This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015
Different standards
In the past couple of weeks Macon has seen a rash of shootings and killings in the black community to which Coroner Leon Jones asks a valid question, “Where’s the outcry?” Jones is referring to the tens of thousands of mostly black Americans who protest, riot and demonstrate when a black is killed by a white, especially if by a white police officer, yet the city and county of Macon-Bibb has been mostly silent on the recent shootings and killings.
When a group of people is held to a different standard than another group of people based solely on the color of their skin, that is racism. The answer to the coroner’s question is really very simple. There is no outcry because there is overt racism within in the black community and within the Democratic Party. The Black Lives Matter crowd is fully owned by the Democratic Party and both are willing to riot and protest at a moment’s notice to any perceived injustice done to the black community by a police officer or by a white person.
However, the same BLM crowd that would protest a white-on-black killing remains silent to black-on-black crime. It is an ugly form of racism to only be upset and angry if someone is killed by a white person. My question to the black community is why are you not holding yourselves to the same civilized standards to which you hold the white community? And that is what the Black Lives Matter crowd and Democratic Party is doing, holding whites to a different standard than they hold blacks.
Personally, I am very troubled by any anti-social violence in the community and even more so when there is a callous disregard for the blacks being shot and killed on a regular basis. In the past two weeks five blacks have been killed, perhaps a half-dozen have been shot, and several others have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for various crimes.
All of this behavior adversely affects every single one of us throughout Middle Georgia both socially and economically. Will this violence in the black community end? Perhaps it will, but probably not until blacks and whites are held to the same civilized norms.
— Sloan Oliver
Juliette
Open carry
A few letters have been published recently objecting to open carry. The writers made it clear that they oppose open carry but instead of supporting their position with facts and logic, they engaged in emotional insults and name calling. That’s fine, it’s the Viewpoints page after all, and they made their personal views of us open carriers clear.
If I lowered myself to that level of debate, I could say that they’re behaving childishly. They don’t want us to have the freedom to carry openly but since the law allows us to do so and apparently open carriers haven’t yielded to their demands, they are lashing out like spoiled children who didn’t get their way. But I won’t.
I’m sure they have perfectly valid reasons for feeling the way they do and I look forward to future letters in which they explain their positions in a more mature and intellectual way without any name calling and insults.
For now, open carry is allowed by law. If you wish to carry, go to your Probate Court and get a license. Georgiapacking.org has a large library of resources for anyone who wants to learn the law as well as a forum for education on all manner of carry-related topics. For those who object to open carry, I’d suggest reading up on how to debate properly before sending the next volley of letters. Molon labe.
— Mike Ganas
Macon
Land for sale
I rarely get a chance to write and am not that good at it. But I had to comment. Since Councilman Ed Tucker is no longer available for Mayor John Harley to use as a front man, it looks like Councilman Cameron Andrews has taken over for him. The mayor’s program to tax us seniors fell through the floorboards and he reacted so very well. He said we were getting some things for free, such as free police protection. Councilman Andrews came out with the same nonsense.
Mayor, councilman, how’s that “free” police service working out these days? Oh wait, those men are now county officers, so I guess it’s not free anymore — we are paying for it. Happy now?
If your land deal doesn’t work out, I have some ocean front property in Arizona available for them to buy.
— Jeff “Grandpa” Duggan
Centerville
Midnight shenanigans
Rhetorically speaking, watching our 44th president administer his version of fundamental transformation is akin to a surgeon performing a brain operation with a dull chain saw. Time and time again he and his like-minded cohorts have skirted not only our Constitution and Congress but even the wishes of the American public. He had every reason to thumb his nose at us after ramming his health-care debacle down our throats, now he is poised to impose his will on the entire world even as they howl in protest. Instead of working with Congress or bothering to consult with his constituents, he uses the United Nations and IAEA to circumvent the process and convince the Supreme Court that what is obviously an arms treaty is not. As always, the justices ruled in his favor.
The sense of urgency being displayed is all too reminiscent of the bribes and midnight shenanigans that resulted in the ACA. He must impose it quickly so we can see what’s in it. He can name the mountains anything he wishes, change our flags and history, too.
This nuclear arms deal is his death wish to Israel. I have asked before, in this forum, just whose side is President Obama on? This agreement leaves no doubt. I remind Mr. Gadfly and his ilk of a similar situation on his side of the pond, in 1945, where survivors asked themselves how they could have been so blind.
— Tommy Parker
Macon
True conservative
I’m a retired Army officer, a West Point graduate with multiple tours in Vietnam and the Middle East, and a conservative, registered Republican voter for over 50 years. I never thought I could agree with anything Frank Gadbois would write. However, he hit the nail on the head with his comments about Donald Trump (9/13).
He left out the facts that Trump dodged the Vietnam era draft with a dubious medical claim, and that his father gave him a very successful New York real estate development company to play with when he turned 25. Trump, now on his third trophy wife, with a track record of support for liberal causes, he has as much in common with true conservatives as does Nancy Pelosi.
— Len Gregor
Kathleen
Misuse of word
“Ky. clerk Kim Davis’ martyrdom divides religious liberty advocates.” This headline gravely misuses the word “martyrdom.” The word normally means the individual died for a cause. It can mean the individual undergoes grave suffering. I do not recall Kim Davis underwent either.
— Stephen F. Beaty
Warner Robins
A different path
The annual Indian celebration begins Saturday at the Ocmulgee National Monument in east Macon. We need all the pro-tax, pro-development local decision-makers to show up for a life-changing history lesson. Instead of promoting new ways to destroy the land with never-ending shopping centers and polluting the air with wider roads, just maybe one or two of these visitors can comprehend the long-term views of the natives who believed in simple living, community awareness and the protection of the natural world for future generations.
Industrial man has gone beyond the Earth’s ability to heal naturally from dangerous mining of fossil deposits, deforestation and toxic chemicals in our soil and air.
The American Indians were long-term visionaries who trained their young to leave the next generation with a livable planet, not an empty, toxic wasteland.
Author, naturalist and anti-tax activist Henry David Thoreau wrote: “He chose to be rich by making his wants so few and supplying them himself.”
— Fred Gunter
Macon
Uplifting movie
Just a short message to encourage everybody to see the movie “War Room” while it’s still in Macon. Young and elderly, black and white will be absorbed by this drama about things that really matter in life, and it’s portrayed not in abstract philosophical language but in terms and experiences we can all relate to. Maybe Hollywood is beginning to understand that there’s a sizeable public who will embrace films that don’t resort to vulgarity or violence in order to be compelling and uplifting entertainment.
— John Marson Dunaway
Macon
This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 10:25 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015 ."