MEDICAID
Georgia should take
fed money for now
Thank you for your thoughtful editorial (“Control carries a cost,” Opinion, May 11). It is very sad that our governor and his Republican enablers in the Legislature are willing to play politics with the lives of 500,000 Georgians. Isn’t the governor being disingenuous saying we can’t afford it? I thought the federal government picked up all the tab the first year, gradually decreasing its contribution. The governor says we can’t depend on Washington to keep its promise. Well, if that ever happens, then will be the time for Georgia to back out. Which would put us back where we are now.
GENE GRIESSMAN, SANDY SPRINGS
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Muslims should
have spoken out
As a Muslim-born woman, I am not sure where to direct my anger. The fanatical Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram has kidnapped 276 Nigerian schoolgirls for the sin of earning an education. This is my religion, my people? Since many of the schoolgirls are Muslim, the Muslim world is now reacting. The Chicago the Council of Islamic Organizations (CIO) held a press conference decrying the horror. But where has CIO been the past 10 years when Boko Haram was mostly killing scores of Christians in Nigeria? Only now that Muslim children are threatened do my fellow Muslims forcefully react. We must clean our own house.
BADIAH ALI, ATLANTA
Bad taste to make
light of abductions
Could the May 9 “From the Right” cartoon be in worse taste? The kidnapping of nearly 300 children and the threat to sell them into slavery by terrorists doesn’t lend itself well to a light-hearted quip about highway alert messages. If I were a cartoonist, I hope I would illustrate the gravity of an issue like this. If you must try to be funny, pick another subject.
ED JACOBSON, DECATUR
EDUCATION
Slipping standards
let U.S. fall behind
Maureen Downey quotes a 9th grade physical science teacher (“Help or hindrance?” Monday, May 12) as being faced with teaching students in her class who “are reading and doing math at a kindergarten to second-grade level.” What an abysmal indictment of our educational system that we promote 14-year old students to the 9th grade who have failed to learn such basic skills. How will they survive in society when they are socially promoted through the 12th grade and handed a high school diploma?
Teachers, principals and administrators should hang their heads in shame. Parents who insist their child be promoted so their feelings and self-esteem are not hurt should hang their heads in shame. No wonder the U.S. has fallen behind other countries in education and we have to hire “smart” foreign engineers, doctors, nurses and other professionals.
P.D. GOSSAGE, JOHNS CREEK
