Let the states run education system
In response to Gov. Haslam saying Tennessee has historically not spent enough on education:
Education has become a big topic today in America. People are talking about how to keep up nationally with China. I think what we really need to do is allow the states to run the education system. Yes, some states would fall behind. However, it is feasible to believe some states with enough funding would shoot ahead and be able to educate the kids in their state the right way. Other states could learn from their example and copy their methods. Soon enough, we would be back at the top in the world for education.
Kyle Harris
Ooltewah
Voters shouldn’t be led by the hand
The Times Free Press reports the city of Chattanooga has created a website to aid citizens with criminal convictions to regain their right to vote – all, as it is reported, within the bounds of the law.
Attorney Chantelle Roberson, who volunteered to help create the site, asserts the issue (read: problem) is “systemic.” There is no explanation as to what Ms. Roberson refers to specifically but, as we should all know by now, she means to say it is the fault of the justice system, not the individuals who commit crimes and then remain, purposefully or not, ignorant of the requirements to restore their voting rights.
Mayor Berke is “hopeful” city money will not have to be expended in this effort. Leaving aside the question of who paid for and is paying for the website, I have no confidence in that hope. And I do not have confidence in the political judgment of those citizens who have to be led by the hand to the voting booth.
Malcolm Estrada
Harrison
Letter writer off base with Clinton criticism
A recent letter to the editor from a woman castigated Hillary Clinton as a liberal non-Christian, ignoring that Clinton has been a life-long Methodist, a pretty conservative Christian group.
The letter writer also ignored that Jesus himself was not a conservative but a radical whom the conservative powers of the time, both Jewish and Roman, found dangerous and radical enough to execute. Should Jesus return to earth today, espousing the same values he preached in ancient Palestine, it’s likely our good “evangelicals” would hustle him back up on a cross faster than you can say “conservative Christian values.”
At the last judgment, I fear many in this group will be shocked to hear, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” In the letter, the writer put the last nail in the coffin by advocating voting for Trump, a person you could examine till doomsday and find not a single electron of Christianity in his being.
Thomas Rodgers
Dayton, Tenn.
Keep up good work, reader urges
Congratulations! Thank you for giving us an award-winning newspaper year after year.
Joanne Phillips
Hixson