Tired of airline pilot complaints about working too much
I am irritated at airline pilots saying they are “tired and overworked” because of the pilot shortage, and thus, those still employed claim the airline (Delta Air Lines included) are requiring them to work extra hours.
The federal government (FAA) strictly controls flight hours, just like other government agencies control the hours that truck drivers or railroad engineers can work.
If pilots are claiming they are “overworked” now, the only explanation is that they were underworked and had it easy in the past!
RICHARD GABRIEL, MARIETTA
Government spending isn’t solution for all problems
The phrase “whole of government approach” is an idea first favored in socialist Europe and now in vogue in DC.
Our Constitution is built on individual rights and limited government, with defined limits to government and separation of powers between the state, local and federal levels. A claim that it takes a “whole of government approach” to solve a particular issue usually means advocating an approach that increases government power at the cost of liberty and a problem that is probably beyond the limits for government action.
Advocates of this approach believe that government is the solution and that all problems can be solved by spending government funds. This has been the approach for at least seven decades, and yet nothing seems to have improved - education, poverty and health care have all received trillions, yet the problems stubbornly remain with us.
It’s time to try another way -- not go deeper into the mire.
GARY O’NEILL, MARIETTA
Trump persisted in his lies, putting democracy in danger
Recent hearings of the Jan. 6 committee revealed that aides told former President Trump that he had lost the election, but he persisted in his lies that the election had been stolen.
Lawyers told him the plan to have the vice president interfere with the electoral count was illegal, but he went ahead with it. Judge Luttig warned our democracy would continue to be in danger if these false narratives were maintained.
The judge emphasized that only the former president’s supporters could correct this situation. They will not listen to the Democrats or independents, so it is up to the GOP collectively and individually to decide.
The words of a poem by James Russell Lowell, later incorporated into a hymn, come to mind:
“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.”
JOHN TITUS, PEACHTREE CORNERS
Great debt owed to election officials who withstood attacks in 2020
Georgia’s runoff election was the same day as one of the Jan. 6 committee hearings. As I walked into our polling place, moments after watching the hearings, I felt what a sacred place our voting booth is.
While some may say former Vice President Pence was just “doing his job,” certifying the election, as was Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, as were the vote counters at State Farm Arena who testified, we now understand they were threatened.
Yet, they and others held their ground in the midst of attack and berating. Had they not, I don’t want to imagine what chaos in the streets might have resulted.
In my mind, they did more for America than I did in the U.S. Marines, and in my mind, they are “honorary Marines.” America owes all who made our democracy work a great debt.
DANIEL F. KIRK, KENNESAW
