What our Readers Are Saying

Letters to the Editor

PTC’s ex-mayors support SPLOST

A Letter to our fellow Peachtree City citizens

Collectively, we represent 42 years of leadership in Peachtree City, the entire time the city has been in existence.

Our freely given time, talents and energy helped make our city the great place to live that is today.

We all made difficult decisions and endured short-term criticisms as we tried to ensure the long-term success and viability of Peachtree City. We think we did a pretty good job.

Now it is your turn to make a difficult decision, your turn to contribute to the future quality of life in Peachtree City.

No one likes to pay additional taxes but if we fail to pass the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to provide seed money for future road and transportation projects in Peachtree City, the quality of life in Peachtree City will always be less than it might have been.

What happens if we fail to act?

The rules have changed. In the future any community that cannot help itself with transportation project dollars will get no federal or state money either.

Having no local resources we will lose hundreds of millions of federal and state dollars.

In essence, those federal and state dollars (our taxes!) will be spent in other communities, not here.

Those who come to our city to work, shop, eat, play or worship will continue to get a free ride, literally!

Almost every other county in metro Atlanta has a sales tax for transportation.

Every time we spend money outside Fayette County we help them pay for their transportation improvements. It would be nice if they would do the same for us!

What happens if we do act?

Our local money will leverage hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state money to make transportation improvements all over Fayette County.

The people who visit our community will pay a significant portion of the new sales tax instead of getting a free ride.

The money coming to Peachtree City from the SPLOST will be sufficient to put into place just about every transportation improvement we realistically need to make for the next 15 to 20 years.

We will be able to improve and expand our already unique and remarkable cart path system.

We all like to complain about traffic and taxes. Unfortunately there are no free rides so doing something about traffic will require accepting a 1 percent higher sales tax for five years.

The plans and the financing are well thought out and this is the best and fairest way to raise the money.

We urge you to vote “Yes” for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for transportation projects in Fayette County.

Peachtree City is nearly built out and finished. Please do not let our 42 years of effort and leadership fall short. Vote “Yes” for the SPLOST and ensure that our city will remain a great place live in the future.

Joel Cowan, mayor, 1959-1965

Ralph Jones, mayor, 1966-1969

Chip Conner, mayor, 1970-1971

Herb Frady, mayor, 1978-1981

Fred Brown, Jr., mayor, 1982-1991

Bob Lenox, mayor, 1992-2001

Editor’s note: The letter also contained as a signatory Howard Morgan, mayor, 1972-1977, and listed him as “deceased, with his wife’s permission.”

PTC Mayor Brown opposes tax distribution formula

Interesting editorial [column by J. Frank Lynch] on the SPLOST. It brought out a lot of emotion about sharing because we are all part of one big fuzzy county.

Sharing is great but I wonder why the county never shared with Peachtree City when we widened Ga. Highway 54 East, Ga. Highway 74 North or any other road project in the past (including the current Hwy. 54 W. and future Hwy. 74 S.)?

Why is it that now that the county has some big dollar road projects on the table that it is a great time to begin sharing? Why do would we only receive $11 million out of $130 million total?

How come when the state passed a new law endorsed by the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia providing for the fair distribution (sharing) of the tax revenue that the county circumvented it?

Why do you think that every county in metro Atlanta that had to negotiate a SPLOST this year used the new state SPLOST fairness law except for Fayette County?

The Citizen Newspaper has initiated a new program where 60 percent of your wages will now go to your colleague John Thompson because he has to pay for his food, transportation and rent. You will still be responsible for paying your own expenses and producing the same amount of work for the newspaper.

I know that you have to pay for food, transportation and rent also but there is a need to share and help John because you are all part of The Citizen Newspaper.

If it helps John, it helps you because you work for the newspaper; without the newspaper you would not have a job.

There is a new state law that allows for you to receive a fair salary for the work you produce, but do not worry; the new law (endorsed by the reporters union) will not be used in your particular case.

The AJC, Fayette Neighbor and Fayette Daily News are all using the new staff fair pay law for distributing their payroll.

We do not have a problem with your having to pay 60 percent of your wages to John if it helps keep him at The Citizen Newspaper.

The people of Fayette County need to know that our county was the ONLY county in metro Atlanta that did not use the new state SPLOST fairness law this year and I hope that you will report on this very important fact.

Steve Brown, mayor
Peachtree City, Ga.

Pfeifer: ‘Good road network is good for all of us’

I’m writing about the Special Purpose Local Option Sales (SPLOST) Tax. I voted as a county commissioner to place this question on your ballot so that you would have the opportunity to have your say on this issue.

I will also be voting with you, as a voting and taxpaying citizen, on the question. I’m personally going to vote “YES” and these are my reasons.

It is better, for all of us, to have a good road network rather than a poor road network. We need to improve our roads just to handle the growth that has already taken place in our county and in the surrounding counties. A good plan should account for future growth.

The proposed traffic plan is revised and updated from plans first put on paper in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. The revised plan addresses both current and future needs.

If we proceed with the plan, it has to be paid for. That is why older plans were not fully completed. We had no specific local funding source for the plan and the burden was too high to put only on the local property tax payer.

We need local money to do local projects. We also need some local money, by state and federal law, to match portions of state and federal funding as it comes back into our community.

Those who are familiar with my position know that I recognize that this state and federal money is also OUR money, coming back here for OUR roads.

A SPLOST is the best way to pay for these road improvements. It is targeted, as best we can, towards those who drive on and use our roads.

A SPLOST is the only way we can get the assistance of those who DON’T live in our county but DO come here and buy things in our county, so that they can help pay for the roads that they use to enter, drive around and leave our county.

Estimates for this number range up to, and over, 50 percent. I don’t know what the number truly is but it seems that out-of-county people could end up paying for half or more of our road improvements.

The SPLOST ends when the five years expire or when the goal is reached, whichever comes FIRST.

It can only be used for the purposes on the ballot; build or repair those specific roads. So, it is focused, it is specific, it targets only those who use our roads and it ends at a certain time or dollar amount (no games).

I’m not going to play with words or play with politics. This issue has been too burdened with that. It’s been silly and I hope you’re too smart to fall for those, pro or con. I will put it simply.

It’s completely up to you. Do you want your local road network improved?

If you do, vote “YES” on the SPLOST and it will happen.

If you don’t want better roads, vote “NO” and it won’t happen.

Peter Pfeifer
Fayette County commissioner

‘Yes,’ ‘No’ on bond votes

I support the bond issue to improve our schools. They do a great job educating with the resources they have and should receive our full support.

The SPLOST issue is a monster all its own. I encourage everyone to vote against it for the following reason.

Our elected officials should regulate out-of-control annexing and building before asking for support on this issue. Had our officials done this, I don’t believe traffic would be the nightmare that currently exists.

When a development plan is reviewed, upgrades to surrounding roads should be required for all projects, not just the ones that help divert an existing problem.

New roads would bring new development and the roads we just paid for would be useless.

That is the hidden agenda they don’t want you to know about until it’s too late.

By voting NO, we not only save ourselves tax money, we send a message to our officials that we expect them to regulate (not stop) the developments.

Look at the impact of the surrounding area before approving a project and stop asking the taxpayers to foot the bill for your mistakes.

Matt Bergen
Peachtree City, Ga.

School bond benefits all

This is an appeal to all our Fayette voters to seriously consider voting “Yes” on the school bond issue at the polls on November 2. As a parent who has run the gamut of home-schooling, private-schooling and sending her children to public schools, I believe it is imperative to stay informed about local educational issues, and to be involved in our public school system.

It is my hope that some day in the near future, our school system, perhaps through the charter school, will offer access to courses and activities for our home-schooled and private-schooled students. After all, each of these students’ families contributes to the tax base that supports the public school system.

If as a home-school or private-school family, you do vote for this school bond, I encourage you to e-mail the school board, letting them know you support the bond.

If enough private or home-school families show support in this way, the school board may be more apt to include such students in future plans as the school system evolves.

Please, vote “Yes” for the school bond, and let the school board hear your voice.

Linda Sutton
Fayetteville, Ga.

Health care position comes with some perspective

Once again I have been challenged by people that would rather judge me anonymously than sign their name to their respective posts. Please allow me this retort and after this one they can say whatever they want .

The first post alluded to the fact that he/she had been in this county 28 years and have never seen such an arrogant letter about health care insurance and how I should be thankful for my “good fortune” and “good health.”

Facts: After enduring nine months of Castro’s cruelty I left Cuba in 1959 minus a fortune that my father made working six days a week 12 hours a day in Caracas, Venezuela for years. I came out with a pregnant wife, and $100 to my name.

This meant putting behind college at Georgia Tech six-plus months before graduation. I went to work for a hardware store making a grand total of $25 a week. From there to work at a can manufacturing plant for $1.75 per hour. During that time I had to file for bankruptcy.

I worked my way to millwright making $12 per hour in 1968. Tired of wildcat strikes after the union came in, I started to work part-time hanging wallpaper.

I had business cards printed, passed them out, and after a while people and builders started calling. For a good while I worked both jobs, sleeping only about five hours a day.

One of my contractors offered me the wallpaper installation in 287 apartment units and I gave up the “benefits” at my regular job to become self-employed.

Two years after I quit, the company shut down the plant because the union demands did not allow the profitability of the plant. So much for benefits!

I still work my job in Peachtree City and have since 1968. In spite of all the money I made, and for different reasons I wound up divorced in 1983.

At age 47 I had a grand total of $12,000, all the bills, and half interest in a home to my name.

I want you to think about this: When you are self-employed you don’t get guarantees of 40 hour a week. When I finish every job the reality is that I am laid off until the next job comes up. Unless you have a lot of jobs lined up you will spend some time with nothing to do, and some times it can turn into weeks, no work, no pay.

I get no paid holidays, no paid vacation, and I have to please my customers because when you are self-employed your reputation is the only thing that will keep you in business.

I disciplined myself, invested what little I had and kept on working long days. Now at age 69 next December I still work three jobs. Soon I will have to limit my work in favor of one of them that does not involve hard physical work. Will I ever retire? No!

We live in a modest home, do not own a car, we have two basic pickup trucks, the newest one being a 1999 model.

When I met my bride in 1986, she worked at the time as a secretary at the Peachtree City cable company. Soon after, the company was sold and she was laid off.

Instead of complaining she started delivering newspapers and cleaned houses. It was only in 1988 when she applied to Delta that she was hired. Insurance kicked in six months later.

Health? We have been visited by sickness over and over again including cancer. Six operations and even today chronic diseases affect us.

Medicare? No, I will not give it up because they charge me for it and I contributed. By the way, Social Security benefits will increase by 2.7 percent this next year, and a good part of that raise is going to be used to pay another increase on Medicare premiums.

My God? Christian, we are Roman Catholic, so you know we spend a lot of time on our knees! When we die all of our assets will go to our parish.

You don’t know what we have contributed to our church and who we have helped over the years and still do.

Do we thank God for what we have? Definitely, and we thank Him that the cancer has not returned for years now, and that in spite of our health problems we are able to function as we get older. Talk about judging!

Health care? To the second person who is obviously is a lady, the biggest part of the outrageous health care costs that are forcing your husband to go back to work are a result of the intrusion of the government in the regulation of our health care plus the innumerable suits filed by lawyers you see on TV and print ads, like Mr. Edwards, who have become millionaires by suing physicians, hospitals, and the drug industry.

Check the ads, they’ll tell you how much money they have made in judgments.

If you are Internet active, check this site and see what has happened to my country of birth since the butcher of Havana took over.

Make sure to see the pictures of government care to old citizens, and how people are living today. Here is the link: http://hometown.aol.com/enero57/page4.html.

Flight privileges? Yes, it’s a benefit, it’s free to employees and immediate family. Try to buy a round-trip to Europe, South America, or Asia and see what the fares are.

My only point was that Delta will not survive unless the employees take an active role in rebuilding the airline no matter how angry they are.

The jobs always belong to the employer, the employees get the jobs because they have the qualifications or have been trained to fill the jobs.

Finally I want to praise a true gentleman, a mechanic at Delta who called me to talk about my same letter. He left his name and phone number, I called him back and we talked for over an hour and we wound up understanding each other’s point of view.

Never was a harsh word said by either one of us during that hour and I want to thank him for being a class act.

Gerard Jansen
Peachtree City, Ga.

West Village annexation: Where there’s sewer, there’s odor of money

While it was encouraging to see that Peachtree’s City Council didn’t simply roll over and approve the Wieland annexation request, no one should think that this is the last of the issue.

History indicates that where there’s dollars at stake, developers typically run annexations up people’s nose one way or another, even using the courts if they can’t get it done democratically.

Early this year, I attended the first off-site meeting regarding this latest Wieland annexation proposal that was called by Mayor Brown.

It sounded much like a re-play of the first Wieland annexation committee during Mayor Lenox’s term in which I participated.

At that time I initially thought our committee was actually going to take an objective look at the situation and see if it was truly in the city’s best interest to annex more land and high density housing.

However, at the first meeting with Mayor Lenox, it was clear to me that particular decision had been made long before. It was just a matter of whether the committee voted “Yes” with a capital “Y” or small “y.”

I had the same feeling at this first off-site meeting called by Mayor Brown this past winter.

Steve seems fully in favor of annexing hundreds more acres, and whatever might go with it.

I wasn’t, unless it could be made clear as to how this would benefit the city as a whole.

We are already short-staffed on police and fire, according to what I heard from the police and fire chiefs at this year’s budget workshop.

Questions came up at Thursday’s council meeting as to exactly what the Wieland group was planning for this land.

I believe the present Centennial development speaks for itself: High-density, attractive houses that are built cheek to jowl so close to the cart path you can almost see what people are having for supper as you walk by.

For the new area Wieland will likely shoehorn as many houses as physically possible into any area to which they can access sewer service.

However, their closeness to one another may result in disaster if one of these big homes should have a fully involved fire.

We saw last summer how a similar subdivision’s entire street of large homes built a few feet apart from one another was nearly destroyed once a fire began jumping from one house to the other.

I wonder sometimes if Wieland didn’t purposely file a plan with the county that they knew would be simple to improve upon, making sure to show no initial road access to Ga. Highway 74.

This would be one of the first items they’d trade for sewers once the mayor and local citizens sat down with them to play, “Let’s make a deal.”

Regardless of whether or not this land is annexed, I feel Wieland corporation will have a hard time selling homes in the new acreage without an access road to Hwy. 74.

Once potential buyers make a trip or two to Hwy. 74 via MacDuff Parkway and Ga. Highway 54’s five traffic lights, they’ll likely say, “Forget it.”

Wieland customers are typically intelligent, discriminating people. The lack of a road access to Hwy. 74 would quite likely severely hurt sales. If this happens, I believe there will be a road extension to Hwy. 74 regardless of annexation.

I expect Wieland will make another try or two with the City Council. If that fails, they may well take the matter to court. With big bucks at stake and needing sewage for high-density housing, this issue is not over by any means.

In closing I don’t claim to know whether annexation would be really good or bad. Frankly, I’m not the smartest person in this world.

That would take a serious, objective study by Wieland to prove that more annexation would truly benefit the city as a whole.

If they can prove their case, I would be happy to support it.

I contend, however, that the burden of proof lies solely with the Wieland corporation to prove it, not for the city or citizens to disprove.

John Dillahunt
Wynnmeade subdivision
Peachtree City, Ga.

Mayoral candidate Caldwell fudges figures

Tyrone mayoral candidate Grace Caldwell alleges that Tyrone’s taxes have increased 22 percent annually over the past five years.

Unfortunately, she fails to point out that the number she references is total tax revenue.

Instead, she prefers to scare people into thinking that their individual property taxes have increased 22 percent annually.

I can certainly say that if we had that magnitude of tax increases in Tyrone, not only would I not have run for reelection, I would have seriously considered leaving town for my own protection.

If truth be told, the average homeowner in Tyrone has seen their town taxes increase about 5.6 percent annually over the last five years; 4.5 percent of that increase has been due to reassessments, and about 1.1 percent is the true tax rate increase and is less than the inflation rate.

Grace has also made an issue of Tyrone paying the highest tax rates in the county. I cannot argue with her there.

Our taxes on the same home are $26 year (50 cents a week) higher than Peachtree City. Just by virtue of being closer to I-85, I am willing to pay the 50 cents a week. I save more than that in gas in a day.

It is truly sad that a candidate can take some simple facts and twist them in such a manner that people get scared. I hope our Tyrone citizens will recognize that and cast their vote accordingly.

Michael J. Smola
Tyrone Town Council
Post 1

Mayor Lee presides over increasing development

A recent letter, purportedly written by Mayor Sheryl Lee of Tyrone, seems full of misrepresentations and tends to raise more questions than answers.

Mayor Lee writes, “We have a choice of continuing our long-held vision for low-density residential development....”

I suppose the Publix shopping complex and the clear-cutting of the land opposite is an example of low-density residential development!

Continuing, Mayor Lee writes, “I believe it is my responsibility to the community as your mayor to continue with the existing vision of Tyrone.”

It is my contention that continued development by large developers, sanctioned by Town Manager Barry Amos, is the REAL vision and direction of the town.

It is heartwarming to learn that Mayor Lee has learned “government is becoming more complex.” After six years, I would certainly hope so!

Mayor Lee wants to “protect the rural character of our town.” That vision is near impossible with the development taking place on Ga. Highway 74.

Mayor Lee states, “Our downtown area must be preserved to insure our uniqueness.”

Downtown business expansion and viable competition are being thwarted by selective ordinance enforcement, and there is little hope of them competing with the development taking place on Hwy. 74.

State funding of projects, i.e., “walking paths, park restroom facilities, library assistance and other park improvements,” are all noble goals.

But, the golf cart paths are overgrown, the restrooms are locked, and maintenance of the parks is lacking due to a severely understaffed maintenance department. Further expansion seems futile.

Mayor Lee writes, “This has allowed us to maintain our level of service to the citizens without increasing taxes.”

I don’t think so! Taxes have increased every year for the past five years. Code enforcement has been nonexistent. Lake Pendleton is a living example.

The people of Tyrone have a choice for the first time in six years. I hope they choose a direction other than what has been followed the last six years.

Charla Rehwaldt
Tyrone, Ga.

Why James Madison wouldn’t think that President Bush measures up

“An attention to the judgment of other nations is important to every government for two reasons: The one is, that independently of the merits of any particular plan or measure, it is desirable on various accounts, that it should appear to other nations as the offspring of a wise and honorable policy.

“The second is, that in doubtful cases, particularly where the national councils may be warped by some strong passion or momentary interest, the presumed or known opinion of the impartial world, may be the best guide that can be followed.

“What has not America lost by her want of character with foreign nations? And how many errors and follies would she not have avoided, if the justice and propriety of her measures had in every instance been previously tried by the light in which they would probably appear to the unbiased part of mankind?”

Is this some (male) panty-wearing liberal follower of John Kerry, or even the presidential contender himself? Why would anyone care what other nations think of us or our policies?

After all, the current President tells us he doesn’t care, and there is obviously something wrong with anyone who does care.

Apparently this line resonates with the American people as well since they seem to have forgotten how completely unsettled Mr. Bush looked in the first debate being challenged directly on his policies (perhaps a result of his hibernating from direct questioning over the past four years).

So let us examine our foreign policy from the “wise and honorable” aspect as though such things did matter.

In January of 2002 Mr. Bush made his “Axis of Evil” remark.

In August 2002 he told the world that he intended to remove Saddam Hussein from power if Saddam did not satisfactorily meet UN weapons inspection.

In October 2002, immediately prior to a very tight senatorial election Bush asked Congress for the power to use force in Iraq at his discretion.

In November 2002, Bush asked for a UN resolution to use force in Iraq, and got a watered-down version.

His Vice President talked of connections between Iraq and al Qaeda. His administration hinted at links to the 9-11 hijackers. The weapons inspectors left.

In February 2003, he sent Colin Powell to the UN to brief them on extant and future weapons programs. The UN refused to sanction immediate military action.

Tony Blair became our only substantive ally while all other major European powers bowed out. It became “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” not “Operation Enforce UN Dictates.“

The U.S. military executed the war flawlessly. Bush was flown onto a carrier where he announced the end to hostilities.

We found no poison gas; we found no anthrax; we found no extant programs; we found no nuclear weapons programs; the 9-11 commission told us there was no substantive relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.

A leaked CIA report commissioned by the Dark Prince (Cheney) himself told us there was no official Iraqi sanction of al Zarqawi before the war.

We didn’t guard the borders so we let in foreign crazies. We didn’t guard the ammo dumps so they have plenty of weapons.

Bush tells us we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here (as though they can’t buy plane tickets). The population of our largest ally is overwhelmingly against the war while others slowly leach away. Day by day we learn that every pretext for this war is flat false.

Does any of this appear “wise and honorable” to the “unbiased part of mankind”?

Our national councils have been warped by strong passion and that passion fed to the people. When James Madison wrote that first paragraph in Federalist 63, he was trying to convince the people of New York to accept the Constitution, and in that particular paper, the idea of a Senate as a bastion against imprudent passions.

It was his theory that the Senate, composed of wise and worldly men like himself, would save us from the sudden impulses that might plague a directly elected government.

And in any case, he reasoned, even were the Senate to become temporarily corrupted, corrections would be made in subsequent elections.

Such a time has arrived. All you jokers out there with the Bush stickers, pandering to a hopelessly lapdog Republican party as long as you got yours, had better wake up and smell the coffee.

All your faith in this idiot who follows his gut instead of the evidence will not make Iraq a democracy. It won’t heal the 8,000 wounded, nor revive the 1,100 dead.

Your faith won’t make us sage in the halls of foreign governments, nor restore our lost prestige.

It won’t capture Osama Bin Laden, the guy really responsible for attacking us and it won’t keep the world of radical Islam at bay, for there lies our real enemy.

Bush has squandered our power, and he must go.

Most Republicans have given Bush a free ride ever since he was selected by the Supreme Court. They don’t question why his impressions and reality seldom match. They don’t question the government’s profligate spending, nor its huge deficits.

Bush seems to ride one sound-bite after another and when confronted directly, retreats to those meaningless refrains.

Instead all we hear is this “character” crap, as though spouting religiosity gives one “character.”

It doesn’t matter whether he misled us or was misled himself. We pay this guy to do the right thing, and the right thing often involves balancing data to make it information.

In this Bush failed and slavish adherence to Republican dogma does not make the wrong thing right.

Bush’s danger is being smart, and totally disinterested.

Nothing short of our future is at stake here. It will be close, Karl Rove has seen to that.

But it is my fervent hope that the political cards will be dealt John Kerry’s way, and that we’ll have a leader who thinks as well as feels.

If not, we can all suck down our next tax cut (if you make enough), and watch George Bush fritter away our power and the world’s good will, while Cheney mutters, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (It is sweet and right to die for your country).”

Timothy J. Parker
Peachtree City, Ga.

Independent voter decries Democrat campaign as filled with hate

As a independent voter, who choses to vote for what I believe is right for America, and not for any political party, I am finding it harder and harder to stomach what I am reading from the liberals.

In all my years I have never read such disrespect for a president in office as I see now, whether I believe in what he does or not.

The last few weeks, I have seen the President of the United States called stupid and ignorant, and a liar, the milder of the terms used. This in spite of the fact that he has a BA from Yale and and MBA from Harvard, while his opponent only graduated from Yale with a C average.

Michael Moore made a movie lambasting Bush and called him a bastard. But when the Swift Boat veterans came out with a movie lambasting Kerry, you would have thought they had criticized God himself.

When the liberals ran an ad calling Bush AWOL, he remained silent because the facts showed what a lie that was.

When they called him a liar about WMD, he remained silent, because that was silly.

When they say he abandoned our troops, it was proven that Kerry voted against the bill.

Other notable liberals comments:

Julianne Malveaux (Pacifica Radio host, 1994) [said] that his wife should feed Clarence Thomas lots of eggs and butter so that he dies early.

Alex Baldwin in l999 said we should stone Henry Hyde (the house impeachment manager) to death and go to their home and kill their wives and children.

Walter Cronkite (Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 22, 2003) compared Attorney General Ashcroft to Tomas de Torquemada, the torturer of heretics.

Jesse Jackson (Dec. 25, 1994) claimed conservatives are the heirs of the Third Reich.

Am I missing something here? Have we lost respect for our leaders? Certainly I never liked Jimmy Carter or Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson as president, but I would have never called any of them foul names. I would have never gone to a conservative meeting and shouted down their leaders with epithets, and thrown stones.

And as to the person who quoted figures in saying that he was not better off than four years ago and said that the middle class up to $127,000 paid 42 percent of the taxes, I went to the site he quoted and found that it actually said that the top 20 percent of wage earners paid 82 percent of the taxes, and the bottom 40 percent pay no taxes.

Furthermore it stated that the benefit of the tax cut went to middle and lower taxpayers earning less than $100,000. Furthermore, it states that 7.8 million taxpayers were removed from having to pay any tax.

So, if you are going to quote a source, make sure you get it right. Or is this just the way Democrats operate?

Sorry, on this election, I would be ashamed to be a Democrat. I have to go with the party with less hate.

Vern Johnson
Fayetteville, Ga.

Bush failed to plan for after Iraq victory

Where is the reasoning and rationale of the Bush administration behind all of their assuring words that we are “safer today”?

The military plan to topple Saddam Hussein worked like a charm. However, everything else that should have been a part of Mr. Bush’s preemptive action has resulted in a botched and disgusting failure.

No plan to secure the peace, install a system of government where the previous system was eliminated, and not enough police forces to secure the borders, and to prevent the looting as we now see.

Mr. Bush’s action to invade Iraq was like knocking a large hornets’ nest from a tree. Sure, the hornet nest was a nasty thing to live with, but knocking it down, and not thinking or planning on what an angry swarm of hornets might do was about as dumb as you can get.

The mismanagement of this situation, which is of our own creation (I say ours because Bush is our president), is not what this country stands for.

The only way we can manage ourselves out of this mess is to remove and topple the causes of what is now a misery of the world.

We are not safer, and now armaments which were previously under our control will come back to kill more of our men and women in the armed forces, as well as countless innocent people in what has now become known as Bush’s war.

Juan Matute
Peachtree City, Ga.

It’s American to disagree with our leader

I’m Bill Starnes and just read the Oct. 22 Citizen. I’m a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, nine years active USAF, and a Democrat. I usually get fired up when I read the litany of complaints about Democrats.

I am not dysfunctional, divorced, single, gay, or any other assorted irregular as Mark Shields suggests in your paper. Even if I was all of the above, so what? Would that make my ideas or concerns in our society any less relevant?

I was extremely poor growing up and unlike Walter Williams I don’t know how to put a smiley face on 43 million without health insurance.

I know what happens when extremely poor people get sick. They don’t see a doctor until it is unavoidable, zero preventive care, and they probably never see a dentist.

I also don’t know a lot of high-paid “in-sourced” job holders. I do know a bunch of folks who went out of work for long periods and ultimately took lower paying jobs with less benefits.

Granted, not all W’s fault and globalization is here to stay. I agree with Mr. O’Reilly that sometimes we must stand and fight even if it is alone.

What I really don’t understand is why we diverted attention from Afghanistan to Iraq, and if Iraq is a national priority why did we go in with an absurdly low number of troops to control a country of that size?

I think terrorism is probably the ultimate issue of our time like Matt Towery. I just think we have dropped the ball on more serious threats than Iraq and ultimately I feel less safe.

If Bill Buckley is saying there is an extremely long list of potential military opponents under our present criteria, I absolutely agree. Otherwise, chalk it up to one more Buckley article I couldn’t decipher.

I personally disagree with the way the current administration is handling virtually everything: The war, the environment, health care, energy, jobs, the enormous deficit, you name it.

Since I am an American I thought it was my right to disagree, even to be “different.”

Listening to conservative talk radio or reading my local paper makes me wonder if you share that view.

Bill Starnes
star2029@bellsouth.net

We already have stem-cell research; we just don’t need embryos’ cells

I am really frightened, frankly, about the rhetoric surrounding stem-cell research in this election.

Senator John Kerry hammers away at President Bush for being anti-scientific and ideologically blind in his opposition to embryonic stem cell research. As usual, Kerry never lets facts get in his way.

President Bush has indeed funded embryonic stem cell research to the tune of about $30 million, albeit with the caveat that no new “lines” of stem cells be created since doing so entails the destruction of embryos.

What scares me is that President Bush and those of us who are against embryonic stem-cell research are ridiculed as extremists, medieval, uncompassionate, and just plain dumb.

Why? Because we believe that embryos are human life and deserve to be protected.

Why liberals can gush tears over the fate of the spotted owl, or a mass murderer on death row, or a teenager who is denied an abortion by her parents, but cannot see fit to protect human life in its initial stages is quite beyond me. It’s a feat of logic that utterly defies logic.

I know embryos, on an emotional level, can’t elicit the same sort of emotional tug that a newborn baby can, but that doesn’t mean intellectually speaking that an embryo is not life. We do need to use the intellect in these matters, and not just our emotions, after all.

The intellect will clearly and obviously apprehend that an embryo is a human life because given its natural course, it will develop into a baby within a few months.

An embryo is not as complex or autonomous as a fully formed baby in the womb, but does that mean it’s not life?

A newborn baby is less complex than a fully formed adult, but we don’t dismiss it as a human life, do we? (Actually, Peter Singer, a Princeton professor, does. He supports the “right” of parents to terminate their child’s life up to about 12 months.)

Back to my fear I spoke of earlier. What scares me about all of this is that we don’t need embryonic stem cells to cure disease and Michael J. Fox.

Read this carefully: not one disease has been cured by embryonic stem cells and the scientific jury is definitely out on their potential effectiveness.

However, adult stem cells are already proven to work. They have already been used to cure over 50 diseases in thousands of people, and research continues to expand their effectiveness.

So, why do Sen. Kerry and certain scientists demand we fund embryonic stem-cell research? Since there is no real medical reason, I fear that it is because these people believe we as a society must continue to destroy innocent human life or stop altogether.

If we as a society accept that embryonic stem-cell research is immoral and unethical because we can never allow human life to be created just so it can be destroyed, then we admit the embryos are life.

Then, not only are embryos life, but so are fetuses. So are the millions of babies destroyed each year in abortions. In other words, if we cross that moral Rubicon, we can no longer as a society tolerate the willful termination of any human life at any stage.

Thus would abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research, and human cloning have to come to an end.

We can’t have that, now can we? So the proponents of embryo-killing research go around scaring the hell out of everyone and ridiculing those who are against it as damn-fool religious bigots.

They have a taste for death, and believe that death can solve their problems, and will brook no opposition to that notion.

What really scares me is not that people rarely investigate the facts, or gullibly believe a serial liar like Sen. Kerry, but that so many people in this nation are indeed willing to join in and support the killing spree.

Our democracy cannot survive for long if the people believe that the dignity of human life can be abrogated by majority vote.

Our founders knew that democracy could only succeed if it were founded on certain “inalienable truths,” principle among them being life itself. We’ve already violated that principle by legalizing abortion.

Dare we continue down that dark, murderous road and extend our contempt to more forms of human life?

Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.

Bush followers don’t have a clue about real issues

Let’s be honest with each other: Ernie Jackson has never read Alexis de Tocqueville in his life. Please allow him to admit he scalped the quotation off the Internet.

I would dwell on the sheer irony of utilizing a great 19th century political philosopher in the defense of Bush if it were not for the mere fact that those words were not his to begin with and are commonly misattributed to him.

If anyone wishes to contest me, please come forward with its true source, and do not say “Democracy in America”; it’s not true, despite what the Internet may tell you.

This brings me to my overarching point. Followers of Bush are the misled, the easily misguided. You don’t really know what is going on, you are sponges cut out in the shape of sheep, soaked with watered-down fact that you follow as truth, as reality.

Above all, you are the masses. There, I said it.

You are fed meaningless catch-phrases like “flip-flopper,” which you deem clever and repeat like those dolls that have “press here” stickers on their hands. You foolishly wield the labels conservative and liberal as simple substitutions for Republican and Democrat.

Most importantly, you believe that you have a clue about the goings on of this country when you (and let’s be honest with each other) are actually quite ignorant.

Wake up! The Bush administration plays the fear card like a fifth ace, and you allow your chips to be raked in ten-fold.

We are not in some battle for independence; we are not fighting for our freedom. In fact, the largest threat to our freedoms is called the Patriot Act; tell me what you know about it.

Our beloved America, like it or not, is one of the world’s largest terrorists. Don’t believe me, do you?

What is a “War on Terror” anyway? Is it possible to have a war on something so broad? Is it possible to win such a war, defeat terror?

I am not here to change your political views; I can’t; most of you inherited them. But I inflame for a reason.

If you truly support your leader, I ask that you question him, not blindly exalt him. He is a simple man, a puppet of his administration and the lame child of an American dynasty.

The average man likes Bush because he, like they, is average. He is a joke to watch in the debates and an embarrassment to America in the global community; we are both the laughing stock of the world and its gravest fear.

But of course you wouldn’t know that; you’ve never left the noose we coolly call the Bible Belt.

Alexandre Justino
FCHS graduate and student at Oxford University, England

Are you really satisfied with Bush as leader?

As I sit here reading the Opinion section of The Citizen I find myself getting angry with some of the columns, agreeing with others, responding to some mentally over and over again.

But instead of responding I thought I’d write concerning the upcoming election, asking all of the voters just one question: Are you truly satisfied with the way the country is being run today?

Not just your personal life, but the way the country is being run on a whole.

The answer to that question is what you should be taking with you when you go to vote.

Not Democrat vs. Republican, Conservative vs. Liberal, not the results of negative campaigning or who won the debates. Just, Are you satisfied?

If your answer is YES, then vote for Bush. If it’s NO, then give Kerry the opportunity to make it better.

Personally my answer is NO. The unemployment rate is high, the cost of living is higher, our insurance fees go up every year, our gas costs are astronomical, we are in a war that, in my opinion, we should not be in and we’re not at all liked in many other parts of the world, something I find, as an American, embarrassing and frightening if we ever have the need to ask for their help.

I’m voting for John Kerry. I’d like to give him that opportunity to do better so I can answer YES to that question. (And readers, please don’t respond back to me with a list of why you don’t like Kerry, because then I will just be compelled to write again with my list of why I don’t like Bush and that will get us nowhere! Just remember to ask yourself the above question when you’re alone and standing in the voting booth.)

Debbie Pitts
Peachtree City, Ga.

Bush has failed as leader and president

George Bush has failed as a leader and president. He squandered the budget surplus into a trillion dollar deficit.

America would have been better served if the money had been used to pay down the deficit.

Gasoline prices have doubled and are still climbing. Millions of Americans are unemployed.

Bush was impatient with the UN and decided to go it alone and attack Iraq, although he was advised not to attack.

However, Bush did not take into account the consequences of going to war in Iraq or the regional instability that would follow.

Bush was advised not to do it. However, he wouldn’t listen and the Bush administration embarked on a “promote fear mission” to scare the American people into believing Iraq was a threat going to launch a terrorist war against America and that there were untold stockpiles of WMD.

Through fear, the “Bushies” pushed their agenda for going to war in Iraq.

The real threat was from Osama bin Laden. The effort to catch and kill him should have been the main priority, not attacking Iraq.

America doesn’t need four more years of Bush. He even says he doesn’t read newspapers or watch news. He knows nothing of current events. He is arrogant and believes he was selected by God to lead America.

I believe Bush is ignorant and stupid. However, ignorance can be cured; stupid is forever!

Kerry gets my vote for president. I can’t stand another Supreme Court-appointed president.

Larry Robinson
Peachtree City, Ga.

Great to be Democrat

What a great time to be a Democrat in Fayette County. I recently discovered a group of people dedicated to the promotion of Democratic ideals in our county.

I attended a rally at McCurry Park last Saturday. Fayette For Kerry and Fayette Democratic Women were there in support of not only our national ticket but also our local candidates, many of whom spoke to the enthusiastic crowd.

Seeing all these like-minded people in Fayette County softens the hurt I feel at having my Kerry For President yard sign taken from my front yard.

Democrats in Fayette County? You bet; come join us.

Joanne Killikelly
Fayetteville, Ga.