U.S. Route 27 is now ideal roadway
Although it's been a long time in coming, I'd like to congratulate TDOT and Wright Brothers for completion of the U.S. Route 27 project. The finished product is an example of the best road work I have ever driven on.
The road is incredibly smooth and wide enough now to handle current and future traffic. The Wright Brothers crew took care of every detail, all the way down to grinding the roadway at all bridge sections so that drivers don't get that annoying bump onto and off every bridge transition.
Contractors throughout Tennessee should come to Chattanooga to see what road projects should look like (and drive like) when done properly.
My thanks and congratulations to TDOT and Wright Brothers.
Pete Gammon, Signal Mountain
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New blood needed as regular donors
I recently attempted to donate some platelets at Blood Assurance. Due to an abundance of scar tissue, the needle stick did not succeed.
With my history of about 440 donations for Blood Assurance since 1972, scar tissue on both of my arms is to be expected.
The purpose of this letter is to urge eligible potential donors to step up -- and help replace old donors like me.
Harry Geller
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Parallels between Waco, Ferguson?
Thoughts on the outlaw biker shooting spree in Waco: Maybe the NOAOBG (National Organization for the Advancement of Outlaw Biker Groups) should go to Waco and organize a riot, kind of like the ones organized by the NAACP after a criminal was shot and killed in Ferguson.
Burn Waco down! Loot the stores! Make sure every Waco policeman who fired a weapon has to go through the grand jury process to see if they should be tried for murder and lose his/her job. Maybe organize some riots in other cities.
Don't forget to get our president involved. I'm sure he'll stand up for the outlaw bikers just like he has for Ferguson criminals, ISIS and radical Islam.
Just kidding, folks. Sounds stupid and uncivilized, doesn't it? But it happened in Ferguson.
Mike Henry Whitwell, Tenn.
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More money won't address education woes
Does throwing more money at public education produce better outcomes? Consider the facts about money and outcomes.
1) American spending on public K-12 education is at an all-time high and still rising. 2) Continuous spending increases have not corresponded with equal improvement in American educational performance. 3) Increasing federal funding on education has not been followed by similar gains in student achievement.
Yes, money produces essential resources. But what produces discipline, respect for authority, a solid moral conscience, competent teachers and supportive parents? Money can't buy these.
If it could, then we must ask why poor people and underfunded school districts a couple of generations ago achieved them -- and taught students to read to boot-- without armed guards.
We can and should buy needed resources. But that won't save an institution disintegrating in the moral and mental chaos of a culture based on opinions instead of universal truths of what's right and wrong.
If only more money were the answer. Having 50 years in education, I know it isn't. C.S. Lewis in "Mere Christianity" and "The Abolition of Man" explains and predicts this situation perfectly.
Bob Miller, Signal Mountain
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Don't lift gay ban on donations
I am against changes proposed by the FDA allowing homosexual men to donate blood. According to the FDA: If approved, the ban on blood donations would be lifted for those who have not had sex with another man in the prior 12 months.
How will this be verified? Will someone from the FDA accompany all homosexual men 24 hours a day, every day for 12 months to verify they do not have sexual contact with other men?
The possibility of involuntarily contracting an STD, any STD, due to a health-related emergency that requires a life-saving medical procedure is not acceptable under any circumstances -- period!
This is not homophobia, discrimination or bias on any level. This is pure common-sense logic applicable to any health-related issue.
Rick Moore, Cleveland, Tenn.
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Enough cyclists, hearing aid ads
Please explain the obsession with hearing aids and bicyclists in Chattanooga.
Every other add in print is for hearing aids. Every other story on air is talking about bicycle races.
Please dig a little deeper for stories relevant to the average citizen.
Tracy Norris
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Where is Saddam when we really need him? We used to claim the Soviet Union lived on the Big Lie, and reality pointed to the obvious truth.
Today, the main candidates running for president on the GOP side are telling the Big Lie about the Bush/Cheney pre-emptive war on Iraq. They are doing this when we know they went to war with Iraq based on a deliberate lie to the American people and the world.
Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are saying "no" to the Big Lie truth, while Scott Walker and Chris Christie are saying "yes," but "the CIA provided the lies," which we know is a lie.
Then they say, "Not having Saddam around is a good thing." Not so! He was secular, providing a buffer between Islam's warring parties.
Just look at Iraq today.
B.J. Paschal ,Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
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Wheel tax better than property tax
Much has been printed concerning a tax increase for property owners. My love and respect for Hamilton County and its offerings bring me to write this short letter.
Each and every county office operates with a budget, and those costs are rising steadily. I would like to see each office function to its best ability and have funds available whenever/wherever a need arises.
It came to my attention that a wheel tax is the most honest and long serving of all taxes. Everyone who owns a car would pay their fair share.
Take into account all the apartments in Hamilton County -- not one renter pays a tax to help support Hamilton County. It could be a small amount, but every car owner who travels these streets and has children in our schools would pay his or her way. It is not possible for property owners to fund all the needs as being proposed.
Please look at a wheel tax seriously -- let everyone pay. If they own a car, let everyone share this expense once a year.
Barbara Tapley
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Humane Society deserves support
I'm new to Chattanooga. One of the first things I noticed about this community is how welcoming places are to people with pets -- restaurants with open air patios that allow pets, shops with water bowls out for pets, even a special spay and neuter clinic that helps with costs!
Wonderful and welcoming. I love this city.
Even homeless pets have several organizations that the public trusts? to help take care of animals in need.
I just wanted to take a minute to ask you to research and then support the Humane Educational Society and its recent plea for more funding. Surely the benefits of having such a worthwhile organization merit its request for more financial assistance.
Thank you for all the animal and pet coverage you offer in the Times Free Press.
Mary Weber Marr