Thanks for Christmas page - and more letters to the editors

Thanks for Christmas page

Many thanks for your full-page Merry Christmas greeting in the Christmas newspaper.

Too many businesses, cartoonists and individuals are concerned about offending someone with saying "Merry Christmas."

The birthdays of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosh Hashanah, Veterans Day, Presidents' Day, etc., would all be ordinary days if we were not honoring them or their birthdays. I and a major portion of Americans are offended when Christ's birthday is not honored. He is the reason for the season.

It made me happy to read your greeting. Hope you had a Merry Christmas.

MARYLEE SCHMIDT, Chattanooga


Sign Medicaid expansion petition

I have begun a petition on the Web to Gov. Bill Haslam and the Tennessee state legislators to stop blocking federally funded Medicaid expansion available under the Affordable Care Act.

There are approximately 284,000 Tennesseans who could receive health care if Gov. Haslam had not decided to refuse federal funding estimated to be $2.1 billion per year starting in 2022.

This should not be a political issue. It should be, and is, a human rights issue. I started out with a goal of 100 signers, but before I knew it, I had 1,780 signers from all across Tennessee. Any readers interested in signing should navigate to www.credomobilize.com/petitions/tell-tennessee-republicans-stop-blocking-the-medicaid-expansion-1.

DAVID CRISMAN, Chattanooga


Wake up to police actions

Given the amount of print space, radio and TV air time given to Chattanooga's crime problems, I would recommend that all Chattanoogans read Radley Balko's excellent book "Rise of the Warrior Cop."

This is especially true given that law enforcement's definition of community policing has evolved into sending out S.W.A.T. teams for any and everything including routine warrant service. The "High Point Project" is just another name for "community policing." Read Balko's section on S.W.A.T. deployment.

A few years back, the L.A.P.D. cops who beat Rodney King senseless were acquitted, leading to four days of riots in Los Angeles. This year, when two of Chattanooga's "finest" beat a black man senseless, they were both acquitted and reinstated. Chattanooga yawned. Better wake up, folks.

BEN JOHNSTON, Chattanooga

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