CHA goes own way despite opposition
I attended an informational meeting last Saturday hosted by the Chattanooga Housing Authority at its mostly vacant Fairmount apartment complex.
CHA made it clear that if it were to lose the federal grant for a new “green” apartment complex that it would consider renovating the complex and using it for the same kind of residents who have lived there all along.
Why would CHA throw good money after bad? The current complex has had only a handful of residents for years. It’s not far-fetched to conclude that one reason for this situation is because the property isn’t close to shopping, jobs, medical facilities or public transportation, all of which would seem to be required to make a low-income housing project successful.
CHA didn’t seek the opinions of residents in the immediate neighborhood as it pursued the federal grant money. Organizers of Saturday’s meeting put on a good show but it’s pretty clear they don’t care any more about neighborhood opinions than they did at the beginning of the process. CHA appears determined to use this property for a high-density project, whether or not it makes any practical sense for the neighborhood or the complex’s potential tenants.
BRIAN HAMILTON
Spread burden over more people
The need for the draft. Only 1 percent of our nation is joining the military.
Why isn’t the burden being spread more evenly?
It’s the same in all wars; the very young and adventurous give up their lives for the old and cautious, the blue collar for the privileged, the uneducated for the student, the poor for the well off, the patriot for the politician, and the few for the many.
When you deploy over and over again and get back home and no one cares about the wars, it has a tendency to make one ask, what are we accomplishing?
The fact that Americans have become so secure in their life means that you and I and those heroes before us have been doing an excellent job keeping the fight off of our own soil.
Perhaps we’re doing too good of a job, as a lack of understanding and support is an obvious side effect of ignorance. I served my country!
GENE CROZIER
East Ridge
Obama needs help from both sides
The day President Obama was elected, Republicans started their campaign to destroy his administration. President Obama inherited so many problems from day one that he needed all of Congress to get the United States back on track. This isn’t the time for partisan politics. Am I impressed with the job Obama has done so far? Not really, but so many times his hands have been tied by the right side of the aisle. Now Obama should forget health care reform and focus on the economy and the jobless rate.
I would like to think Democrats would have treated a Republican president with a little more respect, but to be honest I doubt that would have happened either. However, I haven’t heard anyone say what a President McCain would have done differently had he been elected.
It’s going to be a tough midterm election year for the Democrats, but I doubt we (the middle class) will notice any change when the Republicans take control. It will be like 1993 when they took control. Any change? No! Just remember President Clinton left office with a 66 percent approval rating.
President Obama can still turn things around if he can get support from both sides of the aisle.
PAT HAGAN
Family groups in combat is bad
I read your Jan. 23 story concerning the shipment of siblings from the 278th ACU to a tour of duty in Iraq. I think the article was very patriotic and warm, but has a bad side to it.
The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps had learned about this situation of sending family relatives to the same war. Didn’t anybody see “Saving Private Ryan”? Have you read about the Sullivan brothers, all killed on the same troop transport? The four pastors were killed on the same ship?
I hope for the family’s sake and the country’s sake nothing devastating happens. Combat is every unfair. Pray to God nothing ever happens, but watch out. Sending a family group may look good on paper but could end up in a paper turmoil if all of them would die.
Have the commanding officer explain that incident.
Well, God speed, and good luck.
WILLIAM R.
REINHART
McDonald, Tenn.
Don’t throw away religious liberty
Our nation’s founders prized liberty of conscience in matters of religion so highly that it stands at the head of the amendments that defined individual rights in the infant republic. Can we afford to trash religious liberty to satisfy the agenda of political leaders or the religious motivation of an inflamed public?
To see how quickly and intensely a religious question can engage political debate, one needs only to consider the way the question of abortion has dominated the health care discussion. It has been framed in the starkest terms by the contention of the church that abortion is murder, based on the assumption that the fertilized ovum is a person. This cannot be proved, and a church cannot define this issue for every person. Even the Bible does not call induced abortion murder, see Exodus 21:21-25, where the penalty was only such as the aggrieved husband required, unless harm came to the mother.
The church may call abortion sinful; I believe it is, but religious liberty is too precious a commodity to throw away lightly. Government should never operate the levers of religious authority, and churches must be denied enforcement power or liberty is at an end.
RICHARD BURNS
Cleveland, Tenn.
Site is the problem for housing units
Betsy McCright, Chattanooga Housing Authority’s executive director, was quoted in a recent article regarding the proposed Fairmount property in North Chattanooga as saying, “The community will have people of low income living there.”
I found that comment somewhat laughable since North Chattanooga has had low income people living there since 1977. North Chattanooga is a neighborhood of cultural diversity that encompasses a broad range of residents and housing types. In fact, that is what attracted many people to the area. It is not a “cookie cutter” neighborhood.
I can’t speak for all residents, but I would offer that most of North Chattanooga has no problem with a complex that houses people of low income and no problem with the proposed complex. A public housing complex is not the issue. The issue is the size of the proposed new complex on the existing site. A green, low- income housing development would be an asset to both North Chattanooga and the city.
Congratulations to the Chattanooga Housing Authority for being awarded the $4.2 million grant, but isn’t there a better, larger site in North Chattanooga to build the complex?
REBECCA ROCHAT