Letters to the editor: Opinions differ on Montgomery mayor race

Letters to the editor
Candidates talk with supporters after a Mayoral candidate forum at Davis Theatre in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019.

Giving praise to Montgomery mayoral candidates

I want to commend WSFA for its program last week that allowed the candidates for Montgomery mayor to express their opinions and offer their solutions to the problems facing our community.  

I also want to commend the candidates for their lack of demagoguery and for the fact that none of them appeared to have played the race card. All of them seem sincerely interested in improving Montgomery and in not dividing the city into racial classes opposed to one another.  

Finally, I want to commend Mayor (Todd) Strange for his own administration as mayor, where he has consistently sought a better Montgomery with less racial animosity and more development, not only for east but also for west Montgomery.  

We need to praise the efforts he has made for his city as his administration comes closer to its conclusion.

Daniel Haulman

Montgomery

A different point of view on mayor's race

As the citizens of Montgomery prepare to elect its next mayor, I am beginning to have flashbacks of 2016.  

Trump was behaving like the typical reality television star — crude, rude and distasteful. Fast forward to Montgomery 2019, and we have crude and distasteful; but I patiently await the arrival of rude.

Ignorance and obliviousness fill our pool of candidates like the drive-thru lane for a Church’s Chicken two-piece giveaway.  

My fellow citizens: Elect someone who possesses the experience, enthusiasm and energy to lead Montgomery to become the first choice and not the last resort.  

Giggle, giggle. … It’s all a joke until the joke is on us!  

Lashae King

Montgomery

Some blame should be put on State Board, not MPS

I don't often say this, but the Montgomery School Board got it right this time. Turning down the charter schools meals contract was the right call.

As a business owner, I can't imagine a business that would take on a last-minute contract that requires additional staff and costs for a small four-month contract with a questionable 25% profit estimate. I certainly wouldn't take it.

It seems that Charlotte Meadows of LEAD Academy and a candidate for state representative dropped the ball and is making a stink that her old board won't bail her out.

Don't worry — the State Board of Education did. Why, you may ask. The State Board of Education who picked the inexperienced LEAD Academy to run Montgomery's first charter school was about to have egg on their face.

The sad thing is that this hurts kids who just want a better education. Unfortunately, the kids are caught in the middle of an administrator's political ambitions and a State Board of Education that made a poor decision.

It is time for them to do their jobs and stop pointing fingers at the Montgomery School Board who made the right call.

William Palmer

Montgomery 

Godless culture contributes in domestic terrorism epidemic

Our country is experiencing increasing domestic terrorist attacks.

The nation is divided over the causes. I believe the root cause runs deep. We have created a culture that diminishes the importance of God.

We seem to have forgotten that our values and laws are based on Judeo-Christian principles, and that those principles are in direct opposition to taking another person's life.

That is something that was previously taught in schools. Prayer is now largely prohibited by a 1962 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The result is that many students are never exposed to God. They don't get it in school. They never hear the mention of God in their homes. They don't attend religious services.  

A profile of domestic terrorists would likely reveal that the previous two sentences fit them perfectly. How can we ensure that every student is exposed to God and our nation's Judeo-Christian principles?

Communicate with the Chief Justice (letter, email) and insist that the present Supreme Court revisit the issue of prayer in schools at the first opportunity.

Our nation's culture has changed drastically since 1962. So has the court. Clearly, school prayer is not a violation of our Constitution's first amendment. It does not  "establish a religion" any more than does the motto "In God We Trust" on our currency.

Certainly, other measures are needed to counter domestic terrorism, and what I have suggested is a long-term solution. However, I don't believe any other solutions will suffice if we continue to turn away from God. 

Paul Tribble

Pike Road

State, local officials should enforce stricter gun laws

With the latest mass killings in Texas and Ohio, among a record number in America this year, and the four recent shootings/killings in Montgomery, radical changes in gun control laws are way past due and necessary.

Maybe it's time for the Montgomery City Council and/or Alabama Legislature to make it illegal for anyone under a certain age (such as 21-25) to possess pistols or guns of any sort, with meaningful penalties.

Let law enforcement keep its guns, hunters their rifles and well-regulated older people their self-defense tools. If our sister Anglo countries of Canada, Austrailia and Britain can keep shooting deaths at a miniscule fraction of America's, we must learn from them and save hundreds, if not thousands, of precious lives in the process.

Julian McPhillips

Montgomery

Sandhill cranes should be preserved, not hunted

I'm writing regarding Alabama's plan to allow the hunting of sandhill cranes. Sandhill cranes only recently came off the Endangered and Threatened Species list.

As Cornell University has pointed out, their populations are slow to recover. These are birds that mate for life and only raise one chick per year. Both the female and male help to incubate the egg. That's a family. Killing a beautiful, trusting bird that spends a good portion of its time on the ground isn't a sport; it's slaughter. As for controlling populations, the Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon were once abundant. Now they are extinct.

Alabama is the crane's migratory flyway. There is nothing "sporting" about killing a bird with a 6-foot wingspan that moves in flocks. I am 11 years old and have enough sense to understand that this is wrong. I hope the residents of Alabama understand the same.

Silas Powell

Sugar Grove, N.C.