This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Who is next?

Obama earned the title “Liar in chief” but then came Hillary who mightily tried to surpass him. Now comes Susan Rice who has become the latest challenger. Who’s next? Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer? Both have shown they are promising contenders.

Greed

All of the airlines pay extraordinarily high salaries for top management and all have computers. So if the plane holds 300, that is all the passengers that should be booked. Now as an investor, I take exception when the airline pays for overbooking. After Delta raised the amount to $9,500 for the error, I’ll bet airlines will be tested regularly. Greed will prevail.

Soap Box Derby 2017

After watching the derby for several years, this year I became a volunteer on the organizing committee. What a wonderful group of people. Our focus was making the event exciting and fun for everyone — spectators, race teams, vendors and fellow volunteers.

I now fully appreciate the “magic” at work in the months preceding the derby to make it a fun event. Saturday morning the dance began at 7 a.m.; Macon-Bibb Solid Waste delivered 24 waste and nine recycling containers; Boy Scouts placed 750 hay bales to establish the course and safety stopping zone; sheriff deputies and EMTs were in place; 18 food trucks positioned on lower Magnolia (compared to eight in 2016); vendors setup in Washington Park, timing equipment and music DJ got ready, etc. etc.

At 10 a.m. the race started on schedule with Gravity Racers (high school STEM teams), followed by children on Big Wheels, Shade Tree contestants, and professional entrants. Throughout the race, Boy Scouts move bales back and forth making stopping the cars safe. An estimated 4,500-plus people attended which was up from 4,000 in 2016.

At 7 p.m. it was as if the derby hadn’t occurred, hay bales removed by Cutting Edge Landscaping, straw swept from the street, trash and recycling containers picked up by Solid Waste, and “no parking” signs fastened to poles removed. In the finest sense, Magnolia Soap Box Derby is a community event. 2018 will mark its 10th anniversary and planning has already begun to make it more enjoyable and memorable.

Two masters

Very good rebuttal by Rod Callahan to Yvonne Miller’s bashing of his prayer for today. She and all others who want to cuddle up with the Muslims need to decide what Jesus meant when he said you can’t serve two masters. To me it is cut and dry. There is no in between. I find it hard to want to associate with anyone who states and believes God has no son. By the way, remember how Satan entered the garden, he just eased right in. Wake up America because they are slithering right in among us.

Call Scott

Georgia’s Republican congressional delegation are all Trump supporters who only care about their rich campaign donors. I never hear from them or see them on our local TV news channels. Just like our local chamber of commerce and 21st Century Partnership they only cater to our local Republican city council members.

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., never replies to the requests of our local NARFE chapter to come and speak. No town hall meetings for Scott! He is afraid of them so he has these pathetic telecom meetings. He is against government-run health care like Obamacare that has over 20 million people enrolled, most having health insurance for the first time.

His GOP health-care plan would throw 23 million people off Obamacare in 10 years or so. But he is against government run healthcare like Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare. But he likes the federal government to pay for his family health insurance. He is a hypocrite.

We failed to re-elect Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., who voted for Republican laws in Congress 60 percent of the time. And who knew all kinds of folks in the Pentagon. He was an Army Ranger in Vietnam. He was a former Mayor of Macon with an illustrious record.

But our local Republican Tea Party residents voted for a real estate broker from a small town whose doctor dad hated Obamacare, who seldom shows up at Robins Air Force Base and nobody knows who he is.

Those of us who care about our uninsured and don’t want Obamacare repealed need to call Rep. Scott in Washington and tell him that we don’t want Obamacare repealed.

Good for P&Z

There should be celebration in Middle Georgia with the P&Z denial of permits for a medical waste facility in southern Bibb County. The word ironic immediately comes to mind regarding the location in a county that cannot fight blight effectively or upgrade utilities for existing buildings while raising taxes to “spend somewhere else.”

Middle Georgia stays on edge regarding any possible cutbacks at the region’s largest employer, Robins Air Force Base and this new facility would bring waste via untold numbers of diesel fumes spewing trucks from only the Lord knows where.

The reported proposal appears to offer no positive contributions to our community, especially jobs with a future. I can envision the media reporting as Bibb teeters on non-compliance for poor air quality, possibly making the difference, moving our county in non-compliance for air quality standards.

This proponents of the MedSafe proposal need to recognize and accept the obituary given it by P&Z. Our community welfare depends on this facility location being far away from Middle Georgia.

When proponents for a facility such as this cite federal and/or state laws and regulations as assurance of a safe environment, I double down on my personal concerns and doubts about the project based on nearly five decades of expansive experience in complex environmental engineering design and construction. Our community does not need truck imported trash or waste. We need to concentrate on controlling and properly disposing of that which we create.

This story was originally published April 18, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, April 19, 2017."