Dear Editor:

Mr. Stan Hall, has repeatedly, week after week, dissed the plans for libraries while touting the use of computers.  Well, Mr. Hall, many senior citizens don't know how to use computers and don't want to learn....but they immensely enjoy curling up with a tall glass of tea and a good book.  Books should never be replaced by computers.  Enjoyment of reading cannot be replaced by the display on a computer screen.  I am not technologically challenged.  I've probably used computers as much as anyone and more than most.  I make my living on one.  I also read.  It would be really difficult for me to take a computer with me to read while sitting in the doctor’s office....waiting.  Even more difficult to haul one around that would allow me to read while traveling.  Laptops aren't the answer for everyone. Computers are an expense many either don't want to bear or don't wish to learn.  These are just a few examples....there are hundreds more reasons why a 'computer room' doesn't a library make, simply because that isn't the only function of a library.

It is difficult for pre school children to enjoy a wonderful story hour told by a computer.  The computer is a tool and has its place in any library system but it, by far, is not the only need of any library.  I do family history research.  There is so much data available in books and other assorted records that aren't online and won't be for many, many years....the data is in libraries and archives.  No matter what you'd like to believe there is a lot less not on the 'net than IS available on it.  Copyright's are good for 75 years.  Any publication with a copyright in effect cannot be put on the internet without special permission of the author.  Seen any John Grisham books online lately?  By limiting a library to a simple computer room you are severely limiting everyone’s access to knowledge.  Sounds pretty socialistic, doesn't it?

Tunnel vision aimed directly at electronic gadgets isn't the sole goal toward the future for our children or anyone else.

Joyce Gaston Reece
Etowah, TN

Articles are informative

Dear Editor,

We in northern Ohio look forward each week to your newspaper. How enjoyable to see Joe Guy’s article on Return Jonathan Meigs. In 1813 General William Henry Harrison built a fort on a prominent bluff over looking the rapids of the Maumee River in Perrysburg on the out shirts of Toledo. He named it for Mr. Meigs who was the governor of Ohio at the time. The fort was dismantled after the war but the site remained a favorite and all local gatherings of any consequence were held there. An 82-foot obelisk stands in memory of the soldiers who died there. The fort was reconstructed by the Ohio Historical Society in every detail including the blockhouses on their original footings. It is the largest reconstructed, enclosed fort in the United States of many reenactment including a Christmas lantern tour and is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Thanks for such interesting and informative articles.

Hazel Holland
Toledo, Ohio

It's a disgrace

Dear Editor:

I agree with Mr. German that the road through the gorge is unsafe and ought to be fixed. I’d go further and say that it’s a disgrace that nothing has been done all these years.

I don’t think a four-lane is the answer, because I don’t think it will ever be built. At the meeting in Ducktown, the consultants from Wilbur Smith admitted that the money doesn’t exist to build it. What they actually said was that the only way it could ever be built is as a toll road. Do you want to pay a $3 toll along with your $4 a gallon gas every time you go to Cleveland?

I’d settle for guardrails everywhere, straightening the curves, and a few more four-lane sections so you could pass the camping trailers. This should have been done years ago. We can afford it, and the people who say the rock can’t be cut are wrong. It was cut when the road was built, wasn’t it?

The magic road over the mountain is a fantasy. It will never be built. It doesn’t make sense to build new highways to carry truck traffic when it takes two-thirds less diesel to move a ton of freight by rail. Sooner or later, it’s going to sink in, and all these wonderful new highway projects will be history.

In my opinion, all this talk about a four-lane road is just another way for TDOT to keep on ignoring our problem.

The people who make money by building roads always say it will create instant prosperity. A superhighway won’t lead to economic development, unless you mean gas stations, convenience stores, and truck stops. Yes, that’s economic development, but it isn’t the kind we need, because it destroys the economic base that we have, which is tourism. People come to the mountains because it’s beautiful, not because it has great truck stops. And you can bet they’re going to stop coming if we destroy the Cherokee National Forest and the beauty of the gorge. You may not like the tourists much. But you might like them a whole lot better than the kind of people we’re going to get when Ducktown is just a huge interstate exit with a nest of cheap motels, gas stations, and truck stops. Ever been to Elizabethtown, Kentucky? I’ll bet it’s a great place to raise your kids.

Folks, we’re being led down that old primrose path. Let’s get smart and push TDOT to fix the road instead of sitting around waiting for that magic highway in the sky. It’s never going to happen.

Clyde Holler
Morganton, GA