This is Viewpoints for Sunday, April 10, 2016
Does nothing
I keep seeing regular columns from now, thankfully, former Macon Councilman Erick Erickson on his blog insulting and belittling Donald Trump supporters. He calls Trump supporters racists and failures in life. And all because those darn voters won't support the candidate he keeps trying to tell them to support. How dare voters decide for themselves!
Trump supporters aren't failures in life. We aren't the wealthiest demographic like the establishment types Erickson sucks up to, but we do OK for ourselves and our families. We working folks are the people who put our minds and backs to work, and we produce and make the economy work.
Erickson, on the other hand, is just talk. He doesn't produce anything, except ad revenue. He doesn't build or create anything. He doesn't fix anything or heal anyone or save any lives. He just talks.
— Mike Ganas
Macon
The foolish Deal
I do not like writing that our Georgia governor, Nathan Deal, is a fool. But, that is the most fitting label as a result of his recent decision to allow Christians to be abused by the left.
Recently, I watched another viewing of the movie, "Expelled." The movie shows numerous leftist universities expelling highly intelligent professors who made a reference to "intelligent design," even without supporting that theory. Had they used derogatory adjectives of the phrase, they would have been praised. Instead, they were labeled as fanatics and one noted that she could no longer find a teaching job because of derogatory articles about her on the internet.
What does this have to do with Gov. Deal? He foolishly thinks that siding with anti-Christian groups has created a liking of him, and they will now pour money into our state. The truth is that Georgia is now labeled negatively by them because Deal did not use derogatory adjectives toward Christians, and the haters will never stop ridiculing Georgians because leftists do not know the love of God. Their thoughts are only continually evil.
— Charles Sanferrare
Byron
One-way street
In response to Jim Costello, April 5 letter "Religious liberty": Contrary to Costello's pronouncements about what a same-sex couple would or would not do about hiring an "anti-same-sex" provider, there have already been bakers, photographers and other providers who have been forced to either provide services or pay the state for exercising their religious liberty convictions.
But the larger issue is that 1) the federal government (under the leadership of President Clinton) has already enacted a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which goes further than the now-vetoed Georgia state legislation in protecting the rights of religious persons, and 2) the legislation Gov. Deal vetoed didn't protect businesses like bakers and photographers, because private businesses had already been cut out of the bill.
These laws are designed to protect citizens by restricting the situations that governments can decree that the rights of the government outweigh the rights of the individual. The state-level laws are needed because the federal law only curtails the powers of the federal government.
It would be nice to live in the laissez-faire world of Costello's head. Unfortunately, there are too many people who want to make sure that we are forced to accommodate everything, including things that run counter to whatever faith we choose to practice. Tolerance appears to be a one-way street in 21st century America.
— Dana Smith
Warner Robins
This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 7:59 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, April 10, 2016 ."