Hiking tobacco tax would help
To anyone annoyed by the new 27-cent per gallon gas tax here in Georgia: Please remember you live in the state that is the home of the Centers for Disease Control and the American Cancer Society, where our tobacco tax is $1 below the national average. But our legislature couldn’t see its way clear to bring us in line with the rest of the country in trying to deter smoking. A tobacco tax would only affect those who chose to put their health at risk. They would rather make driving to work harder for the lower classes who are just trying to make ends meet.
MARCIA SMITH, POWDER SPRINGS
Time for GOP to lay off ACA
The GOP has tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 50 times, wasting time and money in Congress that could have been better spent on more pressing matters. Now it has found a technicality to challenge the law in court. If it succeeds, more than 7 million people will lose subsidies to help cover their health insurance. But such a move could act against GOP interests and Republicans are struggling to come up with a fix if the Supreme Court rules with them (“Health law now divides GOP,” News, May 4). How ironic. After all this time denigrating the ACA, they now face the prospect of trying to save part of it. Why not just withdraw the court case and admit that this law is helping people across the country?
TOM MCMANUS, ROSWELL
More racial understanding needed
I read and reread Andre Jackson’s heartfelt essay about our obsession with skin color. His well-deserved angst is shared by most discerning people even though the media would have us believe otherwise: Their constant portrayal of upheaval has a negative effect on citizens who are easily persuaded that all members of a particular race are against harmony. But when we are reminded daily that our police force is brutal and that innocents are unduly punished, a mindset creeps into to our consciousness that our civil society is on the wane. Rogue cops are nothing new and looters are nothing new, but I have to believe they represent only a small slice of our society. And I have to believe that our children will gain footage on the unfair disadvantage offered them by uncaring parents; those children become our rogue cops and participants in unlawful behavior. I do agree with Mr. Jackson that a long, tough slog is in store for all of us who don’t do our dead-level best to promote fairness and understanding among all races and hues in order to reach a better place.
JACK FRANKLIN, CONYERS
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