Every time I travel out of state, I make a point to read the local newspapers.
I realized some time ago the Chattanooga Times Free Press is one of the best, newspapers anywhere.
We are very fortunate to have a world-class paper published here in Chattanooga.
Shannon Duggar, South Pittsburg, Tennessee
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Deputize former service personnel
More than 90% of all recent mass shootings have occurred in “gun-free zones.” Where did “gun-free zones” come from? Joe Biden birthed the idea in 1990.
Now here is a real constitutional crisis. Our Constitution guarantees, “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed.” “Infringed” means “hampered in any way.”
These unconstitutional “infringements” disarm only the good guys. A prison survey revealed that 39% of criminals get their guns illegally, despite how easy it still is for anyone to buy a gun.
What can stop 1,000 terrorists striking in different places at the same time? They can all kill many in seconds – unless there is a good guy with a gun to stop them.
All veterans know how to defend our country. Why not let them keep their arms, deputize them and give them $100 a month to carry their sidearm with them at all times? Why not give all arms confiscated by police to vetted teachers and other citizens.
Then if the government gets tyrannical, as in Venezuela, citizens will have something better than stones to retake their freedom.
Dr. Tom Herzog
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Regulations will keep city scenic
Driving through the Scenic City can be a religious experience. As you coast along our scenic corridors, even when you’re stopped in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the area resounds and abounds with God-given natural beauty. Hills and mountains, streams and rivers, and beautiful forests are everywhere you look.
But we’re losing it quickly. In short order, many of our hills have been bulldozed for developments that, let’s face it, look as if they are going to slide down the hill in the next big rainstorm.
Therefore, area government and community organizations need to develop guidelines and ordinances which protect our hills from the army of bulldozers bearing down on them.
We need to set up protected scenic corridors along our major arterial highways (the routes most taken by tourists). We also need a moratorium on brow beater developments so every mountaintop isn’t crowned with large houses.
Codes and ordinances specifying that all new developments must settle into the landscape rather than gouge it out are needed. Otherwise, we will soon be just an area full of landslides and scarred hills, fit for nothing but to hurry through to get to the next town.
Will Lance
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Fix our current health care system
Government takeover of our health care system should be denounced. It makes no sense to destroy the best system in the world and build a new, government-run system. It makes more sense to fix our broken current system.
Our country has the best trained doctors/nurses, most modern hospitals/clinics, state-of-the art equipment, lowest wait times for complex procedures, and best research/educational facilities. In addition, our health care system employs more than 13 million Americans. To scrap these things and start over would be insane.
Timely, efficient health care is accessible by just about everyone. The vast majority of people with insurance are satisfied with their coverage. The problems with our current system such as rising costs, doctor/nurse shortages and lack of rural care can be partially solved through reform and modified regulations.
Improving medical outcomes, a talking point of critics of our current system, cannot be achieved through government regulation but depends on the individual in most cases. Obesity is the primary cause of many health issues; living healthier lives is a personal choice, not a government regulation.
People in this country need to consider what they would give up before wanting something new.
Roger Bartmess, Ooltewah
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President needs prayers, not hate
I wish to respond to a recent reader’s letter (May 5).
I would like to thank the reader for his in-depth research of the Mueller report about President Trump and informing the citizens of its findings. It must have been a difficult task reading those many pages.
You stated in your letter there was “no reason to read” the report, yet, you also stated the “report lays out crime after crime” that supposedly President Trump and family committed without consequences.
Perhaps you are simply sharing your total dislike for our president instead of presenting “the facts.” False news on your part? You bet.
When wanting to hide something from the general public, Democrats take the stance it is OK to “go ahead and pass the law and then read it afterward.” We lived with that attitude from Congress for eight years with Obama.
There comes a time all the hate and discontent has to cease. We read the hate in the print, we hear it on national news daily, and we hear it from our friends and families. Instead of hate, try offering a prayer for our president. Doing so will make us all better people.
Jim Shull, Hixson
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Many degrees will do grads no good
My heart aches for the graduates of colleges and universities who are saddled with profound debt. Parents also suffer. These individuals are prodded to enroll into expensive courses by forces of ignorance and phony status.
Their useless degrees, mostly bachelors, will do them little or no good in the current American workplace. I believe that most higher education administrations and non-science faculty members are racketeers.
It will be counterproductive for government to expand and increase student scholarships because the institutions will just wildly increase the cost of tuition.
The other outrage is the complicity of employers who unnecessarily require job applicants to possess a degree. How many excellent young men and women are denied a chance to succeed in work endeavors because they could not afford college loans?
The current university culture is a largely worthless stronghold of political correctness, affirmative action, which values diversity over excellence, so-called academic safe places and even blatant threats to free speech.
Harry Geller
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Classrooms need shields of shelter
Every few days, I read about a school shooting and wonder what could be done to prevent students from becoming victims.
For SROs to be effective, one needs to be in each room, which is cost prohibitive. Teachers and administrators with guns remind me of the Matt Dillon days, predictably futile. Bravo to the students who rushed the CWGs (cowards with guns), though such efforts often cause the charging student to get hit.
Does anyone remember Ivanhoe, Lancelot and medieval days? Back then, the knights wore armor for protection.
In schools, a suit of armor is not necessary, but shields could protect someone in the three seconds it takes to get to the gunman. In this day of Kevlar and plastics, surely something light but protective could be produced.
Think about it. If every classroom had a few randomly placed shields, brave souls could use them with fewer misgivings than running directly toward gunfire. Shields could be made small enough as to not be unwieldy.
The shooter would have less of a target to stop the student/teacher in such a short time, and the shield could be used to strike the perp.
Tom Baker, Hixson