This is Viewpoints for Sunday, March 6, 2016
Old Book Sale
I would like to extend a sincere and personal thank you to members of the community for their efforts in supporting the library and Friends of the Library Old Book Sale. This sale has been a major event in Macon for 48 years, due to the dedication of volunteers, book donors and shoppers.
The Old Book Sale is a weekend that has been marked on my calendar ever since I moved to Georgia and well before I had the honor of coming to serve our community at Middle Georgia Regional Library. The one-weekend book bonanza can be deceiving. I've learned that those four days actually represent a solid year of volunteer hours by many dedicated people. Many volunteers dedicate more hours to book sorting, pricing and selling than one would at some paid jobs. That's a significant commitment by our Friends members.
I am also grateful to the community members who love books enough to pass them on to the Friends to be included in the sale. All of the Macon-Bibb libraries regularly accept books for the sale. We receive them by the arm load, box full, cart full and even sometimes truck load, though we do appreciate when those large shipments go straight to the Friends.
It takes a whole community of folks to make this book sale happen and support library services. The donation that the library receives from the Friends of the Library Old Book Sale each year is used to purchase new materials for our libraries. This means quicker access to the newest best-sellers, current health information and accurate information for our students.
I appreciate the community for their book donations. I appreciate each of our friends for their yearlong efforts in making this year's sale possible. And I am forever grateful to serve a community that values and supports their libraries.
— Jennifer Lautzenheiser
Director
Middle Georgia Regional Library
Macon
Sinful nature
This is a letter is to refute our resident heretic, Bill Cummings, and his column "The myth of creation." Cummings would have you believe that the man Adam is a fairy tale. He backs this up with saying that since Adam, after eating of the tree of knowledge, didn't immediately drop dead that surely it's a myth. But I contend that Adam, being formed in God's image and likeness, Gen. 1:26, was made to be an eternal creature, just like God.
When Adam disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, Adam's eyes were opened. Up to this time, Adam was morally innocent. When he sinned, he by nature became a sinner. As such he died. He died spiritually immediately and began to die physically.
Adam was the first man to live on Earth. From Adam and Eve come every other person who ever lived. Thus Adam is the "head" from whom every other person comes from. Like begats like. Apples begat apples. Dogs begat dogs. Humans begat humans. Since Adam became a sinner before Eve conceived a child, every human descended from him is a sinner, just like Adam. Except for Christ. Because of Adam's sin, death entered the world. It's our nature to be sinful.
If you don't believe this try to take a toy from a 2 year old. No! Mine, is what you will hear. Both responses are self centered, which is sinful, because he was born that way.
— David Bronson
Byron
Promises, promises
I have watched politics for a number of years and am more sure than ever that Washington, D.C., is a magic town. When running for office, politicians will make all kinds of promises to get elected. When they are elected they promptly go to Washington and quickly disappear, never to be heard from until re-election time when they reappear and begin the process all over again, promises and all. How about we start holding them to their word, promises and all?
A.M. "Mac" Yaughn
Macon
Did I feel the Earth shift?
I saw a Bernie Sanders commercial my granddaughter shared. At 70, I am not prone to epiphanies, but there it was, with a real flash of light — light that I could actually feel, and a realization of things I already knew.
The flash went off, and everything was now clear and in focus. There was a realization, formed by that light, in that instance of many things I had been thinking of and saying for two years were suddenly congealed into a solid thought. Politically, I have been an independent, one that is happiest with a Republican and a Democratic senator.
It is 1965 all over again. I was there, I was part of it; we worked for peace, social change and racial equality. The pendulum moved for us, it moved to us, and we accomplished much with our protests and votes and our pens. Then the pendulum reached its apogee, and it started back to complete its period. Young and unknowing, we never knew when it might return as it traveled through the darker meaner times, and once again pause its course, and return in it's period's journey.
Today I saw it for sure. I saw that the pendulum's swing had paused, it had reached its apogee and now was starting its return to a time in my past. I will most likely not be here to see its driving force, but my grandchildren will be.
For several years I have had a feeling that the pendulum was near the half journey of its period, and I had told my children and others that I thought change was coming, not realizing that it was already in motion. Two weeks ago at a gathering, I talked of the pendulum. The political Earth has moved for me, and I can now see, lit by that flash of light, the pendulum's return. It will take years, but I think my great-granddaughter will enjoy the coming years, reform/change, moved by the slow swinging inertia of reason, respect, and caring for all people. The Bernie commercial lit the fuse that set off the light, the light I could feel.
— Tom M. Payne
Gray
Do nothing agenda
I am a conservative and proud of it. However, the Republican Party is acting like a spoiled child. The people are speaking and the Republican Party establishment does not like what they are saying. So the party responds with a temper tantrum and mud slinging at not just the leader but at the American people exercising their voices. My selection may not be winning, but I have to applaud the American people.
Republican Party, your do-nothing agendas are producing fruit. You climbed in bed with the Democrats and the people got fed up. You did nothing but talk. Now the people are talking. You have discovered that you can't buy Donald Trump. You are losing your puppet on a string and your special interest money is in jeopardy. You are getting what you deserve and not what you wanted to buy.
Maybe now you will start standing for moral, honest and trustworthy conservative ideals. Things have been going downhill long enough. Go Ted.
— Gary McCall
Warner Robins
Welcome to the neighborhood
As I have noted in previous letters, David Mann is one of this area's gifted assets. Thoughtful, articulate and knowledgeable, David usually offers a balanced opinion on a variety of subjects, straying only when conservative Republican policy is involved. So, it was surprising to see him peeping up from the "rabbit hole" as he asks "Would The Telegraph prefer that our disagreements be settled by coups, civil wars, massacres and wholesale imprisonment of dissenters, as happen in so much of the world?" in response to The Telegraph editorial "Watch out here they come." (Feb. 19)
Is that the only alternative to the "carpet bombing" of the electorate during the process of choosing our political leadership? Such hyperbole seems a bit unusual from David's pen. He knows better.
Yes, our system is "messy." Yes, it seems to have gotten nastier this cycle than in the past, but, I think our political olfactory system has a limited memory and only the freshest odoriferous falsity imprints.
The real problem is the money that substitutes these ads, negative or not, for any real political discourse. When the amount of money presently in the system allows for an unending stream of 30-second ads, why would the candidate want to engage in any other form of communication? Jeb Bush delayed announcing as an official candidate for over a month so his Super PAC could legally amass a $100 million fund. It was transparent and it obviously did not work. But it won't keep others from using the same type barrage as other deadlines approach.
Many reasons the last and the most current cycle seems particularly and incessantly negative is the insanely vast amount of money in these campaigns. The Citizens United verdict from the Supreme Court was simply short-sighted and wrong-headed. Now, it makes no difference whether you, the voter, contribute even $1 to a national political candidate. The real big money from corporate sources and other special interests will, mostly, determine what you see and hear from the candidates. The fear-mongering makes the old Goldwater "nuclear bomb" ads seem charmingly positive by comparison. But instead of skewering a candidate, broadsides are leveled at whole races, ethnic groups and religions. The advance is our ability to communicate is inversely proportional to the quality of our messages. Progress?
On a final note, "Spotlight" was among the winners at the Academy Awards. It is a story about how the reporters and editors at the Boston Globe brought to light the sexual abuse tragedy within the Catholic Church. When we meet on these pages, we oft forget how important this is and that we are part of a living, breathing community. This forum is part of an matrix enabled by a dynamic group of diverse individuals dedicated to bringing us information that we need to function as a connected group. Sometimes, the articles and opinions and letters to "Viewpoints" amuse, periodically aggravate and sometimes infuriate. Very few leave no impression. Welcome, neighbor, you have connected. To The Telegraph, thanks.
— Bob Carnot
Warner Robins
Not a Democracy
I hate to tell David Mann that his letter titled "Democracy" that the United States is not a democracy, thank God, and I hope we never are. We are a federally constituted republic in which we elect people to make laws, etc. Democracy was a dirty word back in the 1700s, as it means one person one vote. Nowhere in the Constitution nor Bill of Rights does it give anyone the right to vote for president. The president of the United States is chosen by electors of the individual states who "can" rebel against the people and throw their vote toward someone else. Just like recently in New Hampshire. Bernie Sanders got the popular vote, but the delegates threw their weight to Hillary Clinton instead. Feeling the Bern yet?
Democracy is the exact type of government the Democrats want because we have ill-educated people, those who think the most important thing to watch would be the Kardashians, the Oscars or anyone who listens to the leftist Hollywood group who actually think they know more than the average man.
It's absolutely amazing looking at the man on the street interviews who congratulated North Korea on actually developing nuclear weapons. These people actually vote. Educate yourself on what type of government we have in this country, learn our way of government because the scariest person out there is someone who is an uneducated voter.
— Steve Barker
Warner Robins
This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 8:19 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, March 6, 2016 ."