READERS WRITE: DEC. 16

Sick of Luckovich degrading President Trump

I loved the poignant political cartoon by Mike Luckovich, showing former president George H.W. Bush meeting Barbara and their three-year-old daughter who died. I couldn’t help but think that Luckovich must be really sad. Not from the content of the cartoon, but that he had to spend a day without degrading President Trump. For two years, we have been subjected to the salacious drawings and comments from one who must be obsessed with hatred for the president. I am sure there are many who feel as I do. Enough is enough! In this case, it is too much. Do we have to contend with this egregiousness for two more years? Possibly six more? I have one word for Luckovich to ponder: Boring!

JOYCE LYLE, JONESBORO

Adding God to classrooms comes at a cost

Re: “Rejection of God behind weather?” (Readers Write, Dec. 7), the writer’s conclusion was partially correct regarding God and the weather, but his reasons were wrong. He writes that our weather disasters were caused by God as punishment for rejecting God from our classrooms, etc. Yes, we put God out of our classrooms because we truly believed parents and clergy had finally learned how to properly present God to our children in our homes and houses of worship, the proper sites for religious education. We were wrong. We and the clergy failed our children. Therefore, we must bring God back into the classroom. However, this requires additional teacher time, teacher re-education and appropriate funding. Where will this money come from? The answer is simple. People with school-age children must pay a surcharge on their taxes, and religious institutions must pay tax on what has until now been tax-exempt.

DAN SIEGEL, DACULA

Hurricanes not worsened by fossil fuel use

An AJC letter to the editor, “Changing climate should influence voting” (Readers Write, Dec. 2), and front-page article, “Future Disasters” (News, Dec. 3), stated climate change (global warming) caused increased U.S. hurricanes. Global warming is blamed on carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas. Climate scientist and University of Colorado Professor Roger Pielke destroyed the notion that global warming has made hurricanes or tropical storms worse by noting that from 1926 to 1969, a period of 43 years, there were 14 Category 4 hurricanes that made landfall, while from 1970 to 2017, or 47 years, there have been just four. Carbon dioxide increases have occurred since 1950. Hurricane activity prior to 1950 must be due to other factors. Professor Pielke’s statement shows hurricanes are not caused by carbon dioxide increases.

JAMES H. RUST, ADVISER, THE HEARTLAND INSTITUTE

AJC right to stand tall for journalism

Kudos to the AJC for standing proud for journalism in the full-page letter (“Local Journalism Matters,” Dec. 2). In our polarized society, I see that the who, what, when, where and why are more important than ever, which makes 2018’s epidemic of dumbed-down, infotainment-style newsbites extremely frustrating. Edward R. Murrow never tweeted. Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were never accused of delivering fake news. No one sneered when Walter Cronkite revealed that President Kennedy had died on that fateful day in Dallas. The news didn’t change. We did. America can’t prosper if voters and citizens think they can quickly scroll past a few headlines and understand what’s really happening in Atlanta and the world. The details matter. I start every day by actually reading the news for more than 10 seconds. Let’s hope more Georgians will continue to do so.

LISA JOHNSTON, MARIETTA