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Small thoughts: Looking ahead at the day after

By CAL BEVERLY

Somebody asked me the other day what would be my feelings if Kerry wins.

“If Kerry wins,” I replied, “Kerry will be my president.”

I’m one of those extreme religious right-wingers the AJC is always decrying as nut cases (though there are a lot more of us nut cases than editorialists at the AJC would dare to imagine).

As such a confirmed nut case, I believe the outcome of the vote is in bigger hands than mine or the assembled hands of all U.S. voters and assorted judges and media pundits.

Thus, on Nov. 3, or whatever day the assorted judges decide the outcome of the voting (See cartoon below), I will harbor an obligation to fervently pray for whoever will be our next president, whether Bush or Kerry.

May God bless and grant wisdom and strength of character to our next president, as well as to our current president.

(Lord, you know I’d prefer it to be Bush, but I’m not going to argue with your choice.)

Other issues: The alleged Republicanism and by the next week the subsequent Kerryism of The Citizen’s editorial pages. Well, which is it? Or does it just depend on who writes and thus gets published that particular week?

Gosh, guys, I hate to burst your ideological bubble, but most times I print what I’ve got. If your particular side didn’t fare well, look in the mirror: It’s because I received nothing from you.

When I take the pulpit, I usually spout conservative stuff, tempered by notions of justice and mercy and truth. You know, those big things.

But this space is open to other views, and that’s what happened last week.

I have on staff liberals as well as other shades of opinion. The liberals got wordy last week, and my Bushie friends took the week off (Hope you remembered to vote).

Well, my staffers probably were preaching to a small choir. GOPers, take heart: The Neanderthal is back atop the editorial page. The AJC hasn’t been able to topple nor commit me yet.

(This is beginning to sound like a Bill O’Reilly column. Gee, what a self-important blowhard.)

Moving the focus outward: Annexation in Peachtree City.

Some badly needed common sense surfaced as the council turned back the Brown-Wieland plan to jam thousands more people into the city’s west side.

One of the more remarkable flights of illogic I’ve seen recently opined as how annexation was really a tool to “control development.”

Really? I guess PTC should start annexing eastward and southward to turn all those 1- and 2-acre lot developments into high-density multifamily housing and soccer fields.

Soccer fields forever. Forget that the city has at its disposal more than 20 acres of undeveloped city land adjacent to the South 74 soccer fields, specifically meant for soccer expansion. Enough already!

And did anybody now living along McDuff Parkway discover some other entrance to their subdivisions other than McDuff before they signed on the dotted line? Did they not know what the traffic was like before they closed on their houses? Come on.

And what about the mayor’s 180-degree turn on his pre-election anti-annexation promises?

Why hasn’t Mayor Brown sought legislative action to require a city voter referendum on any annexation plan? That’s what he promised before being elected three years ago.

Why doesn’t Mayor Brown keep his promises? Unless he was in fact a developer’s stealth candidate three years ago, what has happened to cause him to make such a profound shift in his political allegiances?

The mayor has encouraged some politically naive newcomers to turn the once-forbidden idea of annexation into a free grab from the developer’s candy store. He has held out developer goodies as a cost-free way to get luxury stuff the newcomers and a few old-timers want.

Except it ain’t free. And the mayor, once an anti-annexation candidate, knows it. The costs to the community keep on piling up in increased traffic, increased demands for increased services, increased densities, etc.

Look no farther than annexation-happy Fayetteville for clues to life after expanding city limit lines and its precious sewer service.

The West Village annexation push by Mayor Brown amounts to political pandering, and the mayor ought to disavow it and explain what happened to the candidate Brown we thought we knew.

Predictions: Bush wins popular vote. Georgia sends to the U.S. Senate the man in the empty suit. Democrats win their last elections in Fayette County before the state House and Senate districts get redrawn.

Gay marriage ban passes in a landslide. Five Democrat-appointed judges spit in the voters’ faces and invalidate the result.

School bond passes. SPLOST goes splat. County commission sulks, goes into secret session and votes on something, but we never get to see who voted for what or why. Roads get built somehow anyway.

From way back here in Monday, I send greetings to you in the future called Wednesday.