Letters to the Editors

Each Sunday, this page is set aside for our readers. Write or email us about issues that concern you.

Climate deniers boggle the mind

It never ceases to amaze me how all the deniers of human-caused climate change are not at least skeptical about it but instead declare emphatically, unequivocally it is not happening. They declare with equal conviction that every one of the climate scientists and the science academies throughout the world that have endorsed their peer-reviewed research are involved in a massive “liberal conspiracy.”

One need not be a Ph.D. scientist, just a person of reasonable intelligence and curiosity, to imagine that just maybe those zillions of tons of fossil-fuel pollutants we have dumped into the atmosphere over the last 200 years have had a deleterious effect on the climate and our planet. How anyone can think we can continue to belch noxious, heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere — 7 billion of us, no less! — with complete impunity just boggles the mind. Yet, the unquestioning, intractable deniers do not even consider the possibility.

Instead of taking the necessary action to prevent a likely dystopian nightmare of global proportions very near at hand, we are frittering precious time away, butting heads with deniers over something that science actually settled a long time ago.

Rick Armstrong

Monteagle

Did TFP columnist forget 2016 primary?

Columnist Jay Greeson takes his entire column on Tuesday to deride the number of Democrats (11) who have announced their candidacy for president.

I think we all remember the (17) GOP candidates who jockeyed around during the 2016 primary: John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Jim Gilmore, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, Lindsay Graham, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Rick Perry and Donald Trump.

Now, unlike Jay, I won’t demean or name call those 17 candidates who were simply doing their patriotic duty.

Diane Marrs

Christians allow for flawed heroes

Paul voted for Nero (“I appeal to Caesar,” Acts 25), so voting for Trump doesn’t make Trump a “dear leader” (Michael Loftin’s Feb 6 Chattanooga Times column), only a lesser evil. Not “allegiance,” not “surrendered,” not “marriage,” only a choice.

The Bible has heroes and admits their sins, so Christians allow for flawed heroes. What can holy Jehovah say to imperfect sinners but “repent”? The whole Bible shows him saying “repent.” Churches should preach “repent.”

The trouble with Christian politics, and any, is pride. Politicians think highly of themselves. They think themselves qualified to run our lives; self-righteous bullies, choosing our light bulbs and insurance policies and bakery customers for us.

Messiah Jesus, president of presidents, gently requires the libertarian opposite. He replaces the bogus generosity of giving other people’s money with the true gift of his own life. For liberty, not bureaucracy, he came to set us free to serve one another in love (Galatians 5), in line with Exodus and Judges and I Samuel 8. He lived free, died freely and rose up alive as the ultimate guarantee of real justice.

Who’s closer to Jesus: proud socialist bullies, or sinner-in-chief Trump?

Andrew Lohr

Removing all our rampant socialism

Like many, including President Trump, I have grown fearful of socialism in America and think we need to advance a program of action. Many facets of our lives must be removed.

Let’s start with the post office and public schools (Land Ordinance of 1785) begun by prominent socialists Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, respectively. In addition, let’s stop highway rest areas,

public sewer services, public water services and fire departments. After extinguishing public subways, roads and highways (including the interstate highway system pushed by the well-known socialist Dwight D. Eisenhower), let’s attack museums, libraries, public parks and zoos. Even though Tennessee politicians support the Tennessee Valley Authority, its existence must also be expunged.

Continuing on our march to a laissez-faire wonderland, let’s prevent government inspections of meat and other foodstuffs (already happening), air and water quality (already happening) and various medications. We could sign pledge cards promising not to visit Arlington National Cemetery, along with the World War II and the Vietnam memorials.

Lastly, let’s hold a rally in downtown Chattanooga, yell bits of nonsense and platitudes about tyranny, and wrap it up by publicly burning our Medicare cards and swearing off Social Security.

Michael V. Woodward, Ph.D.

Hixson

State legislators, please look at UT

My granddaughter, a senior at UT Knoxville, recently told her early morning professor she felt ill and was advised to go to the health center on campus. She was informed that they could see her 10 days hence. So she left campus to travel to a CVS pharmacy, where the doctor on duty informed her she had the flu and to go to her dorm and go to bed. This makes me realize that our students at UT have no access to meaningful medical care. The health department exists so they can tell worried parents that health care is available on-campus.

That is much like their sale of parking permits to students, which doesn’t guarantee them a parking place, but should they be able to find one, guarantees they won’t be towed.

Have your students bought groceries on campus or gasoline? They pay exorbitant prices compared to venues just down the road from campus. I am ashamed of how our flagship university gouges those students they ostensibly are there to serve. Can our state legislators not provide any protection to our children at the Knoxville and other state campuses?

Ronald Cumbie Kudos to TFP for dropping cartoon

Bravo to this wonderful newspaper for discontinuing the comic strip “Non Sequitur” after the cartoonist snuck in an “f-bomb” directed at President Trump. Too bad we can’t remove the upcoming production of “Book of Mormon” as well. In that production all the “f-bombs” are directed at God. Like “Non Sequitur,” it’s supposed to be funny — but instead is filthy. Churchgoers beware.

The Rev. Betty Latham

Do not deny human exceptionalism

Have you ever considered how different humanity is from the rest of animal life on Earth? Human characteristics which do not exist in any other species include creativity, building on the knowledge gained in previous generations, using language to transmit ideas, caring about other species, caring about fellow humans in other parts of the world, etc.

Some claim that teaching sign language to a chimpanzee proves there is little difference between chimpanzees and humans. Not so. Only if that chimpanzee independently teaches other chimpanzees sign language can a claim be made that chimpanzee intelligence approaches human intelligence.

Humankind is not just another rung on the supposed evolutionary ladder —we are on a ladder all our own.

Who is denying this human exceptionalism? New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by signing legislation to expand abortions into the third trimester, and those who endorse this action. This just illustrates another human distinctive — the capacity for evil.

Dennis Urbaniak

Signal Mountain