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Free Speech for 11-03-04

[What do you really think? E-mail us your pithy opinions, your short takes on life in Fayette and environs, your gotta-get-it-off-your-chest questions or sound-offs. E-mails only to editor@TheCitizenNews.com. Put “Free Speech” in your subject line and include your contribution as the body text of your e-mail. No signature required. No phone calls, faxes or snail-mail letters, please. We won’t print libel or obscenities or personal attacks on private persons, but just about any aspect of public life is fair game.]

The city of Fayetteville is spending over $1 million of our tax money on Pye Lake? This is absolutely outrageous. Isn’t this private property? Is it because one of our city council members has property there? Other areas in the city are being flooded, and have been for years: What about those taxpayers? Nothing is being done there to help them.

I encouraged my son who is 12 to go trick-or-treating this year. He and a friend went together. They were gone approximately 20 minutes and returned home rather disheartened. They said a woman had told them they were too old to be trick-or-treating and they needed to go home. I wasn’t aware there is an age that was deemed too old to trick-or-treat. After all Halloween is for kids and last time I checked 12 is still a kid. Perhaps you are too old to pass out candy!

The ballots should be cast for president by now, but I doubt if it will be over. The only way it will be is if one or the other side wins an overwhelming number of electoral votes. I hope that is the case. Hundreds of lawyers won’t let it rest if there is a chance to mine fees.

I am a proud citizen of Fayette County and a proud liberal. I’m sure you would be surprised to know how many of us there are. I certainly respect your right to publish mainly Republican and conservative columns and editorials. I am disappointed that you do not print a fair share of articles and columns with opposing points of view. The citizens of Fayette County are capable of making educated choices when presented with both sides of an issue. I believe you owe them that much respect. It belittles them to do otherwise.

We were recently guests of the Sleep Inn in PTC in town for NASCAR. I was somewhat irritated when I came back from the race on Saturday to find that the hotel had no parking spaces due to the trick-or-treaters at The Avenue shopping center. I voiced my opinion to the desk clerk who then started to let people know that due to the hotel being booked that parking was available to hotel guests only. I stood and watched time and time again as the lady was yelled at by residents even after an explanation was given. A lady screamed at her wanting to know where the sign was. It’s private property, lady. Do you have a sign in your driveway telling me not to park there?

Recently Councilwoman Rutherford voted to deny the seniors living in Peachtree City an additional homestead exemption. This vote was a non-binding referendum simply asking the state to allow the citizens of Peachtree City to make this decision. Her reason, she doesn’t feel that a special interest group should get preferential treatment. She makes this statement while voting along the lines of Direct-PAC, a special interest group. Now I’m not saying that I agree or disagree with Direct-PAC, just that I find it interesting that she can pick and choose which special interest groups she can or will support. Why not support the referendum and let the citizens decide?

The presidential election is over; Thanksgiving is approaching. Some of us had an opportunity to see Fayette’s finest at the double Eagle Scout ceremony of Robby Romeo and Craig Hyatt last Sunday. In achieving the highest Scout standard that eludes 98 percent of Scouts, Robby and Craig honored their families and their community. The highlight of the ceremony was their slide show, which showed their own loyal friendship to each other over the years. There are many, many great kids in Fayette County and Robby and Craig are two of them. Congratulations !

I wonder when the city fathers and mothers of PTC last had their moral compass calibrated. Stiffing someone you owe money to is a sure indicator of poor character. Speaking of right and wrong and money: I’m still waiting for Councilman Rapson to reimburse PTC for the legal fees his wife cost the city with her frivolous law suit.

I don’t think we should use federal dollars to pay a modern-day Doctor Frankenstein to grow backbones, kidneys, and livers from stem cells. Those self-centered people who think it’s okay to grow humans in test tubes and Petri dishes just to harvest stem cells should donate their own money, sperm, and eggs and then let them answer for their own deeds on judgment day.

The Bard of Braelinn (self-proclaimed expert, retiree, Bush supporter) must be using the same “fuzzy” math that W. uses. According to his analysis of the SPLOST impact on seniors, he must have retired with millions per year. He states that the SPLOST will result in “our older villagers” having to pay “thousands of dollars more in sales taxes.” Hmmm, if 1 percent equates to one penny on the dollar, 10 cents on 10 dollars, etc., then that means to get to “thousands” would require spending more than $100,000 per year in goods bought in Fayette County! Exactly how many “older villagers” actually are earning enough in retirement to spend over $100,000 per year in Fayette County alone? It seems the Bard of B.S. is using not only “fuzzy math,” but a “campaign of fear.” Oh, he probably still thinks that WMDs will be found in Iraq. It’s time for the Bard to quietly slip into the oblivion from whence he came.

I was made to understand recently by a confirmed conservative that the government, federal, state, nor local, is NOT responsible for the flu shot debacle. I was told that this is a private business thing and that companies who want to make the vaccine can, or not, and that the CDC, Tommy Thompson, and health departments, and certainly not President Bush and his staff, are not responsible. Well, I agree with that. They aren’t very responsible. Who, in the name of mercy, would think that a drug company would put people’s health concerns concerning a possible epidemic ahead of profit? Capitalism doesn’t work that way. How do you think regular drugs got to be about $5 per pill? Leadership is all that it takes. The kind of leadership that isn’t interested in making certain people rich. I hope the election has made a better decision by now than the U.S. Supreme Court made four years ago.

I am writing this because as a proud Delta pilot’s wife I am tired of the misconception that the pilots are causing all of Delta Air Line’s problems. Delta is NOT in its current financial state because of the pilots. The 9/11 attacks, war, weather (hurricanes and all) and management are the reasons for the problems we are all facing. Next let’s address the pay issues. I have had friends say to me time and again that they have already taken a 10 percent pay cut (which does NOT go into effect until Jan. 1, 2005) and on the salary they make, they cannot afford to give any more. I want everyone to understand how uncompassionate that sounds. Because these friends checked the box marked mechanic/flight attendant, etc., and not pilot, there should be less expected from them? Because they make less money than a pilot, they should have to give up less? What about the gate agent who gets paid less than the mechanic? Should that person be expected to give us less or the mechanics should give up more? If I understand the formula correctly, the lowest income employee should give up 10 percent, the next level (mechanic/flight attendants, etc.) should give up 20 percent and the pilots should give up 30 percent. What I hear is that the pilots make the most money and they should give up more than 30 percent. What about the management? Shouldn’t they give up more than 30 percent because they make WAY more than the pilots do? Why are the pilots targeted? Finally, I would like to have each and everyone take into consideration that any pay cut is hard to handle. What I don’t appreciate is the fact that the other Delta employees think the pilots should and deserve to give up 30 percent of their pay and if they cannot afford it, it’s their fault for living outside their means. The compassion for what the pilots are giving up is not there. It is almost as if the other employees feel the pilots deserve a pay cut. These are the same pilots that make our community thrive. It is the same set of people that support the restaurants, retail and other venues in our county. Instead of everyone having so little compassion for our pilots, maybe we should each take into consideration what that support means to us and others in our community. After all, if you were to ask a homeless person if they would want the mechanic/flight attendant salary minus 10 percent they would be grateful. They would be grateful for their salary and 50 percent pay cut. It is all a matter of who you ask and what box they checked. Each and every one of us is given the opportunity to check homeless, mechanic, flight attendant, gate agent, baggage handler, pilot, management, etc. Why should those that chose pilot be penalized?

Bard wonders about MHS

Epistle to the Editor

Well, I said a little prayer before I went to the Atlanta Motor Speedway and asked God to give the villagers in the Peachy City enough sense to vote against doubling our taxes and to let Dale, Jr., rack up a few more points.

Former mayors Bob “I Own This City” Lenox and Fred “Developers Buddy” Brown asked the citizens to vote for the SPLOST so that we could get smacked up the backside by our infamous County Commission Chairman Greg “Emperor” Dunn.

I just got finished bragging on the Peachy City Council and I’ll be darned if the newspaper doesn’t say that Councilman Steve “Rebellious” Rapson lashes out at Mayor “Cheery” Brown.

Rebellious Rapson started chewing on Cheery Brown’s hide and saying that the mayor is knee deep in wrongdoing.

Councilman Murray “Smoking” Weed said it was all right and gave a completely different story than Rebellious Rapson.

My wife and I could not figure out what they were talking about in the first place. It sounded like they’re making a television commercial and Rapson didn’t really know what it was about.

Virginia Gibbs from the Fayette “Keystone” Chamber of Commerce added that Cheery Brown was trying to make the Keystone Chamber look bad but she forgets to tell us what he said that was so wrong.

It’s not really all that hard to make the Keystone Chamber look bad and they do a pretty good job of it themselves.

My granddaughter attends over at McIntosh High and she can’t understand why the football program is so feeble. It’s tough when neighboring Sandy Creek and Starr’s Mill do so well.

It could be that “Emperor” Dunn and the Three County “Stooges” are making some changes to the county water as it enters the Peachy City. Don’t drink the water, boys!

Somebody please fill us in on what happened to the Peachy Target. One week all the villagers were up in arms and the next week all the villagers were happy.

I can’t figure out what happened with the annexation thing either. Everyone at the Pancake House said it’s almost like the reporter is keeping it a secret.

“Scribe” Beverly was probably too busy asking the villagers to double their taxes on Nov. 2 in the editorial section to keep up with the other news.

To make matters worse, we now have complaints of porn on the FX channel. I keep up with NASCAR on FX and the closest thing that I have seen to porn is the beer commercials.

The villagers were worried about protecting their little grubbers. When is someone going to protect the rest of us from their little grubbers?

In my part of the village there is the annual event of trouncing through Mr. Buster’s flowerbeds, also known as Halloween.

If we don’t do something to cull the herd now, the damage will be twice as bad next year. Something to think about.

Buster

The Bard of Braelinn