This is Viewpoints for Sunday, July 31, 2016

Missing endorsement?

On the July 26 Opinion page of this paper were “Endorsements” of some of that day’s runoff races. However, nothing was said about the District 6 commissioner seat. This Lake Wildwooder is confused and wonders why that omission. Not enough ink or print paper? We may never know. Now, the winner of that seat should not be out making merry; and that includes winners of the board of education seats. You see folks, there were only 556 total votes for the commissioner’s race. And just as baffling for me is the winner and his spouse are very prominently displayed on the next day’s front page. Did The Telegraph have a change of heart and decide they made a booboo with no endorsement of him but made it up with a comely picture?

This paper just a few years ago was having a problem with no new blood running for any seats in our new county government matrix. Talk about two candidates for this District 6 seat, maybe as a collective, being in the kitchen cooking legislation too long for our own good, but nothing was said about that fact.

Anyway, I want to thank Ed DeFore for his service to our county. I would have voted for him. I do not like the tax and spend “I will vote for anything that costs lots of taxpayer money” individual.

The Editorial Board endorsed Don Druitt in the May 24 primary election for District 6.

South Bibb County

I recently read where a contract had been let for the construction of the recreation center to be built in south Bibb County. In the very next paragraph, you all called it the Sub-South Recreation Project. I have a lot of friends who live in that area of Bibb County and they cannot stand being referred to as sub in any shape, form or fashion. They had rather hear someone say south Bibb County, southern Bibb County or lower Bibb County. But never again: SUB-south!

I have been selling real estate in Macon and Middle Georgia for 40 years and I know how the term sub-south came about. When the Macon-Bibb County Multiple Listing Service first started back in the late 70s, we had areas divided into north, south, east, west, suburban north, suburban south, suburban east and suburban west. For some reason, realtors began calling the area in south Bibb, sub-south and it stuck.

From this day forward, I would like for everyone to stop making these good folks to our south feel inferior by not referring to that part of the county as sub-south. Call it what it really is: southern Bibb County. They deserve the same respect as all of us living in other areas of the county and it is time to remove the “SUB” from southern Bibb County.

Kudos to the mayor and the county commissioners for finally coming together and agreeing to put a recreation center in southern Bibb County. I have one more suggestion about this long deserved center which will begin construction soon. Name the center “The Oney Hudson Recreation Center” after the man who has done more to promote southern Bibb County than anyone.

Downfall

Try as I might, I have not been able to identify a single country that ever fell because it was too strong, too prosperous, too moral or too alert. We might want to keep that in mind on Nov. 8.

Break with the past

Kudos for the article about the Georgia Teacher Academy for Preparation and Pedagogy, an innovative two-year program that helps career-switchers become excellent teachers. (“The teacher is also an ambassador,” July 25.) Georgia is becoming a leader in creating pathways to teaching that bypass conventional schools of education, which are failing to prepare the knowledgeable teachers that schools desperately need.

Also deserving of attention is an even simpler approach that is working well in Savannah-Chatham County. Principals have the power to hire their own teachers, none of whom are required to have a degree in education. Applicants with bachelor’s degrees in the liberal arts who pass a background check can “work as you go” teaching in classrooms and earn full certification in one to three years.

One reason private schools generally achieve at high levels is that their principals have flexibility to hire broadly educated, accomplished people instead of being forced to accept the products of schools of pedagogy. Savannah’s break with convention will show how public schools could benefit from a similar approach.

Good idea?

Refer the front page photo, bottom right, of Thursday’s Telegraph. Hillary’s head on a stick. Not a bad idea.

Difference

All lives matter, but some seem to matter more than others. Istanbul, Paris, Nice, Munich, Orlando, etc. Terrorist attacks receive prime coverage. A recent attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing over 80 people and wounding more than 200 was reported on page 12A of the July 24 edition of The Telegraph. Why the difference?

Sore loser

I have happily watched and read Erick Erickson as he ascended the ladder of success. However, the “poor loser” attitude he has been displaying of late doesn’t fit with the “character counts” statements he espouses. I hope he hasn’t “shot himself in the foot” with his readers like Ted Cruz did with his supporters lately at the Republican convention.

You don’t hear Democratic pundits whining because their man, Bernie Sanders, didn’t win their nomination. They’ll fall in line with the reality of Hillary Clinton as their nominee no matter how weak, shallow, immoral and unfit for office she is.

No one can state categorically how well Donald Trump would do as president. After all, look how much many of us were fooled by the current occupant of the White House.

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, July 31, 2016."