Observation finds few entitlements
Regarding the letter, “Reform taxes, entitlements” (Opinion, June 30), I have to wonder where the writer gets the impression “many lower-income households have a higher standard of living than many middle-income households.” That’s news to me. I belong to a club that likes to run trails in various parts of the Atlanta metro area. We’ve run in and around lower, middle and upper-income areas, and it’s quite obvious who enjoys the higher standards of living.
It’s definitely not the lower-income households. They look like they’re just existing, with whatever entitlements they might, or might not, be receiving. Not a standard of living I would care for. As for tax reform, I would have to disagree somewhat with the writer’s comment that the current system “discourages” making more money. Though I was taxed at a higher rate when I made more money in a given week or year, I still kept enough to make it worth my while. I never felt I was being discouraged from making more money.
DAVID LAMPP, SMYRNA
A history lesson, not a worthy legacy
I am a white male native Georgian who grew up in the era of segregation and Jim Crow and who was taught all about our “Southern heritage” as a child. Enslavement of our fellow human beings, brutality and treasonous rebellion are not things most of the world considers honorable and worth commemorating. Our history should be remembered the same way Germany remembers the Nazi era — as a lesson not to be forgotten. That anyone would take pride in such things is a sad commentary on our region.
PEPPER RICHARDSON, CONYERS
Imagine yourself in others’ shoes
A recent letter writer (“Tragedy used for liberal agenda,” Opinion, July 1) said President Abraham Lincoln, at a gala at the White House in 1865 when he learned General Lee had surrendered, purportedly asked the band to play “Dixie.” The writer proceeds to talk of “liberals” now making demands following the tragedy in Charleston and not being gracious, as Lincoln had been. I wonder if this same writer would have been gracious like Lincoln had the tables been turned with the deaths of white worshippers at the hand of an African-American gunman whose goal was to start a “race war.” Would he have shown empathy and written in support of African-Americans? Would he not have urged action to protect the victims, had the tables been turned?
ELLEN SLACK, DECATUR
