State desperate to avoid responsibility with GM site
In separate articles, Mark Niesse reported on the desperate measures the state is now taking to coerce the DeKalb schools to pay for economic development (“Cut to DeKalb School System Proposed” and “Pressure grows to redevelop GM site”). The first related to “stick, no carrot” by threatening to reduce school funding by, conservatively, $60 million a year. Nice optics after DeKalb got accredited again. In the second instance, the state’s economic development chief Chris Carr had made an unusual visit to shame the DeKalb County commissioners for not getting the school system to pay “its share” (58 percent) of the Doraville tax allocation district. The state has to do these things because it apparently doesn’t consider Doraville worthy of its own funding, in public anyway. So either way, the cost of attracting a speculative 2,000 employees lands on the backs of schoolchildren and teachers. What a sales pitch by state officials: pick your poison Dr. Green, come across or we’ll get you one way or another.
TOM DOOLITTLE, ATLANTA
Green deserves praise for GM opposition
Kudos to DeKalb Schools Superintendent Steve Green for opposing the use of tax dollars to fund the redevelopment of the Doraville GM plant. Let’s hope the school board has the sense to back him. There is seemingly no end to our elected officials’ willingness to funnel tax dollars away from schools, roads, parks, police, etc. into corporate welfare projects that have a terrible track record of delivering the benefits promised. If State Economic Development Chief Chris Carr is correct about it being a great site, then surely it can be developed without taking money away from the schools.
BRAD BEEBE, ROSWELL
President is ignorant about Islam
Do you approve of honor killings? How about the stoning to death of women accused of adultery? Should young girls be subjected to genital mutilation because the ‘prophet’ required it? Should a man who changes his religion be killed, and was the ordered execution of 700-800 Jewish captives by Muslim forces under the prophet justified? Are women intellectually and spiritually inferior to men, as stated by the prophet, and do they comprise the majority of hell’s residents? Are we unbelievers condemned to spend eternity there?
Our president is either incredibly naive or inexcusably ignorant when he condemns those of us who detest virtually every tenet of the barbaric faith called Islam. His attempt at what he must consider magnanimity looks more and more like sheer ignorance.
The millions of us who have made the effort to inform ourselves about this religion and its violent history know all too well that those who believe the Koran to be the perfect, immutable word of God are uniquely unqualified to live among us.
RON SLADE SR., COVINGTON
Zika more evidence for climate change
The growing emergency of the Zika virus, which has been linked to a debilitating birth defect, is one more symptom of a sick climate. As the planet warms, the range of the mosquitoes that carry this virus increases, becoming a threat in places where diseases like this never existed. Unless we limit the risks of climate change by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, we will see more of this in our future. Fortunately, the chances that our nation will take effective action on climate change increased dramatically recently with the creation of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the House of Representatives. Led by Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), this new caucus will finally bring both Republicans and Democrats to the table to develop national policies aimed at preserving a livable world for future generations.
STEVE VALK, ATLANTA
