Media should expose Green New Deal’s socialist nonsense
Barack Obama’s socialist-inspired plan to “fundamentally change America” brought us a mediocre economy consisting of slow growth and the highest number of people looking for work (not counted) in decades. Not-to-be-discouraged Democrats are going to try another pie-in-the-sky attempt to “Change America.” This time, it’s called The Green New Deal. Same socialism, same fate. Will our mainstream media be silent again, as they did during the Obama fiasco, and fail to expose this new utopian dream for what it is: utter nonsense?
TOM GAMBESKI, CANTON
Two-adult rule protects kids and congregations
As a long-time subscriber to the AJC, I was disappointed that the recent news of additional clergy sexual abuse was not given more prominent coverage in your paper. As the Pope opens a summit on combating sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church and news broke from Texas of child abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, this is a most timely conversation. As a pastor with 25 years of experience serving in Christian camps, campus ministry and congregations, I would suggest that the best practice that any organization might adopt for the protection of children is the “two adult rule.” Background checks and training sessions are also valuable, but having at least two adults present (never “one on one”) at all times when children are in an organization’s care is really the gold standard for their safety. I commend that practice to every congregation and organization.
REV. OLIVER WAGNER, SENIOR PASTOR, ALPHARETTA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Find a nicer name for needed border wall
You have reported that one of the main problems in resolving the dispute about a “wall” at the southern border is finding an alternative name all the decision makers can agree upon. I recommend the term, “picket fence.” Picket fence has always had a positive connotation. It symbolizes appealing and friendly neighborliness as well as reasonable limitations on where people can enter. I hope all the key decision makers in Congress and the White House can agree that we can use and fund a picket fence at some carefully selected locations on our southern border, in addition to other methods of securing the border.
FLOYD C. HALE, ROSWELL
Kemp’s op-ed ignores flaws in his Medicaid waiver idea
On Mar. 17, Gov. Brian Kemp penned an AJC opinion piece touting his Patients First Act, which would allow the state of Georgia to pursue Medicaid waivers. What Kemp conveniently omits is that his plan would cover fewer Georgians at a greater cost per patient than full Medicaid expansion. By choosing not to fully expand Medicaid, Kemp is forgoing millions of dollars of federal spending. Those are our tax dollars, money from hard-working Georgians, that are instead going to go to other states that have chosen to expand Medicaid.
There is a reason that deeply conservative states like Indiana, Louisiana, and Arkansas have all embraced Medicaid expansion. When politicians in states like Maine and Utah have refused to do so, voters demanded it by ballot measure. Over 70 percent of Georgians support Medicaid expansion, including half of voters in the governor’s own party. Kemp knows what smart policy is, but has instead chosen to play politics with the healthcare of hundreds of thousands of Georgians. Were Medicaid expansion a policy goal of President Trump, instead of a key part of the Affordable Care Act, Brian Kemp would have embraced it wholeheartedly. It is past time that the governor puts party politics aside, stops with the half measures, and implements full Medicaid expansion that will get Georgians covered and pump millions of dollars into our economy.
RIZWAN HASAN, ATLANTA
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