It worked in Denver; build stadium here
I am writing about the new baseball stadium proposal from the perspective of a newcomer to Chattanooga. My wife and I moved here from Colorado in July 2019. We were Colorado Rockies fans and knew Chattanooga did not have a Major League Baseball club. So we decided to check out the Lookouts and soon became hardcore fans.
In Colorado, Denver did not have a baseball team until 1993 when it was awarded a franchise. They first began to play in an old football stadium used by the Denver Broncos. In 1995 the Rockies built a brand new stadium that was financed by a 0.01 sales tax that was spread out over six area counties. To this day the stadium has brought millions of dollars in new businesses and revenue for the city of Denver.
Now that the Lookouts are going to build a new stadium, it will do exactly the same thing it did in Denver right here in Chattanooga. The Lookouts will be the centerpiece of new development of a blighted area of downtown and ultimately provide tax dollars for the schools, city and county.
Long live the Lookouts. I vote for the stadium.
Geoff Kensinger
Keep mental health institute on Moccasin Bend
There have been several articles written by seemingly entitled citizens about closing down the hospital on Moccasin Bend. We also have had many stories that relate our social problems to mental health issues.
I worked at Moccasin Bend for eight years. We need to keep Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute where it is now located for the following reasons:
› I know the calming beautiful location is important in helping patients.
› The location is reasonably accessible and safe.
› At a National Park Service planning session, we were told NPS could move forward with park development even if the hospital and firing range stayed. NPS wanted community consensus on what it wanted. The state has apparently decided that the hospital should remain where it is.
› Chickamauga National Battlefield is divided at its main location by a major highway. Several of its locations are surrounded by different neighborhoods. It seems to do fine.
Let's work together helping "the least of these" and actually solve some of our existing problems that are related to mental health.
Jim Kimball
Ponder businessman vs. politician, truth
Two thousand years and worldly thinkers are still asking, "What is truth?" They still say crucify good and turn evil loose. Their way of thinking defies Aristotle and the law of contradiction, which is the way of all reasoning. They reason if a man thinks he's a woman, he is a woman. If someone steps on a turtle or eagle egg, they are jailed, but if a woman has a baby vacuumed from her womb, it's lawful and the taxpayer pays the bill. What is truth?
In November 2020, America traded a brilliant businessman for a politician. A businessman can be described in one word. Their sole purpose and only function is described by that word ... profit. A politician is the exact opposite. Example: When the first automobile was invented, the horse and buggy industry must have seen the writing on the wall. A politician would have sent the EPA, IRS, FBI and the rest of the alphabet soup to shut down the car factory. (Similar to the Keystone pipeline project.) A businessman would cancel all restrictions and make sure the factory is successful.
Why has America been the greatest nation ever? Have we reached our end? Will we now crucify the good (our Constitution) for evil (socialism, communism)? What is truth?
Ed Huber
Copperhill, Tennessee
Trump's mental lapse vs. Biden's gaffes
Does Donald Trump have dementia? While attention has been focused on Joe Biden's age and the possibility that he may not complete a second term if re-elected, attention needs to be turned to the physical and mental acuity of Donald Trump. By any standard, the former president is obese. But his mental condition ought to be of greater concern. At a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Jan. 19, he railed at Nikki Haley for failing to secure the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Of course, Nikki Haley, who has never served in Congress, was nowhere near Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. Trump was obviously referring to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
So how did the former president confuse a 52-year-old conservative former Republican governor of South Carolina with an 83-year-old liberal Democratic congresswoman from California?
This was not a slip-of-the-tongue gaffe that any of us might make. It was a major mental lapse. I was reminded of Nancy Reagan feeding responses to President Reagan toward the end of his second term. A vote for Donald Trump may really be a vote for his vice president or for Melania.
Dave Siklosi
Athens, Tennessee
A few challenges for 'green heads'
So nice to see warmer weather after our Arctic freeze. Thank goodness for nuclear power and fossil fuel-generated electricity. Those windmills and solar power would have frozen up and just meant rolling blackouts. I have some challenges for the "green heads":
› If you believe in the "green agenda," use only electricity from windmills and solar power. When it doesn't work, get out your heavy blankets.
› If you believe in the "green agenda," turn in all of your gas-powered vehicles, yachts, eliminate your air travel, etc. You need to use only bikes/feet for transit.
› If you believe in the "green agenda," eliminate all meat from your diet. Learn to eat bugs.
Bon appetit!
Ronald Williams
Ballpark will be 2020's Aquarium
I was not in Chattanooga in the late '80s and early '90s when the Tennessee Aquarium was being planned. I can only imagine there were opinions for and against it. But look what it has done for the revitalization of Chattanooga!
The opinions for and against the South Broad project are the same; only the voices have changed. I can only envision in 10-15 years being at the new ballpark and looking around at the new businesses and new living spaces that have come to South Broad because we chose to look beyond today. No growth comes without pain and effort.
YES to the ballpark and the South Broad project.
Chuck Darsey
Red Bank
Deep State keeping Trump from ballot
America is on its last legs and probably won't survive. Nothing will stop this downward spiral of the economy, wars, illegal alien invasion, lawlessness and out-of-control government spending.
The Democrats are trying to save democracy by destroying democracy. They're trying to ban Trump from the ballot in various states to deny the people the right to vote for him. They claim he's an insurrectionist, and that if elected, he'll become a dictator. He wasn't his first term. And he was never charged, tried or convicted of insurrection.
We already have a dictator in the White House. Biden has weaponized the DOJ, FBI, CIA, etc., so that he can't be held accountable.
The Deep State will never allow Trump to occupy the White House again because they know he'll go after them.
G. Hayes
Ooltewah