This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017

The heist is on

So, the first step taken by our “drain the swamp” GOP representatives is to eliminate the only independent watchdog agency that would challenge them on any ethical improprieties. Did this action remind anyone else of the scene of all good robbery flicks where one of the bad guys sprays black paint onto the lenses of the security cameras at the onset of the heist?

House Republicans reversed their plan to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics Tuesday afternoon.

No transparency

Finally, a commonsense bipartisan issue we can all agree on. All votes in the state capitol should be recorded so that we the people always know exactly how each one of our state legislators vote in Atlanta.

Believe it or not, that is not the case in the Georgia state Senate.

State Senate rules used for decades allow unrecorded votes on very significant amendments to legislation offered on the Senate floor long after public input and any scrutiny in the committee process has been completed.

This lack of transparency in government affairs can be easily changed. Georgians need to know that the state senators vote on Senate rules as their first order of business every other year — and 2017 is one of those years. We provide this information just in case a few state senators forget to mention it to their constituents.

High up on the front wall of the Senate chamber is a large brightly lit machine that displays each senator’s vote and electronically records it in the permanent Senate record. It’s called the “Yeas and Nays” voting method.

In the full Senate chamber, if any senator wants to change a bill that has already been through the committee process, a “floor amendment” can be offered and senators can vote on whether or not to approve the amendment — with an unrecorded raise-your-hand vote. And they can decide if that vote is an unrecorded vote with another unrecorded raise-your-hand vote. Oddly enough, this is inaccurately referred to as the “voice vote,” or “rise stand and be counted” voting method. It takes six senators to very quickly demand a machine-recorded vote on floor amendments.

Confusing, isn’t it? Here is an example: In 2015, the Georgia Senate killed an amendment aimed at ending the current practice of issuing drivers licenses to illegal aliens by holding an unrecorded, raise-your-hand-vote on whether or not to have an unrecorded raise-your-hand-vote. Unrecorded won. Illegal aliens won.

We the people lost.

There was also an unrecorded vote involved in the final passage of the 2015 transportation tax increase. This writer watched both events. Readers should contact their state senators and demand that when the Republican-controlled state Senate comes to order on Monday morning, Jan. 9 the existing Senate rule allowing any unrecorded votes is changed. And that it be done with a machine-recorded vote.

When was the last time?

Well it’s a new year and it seems nothing will change. I have been writing letters for many years mostly to black so-called leaders in our communities. I mostly get criticized by black leaders for pointing out in my opinions their lack of proactive guidance to end the violence in our communities. I have never called anyone’s name in particular but they call mines, of which is not a problem.

Their response to me is that whites kill each other too. When was the last time in Middle Georgia anyone read a story about a white person shot by another white person delivering a pizza? When was the last time in Middle Georgia a young white youth was shot through her window while sitting in her room? When was the last time a young white man, sitting in his backyard was shot and killed? We all know it goes on and on.

The problem won’t end until we take ownership of it and work together to end it. If preachers and leaders who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then they will hear from heaven.

Put more focus on loving each other instead of money and material wealth, then maybe this lack of love we have for each other would end.

Really, really bad idea

I’ve seen a lot of bad ideas proffered in these columns, but Carolyn Effie’s suggested $5-$10 Club has set a new mark not likely to be bested anytime soon. She refers to a “radical plan” but the better term would be lunacy.

She wants to put up signs in “high crime areas to offer small amounts (of money) to known (drug) users,” suggesting this would result in reduced injuries, killings and jail time.

There is already a methadone clinic. You’re going to hand out cash? How will this stop practicing felons from shooting pizza deliverers or robbing convenience stores? Does she think these murdering thugs will line up like Cub Scouts and graciously receive their subsidy? How many times in a day, week or month are they allowed to come back? Keep in perspective that these people are criminals and should be treated as such.

I would speculate that Effie does not live in such a neighborhood and/or would not likely put such a sign in front of her own house; but if so, here are some more signs she may want to try: “This is a gun free home.” “Please come back next week — WE’RE OUT OF TOWN.”

If this had been April 1 instead of January 1 it would have been amusing; but her way of thinking is dangerous and people like this get to vote. It does, however, remind me of a favorite Steely Dan song.

Documentation

After reading the critical Tuesday letter from Mike Ganas, I called the Georgia Department of Drivers Services and asked the state employee what I would need to obtain a state drivers’ license if I was not a U.S. citizen.

She said that I would need legal immigration documents proving that I was here legally like a Green Card, etc. That basically all the requirements for a drivers’ license for a legal state resident like myself would also apply to a non-citizen resident of our state who wants a Georgia state drivers’ license.

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017."