This is Viewpoints for Thursday, August 25, 2016

More swim coverage

With the Olympics coming to a close I can’t help but wonder why swimming isn’t a bigger deal here in Middle Georgia. The simple fact that swimming dominated prime-time television to showcase some of the most impressive/decorated Olympic athletes leaves me wondering: Why isn’t swimming included in our local sports news? Kudos to The Telegraph for offering Middle Georgia Swimmer of the Year. However, I would like to see highlights/recap of local meets throughout the school swim season. A major TV news outlet for our area doesn’t even have swimming as a menu option under the local sports tab on its website. For the love of swimming, please dive in and let swimming make a splash in our local news.

Watch for the drones

There are occasions when even the smartest receive a “wake-up call.” One such time is that provided Macon-Bibb County by the Georgia Municipal Association via The Telegraph reporting a proliferation of applications from Mobilitie to install “communication” poles in rights of way in cities across Georgia.

Even a “city boy” knows to look for the carrion on the landscape when he observes the buzzards circling overhead. The Telegraph articles including the picture of the public notice requesting comments from citizens reminds me of the Dallemand Miracle (Pacific Consulting, etc.) because there is almost total obfuscation of information provided by Mobilitie with the notice and on its website. The question of the technology they propose using probably goes unanswered because this business appears to entail installing towers on rights of way they can rent to technology service providers.

The plethora of applications for poles on right of way lands possibly indicates inadequate controls in our city-county government and others in Georgia except on a case by case basis. Planning & Zoning exercises considerable control over our residential property, but evidently we are vulnerable as relates to right-of-way land along the street? If so, this is blatantly wrong. The county needs to address the apparent gap in property rights protection.

I suggest research be initiated to rectify any such deficiency and that P&Z and County Engineer Dave Fortson be charged with handling this responsibility. I further suggest Mobilitie be given opportunity to fully present its business plan explaining the benefits to community and citizens, especially those most closely impacted. I wish them safe journey traveling back to California. Now, keep a sharp eye out for those drones. Could be a buzzard.

No missing signs

Shirley R. Harley of Centerville in her Sunday letter about her missing front yard Donald Trump sign failed to display a basic knowledge of local, state and American history. When former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1965 he noted that the Democratic Party had lost the South to the Republicans.

Our state government is controlled by the Republican Party and it refused to accept Obamacare and about 600,000 Georgians are uninsured, yet our state government is only now talking about enrolling some of our uninsured. This is after numerous rural hospitals have closed or reduced services.

Our Republican governor, Nathan Deal, has slashed our state education budgets since his inaugural. He has failed to raise the salaries of our public school teachers consistently, except for throwing a bone to them by expecting local government to pay for his proposed raises.

Harley could move to my subdivision, Hyde Park, on the border of Centerville and Warner Robins, where this card-carrying,Yankee Democrat has yet to see a single Trump sign on his morning walks. I can only wonder why?

Time to talk

On Aug. 6, The Telegraph carried an article from the LA Times, “As Americans live longer, attitudes toward death change.” As I watch other states across our great nation work to enact legislation to enable physician-assisted suicide, I wonder why I don’t hear more conversations in Georgia on this topic. What’s up with that? What are our concerns/fears? Medicare now allows “end of life” care conversations with patients. Yet studies show few people are exercising their rights to hold these discussions.

Too few of us seem willing to talk about our idea of and wish for a good death. Even in cases with which I am personally familiar, if the family desired such a talk, the doctors were reluctant. How can we make it more comfortable for our medical personnel to widen their definition of “healing intervention” to include palliative care and treatment of the whole person, not just the disease process? We all die eventually. Medical advances extend our longevity, yet, at times, this longer life comes at great cost. I don’t want to be kept alive at any cost if I no longer have quality of life. I hope others in Middle Georgia will join me in urging our legislators to open the door on such conversations.

Pity the poor vegetation

I was greatly amused that a law must be passed to protect the trees in the park from marauding, pesky tree climbers. The county, in its infinite wisdom, by not watering newly planted trees, has murdered several trees and at least a hundred azalea bushes in Washington and Tower parks. Those are the parks I regularly pass and hear the poor vegetative souls crying out to me as I pass the burned corpses still on the hillsides. I cry for my wasted tax dollars used to purchase and plant these shrubs and trees. I cry for the pitiful brown landscape of these parks.

I travel to other cities and see what lovely parks we might have with a small amount of effort. It would also help if the persons doing the pruning could discern and care about the difference between the leaves and cut out the weeds, vines and volunteer plants that are overtaking the specimen plant. All plants are not created equal. I know this will not be printed for, alas, only the regulars get printed, but hope springs eternal.

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