Those visitors need a place to sleep

Anyone who has any experience in dealing with conventions, trade shows, sporting events and the like will quickly tell you that Memphis can expand the convention center to be large enough to land a FedEx jet inside, but we'll never land deals big enough to need a large convention hall, if there are not enough high-quality hotel rooms close by (Sept. 19 article, "Room to improve / Herenton denies convention center plans, hints at future potential").

If the convention center expansion is done without the peripheral hotels, restaurants, etc., in place, it will be empty most of the time. Conversely, gatherings needing only the small amount of hotel rooms that we now have Downtown cannot afford such a large space. If the city's "brain trust" will check out other cities, it will see that this parallel holds true.

Al Barth


Herenton: Always thinking ahead

I would hope all the people bashing Mayor Willie Herenton would just realize how smart he is being in wanting a new, huge, costly, extravagant, wonderful, and possibly, named-after-him convention center.

He understands that since no one wants to live in Memphis, judging by the stagnant or dropping population figures, then just maybe he can get people to at least visit the city for a few days. The conventioneers would bring in part of the tax revenue that is being lost as residents flee from his wise administration and leadership.

Michael Slover


On the road toward socialism

In the midst of a $700 billion government "bailout" (Sept. 20 article), I am reminded of Josef Stalin's solution for solving a shortfall in wheat harvests: more executions. How long will it be before we repeat history's darkest chapter?

Certainly our subprime social engineering exploits Karl Marx's "Das Kapital," where everyone is entitled to a home provided on the backs of the workers (taxpayers). We call ourselves a capitalist nation, but we are sinking further and further into the abyss of socialism and class warfare. It will be one of the last nails in our nation's coffin.

It is never too late to save the United States of America and the original premise of our free republic. We were founded on conservative principles with respect for freedom, but we are rapidly moving in the wrong direction. No one is entitled to live in a house, not even me.

Mark Estabrook


Propping up the rich

It's amazing how the corporate rich oppose any "government handouts" for the working class or the poor, but demand the U.S. government (we the taxpayers) bail them out of their economic crises.

Funny how Republicans claim our government cannot afford universal health care or education for all our citizens, like most democratic socialist European countries, but they always find money for the military-industrial complex and their corporate financiers. Why not provide some of this "socialism" for the American working class?

Jim Maynard


It is time for our government to start helping its citizens, instead of constantly bailing out institutions that have made bad business choices. "We" are the government, and without us you would not exist.

Laurie Brown


Dems have edge in prosperity index

These are difficult times in the pocketbook for all of us. We are seeing our savings and pensions dwindling while the price of oil and other forms of energy increases. As we view the U.S. presidential elections, a legitimate question to ask is whether the economy has historically been healthier under Democrat or Republican presidents.

I decided to explore this question by analyzing the Dow Jones averages during the last 80 years, since 1928. I calculated the percentage increase or decrease each year (from Dec. 31 of one year to Dec. 31 of the next year). There were 40 percentage scores under Republican presidents and 40 for the Democrats. Under the Republican presidents, there was a mean increase of 3.34 percent for the Dow Jones Index from one year to the next year. Under the Democratic presidents, the mean was 9.5 percent.

This analysis supports the claim that the economy is healthier under a Democratic president, but I am sure that there are many viewpoints to explain these facts.

Art Graesser


New South looks a lot like the old

As we get closer to the presidential debate at Ole Miss, we'll see lots of stories about Mississippi and the South, and how things have changed over the years. I wish those stories could be true.

When the presidential election comes up at work, this is what I hear (each comment is from a different person): "We ought to nuke all those Muslims and just take their oil"; "If Barack Obama gets in, it'll be open season on Muslims and no bag limit"; "That Obama is just a stinking Muslim. He won't salute the flag or put his hand over his heart."

No one says much of anything about John McCain. He's white and not Muslim, and that is enough.

I work with these people every day. They're decent, hard-working folk, and their minds have been absolutely poisoned by talk radio, rumors, whispers, gossip and some bigotry tossed in for good measure.

This is one small town. Multiply that by 10,000, 20,000 or 50,000 scattered through all 50 states that mostly think the same as mine. No candidate can overcome to-the-bone hatred and fear like this. Don't be surprised in November when McCain wins in a landslide, electoral and popular votes.

We as a nation have been corrupted and corroded by 20 years of Lee Atwaters, James Carvilles, Karl Roves, Ann Coulters, Rush Limbaughs and Michael Moores. We want to believe the worst about each other, and these loudmouths are only too happy to encourage us.

They're not totally to blame, of course. I've lived in Mississippi for 50 years. I would love to say things have changed, but they haven't. They've just gone underground. In social and work settings, blacks and whites are polite and work OK together. In private, it's still the 1960s. All the fear, anger, distrust and rage are still here, just under the surface. This is the real America John McCain will inherit in January.

Before I'm accused of being a lying liberal Democrat: I'm voting for Bob Barr.

Richard Wilkinson

Amory, Miss.

Youth could trump patriotism

If Sen. Barack Hussein Obama wins the presidency, his leadership experience, almost nonexistent, won't be the reason. Rather, it will be due to more inadequately educated, secular, patriotically ambivalent, socialistically amenable younger voters in November than better educated, religious, patriotic, freedom-loving, older voters.

Younger or older, Obama winning will lead to all losing.

Jimmy Reed

Oxford, Miss.

What he may need most is his mom

Sarah Palin is off and running -- for vice president of the United States. Her fifth child, Trig Paxson Van Palin, is a Down syndrome child.

An article in the Anchorage Daily News, dated April 21, 2008, states: "The governor said she won't take a maternity leave but will bring Trig with her to work. Her spokesperson later clarified, at Palin's request, that the governor will take time off for medical appointments, physical therapy and whatever Trig needs."

Those last three words are loaded. How is Trig getting "whatever he needs" while his mother is gallivantin' all over the country campaigning for office?

It's my understanding that a Down syndrome child has many needs, beginning at birth and continuing throughout his/her life. Please, Sarah, be sure that Trig gets "whatever he needs."

Anne Babin


Time to turn off 'The View'

When "The View" has only one view, it's time to view "The View" no longer. Republicans, please boycott this terrible program and its sponsors, for the deplorable way they treated John McCain.

Natalie D. Tharnish


Make it better, not just different

Barack Obama and John McCain talk about "change." I would suggest that "change" is not what we want. What we want is improvement. Improvement is difficult and needs to be evaluated by the people impacted. We have no information about what changes are proposed, except new taxes and spreading proceeds across a wider segment of society.

To date, we have spent at least $7 trillion on the "War on Poverty" from the 1960s. There are no improvements, only changes. Remember every dollar spent carries an overhead of roughly 27 percent.

Candidates, please talk about what improvements are proposed, how they will be paid for, and what the sunset date is if they don't work.

Rahe H. Heggemann