Prayers sent from across the country
I hope this note will reach Chattanooga Times Free Press readers.
Though I know there are no words that can bring comfort to the parents of those children killed and injured in Monday’s school bus crash, please know that there are so many parents and students in schools here who are keeping you all in their thoughts.
Our hearts go out to you at this time.
Stephen Garrow
Seattle
Tis the season for hypocrisy?
Well the Christmas season is upon us, and it looks like the predatory lenders are kicking it off in style by collecting toys, canned food and coats for the customers they helped drive into bankruptcy.
Perhaps all the predatory lenders in Tullahoma can have a float in the Christmas parade. They could dress as sharks wearing elf hats.
Maybe they can follow that with a New Year’s Day 50-percent-off-your next-loan coupon with all foreclosure notices.
Then on Valentine’s Day, they could hand out candy broken hearts.
Yes, nothing says Christmas like the hypocrisy of your local loan sharks pretending to help the very people whose lives they ruined.
David Clark
Tullahoma, Tenn.
Look at seat belt benefits now
In this country, parents can be cited and given a hefty fine if their small children are not in an approved car seat and properly restrained. Yet the debate whether to have seat belts on school buses has gone on for three decades or more.
I was in the automotive parts and accessory business for more than 30 years. When I sold my company five years ago, my wholesale cost for a simple automotive “lap belt” was $7.10. It could easily be installed in a few minutes by drilling two holes through the floor board.
Experts say that is not enough protection – that three-point seat belts with a shoulder harness must be used, and they are too expensive. My answer is this: If each child on that bus had been strapped into their seat with a $7.10 lap belt, how many fewer deaths and injuries would there have been? $7.10 – less than the cost of one child’s lunch for a week at school!
Joe Kirkpatrick
Cleveland, Tenn.
President-elect should apologize
A minority of Americans voted for a new president. I was not among them. I love my country too much to endorse what the Republicans did to our democracy. The ends do not justify the means.
The political parties are supposed to act responsibly to present candidates worthy of the presidency. It’s the only check and balance available.
Look what we got: a crude, vulgar, nasty, perverted man whose character disorder deprives him of empathy or any semblance of decency or acquaintance with the truth.
If this would-be leader wants to draw people together, he needs to apologize to our embarrassed nation and to each person he attacked. It is a long list, so he needs to get started.
Blake Moore
School bus issues endured for years
Fifty years ago my children were riding the school bus daily to Alpine Crest Elementary School. They told us the brakes on the bus did not work. The driver put the bus in a lower gear and then used the hand brake to manage hills. After verifying this, I talked with the principal. He said the buses were privately owned and his hands were tied.
Then I wrote the superintendent of the schools to tell him that my children would get to school by private car, but there were many parents who did not have the luxury of driving their children to and from school.
After this “public” recognition of a serious problem, it was corrected. My question now is why this “sorry” school bus situation is still in existence? This is totally unacceptable. I grieve with these children, their families, neighbors and teachers. This should never have happened. What can be done to assure that this never happens again?
Joy W. Jones
Editorial nails election miss
Finally, the vicious editorials attacking both presidential candidates are over.
However, a wonderful commentary titled “Media Moonstruck After Election” written by Colleen Sheehan appeared on the Chattanooga Free Press editorial page in Saturday’s edition.
Her commentary was a “spot on” account of how so many in the media and academics totally missed the rising discontent of the middle class. Hope we see more of her commentaries!
Denny Donegan
Dalton, Ga.
Clinton voters: Just get over it
To Miley Cyrus and the other Hillary Clinton nuts: Get over it. Support our president.
I didn’t like it when Barack Obama won, but I did support him. Our president needs our prayers and support.
Kenneth Feagans
Signal Mountain
Trump full of empty promises
President-elect Trump will not ask Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act on the first day of office, nor will he appoint a prosecutor to indict Clinton and “lock her up.” Nothing since the election has been said about a Mexican-paid wall and probably never will be.
With the demagoguery that got Trump elected less likely, what are his supporters now expecting?
Trump anticipates Congress approval for infrastructure which, if undertaken from start to finish, would cost an unaffordable trillion dollars. If in increments, as Democrats had wanted Congress to fund, there already would have been replacement of many dangerous bridges and roads with a vast increase in employment.
With more than two million more votes cast for Clinton than Trump, many disenfranchised Americans want elimination of the antiquated and undemocratic Electoral College.
This election will bring to power the incoming administration by an outmoded system, which mandated minority rule and, in this case, invalidated our claim to be a “government by the people.”
John Bratton
Sewanee, Tenn.
Electoral College makes sense
A recent TFP article argued for overthrowing the Electoral College. The author claims it is outdated and undemocratic. Let me remind those who agree with that mindset that we don’t live in a democracy, but rather a democratic republic. So the Electoral College makes sense.
The candidate who wins the Electoral College vote does indeed win the most votes in the election. Why? Because they have to win the majority of popular votes in enough states to win 270 electoral votes.
Donald Trump won the majority of the popular votes in the states needed to get him over 270. It is absolutely a fair system. What would not be fair is to go by the popular vote only. If we did, it would be major cities deciding presidential elections. For those of us who live in small cities like Chattanooga or in rural areas, our vote would have less value. We don’t read about the candidates or their supporters who lost the elections of 1824, 1876 or 1888 trying to do away with the electoral vote. They had respect and honor for our founders and accepted defeat graciously.
Louis J. La Guardia III