This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017

Who’s protecting our environment?

The Stream Protection Rule (SPR) was designed to improve the balance between protecting the environment and addressing the nation’s need for coal. The SPR modernizes 30 year-old regulations governing the mining of coal to reflect advances in scientific knowledge and mining techniques.

This rule states coal companies can mine in pristine areas of the country but must do so in a way that doesn’t contaminate nearby freshwater streams with toxic chemicals or debris. It is important to keep freshwater streams free of pollutants otherwise pollution continues downstream to contaminate other water systems into which it flows, impacting every downstream community.

This SPR is analogous to a basic rule we all learned in kindergarten: If you make a mess, clean it up.

In early February the House and Senate (including our Georgia congressmen and representative, Sens. Johnny Isakson, David Perdue, and Rep. Austin Scott ) voted to eliminate this rule. Last Thursday Donald Trump signed the repeal of the Clean Stream Rule into law.

Isakson’s website says, “I am committed to protecting our state’s water supply and the infrastructure that ensures its quality because it is vital to our security and the health of our citizens.” If he is truly committed to clean water, the Stream Protection Rule is something he would strongly support.

With Isaakson’s, Perdue’s and Scott’s votes to repeal the SPR and to confirm Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA, I ask our elected officials in Congress, who is protecting our environment?

Ask a few questions in 2018

Janet Payne is disappointed in Rep. Austin Scott’s lack of response to his constituents’ concerns. I am not. Despite his dismal record, Scott has been re-elected numerous times. He is a professional politician. He has been running on the same sad refrain each time. I am a Republican and I oppose BRAC.

Come November 2018 I hope voters consider his record. What did he do to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act? Did he vote to lower corporate tax brackets and retain the existing tax loopholes? What did he do to replace the convoluted tax code? Were individual taxes significantly reduced? What did he do to safeguard Social Security and Medicare? What did he do to bring additional workload to Robins Air Force Base? What did he do to reduce excess spending and lower the debt? What did he do to reduce the size of government? What did he do to reform immigration and make our boarders safe? Did he just support the status quo? What did he do to improve national security?

If voters ignore his record and are spellbound again by his rhetoric they have no one else to blame but themselves for a dysfunctional government. If voters are demanding in 2018 for the same things they did in 2016 do not be amazed. I will not.

As long as voters keep re-electing individuals who make vague promises but accomplish nothing, things will not change. There is a way to establish term limits, elect individuals who will do their job. I am voting in 2018 and I hope Janet will too.

Change agent

Prior to President Trump being elected there has never been so much attention to every word of a president. The actual news has suffered from neglect. The war of words is truly causing international concerns. President Trump is a radical change from any president. He is brutally frank and is concentrating on enormous change. The past eight years and decades before, the White House has failed to represent most Americans.

It seems as though all Democrats, actors, media, federal servants, congressmen, and many more are failing to realize America is 320 million-plus people in a desperate situation both financially and morally. Right or wrong we elected our current president and we all are Americans with our futures at stake. God bless America.

Picking at a scab

Bobby Komlo’s letter “Who paid the city’s debts,” has every right to try and understand how any debts of the city were paid off after consolidation, but to assume that “western Bibb County guys” have been taken advantage of in doing so any more than us “city guys” were taken advantage of during decades of “double taxation” in the form of undelivered county services within the city can be fraught with fallacious conclusions.

This may be one of those “scab issues” that were part of the consolidation agreement. (I think it is best not picking at any such “scabs” resulting in “blood poisoning,” and that voices of concerned citizens be directed to the current elected leaders demanding responsible governmental actions, especially excellent prioritization of county needs and prudent financial management.) We are over the honeymoon now, learning how to live together respectfully.

Wake up

For all the Democrats, it’s time for you to stop whining. Your candidate lost the election and Donald Trump won on his own merit. A vast majority of voters decided it was time to shake things up and get things done. We need to rally behind our new president and support him. I feel sure the terrorists enjoy seeing our great country divided giving them the opportunity to create another 9/11. Remember, together we stand divided we fall. Wake up America and make America great again.

Hypothetical

According to an article in The Telegraph, in 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feeble minded persons, epileptics, insane persons” from being admitted to the U.S. Can you imagine the uproar among liberals in this country if such legislation were even proposed by the current Republican-controlled Congress and signed by Donald Trump? The ACLU would be in a tizzy and today’s electronic and print media, for the most part, would be outdoing each other in heaping vile and disgusting lies and labels on the Republicans. Trump won. Get over it.

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017."