Letter-writer wrong on health care, responsibility
The letter-writer (“Health care not a right,” Readers Write, March 20), has written about his belief that health care is not a right, but the responsibility of the individual. He says that bad life decisions affect poverty and are not the responsibility of other taxpayers. Among those bad decisions he mentions are “lack of education and training.” I wonder how he expects a 5-year-old to be sure that he is getting a proper education. Personally, I have never met a child who himself can ensure that the school he attends and the teachers he has will give him a good start in life.
SANDY TIEKEN, ROSWELL
Illegal immigration column on point
Parthiv N. Parekh’s guest column (“How illegal immigration really came to be,” Opinion, March 25), is spot-on in articulating Americans’ complicity in illegal immigration. Cheap labor for building houses, picking crops, and washing dishes was not something we got upset about. It’s a bit like driving in Atlanta. It’s illegal to speed or run a red light, but maintaining law and order seems to matter less when we think it’s to our advantage.
NEVA CORBIN, DECATUR
Human embryo cells are not disposable
The only significant difference between a newly formed fetus and a 55-year-old is a few years and a few meals (“New form of stem-cell engineering raises ethical questions,” News, March 26). Just because human cells are small and at the very beginning of the human life cycle does not mean that they are disposable, or that they are not human life. What else could the offspring be between a human sperm and a human egg? Destroying human embryos because we are not “sure” if they are human life is like a hunter in the woods shooting at a bush when he wasn’t sure if it was a deer or a human: he is morally obliged not to shoot because the risk is so great. Humans of all sizes should be protected, and the practice of destroying any human life at any stage of development is an intrinsically evil act for which there can never be a justification.
JOSEPH KERNAN, ALPHARETTA
Delta boarding process won’t help much
I couldn’t contain my laughter at (“Delta hopes to make boarding bearable,” Business, March 26). They want to line up passengers into four parallel lanes to increase the boarding efficiency by a whopping 60 seconds. Eureka! Eureka! Eureka!
Am I to believe that the Delta management personnel do not know the root cause for boarding delays?
The real cause is simply this: Delta personnel do not strictly enforce the rules for carry-on baggage. In most of the flights I have taken with Delta Air Lines, I have always found a number of people are allowed to enter the aisle passage with huge bags as if they are carrying their entire wardrobe. And more often than not, they could not lift their bags to safely load them into the overhead bin. They block the passage, and wait for some chivalrous passenger or a frustrated (but still smiling) stewardess to help.
Make the carry-on baggage rules stick. If a bag is out of proportion by weight and size, check the bag and charge the passenger. Then, I bet the boarding time would reduce by a few minutes, not by 30 to 60 seconds as surmised.
Aping the Southwest Airlines methods might get a good commercial spot on TV for Southwest, but it does not help make the boarding process of Delta any smoother.
Of course, the CEO and the elite managers of Delta never travel on commercial flights as regular passengers to really understand the problem.
VENKATESWARA RAO VELURI, DULUTH
Where is Cobb discount at Braves games?
I just read an article outlining the Braves’ new two-tier food and beverage pricing. I was so happy to see that season ticket holders received a discount; that is a nice way to reward loyalty. However, I was wondering where Cobb County residents’ discount was? I was thinking since we were kind enough to foot the bill for the stadium and endure traffic congestion, whether we wanted to or not, perhaps we could get preferred pricing as well?
Just a thought from the lowly taxpayers who might not be able to afford to go to the house that we helped build for the Braves. While outfield section tickets might be reasonable, parking is not, food and beverage as always is ridiculously priced.
SUSAN SUN, VININGS
About the Author
