This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016
Hard puzzles
Thank you, Telegraph, for the puzzles and fun section of Sunday's paper. Wow, some of these are really hard and fun.
— Jeanna Hayes Cook
Bonaire
New logo
Dear Macon CVB:
The new logo is stupid. You wasted our money. Unless Macon is now a day care catering to small children. In that case, good job. That is all.
— Nathan Dees
Macon
Follow your own advice
I really enjoy Dr. Bill Cummings columns. They are informative, sophisticated and rational as opposed to the reactionary fundamentalist letters we so often see. He always admonishes people to keep Bible verses in context.
But I was disappointed in his last column where he quotes Hillary Clinton as saying, during the interminable Benghazi hearings, "What difference does it make?" As though she didn't care. Well, Cummings should keep things in context, too. What Clinton said to a very aggressive Republican senator was, "We had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it ... guys out for a walk who decided to kill some Americans? What difference does it make? It's our job to figure out what happened and do everything to prevent it from happening again."
My advice to Cummings, whom I admire by the way, if you are going to discuss politics, follow the same advice you give when talking about religious matters: Keep things in context.
— Terry Thompson
Bonaire
Choose community
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s last book, published in 1967, was entitled "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" Even though a lot of progress has been made along racial lines in America since Dr. King was assassinated 48 years ago, it would be safe to say that today chaos is trumping community.
Politics is broken. Our successful, first, and twice-elected African-American president, Barack Obama, has been hammered by the Republican Party and its conservative media from day one of his presidency. While serving as Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell said the GOP would do everything in its power to make Obama a one-term president.
For the past seven years, the disloyal opposition party did what it could to make sure Obama was unsuccessful in uniting the country by opposing most everything he put forward. Now, the GOP candidates running for president this year are appealing to their base by saying falsely over and over again how awful a president Obama is.
About 60 years ago, King appealed lovingly to the better angels of our nature by leading us through a civil rights revolution that is still incomplete. President Obama appeared on the scene some 36 years or so after King. Obama ran for president thinking he could win and help unite the country by appealing to the better angels of our nature.
By this time next year we will know if our country has chosen continued chaos or the beginning of coming together in community. In the spirit of Dr. King and President Obama, I hope we choose community.
— Paul L. Whiteley Sr.
Louisville, Kentucky
Back on track?
Once again, I feel compelled to write a response to another Clinton supporter. I agree with some of the things Michael Myers said. He described Trump and, perhaps unintentionally, Obama quite well. Then, he stated he would vote for Clinton. I'm not a fan of Trump, but voting for Clinton (if she wins the nomination) is tantamount to voting for someone who has no regard for anyone but herself. Remember the four Americans who died at Benghazi? Clinton said: "What difference at this point, does it make?" Remember all the classified information Iran, China and North Korea likely have, according to former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, due to her negligence and arrogance regarding her email server?
A vote for Clinton identifies the voter as someone who doesn't understand much of anything about integrity, character and most importantly, our crippling debt. We are about to reach $19 trillion in debt. Before Obama leaves office he will have added more money to the national debt than all previous presidents combined. The reason Trump is doing well, despite his craziness, arrogance and prejudices, is because he is angry at the mess Obama created. I doubt he can fix all the problems but the American people apparently hope he will get the country back on track in regard to spending, national security, etc.
— Mike Smith
Warner Robins
Doomsday didn't occur
I was glad to see we escaped 2015. According to Al Jazeera, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and several Viewpoints contributors, it should have been a bloodbath of biblical proportions after Georgia passed the guns everywhere law. Shootouts at bars. Mass shootings at churches. Felons defending themselves (a Georgia sheriff actually lamented this part of the law). Car jackings, armed robberies, blood in the streets. No matter would be too small to settle with a firearm, according to these chicken-littles.
The reality is gun homicide rates are at a decades-long low (even lower if you exclude police shootings). Despite Catherine Meeks' assertion that guns use mind control, owning a gun does not make a person homicidal anymore than owning an ax makes you Paul Bunyan.
I think it's safe to say those Viewpoints authors and Meeks just don't have a good grasp of statistics, or reality.
— Matt Dykes
Macon
This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 8:38 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016 ."