This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017

Headed to the Super Bowl

Congratulations to the Atlanta Falcons football team that will be playing in the 2017 Super Bowl. Professional sports is not my “cup of tea.” However, team owner Arthur Blank’s unique and exemplary modus operandi deserves this opportunity. Congratulations to the Falcons’ management, coaches, players, all of the talented staff and the loyal fans and any others I could have missed. They all bring honor to Atlanta, Georgia, the capitol of our wonderful New South.

Insurance comparison

I need help understanding the justification for a health insurance policy covering pre-existing conditions can sustain an affordable cost. No one, especially young adults, would ever need health insurance until they get sick. For instance, a person finds they have cancer. Of course they would sign up for coverage. After all the expensive treatments are paid by the insurance company and they become cancer free, they could cancel the policy or just stop paying premiums even while the insurance company is still paying for medical care delivered. Years later, what if the cancer comes back? The person would need to get health coverage again. Where have I gone wrong in this situation?

Now compare health coverage to life insurance. My elder uncle and aunt, residents of Georgia, had an active $5,000 life insurance policy making premiums for several years. An insurance salesman talked them into buying $10,000 policies on each of them with very high premiums. They canceled the $5,000 coverage in order to make premiums on the $10,000. My aunt died a few years later, however the company did not pay because they asked her a question: have you been in the hospital or nursing home in the last two years? She said “no.” However, it turned out she had been in the hospital the first two days beginning the period in question. Therefore after paying life premiums for many years, no family member benefited from her life insurance.

Now compare this to health coverage in relation to pre-existing conditions, buying health coverage only when one is sick. Which of the two types of insurance seems fairer; those of yesteryear or today? The people who pay their entire lives for such coverage are paying additional cost. Our premiums are skyrocketing in order to cover those who only pay when they become sick. Where have I gone wrong in this comparison?

End birthright citizenship

Birthright citizenship leads to more unemployed citizens and legal immigrant workers by making it more difficult to remove illegal workers who have U.S.-born children. The House is considering H.R. 140 to end birthright citizenship.

Australia did it in 2007, New Zealand in 2006, Ireland in 2005, France in 1993, and the United Kingdom in 1983. In the past 35 years, these developed, first world nations have passed legislation doing away with birthright citizenship. With Australia’s decision to end birthright citizenship in 2007, the United States and Canada are the only remaining industrialized nations to grant citizenship to each and every person born in the country, regardless of his or her parents’ nationality or immigration status. Clearly, this ever-shrinking group of nations is not one to which we need to belong.

To grant automatic birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens is inherently wrong. Almost the entire industrialized world has eliminated it and the United States should as well. H.R. 140 would prevent children born in the United States from receiving automatic birthright citizenship unless they have at least one parent who is a legal U.S. resident.

Proposed changes to meeting rules

There are many proposed changes, and for better or worse, I can understand why Warner Robins City Council has chosen to curtail certain aspects of citizen comment in an effort to shorten meeting times.

However, it is unclear how two of these provisions would do anything to reduce meeting times or maintain decorum. In fact it would curtail only the content of speech. The city has proposed that citizens not be allowed to bring in signs or any kind of political material whether or not these signs obstruct someone’s view of the proceedings. The city is also prohibiting the mention of any city official during citizen comment period by name or by title. Abusive speech can be prohibited without censorship. Will council, likewise, not mention the names of citizens? Not only do these provisions do nothing to decrease meeting times, but it could serve to alienate what is sometimes a citizen’s sole means of redress.

The purpose of citizen comment is not solely to make contact with one’s elected officials, in fact, there are other official means of doing this. It is to go on record before the council, the electorate and journalists. I ask fellow citizens to join me in urging City Council to remove these two provisions of the proposed modification to the rules of council meetings to help preserve an open process that serves the needs of the electorate.

The sun will rise

For the past eight years millions professed to hate everything President Obama did or said. Now, at least, the next four years the other groups can profess to hate everything President Trump does or says. Donald Trump is the president. The sun will rise in the morning, people will go to work, school and shopping. The mountains will not fall on us and the oceans won’t drown us out.

For a change, rather than pay attention to talking heads on TV and washed up actors, actresses and especially singers, maybe we should turn back to our communities and work for the change we want, or need. Or work to support out elected officials.

Oh I know all the moans, he wasn’t elected legally, he cheated, she cheated, he lies, she lied. Yup, they sure did, do and will. Blowing things up, (how) and subjecting children to profanity and smut in the wet of D.C. will change none of that. Nor will complacency and acceptance of everything the newspapers and Internet feed us. We need to get back to thinking without a mouse or remote in our hand. Oh no, no $700 cell phones, oh my.

This story was originally published January 23, 2017 at 9:05 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017."