Headline conveys wrong message
Your recent article on UT Extension was quite good overall and contained important information about the challenges we face due to retirements and vacancies. Unfortunately, the headline used in the published version of this article read “Ag Extension may be extinct.” This is absolutely not true in Tennessee.
UT Extension’s good work is well known and recognized by the public we serve and by our elected officials through more than 4 million direct contacts with Tennesseans annually. It is undeniable that we have been dealing with budget cuts and currently face the challenge of creating a new staffing plan to cope with many vacancies across the state. Changes will continue to be necessary, but neither the UT Institute of Agriculture nor UT Extension will abandon our mission and commitment to strong, county-based educational programs in agriculture, nutrition and health, and youth development.
A front page article helps the public to be aware that UT Extension still exists as a strong, relevant organization that continues to effectively serve he needs of Tennessee communities. We only wish the headline could have accurately reflected reality and what was in the story.
We are confident that we will remain in communities to answer questions, present educational programs, and respond to local needs. UT Extension has been around for 100 years, and we are positioning the organization for another century of service to Tennessee.
JOSEPH A. DIPIETRO
Vice President
for Agriculture
TIM L. CROSS
Dean, UT Extension
Plan to give during Blood-a-nooga
I hope and pray that the second annual Blood-a-nooga effort scheduled for tomorrow is a profound success.
To those readers who either have never a donated blood product or who have not given in a very long time, please come to McKenzie Arena to share your precious whole blood, platelets, red blood cells or plasma.
You may wish to know more or to sign up for the National Bone Marrow Donor registry.
Based on my recollections of last year’s event, I believe that donors will find Blood-a-nooga is not merely a special way to recruit donors, it is nothing less than a celebration of life.
Please look into your souls, minds and hearts and decide to give!
HARRY GELLER
Few letters include the Word of God
We enjoy reading letters to the editor every Sunday afternoon. Most articles refer to political or local news. These letters range in content of varied intellect.
Occasionally and rarely is there a letter written from a person of wisdom that includes the Word of God. My hat if off to Mr. Harry “Wig” Robinson of Lookout Mountain, Ga., (for his letter).
It would behoove us all to support our freedom of press provided by our Constitution. We are of Libertarian views and (God forbid) not of utilitarian suppression.
ABNER MITCHELL
Some salaries easier to justify
The March 23 AP story in the Times Free Press on the nearly $18 million salary package of Ford Motor Co.’s CEO Mulally will probably anger some folks who don’t think success should be rewarded but distributed.
It seems it would be easier to justify this package of a person who holds multiple master’s degrees, including one in management from MIT, as does Mr. Mulally, than it would be to justify the same salary for a school dropout who can hit a 30-foot jump shot with great consistency.
MELVIN MCCORMICK
Tullahoma, Tenn.
Best health care in world destroyed
What a sad day for America! The best health care in the world, even with its faults, has been destroyed. This was won by arm-twisting bribery, lying to the people, closed-door meetings. Those voting for it didn’t have the courage to stand up and admit it.
Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., summed it up well… “There are no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish something, therefore, when the deal goes down, all this talk about rules, we make them up as we go along.” This is what we have in Congress today? Appalling! They have ignored the people, stomped on the Constitution, and acted shamefully to force this power grab on the people.
We need some health care changes but not this disastrous bill with its IRS enforcers.
God bless Rep. John Boehner for the wonderful speech he made before the vote. He should run for president.
Same strong-arm tactics coming soon on cap-and-trade and immigration.
JEAN THOMPSON
East Ridge
Democrats face rejection at polls
The Democrats in Washington seem to have no idea that a terrible backlash will result from the health care vote. In the coming midterm elections, the stigma of having a letter “D” after a representative’s name will result in automatic rejection at the polls. It is baffling to explain their blind stubborness and lack of self- preservation. There will be few exceptions as politicians scramble to avoid collateral damage from standing too close to ObamaCare.
Voters will create a Republican majority of unprecedented proportions in both houses. President Obama has not only guaranteed himself a ticket out of town in 2014, but will become the president America wishes to forget.
HARRY R. MCGINNIS
Selfishness will destroy country
We are the United States, but many politicians look out for themselves, their friends and their state. That is the main reason they’re against anything President Obama tries to do for “The United States of America.”
We’re a country suffering from an acute case of selfishness and this is going to be the source of our undoing, not some outside force.
The past administration cut taxes for the wealthy, started two wars that we’ll pay for forever, yet we resent anything we’re asked to do for those who have the least.
Wealth has been transferred from the bottom to the top since slavery and now the middle is losing wealth to the top. People who feel they’re doing everything right, may be next to have their assets transferred to the top.
It’s my experience that local governments are the ones who tax and fee people into poverty. Demand that all branches of government stop wasting tax dollars and stop blaming the poor. They’re not responsible for our problems, neither is President Obama. Corruption started before he was born. Greed is the enemy!
EULA HALL
Republican tactics luckily backfired
Throughout the debate on health care reform, Republicans and their pundits displayed the vilest side of human nature by relying distortions, fear-mongering, and a level of dishonesty that I never imagined would surface in American political discourse.
Instead of trying to win the health care debate with reliable facts, honest arguments and workable solutions, they resorted to every slick propaganda trick in the book.
Thank God they lost.
We can all be encouraged that a majority of the American people saw those ugly tactics for what they were, and rejected them as unworthy of this great nation.
KATHERINE FRAZIER
Sewanee, Tenn.