Embrace a change of heart
I am a white man who has spent almost 70 years on this earth. During all this time, not much has changed for the overwhelming majority of African Americans. In fact, I think it has gotten worse for the poor, regardless of color, as more wealth has become concentrated into fewer hands.
Blacks have for too long had the worst housing, jobs, schools and health care.
I cannot imagine having to fear for my life from a police officer because of my skin color.
“Liberty and justice for all” are words for too few people in our country. America needs a change of heart, not just a change of policies, but a heart is a hard thing to change.
Jesus Christ knows us all. We need to become more acquainted with him.
Gary Knowles
Cleveland, Tennessee
Consider: Stacy Abrams president!
With the presidential election less than five months away, most of the polls have Joe Biden leading President Trump by a small margin. Most people know from experience you can’t place much faith in poll numbers even up to the day of the election. But you should pay attention.
It will be interesting seeing what happens after the Democratic convention when Biden picks his vice presidential running mate. Almost everyone is sure he will choose a Black woman, pandering to women and Blacks for their votes, and there are many names being thrown around.
Biden is starting to make some public appearances again, after staying locked away in his home for the last few months, and it is becoming more and more obvious the 77-year-old man is having serious trouble thinking clearly and speaking understandably.
So consider this. Joe Biden is elected our next president in November. With the pressures of the most important public office in the world on his shoulders, his senility progresses to the point where he will have to resign, whereupon the vice president will assume the office.
Now try to imagine the possibility of someone like Stacy Abrams president of the United States.
David Hope
Hixson
Consider Bible in voting this year
It is especially important that we vote this year considering the instability and unrest in our country and the world.
The issue of supporting our own political party should not be our primary concern. The main issue and priority for a Christian should be: What is God’s will and what does the Bible say about the issues of our day?
The Bible does not teach, and it is not God’s will, that we kill babies in the womb. The Bible teaches that homosexuality is sin. The Bible also teaches that we are to respect those who rule over us and that God likes order rather than confusion.
We should therefore support candidates from the party that best support these principles.
Luther Brown
Ooltewah
Continue talking up Medicaid expansion
On June 1, I emailed my state senator: “Sen. Gardenhire, what is your position on Medicaid expansion in Tennessee? If you are against it, can you explain why? Fiscally, expanding Medicaid makes sense. Equal access to health care:
* Saves money by preventing poor health outcomes.
* Reduces cost shifting.
* My uninsured neighbor’s lack of access to health care affects my health.
* My health affects your health. That is clear during this pandemic in particular.
* What is the rationale for leaving that money on the table and ignoring the health crisis in Tennessee? I need to understand it in nonpartisan language.”
I never heard back. Sen. Gardenhire may believe Medicaid expansion in Tennessee is dead, but I assure you it is not.
Quoting Alex Hubbard’s opinion piece in the Tennessean (April 30): “Although polling suggests that Tennesseans support expanding Medicaid, and some 14 rural hospitals that would have benefited … have closed in the last decade, the legislature continues to be populated with skeptics.”
I’d rather believe if we continue to speak, we will be heard. Why ignore constituents? We need Medicaid expansion. The working poor are falling through the cracks. Rural hospitals are closing. This is an emergency.
Katie Larue
Quakers behind Black Lives Matter
We appreciate the Times Free Press coverage of Black Lives Matter/anti-racism/anti-police violence movement locally.
We as Quakers would like to stand in solidarity with this movement. Many of us attend the rallies and marches. Many of us are active in other ways.
The Chattanooga Friends Meeting (Quakers) has this message for our community: Black Lives Matter.
As an open and affirming congregation, Chattanooga Friends Meeting celebrates diversity in race, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, age, class, marital status, opinion and religious background. We trust this spiritual leading as we seek new understanding of truth, and we welcome all who wish to join us in this search.
Friends do not have creeds. We do have testimonies we live by. One of these testimonies is equality, treating all people as equals. We hear you. We see you. And because it needs to be said again and again: Black Lives Matter.
F. Kate Anthony
More on Mary Walker at Tunnel Hill center
Before the pandemic closed our museum to the public on March 16, the Tunnel Hill Heritage Center & Museum was working on our own Mary Walker exhibit. Dr. Mary Walker was captured near Tunnel Hill, where she was kept as prisoner before being sent to Dalton, Georgia, and later to Richmond, Virginia, and the Castle Thunder Prison.
Dr. Walker did not receive the Medal of Honor for battlefield accomplishments but more as thanks for her service. Mary repeatedly wrote to President Lincoln and President Johnson requesting a commission as a major in the U.S. Army. President Johnson directed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to study the issue, and he solicited an opinion from the Army’s judge advocate general, who determined there was no precedent for commissioning a female, but that a “commendatory acknowledgment” could be issued. This led Johnson to personally award the Medal of Honor in November 1865. After you see the Mary Walker exhibit at the new MOH Museum, I invite you to visit the Tunnel Hill Heritage Center & Museum to learn more about Dr. Walker.
Dave Thomas
Docent, Tunnel Hill Heritage Center/W&A Tunnel & Museum
Tunnel Hill, Georgia
Trump’s priorities are not America’s priorities
Our president recently signed an executive order to impose harsh penalties on protesters who assault statues of past political figures while also asking the Supreme Court to nullify the Affordable Care Act in the midst of a pandemic, massive unemployment and its ensuing loss of health coverage. What the heck?
Lumps of brass and steel are more worthy of presidential protection than the nation’s people? An era of rampant infection, death and financial hardship is the time to strip those people of access to medical care? Time to jettison this insanity and elect someone with at least vaguely human priorities.
Dabney Carden
Signal Mountain