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Wednesday, May. 27, 2009

Speak Out

Where veterans

are remembered

I have talked with you, Mr. Cranshaw, at 4th of July concerts and other patriotic functions over the years. I’m the one whose brother was killed in Vietnam in the war over there. Well, we’re on the way over to Andersonville again. That’s where he is buried. I was little when he died, and I drive mom over here now just like she used to drive me before I was able to drive. It’s always a nervous drive over and a sad drive back.

But it is nice always to come back to a place where we know our loved one and all other veterans are appreciated and their sacrifices are not forgotten.

City booster

I want to speak out about the sports complex and what a big deal it is for Warner Robins to get one. I don’t much care how much it costs as long as it is within reason; it’s going to be money spent wisely. First of all, our softball payers — I’m one of them and my husband is too — won’t always have to drive to Macon or Albany for all of our tournament play.

With all the new ball fields, we’ll be having tournaments right here in Warner Robins.

Second, starting in a couple of years, we should be having some church league and other tournaments here in town, and you can count on it; that’s going to bring money and customers to the city.

Born free?

Look, I’m sick and tired of these bleeding hearts getting all in my face talking about saving the unwanted animals and pets that are all over the country. There’s a reason these animals are unwanted. It’s because nobody wants them. So don’t tell me we’ve got to keep them alive and keep wasting time and money trying to rescue them. You don’t have to put them down in a mean or cruel way, but put them down and get it over with.

Finding the best

I meant to tell you that I did some real serious thinking after reading the My Turn thing the other week about the kind of people who deserve to be elected to a county board of education. I guess most of us really don’t pay that much attention to the particulars and usually vote for somebody whose name we recognize when we ought to be thinking about a whole lot of different qualifications. I have confidence that the school board members want to have the best person filling Mrs. Greenway’s seat on the school board and I am sure they will be looking for someone with as many of her qualities as they can find.

Budget issues

I live in the school district represented by Pam Greenway and I’m concerned that her replacement has not been named yet. Mrs. Greenway was great as a school board member, but since her death it is very important that we move on. This is really important since the school system is going to decide in the next few days if we are going to have a school tax increase and if so, how large it will be. I just think it’s very important that we have full representation on the school board when those decisions are made.

(Cranshaw comments: Helen M. Huges has been named to replace Greenway.)

Don’t raise our taxes

I’m in agreement with last week’s SpeakOut caller who wonders what the school system reserve fund is for if not to dig the system out of a hole when economic times are bad.

I mean, seriously, what’s the good of the reserve fund or rainy-day fund or whatever you want to call it if not to rescue the school system when it gets into trouble?

That’s why I’m saying that the school board needs to dig into the reserve fund of several million dollars before it starts loading more taxes on us.

Look Elsewhere

The board of education can count me out if it is counting on me to pay higher school taxes. I am already taxed nearly to death and I don’t need people who don’t understand my circumstances deciding when I can fork over more and more of my hard-earned dollars.

No Tears for

Michael Vick

Every time I turned around last week I heard something on the TV about Michael Vick getting out of prison. People in the sports media and people being interviewed on the streets were talking about whether or not he could bounce back and become the professional athlete he was before he was caught up in the dog-fighting business. To be perfectly honest, I don’t care if he bounces back from two years without football that he brought on himself. Instead, I cared about athletes like Ted Williams (baseball), Joe DiMaggio

(baseball) and Sam Snead (golf), who had to leave their professions out of duty and returned to do great things on golf courses and in ball parks. Back in the day I was a kid who loved Ted Williams and all he stood for. He was away from the Boston Red Sox for more than five years because of World War II, but he came back to do great things in baseball and we were all pulling for him. Michael Vick brought his misfortune on himself and, because of what he did, it is hard for me to root very hard for him.

Save the Hood

I have been meaning to write for a long time about things in Houston County.

It really is a great area, but who in Houston County government was stupid enough to authorize a sidewalk along Houston Lake Road from about the north Perry bypass northward? What a waste of money and concrete and our tax dollars. Building has basically come to a halt out there, future building and future growth are not a good reason to waste our tax dollars.

Also, who authorized that really stupid phone tower at Lake Joy Road at Houston Lake Road? It is not needed, it is an eye sore, it is ugly and it needs to be taken down.

And, finally, when will the Houston County Sheriffs Department come and patrol our Lake Joy Road subdivision for the speeders, thieves, drug sellers and the idiots that think everyone wants to hear their blaring boom-box music.

Please help us make this a nice place to live again.

(Cranshaw comments: Actually, both residential and commercial development are going to remain heavy in your neck of the woods. According to both county and Perry planners, the Lake Joy, Houston Lake area will be covered up in people over the next few years. And your communications tower is now a permanent feature, made necessary by the public demand for instant contact capability and emergency management notification.)

Get Over It

I guess I’ve heard it all after the recent SpeakOut complaint that there was not protection from the rain over the walkway leading from the student parking lot to Warner Robins High School. In the first place, we don’t need all those students driving cars to school. I think seniors are the only high school students who should have the right to park on campus. For others, it should be a privilege if allowed at all.