‘Personal Journey’ relays two powerful messages
Helena Oliviero’s Feb. 14 Personal Journeys story, “The Fixer,” was beautifully written and had more than one message for its readers. It would be easy to get focused on the plight of our vulnerable seniors, which we need to be. I would ask Mayor Kasim Reed why he would allow this to happen in “his city.” There is no excuse; Leon Sims lived with bed bugs in his food and on his skin for years. Now that we are looking at social services in Atlanta more closely, it would appear that the plight of seniors will need to be part of that discussion. The other important message in this story is the extraordinary gifts our “shy, flying under the radar” children will accomplish one day. If you have a quiet child, please tell them it’s ok, support them and look forward to who they will become one day. Just look what attorney Jane Warring did when she grew up.
STEPHANIE RUBY, MONROE
Primary dates need change
Am I the only one who thinks that allowing states to set the date for primary voting at their own discretion does a disservice to all Americans? The states that vote first become disproportionately influential, leading candidates who don’t do well in just one or two states to drop their campaigns before the rest of us have a chance to weigh in; conversely conferring misleading momentum on other candidates.
A much fairer, and more representative, system would be for all primaries/caucuses to occur at the same time. If no clear winner emerges, there could be a runoff, or better still, voters could rank the candidates in order of preference. Alternatively, the nominee could be determined at the political convention. But at least all the candidates would have the same chance, without a handful of people reducing the field and deciding the course of the election.
TERRI SILVER, CUMMING
Dems have no room to complain
So Sen. Harry Reid thinks it’s a “shameful abdication of one of the Senate’s most essential constitutional responsibilities” if the Republicans don’t confirm Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for Justice Scalia’s seat. (“True Giant of American Law,” News, Feb. 14). Considering the fact that Reid changed Senate rules to confirm Obama nominees more easily when he was Senate Majority Leader, can anyone possibly believe that if this seat had been vacated at the same point in Bush’s presidency and Democrats ruled the Senate, that Reid and other Democrats would have been willing to proceed with confirming Bush’s appointment to the Supreme Court? No, I don’t believe it either.
JUDITH MCCARTHY, ATLANTA
Flint shows woes of bad policies
Sunday, Feb. 14, in the AJC’s Political Insider, Jim Galloway really hit home by stating, “The Flint disaster was caused by willful blindness to the lead that has leached into the bloodstreams of thousands of children and adults, documented by memos and emails.” This isn’t a failure of government but failure from an ideology, a culture of tax breaks for the 1 percent, tax loopholes for the corporations, and stagnated wages.
Even today, with our crumbling infrastructure, ancient power grid, and a nation’s water supply that travels through lead pipes, the candidates on the right are promising lower taxes for all, and the highest tax breaks for the 1 percent. We can’t afford tax breaks at a time like this. Let’s close the tax loopholes for corporations. When we raise wages, beginning with a $15 minimum wage, we also raise the tax revenue that workers pay.
DAVE FEDACK, LITHIA SPRINGS
