Apply terror labels evenly
Wait a minute! An article in the Sunday Times Free Press states the suspected Phoenix freeway shooter – who by God’s grace did not actually kill anyone – has been charged with a list of offenses ending with “intentional acts of terrorism.”
Yet, according to our government, the Muslim shooter who killed five U.S. servicemen in Chattanooga is not a terrorist; he is just a “homegrown extremist.”
Are you kidding me? Does anyone else see a problem here? (And it’s not with the charges in the Phoenix case!)
Susan E. Lee, Chickamauga, Ga.
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Don’t dismiss city planning
I had not expected to read an editorial on the Times page that exhibited such short-sighted dismissal of smart city planning as the one on Sept. 11, 2015 (“What We Need vs. What We Spend”). The writer cavalierly devalued our city’s attempt to include human-powered locomotion by bicycle and shoe leather.
I encourage the writer and readers to read the informative article in Sept. 5 “Streetwsie” feature of The Economist titled “Cities are starting to put pedestrians and cyclists before motorists. That makes them nicer – and healthier – to live in.”
Chattanooga is one of the cities that have taken very modest steps in that direction, and your editorial mocks those steps. But as The Economist documents, the health and traffic benefits tend to come quickly after bike and pedestrian facilities are built. Just look at Riverwalk.
And let’s not be directed by the car-obsessed, sidewalk-poor, sedentary and environmentally complacent mall and suburb culture. Chattanooga is evolving a truly urban culture. Let’s support these efforts to make Chattanooga even nicer and healthier.
Finn Bille
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Time to get real on climate change
In the last 17 years, we’ve experienced the 10 hottest years on record. We’ve seen thousands of peer-reviewed publications from scientists on climate change overwhelmingly agree on the role humans are playing.
Yet, we are still inundated with the constant denial of anthropogenic climate change – whether it is a politician bringing a snowball to Congress or the constant uttering of the phrase “I’m not a scientist” as politicians dismiss the science and the evidence in favor of their political agenda.
And in recent weeks, Rupert Murdoch, a well-known climate change denier with a decidedly unscientific opinion, has purchased National Geographic.
It’s time that we accept the role we, as a species, are playing in the current trend and not allow our public representatives get away with such ignorance and the denial of the expert opinion in favor of partisan politics.
If we don’t properly plan for the future, we’ll leave the succeeding generations a world that will be boiling over with problems we could have helped solve.
J. Andrew Beard
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Politics as usual on display in D.C.
Evidently it is acceptable for a minority of Democrat senators to filibuster the Iran deal blocking any discussion, but not acceptable for the majority of Republican senators to tie Planned Parenthood funding to the appropriations bill.
Evidently there is a different standard.
Gerald Whitely, Ringgold, Ga.