Readers write: Dec. 19
Kudos for light rail to Emory proposal
Having had the wonderful opportunity, as Atlanta’s mayor, to structure a successful formula to get MARTA service approved by the Georgia Legislature, I’m obviously extremely pleased with its most recent progressive endeavor: light-rail service into the Clifton Road Corridor. I could single out many members of its management and their programs, but I confess that Tuesday’s AJC editorial by MARTA’s Tameka Wimberly (“Clifton Road’s light rail plans,” Opinion) trumps almost all since my administration’s PA helicopter plea for support from those sitting in congestion on the interstates (some thinking the plea was directly from heaven).
Ms. Wimberly identifies several compelling reasons we should lend our full support to the benefits this service would reap. I just want to add emphasis to what should be the obvious: By connecting Buckhead to the CDC/Emory area, you share interchangeable buying power with brain power to provide a dream and reach a formerly unreachable star! I cannot fathom a more valuable umbilical cord. There would be no limit to the possibilities that would grow out of such an alignment.
SAM MASSELL, ATLANTA
With Cheney, your liberal bias shows
The “above the fold” article on Dick Cheney’s interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” by Scott Shane of the New York Times (“Cheney: I would do it again,” News, Dec. 15) was misplaced in your paper. Shane’s assertion in the last sentence of his article that Chaney was motivated by a long-held belief that past restrictions on the CIA were ill advised, and that he relished a chance to do something about it, constitutes an opinion by Shane. His article should be on the AJC’s Opinion page in the “From the Left” section. Just another example of the NY Times’ and, by extension, the AJC’s liberal bias.
TERRY SCOTT, BUFORD
Cheney’s attitude is costing us respect
Conservatives say it’s important to govern according to the ways laid down by our founders. In other words, past beliefs should influence current decisions. Dick Cheney denies that waterboarding is torture. After World War II, the United States and its allies held war crimes trials in Japan. Any Japanese soldier who was found to have waterboarded a prisoner of war was convicted. The Japanese felt the ends justified the means and felt the rapid and effective collection of intelligence was vital to a successful struggle.
When Cheney was asked about errors made by the CIA and innocent people being locked up, he said, “I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.” Which to me is just another fancy way of saying the ends justify the means. I believe that Cheney, and people like him, are rapidly causing the United States to lose the respect it once had.
TIM YODER, ATLANTA
