This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015
Get behind the Macon Mayhem
Thanks to the Macon Mayhem and the Macon Coliseum for a wonderful start to the latest Southern Professional Hockey League season this past weekend. Great crowds and exciting play made for a great sports weekend in Macon. I urge all Middle Georgia sports fans and businesses to get behind our new professional team.
There are many reasons why this version of hockey should succeed in Macon. First, the quality of play is greatly improved from the version of the SPHL that was in town 10 years ago. Second, the league is a proven commodity with more than a decade of hockey success in the Southeast. Thirdly, similar Southeast cities such as Fayetteville, Columbus and Huntsville have been able to support their hockey teams for that length of time.
Finally, this is probably Middle Georgia's last shot at having a professional sports team. With Columbus and Savannah now without baseball and Augusta's attendance barely over the Mendoza Line, the chance of Macon getting professional baseball is near zero. So I urge the community to get behind this team and organization.
-- Jack Broeils
Warner Robins
Keep moving forward
I am a native of Warner Robins. It is a special place. Even though we are a military town, there's something special about us that keeps people returning to retire and raise their families. I love Warner Robins and care who leads it. Our leaders must:
Adapt to other cultures quickly (We're the International City).
Be able to work with many types of governments and officials.
Get along easily with other council members and city workers.
Represent their district while working for the good of the entire city.
Be fiscally responsible with the money entrusted to them.
Work to improve and grow our city.
Our present leaders:
Work well with Robins Air Force Base and other government entities.
Continue beautification and restoration of our downtown.
Began work on passive parks (Walker's Pond) and approved plans for more passive parks and work restoring parks and recreation facilities.
Maintained and increased a reserve fund to ensure the city will operate in case of emergency.
With a restored downtown, improved parks and recreation department that this mayor and council are building, I believe we will see big business heading our way with jobs. Our existing leadership has accomplished all of this without negative headlines. They make us proud. We must reward excellence with votes. Please re-elect Tim Thomas, Mike Davis and Carol Robbins and allow this great team to continue to move forward the plans made for our city.
-- Lesley Wilson
Warner Robins
Entitled
It has just been announced that Obama-care premiums are officially going up in 2016 by as much as 49 percent in some states. "For more than 8 in 10 customers, premium increases will be cushioned by taxpayer subsidies." According the Supreme Court, Americans are supposedly "entitled" to health insurance, but nowhere does the Constitution say that we are entitled to other people's money.
-- Dan Topolewski
Kathleen
Better than the EPA
The Telegraph featured a story on current challenges for smaller energy producers that rely on coal, particularly given the recently released EPA Clean Power Plan. While there are some resources that these small companies can utilize (loans, local cap-and-trade networks), it would at the same time be simpler for Congress to move forward with the Carbon Fee and Dividend plan supported by President Reagan's secretary of state, George Schultz, which would put a fee on carbon, make coal and other fossil fuel sources more expensive, lower costs of renewable energy sources and supplement income to American households (www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2015/05/28/clean-energys-future-turn-george-schultz-plan/28068505/).
The Shultz Plan would cut emissions faster and create jobs (see the REMI study at www.remi.com/carbon-tax-study), in addition to reducing expenses to American households and businesses. Many in Congress don't like the EPA's plan, so why doesn't Congress act instead, as suggested by Rep. Chris Gibson's, R-NY., House resolution?
-- Dale Stratford
Decatur
What authority?
Having read many columns and letters on the editorial and op-ed pages of The Telegraph, I would like to share an observation. When I participated in discussions concerning ethical/moral matters with family, friends and acquaintances, I would become extremely frustrated when I could not persuade them to accept my rational/logical opinions concerning the issue at hand. It grieved me that they chose to hold on to their own irrational/emotional perspectives rather than adopting mine.
After many years of banging my head against that wall I finally realized what the reason for this impasse.
I believe there cannot possibly be an ultimate resolution to any dispute unless there is an agreed upon external authority to which all parties submit and to which they are held accountable. Whether that authority is civil/secular (the laws of the land) or spiritual/ecclesiastical (the Christian Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, Eastern religious texts, etc.), a mediator is necessary.
Therefore if someone adheres to materialism/empiricism as a world/life view and someone else adheres to a transcendent/faith world/life view, though they may agree pragmatically on many issues, there can be no final arbiter for disagreements.
Hence "We'll agree to disagree." I would appreciate a revelatory column by Bill Cummings stating to what or who he personally holds himself accountable as it may reveal some means to discern how faithful he is to what he espouses and what the final outcome of his "faith" would be.
-- Frank Difiore
Macon