This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Keep festival peaceful

My wife and I will be coming to Macon to enjoy the final weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival. We are really excited about doing this. I lived in Macon during most of the 1980s. My daughters were born there. I have many very good memories of Macon. Besides playing golf at Bowden, the Cherry Blossom Festival was probably my next favorite memory. We saw a lot of great bands and had a good time at every event.

I don’t remember any type of disturbance by anyone.

Anyway, recently I searched “Macon Cherry Blossom Festival” on YouTube. It’s especially nice to see Macon when all of the azaleas and cherry trees are in bloom. We are bringing another couple with us. Can’t wait!

I saw some footage on YouTube of street preachers from Florida holding signs and yelling at people about Jesus and their interpretation of religion. They were actually abusive to some people and referring to the First Amendment. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to yell at people and scare their children. The Macon police are peace officers. That means that if anyone disturbs the peace of citizens of Macon at any event, they should be arrested after one warning. No exceptions. No one has a right to disrupt a peaceful day out with friends and family. CBF organizers, please post signs reminding anyone on the streets of Macon that yelling at eventgoers will not be tolerated ever.

Kudos to Cummings

Dr. Bill Cummings’ columns of late have been informative, inspirational, thought-provoking, spiritually stimulating and a pleasure to read.

Arming teachers a very complex, difficult idea

I do not believe arming teachers is the answer to school shootings. It is not as simple as finding some teachers who are retired military to approve carrying a gun in a school. Dealing with an active shooter in a school setting is a different skill than most military personnel have been trained to handle. Asking teachers to do SWAT-type actions without SWAT training, weapons or equipment is wrong.

There are many questions that come with arming teachers. Who will pay for the training and continued training? Will the teacher be immune from criminal and civil prosecution for injury to students they may accidentally shot? Does a teacher leave the classroom unprotected to engage a shooter? How will the police know the difference between the shooter and teacher? Will the teachers who do not use their gun to defend students face discipline? What happens to a teacher who has a student get the teacher’s gun?

I liked President Trump’s comparison to airliner hijackings, only I have a different conclusion. The government did not arm flight attendants to stop hijackings. It put trained armed marshals on planes. The solution is not arming teachers. It is some combination of increased security by professionals, reducing the number of large capacity semiautomatic weapons and better background checks to keep weapons out of the hands of people who should not have them.

Feel safe or be safe?

You are being misled by Wayne LaPierre, President Trump and a host of others who warn you that you are in danger without your gun. Some of my friends honestly believe that they can shoot more accurately than trained law enforcement officers. The problem is that even the officers often miss the bad guy. Why? Because under the stress of a dangerous situation, their adrenaline makes them unsteady, too. Guns in the home make you feel safe, but the truth is you and your family are less safe. When we add together gun accidents (especially by children), suicides and homicides with having your gun stolen and used, these numbers far outweigh fending off bad guys.

The NRA is a relatively small organization. Most of the funds for their ads and support of political candidates come from the manufacture and sales of guns and ammunition. When Americans were told that President Obama was about to take our guns, stores ran out of guns and ammo, even though Obama never even tried. We men have been taught to protect our families. Would you rather feel safe or be safe?

Keep the killers out to begin with

You recently published an opinion piece by a writer for the AJC in which he discussed developments on the education front by state legislators. Missing from the article, however, was any mention of what the legislature is doing to address security in our schools, specifically measures which would prevent the mass shootings of our children by some deranged individual, an event which recently happened in Florida. All we hear and read about from the left is that more gun control is needed to address situations like this. The problem is that almost anybody can waltz into the front door of many schools and start killing students with the weapon of his choice. If we are serious about preventing future mass murder of our kids, we’ve got to come up a way to keep these mass murderers out of our schools. It’s as simple as that. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, my daddy used to say. Schools should be at least as safe as courthouses.

Go hard at drug dealers

If we look at the countries that have the least problems with drugs, many at near zero, we find they kill drug dealers! Given the facts in America we most certainly must become realistic with our current revolving door policies. Opioids are killing thousands and other drugs are killing or ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands! The use of the adage “an eye for an eye” is certainly logical. Drugs are costing America tens of billions of dollars.

Our entire system is being destroyed. Teachers, doctors, pilots and virtually all segments of our society are being bleed dry by drug dealers — mentally and financially.

The death penalty would bring about a massive positive cleansing through our country. We better act now!

This story was originally published February 28, 2018 at 9:00 AM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, February 28, 2018."