary’s majority (500K), Biden’s victory (8 million), predicted a corrupt 2020 election (if he lost), and tells the “Big Lie.”
David Benn
Many police just ‘bully with a badge’
I worked as a law enforcement officer for 39 years. I am protesting another police killing. Thirty-seven-year-old Landon Eastep was killed on Jan. 27, 2022, in Nashville. Every time a police officer kills a citizen, police state they felt their life was in danger and they had to kill the person. In this case, nine officers killed a citizen holding a box-cutter. No police officer should respond to a box-cutter with deadly force.
In my town of Jasper Tenn., police run speed traps, an abuse of citizens’ rights. Police often favor unmarked police cars. I ask legislators to enact the “Boss Hog Bill” and “Right to be Seen” bill which protect citizens from abuse of police speed traps and require police vehicles to be clearly marked with external blue lights.
On Jan. 27, 2003, Jason Peder Clausen was posing as a policeman in an unmarked police vehicle in Fort Collins, Colo. He pulled 20-year-old Lacy Jo Miller’s car over, abducted, assaulted and burned her before disposing of her body. Government has been too supportive of police, many of whom overreact. Many police I know are no more than a “bully with a badge.”
John Christof
Jasper Tenn.
Brilliant – ban books, get kids to read them
McMinn County school board – brilliant! What better way to get kids to read books than to ban them. Art Spiegelman’s “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” is a brutally honest portrayal of the atrocity of the Holocaust, and something that kids need to know about. Whoever thought this up was a genius. Maybe they should think of banning Roget’s Thesaurus next.
Ken Maury
Another approach to teaching Holocaust
It is sad there is so much contention over a book and subject with the potential to unify us. Maybe another approach is in order.
More than 20 years ago, the Whitwell, Tenn., middle school wanted to find a way to teach students about the Holocaust. Many had never heard of it. When they were told 6 million Jews were killed in the 1940s, most hadn’t met a Jew, and the number killed was difficult to comprehend. Paper clips had been worn on the lapels of those who silently opposed the Nazi regime, so someone had the idea for students to write letters to people requesting enough paper clips to represent the number of Jews killed. What happened over the next several months was astonishing. Paper clips came from all over the world, many from Holocaust survivors. The result was transformational. The students learned more about history than their teachers could have imagined.
A 2004 movie was made about this. If you haven’t seen it, take two minutes and watch the trailer, “Paper Clips.” If you have middle-schoolers or are a teacher, get the movie (it’s G-rated) and watch it with them. They will learn something valuable.
Doug Graydon
Signal Mountain
Voter laws making our democracy disappear
My vote and yours are both sacred and guaranteed under the constitutions of our state and our country. Oh, hold it! I’m not so sure anymore, and, truth be known, I’ve been losing sleep over the issue of our democracy. Should democracy be capitalized or demoted to lower case? Recently, the Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked even the debate on the issue of voter assurance. In all my years, I would never have even remotely raised the question which now is one that we must deal with.
When I now read or listen to the morning news, my blood pressure rises. All over the country, Republican-sponsored legislation is being proposed and passed with the blatant objective of enacting insidious ways to limit the availability of the ballot. It is not undercover but rather in clear view. And while the efforts seem to aim at minority populations, the target is all of us. Where is the outrage I feel? In fact, outrage is not a strong enough term. I’m at a loss on how to characterize the effort to destroy the democracy we have so long cherished. Please stand up and be counted before our democracy disappears.
Irv Ginsburg
The light comes on about Dems’ strategy
Just watching the stories of charter jets flying illegals into Westchester, N.Y., and the bodycam footage/exchanges with government contractors. A light just went off (and I haven’t heard anyone really pressing this point):
The administration’s push to get laws in place where there is no accountability in voting (i.e., from photo ID, etc.) is not at all about the “poor Black people who don’t have/can’t get a photo ID,” or the “lack of opportunities, locations, mail-in options, etc., for them.” This is about allowing all the illegal immigrants to vote without any ID, who then would have a lifelong obligation to the Democrats and the Biden legacy to vote Democrat for generations to come!
Why else would the Dems think it’s a good idea to disperse thousands (millions?) of undocumented immigrants throughout our nation? I’m finally seeing their strategy now. Win elections at all costs!
Sammy Kay
Dayton, Tenn.