This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016
Call in the room mothers
The new trash plan rollout is a disaster. No notification of change in my neighborhood of 30-plus years. My question is who is the overpaid brainiac who decided the week of Christmas when everyone and their widowed Aunt Mary has triple the amount of trash, was the prime time to institute this change? And Chris Floore has the audacity to stand by his comments that the county did all it could to notify the residents of upcoming changes. Really?
Sorry Mr. Floore, this grandmama is calling you out on that. For heavens sake a third-grade room mother would have done a better job organizing a bake sale and informing those involved than our officials. After Christmas, trash pickup left behind much overflow not fitting into the 65-gallon containers all over my neighborhood of dutiful taxpayers. I would have expected this from Mayor Robert Reichert's predecessor but not from him.
I'm not averse to paying more and having recycling, but this has been badly bungled and someone owes the people an apology. And some clarity please. Can you get your act together? Is glass allowed or not? You people make a lot of money to handle the county's business. If you are not up to the job, I can give you the name and phone numbers of some room mothers who can handle it.
— Pamela Hopkins
Macon
To the uninformed
A Telegraph article dated Dec. 18, 2015, reported the changes in recycling and garbage collection. It was at that point that I started excluding glass from my recycling bin as I live in an area that was previously serviced by the commingled system. I also took a little time to reconnoiter the locations where I may recycle glass.
The article details that some households' pickup day would change and that the garbage containers will have to be placed a certain way. If you did not receive a notification decal on your container, you are not alone: neither did I. However, I did have the prudence to stay abreast of the situation and adjust my schedule accordingly.
I actually started paying close attention on Nov. 17 when the resolution was passed that effected the change. I am aware that some people's garbage was outright missed, but that is a separate issue to the fact that some people seem to choose to stay uninformed in order to shirk personal responsibility.
A somewhat regular columnist opined about this "disaster." I think the Macon Landfill situation more closely resembles a disaster. Residents need to apply some self-discipline about what they purchase and subsequently throw away. Sixty-five gallons per week should be enough for any household. For situations where you are unable (read unwilling) to limit your output of garbage, all residents of Macon-Bibb may take one load of trash per month to the landfill, up to 500 pounds.
— Timothy M. Gilliland
Macon
The Illuminati and Chicken Little
I have read with interest the exchange of letters between Kathy Solomon and Bill Curry. Conspiracy theories have been with us for a long time. (There was even one that emerged shortly after the Resurrection.) In our age they have moved from a "cottage industry" to something larger. This is due in part to the increased means of electronic communication.
Yes, there is a great deal of technology about and more seems to appear each year. But, take heart Kathy Solomon, I have checked with my friends in the Illuminati and they say not to worry, they've got that covered. And keep in mind the fact that Chicken Little's story does not end well.
— Charles J. Pecor
Macon
Level of coverage
I could not help but notice the great disparity in the coverage of events related to the birthday of MLK and those of Robert E. Lee. For example, on Saturday, Jan. 16, in Milledgeville there was a tremendous parade and ceremonies marking Lee's birthday. I saw no coverage at all emanating from Macon hub of media outlets.
Many in this area are keenly aware of this selective reporting; we notice and it matters. It must be a terrible thing to have to live in your world of political correctness; unable or unwilling to report fairly the events of our day and the various beliefs of others. You media folks must live in great fear of saying the wrong word to the wrong person at the wrong time. At least we can be true to ourselves.
In closing I would like to offer this quote provided by Milledgeville R.E. Lee birthday celebration speaker, Pastor John Weaver of Fitzgerald. He said:
"130 years ago, E. Benjamin Andrews, then president of Brown University, himself a veteran of the Yankee army, said: 'The question of greatness is a relative thing and we in America will probably always differ as to the rank of our prominent men. But if any American father were asked which of our great men he would most want his own son to resemble, that father, if he were wise, would be compelled to answer, Robert E. Lee.'"
— John Wayne Dobson
Macon
Double standard
Many of your readers have heard of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. This is the anti-labor union court case that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito motivated with his comments on a previous case. As he opined then, he believes collective bargaining to be essentially a political act and therefore subject to the First Amendment. So, Alito made it perfectly clear he wants to overturn judicial precedent which holds the opposite opinion.
He theorizes that the First Amendment rights of individual workers are adversely affected whenever they pay union dues or just nonmember fees which cover only the costs of negotiating labor union contracts.
By logical extension, you would think negotiation of service contracts and purchase contracts between corporations and the government would be considered political acts too. Aren't the rights of the individual shareholders adversely affected in those situations?
Apparently, that question is irrelevant to the high court because they have already granted "legal personhood" to corporations.
— Tom Louderback
Louisville, Kentucky
This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 7:42 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016 ."