This is Viewpoints for Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016

10 best

In regard to The Telegraph’s favorite Macon restaurants that are no longer with us, my top 10 restaurants, in no particular order that I miss the most, are as follows: (1) Hadden’s — Best home cooking ever, anywhere in the world. (2) The Butler House — Boarding house food and plenty of it. (3) The Varsity — The late John McBrearty invented the “Breast of Chicken Sandwich,” not Chick-fil-A! (4) The Saratoga/Mark’s Cellar — Two great restaurants located downtown with virtually the same menu. (5) The New Arcade — Poolroom, scrambled dogs, gravy burgers, black-eyes, and the best Irish Stew ever. (6) Cags — No explanation needed. (7) Len Bergs — A Macon icon (8) Chi-Chester’s — Drug Store Dogs. (9) Po-Boy Drive-ins — The King Burger with Cheese and Po-Boy Ham Sandwiches were their best-sellers. (10) The Checkered Apron — A varied menu featuring anything from Fried Chicken to Pizza.

Out of their right minds

How could anyone in their right mind either endorse or vote for Hillary Clinton? After the debate, the media (and this paper) conducted a full-court press on Clinton’s behalf. Are all objective news reporters dead or retired? Have journalists completely forgotten the health care debacle when her husband was president? Or Travelgate? Or Whitewater? Or Filegate? Or the taking of White House furniture? Or as secretary of state she was so incompetent a major motion picture (13 Hours) depicts her ineptness? Or that recently she needed the director of the FBI to bail her out of deleted and classified emails and that scandal is still ongoing?

How can anyone vote for someone who has consistently proven themselves to be aloof and completely ill-suited for any elected position above dog catcher (apologies to dog catchers everywhere)? Putting Clinton into the White House means her husband (you know, the second president ever to be impeached who lost his law license for lying under oath about a sexual affair in the Oval Office, let alone reports of many other trysts while married to Hillary) gets to live there once again. This is the person and spouse that Democrats, journalists, and The Telegraph want to represent America?

Traditionalists for Trump?

Voters with traditional values have decided to vote for Donald Trump in spite of his personal foibles because of their great concern about the political leanings of the Supreme Court appointments of the next president. These voters know Trump has provided an actual list of 21 potential appointees who are strict constitutionalists and they also know that Clinton will appoint judges who are not. These voters also realize the rulings of the next Supreme Court will likely determine American policies for decades — years and years after Trump, 70, and Clinton, 69 next month, have left the political scene.

Just as crucial as the Supreme Court appointees are the lifetime court appointments to the 13 U.S. appellate courts that sit just below the Supreme Court. Though not as well known, these circuit judges, also appointed by the president, actually have the last word on thousands more cases than the Supreme Court, who only take up 60 or 70 cases a year.

Before the Obama appointments, nine of the 13 circuit courts had the majority of their judges appointed by Republicans, but now only four circuits have majority GOP appointments. It has made a difference. For instance, the Supreme Court ruled several years ago that state requirements for voter IDs were not prejudicial, but after Obama began making dozens and dozens of circuit court appointments, the rulings began to change. Now, several of these courts have ruled that requiring voter IDs is racist.

Eight more years of lifetime, liberal appointments to these crucial federal courts will push the country further and further left on cultural mores, religious liberty, executive power and much more. For this reason alone, the two-thirds of Americans who believe the country is headed in the wrong direction may come to conclude that America’s best chance for positive change is to vote for the candidate who at least has promised to appoint judges who will help stop the country’s downward, leftist spiral.

Anything but fair

I am pleased that Gov. Nathan Deal will be giving our state police a well-deserved pay raise in the new year. As for those other police officers throughout our state I can only say that they deserve a raise as well. Many are paid barely liveable wages to risk their lives on a daily basis. Twiggs County is an example.

The main reason our rural and urban police forces are so poorly paid is that local taxes are too low and unrealistic. SPLOST have made local governments too dependent on them. They are basically sales taxes that are unfair to our poorest citizens, especially the 3 percent sales tax on food.

There is no good reason why our police and public school teachers are treated like second-class citizens. Property taxes are too low in most cases. Our richest citizens are not taxed enough and at low rates. The priorities of most of our local governments need to be adjusted to pay our police and teachers more.

Our two local Republican state representatives, Shaw Blackmon and Heath Clark, now want to replace our progressive state tax system with a so-called “Fair Tax” that would only benefit our richest citizens and businesses and is anything but fair.

A vote for Amendment 1

For decades Bibb County education has traveled further down the road of failure. Our school system has great examples of higher education. Howard exemplifies what can be achieved when proper leaderships and excellent teachers motivate willing students. The problem is too many students are either unwilling or are from families who have been generational failures. The lame excuse of poverty is bunk. Kids from all walks of life have excelled through Bibb schools for decades.

Pathetic teachers and principals sustained by extremely poor oversight by a weak administrative body has caused much of our failure. Of course, families are a problem but the state says they have answers. The same taxes will pay for the opportunity to go forward. Change in this instance is imperative. The removal of subpar administrative personnel, principals and teachers will evolve during this healing process. Amendment 1 in November says you care if you vote yes, or no if you accept failure.

This story was originally published October 8, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016."