This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015

Winning is the only thing

It seems that winning and the endless search for talent to produce winning has birthed a culture in Division I college sports where anything less than a perfect season or contending for a national title each season is considered a failure. If you can catch a football, throw a baseball, consistently shoot a basketball accurately, or convince young people with these abilities to come play for your university, this becomes far more valuable than personal responsibility, morality, integrity, honesty, or plain human decency; fundamental virtues that are rapidly becoming as rare as a Condor.

We've succeeded in elevating talented athletes and winning coaches to the level of "Superhero" or "Superstar" status. In professional sports, consistent with the Vince Lombardi cliché, winning may be the only thing, but it certainly should not be in high school or college athletics. Those who adopt a winning means everything mentality are failing to keep the bigger picture of our student-athletes' futures in mind.

Our No. 1 priority should be to resist the intense pressure to make winning so important and commit ourselves to "growing" better people, not just better athletes or athletic programs. Sadly, coaches who are truly committed to these ideals are rare. We say these are the coaches we want for our young people, but being the hypocrites we are, when these guys don't "win," we deride them and demand they be kicked to the curb. How sad.

— Wes Peavy

Lizella

Watch out, here they come

I read that the local powers that be are going to make road improvements on Bass Road. After watching the utter destruction of Forest Hill Road, I shudder to think of what is in store for Bass, Bowman and Zebulon roads. The contractors hired by these city leaders are, beyond a doubt, the worst I have ever seen. Just look at the damage to property values on Forest Hill. I hope they visit the site of their stupidity often. If they are allowed to redo Bass Road I hope they find a contractor like the one that rebuilt Riverside Drive. They were great.

— Alfred J. Graham

Macon

Acronym Central

Bibb Board of Education's Nov. 19 meeting produced three policy initiatives to foster trust in it. One, described as "KL" (what does that even mean?) lets the reader know the board believes in open government. They actually use that term "open government" six times in the eight sentences of the memorandum, which doesn't look like propaganda at all. And definitely isn't suspicious. Amusingly the board decided it is incapable of generating an open government policy itself and the memo directs the superintendent to do it for them.

The second item intended to give us warm fuzzies is the citizen oversight committee of E-SPLOST funds. This was added to the existing "Policy BBC." I have to admit I'm confused. Not only with the name (what does BBC mean?), but with how the committee is going to be formed. The actual policy memo gives no explanation, just three sentences on what the committee will do and how it will report to the board.

This is strange because the meeting minutes explicitly state "appointments should have relevant experience and skills as indicated in the policy" and that you should contact a board member or Jason Daniel if you want to be considered. Curious as to what these "relevant experience and skills" were, I emailed Daniel and asked him, but it's been more than a week and I haven't heard back. Now that's open government. I assume and hope he is on vacation and having a good time.

The last item is my favorite, though I admit I didn't read it all. It concerns the creation of a Constituent Services Policy, described as "BH" (what does that mean?). I imagine there's some good detail in the document's three pages, and I understand past favoritism and unethical behavior drove this new policy, but I never made it past this sentence because of the tears. "The role of board members in constituent service process is to refer complaints or problems to the superintendent without members becoming involved themselves in solving problems." That is comedy gold. Even though I'm having fun at their expense, I do want to congratulate the board for finally realizing the root of their problems and putting effort into fixing them. I'm glad to see them delegating responsibility and processes to Dr. Curtis Jones, the new superintendent. We'll all be evaluating how much the board supports and enables Jones in the new roles and responsibilities they have bestowed upon him.

— Matt Dykes

Macon

All life matters?

Let's get real, all lives matter, not just members of one group or another. Where is the national outcry when rival gangs have a shootout killing many? Where are the headlines when human embryos are taken for whatever reason? Why does not the brutal death of a person of one race caused by another of the same race draw a crowd in the street or bring out the elderly leaders of a bygone day to stir up emotions? Who gathers in the streets when a child is born out of wedlock requiring society to pay the bill for the child's mental and physical development? We are all together in this thing called community. All should take responsibility for the concern and loving care of each other. All life matters.

— Al Diboll

Macon

Agree or disagree?

So despite texting while driving being illegal in Georgia, you want people to "take the pledge." You also nag people once again about talking on the phone while driving while failing to understand circumstance (ie: the difference between an evening call on an open road with no traffic versus picking up your phone while trying to merge onto Interstate 75 North.)

Furthermore, as someone who drives frequently for work as well as personal time, I have observed numerous bad habits drivers engage in that are dangerous and illegal. Changing lanes on the interstate without using a turn signal. Not using a turn signal when actually turning; drivers continuing to lag in the left lane on Interstate 16 despite the so-called "Move It Over" law and drivers failing to have their lights on in the rain or at dusk.

Oh, and there's this gem. On Nov. 7, I was traveling on U.S. 441 South toward home from a cheerleading competition. It was a 65 mph zone and I'm doing 70-73 mph in the right lane. Without using a turn signal, a car cuts in front of me, doing 85-90 mph, forcing me to slow down to keep from hitting it. They were passing another car on the right. Before it sped away, they passed another car without signaling.

You bemoan "distracted drivers." I say there's another word that begins with "d" to describe many drivers in Georgia. Dumb.

— Dave Whitaker

Danville

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 9:47 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015 ."