Point the blame in proper direction
The height of audacity and the ignorance of those to believe such nonsense: blaming President Obama or environmentalists for the oil spill and then the non-cleanup! The only reason is the greedy conglomerates of BP, Transocean and Halliburton.
They are all to blame and should have done everything immediately to stop the leak and clean up the treacherous mess that they made.
All this is the direct result of the deregulation and relaxed regulations of the Cheney/Bush regime — drilling on the cheap instead of using much safer methods. What is the cost now?
What destructive damage will be done before this is over?
ANN BENTON
Signal Mountain
VW recall report seems underplayed
I couldn’t help but notice your blurb at the bottom of a page in the Business section (June 12) of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This was about a recall of 16,000 minivans by VW and a further recall of 285,000 minivans by Chrysler. A VW official was not available to discuss the matter. I am fairly sure that if it had been a Toyota recall, yet another one, it would have been more prominent, say on the front page.
Woe be it unto me to accuse you of prejudiced reporting. No matter that VW is building a large plant in your city.
I will admit to being the proud driver of a 2008 Prius and owning three Camrys before that. We have never owned better cars.
SALLY B. MCCRADY
Sewanee, Tenn.
British must see oil-spill damage
Not only will we probably never see the end of the tragic oil spill in the Gulf — maybe in my lifetime — it seems Shell Oil is planning to drill in the Arctic Ocean next year, despite protests from native communities.
Is there any motive besides profit that encourages these outrageous decisions by large oil companies? Only the Exxon-Valdez tragedy prevented drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse remarked to government officials on May 19, “If it is this hard to clean up in the relatively benign condition of the Gulf of Mexico — good luck trying to implement this sort of clean-up in the Arctic Ocean.”
And the British who are whining that Obama doesn’t like them, should come over and observe first-hand what BP Oil has done to our country. Let them picture the same spill in the English Channel, covering their entire coastline. Perhaps BP doesn’t feel it necessary to sell in England since they have plenty of far-flung customers elsewhere.
MARIANNE DOUGLAS
U.S-Israel link good for security
Have you noticed that Israel’s enemies are the same as the U.S.’s enemies?
We have benefited a lot over the years from Israel’s actions. When the Mossad smuggled Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech acknowledging Stalin’s crimes out of Russia, that was a turning point in the Cold War.
Israel’s June 1982 destruction of Syria’s Soviet-made anti-aircraft batteries and their air force showed the superiority of U.S. military technology and showed we could win the Cold War over Russia.
The 1981 IAF strike that destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor made Operation Desert Storm 10 years later possible.
Israel is a non-expansionist state and its neighbors know it. In its 62-year history, Israel has only controlled territory vital for its national security and territory that was legally allotted to it in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate. That mandate has never been done away with or superseded.
The U.S.’s alliance with Israel has been America’s most cost-effective national security investment since World War II.
CLINTON GRANT
Rossville
Is ‘other guy’ causing problems?
On National Public Radio, a gentleman made an interesting statement, the gist being that the administration could bail out bankers but could do nothing about the Gulf oil spill. Perhaps a little reflection is in order.
Many situations began prior to the current administration: the recession, bank loans, the well drilling in which I believe Halliburton had a part, ad nauseum.
However, in the case of the banks, it is considerably easier to move man-made situations than in the case of the oil well. True, man made a mistake drilling into a pocket of oil and gas which chose to do its own thing, an act of nature we might say. This can be compared to the levees built around New Orleans by man which could not withstand the hurricane and water forces.
Man designed the Narrows Bridge in Washington during the 1930s but nature said hah! and took control. So, to me, it would appear that man is having a hard time second-guessing the power of nature. In reality we shouldn’t be surprised since 2,000 years ago we were told this would happen, that the other guy, not God, would cause some problems.
It’s your choice who to follow.
JIM ORRISON
Cleveland, Tenn.
Common sense needed in zoning
Thank you, Mike Wilson, for working as hard as you have in your fight against apartments being built on Hunter Road.
It’s amazing to me that both the city and county traffic engineers felt there’d be no impact whatsoever on traffic safety with the addition of a 230-unit apartment complex.
I realize that the rezoning recommendation of R1 (instead of R3 as the developer wanted) still has to be approved by the City Council at the July 13 meeting. Here’s hoping greed will take a back seat to common sense.
LAUREN PIENIASZEK
Ooltewah
Put school funds above fancy roads
School budgets and other public services across the state being cut due to the economic crisis makes me sick.
The worst thing is that while these things suffer, somehow TDOT and other transportation agencies still have so much funding that they can produce expensive construction studies and imagine new superhighways which, if constructed, would cost into the hundreds of millions of dollars to build and still more to maintain.
For some strange reason in Tennessee, we just cannot fathom respecting our children enough to adequately fund their education by siphoning off most of the money that would otherwise be making its way into the transportation budget. How is it that TDOT can even think of building expensive gold-plated highways such as a proposed Ocoee Bypass while our state’s children, who already were experiencing an underfunded education system, now face a severely cut system due to the economic crisis our nation is facing?
It’s time we grew up and help our children to grow up in a society which respects them more than it does additional asphalt tar to drive across. Let’s try to rebuild our economy on a much better educated workforce rather than on more and more roads.
WILL LANCE
Senator’s backing helps good cause
As an avid angler, I very much appreciate Sen. Lamar Alexander’s recently introduced wilderness legislation. As our population continues to grow, wild places free and open for hunting and fishing become ever more important.
Most of the areas included in this bill contain examples of the cleanest, coldest water in our state and therefore, some of the best trout fishing opportunities. To stay clean and cold, these streams need to remain natural. Wilderness designation is simply the best way to ensure that this will happen.
Thanks to our senator for supporting this great cause.
JOHN D. CHAMPION