This is Viewpoints for Monday, Dec. 28, 2015
New direction needed
I have watched with interest how our mayor and team and Mercer University have worked hand in hand to make something of Macon other than another ailing Southern town after we lost our cotton and tobacco industries. These people have dedicated countless hours to turn Macon into a great place for people to live in.
However, it must be an uphill struggle to get the African-American populace to consider that this is being done for them, too. I'm sure, like me, white folks are continually shocked by the continued unnecessary killings and violence that we hear more and more about in the African-American population.
At what point will the African-American population turn their backs on the thugs and gangs operating within their society? Macon cannot sustain this constant violence, as witnessed by the fact people are leaving the area to get away from it. At what stage will this population recognise they need to get back to grass roots with discipline of the upcoming generation, take back some pride in their city by turning in those disruptive elements of our society?
As a mother, I, too, grieve that yet another life has been lost to a senseless gang-related killing. Make the fathers and mothers of these thugs and gangs responsible for their anti-social families -- because they are anti-social, make no bones about it. We need to stop giving succor to people who have no desire to work and become good citizens.
-- Carol Frayne
Macon
Ellis ruins Christmas
I woke up this morning and felt the excitement of Christmas in the air as I walked in the dark to my paper box. That feeling was soon dashed as I got to the rambling diatribe by Hakeem Mansour Ellis (aka C. Jack the instigator and race-baiter) in the Viewpoints section. If Queen Hillary had visited and the National Guard had been mobilized, I would wager that we would not have heard a peep out of him except for his complaining about the lack of Black Hawk helicopters, F-15 fighters and KC-135 refueling tankers to provide air cover and enforce a no-fly zone over the Centreplex.
As a kid, I remember going to Westgate Mall to hear Barry Goldwater speak and again a few years later to see President Lyndon Johnson speak at City Hall. Mike Huckabee and Herman Cain have also spoken in Macon in past presidential campaigns. These are events of civic importance, and it is a function of government to make some accommodation to ensure safety and traffic control. I observed carefully while exiting Interstate 16 and again when the event was over and only saw one deputy directing traffic each way. A few more were sitting in their patrol cars with blue lights flashing, patiently watching the traffic jam. The GBI had a large contingent on hand and I suppose that expense goes toward the state budget, so Ellis can complain to Gov. Deal about that. Macon also got some recognition and good publicity from all of the networks and cable news organizations. The media platform was packed solid with cameras, and I'm surprised that a fight did not break out there over tripod space.
I would encourage Ellis to organize his own rally. He could easily hold it inside a local Waffle House. Without the draw of a Donald Trump, Ellis could most likely not get enough people to attend to play a basketball game, not counting the reporter and cameraman from a local paper or TV station. All that would be required for security and traffic control for a crowd that size would be a couple of Boy Scouts needing to perform a service toward their Citizenship in the Community merit badges.
-- John Ricketson
Macon
Gun control
I am all for gun control. Here's what the U.S. Army taught me. To achieve correct gun control think of the word BRASS: breathe, relax, aim, slack, squeeze. (Slack means to take up the slack in the trigger)
-- Dawson Mims
Reynolds
No defense
Rather than fighting evil, our feckless president decides to fight carbon emissions, which may actually affect the climate by year 2200 or so.
Ted Cruz is right: This president does not want to defend the USA from enemies, either foreign or domestic, which this pesky little thingy referred to as the "Constitution" requires our commander in chief to do. I
It matters not whether he is a quisling, mommy jeans-wearing Muslim sympathizer or a natural born patriot, the president must defend the country. Obama is not.
Obama should resign now and allow Joe Biden to prove whether he has a backbone or is just another limousine liberal who cannot bring himself to defend the American people. If he won't do the job, Paul Ryan will.
-- John Brogden
Warner Robins
In response
Mr. Ross C. Hardy of Macon commented on my latest that "ISIS represents Islam about as much as the Spanish Inquisition represented Christians," and I must reply.
Historically, the Inquisition did, indeed, represent Christianity during that dark period. Only when the leadership of the Christian faith changed their attitudes and beliefs about such insanity did Christianity change. Leaders of the church and lay persons from all the world made these changes, and that is the way Islam must be changed to represent what moderate Muslims contend to be the Islam to which they adhere.
So far, their preachers and leaders still preach jihad, violence and "death to America." The Christian concepts of peace, love, forgiveness and brotherhood are evidently not part of this so-called religion.
-- Bob Hubbard
Perry
This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 8:22 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Monday, Dec. 28, 2015 ."