Our free expression shouldn’t be quelled
For two weeks in May 1970, the students at the University of Alabama, of which I was one, raged against the Vietnam War and the killing of students at Kent State. The campus was locked down and essentially put under martial law. But we were allowed to gather and express our discontent. State troopers on motorcycles surrounded the quadrangle and president’s mansion where we gathered. But we were not attacked in any way. Arrests and attacks were not their default.
The tear gas, rubber bullets and hundreds of arrests we’re seeing across U.S. campuses today as students object to the horrific destruction of Gaza and its men, women and children are extreme, counterproductive and arguably unconstitutional. Loud protest is a bedrock of political expression by the American people and has been since colonial days. It is not a crime. Perhaps to some it is an annoyance. But let our smart, young citizens speak. And, we should listen.
Mary Lee Rice
We must stop being left’s ‘useful idiots’
“Useful idiots.” This somewhat harsh term, maybe better referred to as the “easily manipulated,” has been used to describe that group of people used by an elite to reset or fundamentally change a society.
It could be found in the German, Chinese, Russian, Cuban or other left-leaning revolutions of the 20th century where centralized governmental control was demanded to correct all the societal woes of the time.
Unfortunately, this group can be found in America today. This group is useful in the initial revolt but is soon discarded (killed) or ignored once the revolutionary elite takes its leadership position. This has proven true many times throughout history.
I strongly urge my fellow citizens to not be the “useful idiots” of today. Go beyond the headlines and get informed about what is really happening to America and the world, and then do something to stop it.
Mike Wolford
Hixson
Arming teachers a mini Band-Aid
I am intrigued and offended of late by the state legislature’s simultaneously heavy-handed and useless efforts to protect school children from mass shootings.
They tout mental health restrictions on gun purchases. While knowing that with the limited health care in many parts of the state, many with murderous mental illnesses are never diagnosed. If they are, HIPAA laws keep that information secret so mental health restrictions cannot be enforced effectively.
The latest ideas are to increase SROs in schools and arm the teachers. This assumes that two people with handguns can stop a determined murderer armed with an assault rifle.
What is obvious is that legislators will have these two people to blame when such an awful tragedy occurs. Creating new scapegoats is easier for them than to address what needs to be done — shutting down access to assault rifles.
I would like to know how much each member of the Tennessee state legislature is receiving in campaign support from the NRA or similar groups. I believe it would be telling.
They propose a mini Band-Aid for a bloody, fatal wound.
Katheryn A. Thompson
Supreme Court, what’s in a pronoun?
The Supreme Court held oral arguments about President Trump’s immunity case.
Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned both prosecuting and defense attorneys about their claims. At one point, the justices repeatedly referred to the position of the president past and any future president as “the guy” and “the next guy.”
For some time now, there are people who put great importance on pronouns, personal identifiers. While that is not of great concern for myself, I respect those who hold those views salient. I found the justice’s use of the term “guy” interesting, to say the least.
In February 2022, during confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, then-Judge Jackson was asked by Sen. Marsha Blackburn to define the word “woman.” Responding by saying there is no simple answer to that question, Jackson further stated, “I’m not a biologist.”
The justice may have vast knowledge of the law but lacks basic semantic acumen. Apparently unable to define what a woman is but freely tossing the colloquial word “guy” is incongruous.
Is this matter life altering? I certainly don’t believe it is. But I don’t consider it picayune, either.
Suzann Helber
Trump most dangerous threat since McCarthy
Dear MAGA folks and Republicans,
Why do you support Donald J. Trump? He’s the most dangerous threat to the United States since 1950s McCarthyism’s Red Scare.
He didn’t “drain the swamp” and downsize the federal bureaucracy 2017-2021.
His tax reform favored wealthier Americans and led to a huge increase in the federal debt.
Is it that he puts “America first,” abandoning allies our country has befriended since the days of FDR and Eisenhower? Is cutting the Affordable Care Act, infrastructure bills and the like helping keep America first?
Are you angry at demonstrations that turn into violence and looting, yet you defend the J6 Capitol rioters?
Yes, he and Mitch McConnell turned the Supreme Court conservative. Will that take us back to some golden days when America was great?
Trump admires the power held by leaders in Russia, North Korea and Hungary. Will one-man rule in America quiet our “noise of democracy”?
And he says, “they’re not after me, they’re after you.” If that were true, you’d be indicted, too, you’d have posted bail, and you’d be standing trial. Maybe he’d buy some shoes or Bibles you were selling for your defense fund.
I just don’t understand.
Grady Burgner
Smokers, please be considerate of others
This letter is to the whole community. Please be considerate about smoking in public. It affects everyone, including the people who smoke! The smoke smells and is horrible for your health. Lots of people get lung cancer from smoking and vaping.
Please do not throw any smoking devices anywhere but in a trash can. The quarry beach at Greenway Farms is littered with vaping cartridges. Cigarettes that are not thrown away properly can lead to fires.
Please be more considerate by using cigarette disposal cans.
Jonah Wilson
Justices’ verbal acrobatics troubling
“Whoosh” is a new word I developed to describe our Supreme Court. We need to punctuate the justices’ reviews with “whoosh” as they move through consideration of issues. I recently listened to three hours of their deliberations. The question appeared to me as a rather simple one: Is a former president immune from criminal prosecution?” Whoosh! It was beyond my comprehension listening to our leading legal experts twist and turn to avoid the issue. It sounded like verbal acrobatics. Whoosh! My head was spinning.
Let me explain as simply as I can (without taking three hours). The question, as I paraphrase it, is, “Does a former president have total immunity from criminal prosecution?” Whoosh.
The answer is a loud no. Done, no need for any further analysis. No one is above the law.
Irv Ginsburg
Bookstores should be off-limits to porn
I went to national bookstore chain to do some reading. I was in the magazine section when I was shocked to see a magazine with a provocative title/name and a picture of a mostly naked woman in a suggestive pose. Any child could have picked this magazine up.
As a pediatric nurse who speaks to the issue of the harm caused by children accessing pornography, I was extremely concerned. I asked to speak to the manager who said she has nothing to do with this. Corporate officials make the decisions about what is sold.
If it is legal to sell porn (and you know it when you see it) where children can easily access it, then I will fight to change state law and protect our children.
I will not shop there anymore. Hitting them in the corporate wallet is the only thing they understand.
Conni Leonessa
Ooltewah
Arming teachers elicits comedic analogy
The logic of Slim Pickens and Mel Brooks … applied to arming teachers.
In the brilliant movie “Blazing Saddles,” the political leader (God bless Harvey Korman) installs a tiny toll booth in the middle of the desert.
A-l-m-o-s-t everyone who encountered it simply went around it, save for the few deep thinkers who each paid a dime to ride compliantly on horseback through the booth.
And now the question is whether teachers might carry weapons while in school.
An answer in the affirmative will require schools to go through the toll booth for permission and training.
Ironically, it feels like everyone else is walking around with a loaded weapon — and no permission, much less training, is required.
Bureaucracy.
Michael Mallen
Listen to the public on hospital removal
I have been in the real estate business since 1966 upon graduating from college and have seen over the years great things happen in Chattanooga — a dirty, smog-filled city when I came back. A transforming time was city planner James Rouse’s visit fresh from redeveloping Boston’s Faneuil Hall to re-imagine (via Vision 2000 in 1984) what this city could be.
The federally created Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District is the only such park in the country which is touted to attract more than 250,000 additional visitors to our city and area. Are we not being short-sighted, state legislators, in wanting a new mental health hospital to be built on 13 acres in the center of that park?
I have talked with a great number of Hamilton Countians about the hospital. Not a one wants the hospital to remain there. Please listen to your constituents who have elected you, state legislators and Gov. Bill Lee! Relocate the hospital off the bend.
Charles Walldorf
Lookout Mountain, Tenn.