Atlanta-Dallas direct Amtrak train service makes sense
At a recent conference sponsored by the Southern Rail Commission, U.S. senators from Louisiana and Mississippi voiced their support for an Atlanta-Dallas Amtrak route. Georgia political leaders should join this effort. Atlanta is the nation’s eighth-biggest metropolitan area, and Dallas is the fourth-biggest. Establishing direct train service from here to Dallas would fill a clear gap in Amtrak’s national system.
JIM DEXTER, DECATUR
Streetcar extension not worth hassle to neighborhoods
The streetcar extension news story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Nov. 15) explains that MARTA has plans to extend the downtown streetcar to the Beltline, then to Ponce City Market through narrow residential streets.
Oh boy, another boondoggle to rip up residential streets, cause traffic, disturb the neighborhoods and tear away more history.
Who wants a noisy streetcar going down residential streets, having the neighborhood roads torn up, with noise, dust and continuing interruptions to life for who knows how long?
Even though MARTA has taken over the streetcar from the city, it still has been a loss leader. So, the question remains whether the streetcar plan will succeed because MARTA has plans to make it happen, even though the cost will be $176 million to $215 million. This money could be better spent on growing ridership outside the Perimeter for the influx of thousands of people moving to Atlanta.
SUSAN ROSMARIN, ATLANTA
Let national referendum decide abortion rights
This has been mentioned before but may be worth suggesting again: The Supreme Court has decided that the federal government has no legal jurisdiction over abortion.
But who said that state governments have it? The Tenth Amendment (of the “Bill of Rights”) in the U.S. Constitution speaks of reserving powers to the states or the people. So how about requiring a national or state-by-state referendum to decide the matter?
MIKE WEST, MARIETTA
This vote goes to candidate who will restore individual freedoms
To Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff candidates: I am a Libertarian, and my vote is up for grabs.
I will vote for the candidate who promises to restore freedom to the American individual. My demands are simple: I want free speech unimpeded by government coercion. I want unlimited access to purchase weapons of my choice. I want my privacy protected from unwarranted searches and surveillance of my property, as well as my online activity and bank transactions.
I want bodily autonomy for all medical decisions: treatments, vaccinations and reproductive choices.
I want a government that doesn’t interfere with commerce. I want the federal government out of my state and out of my life.
Which of you is willing to earn my vote?
CHRISTINE AUSTIN, JOHNS CREEK
Stop dividing electorate into factions
How completely insulting. The Nov. 15 opinion piece, “After election, let’s tighten ‘sisterhood,’” seems to say I should vote for Stacey Abrams because we are both women.
It’s hard to tell exactly what point the authors are trying to make because I struggle to make sense of all their words.
As an intelligent woman, I certainly give more thought to my vote than to cast it based solely on either race or gender, and I hope other women do, too.
If we continue to divide ourselves into factions and focus only on our differences, we are doomed as a free and functioning society.
JEAN HESS, MARIETTA
