Praise for writer’s mastery of words
Every Sunday morning I like to relax with the Sunday edition of the AJC. I get my coffee, move to my most inviting and well-worn comfortable corner chair, open the Opinion section and open my iPad to the Webster’s dictionary app. I’m going to read George Will’s weekly column, and as I do, I’ll marvel once again at my Lilliputian English vocabulary.
Words like “infelicitous,” “vicissitudes,” “vitiated” and “chimerical” assault my eyes, and my brain goes into overdrive as it tries to get in touch with my 50-year-old knowledge of Latin to help me define them. Does anyone besides Mr. Will use these words in their daily conversations? I think he delights in bringing these words to print, and I delight in defining them. Carry on, George! And by the way, his columns are always very insightful and well worth the read.
KATHY ENGELBERT, MARIETTA
Ga. loses without expanded Medicaid
Regarding “The emergency at Ga. rural hospitals” (News, Jan. 4), it is a crying shame our politicians will refuse to claim millions of our federal tax dollars (which are going to other states) while they let our local health care — economic engines of the local economy — wither on the vine, lose all the related jobs, and jeopardize the health care of hundreds of thousands of our citizens. By refusing to expand Medicaid, they win a contest with the Democratic black president, but we have already lost hundreds of millions of dollars other states have claimed. How long will we be penny wise and pound foolish?
TRUMAN MOORE, ATLANTA
Blame unions for protecting bad cops
It is an unfortunate fact of life that in every profession, from the clergy and teaching to business and law enforcement, there are always a few bad apples. It also unfortunate that so many, including powerful politicians and community organizers, have painted entire police departments with the same dirty broad brushstroke, citing institutionalized racism that in truth might apply to only a few offenders.
While many police officers and my pro-union friends will disagree with me, I believe powerful police unions are making it hard to fire the small number of rogue cops. It deeply saddens me that it is apparently far easier to vilify an entire group of fellow citizens — who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect us — as “racist” killers of young black men, than to closely examine the power of police unions and the high crime rate and poverty in predominately African-American towns and cities. I guess inflammatory rhetoric sells more soap and newspapers than holding union bosses and political leaders accountable.
FRANK MANFRE, GRAYSON
