Police can make it without gun range
The police firing range needs to be moved from Moccasin Bend immediately. Please do not waste more taxpayer money on this site. My plea to members of the City Council and Hamilton County Commission is to not fall for the scare tactics by the sheriff and the police chief. Does anyone seriously think the city police would cease to exist if the firing range is not repaired as the police chief said?
A firing range has no business being on national park land. Move it now!
Pat Hagan, Fort Oglethorpe
Is Atherton really seeking less work?
As a recently retired attorney with 40 years of practicing divorce law in Hamilton County courts, I was interested in news accounts of Judge Jeffrey Atherton’s opinion in the Bumgardner case.
Having read the order, it is my opinion that the section titled “Jurisdiction” is the most ridiculous legal analysis of any court opinion I have ever read. His attack on the Supreme Court case of Obergefell vs. Hodges is silly, trivial and irrelevant.
However, there may be a more understandable reason for Atherton’s childish tirade. Having sat through four days of a contested divorce case, he may have reached his “breaking point.” By erroneously stating that he does not have jurisdiction to decide contested divorce cases, he can assure himself that his caseload will be greatly diminished. Which divorce attorney will want to file a contested divorce case in Chancery Court and run the risk of having to put up with the rants and personal attacks of the Court? I am sure that the four Circuit Court judges will be happy to hear the additional contested divorce cases and thereby free Judge Atherton from his existential quandary.
Erskine P. Mabee, Sale Creek, Tenn.
Kentucky clerk should get new job
If Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis cannot because of her religious beliefs perform her sworn duties, then, in honor, she should resign her position.
Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s.
Get another job, Kim.
Nancy Smith, Dayton, Tenn.
Luckovich cartoon offers less light
The tasteless cartoon by Mike Luckovich, “Marriage License Clerk Kim Davis’ Previous Jobs,” on the Sept. 8 Chattanooga Times editorial page was tasteless and defamatory. Its overall effect is to belittle the idea that religious convictions might be accommodated in the workplace.
Meanwhile, a story on page B4 of the same edition reports that a Muslim-American flight attendant has filed suit because (she alleges) her employer failed to uphold an “accommodation” earlier agreed to, which would have permitted her to act consistent with her Muslim principles. Shall we expect a Luckovich cartoon about this flight attendant next? It is clear Kim Davis of Kentucky has a problem and that she has to do something about it. Her decision to issue no marriage licenses to either straight or gay couples is unsustainable. But her dilemma (contra Luckovich) is really reducible to this: The rules have changed since she began her term of service. That is a bind many Americans find themselves in since the Supreme Court decision on marriage. More light, less heat please!
Kenneth J. Stewart, Lookout Mountain, Ga.
Encroaching Islam no imagined threat
We’re told that history repeats itself but fail to take wisdom to heart. The presentation given by Sheriff Jim Hammond last week explaining Islam is a stark reminder of the influx of some foreign nationals known as illegal aliens from south of the border and elsewhere. During the past quarter century, we have seen millions of “undocumented strangers” put down roots in America. A number of reasons can be blamed for this growing population, including jobs, education, welfare and health care. The illegal alien invasion was not the subject of Sheriff Hammond’s presentation but the welcoming into our nation the cultural practices of a people who do not share the endearment of our national heritage nor our spiritual and religious concepts. Until very recent years, most of the incoming immigrant population held some similar views to the Christian-based United States of America.
As a Muslim Brotherhood leader said: “The Muslim Brotherhood must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”
Shariah law: radical Islam’s threat to the U.S. Constitution.
Lawrence Headrick, Tunnel Hill, Ga.