Letters to the Editors: Losses at airport not surprising

Losses at airport not surprising

Having just finished reading the Times Free Press article online "Losses mount at Chattanooga Airport's new aviation terminal" (Feb. 28), I wish I could say I am surprised by the staggering losses the airport is absorbing.

As vice president of the National Air Transportation Association, a trade association representing over 2,000 aviation businesses, I spent a significant amount of time warning the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority (CMAA) of the dangers inherent in its plan to open a government-owned business to compete with the existing private businesses at the airport. The fact is the CMAA, which is an arm of local government, is squandering taxpayer money at an alarming rate on this project.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when government believes it knows best what is good for a commercial marketplace. Many airports around the country depend upon private businesses, through an RFP process, to determine when a new commercial enterprise is needed. The CMAA has abandoned that time-tested process, instead deciding to pledge taxpayer funds to create a government-owned business. The end result, losses are exceeding expectations by 42 percent. As I said in the opening, I wish I could say that I am surprised.

ERIC R. BYER

Vice President,

Government & Industry Affairs, National Air Transportation Association

Alexandria, Va.

Use taxes to fix problems at home

President Obama is spending taxpayer money to rebuild Afghanistan at the rate of "two billion" dollars a week!

Our country could use the money for our own problems, but our "puppet government" will not do anything to benefit this country!

Fannie Mae wants another bailout from us so they can hand out millions of our dollars for a bonus to the "fat cats!" Enough is enough. "Let them eat cake!"

In the U.S., our roads, bridges, dams and the entire electrical grid is in disrepair. Don't hold your breath waiting for our phony government to do anything for the U.S.!

Our disgusting government can be replaced with a hand full of dead flies!

RAY EDGELL

Ooltewah

It's Pitts who's off the deep end

In his March 4 column, Leonard Pitts satirizes Republican Rep. Bob Morris as "scared of Girl Scouts" because he opposed a resolution honoring the 100th anniversary of their founding. Morris claims Girl Scouts promote lesbianism, birth control and abortion.

Pitts sees in Morris' act a conservative "skid ... off the deep end," but Pitts is the one off the deep end, for here he commits what logicians call the "slippery slope fallacy."

Also, Pitts mocks Morris' finding his facts on the Internet, but Pitts dodges the real questions: "Are they true?" and "So what if they are?"

More insidiously, Pitts presents the image of little girls "trying to conquer America one cookie at a time" to replace the real process: Feminists indoctrinating girls in leftist philosophy.

Overall, Pitts attacks conservatives as fear mongers for segregating Japanese Americans during WWII (under FDR, a Democrat), for instigating McCarthyism (when Communists had infiltrated our government), and for saying gays recruit (when they actually seduce).

Conservatives may use scare tactics, but progressives like Pitts use phobia tactics, pretending there's nothing to fear while the real images are regressive: barren two-woman couples, struggling single mothers, and aborted potential Girl Scouts.

DR. BRIAN HALE

Red Bank

No simple answers for complex issues

The Free Press editorial writer frequently addresses complex issues by pretending that a single simple and obvious answer exists. Thus, when the Roman Catholic bishops opposed the mandate that Catholic employers provide contraceptive drugs under their group health plan, you claimed that the employers' right to religious freedom was infringed.

When the Washington State Board of Pharmacy was enjoined from requiring pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception for religious reasons, you affected shock that such a rule could even be promulgated. For you, the religious beliefs of the pharmacists were alone important.

But an essential component of freedom of religion is freedom from being compelled to observe the religious tenets of others.

Refusal to provide emergency contraception amounts to forcing an alien moral precept upon the customer, whose rights also matter. There is no First Amendment right to do this.

Pharmacists seeking to avoid professional duty upon supposed moral grounds should study the Buddhist concept of Right Livelihood: the principle that one's work should not involve immoral acts. The morally correct choice is simply to follow a profession of which one approves.

Seeking the benefits of any line of work while evading its burdens is not morality. It is hypocrisy.

BARBARA ARTHUR

Take a public stand for Christ

I think Kirk Cameron was brave and honest for taking the stand he did when asked about homosexuality and gay marriage.

He did not compromise his values or Scripture. I see many people calling Kirk "out of touch." God's Word warns us of these times.

2 Timothy 4:3: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."

It's the minority who heeds Christ's message of holiness and right living in these last days.

Matthew 7:13: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

Let's pray for our brother Kirk and let's pray for many others to take a public stand for Christ and the Holy Word.

CHRIS DELANEY

Ringgold, Ga.