LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD
As we go jauntily into 2022, I thought I might see what connections I could find between local news 50 years ago this week and today. It turns out there were several things, including a photo of the 1972 local Mothers March of Dimes Drive leader that has an interesting connection with the present. Check it out below along with some things that were proposed to happen and didn’t and some that portended things that would happen down the road.
I also took a look at the raging, new omicron COVID-19 variant and the percentages that the virus continues to ask us to play. According to state figures, your chances of getting sick are pretty darn minuscule if you’ve been vaccinated and not much worse if you haven’t. But why take chances? I made my case for playing the percentages, saying I liked my chances better since I am fully vaccinated (just as I do with home insurance, car insurance and an annual flu shot). It’s also below.
So is my feeling about a bill state Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, introduced for the 2022 legislative session requiring that the 2020 presidential and congressional election in Tennessee be audited. None of those elections were remotely close, so I don’t see a need to spend taxpayers’ money to do that, but if she could change it to ensure more election security, I’d pay closer attention.
Also below are a couple of years-in-review of 2021, one with Ron Hart’s wry musings and one with the top thumbs-up and thumbs-down moments by Genevieve Wood of the Heritage Foundation.
– Clint Cooper, editor, Chattanooga Free Press opinion page, ccooper@timesfreepress.com
P.S. We can’t do this work without the support of our subscribers. You can join our Times Free Press community and subscribe here today.