I am a retired school District 8 principal. I continue to work part time, mostly in urban schools where extra help is desperately needed. District 2 Board of Education member Kathy Lennon’s commentary last Monday was excellent, exactly what needed to be said.
In TFP’s new story, “Schools go back to drawing board,” I was disappointed in Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd’s accusation that Ms. Lennon had made “degrading and disrespectful” remarks aimed at the five commissioners who voted against the tax increase and proposed school budget. What paper did he read? Lennon wrote she was “disappointed” in the vote. That’s neither “disrespectful” or “degrading.” It’s the democratic process at work.
Commissioner Boyd’s statement that those five commissioners who voted “no” will be around the next time budgets and tax increases come up was unnecessary. That he’s “not going to forget” what he thinks she said is a threat unbecoming of an elected official.
I have known Tim Boyd for years. We have agreed and disagreed. While he is an advocate for children, he is also a politician. The school board and commission must get away from politics when it comes to our children and do what is best for them.
Paula H. Burgner, Ooltewah
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Writer suggests Lee ignore law
I was dismayed with Gov. Bill Lee’s signing the proclamation celebrating Bedford Forrest. It’s not only that Forrest was a Confederate general responsible for the slaughter of 300 black Union soldiers; honoring a founder of the Ku Klux Klan is repugnant.
Equally disturbing, to me, the act was established during a Democratic administration.
Lee saying it was the law, and he had to follow it is laughable. Reminds me of an Alabama law which states “women can’t wear high heels on the streets of Birmingham.”
Ignore it.
The Democratic Party was once the party of the KKK. The Republican Party has now become its haven; starting with Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” to Reagan”s courting white supremacists in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Now, we have a president who’s endorsed by David Duke, the darling of the KKK.
Trump said he didn’t know Duke, but that won’t sell since Trump talks like a racist. Not everyone who voted is a racist, but all racists who voted, voted for Trump.
Republicans oppose Democrats’ attempts to eliminate the law. Gov. Lee should heed Sen. Ted Cruz’s recommendation; repeal it. Otherwise, he becomes suspect of courting racists as well.
Wilbourne C. Markham Sr., Signal Mountain
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Jesus to Trump: ‘I don’t know you’
Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.
Red, brown, yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
I learned this in a Baptist Sunday school class. Now these same people support locking precious, little children in cages. I worship Jesus Christ, not Donald Trump. I believe when the book is opened Jesus will look at Trump and say, “I don’t know you.”
Tony Borders, Hixson
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How could we give felons right to vote?
Why would anyone allow convicted felons, who have proven they can’t (or won’t) obey our laws, the right to elect the representatives who write those laws?
Ken Campbell, Tullahoma