I thank the members of the Memphis City Council who had the wisdom and courage to stand up for us, the taxpayers, not to pay for Joseph Lee's legal fees (Oct. 8 "In Brief" item).

He should be responsible for his fees with the "perks" he received from his short tenure at Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division.

I hope they also take away his health insurance, which was also a perk.

As a widow of an MLGW employee of 42 years, and all the retirees who have their premiums deducted monthly from their pension checks, he is not above us. Lee is a "yes man" for the mayor of this fair city, and is now on the city payroll again.

I spoke for the retirees at a meeting for no changes in our insurance, and he sat with his back to me. And I'm quite sure he didn't hear a word I said. He probably was doodling on a pad in front of him.

To those council members who voted against paying his legal fees, the citizens of Memphis say, "thank you" Myron Lowery, Shea Flinn, Jim Strickland, Bill Boyd, Bill Morrison and Reid Hedgepeth.

Beckae Duke

Memphis

Transparency in sentencing

Regarding the Oct. 5 column by Otis L. Sanford, editor/opinion and editorials for The Commercial Appeal, I almost feel nauseated when I think about how, possibly, U.S. Dist. Judge Todd J. Campbell did not use his sole discretion in sentencing John Ford.

My nausea usually stems from an inability to right a wrong. Did Campbell confer with his justice colleagues to help him decide Ford's sentence?

Was it the sentiment of the federal judicial system that this state would be a lot more peaceful without the possibility of Ford rearing his head any more in this lifetime?

What chances do any of us have when the justice system deals in secret methods and appears to trample over what ordinary people believe to be fair and just? That makes me wonder whether my secret record may one day be called a "pre-sentence report."

Are there not laws that have determined that a person is to be sentenced for one particular set of wrongs for which he was tried, not for the things on his "secret pre-sentence report?"

Who is to say that such a report is accurate? Are there any possible protests that may be effective against such a practice? Campbell is not the first judge who has dealt out a shocking decision. I pray he is the last one.

Linda Taylor

Memphis

Straight talk express takes an exit

I was excited when John McCain won the Republican presidential nomination. I thought he was the best of the Republican candidates.

I always appreciated what appeared to be his honesty, "straight talk" and his willingness to stand up to the fringe elements of the Republican Party.

But now I am stunned by how McCain has changed and how quickly he has retreated from the principles he has always seemingly stood for.

I applauded in April when McCain pledged to run a positive campaign, one that focused on who he was and what his vision is for our country.

McCain has now abandoned all pretenses of running on the issues and has devolved to the very character attacks and smear tactics he pledged he wouldn't use.

I guess McCain's advisers think he will lose on the policy-issue arguments and has to try to smear his opponent. Sadly, McCain is listening to these fools.

The American people are tired of attacks from both sides. We want to know who is focused on fixing the problems our country faces and what his (or her) plan is. So far, only Barack Obama and Joe Biden are talking straight.

Michael P. Pfrommer

Memphis

Congress adept at creating chaos

The principal institutions that triggered the current financial crisis were created in Washington.

Misguided manipulations of those institutions originated in Washington.

The congressional overseers who refused to participate in remedial oversight of those institutions are in Washington.

Now Congress yaks about Wall Street, which is not in Washington but in New York City, and about Main Street, also not in Washington but in your home town.

And the congressional miscreants? They are holding hearings and grilling broken business executives who have zero influence over future actions.

Meanwhile, senators and representatives who have every influence over the future are passing legislation that not only exacerbates the long-term problem but also contains boilerplate to shelter themselves from retribution. The inmates are running the asylum.

Grant Wade

Memphis

Fit them all for dunce caps

During all the hoopla about the educational qualifications of the candidates, we need to remember that, as evidenced by the actions of about 90 percent of our "highly educated" elected officials, formal education has little to do with their thinking , reasoning, and moral abilities. Common sense is an UNcommon commodity among them.

Jack Parnell

Germantown

Baffled by Obama's appeal

I do not know how the American public can consider a candidate like Barack Obama, with all the baggage he carries, all his ideas about "The Star Spangled Banner" (won't put his hand over his heart), Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayers, his ineffectiveness in Congress, and all the half-truths in his books.

America, he does not look at this country the way true Americans do. How could you accuse our troops of air-raiding civilians and then be a commander-in-chief?

We have never had a candidate for president who was such a danger to our democracy.

Diana Lynn Kunselman

Germantown

Baby becomes a political prop

Many years ago I had a special-needs child. I have never been a soccer mom, a PTA officer, a mayor, owned a business or been a governor, but I have enough common sense to know that a baby a few months old should not be up at 9 or 10 at night and passed around among five or six people as a "trophy" at public appearances.

Sorry, Sarah Palin, but you flunked "Common Sense 101," and it really scares me to think that one day you could sit behind the desk in the Oval Office.

L.M. Faulkner

Cordova

Let Obama try to explain this one

What have we become as a people, when we brush aside the fact that one who would possibly lead this nation is against the most fundamental precept this nation was founded on: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Without the first of these precepts the others are meaningless. Yet that is exactly what Barack Obama was willing to brush aside for the weakest and most defenseless of our citizens.

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously (98-0) to support the Born Alive Infant Protection Act legislation that would protect a defenseless baby born alive during a botched abortion (yes, this really happens).

Obama, as an Illinois state senator, took the opposite position on this legislation three separate times, saying that it should be permissible to just let these defenseless babies die in a dark closet when it could be possible to save their lives. This is infanticide, the most repugnant of human crimes, and Obama sought to allow this.

Anthony DeSantis

Memphis

The economic plot against Obama

In his Oct. 9 Viewpoint column, George F. Will regrets that John McCain's major political thrust -- "The surge is working!" -- has been overcome by the "current" market crisis. Actually the Iraq troop surge has had very little to do with what little peace there is in Iraq. The fact that Barack Obama might win and pull troops out on a schedule beginning immediately scared the oil cartel.

No more war with American soldiers means much less oil consumption and no credible oversight of Iraq's oil fields. McCain touting the surge is simply protecting the Bush administration's deals with the worldwide oil cartel.

Now that it really looks as if Obama will win in November, despite American bigotry, the power mongers have pulled their money and credit from the markets, hocking the U.S. taxpayer to the hilt, in hopes that the economy will be so bad that Americans won't want "alternate" energy for a long time to come.

The hope is that we ignorant Yanks will bow to the chants of "drill, drill, drill," accepting once again the quick and easy "no-way" out.

J.D. Kinney

Memphis

Life saving a goal at First Church

It was an honor to welcome Chief Alvin D. Benson, director of the Memphis Fire Department, to the groundbreaking for First United Methodist Church Oct. 5. Chief Benson was presented with a plaque from First Church expressing appreciation to all the firefighters for heroic and sacrificial service in the fire of Oct. 6, 2006.

The firefighters did an excellent job not only at First Church but among the other Downtown fires that early morning, risking their own lives to save others.

In Benson's Oct. 5 Viewpoint guest column, he recognized the possibility that First Church could have been protected by an automatic sprinkler system.

He is correct that in 1983 when the former sanctuary was constructed there were no codes that required automatic sprinklers. In the new sanctuary being proposed at First Church, there are indeed automatic sprinklers.

But First Church is not stopping there. On Oct. 18 we will deliver teams of volunteers to homes in the Uptown community to check smoke detector batteries, replacing them if necessary, change light bulbs and collect prayer requests from our neighbors.

We were so fortunate to have lost no lives in the inferno two years ago. Now is the time for us to secure our own new structures and make an effort to save lives with sprinklers and smoke alarms that can prevent fires and deaths.

Rev. Martha B. Wagley

Pastor, First United Methodist Church Memphis