Looking wrong way at crossover voting
Clint Cooper’s editorial piece on Tuesday, Aug. 11 is laughable and pure conspiracy theory.
His premise that Democrats crossed over and got Republican ballots to vote in local Hamilton County elections makes absolutely no sense. The recent local election choices were identical on both ballots — Republican and Democratic. It’s the state and federal elections that were confined to their respective party ballots.
If anyone crossed over, it’s Republicans who voted Republican in state and federal elections and then crossed over to vote for Democrats in local elections.
Case in point: 36,190 people in Hamilton County selected a Republican ballot, while 27,492 chose a Democratic ballot. Weston Wamp got 33,840 votes. So, Wamp received 2,350 fewer votes than people who received Republican ballots. If Herndon only had people choosing Democratic ballots cast a vote for him, he would have received 27,492 votes. Instead, Herndon garnered 30,665 votes. So, if anybody crossed over, it was Republicans.
Maybe all those editors shouldn’t have been fired two weeks ago. Any editor reviewing Cooper’s bizarre editorial would have easily dismissed his faulty logic with basic math. Fake news!
Lisa Shivers
Signal Mountain
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Election volunteers worked hard for you
Weston Wamp, over 1,200 volunteers arrived by 7 a.m. and worked a 14- to 16-hour day to ensure that every vote in Hamilton County cast on Aug. 6 was accurately and ethically counted in a timely manner. Your criticism of the Election Commission was unwarranted and incorrect. Inaccurate statements, made by frustrated politicians who do not fully understand how the election system works, are what erode public confidence. You owe an apology to the Election Commission and all the volunteers who work long and hard for you and the citizens of Hamilton County.
Margaret Fraser
Missing Ron Hart; end your favoritism
I was disappointed that there was no Friday column by Ron Hart this past Friday. What is goin’ on?
The TFP is biased enough without censoring one of my personal favorite things to read in Friday’s paper. It is ridiculous how pro-Baylor versus McCallie the sports section has always been. I hope the new owners will make changes for it to be a more fair reporting paper going forward; if not, I’ll be canceling my subscription.
Debbie Pataky
Rising Fawn, Georgia
Keep the left-right balance, kick Rants
I agree totally with a letter from 8/3. We have been subscribers since 1981 but have also been put off by the monthly cost of $39 and by the tilt to the left, especially as the latter has bled over to the right-side opinion page.
I would also echo other readers’ requests to keep the two opinion pages, to eliminate the Rants section (which only contributes to coarse public discourse), and to lower costs for obituaries so that more will appear in the paper. I personally would be thrilled to see the paper use fewer articles from AP and the NY Times — surely no one can truly believe that a newspaper whose national news articles consist almost entirely of those two services can claim to be presenting the news “without … favor.” Just this week in USA Today, there was a story about the positive impact Melania Trump’s initiative has made in returning children to Ukraine who had been kidnapped and taken to Russia; sadly, I can’t imagine the TFP running a story like that.
Certainly the population of Chattanooga is at least 50% conservative — can we not have a newspaper which reflects that? Thank you and good luck in the future — we all want the TFP to succeed!
Debbie Pierce
Hixson
Hopeful for local paper ownership
We are grateful to the Hussman family and all who upheld their decision to sell to a local family with deep roots in Chattanooga. At critical times, a local source of information with honest reporting is invaluable. All can help the Fullers keep the high moral traditions of the TFP while making the transition with imagination and speed to a profitable enterprise with our comments.
Sue Carol & Peter Elvin
Collectivism better term for socialism
So, another democratic socialist receives the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat. This time, it’s Abdul El-Sayed for one of the Senate seats from Michigan, thus fueling the ongoing and occasionally helpful discussion about the meaning of socialism and its implications for republican government in the U.S.
The term “socialism” doesn’t really get at the heart of what it’s about, especially in its modern iterations. It’s at least as old as the brand of socialism in ancient Sparta in Greece, where the synonym “collectivism” is probably more appropriate. But its modern expressions trace mostly to the revolutionary outbursts of the early 19th century, where equality of outcome (not opportunity) is the end-in-view.
To attempt to guarantee equality of outcome (or wealth distribution) is to mandate a system of coercion for the simple reason that people are not equal. Equal, yes, in terms of inherent status, but not equal with regard to strength or size or ambition or talent.
To guarantee “from each according to his ability to each according to his need” is to require coercion, unless the arrangement is voluntary and on a tiny scale.
This is the inherent weakness of socialism and why it has never succeeded except in rare, isolated cases. No one wants to be coerced.
Gary Lindley
Lookout Mountain, Georgia
Churches should offer home to all families
If a person in our churches has heart disease or cancer, we show compassion; what about brain disease, mental illness or emotional problems? What about the family of a child with autism or Tourette syndrome; are they welcome?
The mentally ill, like lepers in Jesus’s day, are the “untouchables,” but they are loved deeply by God!
When I was food shopping, a boy about 10 smiled at me. I smiled back. I noticed his mother held onto him, and I wondered if he was autistic; when I got to the register, I found out when I felt a hard kick to my body. His mother was very apologetic. I asked if he was autistic; she said yes. I told her I understood. She made him apologize. I said gently to the child that God could help him not to kick people. His mother said this is what he needed to hear.
I prayed silently for this mom and for all mothers of special needs children. These families are isolated. I wondered, are they able to attend church? Is the body of Christ a place where these families would feel welcome and supported? If not, what do we need to do to make them feel valued?
Carol Smith
Ooltewah