Congress, continue backing research
I recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with volunteers representing a coalition of nearly 60 cancer-fighting organizations for the One Voice Against Cancer Lobby Day. Together, we asked Congress to prioritize our nation's ongoing investment in cutting-edge cancer research.
A recent poll showed that 92 percent of the public favors an increase in federal funding for cancer research and 88 percent want Congress to support funding for cancer prevention and control programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In my meetings with my members of Congress, I called on them to make cancer a national priority and provide hope to the more than 1.7 million Americans expected to be diagnosed with the disease this year.
Cancer research is on the verge of significant new breakthroughs. We are at a point where advancements in research are saving more lives than ever. The National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute has played a key role in virtually every major cancer prevention, detection and treatment discovery.
Continued investments in lifesaving medical research and prevention for diseases like cancer should be a top priority for Congress. We can't miss this opportunity.
Sarah Roach, volunteer, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
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'Shadow government' is stalking Trump
Democrats refuse to accept the results of the 2016 election, and the Mueller investigation is about removing President Trump from office. Although our system of government is based on the U.S. Constitution, the Democrats' system is that any part of government it runs gets unlimited power over the country. What they want is a dictatorship.
Trump has caused the shadow government to come out of hiding. Whenever Trump exercises constitutional authority, Democrats view this as illegitimate.
If Democrats are in the White House, the president can do anything. He can have his own amnesty for illegal aliens. But when a Republican gets in, the president can't do anything. He isn't allowed to undo the illegal alien amnesty his predecessor illegally invented.
When a Democrat is in, states aren't allowed to enforce immigration law. When a Republican is in, states can create immigration laws.
When FBI agents who supported Hillary Clinton take out an "insurance policy" against Trump winning the election, when Obama officials engage in unmasking of the opposition and spying, when they collude to remove a president, have no doubt, we're in a civil war between an elected president and a leftist Democrat shadow government.
Gary Hayes, Ooltewah
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Fan of SPLC but not Trump
It's not been that long ago (Feb. 14, 2015) that a Free Press editorial cited the Family Research Council's listing of the Southern Poverty Law Center, commonly known as SPLC, as a hate group.
Not to be condescending, but I would be remiss if I didn't note the SPLC, including founding lawyer Morris Dees and lawyer Mark Potak, were the very ones who took down the Ku Klux Klan, bankrupting them and disabling their work at that time.
Unfortunately, these hatred groups - skinheads, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, even branches of the KKK - have regained strength under Trump and his squalid and putrid following.
As long as adultery, pornography and lying with impunity are accepted as norms, Trump will be accepted as normal.
I refuse to accept Trump as normal.
Allan Baggett, Trion, Ga.