Our readers write

Faith restored
by Christian act

To The Editor:
At a time when the news is filled with hatred and acts of violence, it was certainly faith-restoring to have a group of church members involved with Mission Building 2012 in my front yard to rebuild my front porch.
Taking my front porch from unsafe to strong and sturdy is a perfect example of what Christian love can do.
Thank you to each and everyone who came out to help me.
Donna Coffman
Union City
Red light cameras
should be banned
To The Editor:
It is my opinion that the State of Tennessee should ban the use of red-light and speed-traffic enforcement cameras.
These devices are owned and operated by private companies for profit. The companies have lobbyists that mislead the facts to city officials concerning safety statistics and  promote the so-called need for their equipment.
There has been much debate nationwide with protests and banning the cameras because most motorists believe they are for revenue rather than safety. Motorists also believe they are unsafe, unconstitutional and unnecessary.
It is common that the yellow light duration timing is shortened by private contracted traffic engineers near red light camera intersections, to three seconds, which is the bare minimum in Tennessee.
A safer yellow light timing of four to five seconds have proven to be much safer, which gives a driver adequate time to decide to completely stop safely or continue through an intersection safely. This is called an improved dilemma zone. When the light turns red, the red light on the other side is holding traffic. This timing is called a two-red clearance by traffic engineers.
I feel it is safe to continue on yellow like it has for many years. I believe the public was not notified of the yellow light timing changes which is a trick, in my opinion, to cause motorists to run red lights and get a citation for running a red light. Could that be a scam? Perhaps highway robbery would be a better phrase or a public nuisance which makes driving treacherous.
Yellow lights with too short timing is unsafe and could cause a rear-end collision. I have had to literally stand up on my brakes to get stopped in time, doing 35 mph, to avoid getting a citation from a red light camera on Reelfoot Avenue in Union City.
A driver nearly has to stop at a yellow light. I believe good drivers are receiving citations for red light running in breath-taking numbers. I believe the police departments should not do the dirty work for the private camera companies to mail civil traffic citations using the U.S. postal service. I thought the police handled criminal matters. Why privatize and still do work for the camera companies. I never thought a red-light violation would become a civil matter. It may even promote red-light running since a citation, similar to a parking ticket, is only $50, unless a policeman issues the citation.
This is confusing to a lot of citizens and causes legal issues and civil liberty questions.
This is America, not Australia. I wonder who wanted the cameras in Union City and other towns in our area. There is no end to the problems the red-light camera program causes.
I urge the citizens in our area to protest by contacting your legislators and our governor to ban the cameras if we truly want safety.
Larry Jones
South Fulton

If you ignore past,
sure to re-live it
To The Editor:
Today, on the news, I saw something I never thought would ever happen in this nation. The Democrats in Florida had a flag raised over their headquarters that was the American flag with a huge image of Barack Obama in the place of the stars.
As a USMC Purple Heart veteran of the Vietnam conflict, this act of desecration of our national emblem enraged me. I fought for and almost died for this flag and the great nation it represents. And for some who want to be dictator to paste his likeness on the banner that thousands upon thousands of veterans, both dead and alive, have fought for, is a total slap in the face to us.
This is the sign of a want-to-be dictator, having his likeness on posters, buildings, town squares and other places.
They think they are gods to the people they have overcame and any and all rule is by them. It has happened before in the world with people like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Quadifi, Hussain, and others. They ruled with iron fists and killed thousands to gain their power. In the end, they all died by soldiers of God.
To the young people of this nation — do you ever think to realize where your freedoms came from? Do you ever think what it would be like to live under a dictatorship where all of your freedoms came from? Do you ever think what it would be like to live under a dictatorship where all of your freedoms are gone? Your freedoms came from some soldier shedding his blood and dying on some foreign battlefield. Do this for me some day, walk through some cemetery, any cemetery, and look at all the veteran markers in it and stop and think about that person and what he gave for you and think about his life and family, then, just say, thank you for the freedom you gave me.
We are living in troubled times and we have a leader who shows in all ways the sign of a dictator, a god to the people, a false god whom you need to recognize and learn to reject.
Young people, go to your history books, learn the past, for if you ignore the past you are sure to re-live it.
David Worley
Union City
Published in The Messenger 5.10.12

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