Posted: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 8:01 pm

Animal hospital lauded for care
To the Editor:
The Ken-Tenn Humane Soci-ety wishes to express our gratitude and appreciation to Reelfoot Animal Hospital for the donated care they gave to the cats that were injured in the fire when the cat sanctuary was burned.
All three of the cats survived and are doing well. Thankfully, the man whose actions (allegedly) caused the fire is now in jail.
We lost several cats in the fire, but due to the kindness and expertise of Dr. Davis and the rest of the staff at Reelfoot Animal Hospital, three of the injured were saved.
Lois Birk
Ken-Tenn Humane Society
Fulton
Reader lauds
Caudle’s writing
To the Editor:
I do not know Glenda Caudle well, having only spoken to her a few times in a social setting or when I needed to add to “church news.” However, I have been reading her writings for years in The Messenger and have always marveled at her ability to get her ideas across in a very understandable writing and language syle. She challenges the reader to look beyond the superficial.
The editorial that she authored in Friday’s edition jolted me to express to you my feelings. That editorial rivals and exceeds many in national newspapers.
We, as a reading community, are fortunate to have access to her contributions through our local newspaper.
Marilyn Ross
Union City
Cap and trade
bill a disaster
To the Editor:
Cap and Trade will, in the words of our president, “cause energy costs to skyrocket.” This has been said to be the largest tax increase in world history. This energy tax may cost the average American household $3,000 or more annually.
To remove that much money from the pocket of the average American family and claiming that it will create jobs is nothing less than insanity.
The damage to our already hurting economy is incalculable. The exodus of American industry to Latin America and Asia will kick into turbo mode. This is not only disastrous to employment and to our economy, but the loss of our industry is a long-term threat to our national security as well.
But, have no fear, our president has assigned a Green Jobs Czar to help us. Now, don’t that give you a warm fuzzy feeling about the prospects of our future.
David Nance
Trenton
Barker goes
above, beyond
To the Editor:
After having read the recent articles in The Messenger about state Rep. Judy Barker, I thought I would add another story to the mix.
The first week in May, I e-mailed some questions, concerns and comments concerning I-69 to Representative Barker and Senator Herron. I thought I might receive an e-mail response or a form letter from their staffs. On May 22, a car pulled into the driveway we didn’t recognize, but this happens quite frequently as people get lost when the Highway 22 four-lane changes into Section Line Road. It was Representative Barker, who had come to visit us in response to the e-mail.
We were impressed because this was above and beyond what would be expected of her office. In the meantime, we had already reluctantly settled with the state as we knew it was going to take place anyway.
We chatted a bit and even discussed my comment about the “state cutting off its nose to spite its face.” An interchange with our road would be just a mile from four-lane Highway 22 which goes to Jackson, Memphis and Nashville. Instead, it will interchange with State Route 5, which goes to Hickman, Reelfoot Lake or back to Union City. Our road seemed the best interchange, but I had learned that state law dictates that an interstate always has to interchange with a state route, not a county road. The quarter acre they are taking from us doesn’t sound like much, but it is all of our frontage. Also, the actual interstate roadways are just 150 feet north of our property line. Yes, that’s feet. We are right on top of this thing. Anyway, my neighbor pulled into the driveway across the road, so she went to chat with him awhile. She had already presented me with a keepsake, a color-illustrated Tennessee Blue Book. That was really nice. This lady is a class act.
T.K. Smith
Union City
Health care plan
raises concerns
To the Editor:
On behalf of Agape House Pregnancy Care Center, I am extremely concerned about the implications of the current health care proposal on the work of our pregnancy center and on our nation.
Because the bill does not explicitly exclude abortion, it will be mandated in every health care plan at the expense of every American. If abortions are covered by a national health care plan, they will increase by 33 percent, according to the Guttmacher Institute. At a time when our nation is seeking to reduce abortion rates, this bill will significantly increase them.
Agape House reaches out with hope, compassion and free practical support to empower women facing a crisis pregnancy to make an informed decision. Our center has been in operation over 14 years and has provided help to over 1,000 women and families.
The bill also lacks any provision for the rights of conscience of pro-life healthcare professionals. Without a conscience clause, these healthcare professionals will be required to perform abortions and/or refer for them, regardless of their conscience. If this occurs, pro-life individuals will leave or simply not enter the field of medicine rather than have their rights of conscience stripped. This would leave pregnancy centers like ours unable to locate like-minded doctors and nurses to provide free ultrasounds, prenatal care or STD testing.
The current bill also threatens to trump many state pro-life laws that protect women and the unborn. If such laws, like 24-hour waiting periods, are superseded by an abortion mandate, that precious window of time that Agape House has to reach women with resources, information and support will be lost.
As stated, we anticipate that this bill would greatly increase abortions and, if this happens, we will experience a vast increase in the number of women and men who will need post-abortion support, which our center provides.
On behalf of the women and their families who have been helped by Agape House, we call on Congress to strongly and stringently oppose any health care bill unless language is adopted to explicitly exclude abortion.
Linda DeBoard
Executive Director
Agape House PCC
Martin
Transparency
not evident yet
To the Editor:
President Obama himself promised that all new bills would have a waiting period and be put on the Internet for a minimum of five days for all to see and understand before Congress would vote on them. Transparency was to be the byword of this administration and its Congress.
Instead, we have 1,000-page bills crammed down our throats without members of Congress seeing them, let alone reading them. “It’s not necessary to know the particulars of the bill — just the intention of it,” they tell us. Urgency is the byword of the day. Action must be taken right now or unemployment will go to 8 percent — remember that one? Trillions of dollars in accumulated debt have now been legislated — all in the name of good intentions — and we’re sitting on 9.7 percent unemployment. Kind of kills any faith in this administration’s ability to follow through on a promise or successfully solve a problem.
Now, after many Americans have gotten a chance to download the current 1,000-plus page health care bill and read some of it (a novel concept), they have decided that most of what is contained therein is more debt — lots of it — and a loss of many of our current freedoms. The CBO says $1 trillion in the first 10 years and $1 trillion, 5 billion in the 10 years after that. Required taxpayer funding of abortions — while not enunciated explicitly in the bill — and end-of-life counseling are addressed within the bill’s pages. Polls show Americans are vehemently opposed to these items, but neither Congress nor President Obama seem concerned with our grassroots indignation.
Politicians are coming home this month for a congressional recess. They’ve promised to hold town hall meetings so that citizens can discuss the health care bill. Many representatives have been met with raucous crowds full of people who have actually read the bill and don’t like its contents. At least these congressmen and women have attempted to show they want to know what their constituents think, though. We cannot say the same for our representative, John Tanner. I have contacted his office on more than one occasion asking for a town hall meeting. I’m advised by his staff that his schedule is full and there is no time for such a meeting. What is his schedule full of? They’re quick to reply: private, closed-door meetings, telephone conferences with no give-and-take or face-to-face time. What is wrong with Oman Arena in Jackson and the Union City Civic Auditorium and the many buildings available at UTM? Does Mr. Tanner really want credibility with his constituents or is he content to display disdain and apathy for what we think and want?
Mr. Tanner, I urge you to find some time for the rest of your constituents to express their concerns to you over the contents of this bill. You are our representative to this Congress. You have a moral duty to at least listen to the voices and see the faces that you purport to represent on Capitol Hill.
Why wouldn’t you want to know what we think and what we want with regard to this bill? Why won’t you give us a public forum to talk and ensure our freedoms are protected? Why must you insist on joining with the movement to pass a bill that you haven’t even read in its entirety? What is there to hide if this bill is as wonderful as the administration claims? What is so damning about us knowing the truth about a bill that affects us in almost every area of our lives but conveniently leaves you and the rest of Congress out of its clutches.
Herman C. DeBoard
Martin
Council leaves
criminals armed

To the Editor:
I am 61 years old and I have lived in Obion County and Union City all my life. I am a Marine Corps Purple Heart veteran of the Vietnam “conflict” and I know first-hand what fighting for someone else’s freedom is all about. I love to call this my home and when I am gone, this is where I want to rest my earthly remains.
I have seen a lot come and go in Union City and the surrounding area. How many of us can remember as children when we lived in a neighborhood where you could leave the windows up and the doors open all the time, night and day, and let your children out to play and never have to worry about any harm coming to them or you? I can. Even when I lived with my parents in the housing project on East Main in the early ’60s, we never had to lock the doors or worry about who was coming up the sidewalk to visit. Mother never had to worry about where we were playing for the whole project and surrounding area was “our playground.” Nor did any of the other mothers who lived out in the “village” have to worry. You could walk the streets of Union City any time day or night and never even have the slightest inkling of fear of being robbed or mugged by anyone, black or white. Mother would give us a quarter on Wednesday and all of us would go down to the Capitol Theatre and watch a double feature western or horror show for a dime and spend the other 15 cents on a candy bar and a drink. When it was all over, we would all go home the same way we got there — we would walk. We never feared anyone would harm us nor did our parents dare think it either.
Would any of you dare to walk on any dark street of Union City, or any other town or community for that matter, late at night, alone or with your children? I think not. I wouldn’t.
I attended the council meeting in Union City where, on the agenda, was an opt-out law to be voted on by the members to ban the carry of handguns in city parks by persons who have attended a state-mandated course, had background checks by the state and fingerprinted by the state to have the right (a right which has been and is still being paid for by the blood of our servicemen to remain a free people) to defend myself, my family and even you if need be from the people who are going to be there with guns anyway. These are “the criminals” who don’t care if you mandate that all guns are illegal everywhere. They will still get and carry a gun regardless, for they don’t give a hoot about your laws.
The Union City Police Department is a fine police force and they do all they can do to protect you from harm. But they can’t be everywhere at one time. After things happen, they investigate and make arrests to keep “that” individual from doing it again, only to have our courts allow their work to go wasted.
People, regardless of how you feel about guns and self defense, look where we have taken our society. We have enacted law after law that protects the criminal and lets him go with his ruthless ways, and we keep punishing the law-abiding citizens by taking away every right we have. Yes, I have a carry permit. Twenty years ago, I would have never given it a thought. But read your local paper every night and see how many drug arrests are being made right here in Union City, and this is only the ones who are getting caught. Can you imagine how many are out there that are not getting caught?
Your city council members did you a great injustice. They just put up signs in your city parks that just as well to read, “Please come here and rob these people for they have no way of stopping you. If you don’t see a police officer, help yourself.”
I used to go out to the walking track at Graham Park to walk at night with my wife to keep my diabetes under control. I won’t be back anymore. I had started to enjoy the Union City Greyhound ballgames but I won’t be back again. Why? Because there will be guns there. There have always been guns there. The only difference is now only the criminals will have the guns, for you will not ever pass any law that will ever keep him from it. I had rather be at a Greyhound ballgame with 100 law-abiding carry permit holders all armed than with just one criminal with a gun and everyone else forcefully disarmed by the very people who we elect to honor and respect our laws and constitution.
Wake up, citizens, all of this happened on our watch. We have taken God out of our schools, out of our government, His commandments out of our courthouses, taken away our right to defend ourselves, trampled our constitution and we are headed down hill as fast as we can fly. Let’s stop the insanity, stop protecting the criminal by giving him free run, give the rights back to the lawful citizens it belongs to. The only way to stop this is at the polls, get out and run for the council positions at election time and vote these people out of office. We can take back our government. At the opening of this letter, I stated that I knew firsthand about what fighting for someone else’s freedom is about; well, this time, it is your freedom and protection I am fighting for. It has already happened in Union City; please, do not let it happen in the other areas of our county.
David F. Worley
Union City
Published in The Messenger 8.12.09