This is Viewpoints for Friday, April 15, 2016
Terrorists by any name
Hamas is determined to be a terrorist organization. Yet many media outlets have a hard time using this accurate terminology. They prefer language such as "militant" or "extremist" to describe Hamas. Foreign Policy magazine, however, has lowered the bar even further. They offered a photo with the following caption: Supporters of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas hold a rally in Gaza City on March 24. But the original caption read: Members of Hamas carry symbolic coffins during the support to uprising [sic] in Jerusalem and West Bank event, in Gaza City, Gaza on March 24, 2016. Obviously Foreign Policy magazine came up with The "resistance group" description of a Hamas event.
Is the indiscriminate launching of thousands of rockets into Israel "resistance"? Is targeting Israeli civilians for murder "resistance"? Is abusing your own people by using them as human shields "resistance"? No.
It's terrorism and it's time that media outlets, such as Foreign Policy magazine, stopped sanitizing Hamas. Calling Hamas a "resistance group" legitimizes terrorism.
— Hill Kaplan
Macon
Heavenly winds
Frank Gadbois' Tuesday letter to the editor titled by the Telegraph "All Wrong" was most correctly named for his shotgun description of four prior letter writers and inferring that God was directing Bernie's and Hillary's campaigns. Possibly Frank and Dr. Cummings have been having lunch together. And Frank once wrote that Arthur D., was like Don Quixote fighting windmills. At least the winds were heavenly, not from a person in Warner Robins.
— Arthur D. Brook.
Macon
Taking a mini-vacation
Many years ago, one of our local doctors promoted "mini-vacations" as a way to ease our everyday life tensions. He suggested that when we see a thing of beauty we should stop and take a minute or two to exhale and enjoy the sight.
The experience, he suggested, would refresh body and soul and allow us to move on more easily with our daily chores. I like to couple the good doctor's advice with a thought in one of the songs by Ray Stephens: "Everything is beautiful in it's own way."
I have found it most relaxing to take a minute or two to watch a mother jogging on a sidewalk while pushing her small child in a stroller, or watching a pair of humming birds tussle at a feeder. The wind blowing new spring leaves or a man sweating in the hot sun while cutting his grass is a good snapshot of life. Toadstools or lizards on decaying logs, and flowers of every hue are other "mini-vacations" that can be kept in our memory wallet for a long time, and revisited at will.
The official flower of Georgia is the Cherokee Rose, but unfortunately few of those grace our part of the state, with the exception of one located on the corner of Zebulon and Forsyth Road in north Macon. It is about eight feet tall and maybe 20 feet long and is now covered with a hundred of the pretty white roses with yellow centers. Let me invite you to drive or walk by this beautiful plant and enjoy a "mini-vacation" there.
All you need to do is pause, exhale, focus and blink. Then it is in your memory bank forever.
— John G. Kelley Jr.
Macon
Mississippi and North Carolina
Recently, North Carolina and Mississippi passed laws stating that visitors to public bathrooms should go to a bathroom that matches their birth certificate. This law has been characterized as anti-gay or anti-transsexual. I believe this law is more accurately characterized as pro-child. Our children should be able to attend any bathroom without fear of someone of the opposite sex coming in along with them. I would think it is even strange that a father would come into a bathroom with his teenage daughter. If we allow people of the opposite sex to come into bathrooms with our children, then we allow avenues for child molestation, indecent exposure and rape. So, are we going to trust some man who says he is really a woman to attend a bathroom with our 9-year-old daughter? That's insanity.
Hats off to the leaders of Mississippi and North Carolina who had the courage to stand up for their children. I wish we had leaders like that here. Shame on the NBA, Hollywood and Bruce Springsteen. I wish they would boycott the U.S.A. We would be better for it. I would feel safer taking my children on vacation to states like North Carolina and Mississippi.
Shame on all the states who will not protect their children. Jesus has a message for those who would harm a child, "On the day of judgement, it would be better that they were to have an anvil tied around their neck and thrown to the bottom of the sea."
— Chuck Fore
Eastman
This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 9:31 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Friday, April 15, 2016 ."