This is Viewpoints for Friday, August 18, 2017

Loaded question

Why is it when one side demonstrates, kills, burns, loots, the incident is protected by “civil rights”? When the other side marches it is called hatred, bigotry, racism. You choose which side is doing what, I just asked a generic question.

Looking on

About 200 protesters in Durham, North Carolina toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier recently. I was shocked and angered as I watched the video and learned that police were looking on as the crowd roped the soldier and pulled him down. This is totally unacceptable behavior. Violence and lawlessness is not helping their cause. These people should have been arrested. I guarantee that if I destroyed a public monument, I’d get in trouble.

Never mind

In 2017, Republicans vowed that they were going to repeal and replace Obamacare. In 2017 the Republicans vowed that they were going to repeal Obamacare and replace it later. Oh, never mind!

That August

Ed Grisamore’s Sunday commentary reminded me of that August, 40 years ago, when Elvis died. My wife and I were on a northern vacation with my sister and brother-in-law. We left my sister and her husband at his parent’s house in upstate New York and Connie and I headed for Canada. We visited Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. On our last day in Toronto we went up the CN tower and then headed to Niagara Falls on the QEW. As we motored around Lake Ontario, a news break came on the radio: Elvis Presley had died. My thought was the man left us much too soon.

So each year when we hear of the anniversary of Elvis’ death, I think of that great August vacation. A trip that included visits to the Gettysburg battlefield, the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, the world’s tallest structure, and a waterfall that words cannot describe. But most often, I think of the one who was with me when we heard the news, someone who also left us much too soon.

City manager

Every now and then everyone will come up with what they think is a brilliant idea, but in many instances the brilliance is only in their eyes and self-aggrandizing. Such is the case of some individuals currently sitting on the Warner Robins City Council when they think that we need a city manager.

I will have to say that over the years we have grown in population. But, not to the point of needing an unelected city manager that according to a draft job description would include the authority of hiring and firing city employees. That is strictly a situation that should stay with the mayor.

If the council insists on giving the mayor help (which he has not asked for), maybe, just maybe, they could begin with a position of vice mayor to help with administrative duties only.

If the council will take a deep breath and look into what the future of having a full-time mayor to deal with a Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) would do for this community, I can hear it now when the commission leader calls and wants to talk to the mayor to get some of his thoughts on BRAC. The secretary’s reply would be, “Oh he is only part time and not available today.” I would ask council to consider what a stigma of having a part-time mayor would have on the Department of Defense (DoD) about to do a BRAC study. Or, the commanding general of the Air Logistics Center when he calls and needs to talk to the part-time mayor.

I would request that the council members that are so narrow minded and only want to oppose anything the mayor is doing consider that they are elected to serve the citizens of Warner Robins and not to satisfy their own petty agendas.

The City Council and mayor should have a closed-door meeting and truly listen to what the mayor’s plans are. If the truth was known, probably not one on council has taken the time just to sit down and talk and really get the mayor’s thoughts on any situation.

A call for unity

In an effort to explore possible causes contributing to the rise of racial divides in America, coupled with crimes committed against black America, the following information, extrapolated from the internet is provided:

Total estimated KKK members in America, 6,000; total estimated black gang members in America, 356,500. Since 1980, over 260,000 deaths of black folks are attributed to black gangs while the number of deaths attributed to KKK members during this same period is extremely low — which group, therefore, do you think represents the greatest threat to black folks? It is clear black-on-black crime represents the greatest threat. Trump’s remarks were appropriate — America’s problem extends far beyond the KKK. All of our problems shouldn’t be charged to them or white folks in general.

It is interesting to note that during slavery, less than 8 percent of white families owned slaves—only 8 percent, yet too many black folks tend to blame all white folks for the misdeeds of others who just happen to share their skin color. Who wants to be blamed for something that they, neither their ancestors had any part in? This madness has to end and replaced by some form of unity.

John Haugabrook,

Tragic ending

The true tragic end to the T.J. Freeman death is that Martavius Kinder plead guilty and was sentenced because of what appears started because Kinder stopped to aid what he thought was a stranded motorist. It turned out it was officers on a stake out in an unmarked car, and was Kinder who was profiled (driving while black), that eventually led to Freeman’s death.

Poor recycling efforts

In the interest of brevity I’ll move directly to the point. There is a lack of leadership at the local level that permeates and debilitates all recycling efforts across Houston County. It is disappointing to compile and place recyclables at the curb only to witness them mixed with normal trash, partially collected, or in some cases not collected at all. When the city/county inevitably comes asking for funds via ballot to close the landfill, I hope they understand my emphatic “No” vote.

This story was originally published August 17, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Friday, August 18, 2017."