Time to develop new energy sources
With the recent coal-mining tragedies still very much on our minds, and now this potentially extinction-grade event in the Gulf of Mexico, can there be any doubt that it’s time to actually develop the alternative energy sources — wind, solar, and the ones which have been suppressed — so that life on this planet can continue for more generations? I have no children, but I have nieces and nephews, and I wish for them a planet which still supports life. The bees and bats are going, the air is going, and now the oceans (all of them are connected!) are being polluted at a cataclysmic rate. What will it take to convince you! This is not someone else’s issue!
APRIL MINKLER
Tracy City, Tenn.
City should explore parking alternatives
I lived in Beverly Hills, Calif., back in the 1990s. At that time, the private parking lots began raising their rates and scaring off tourism.
The city began a bold “loss lead” plan to buy back or build public parking structures and give all patrons two hours free parking with validation and $1 an hour thereafter. This began a boom in that celebrated city which is still realized today.
Republic’s choice to raise their rates to $7 in downtown Chattanooga is very short-sighted and could help to slow the city’s downtown revitalization plan.
Thank you, CARTA, for leading the way with your gratis parking. I often drive out to Northgate to catch a movie, 10 miles further than the Majestic (I live on Signal) so that I don’t have to pay for downtown parking. Your bold move will cause me to come downtown more often and hopefully cause Republic to rethink their most recent rate hike.
A little competition never hurt anyone. I also think the city should look at other opportunities within the downtown corridor to offer city parking. This is vital to the rebuilding of downtown. Without successful businesses, all the parking, whether it’s free, reasonable or high, will not matter.
KOSTAS IANNIOS
Signal Mountain
Repeal ObamaCare using all means
I’m ready to have ObamaCare repealed. Let’s get started. I realize there are many ways to go about this so let’s use all of them.
LINDA PORTER
Pitch in to help settle refugees
The article on Bridge Refugee Services (April 29, Metro) overlooks most of the good this agency does: Foremost, the refugees were in substantial danger in their original locations. Some had family members who were killed while serving in the U.S. military. They’ve chosen to seek new opportunity in America much like our early settlers did. The inconveniences of establishing life in a new language, location and culture cannot be compared to the loss of life itself if they hadn’t come.
There are many other nationalities represented beside Cubans (the only ones quoted). Many struggle initially to realign their expectations with our realities. Beside what’s lost in translation, everyone assumes the grass is greener here. Bridge operates frugally and helps its clients much like parents launching young adult children. Self-sufficiency comes the real American way — with patience and effort.
Thoughtful readers should respond “How can we help these people?” Churches are one route to sponsorship, but so are civic organizations, Scouts, neighborhood associations, small businesses, or any group that can gather up a small household’s worth of furnishings and find a few hours of time for kindness. In our experience, sponsorship not only benefits the refugee families, but also leads to valuable new friendships.
PAUL & ALICIA SNYDER
People have means to restore freedom
So the president makes a speech in Quincy, Ill., and because Tea Party members demonstrate outside, a SWAT team is sent in to contain these “radicals.”
As the Constitution forbids sending out the National Guard (except under special circumstances), why not use the special police units to suppress the citizens expressing their free speech.
I would remind the police that they are inviting American citizens in all the states to demonstrate their resolve to support our constitutional rights.
Unlike other countries whose citizens have been stripped of their right to own and bear arms, Americans have these ways and thus means to stand up to domestic, government terrorists. The Founding Fathers realized that should government forget to whom they were responsible to, the people would have the means to restore freedom.
ARTHUR CAPRARIO
Benton, Tenn.
Custody proposal harmful to children
Child custody laws are wrong. Children were once the property of fathers, even after a divorce. Then we adopted the “tender years” doctrine, preferring maternal custody — while not gender neutral the focus was on the nurturance of the child.
In the ’80s, we became concerned with the rights of parents — particularly men — and we embraced joint custody, shared parenting and parental alienation syndrome.
Parents’ rights continue to be the focus of child custody legislation, even while mockingly concealed behind such loose language as “the best interest of the child standard.” (Although purportedly concerned with the child’s best interest, the child has no meaningful voice in the process.)
Tennessee’s Legislature is considering a bill to require joint custody in every case — despite three decades of reliable research and evidence confirming that, except in rare cases, joint custody is untenable and harmful to children. How long must women and children suffer this abuse under “the law”? When will our legislators have the courage of conviction and genuine concern for those who have no voice? When will women speak up? When? http://politics.nashvillepost.com/2010/02/07/the-most-harmful-bill-in-the-hopper/
AUBERGINE ASHARA
Government good at wasting money
Federal government spending and company takeovers have put our county one step away from socialism.
Entitlement costs are destroying us. Social Security and Medicare, enacted over 60 years ago, acted as a safety net for a few seniors when they turned 65. The average life of a man back in the ’40s was 58 and a woman was 62. Now average lives have increased by over 20 years. Increased costs?
In addition, government has added welfare, social services, foot stamps, Medicaid, free school lunches, plus many others.
Now our public servants have deceitfully added a national health care entitlement. It adds another 159 agencies plus 16,000 IRS agents to enforce it. That should make everyone feel really comfy.
Entitlements have become an epidemic. They all sound great but cause dependence, stop initiative, destroy self-reliance, remove incentives, etc. If things don’t change, 15 years from now government officials predict there will only be one budget item. That item will be interest on the debt.
The only thing government does really well is waste money. Our taxes are predicted to sky-rocket. We have let those in Congress get away with letting this happen year after year. Please remember what they’ve done at the next election.
LEE GERALDSON
Ramsey has seniors at back of the line
I’m sure that when Claude Ramsey runs for office again, all the senior citizens in Chattanooga will remember that he said we cannot afford help for senior citizens or for anything.
We have to build a school for the Germans. The people of Chattanooga come second; the Germans come first. I believe Ramsey is an Obama wannabe.
Thank you, mayor, for putting us seniors behind a bunch of Germans. I would like to thank Don Myers for his letter of May 3. Everyone knows you cannot trust anything the county commissioners say.
LEE REECE
Harrison