TRANSIT
Privatize MARTA?
Look at Park Atlanta
If you want proof that privatizing MARTA would be a bad idea, just look at Park Atlanta.
Some benighted fool decided to outsource Atlanta’s parking. How’d that work out? We got an unresponsive, uncaring bureaucracy empowered to boss Atlanta citizens and visitors around as they seek to maximize their profits with minimal service. The result has been that people are hesitant to venture out in Atlanta because of the price of parking and the overhanging fear of getting fined or booted.
Privatizing MARTA would have similar bad results: Fares would rise, and service would drop and become less pleasant. This will drop ridership, and the city would again be held accountable to make up the promised “revenue stream” to a corporation. Outsourcing public services is pimping out the populace for profit.
PATRICK EDMONDSON, ATLANTA
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Voters shouldn’t face
propaganda on ballots
Georgia voters should not have to read propaganda written on a ballot to encourage a selection for or against any issue.
We are perfectly capable of applying our judgment (or prejudice) to make decisions. Politicians have used leading and misleading words for the introduction of and question on proposed Amendment One regarding charter schools. We need public servants in our government – not operatives who promote an agenda using tactics like deceptive ballot language.
TONY GARDNER, CUMMING
AUTO BAILOUT
Obama took big risk
saving industry, jobs
Apparently, the letter writer criticizing President Obama’s taking credit for the auto bailout (“Obama’s taking credit that’s not his to take,” Readers write, Opinion, Oct. 29) has his head stuck in the Republican muck.
Let me set him straight. President Obama, at great political risk and in the face of loud criticism from Republicans, made the critical decision to protect automakers from insolvency. In doing so, he saved the jobs of countless auto workers, down-line suppliers to the auto industry, and thousands of other jobs and small businesses patronized by auto workers and their families. The American auto industry is now thriving because President Obama made a decision that was right for the industry, right for workers, and right for the economy.
ANDREA JANTEL, ATLANTA
BENGHAZI ATTACK
Voters should deliver
verdict on bungling
All Americans (Democrats, Republicans and independents) should be dismayed by our government’s inability to be prepared for, or to respond to, the attack in Benghazi.
The blame for this must fall upon our civilian leadership, which demonstrated extreme timidity and overly cautious reluctance to take any action. It was that civilian leadership which placed our personnel in this dangerous situation, and it was the responsibility of that same leadership to come to their aid. That they did not do so was an affront to all Americans, and even more significant, it transmitted a weakness which will haunt us as long as that leadership remains in office. It may be that President Obama was not aware of those pleas for help. If this is true, he is even more complicit for not having a structure which would ensure his knowledge.
Excuses and promises to bring an elusive “someone” to justice cannot absolve that leadership of its responsibility. This is not the type of accountability that Americans demand from their leadership, and it is precisely this kind of leadership which should be removed from office on Election Day.
WILLIAM O. MILLER, ATLANTA
