This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Eaten alive
Dr. Bill Cummings two articles, titled "The myth of creation," and "Damn you, Scribes and Pharisees" has been an eye-opening read for me, and I mean that in a good way. The best teachers I've had are the ones who made me think in a nonconformist way, or at least to examine the subject more closely.
I have clipped the two articles and I plan some lively discussions with friends and family. I may get eaten alive, as Dr. Cummings has experienced from some readers who have limited scopes, but it will not be a boring evening.
— Judy S. Veal Lawrence
Milledgeville
Death of a political party
We are witnessing the death of the Republican Party. Sadly, it was an assassination committed by Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and other senior Republicans. They showed all voters of national elections that they were not intelligent enough to know who should govern our counties, states and national interests. Slander, lies, and screaming were used to overcome speakers and their messages. They shamed the Republican Party so bad even a polecat would not vote for any Republican.
The message was clear. Individual voters simply don't have enough sense to understand politics. Of course the media helped. They should have had individual soundproof glass cages for each candidate where they could have turned on the microphone, asked a question, let the candidate speak for the allotted time and turn the microphone off. Instead they promoted an event to make noise instead of making sense. They want to get viewers and not worry about serving the public.
The only thing keeping Hillary Clinton from now walking into the White House without resistance is if they put her in jail. The only good thing coming from this mess is knowing the careers of Romney, Rubio and Cruz will go down in flames into the same grave as the Republican Party.
— Robert Blackshear
Warner Robins
Feeling and thinking
Like many Americans I am angry at big government and its long list of failures to work for all Americans, to secure our borders, have better foreign policy and its gross overstepping of boundaries set by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution. Donald Trump skillfully plays on our anger and promises to ride to the rescue on his white horse, with vague but alluring promises like making us win, win, win (in what game or arena?). Or to send them all back to Mexico. Or to bomb the Muslims. These are not detailed, constructive, well-thought-out strategies.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, however, has much more concrete, responsible and specific policies to fix America based on his long years of accomplishments in Congress and now in his state. He has great experience in balancing budgets, paying down the deficit. In Ohio he has cut taxes and burdensome rules on businesses that made them either fail or send jobs overseas, and thus he has created 400,000 new jobs in Ohio. He can do that for all states as president.
Trump preys on the emotions; Kasich offers solid solutions for the thinking person. Adolescents and young adults too often make poor emotion-driven decisions. Isn't that why their car insurance is so much more expensive? Adults usually make better decisions, based on long experience of seeing thought-out choices turn out better in the long run.
I listen to a lot of country music (and old-time rock 'n' roll), and there is a popular song with the line "I know what I was feeling, but what was I thinking?" Decisions based on feelings and emotion often make us ask that second question later on. In another country song, "The Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time," the guy takes a woman for the night, only to wake up in the morning with regret. Could this be an analogy for electing Donald Trump — waking up next year and being disappointed after the attractive talk and the makeup and easy promises melt away? With a little clear thinking we could have elected a person like John Kasich — not the prettiest face in the room, but a proven, no-nonsense problem solver who would have made Americans happier for four great years.
Feeling is a very different reality from thinking. I may feel like dropping a nuclear bomb on government in Washington, D.C., but after running it by my brain, I understand it does not solve our problems. I'm angry at government also, so to Trump supporters I say, "I know how you are feeling, but what are you thinking?
— David B. Conner
Macon
Southern connection with Ireland
No one was more Irish than Pat. He was even born on St. Patrick's Day in County Cork. When a druggist career failed he became a British army officer. After the Irish Confederation's collapse at Ballingarry, Patrick Ronayne Cleburne with other countrymen immigrated to Arkansas, in 1848, escaping English oppression.
After a few years in America, Pat realized "that the cousins of these same oppressors, in the northeastern United States now sought to bring the same subjugation they wielded in the Old World to America.
"Everywhere they go, they seek to force others to accept their way of life, and their beliefs, I will not be subjected to it here in the New World. We ask to be left alone, to live in our own way."
Southern Irish felt the situation in America mirrored the state of affairs in Ireland with Great Britain, thus many joined the ranks of the Southern army in 1861. Patrick Cleburne became the only product of the Emerald Isle to become a Confederate major general and advocated the use of slaves as soldiers. Clearly, Cleburne saw the parallels between the South's struggle in the American Civil War and Ireland's fight against English oppression.
General Cleburne seemed to sense that the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, would be his last. He told D.C. Govan, "If we must die, then let us die like men!" And so he did.
— John Wayne Dobson
Macon
This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, March 8, 2016 ."