This is Viewpoints for Friday, Jan. 22, 2016
Get with the program
We are subjected to Erick Erickson's rant concerning the garbage pickup this past week in Macon-Bibb County. Having lived in New York and in Europe, I think he does not have much to complain about. I see piles beside bins of unkempt cardboard and huge piles of black bags with just leaves in them for the dump site, and I realize just how out of control people are when it comes to keeping their patch clean and sanitary.
In New York and other states and Europe people are provided with 65 gallon bins and two recycling bins which could be 65 gallons or less. Failure to breakdown cardboard boxes into manageable bundles with string is fineable by the strict policy of the city. Failure to put garbage out at the right time is your problem.
Macon-Bibb has been very lackadaisical in allowing piles of garden waste at the curb and cardboard to be left as whole boxes next to garbage. Europe, as well as many states in the USA, do not allow such practices. The fact that Macon-Bibb's contractor is trying to do something to encourage people to take care of their garbage is very heartening. Erickson needs to get with the program, use the appropriate 65 gallon bins for less manhandling onto the garbage truck and get rid of his silly recycling bins, which hold very little if the recycling is done every other week. Stop moaning, Macon-Bibb people, and get with the program. Let's keep Macon-Bibb clean and tidy.
— Carol Frayne
Macon
What's 'fair'?
What a delightful morning it is here on Sunday, I get to answer a question instead of posing them. Joy Thomas moans about some things being "fair." When I was teaching I heard that a lot, "NOT FAIR." Nope, it's not. Unless you were born in Fair Oaks, California or Fairview, Nebraska, fair is not on your birth certificate.
What say others? Very simple, fair is the first four letters in the word fairy tale. Other than to provide entertainment, what is expected from the writer? Cox and Direct TV making it hard? What a major worry in life. Thank you for your attention. Onward to new challenges.
— Jim Huber
Centerville
Too high taxes
Last year again we questioned our value of Inglewood Place. Our square footage was wrong and there was no deck, but a neighbor called them saying the interior of her home was a disaster. Without showing the house she was given a very low valuation. Are you aware of the true square footage of your home? Do the descriptions show things as they are? Housing values are down in a lot of areas due to several factors. Blight and foreclosures are high on the list.
Since senior citizens do not get any tax relief as they do in other counties, with food, utilities and health-care costs soaring, many seniors are facing losing their homes.
While all of us subsidize the tax free holdings of the roughly $150 million in properties, we also are paying more for the growing number of leeches. Able-bodied men and women on Social Security, drug rehab, prisons, gangs and fatherless children. If this is not changed very soon, our $20 trillion debt will be far higher.
— Joe Hubbard
Macon
He wants our guns
Frank Gadbois' letter on gun control reveals just how naive he is. Republican candidates don't support executive actions because they won't make our nation safer. The real objective is to make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to buy guns and ammunition.
Any Republican who dares to defend the Second Amendment is automatically under the control of the NRA in the eyes of liberal sycophants like Gadbois. I don't recall any NRA members going on a shooting spree. They all seem to have been left-wing nut jobs.
And don't fool yourself Gadbois, President Obama would like nothing better than confiscating our firearms. That has been a goal of the left for many years.
— Bill Copley
Gray
This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 9:23 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Friday, Jan. 22, 2016 ."