This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Real cops

Barney Fife, deputy sheriff in the fictional town of Mayberry, once stated in the most macho voice he could muster, “there are two kinds of lawmen: the quick and the dead.” He had probably heard those words in an old Western movie. That statement, meant to be funny in Mayberry of the 1960s, is more of a fact of life in 2016. The most basic instinct of rational people is self-preservation. Cops, like everyone else, want to go home to their families at the end of their shift.

The fact that he has to interact with someone in the line of duty has already put him somewhat on the defensive. He can’t know if the individual has mental problems or if he has come off his behavioral meds. If an officer asks you to “show your hands” and you reach for anything or reach to scratch your behind, it probably won’t turn out well for you. No amount of “sensitivity training” is going to override the basic instinct of survival.

In a recent TV series, an L.A. detective holstered his weapon and walked up to an armed murder suspect and talked him into surrendering. That was fiction. Real cops are not that stupid. Not even Barney Fife.

Question for Cummings

When I read the column by Dr. Bill Cummings in Sunday’s Telegraph I recalled a short prayer made by a little Quaker boy long ago as told in “Golden Hours: A Magazine for Boys and Girls,” “I wish the Lord would make us gooder and gooder until there is no bad left.”

Cummings topic was a comparison of a recovering alcoholic and an inquiring Christian mind. It was not a piece for those who so foolishly stake a claim to the belief everything in the Bible is true. One of my late friends, Annie Mae Fortson, went to her grave believing Jesus sat down with King James and dictated every word found in that Holy Bible. If she were still living, I am sure the portals of heaven would receive two UPS truck loads of prayers for the columnist every day.

Indeed, Cummings pieces are getting “gooder and gooder” each week. Several years ago I submitted a letter to the editor questioning whether there might be different paths leading to eternity. Biblical passage John 14:6 where Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me,” has never rung true since there are now and in the past other religions with other gods. I cannot believe Jesus would condemn so many to an eternal pit of fire because they chose another worship path. Such would be completely uncharacteristic of a loving God.

Late Columnist Phil Dodson joined my letter with a piece and some local clergy and members turned us on a cooking spit for a few days but no one ever answered our concern. Perhaps Cummings will do so by dissecting John 14:6 in a future column.

Free ride

Why would a voter (non-taxpaying) vote for a candidate promising to balance the nation’s spending with its income when the opposition is promising to raise taxes on the “rich” so that others can enjoy that “free ride.” I just do not get it. Doesn’t welfare get a free ride now?

Helping

I’ve spent the afternoon listening to the “talking heads” on TV at the opening of the Democratic National Convention. I was amazed to find out the new scandal surrounding Hillary Rodham Clinton is the hacking of the DNC email system. I was also amazed to be told that the Russians did it to help Donald Trump. Of course that is ridiculous. They did it to help Bernie.

Adequate funding?

A recent visit to our Centerville County library to attend a monthly meeting of the county Democratic Womens’ Group in its excellent meeting room found this room shut down for six weeks. A member of staff told me that it was basically too much trouble to put all the tables and chairs back in their places after a meeting. I don’t think it would take 15 minutes to put it back in order. Or even to ask those who use it to do this. I was not pleased.

Public libraries across America are expanding their operating hours and offering new services to patrons and buying new books, DVD and audio visual services. Our county library budgets are static and our county commissioners have told me in the past that they are adequate. Not true. Mediocrity reigns.

The solution to the mediocrity of the county library collections and operating hours is adequate funding by our county commissioners. All their new roadwork is wonderful, but so are all the possibilities of improving our county libraries and being open more often like on Sundays, evenings and national holidays.

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 9:06 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, July 27, 2016."