This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Fix the road

Monday, May 23, around 9:25 a.m., there was another serious wreck at the intersection of Tucker Road and Forsyth Road. If the person who was hit survived, it’s a miracle. I can only hope that a Wesleyan student or jogger was not crossing Tucker Road at the time of the accident, or there would surely have been another catastrophe.

If one looks at this accident and relates it to other crashes and driver-related deaths at this intersection, I believe one would find it to be, if not the most dangerous intersection in Bibb, certainly in the top three and even more deadly than the intersection of Interstate16/Interstate 75. I strongly suspect that one of the drivers ran a red light and it happens at that intersection all too frequently.

Continuing on my drive to work, and as I waited on Ridge Avenue for a green light to cross Forest Hill Road, a driver ran a fully red light on Forest Hill and it happens at that intersection all too frequently. Disbelief followed my journey as I stopped at the four-way stop on Rogers Avenue at Clayton and a car went through the stop sign on Clayton without slowing. Not at all uncommon in this town.

Kroger management had, at one time, asked for another traffic light to be installed in front if its parking lot entrance at Starbucks. It’s my understanding that the Georgia Department of Transportation refused to install one. That entrance cries out for a traffic light in part because of the way the parking lot is designed, but mainly because it would act as a needed calming device to slow excessive driver speed on Forsyth approaching the Tucker Road intersection.

Safe usage of the center turn lane approaching the intersection is confusing because of the curb cuts on the south east side of Forsyth Road. I’ve been asking for years for safety improvements at Forsyth and Tucker roads. It’s time someone with the authority to fix the problem makes an effort to do so.

Generous?

Dorothy Henderson wrote a letter about what she perceives as a lack of generosity at local Macon food banks. As a regular volunteer for a church-based food bank here in Macon, I’d like to do what I can to address her concerns. First: the waiting period (which is only 30 days for our food bank) is to allow us to restock our shelves.

We receive all of our food from the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank, and are limited in how much we can take at one time. This leads to the second point: we don’t give out fruits or vegetables, partly because the MGCFB doesn’t offer them, and also because we have no way to store them. Fresh fruits and vegetables would spoil before we handed them out.

Third, Henderson says, “Food boxes with packets, such as instant oatmeal, raisins, (or) instant grits are opened and a recipient only gets two or three packets from the box. Why not give the whole box?” before saying that the food banks she visits are not generous. I’m sorry she thinks we aren’t giving enough, but we are trying to make sure everybody gets something. We stretch what we have as much as we can, which is why we only hand out two or three packets of oatmeal. It isn’t that we aren’t generous. In fact, we’re giving everything we have.

Trump train

Six months ago I wrote I thought Donald Trump would be president. Today I know Donald J. Trump will be president. The reason is simple. He is a real man with proven business and family skills. He rejected the political correctness that has killed this country. Both major parties have let taxpayers down. They lived in gated communities and sent their children to private schools while they became millionaires. No wonder they cannot relate to average middle class taxpaying citizens. Get on the Trump Train or get out of the way. You don’t need a ticket just get onboard.

Resurrected pachyderm

“Hing, hang, hung. See what the hangman done.

Hung, hang, hing. See the robber swing.”

“The Night of the Hunter”

When I saw the political cartoon in The Telegraph of an elephant swinging from a tree and the accompanying negative blather, I recalled this line from that movie. The length our liberal media is going to in an effort to help defeat the most popular GOP candidate since President Ronald Reagan is unreal. And for what, a Democratic front runner with more political baggage than an Amtrak porter, including a womanizing husband who happens to be a past impeached but unconvicted president. Ah, but she has a bag of freebies bigger than Santa’s and will sell the soul of our country for donkey votes.

The Telegraph, along with all America, is about to see a voter tsunami in November and Donald ridding that resurrected pachyderm up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

Color me crazy?

Now that we, the government, have passed into total craziness, lets have schoolhouses across this once great nation “protected” by a gang of fondelers much the same as those protecting travelers at our airports. Could take hours waiting in line to get educated. Oh, yeah. Colleges and hospitals next. Don’t color me crazy.

Real freedom

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” It is time for Macon to speak and act against racism. Not just a pacifying “conversations about race” that we heard at the “What Color is Your Brother?” event last February. But an intentional analysis about where we are and where we are going in creating possibilities for freedom for all people everywhere.

Coretta Scott King said, “Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.” Black Lives Matter is this generation’s tired (but brilliant) effort toward true freedom — where black people everywhere are respected as whole beautiful human beings that they are, not by their ability to live in a white world (forever cautioning one another not to run in public, not wear hoodies, and never, ever, talk back to a policeman who is treating you harshly). Will anyone join me in raising our voices against racism and for Black Lives Matter?

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, May 25, 2016."