Blackburn opposed to cities’ friendships
In an effort to burnish her role as a Trump disciple, Sen. Marsha Blackburn has discovered a new threat to Americans: friendship. Thus, her effort to resurrect legislation to increase governmental scrutiny of Sister Cities International, the nonprofit that seeks to strengthen the bond of friendship among nations’ citizens.
Her effort is no surprise since Trump and his disciples are sowing doubts and fears among Americans by their attempt to dismantle the government.
Sister Cities is a nonprofit organization founded by former President Dwight Eisenhower, the five-star general whose leadership destroyed the Nazi regime.
(In 1954 Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, described him as a “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.” The slur alienated Republicans, and later the Chad Mitchell Trio satirized the JBS as “fighting for the right to fight the right fight for the right!”)
So it’s no surprise that when Blackburn sponsored the legislation in 2020, as TFP reporter Sarah Dolgin wrote, Karen Claypool, president of the local organization, condemned the senator’s criticism, “calling her remarks xenophobic.”
Blackburn’s response? Claypool’s letter was communist propaganda.
The kind of friendship Sister Cities fosters is anathema to today’s Trump authoritarianism. Which makes its devotion to international friendship most valuable.
Michael Loftin
If not these values, then which ones?
Whether prompted by developments in the local Republican Party or by reaction to his own upbringing, Chattanooga Times opinion page editor Ben Sessoms has invited a discussion of “Christian nationalism.” His transparency is refreshing, regardless of agreement or disagreement.
Beneath his critique is the question, “Is/was America a Christian nation?” Depending a lot on definition of terms, strong arguments exist either way, but less controversial in my judgment is the influence on the formation of America of the English Reformation and indeed the Reformation across northern Europe. This page is not a forum for academic discussion, but Anglicans and Puritans, fallout from the English Civil War, and self-governing Congregationalists and Presbyterians, to name a few factors, are all primary ingredients in American settlement, colonization and founding. Are these elements distinctively “Christian?” They’re certainly not Islamic or Buddhist.
This view of American history does come with a set of values and ideals, whether or not it’s equated with “Christian nationalism.” Mr. Sessoms says the latter is racist, authoritarian and exclusionary. Are these indictments true of the Reformation tradition? Well, yes and no. However, the bigger question is: If not the values derived from these traditions which were and continue to be so influential in America’s history, then which values and whose values will govern?
Gary Lindley, Lookout Mountain, Ga.
We must not waste this opportunity
If the tactics of the Democratic Socialist Party are the surrender of our national sovereignty by opening borders, dismantling of the Constitution through activist federal judges, eviscerating the American culture by first inviting then protecting tens of thousands of illegal, often criminal aliens, disheartening private businesses and individual innovation through a suppressive federal bureaucracy, and fighting to entrench government fraudulent waste and abuse are clearly not in the interests of American citizens, then what is the Socialists’ objective?
Control — absolute and permanent.
For a century, Democratic socialists who possess minimal applicable skill-sets or even the propensity to responsibly govern have strategically imposed their destructive tactic of robbing the public treasury to buy and retain elected positions. Their problem? There are no monies left; the great money-laundering scheme of an entrenched bureaucracy now exposed to America is in irreparable shambles. Their cradle-to-grave welfare state of voter purchase rejected and unsustainable.
The United States has a one-time, singular opportunity to restore the constitutional republic envisioned by the founding fathers. Such restoration of democracy is not without short-term pain. Americans’ resolve must remain strong in the face of lies, cover-ups, media bias, personal attacks and theatrical orchestrations from frantic bureaucrats who see their match-stick palace of corruption teetering.
RG Kirn, Soddy-Daisy
Trump ‘baby boom’ plan similar to Hitler’s
Nothing is more disturbing than a future plan Trump is perpetrating on American women to have more babies for the fatherland.
I say “fatherland” because it is very reminiscent of Adolph Hitler’s desire for German women of Aryan purity 85 years ago to have more children for his Reich.
Today, Trump’s so-called new “baby boom” plan that encourages American women to follow a Christian nationalist playbook and marry and have babies to increase the country’s population sounds hauntingly similar. It comes complete with a $5,000 “baby bonus,” a program to aid women in tracking their menstrual cycles to enhance pregnancy and awarding a “National Medal of Motherhood” for women having six or more children. Trump’s first pal, Musk, could even apply with 14 kids, some out of wedlock, and vow to procreate more.
So what does this dystopian horror scenario say for the future of women in this country? American women are holding key positions in business, politics and sciences, as well as raising families. Trump, his loyalists, Republicans in Congress and autocrats from The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” however, prefer to treat women solely as breeding stock. No wonder single or married women hesitate to bring children into an America of insanity and cruelty. When does it stop?
Greg Williams, Signal Mountain
Government ‘gifts’ come with strings
Government should only do those things that the private sector cannot or should not do. It should come as no surprise that many contracts with companies across America are being cancelled since many of those services should be wholly in the private sector with no government intervention or control. Some people don’t understand that when the government gives money to a company, certain controls come with that money. Free enterprise is not free if the government is pulling the strings. And the government always does when tax dollars are used.
Democrats do not believe in this fundamental tenant of free enterprise. They believe the government should control the reigns of commerce, education and other fundamental aspects of American life. The whole idea behind the Bill of Rights is to limit what the government can do to the citizenry.
Unless we strip away wasteful spending out of the government, at all levels, we will continue to increase the national debt and eventually become insolvent as a nation. Then the real pain will begin.
Rusty Lacy, Rossville, Georgia
Fund and celebrate science
Sledgehammers and chainsaws are an odd addition to our legislative landscape. They are not intuitively obvious choices for addressing the challenges our country is facing. I think I have some better tools: common sense and native intelligence. However, it is not a certainty that common sense is a well-distributed attribute among our lawmakers. In any event, we need to move ahead assuming common sense and intelligence will prevail.
Taking a chainsaw to the funding of universities and/or research is mind-blowing. Every one of us knows relatives or friends who have dealt with serious health issues. Halting creative research by the very capable among us is the dumbest way to go. The results of research are crucial to our future health and well-being.
We should aggressively fund and celebrate science as if our lives depend on doing so — because they do.
Irv Ginsburg