Here are a few responses to our request for reader interaction. Please keep them coming. Send your questions or comments about editorials and opinion page content on the Chattanooga Free Press page to ccooper@timesfreepress.com.
My favorite opinion pieces are about our local issues. Always interesting to read. Often the two sides are closer together than one might think.
Many responses to my appeal for feedback have indicated a preference for opinions on local issues. The truth is, no matter what is going on in Washington, D.C., local governments have a far greater influence on us. However, it’s inevitable that actions taken in the nation’s capital may work their way into our lives. We saw that in the actions taken on the economy under the last presidential administration when inflation reached its highest level in 40 years, and if some experts are right today it’ll be the same with tariffs applied on the importation of foreign goods by the current Trump administration.
My former Times colleague Pam Sohn and I used to laugh together when our views on an issue – usually a local one – were similar. My current colleague, Ben Sessoms, and I do have similar thoughts on some issues, such as the use of public money for private schools and the bill making its way through the Tennessee legislature that would allow schools to refuse admission for undocumented immigrant children, but we come at our opinions in different ways.
For my part, I am very much in favor of education alternatives and choice, but I don’t believe the state is ready for a universal system of vouchers, or “grants,” as supporters like to call them. And while I am sympathetic to the cost of educating thousands of illegal immigrants, I believe – because the Supreme Court has ruled on it – that we should continue to educate such children for the good of everyone while they are here in the United States.