Legal notices belong in paper
The removal of public notices from the newspaper is a counterproductive idea.
I follow the foreclosures and the projects out to bid on a daily basis. The daily paper is the easiest method for me to use.
The thoughts of having to wade through a website daily to obtain this information will only complicate the issue.
One government entity has changed its Web pages, and I must re-educate myself every time I visit the site. I can read the items that interest me while having coffee at the restaurant. I can't do this on a computer. The newspaper is always the same. Additionally, I can take the paper with me to look at foreclosures and not have to lug a computer around.
To take these notices out of the paper will not benefit me. I wonder just who the real beneficiary will be. Certainly the proposed money saved will not be cost efficient.
GLENN G. BUTLER
Ooltewah
Loss of lactation center hurts moms
I was saddened and angered to hear about Parkridge East Hospital's decision to close its lactation center. Most people know already that breastfeeding is by far the healthiest way to nourish a baby, but it's not always the easiest thing to do, and without support or education women may give up quickly or just not try at all.
Lactation professionals are invaluable for the service they provide - not just to these new moms and babies, but to the community as a whole.
Many women who deliver at Parkridge East come from low-income backgrounds and are less informed about feeding choices for their child; lactation education offers them not only the healthiest option, but the most economical.
As a new mom who initially struggled to nurse, I could not have succeeded without the assistance of the lactation specialists at Parkridge East, most notably Shari Hicks. And I am not unique. Countless women, many of whom didn't even deliver at Parkridge East, came to Shari after being told by "specialists" at other hospitals that they couldn't breastfeed. She helped them succeed when no one else could.
Now, sadly, this vital support system is gone, leaving a huge void in the Chattanooga community.
LEEANNE VIALL
Back bills to fight illegal immigration
Immigration policy affects your life and will shape the quality of life in your future.
Several good immigration-enforcement bills have been filed in the current session of the Tennessee Legislature, to target illegal immigration. To get the bills passed, grass-roots action is needed immediately.
Three of the bills look especially good toward the objective of demagnetizing Tennessee to illegal immigration. As an immigration-control advocate, I ask that Tennesseans immediately contact their state representative and state senator and tell them to co-sponsor and pass these bills.
HB1378 - the Tennessee Lawful Employment Act, to require that all employers use the federal E-Verify system in hiring.
HB1379 - The Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act, to require use of the SAVE system to verify eligibility (including lawful status, as applicable) for public benefits and services.
HB1380 - The Lawful Immigration Enforcement Act, pertaining to law enforcement officers and immigration-law enforcement.
The Heritage Foundation discovered that households headed by low-educated foreign workers, legal and illegal, typically receive $3 in government benefits and services for each dollar of taxes they pay - with most of the net cost borne by state and local governments. Given our current budget problems, taxpayers should not have to underwrite public services for illegal aliens.
DONNA LOCKE
Columbia, Tenn.
Foundations refute human theologies
Responding to doubters of Scriptural truth and their unfavorable comments against the Bible, consider this: Genesis 1:1 reads, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
In Hebrews the word for "beginning" is (Reshiyth); for God is (Elohim) meaning Creator; for "created" is (bara), a word used of the work that only Elohim can do.
The words beginning, Elohim and bara are foundations of all theology and therefore totally refute human theologies, i.e., atheism, because Elohim is personal, self-existent, and creator of the universe.
Agnosticism teaches that one cannot know whether there is a God. Yet, God reveled Himself in creation.
Pantheism, because God transcends what He created. Polytheism, because only one God created all things. Materialism, because Genesis teaches that matter had a beginning and is not eternal. Humanism, because it is God and not man who is the final reality. Evolution, because God is the creator of all things by His Word.
WAYNE SIMS
Many budget items need to be on diet
Your newspaper should be embarrassed to run such a tasteless political cartoon by Gamble as that which appeared on Feb. 28. The cartoon purported to show Obama saying a leader should step forward and put Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare "on a diet," emphasized with double exclamation points.
Those programs, paid into over a number of years by participants through payroll deductions, have been systematically robbed by both politicians and unscrupulous businessmen for years without any "leaders" stepping forward to stop the outright stealing.
Also the cartoon conspicuously failed to show any representation for the military, which consumes nearly half of the federal budget; the United Nations, which eats up billions of dollars and is loathed by most Americans; foreign aid, which squanders billions overseas where there may not be any actual measurable benefit to our overburdened American taxpayers; federal education programs that appear to dumb down students; and this list could go on and on.
Shame on you.
WILLIAM KELLER
Decherd, Tenn.
Liberals work for good of all
A letter (Feb. 3, Times Free Press) hatefully attacks those the writer calls liberals (apparently everyone not sharing his fantasy world of hatred).
First of all, liberal is one of the very best words to describe anyone.
Liberals work for a better job environment including pay and working conditions, health care, education, cleaner air, and an overall healthy environment for the world. It's what they do.
They work for the good of all, not just the greedy filthy rich, those who control the purse strings of so many of our politicians. For this they are hatefully attacked! It is a shameful disgrace.
Were it not for liberals, we would never have gotten the Magna Carta - the predecessor of our Constitution!
If every politician had the honor, decency, intelligence and integrity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the U.S.A. would actually be what it should always have been, a bastion of hope, equality, freedom, liberty and justice for all.
ANN BENTON
Signal Mountain
Officials must attend meetings
I think when anyone takes time to run for any public office and is elected, it is their responsibility to be present at all meetings, excluding emergencies or deaths. That is what they are elected to do.
Darwin Branam (of East Ridge) knew there was a meeting, but he needed to be in Florida.
He needs to be here in East Ridge attending his public elected job.
But then we voted him in. Did we know he would be in Florida a good part of the time?
When the council hires someone such as a lawyer, are they not smart enough to prevent them from cleaning out the coffers?
CATHERINE OWENS
East Ridge