Thanks to Lake Winnie
As a mother and high school teacher in North Georgia, I would like to thank Lake Winnepesaukah for being a great summer employer for teens in our area. At home, we promote “adulting” at 16, which includes the privilege of driving and the responsibility of holding a part-time job.
Working at Lake Winnie allowed my daughter to learn lessons about holding a job – waking herself up, driving to work, clocking in on time, performing the duties of a lifeguard at the water park and learning to handle difficult guests. She has had a fun summer full of learning, independence and responsibility. The terms federal income tax, Social Security tax and Georgia state income tax are now in her vocabulary and will be more meaningful as she files her first income tax return next year.
My students who have a part-time job tend to have a more mature approach to authority, more self-confidence and a better understanding of the skills needed in adulthood. Thank you, Lake Winnie, for giving our teens their first jobs, which I hope for all of them will be the start to a successful and productive adulthood.
Meg White
Ringgold, Ga.
To GOP: Do what we sent you to do
To all GOP senators and congressmen in the tri-state area:
You were not elected as a majority to meekly reach across the aisle and agree to liberal Democrat policies and ideals. We elected you to defeat them and put a stop to the worst socialistic malaise this country has ever endured. Your directive is to reverse the horrible Obama programs that were enacted over the previous eight years. Do it now, or we will see to it that you are never reelected.
Specifically, you must: 1. Dissolve the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a grossly anti-conservative and anti-Constitution gang of liberals. 2. Disband the ACLU, who are not American, not civil, not about serving liberty and not a union, but an army of greedy government lawyers. 3. Dissolve, and not replace, Obamacare. Where in the Constitution is our perfect health care guaranteed?
We did our part in electing a majority in both houses and the White House. You have been warned. We are watching.
John Bergen
Ringgold, Ga.
Shop around for best drug prices
At 82, I was recently prescribed an antibiotic for an occasional wheezing in my lungs. I’ll not go into the severe side effects that I may now be afflicted with, but the public should know about the pricing variance.
For 10 Levofloxacin 750 MG (a Levaquin generic), I was quoted the following: $25 each, $24.95 each, $19.77 each, $2.65 each and $1.94 each.
I don’t care who pays for it (you or your insurance). Please don’t reward those who take such advantage of us! Shop around. Let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages.
I took three before side effects became apparent. Can the cure be worse than the disease?
W.R. Barger
Monteagle, Tenn.
You can join the solar revolution
I now have a solar panel producing electricity for me, and I didn’t have to use my roof to do it. EPB is offering a Community Solar Project where customers can contract for a share of local solar power. Every month, I will receive an electric bill credit for the energy my panel made. EPB will keep the panel clean and running; I don’t lift a finger.
Best of all, even people of modest means can invest in solar power for $5 a month per panel. Or, you can lease a panel for 20 years for $680, plus a $10 a year maintenance fee. Or you can help the community solar grow by purchasing a 100 kilowatt-hours energy block for $5 a month. If you are an EPB customer, call 423-648-1372
Go see the panels standing in stately lines at Holtzclaw Avenue and Oak Street. Solar power delivers sustainable energy produced without fossil fuel emissions or nuclear radiation polluting our air and water. It’s a path to a cleaner, healthier future. Thanks, EPB.
Sandy Kurtz
Thanks to those who fix our roads
I would like to thank the crews working to improve our roads – the Hixson Pike bridge at Highway 153, the repaving project on Highway 153 and all the other road work going on around Chattanooga.
We often sit in our cars and complain about delays caused by construction, replacing and repair, but how many of us stop and think about the human factor involved?
Those workers are out there in 90-plus degree heat working hard, laborious jobs so we can have a better commute when the jobs are finished. They deserve our utmost gratitude and patience as they battle the task at hand to improve our streets.
Thank you all. Your work is appreciated.
M. W. “Buster” Evans
Hixson
Not all Russian info dangerous
The headline could read “U.S. Sailor Colludes With Soviets.” Leonid Ishdonov was a citizen of the U.S.S.R. and a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. He was a real life commie. As a Navy radioman in the early 1970s, I accepted his messages and transmitted them via Navy circuits to his comrades and, in turn, received messages back from them.
This sounds like espionage, betrayal of my country, but it was not. We were spending the year as participants of Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica. Leonid was an exchange scientist, a meteorologist. I operated the international weather circuit, exchanging data with other nations. His messages consisted of temperature, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, etc. For Donald Jr., there is probably an innocent story beyond the headline, too. There is a good possibility the information he gained was as boring as Leonid’s.
Thomas Blewett
Signal Mountain
Address medical cost inflation
The ACA (Obama-care) did two important things for American consumers: 1. It added 20 million people to Medicaid for their health insurance. 2. It attempted to subsidize people with pre-existing conditions.
My view: Once you put 20 million people on Medicaid, taking it away is politically unlikely and not a fair way to deal with people. Instead of the costly exchange method to deal with pre-existing conditions, allow those individuals to buy into Medicare. Medicare already has the system set up for people who did not pay into Medicare for 40 quarters.
The underlying problem of medical cost inflation has not been effectively addressed. For years, the U.S. has had medical cost inflation of approximately 10 percent while the consumer price index is running 2 percent. Unless this is addressed, health insurance will continue to be an expensive issue.
Richard M. Brame
Ooltewah
Let history stay history
Use the following definition of history from the dictionary, not the internet version.
History: A chronological record of past significant events, including an explanation of their causes.
Once again ignorance of history rears its head. This time it is about an inanimate object, i.e. statue, that has no bearing or affect on history.
One would think that The Chattanooga Times opinion editor and the head officer of the local NAACP would be better served by applying their time and efforts to one of the thousands of real problems that can actually be changed.
History is past – period, and cannot be changed, try as some may. The statue and its placement has no bearing on history, past or future. It does not offend me in any way, even though I am of Welsh-Cherokee heritage. I do not hyphenate my heritage because I am a proud American, period.
Use your time, talents and efforts to affect future events and let history be the past. This would be time well spent serving all mankind.
William A. Hughes
East Ridge