Friday, January 1, 1904
The June 25 issue of Chemical and Engineering News (Vol. 90, No. 26, page 4) included a letter to the editor that cited some striking facts. The author, Michael Heylin, states that an analysis of job-creating performance of the 15 administrations between 1945 and 2008 shows that Democrats enjoyed a sustained and substantial advantage over those 60 years.
• 46.4 million private economy jobs added during the six Democratic administrations (average 7.5 millon/four-year term).
• 25.6 million private economy jobs added during the nine Republican administrations (average 2.8 million/four-year terms.
• 21 million in two Clinton terms; 3.3 million in second Reagan term (strongest Republican term); 1.0 million in three Bush terms.
• 8.9 million decline started in January 2008: 4.7 million in second Bush term; 3.2 million in first four months of Obama term; 1.0 million before the decline bottomed out in February 2010; 4.0 million jobs added in Obama term since February 2010.
How to predict the future? It's clear that business experience wasn't worth much. Do they know how to create jobs? It doesn't look like it. If they created more jobs than shown above, they were in China, Korea, Thailand or wherever, but not in the U.S.A.
DAVID CUMMINGS, Cleveland, Tenn.
In November we are given the opportunity to vote for a good man on the East Ridge City Council. Marc Gravitt is a man with extremely high principles, a unique person with business experience, a veteran of the U.S. Army and a great family man.
Marc will serve us well. His personality, honesty and dedication to our city means we can expect his very best in each decision he makes on our behalf.
A vote for Marc Gravitt means good government for East Ridge.
CURTIS D. ADAMS, senior retired County Commissioner
Wow, two swings and two misses in one week. First, the Monday Times editorial came out endorsing the Georgia T-SPLOST which was beaten to death by the voters (75 percent to 25 percent in North Georgia) who were not interested in any more taxes. Swish number one!
Then, on Wednesday, Times cartoonist Clay Bennett bashed Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy in his "INTOLERANCE" cartoon for publicly coming out against gay marriage. I wonder if Clay read Thursday's front- page article describing the overwhelming public support of Cathy's stand, complete with pictures of police directing a traffic jam of supporters at Chick-fil-A's Fort Oglethorpe store and the long lines of supporters wrapped around its Gunbarrel Road store. Clay missed the boat again, as usual. Swish number two!
Not looking too good for the Times side of the opinion pages.
STEVE BERNTHAL, Blairsville, Ga.
The Chick-fil-A debate is about corporate money, not gay marriage
Here's the thing people are not saying about the Chick-fil-A debate. Chick-fil-A is a corporation that gives out millions of dollars to prevent gay-marriage legislation from passing. The argument isn't about a corporation or an executive's right to an opinion. It's not about homosexuality or gay marriage.
It's about corporate money in politics and how Chick-fil-A's money is outweighing your vote and your opinion as an American citizen.
It's not just that Chick-fil-A has an opinion about a political issue. It's that Chick-fil-A uses its massive wealth to influence politicians to follow Chick-fil-A's opinions instead of looking at the opinions of their constituents.
My vote will never matter as much as a corporation's because my campaign donations could never equal the millions -- billions that corporations like Chick-fil-A throw into the multi-million dollar campaigns that politicians are forced to run to compete. (See the "Citizens United" case.)
So no matter where you stand on gay marriage, realize that we are moving farther and farther away from a government that is of the people, for the people and by the people and closer to a place where what we buy every day will become the only vote that matters.
RACHAEL WAKTKINS
Throughout history people have displayed an intolerance and unwillingness to accept those who are different from themselves, resulting in the denial of certain rights. Examples of the majority or ruling class wielding power over the minority or otherwise oppressed abound. Many times this has been rooted in some sort of dogma, religious or not. In this country, the persistent struggle for rights has usually resulted in those rights being conceded.
I suspect that gay couples will eventually be afforded the rights of heterosexual couples. I also suspect that future generations will view those who initially suppressed those rights with the same disdain as we view those who suppressed the rights of women, minorities and people of other faiths in the past.
As a heterosexual married man with two young children to whom I strive to teach the concepts of tolerance and equality, I hope that time is sooner rather than later.
DAN COOPER, Ringgold, Ga.
Beginning Aug. 1, 47 million women becme eligible for eight preventive health-care services at no cost! This is part of President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act.
These include: well-women visits; gestational diabetes screenings and counseling; domestic and interpersonal violence screenings and counseling; FDA-approved contraceptive methods and FDA-approved contraceptive counseling and education; breastfeeding support supplies and education; HPV-DNA testing for women over 30 or older; sexually transmitted infections counseling for sexually active women; HIV screening and counseling for sexually active women.
This means that for 47 million women who have health insurance plans, these will now be free of charge! Women, not insurance companies, can now make their own decisions regarding their health care.
Thank you, President Obama,
ALISON FALINSKI
Re: letter July 30: I was a patient in the cardiac care unit for six days in May. I'm also a retired laboratory technologist, having worked both at Children's and Erlanger. I have found both as a worker and patient, that the staff at Erlanger do their best to be professional, courteous and well-trained.
As a health-care worker, it is a duty and responsibility to report the things she has witnessed. They are or can be very critical occurrences, especially giving wrong meds or not giving meds at all.
Erlanger has for quite some time had a policy and personnel in place to call anonymously and report these kinds of things if the person noting them is afraid of retaliation. If a worker lets these things go uncorrected, she or he is part of the problem and may be part of the reason.
As for me and my family and friends who have worked there, Erlanger is an excellent hospital where you will receive the best of care. But I also will agree that perhaps more nursing assistants might be needed but that is probably best addressed by what is available monetarily.
BEN KEIM JR.