This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015

Great job

Kudos to Houston County Public Works (sanitation/solid waste disposal) crews who were out in abundance today cleaning up the debris left in the wake of last Thursday’s storms. In our neighborhood just off Ga. 247 and Piney Grove Road, there were at least four dump trucks going through the neighborhood and being loaded with fallen trees. They have been at it since early morning and have worked all day. Thanks for a great job.

— Keith Bowers

Kathleen

No motivation

After digesting Charles Richardson’s poverty article, all of us need to direct our attention to many aspects of poverty. Richardson wants to skip or avoid the primary cause of this massive problem: fatherless children and the causes. Meaningless and unprotected sex is a worldwide problem. Macon-Bibb County is a graphic example of cause and affect. The total lack of human decency leads to 10-20 child-producing poverty situations.

If fathers are mandated to provide support for their 15 minutes of lust, an immediate answer to poverty is developed. Drugs and alcohol consume funds meant for food. Go into most schools and watch food be dumped into the trash. If they are caught doing that, they should be restricted from the free food. You are dealing with a chronic problem. Providing food for the weekend is questionable. Who ultimately gets the food. One of the dozens of outsiders?

Our Sheriff’s Office is serving as a mental health and drug recovery unit. They are ill equipped and not intended for those people. That usurps funding that is meant for our protection. Our commissioners (Lord help us) need to immediately put those mental patients and drug users in a separate building under one of the countless agencies that are under serving the taxpayers. Save hundreds of thousands of dollars and allow the 700 employees of the Sheriff’s Office to be slimmed down. My guess is 30 percent of its resources are wasted on the mentally ill and drug addicts.

Poverty can be reduced but those who cause it are generally uneducated, use drugs and alcohol along with being totally unmotivated by the systems of government.

— Joe Hubbard

Macon

Take it off the table

More than once in the past few weeks the editors of this newspaper have responded to letters from writers critical of Planned Parenthood’s use of federal funds for abortions by stating that federal funds allocated to Planned Parenthood cannot be used for abortions. This is true as defined by law, but how do we know that is the case in practice? Money is fungible. A dollar allocated by the feds is the same as a dollar donated by me or anyone else. Once it falls into the accounts of Planned Parenthood how can we track that dollar and know its end use? I submit that it cannot be done accurately.

If in fact no federal dollars are used for abortion, then why not set up a completely separate entity funded by private donations only to be used specifically for that purpose. That way we can take the abortion issue off of the table for political debate concerning federal subsidy. Whether or not Planned Parenthood’s remaining mission concerning women’s health care is needed can continue to be a policy debate without the distraction of the abortion issue. Does not the ACA and the local drugstore provide most if not all of the remaining services previously touted as the justification of Planned Parenthood’s existence?

— Samuel P. Jones

Macon

Awakened eyes

I was asked, Sept. 20, to write a paper on the basis of policemen abusing the authority given to them. I was asked due to the unfortunate event of a family friend having been treated very disrespectfully and unfairly by two Mercer policemen. The story was to be focused upon how the policemen had silenced my friend instead of protecting his rights. As I wrote it, I realized how distorted and perverted it had become. I had unconsciously been putting policemen, as a whole, in a box named “malevolent.” All the while, I had climbed into my own box marked “pernicious.” I was punishing all, good and evil, and calling it recompense.

I am not writing that story anymore. I have another story.

We are humans. We are individuals and we should be held accountable as individuals. Being judged in a group is a profound example of the term, “unfair.” What about the ones who cannot help their being placed in that group? What about the ones being the light in the group, and becoming blamed for the darkness of it?

How do you stop this injustice? Do you choose to drag down the good with the evil? But of what morality is that, if by doing so, you also eliminate the good? And tell me, what is morality if good is blamed for evil? Is not all classified as evil, then?

The result of alloyed categorizing is the elimination of individuality and self-responsibility. In order to cause an effective and lasting impression on life, one must have accountability and self-correction. Social awakenings begin when one’s scales fall from their eyes and they correct their own heart’s immoral ways. “No persuasion will do if God openeth not the eyes.” — Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan.

What would become of the world if you disciplined yourself to stop in the hallway to let a student pass, instead of bumping into them? To buy a burger and give it to the homeless man that your friends make fun of? To open doors, to smile at strangers and to be compassionate?

“He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise ... Collect no more than what is appointed for you ... Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, be content with your wages.” — Luke 3.

— Mercy Kilpatrick

Macon

Remarks off the mark

Recently a contributor made disparaging remarks about Centerville City Councilman Jon Nichols that were way off the mark. She accused him of voting to pay for meals of spouses while at a Georgia Municipal Association event. Government officials along with the majority of city officials from across the state of Georgia attend summer conferences for training, and meals of spouses may be put on the city credit card as a matter of convenience at the time but they are quickly deducted upon return from the conference. This is in compliance with policy.

A close examination of city financial records, which are available to the public, would prove this. The contributor also took issue with a recent property purchase that was made for the future development of the downtown area. Many of these goals have been discussed in council for years and the council finally decided to start being proactive and move the city forward to reach those goals. Councilman Nichols did not purchase that property alone. He has been a leading vocal proponent of the purchase, but I want to make it clear that it took the vote of the entire council in order to make it happen. The plans for the downtown area will hopefully be realized and appreciated in the years to come. I would also like to say on a positive note that the city of Centerville will move forward regardless of the current climate of criticism.

— Cameron W. Andrews

Centerville City Council Post 1

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 9:56 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015 ."