Treaty helps control criminals
Nuclear war and nationalism mix a cocktail for genocide.
Leaders like Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander realize the necessity for moral choice. By choosing to support the START Treaty, our senators set an example for students who will sit at their desks in the U.S. Senate.
Sure, we will always need a Strategic Air Command to be alert to the tactical needs of our nation. But we also need representatives who will deliberate with tyrants and theorists who believe nuclear warheads demonstrate a rational wall of defense. Nuclear weapons are not deterrents, but demonic designs for Pyrrhic victory.
For now, our senators maintain a historic conversation and treaty to control this military option.
We owe to generations yet unborn to use language to eradicate this final solution on the battlefield. Through international trust, dialogue and inspection, we can prevent the nuclear terror brewing in the mind of evil fanatics.
Historian Arnold Toynbee warns: “Atomic genocide is total genocide, and the mere thought of this abominable atrocity is criminal.” Now Russia and America must work together to start to control the criminals. Like SALT, this imperfect treaty works toward that goal.
KEMMER ANDERSON
Signal Mountain
Holidays not time to stop donations
In Jeremy Belk’s excellent Dec. 20 article in the Times Free Press, a profound point is made. My friend Linda Hisey of Blood Assurance notes that blood donations fall off during the Christmas holiday season.
From this fact one can surmise that some donors who are more than happy to share what Linda refers to as “… the perfect gift … the gift of life” at other times of the year refuse to do so during the Christmas season. In other words, they prefer to go partying and shopping for presents.
There is no more sad and telling example of the sheer banality of a portion of human nature than this tragic reality. That Americans would turn their backs on taking a relatively brief amount of time to donate blood product to pursue other Christmas tasks that are not truly Christian galls me.
How ironic that the season to honor the birth of Jesus is instead given to self pleasure and self aggrandizement. I honor those who see this holiday as a call to increase efforts to minister and aid the sick, the poor, the dispossessed, the alienated and the lonely whether adult or child.
HARRY GELLER
Writer mistaken on two counts
A letter to this paper on Dec. 29th made two claims. One, that the “general welfare” clause of the U.S. Constitution empowered the government to mandate the purchase of health insurance. And two, that single-payer health coverage was most desirable for our country.
First, if the general welfare clause is interpreted as broadly as the writer desires, there would be literally no limit on what the government could do. Whatever a given administration deemed in the citizens’ best interest, so it would be. In short, unchecked power, justified under the ambiguous phrase of “general welfare.” This is why it’s so crucial to interpret the Constitution in a narrow and highly specific way.
As for single-payer health coverage, that would, in effect, signal a government monopoly over the health-care system. Given the government’s appalling management of other large-scale enterprises (Medicare, Social Security, public schools, even the Postal Service), I’m mystified as to why anyone would expect better in a single-payer system.
BEN M. WOLK
Fort Oglethorpe
Tugboats need warning system
I do not agree with the premise that the fishermen were at fault in a tugboat incident that caused the deaths of two fishermen. I feel both parties were equally at fault.
The incident happened at night when it was dark. The tugboat and the three-barge formation glided “silently” down the river until they were almost upon the fishermen. Each barge is 300 feet long. They have no signal, horn or bell to warn boaters or fishermen when they are gliding down the river at night.
Yes, the fishermen should have had one of the men as a lookout. But I strongly feel that the tugboat should be equipped with a warning signal or horn when pushing barge formations down the river at night. This horn should be sounded every five minutes or so. If the tugboat had a warning horn/signal it could have saved the lives of the two fishermen who were killed.
I question why the tugboat did not stop after the incident and why the tugboat does not have a warning horn or signal when pushing barge formations down the river at night.
If this is not addressed, more fishermen are sure to be in danger and possibly killed.
MARY COLEMAN
Speeders tarnish neighborhood
I live in Eagle Bluff, a beautiful community, which is surrounded by a well-maintained golf course. However, we have a problem with cars exceeding the 25 mph speed limit.
Our association has reminded the residents many, many times to slow down or face the installation of speed bumps, which no one that I know likes.
I am a retired person, but travel to a mall each weekday to walk for exercise. It makes me sick to see so many squirrels and other small animals dead from speeding cars in our neighborhood, Vincent Road (30 mph) and North Hickory Valley Road (35 mph).
Is the answer to post volunteers at the entrance to the community, stopping residents and others to remind them of the 25 mph speed limit?
I frequently have a tail-gater from 58 Highway to my home in Eagle Bluff. I drive a truck, and sometimes I give them a “brake check” to get them to back off. I am sure that many communities around Chattanooga have experienced the same problem.
If you have found a solution, please notify one of the members of our association. Thanks.
BILL POWELL
Bring home troops while still alive
I am horrified at our government’s projection of bringing the troops home in 2014! What do you call it if you keep doing the same thing expecting a different result?
According to University of Chicago professor Robert Pape, who has conducted the most far-reaching study of suicide bombers, the most salient factor is American troops killing Muslims in Muslim lands.
I still don’t have a clue why we are wasting precious lives and over a trillion borrowed dollars, which only makes more enemies.
I feel sorry for our troops who risk their lives because they are told they are defending our country.
When it comes to trying to dominate poor countries, low-tech indigenous attitudes always win. Vietnam de ja vu? Do we really want to be in charge of the world’s leading producer of heroin? The last ditch rationalization for continuing is to honor the troops who have already fallen. That is another formula for disaster in perpetuity.
We can save lives and treasury by immediately mobilizing all planes and ships to remove all troops and mercenaries while they are still alive.
This all started as a Republican debacle. Now it’s morphed into a bipartisan disaster.
FRED H. WRIGHT
Rossville good site for new hotel
Even though it’s beautiful on Lookout Mountain, it’s also remote and not a good location for the Walker County Hotel and Convention Center. A much better location would be Rossville, maybe even at the old Peerless Woolen Mill site.
This would be an economic boom for Rossville and also for Walker County. It would be located in Walker County but could take advantage of the many attractions that Chattanooga and the surrounding area has to offer. This would be a win-win situation for everyone involved.
JIM GRIFFIN
Chickamauga, Ga.