TRANSPORTATION
Let private companies solve public problems
Regarding toll roads, traffic jams and tax increases: Why can’t we have better public transportation into Atlanta and from all the suburbs? In all the major cities (including many large cities in the U.S.), one can take trams, trains or buses all over town. Perhaps people need to be weaned of their own car to drive just for a couple of blocks. Does every person need their own car? Maybe yes, since they don’t want to wait for someone to transport them. Carpooling is very “uncool.”
A few years ago, we drove to the airport in the HOV lane to pick up our daughter, while four lanes of stop-and-go cars with a single driver in them were crawling behind us. If the Department of Transportation cannot handle a proper public transportation grid, how about private companies?
Josephine Maloney, Sandy Springs
POLITICS
Bully Democrats about to get comeuppance
Regarding the Democrats: Is delusional behavior contagious? Is denying reality genetic, or is it just a case of bullies realizing that they’re about to face someone who’s really angry, and who’s bigger, stronger and faster than they are — and they know the exact day when they’re going to be beaten?
George Mitchell, Blairsville
ECONOMY
Middle class is shrinking because it’s moving up
Dean Poirier states that the rich are getting richer on the backs of the middle class, and that no one cares about this shrinking group (“Middle class is dying, yet media seem not to care,” “Readers write,” Opinion, Aug. 30). If he’d do his research, he’d find that the reason this group is shrinking is because they’re moving up, not down. They “disappeared” into the “rich” themselves.
By the way, people in the most fabulous neighborhoods aren’t sliding through this recession unscathed. They’re losing their jobs, their houses, and their lifestyles, just like everyone else.
Laura Kent, Loganville
RELIGION
Peace should grow from World Trade Center site
It was called the World Trade Center, not the U.S. Trade Center. People from every nation worked and died there together. Thousands in Iraq, Afghanistan and our soldiers and others died, and are dying because of that attack by a few. Let’s now join Imam Rauf and others, and learn to live our own best religious beliefs to make peace, even near the former World Trade Center.
Susanne Dabney, Atlanta
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Raise voices for justice: Troy Davis is innocent
At a rally in 2009, I listened to the voice of Troy Davis via his sister’s phone, as he repeated from behind prison walls that he is innocent. Following Judge William Moore Jr.’s recent ruling, Davis is now nearer to being unjustifiably executed.
As a Georgian, I find it unacceptable that this state would imprison and execute an innocent man. I join the calls of national and international leaders urging citizens and lawmakers to raise their voices to work for what is just — for Troy Davis, who deserves to be free.
Samantha Herndon, Roswell
