ROADSIDE SIGNS
Too many billboards clutter natural beauty
I’m a capitalist. I believe in the free market, the First Amendment and in advertising, and am not an “environmental activist” by any means. However, I agree with Mary Lovings’ essay opposing billboards along our highways (“Billboards a blight, no longer needed,” Opinion, Sept. 27).
To drive on a highway without billboards is to drive without distraction and be able to enjoy the natural scenery. The contrast between states with billboard advertising and those without is marked. Surely, the outdoor advertising industry can devise roadside signs that are less gaudy and distracting to get an advertiser’s messages out. These should be limited, however, and confined to an area within a mile or so of an exit.
EDWARD A. WATKINS, LILBURN
PARTISANSHIP
Government shutdown reflects poorly on us
Concerning the government shutdown: What irony. The greatest nation on earth is now the greatest embarrassment on earth.
KEVIN LEDFORD, ATLANTA
Thank our founders for checks, balances
I take great umbrage with Thomas Friedman’s recent op-ed (“Partisan divide puts our nation’s greatness at risk,” Opinion, Sept. 27.)
Our founders conceived three branches of government for a reason: so that there would be checks and balances within our government. Not one of these branches was granted the absolute power to pass a bill that would inflict damage to our country. When any one of these resorts to the “my way or the highway” approach, it can be overruled by another. I further disagree with the depiction of the tea party. The tea party groups espouse fiscal responsibility and limited government. Is that radical?
With our economy barely moving, and our national debt soaring to heights unknown, it is the ingenious “checks and balances” of our Founding Fathers that not only make this country great, but exceptional.
ELAINE LUIZ, NEWNAN
COMMENTARY
Cartoonist highlights tea party, GOP links
Mike Luckovich’s cartoon, “Thelma & Louise” (Opinion, Sept. 25) was priceless.
The image of Ted Cruz driving a car off a cliff with a terrified GOP elephant in the back seat says it all. Only tea party diehards enjoyed Ted Cruz’s long-winded speech about defunding Obamacare. I watched a few sound bites of the speech, and I thought it was pure psycho-babble.
I may not understand all of the details of Obamacare, but what I do know is that 30 million to 40 million Americans have no health insurance. In a country as rich as the United States, those folks deserve a shot at health coverage.
WILLIAM MCKEE JR., FLOWERY BRANCH
LEISURE
S.E. travel section worthwhile feature
Thank you very much for the informative and thorough Southeast travel section you published on Sept. 22 (“The best of the Southeast,” Travel).
This was another worthwhile addition to your outstanding newspaper.
DON RUSHING, ATLANTA
