MARTA no longer gets me where I need to go
I have lived in Atlanta’s Morningside community for decades. MARTA has been my main way to get around town.
Years ago, a bus came through my neighborhood; the bus stop was only a block from my house, and I could ride downtown and all the way to Grant Park. This bus was discontinued, but I could still catch a bus about three blocks away that took me to a train station. Now that bus has been eliminated, and I must either walk to the train or take a bus going in the opposite direction to another train station and transfer. Every trip takes longer, and sometimes I simply can’t take MARTA to get where I need to go.
I went to a MARTA board meeting, open to the public, earlier this year. I found out about this meeting through Beltline Rail Now. At the meeting, an official of MARTA remarked that people in “well-off” neighborhoods like mine don’t need MARTA. Can you believe that?
RITA MARRINSON, ATLANTA
World Cup uplifts city as did 1996 Olympics
The AJC’s remembrance of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta sent me searching for my files and calendar from 1996. Thirty years ago, the opening ceremony in Atlanta included Gladys Knight and Celine Dion and the cauldron lighting by Muhammad Ali.
Four years earlier, a determined team of Atlantans led by Andy Young and Billy Payne pulled off quite a feat to win the bid to host in 1996. The announcement in Tokyo in 1990 kicked off a huge city and state effort to prepare. The whole month of August 1996 was a fun party, welcoming the world.
As I watched the final of the World Cup 2026 in the USA after several great games in our city, I once again marveled at what fun Atlantans and the visiting teams have had — and how uplifting for our city and the entire country.
One of the FIFA ads I like the most ends with “the world should gather!”
CLAIR MULLER, ATLANTA
Women should have final say on abortion rights
Thank you for the opinion piece by Rebecca Todd Peters and Serene Jones (“Why politicians who use Christianity to frame abortion as a sin are wrong,” July 10).
Women/girls are fully formed human beings who can make choices regarding pregnancy and childbirth. They die in childbirth and pregnancy-related events daily in the United States and around the world and should have the last say about abortion.
So many claim to understand the “pursuit of life” as described in our Constitution but have little understanding about this concept when it comes to women’s health. All humans — every single one — lived first within the body of women. Women/girls deserve respect, dignity and reverence in all matters on equal footing with men/boys. If men faced the choices women face daily, they would understand why this right is absolute and nonnegotiable.
I have red lines when it comes to this issue in the political realm and choice is the first one.
E. SUSAN BINNS, MARIETTA
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