This is Viewpoints for Sunday, January 7, 2018

Golden Pen accounting

John Daugherty’s recent piece in Viewpoints giving an accounting of who penned most of the 2017 letters we enjoyed each morning in the Telegraph was a hoot. It was factual and amusing, and if Daugherty ever chooses to apply for an actuarial position, I will be most happy to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf.

However I take issue with Daugherty equating the Golden Pen Award with Jim Costello’s 52 letters used by the editor last year. The Golden Pen Award is traditionally selected for quality, not quantity. More is not always better.

We’ve not seen many Golden Pen’s on the Opinion Page in a long time; the kind of letter you read again, maybe even read it aloud to someone else before it is cut from the newspaper and attached to the refrigerator door with magnets. There it will age in the light and dry in the heat until it becomes a crisp wrinkled piece of golden parchment. Usually it is found between a crayon drawing done by a great-granddaughter and a 1983 Niagara Falls mini-calendar.

Grammer cop, oh my!

I read with great interest my friend John Dunaway’s recent letter to the editor, in which he draws our attention to several linguistic developments that are disturbing, if not alarming. As a fellow “punctilious defender of good usage,” I’d like to put in my two sense. It really bothers me that more and more people are confusing they’re homonyms and simply dont know wear to place apostrophe’s — or whether one is actually needed. You don’t have to look far too find examples. Its so prevalent that I, like John, fear for the health of our deer language. Over-reliance on spell check is certainly one source of the problem; texting and tweeting has regrettably fostered a high tolerance for cutesy spelling errors. So, Dear Reader, please take a word of advice from me: set aside a few moments to proof-read what your writing. We need as many vigilant “grammar police” as possible out their

Made in America?

All red blooded Americans would rather buy made in America, but thanks to Amazon, you do not know until whatever you order arrives. I wanted a quiet dehumidifier. My cost was $60 cheaper on Amazon than elsewhere. Sadly, it came from China. Again, I needed a switching system for my King Ranch Ford Truck, I contacted local parts dealers to find the part ran $76. I had it shipped from Amazon for $41, but it also was from China. Not good.

Now I am looking at cars for my grandson. Two foreign models in Consumer Reports were highly recommended, as well as in two cars magazines. I wanted safety, looks, value and reliability. They both are made in South Korea.

The massive tax cuts afforded industries should lead to more made in America, but my bet is that permanent tax cut is going to sink us into bankruptcy. The diminishing number of folks paying taxes and rising interest rates spells trouble.

New Year wishes

I would like to wish all of you a very healthy and happy 2018, hoping all is better in politics, elections, fake media, and all else in between. May we see less crime, homelessness, sickness and all the things we fear, and by taking comfort in knowing that Jesus Christ is always near.

So let us work together to make the new year the best we’ve ever had, by loving our country, family and friends and by always cheering the sad. We are blessed and privileged to live in a great country that we love so, for there are hopes, dreams and freedoms that so many will never know. Happy New Year.

Forgotten oath

The new year started and the chaos in Washington continues. We have legislators who blindly follow an unpopular and unqualified president, who do not listen to the majority, and who greedily think of their own self-interest and that of their party and not the country. It is time to remind Sen. Johnny Isakson, Sen. David Perdue, Rep. Austin Scott and all the other Georgia representatives that they took an oath of office when elected. That oath states that they will “support and defend” the Constitution. No where does it say they will support and defend the president. They seem to have forgotten this.

Defending scoundrels

A letter defending scoundrels like Donald Trump and Roy Moore with scripture was offensive. How naive must one be to see these shameless men as the good guys who want the best for us? How many times must Trump reveal that he has no compassion or moral judgment? Why would a president offend our proven allies in the UK, France, Germany and Australia and choose instead to befriend and praise Russian President Vladimir Putin who clearly plans to disrupt America and the European Union?

Cheating students at Trump University was as corrupt as refusing to pay laborers for Trump’s resort projects. Shoving a foreign leader aside so as to be seen himself, as well as proudly admitting he had groped numbers of women both display an unprincipled individual. Touting a tax bill which benefits the rich on the backs of the middle and working classes harms the very people who voted for him as does the elimination of subsidies for their health insurance.

While I can understand the political motive of Republicans and Trump when abandoning basic values in support of Roy Moore, they surely had to hold their noses as they ignored the substantial accusations concerning his pursuit of teen girls and even being kicked out of a mall for such behavior.

Con men do exhibit a certain appeal, but they invariably show their true colors, as these two corrupt individuals have repeatedly done.

This story was originally published January 6, 2018 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, January 7, 2018."