Pressure lawmakers to end robocalls
Research tells us that scam telephone calls increased from 3.7 percent of total calls in 2017 to 29 percent in 2018. It is forecast that the number will strike 50 percent by the end of this year. We were spammed with more than 30 billion robo calls in 2017. Moreover, statics indicate in 2017 alone the FTC received about 375,000 complaints.
Spammers call with absolutely no fear of our government – the government has not and presumably will not take ownership of the problem.
We can send men to the moon, position a rover on a planet, spend enormous man-hours debating the merits of a Southern border wall, but our government is helpless in bringing to an end this unreasonable intrusion upon the privacy of its citizens.
Telemarketers shift the cost of their operation to us by forcing consumers to use their telephone airtime to receive annoying advertisement. Our most wide-ranging right is the right to be let alone.
Today’s challenge to our elected officials is to for once do something positive for your constituents. Execute and bring to a halt to robocalls. This robo call epidemic cries out for legislative, curative action. Our government has a basic obligation to protect the right of its citizens.
Let’s apply the pressure …
Johnny Jones, Hixson
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Say ‘thanks’ to your doctors
March 30, is National Doctor’s Day, and the Tennessee Medical Association, along with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society, wants to acknowledge our peers and colleagues for their many contributions to our community, state and nation.
Most doctors view our profession as less of a job and more of a calling. It takes years of hard work and sacrifice to become a doctor and then even harder work and more sacrifice to be a good one.
Physicians consider it a great privilege and responsibility to serve others. We love caring for sick and injured patients, and we strive to support patients in living healthier, happier lives.
So, please take a few minutes to say “thank you” to the physicians in our community. Visit an office. Make a phone call. Send a card or an email.
It just might make your doctor’s day.
Dr. Nita W. Shumaker
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Take our guns? Civil unrest ahead
Some in Washington think taking guns away from law-abiding citizens would decrease violent crime. That is like declaring a national holiday for criminals.
Nancy Pelosi recently said in a speech, “If we had a Democrat as president, they would declare a state of national emergency to confiscate legally owned guns.” If any president were so stupid to attempt to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens, this country would experience civil unrest not seen since the Civil War.
People are passionate about hunting, sport and target shooting but are even more passionate about being able to protect their home, family and themselves. Not all of us are worth millions and can afford the best home security systems and walk around with armed bodyguards.
It is time we had elected officials with common sense. I also believe we should have term limits in Congress instead of lifetime politicians who get re-elected based on name recognition.
Vincent Gamble, Sparta, Tenn.
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Anti-Semitism is a threat to us all
Growing up in Chattanooga, I experienced anti-Semitism about once a week into my 20s. Gradually, and at a pace similar to racism towards blacks, the problem diminished. By the 1990s, except for a crazy fringe element, it was essentially nonexistent in America.
Then, between 2008 and 2016, as the world’s borders either opened or were violated, allowing entrance to those who hate or practice intolerance, anti-Semitism returned.
Now we have two women in Congress who were taught to hate and be intolerant and are legally practicing anti-Semitism. Along with a misguided New York representative, they are determining the direction of the Democratic Party.
This country has a problem and if not addressed will go the way of Europe with pockets of no-go zones and sharia law. Western culture will be erased, with Christianity as threatened as Judaism.
So, will Jewish Americans and liberals continue to support a leftist agenda that condones anti-Semitism, promotes African-American victimhood, supports socialism and open borders, and openly hopes for the failure of our president?
I fervently hope the Jewish people’s desire and intent to practice “tikkun olam” (heal the world) will naturally shift to a recognition of the reality we so desperately face.
Jerry Finkle
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Consumers can fix plastics problem
State lawmakers are considering legislation that would ban local governments from prohibiting or charging a fee for many single-use plastic items on the pretext that they don’t want to inconvenience the producers/retailers of such products from inconsistent regulations.
Not unreasonable, if the state actually had some regulations (or pending legislation) that would realistically deal with this serious problem, but it doesn’t.
A recent analysis, reported in National Geographic and elsewhere, found close to 18,000 microplastic particles per cubic meter of water in the Tennessee River, a level of contamination that makes our river one of the most contaminated in the world. Microplastics are extremely small pieces of plastic debris resulting from the breakdown of plastics that last for hundreds of years, causing damage to health and the environment.
It’s a serious problem we citizens could resolve.
We could demand grocery stores, restaurants, fast food, and other businesses we frequent to offer single-use items (straws, bags, packaging, etc.) made from paper, or, better, find and utilize those businesses that already use them. If we were willing to accept some temporary inconvenience by taking such action, businesses would not be far behind.
It really is all about the money.
Tom Walker
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Blaming the Catholic Church for priests’ sins
I wish there was some way I could jump up and down and scream at the entire world, but these old legs barely hold me up.
Of course I do not expect the new media to grasp a fundamental fact if that fact fails to induce panic, fear or another strong emotion.
Nonetheless, a fact should at least appear somewhere in the ongoing reports of “sex scandals” in the Catholic Church and elsewhere? Whoa! Elsewhere? Fact? What fact could there be that isn’t being fairly reported?
You might start by noting the Catholic Church is not the perpetrator in the reported crimes; we (Catholics) are all victims. The Church has been injured by members of its own family – some of our own brothers have turned on us, wounded and betrayed us. But it seems the secular world (and many Catholics) blame the victim. How sad.
Then when our leader asks us (and you) to pray for healing, he is criticized for failing to “act decisively,” as if any action would satisfy.
These errors all arise from expecting the Catholic Church to behave like a civic government; it is not. Ask King Henry VIII about that.
Bill Laudeman, Red Bank
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Trump spending our tax dollars wildly
President Trump reminds me of former Washington Redskins Coach George Allen. Bennett Williams said, in firing him, “We gave George an unlimited expense account, and he exceeded it.” Coach Allen could really spend other people’s money. So can Trump!
Allen bought steaks at restaurants for his dogs, panties for his wife and shirts for friends on the Redskins credit card. He used Washington’s ground personnel on personal property and its airplane for personal use. This is only a partial list. Trump’s another Coach Allen.
He spends taxpayers’ money like no tomorrow. It’s time for fiscal conservatives to fire him as the Redskins did Allen.
Republicans would be livid if Democrats spent tax dollars as does Trump. He spends $3.4 million a trip to Mar-a-Lago, thousands investigating nonexistent voter fraud, millions on re-election rallies, 25 percent of his days playing golf, $3 billion on a government shutdown, and now talks about millions of dollars for an unnecessary parade no other president wanted.
I don’t think there are any responsible Republicans out there.
Wilbourne C. Markham Sr., Signal Mountain