Eliminate reasons to seek abortions

Eliminate reasons to seek abortions

The abortion issue is back in the news and in your Tuesday editorial. It has never gone away since the Supreme Court (Roe v Wade, 1973) declared that a baby/embryo/fetus before birth is not a person with the fundamental right to life that we born people have.

This issue will never be solved just by arguments over personhood and who has the right to life.

Rather, it will take society truly working to eliminate the reasons why women seek abortions in the first place, whether they be poverty, abusive spouses, lack of access to quality education and health care, or many other issues.

To truly understand the abortion issue, it helps to consider just what is that baby or fetus that is inside the mother's womb. Once conception occurs, it is a complete and full member of the human race. What else could it be?

Given time, nutrition, and love, it will always grow from a helpless fertilized egg in a mother's womb to a newborn baby in a mother's arms. But then, given time, nutrition, and love, I was able to grow from a totally helpless baby in my mother's arms to the fully adult person I am now.

JOHN HUBBARD

Workers tossed like old negatives

A fixture in the community over 70 years is closing its doors. Not by choice of those who work there. When Lifetouch bought Olan Mills, we were told that we would be hired and they would return to "evaluate" the future. Before Jan 30, no one from Lifetouch evaluated anything. No one came to see what kind of people we were.

With businesses closing all over Chattanooga, one wonders exactly what opportunities we will even have. We are almost guaranteed to not find a job that we love doing as much as this one. And we are surely are not going to find anything that pays as well.

While Lifetouch and other American companies are closing doors here in Chattanooga, a German company is opening 200 more jobs. The math doesn't add up. 1,000 people (Food Lion, Ryan's, and Olan Mills combined) will be losing jobs while only 200 are newly available. What do the other 800 do?

Those who work for Olan Mills feel betrayed. We are lumped in with the "Redundancies" to be eliminated. We are not redundant. We are people who have been tossed aside like old negatives that could be used, but instead are discarded.

MARK L. COMPTON

Obama policies wrecking nation

A report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the unemployment rate is really 10 percent, not the 8.5 percent that Obama says. This still does not count those who have been unemployed for so long that they are not in this number (which would make the rate closer to 16 percent).

These are major numbers that show how bad the economy really is and why this economy is totally Obama's.

His policies have caused these numbers just like his refusal to allow a pipeline to be built that would create several thousand jobs quickly.

His policies have wasted billions on false green jobs.

It is his ObamaCare act that will cause Catholic and Baptist hospitals to either perform abortions or they will have the federal government withholding federal funds. Just imagine that a Christian group will have to take lives of babies or they could be forced out of business. This includes Memorial, so it is something very real for this area. This is all because of the people we have in control in Washington.

BRUCE CALDWELL

Signal Mountain

Obama just wants new pipeline route

Much has been written about the Keystone XL pipeline project and about how the Obama administration has killed it. This is just not true. The plan submitted for approval by TransCanada, the project manager, would bring this 36-inch pipeline directly over the Ogallala Aquafier, located mainly in central Nebraska and the water source for residential, industrial and agricultural use for many Midwestern states. The tar sands sludge this big pipeline would deliver is highly toxic, and a rupture would poison this underground lake, destroying lives and livelihoods all around. President Obama has simply asked for a new plan that would bypass the Nebraska sandhills to the east, as an existing TransCanada pipeline already does.

Here's the rub -- all states involved have to sign off on the portion affecting them, and Nebraska hasn't yet, citing citizens' fears about polluting their homeland. Can you imagine the Republicans' cry had President Obama told his State Department to sign off on this project ahead of Nebraska? "States rights trampled"! "Over-reaching federal government"! By the way, only 4,000-6,000 temporary jobs would be created, with the big money going to TransCanada, a non-U.S. company.

I enjoy and support Clay Bennett, Dalton Roberts, David Cook and Dr. Clif Cleaveland. You can have Steve Barrett and Bruce Tinsley.

ALLAN BAGGETT

Trion, Ga.

Food stamp account misleading

Your editorial "Politicizing food stamps," (Feb. 3) stated that the number of people on food stamps increased by 14.7 million under Bush and 14.2 million under Obama. What you fail to mention is that you are comparing three years to eight years. Your account is very misleading.

During the Bush years, people receiving food stamps went up 8 percent a year. These last three years under Obama, they went up 14 percent a year.

Had Obama had a realistic plan for economic recovery, he would have been able to accomplish it in his first two years in office when he had a majority of Democrats in Congress.

Nice try but he blew it, he knows it, and it i time to quit blaming Bush.

CAROL SZUGGAR

McDonald, Tenn.

Keep McClure for District 3

I support the re-election of Commissioner Mitch McClure for Hamilton County District 3.

The entire Hamilton County Commission represents us all, and having the most transparent, ethical and hardworking representative possible should be our goal.

Commissioner McClure has proven to me through his work with youth and civic action that he is committed to betterment of the community. His work on the gang violence initiatives and years of work with the Greater Chattanooga Coalition Against Community and Domestic Violence, and Partnership organizations simply speaks volumes to me.

Commissioner McClure is a very honest and straightforward person.

Let's keep Hamilton County Commissioner Mitch McClure representing District 3.

APRIL EIDSON

GOP works to cut holes in safety net

Mitt Romney says he's not concerned about the very poor, that there's a safety net to help them. Yet, the Republicans are working hard to cut funds to that net through reductions in Medicare, Social Security and welfare that directly affect those out of work and the working poor.

Newt Gingrich calls Obama "The Food Stamp President." He thinks children in inner-city schools should be janitors and the homeless and Occupy protesters "should get a job."

But now Gingrich is accusing Romney of promoting class warfare and recklessly neglecting the poor. I can't keep up with either of these guys. It is a good thing that there are only two sides of one's mouth that one can talk out of.

GREG WILLIAMS

Signal Mountain