This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015
America has forgotten where her blessings have come from. We think we are blessed by our smart thinking and innovation. That is not true. We were a nation dedicated to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God has blessed us. We have turned to greed, violence, sexual immorality, envy and every sin conceivable. We say its alright to have premarital sex, homosexual sex, to kill babies, to kill one another, to steal, to envy, to hate, etc. America needs to repent of its sins and turn to the only God and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to read Deuteronomy 28 and see what happens to a nation that fears God and one that doesn’t. We were a nation that feared God and now we are not. God has made a promise that he will not destroy the world by water any more, but he will destroy it by fire. We need to remember 2 Peter 3:12 as well. I am saying this because I love my country and the people who live in it. Repent America before its too late.
— Chuck Fore
Eastman
Vote no
By almost any measurement Houston County out preforms Bibb County and this is especially true in higher economic development, better public school education, lower crime statistics and more community involvement. Fair to say there is more housing blight and discarded roadside litter in one square mile of Macon-Bibb than there is in all of Houston. Perhaps this disparity is from years of failed leadership, especially in the way tax dollars are used.
Our sister city to the south appears to use those dollars better for the benefit of all citizens and not a chosen few as we do in Macon-Bibb. It is rare to hear the leadership of Houston County speak of tax monies being used to build a railroad for passenger service to Atlanta, sponsor a museum with tens of thousands of dollars a year that has little impact on the entire community, or to build and maintain an educational center that has done little more than enrich it’s developers.
Maybe the disparity between the two counties was summed up by the reaction each had to another vote for a new regional T-SPLOST. The commissioners and mayors in Houston announced staunch opposition to such a tax, but the mayor and most commissioners of Macon-Bibb have embraced the proposed tax hike with open arms. It doesn’t take a soothsayer to know most of those tax dollars, if approved in Bibb, would be spent in the downtown hub and much of it would meander into special projects for the benefit of Mercer University.
If past experience foretell the future, almost every dollar of the proposed T-SPLOST earmarked for local neighborhoods would end up on special interest projects in the inner city, or for consultant fees or community outreach programs.
The old saw used by Macon-Bibb squawking is that if we use all our tax dollars to build an inner city of gold first with our tax dollars, the rest of the county will then flow from what we have into utopia. That does not play in Houston. And it will not play in the outskirts of Macon this time at the election box.
Five counties have joined Macon-Bibb in asking for another vote for this 1 percent sales tax increase, six others have rightfully rejected or remain non-committal to the idea. This proposed T-SPLOST should be squashed in its tracts and replaced with more sensible planning and spending of the tax dollars now collected in Macon-Bibb. Our mayor and commissioners should learn to live on a miser budget like the rest of us do. Vote no on any tax increase for Macon-Bibb.
— John G. Kelley Jr.
Macon
The road to Hell
Since the 1990s, there has been a dramatic increase in the severity of laws geared toward sex offenders. There have been unintended side effects, and the laws are not necessarily doing what they promised. Accused offenders who are innocent are suffering even worse for crimes which they did not commit.
Many (accused) sex offenders are made homeless by restrictive living arrangement laws and are unable to live with or near family or supportive services. There is the contradiction between the purpose of tracking the whereabouts of an offender when he has no permanent place to live and must wander aimlessly or sleep in a tent.
These laws do not actually address the root causes of offending. It would be akin to telling drunk drivers they could not live with 1,000 feet of a liquor store, or telling armed robbers that they cannot live within 1,000 feet of a bank. Would this keep an alcoholic sober or a bank robber from robbing? No.
The popularity of these registries is growing, unfortunately. Now there are people who are trying to institute animal abuser registries in many states. Just imagine where this could lead. What type of registries are next? How long will it be before nearly everyone is on some registry?
It is time to request that our lawmakers reconsider the unintended effects of the sex offender registries and housing restrictions. Georgia lawmakers can be reached through the Georgia.gov website.
— Lee Parker
Thomaston
All lives matter
Over the last several weeks I have been hearing about how “Black Lives Matter.” I’ve been hearing how police are targeting blacks like death squads. I have my own thoughts, but let’s just go by the FBI shall we? In 2011 of the 12,664 murder victims 52 percent of the offenders were black. 45 percent were white and 90 percent were men. Of the 52 percent of black offenders 87 percent were black on black crimes. Of the 45 percent of white offenders 92 percent were white on white crimes. The other percentages were black on white, black on Hispanic, white on black and white on Hispanic and other.
I watched a news conference in Texas and the chief of police said it better than anyone I’ve heard so far. Why target police officers? Don’t their lives matter also? Don’t ALL lives matter? The climate in this country is pitting black against white, white against Hispanic and black against Hispanic. I grew up in the 1960s when there was rioting all over America. I lived outside Akron, Ohio and can remember riding with my mother to visit our grandparents. We drove through white areas of town and into black areas of town. Sad to say even back then, black on black crime was prevalent. Black businesses being burned down, black cars being destroyed. So again I ask, don’t all lives matter? A country divided will not long endure.
— Wayne Overholt
Warner Robins
Do black lives matter?
Well I guess it doesn’t take much looking to see how much black lives matter. Not very much it appears. In all of the killings of a black person by a cop it amazing how so many blacks who were not there know exactly what happened. Others had cell phones recording everything, while others knew the cop was a racist without knowing anything about them and they all knew the innocent black man wasn’t doing anything wrong, like breaking the law.
Now on the other hand, after the recent murders of blacks by blacks in Dublin, Macon, Fort Valley and Warner Robins, where most were murdered in public places around other blacks, why didn’t anyone see anything? If they did, why won’t they talk to the police? No one had their cell phone recording anything, and on top of that, most knew the killer and the people killed.
How can you be in the same building or area where young African-American males are being slaughtered in the streets and there’s no protest? Where’s the outrage by churches, no “Black Lives Matter” group in the news, Nothing. Some say those are just gang members (not true) if they were they’re still someone child? Most of the ones killed by cops I’ve read about weren’t Boy Scouts either. So, do black lives really matter to blacks or are we just afraid to look in the mirror?
— Charles McGhee
Warner Robins
Selfish individuals
It is interesting that Charles Johnson sees fit to exercise his First Amendment rights by seeking to limit others from exercising their Second Amendment rights. While he may feel uncomfortable seeing others “packing,” numerous studies have shown that crime decreases with increased gun ownership. In fact, every mass gun murder has been perpetrated in a “gun-free” zone (killers see them as “target rich” zones). He may consider wearing a gun to be comparable to “wearing a tuxedo,” but the means of preserving one’s own (and often others’) lives is far more valuable than fancy clothing.
Johnson may not see the need to carry, choosing instead to rely on police protection, but the average response time is well over three minutes. Those who advocate for strict gun controls are actually the most selfish of individuals, abdicating their responsibility for their own protection to those who choose to exercise their rights and projecting an expectation on others to protect them. I prefer to be responsible for myself and my family.
— Mitchell Clark
Macon
It must be true
Hmm, worst city in America? It’s written on the Internet. It must be true. It is amazing what people believe and pass around on social media. Let’s take an in-depth look at the goings on in Macon. Downtown businesses and lofts are packed every night of the week that the weather is not over 100 degrees. Every night is like a First Friday from five years ago and I have a hard time finding a parking place on Saturday afternoons. So what can I do? I walk to where I want to go. I walk to Second Sunday, Bragg Jam, Pints for Prostates, Macon Film Festival, Mercer Village, The Big House, the new Tattnall Square Park and that is just the last six weeks of events.
I live in a beautiful Victorian home that hundreds of people clamored to see on the last Christmas tour of homes. Soon I can walk to the new brick behind the Post Office. Yeah life’s terrible here. Ask Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford. And Savannah too, of course. Who likes to visit that place? Oh yeah, a half million people last year. Surely one must believe something written on a website that claims to know “The 10 most redneck places in New Jersey,” who knew there were even 10 rednecks in New Jersey? Alas, it must be true, it’s on the Internet. By the way, Kim Kardashian’s backside is real, I read it on the Internet.
— Greg Fischer
Macon
This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015 ."