This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, January 3, 2017

No working class concern

Typical of Frank Gadbois to go off on a rant with incorrect information. Oh well, at least he wrote the letter himself this time instead of cutting and pasting from The New York Times.

Georgia’s driver’s license documentation requirements only apply to citizens like him and me. For some years now, Georgia’s Republicans, who he loves to hate so much, have been quietly giving licenses to illegals without making them jump through any of the hoops that he and I have to jump through.

He is also wrong when he describes the jobs they are doing as the ones Americans don’t want to do. Companies across the state have replaced all of their American employees with cheap labor from South of the border. And no, they aren’t passing the reduced cost of labor on to consumers, they’re keeping the increased profits for themselves.

Gadbois is right about one thing. Georgia’s Republicans don’t care about working class folks. All they care about is doing the bidding of their donors, who paid them to give driver’s licenses to illegals. Remember that in November!

Reverence for the flag

Seems my letter about flag desecration has produced other comments. Rather than respond to them, I’d just like to explain my feelings and association with our American Flag. I’m an old guy, raised in the 1940s and early ’50s. My earliest memories are of my mother’s older brother, Uncle Jimmy, overseas in Europe fighting under that flag, and later my mother’s younger brother, Uncle Paul, fighting in Korea. I especially remember my mother and grandmother talking about them, worrying about them, crying with joy when they came home safe.

Later, in the 8th grade, I competed for the honor of serving on our school’s flag detail. Every morning, we raised the flag on a very tall pole in the school’s playground, to the tune of a bugle call, and lowered it every evening. Being on that detail was a huge perk — and responsibility. Every boy in school competed for that honor. We presented the flag at the beginning of every school assembly. The 8th grade homeroom teacher who oversaw that detail was a World War II combat Marine, who saw service in the Pacific. He selected me for that detail after interviewing all other candidates. I still remember how proud my family was, and how much responsibility I felt for doing it right.

When our flag started showing signs of wear, he asked me to take it down to the custodial department, the furnace boiler room in the basement and burn it privately, according to our national flag rules which he taught us. So yes, at one time, I also was a flag burner, but quite different from those who do it publicly as protest.

I’ll never forget my feelings as the flames consumed the symbol of our great country. It was an act of reverence for me. So yes, it disturbs me when our flag is burned as protest. It is a very different feeling than I had when I did it. But more than anything else, I feel sorrow for someone, any American, who has no capacity to feel that same reverence. It’s not just a piece of cloth. It stands for something much greater than any of us, and burning it in protest does nothing to diminish that.

The newest dinosaur

President-elect Donald Trump captured the presidency against the will of a media industry determined to place a corrupt Democrat in the White House. This same media mounted a coordinated, hostile effort of lies, innuendo, obfuscation and fake news to defeat him.

Now, their failed treachery exposed, the prospect of being given lower status and access to the victorious Trump these next four years has wounded them greatly. Their deceitful practices, exposed, have cut deeply and the bleeding cannot be stopped.

Trump, wisely, does not trust them to be honest in their reporting. He prefers Twitter to inform people, not the biased evening news. Why wait for 6 p.m. when you can get current in just a few minutes online or on your phone. Privileged seating at press conferences and daily briefings will disappear. So will the traditional pool of reporters allowed to fly wherever the president goes. These antiquated protocols are being rudely pushed aside by up-to-date processes. In essence, the old media has been shown to be both prejudiced and irrelevant. And they won’t go quietly. The pride and anger of a crumbling business model will manifest with attacks, subtle and blunt, toward our new leader and his administration.

It is all the newest dinosaur knows how to do. We will be bombarded with more lies, more innuendo and more masked hatred. Woefully, for them, these actions will only succeed in bringing about their total demise faster. It will not save them. Nothing can. The transparency promised by President Obama will be delivered by Trump. My two cents

Bad thing?

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., says that she has no intention of working with President-elect Trump. Pardon me, just how can this be construed as a bad thing?

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 11:54 AM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, January 3, 2017."