This is Viewpoints for Sunday, January 14, 2018

Hate Trump

I would like to add to Travis Middleton’s letter. Those who hate Trump also hate the United States. They worship the government. An old saying goes, “If you hate another person you must hate yourself first.”

I told you so

So the man who occupies the office once held by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and other great presidents has now descended to assuring us that he is, in fact, sane. It reminds me of Emerson’s remark that “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”

It’s too bad that the voters of Middle Georgia wouldn’t listen to my repeated pleas on this page in 2016 not to vote for Donald Trump, on the grounds that he is unfit to be president. Now the chickens are coming home to roost and you are getting what you deserve. How tragic, however, that the rest of us have to suffer along with you. If Trump blunders his way into World War III, the missiles won’t discriminate between the guilty (Trump voters) and the innocent.

The Trump presidency appears to be imploding and it’s looking more and more as if he won’t serve out his term and that we are heading for a constitutional crisis similar to Watergate, but worse. (At least nobody doubted that Nixon was sane.) In the meantime, can’t somebody in the White House please, please, please steal Trump’s Twitter phone and hide it where he can’t find it?

Welcome home?

Here it is 2018. In Nov. 30, 2017, I had the honor and privilege of observing the temporary display (we hope) of two statues in Warner Robins City Hall. One is a reproduction and senn on a regular basis. It is referred to as a “Fallen Soldier Battle Cross.” The other was a one-of-a-kind statue called “Survivors Guilt.” It depicts a Vietnam veteran contemplating why he got to come home while so many of his friends didn’t. I felt that way when I came home. My father told me the Lord had something for me to do and I hadn’t done it yet.

Over the past five years I have watched Tom McClendon, the man who had the love of country to start the ball rolling for the Vietnam Memorial for Warner Robins. Rich McKee, who helped him a great deal and others who worked long hours to get Georgia local, state and federal politicians to help with the memorial built on Memorial Parkway, a frontage road parallel to Interstate 75. Promises were made but never kept. Land was offered for the memorial and a special purpose local option sales tax was passed in 2012 to help with the financing of the project. The money was moved around, some things changed and none was allowed to be used until this year. Now they want to move the location for the sixth time. There is still no land.

Many others who did nothing or very little have taken credit for most of what McClendon has done. I don’t feel the need to name any public officials. They know who they are. This isn’t about who gets credit for the memorial. The Vietnam veterans who served and died should be honored and no credit should be mentioned.

After years of hard work it appears McClendon has turned the reins over to McKee. McClendon says he’s tired. I hear he was told, “It’s not your memorial.” Then who does it belong to? Not the local politicians. It belongs to all Georgia Vietnam veterans who served there and those who died there and need to be remembered for what they did for their country. When will our memorial in Warner Robins receive a “Welcome Home”?

I like living in Houston County. We have some fine people here, but we also have a lot of people with their own agendas.

After attending the championship game Monday night and after hearing from friends that watched, I wonder why there has been no significant news coverage of the ridiculously poor job done by the Big 10 referees?

Against Alabama there were two face mask penalties that should have been called and a personal foul by No. 48 against Jake Fromm that was not called. And the most egregious was an off sides call against Georgia that was clearly “not” that negated a blocked punt.

Every one of these calls were clearly seen from the stands and should have been seen by at least three officials. All of these missed calls were significant and game changing. There is video that I’ve seen that clearly show every missed call I’ve mentioned above.

There is front page coverage in today’s paper about video replay for high school games. That high school play was replayed for weeks. Also it had been covered by most statewide news organizations. If you’re going to talk about high school missed calls why not missed calls in the college championship game?

Again why are these obvious wrong calls not being covered by any of our so called news organizations? The discussion won’t fix what is done, but maybe it would keep these errors from happening again.

Minor turned major

I noticed two high speed chase articles in The Telegraph that took place on Jan. 3 and Jan. 8 in Macon. The Georgia State Patrol was involved in the first chase and the Bibb Sheriff’s Office in the second. The first pursuit was the result of an “expired tag” and the second was due to “no proof of insurance.” Both ended in a crash involving innocent victims’ vehicles. The first chase sent three victims to the hospital and severely damaged their truck.

The second chase appears to have totaled the victim’s Ford Taurus station wagon. Luckily (per article ) the victim was not injured enough to require medical attention.

My concern is for the “innocent victims.” When a chase for minor traffic infractions becomes dangerous to the public, it seems law enforcement should immediately stop the pursuit. Does the state have guidelines for law enforcement agencies to follow in these situations?

How many cars have expired tags in Georgia? Possibly hundreds, if not thousands. Totally illogical to initiate a high-speed pursuit. Odds are there was no insurance on that car. The same applies to the “no insurance” chase. I’m sure the victims in these situations were not overly pleased to know there was no source of restitution for their damages other than their own insurance coverage. Hopefully, they carried collision, medical and/or uninsured motorist coverage on their policy.

This story was originally published January 13, 2018 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, January 14, 2018."