Planned Parenthood: Save the talk for later
Why do pro-life advocates support a government shutdown over the issue of Planned Parenthood funding? If life is so valuable, why propose injecting added stress into the lives of millions already struggling by virtue of circumstance or age?
No veterans benefits, no Social Security payments, no pay for members of the military – the list of those who would suffer is long. Stress debilitates the spirit and is a well-known precursor to many illnesses, even death.
Perhaps pro-life supporters could expand their empathy and adopt a position that embraces all lives. Under that rubric, a shutdown would be morally and spiritually unthinkable.
The discussion of Planned Parenthood could continue in a context that promotes listening rather than confrontation.
Richard Morel, Signal Mountain
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Local workers not involved in scandal
As an employee with VW for nearly six years, I understand the emissions scandal was wrong and deceitful. I understand that whenever an auto company lies to the public about its cars’ performance or cleanliness, there should be heavy fines imposed and the responsible people must be held accountable.
However, I feel compelled to point out a very important fact that hasn’t been stated widely enough. Not one employee of VW-Chattanooga, including our contractors, was directly involved in any way in the design, manufacture or marketing of the so-called defeat device.
That fact will not immediately dissolve the anger and disappointment felt by our customers, but it can go a long way in helping U.S. customers understand that the diesel cars manufactured in Chattanooga did, to everyone’s knowledge at VW-Chattanooga, meet the EPA emissions standards.
Let’s begin to shine some light on the good, honest, hard-working folks at VW.
Thank you.
John Ryken
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Bike lanes bust city’s ‘status quo’
I do not bike. I do not intend to. But I find ridiculous the complaints about converting car lanes to bicycle use.
Over the last century, our society lost sight of this obvious truth: Cities are for people. We spent decades foolishly designing landscapes for cars instead of people: discarding sidewalks, paving tree wells, cutting parks, and in the most ghastly excess of all, shattering neighborhoods to build freeways through downtown.
We exchanged livable neighborhoods for the wasteful, lonely sprawl of suburbia and the ugly, traffic-clogged wastelands of Highway 153, Hamilton Place and Fort Oglethorpe.
In the criticism of bike adaptations – and decrying their tiny costs – I find a tired cry to maintain the status quo. This attitude is devoid of vision or possibility, dedicated to a deadened continuation of “exactly how things are.'”
I congratulate columnist Jay Greeson, Chattanooga’s latest “Grumpy Old Man,” in wallowing in this trough of failed imagination. He might as well join the County Commission as co-protectors of a sterile, changeless “now.”
Keep adding bike lanes, trails, sidewalks, parks. Use the streams and their green buffers to clean and link them. If you build it for humans, humans will come.
Lisa Lemza