Country is divided beyond politics
I’ve never seen our country so politically divided. And it goes well beyond politics.
It seems like we aren’t able to agree about anything these days, which made me think of a very relevant perspective from an old Will Rogers quote.
Will Rogers stated, “We’re all ignorant! Just about different things.”
It’s what divided us. And it should be what ultimately heals us as well. I can only hope.
D.C. VARN, ATLANTA
Character still matters in presidential choice
Former President Donald Trump’s clear unfitness for office far outweighs any policy disagreements with Vice President Kamala Harris. These are not ordinary times. Voters must decide on the honesty, trust and integrity of the candidates. Character matters. Harris has spent her professional life supporting democracy and the rule of law, first as a local prosecutor, then as attorney general for the state of California, then as U.S. senator and now as U.S. vice president. Harris tells us she has only had one client: the people.
Although Trump lies repeatedly, we should take seriously his latest promises: He will be a dictator on Day 1 in office, and we won’t ever have to vote again. The state of New York has terminated all of Trump’s businesses because of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of financial fraud. He has been found liable for sexual assaults and defamation in civil courts, and suffered civil damages of multiple millions of dollars. Trump awaits sentencing in New York on guilty verdicts on 34 felony counts and is awaiting trial in federal court in Washington, D.C., for insurrection against the United States.
The choice between Harris and Trump could not be more stark!
FRED CAVALLI, DECATUR
Affordability Act won’t help state’s rising energy costs
I disagree with Katharine K. Wilkinson’s Oct. 20 Opinion essay, “Pinched between peril and possibility, we need climate leadership,” in which she said the outsize benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 trickled down to Georgia’s low-income communities or rural areas.
By 2025, the average monthly Georgia Power bill will increase by almost $70, pushing more low-income households into poverty. In a recent study of energy equity by the Partnership for Southern Equity, the five states with the highest low-income energy burden are Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Arkansas. Rural households spend much more on energy bills than urban ones. In Georgia (and other Southeastern states), by contrast, power companies are granted monopolies over the generation, transmission and distribution of energy for a given region, locking out affordable sources for renewable energy despite demand from tech companies’ investment in data centers, which are concentrated in this region.
ELSAYED ELBAZ, ATLANTA
Southside remains underserved in medical services
The announced plan to replace the Atlanta Medical Center with a “community hub” of residential, commercial and park space is a slap in the face to those Southside residents who depended on the former Wellstar facility for medical services (AJC, Oct. 18).
The population in south Atlanta and DeKalb County is grossly underserved in terms of medical facilities. We also lost a major trauma center, leaving the area with Grady as the only one.
Yes, the Atlanta Medical Center was not profitable because many of its patients were uninsured or underinsured. The state of Georgia did not offer any financial assistance whatsoever to extend a lifeline to Wellstar or work with the city to come up with a creative way to enable the hospital to survive. Extending Medicaid would have helped largely.
So now we’ll have more condos, apartments and stores to add to what’s being constructed all over Atlanta. Am I missing something here?
LARRY J. PETT, ATLANTA
