UNEMPLOYMENT
GOP priority should be jobs, not defeat Obama
Regarding “African-Americans see gains reversed” (News, Sept. 23), the unemployment rate for black teens ages 16-19 in metro Atlanta was 56 percent last year.
It’s the latest confirmation that our economy continues to languish — and the non-response of Georgia’s GOP is to reduce government spending and regulations. Do these politicians really believe that President Obama’s jobs plan would worsen the economy? Wouldn’t it be better for the country if the GOP set aside tea party demands and worked with our president? Too often, Republicans have chosen politics over the best interests of the country. Are they really more interested in the political defeat of President Obama than they are for the well-being of the country? Are we going to remain silent while they repeat mistakes? Please call and write House and Senate members today.
Don McAdam, Sandy Springs
ECONOMY
No amount of money can fix fiscal ineptitude
Regarding “Get ready to hunker down for bad century” (Opinion, Sept. 23), what Thomas Friedman does not say is that it does not matter how much money flows into Washington from taxpayers. If more money is taken from the rich (or even the not-so-rich), Washington politicians will spend most of it on the preservation of their jobs.
If this government received 99 percent of income from all Americans, it would spend more than it received. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome. Citizens — the producers who pay taxes in this country — understand that $447 billion spent on a jobs program will not yield 447 paying jobs. President Obama has great expectations but sounds like a timeshare salesman pushing suckers for a sale. We are no longer insane. Nor are we suckers. This government needs less money, less spending, and to get out of the way of those who wish to produce and move into a growing economy.
Ken Sissel, Lilburn
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Come together and ban the death penalty
I formerly supported the death penalty. Recent events solidified my new opinion. It is time to demand an abolition of the death penalty because the system is too broken, too racist, too classist and too political to dole out death.
Let’s not get caught up in diatribes. Let’s focus that energy to effect change. The “best” thing about what happened concerning Troy Davis was that it happened in front of the world. There were millions opposed to what happened. This is not just a black issue. Let’s stop belittling it as such.
I ask the citizens of Georgia (and all other death penalty states) to make this a political issue — and vote accordingly.
James Hall, Woodstock
