This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015
Another great celebration
On Sept. 19-20, the Ocmulgee National Monument Association, in partnership with the National Park Service, conducted the 24th annual Ocmulgee Indian Celebration at the Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon. This year, more than 19,000 attended the two-day public event and the Friday school day.
Visitors from all over Georgia and the Southeast attended the event. The association thanks the National Park Service, monument superintendent, Jim David, and his staff for their outstanding stewardship and support in hosting the largest Native American cultural and educational event in the South. We also acknowledge the Native American peoples of the Southeast, especially the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, whom once again shared their rich culture.
Furthermore, we extend special appreciation to our sponsors: The Telegraph; Navicent Health; Macon-Bibb Convention and Visitors Bureau; GEICO; Georgia Power; Harvey’s Supermarkets; Northrop Grumman Corp; Kellstrom Defense; Wal-Mart; Norfolk Southern; I Heart Radio; Cox Communications; Georgia Family Magazine and NewTown Macon. Their assistance-in-kind and sponsorships make the celebration possible. Finally, we especially appreciate the participation of the Middle Georgia community and our association members for making this year’s celebration another resounding success.
We look forward to providing another quality, educational celebration Sept. 17-18, 2016. If anyone is interested in supporting the Ocmulgee National Monument Association and our cooperative efforts with the National Park Service for Ocmulgee National Monument, please contact us, 478-752-8257, ext. 214, or by emailing onma@ocmulgeemounds.org.
— Terry Jones
President
Ocmulgee National Monument Association
Macon
Take a stand
With over 800,000 Muslims already allowed to come to America unverified as to background checks in the last seven years, President Obama is now proposing to bring more of the same from Syria. This is where the Republicans better take a stand along with Democrats. Europe is reeling from their concentrations.
— Carolyn Effie
Macon
Georgia out of the loop
Our state’s uninsured rate in 2014 actually dropped to 15.8 percent mainly because of the Affordable Care Act and according to the U.S. Census. But it’s still the fourth-highest in our country. Yet Gov. Nathan Deal recently complained that we have more illegal immigrants in our state than Arizona who cost our state millions of dollars.
Gov. Deal doesn’t want Georgia to be like Colorado with all its legal marijuana. The hundreds of millions of dollars in new state tax revenue and new jobs in Colorado don’t interest our governor. He gave $33 million of our state taxes to dredge a river in Savannah, but not a dime to enroll our uninsured in Medicaid. He thinks that it’s too expensive.
Enrollment of our uninsured in Medicaid for three years is paid 100 percent by Uncle Sam. Then 90 percent forever by the federal government. So our federal taxes help pay to enroll citizens in Medicaid in states that accept Obamacare. And Gov. Deal still thinks that we cannot afford to enroll our uninsured in Medicaid at almost no cost to our state.
With the federal insurance exchange in Georgia inaugurated with the ACA becoming the law of the land, 310,000 Georgians signed-up. The state’s Medicaid and PeachCare membership went up by the tens of thousands as the ACA actively sought new enrollees.
But unfortunately the coverage of citizens without health insurance coverage has remained the same at more than 90 percent. Our state has 34 federally qualified health centers boasting 197 clinic sites all over Georgia. They report a rate of 90 percent uninsured.
What continues to amaze me is that our state government does not care about ourlarge number of uninsured citizens — 15.8 percent — and now wants to cut the salaries of our teachers and not reward those teachers who work extra hard to receive masters’ degrees and who will not be financially rewarded for such.
Not a good deal for us by a governor who resigned from Congress the day before he was to be indicted by their Ethics Committee.
— Frank W. Gadbois
Warner Robins
This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 8:34 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015 ."