This is Viewpoints for Thursday, July 27, 2017

Alternative to gangs

Too many young men have been abandoned, left alone to fend for themselves. When mama puts you out of the house and baby’s mama kicks you to the curb, what recourse is available? Gangs eagerly accept them into their ranks, with no upfront dues. These young men lack the safety nets that many of us have grown accustomed to and take for granted during times of need.

This letter in no way should be construed as condoning criminal activities under any circumstances, but rather to offer a plausible reasons why crime, as a way of survival, is often times their only recourse.

A society that is willing to spend billions of dollars locking criminals up for committing economic related crimes rather than spending a fraction of that sum helping them find jobs and training is a shameful society. Survival is an inborn instinct, instilled in all human beings. It is unfortunate that the survival instinct “trumps” social mores.

Take the option of crime out of the equation and provide them with jobs and you will experience a drastic decline in the return to crime or recidivism. Spending $40,000 plus a year to keep a criminal in prison is ludicrous and needs to be addressed. Provide these young folks with training, a job and a reason to be proud and you would witness a substantial reversal in behavior.

Locking folks up in perpetuity is not a sustainable, realistic approach to dealing with the problem at hand. Taxpayers simply lack the deep pockets to continue down the path we’re on and unless changed, the system will virtually collapse.

Other alternatives to this dilemma may entail taking a portion of the $40,000-plus it takes to keep a man behind bars and allocating it to a training program designed to equip them with adequate skill sets to acquire and hold a job. The government in turn should provide employers willing to hire these young men with incentives, in the form of tax credits.

Cops are not the problem, so if black lives truly matter, take to the street and advocate for training and jobs for all young men, Hispanic, white and black — they are our future whether we recognize it or not and they will one day govern us.

How long?

I am wondering how long it will be before the left starts demanding the government start paying for their medical marijuana.

Sleeping beauty

Watching reality shows on TV is more fun than working for good government, and Donald Trump laughs at us all the way to the bank. If we do not wake up now, we will probably sleep forever.

Improve don’t repeal

I believe that “guaranteed health care is a human right” yet our two Republican U.S. senators, Johnny Isakson and David Perdue don’t. They have done nothing to protect our citizens on Medicaid or prevent the closure of our rural hospitals.

They supported the cutting of Medicaid funding that would cause 22 million Americans to lose their Medicaid insurance in a couple of years. They are basically Libertarians who don’t believe in making health care available to those who need it as a legitimate role of our federal government. Letting some of us go bankrupt and/or die if we get sick as the price of freedom.

Senate Republicans have done nothing like covering more uninsured with Medicaid. Or making health care cheaper, protecting Americans with preexisting conditions. They have assaulted health care and truth itself with their lying and unconcern for our uninsured.

Former Rep. Tom Price, secretary of Health and Human Services, whose main job is to destroy the health care law, by no means represents the mainstream of American medicine who actually want to preserve and improve Obamacare.

Price wants to defund Planned Parenthood and deny millions of poor women basic health care across our nation. Federal funds cannot be used to pay for abortions because of the Hyde Amendment. Yet Price tells lies about Planned Parenthood all the time. When he is not engaged in insider trading with his investments.

Now is the time to concentrate on improving Obamacare and the GOP must stop trying to destroy the ACA like they have since it became the law of the land. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., our local congressman, must act to improve the ACA instead urging its repeal.

Not ready?

Why won’t Mercer buy the old Hilton Hotel downtown and use it for dormitories for law students. Then take the old Dempsey and make luxury condominiums out of them. This would bring a lot of people downtown to live. I don’t think people in Macon would be interested in buying luxury condominiums downtown yet. It’s not Atlanta.

‘Have at it’

Well try this on for size in relations to government agencies. A couple of months before taking my July vacation, I ordered some items on the net. I received some sooner than others, however all were received except for one before vacation time. The tracking numbers indicated it was delivered July 3. I did not receive it, therefore reported it to the Rocky Creek Post Office. At the same time I put a hold on my mail until July 16, requesting to put the lost item in my held mail.

Returning home late, the missing package was not in my held mail delivered July 16. I called Monday July 17 and a man told me it was out for delivery. I did not received it but decided to wait until I received Tuesday’s mail. It was not in Tuesday’s mail, therefore I called and was told the carrier delivered it to the wrong address, but I could not retrieve the package. Then the superintendent of the Rocky Creek location gave me a claim number to call at the main building.

The employee took the tracking number and said it was not insured, therefore the Post Office was not responsible for delivering my package to the wrong address. He said I needed to contact the vendor. I replied it was not the vendor’s nor my fault. He became angry saying the vendor should have insured the package and I could sue. I replied no way I would sue anyone. However, I did tell him it seems to me the vendor and I could sue the Post Office and he said, “have at it.” I laughed and thanked him for his time.

This story was originally published July 26, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, July 27, 2017."