Wednesday, March 5, 2014
My dear husband eats way too much fast food.
He has a favorite McDonald's where he has breakfast every morning. Once in a while, I eat fast food at a Burger King, Hardee's or a Taco Bell in East Ridge.
About a year ago, we started keeping up with what we ordered and what we actually received. For 57 percent of the time, we did not get what we ordered.
If he or I had only taught 43 percent of the time during the 40-plus years we taught, we would have gotten fired.
We spent thousands of dollars on our education to teach. At the end of our teaching career, together we were making about $125,000 a year, including the adjunct teaching and other part-time jobs we were doing.
Obviously, we made a decent living, but we never taught for the money; we taught because we loved teaching and teaching was a ministry to us.
These fast-food employees want us to pay them $15 an hour minimum wage for service that is correct only 43 percent of the time: I would say that takes a lot of gall, especially when we seldom "get it our way."
By the way, 100 percent of our friends say the same thing!
DR. PAT TAYLOR, Ringgold, Ga.
I'm no Lorax, but someone needs to speak for the snakes. Leave 'em alone!
They're simply another of God's creatures trying to make their way in a tough world like the rest of us. He didn't put them here to be manhandled by showoffs.
Snakes have always been the target of prejudice and cruelty, and going out and dragging them in to be used as deadly serpents so some simpleton can prove his faith merely reinforces their bad and undeserved reputation.
In my six-plus decades, mostly spent in East Tennessee, I've known only one person bitten by a copperhead, and that because he stepped on it.
Mostly, snakes are useful creatures playing their role in the Creator's plan with a lot more to fear from us than we from them.
THOMAS RODGERS, Dayton, Tenn.
The Friday edition of the Times Free Press had a number of articles that contradict the propaganda of the Koch brothers and their far-right friends.
1. Freddie Mac posted $8.6 billion profit and Fannie earned $6.5 billion in the fourth quarter. Both have repaid their government loans.
2. The stock market closes at near-record high.
3. Affordable Health Care Act is working fine. Local insurance brokers at American Exchange, have signed up 1,100 people in private health plans and are adding 100 applicants a week. An individual was quoted as saying "she was able to help a lot of people get insurance they weren't previously able to afford."
If these trends continue, the Republicans will need to look for new issues on which to be negative for the fall election.
CHARLES M. RENNEISEN, Signal Mountain
Legislators, why do you want year-round daylight saving time? Has the added darkness of winter mornings ever crossed your mind?
Why do you want to do this? I think I've got a hunch. Is it because you don't like breakfast and would rather start with lunch?
Would you have us all wear miner's hats or baseball caps with lights? School children look like little stars shining in the night.
But if you really want it, put this amendment on for me. A solar panels rebate would be real daylight saving time in Tennessee.
DAVID CLARK, Tullahoma, Tenn.
Hey, UT. Forget "Sex Week" and have "Gun Week" instead. You certainly won't have the opposition you have now.
I'll bet some of those Tennessee lawmakers might even drop by to check it out.
LAUREN PIENIASZEK, Ooltewah
The problem is getting worse.
I watch drivers blatantly run red lights on a daily basis. They aren't just trying to beat the yellow light. They are running the red light a full one to two seconds after the cross-traffic light has turned green.
I've watched other drivers slam on their brakes to avoid collisions, and I've had to do the same myself on many occasions. I [recently] watched a white BMW 325i run the red light at Fourth and High streets at 12:20. I reported the tag number to the police, but they won't do anything.
What is it going to take to make this stop? Does somebody have to die? Do we all have to become vigilantes and take matters into our own hands?
To be fair, this isn't just a Chattanooga problem. I see it all over the country. But I would like to think that Chattanooga is an innovative city. I think we can solve this problem.
HOLT WEBB
Regarding a letter Feb. 26: While I have never been a fan of big government and its inconsistencies and incompetence, I am nonetheless a citizen of the United States of America.
There are certain functions that a national government provides that cross state lines such as national defense, interstate commerce and a consistent currency. I would add to that list the education of our citizens in a common and consistent manner.
If I have a child being educated in one state and then move to another state, I have an expectation that what was taught in one grade level will also be taught in the same grade level in the state to where we move.
Besides, the Common Core standards are not a product of the federal government.
The initiative was led by the National Governors Association and is the result of a collaboration between parents, teachers, administrators and education experts. The focus of the standards is not on rote memorization but rather on problem solving and rational thinking skills as well as a consistency of content.
It was developed based on the highest existing state standards, not a national "agenda."
RICHARD DUBE, Hixson
Is Ross Douthat a liberal? Is David Ignatius a liberal? Is David Brooks a liberal? The answer to all three questions is "No!"
So why do they appear frequently on the left side editorial page, crowding out real liberal opinion writers? Does having them there make the Times page center-to-right?
I protest!
KIRK BUBUL, Kimball, Tenn.