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Dunn: Public safety is county’s top priority

In my seven years in elected office I have written very few letters to our newspapers. When inaccurate and misleading information appears in the papers, unless it could cause significant harm to our community, I have chosen not to respond.

As most of you also know, I do not respond to the vicious, normally “anonymous,” personal attacks which a couple of people we all know like to put in print.

Since I have chosen over time not to abuse the privilege I hope when I do write a letter you will seriously consider its contents.

On May 18, 2005, front page stories appeared in both local papers in which Lt. Col. Jordan of the [Fayette County] Sheriff’s [Department] made false and misleading statements and personal attacks against the commissioners which I believe could cause undue fear on the part of our citizens.

He claimed we lied to him (he has said that before!), that we were undermining drug enforcement efforts, singled out Commissioner Wells and me saying they “are endearing themselves to drug dealers preying on Fayette County” and questioned the board’s priorities.

Last week I was informed by a reporter from The Citizen that an officer who works for Col. Jordan continued those attacks and, among other things, said we didn’t care if they got killed on the job, that we were retaliating against them due to our legal differences with the sheriff over accountability of drug seizure funds, and that it was all my fault because the other commissioners just do whatever I tell them to do.

I was told an article in this week’s Citizen would address those additional irresponsible statements.

I was quite agitated and frustrated by questions about those charges, as you might imagine, but I was thankful that she discussed them with me prior to printing the story.

I also hope she understands my frustration was directed at this situation rather than by her doing her job.

Let me state emphatically that public safety is, was and will remain our commissioners’ top priority. We not only say it, we put the “money where our mouth is.”

I invite you to do a detailed review of our budget and personnel decisions. I went back five years. We have continued to diligently ensure that about 50 percent of all general funds would go directly into public safety.

From 2000 to 2005 the county’s general fund budget has grown from $36.4 million to $52.4 million (an increase of 44 Percent).

In these five years the sheriff’s budget grew from $8.86 million to $13.57 million (an increase of 53 percent).

All other departments in the county grew an average of 41 percent while the sheriff grew 53 percent.

It is not hard to see where our priority lies. If we were retaliating against the sheriff, we have a strange way of showing it! It would also be illegal and your board “ain’t into that.”

Additionally during those five years, above and beyond the general funds discussed above, the Board of Commissioners has spent another $60 million in support of law enforcement.

We have installed a $9 million new state-of-the-art 911 system and, in order to provide the best possible security for our detention officers, court security officers, judges, court personnel, and the public, we have just completed a $51 million construction of the new jail, courthouse and sheriff’s facilities.

For Col. Jordan and his subordinate to make these outrageous statements denies the reality of what the sheriff’s office has been provided by our taxpayers.

Another determinate of our priority is people. During the same five years the commissioners have authorized the additions of 120 new employees. One-hundred-five new positions went to public safety while only 15 new positions were authorized in all other departments combined.

Of the 105 new public safety positions 73 went to the sheriff and 32 to all other public safety.

Again, the board’s priority is clear and if we were retaliating I guess you would say we are not very good at it.

Col. Jordan says we lied during the budget workshops. There were about 15 people in the room at the time, including a reporter from The Citizen, all of whom would agree that there was no lying or deception.

The process was the same with him as with everyone else who appeared. Budget hearings are difficult. No one gets everything they want. I guarantee you the taxpayer couldn’t afford it.

I am sure all were not pleased with the results but no one else accused us of being unethical.

To have a law enforcement officer state we don’t care if they are killed and that we are undermining drug enforcement because we turned down one position on the Drug Squad are such emotionally charged statements they are difficult to address.

Neither of course in any way describes the realities. We appreciate everything they do and because their job is so difficult and dangerous, we work very hard to provide them the resources they need.

The sheriff has a department with 214 people and a $13.5 million budget.

Col. Jordan’s statements are not only misleading but they seem directed at our citizens in order to frighten or make them mistrust their government. That is irresponsible.

Perhaps people need to understand that the commissioners’ responsibility is to provide resources to the sheriff. We cannot, and never attempt to, tell him how to employ his forces to meet the multiple changing threats which impact the community.

If you were to compare communities of our size, you could not find a better manned, better equipped or better trained law enforcement department anywhere in the United States.

No matter what we have, some would always want more, but that is a fiscal impossibility.

The sheriff often moves people from one department to another. When he makes operational decisions on how to employ his resources, he does not consult us nor should he. It is his job.

All of us who worked in that arena lived with constantly changing threats and resources with which to confront them.

The sheriff knows how to employ his resources for maximum effectiveness, and I am sure if adjustments are necessary he will make them.

Perhaps Col. Jordan needs to discuss the relative departmental priorities with his boss.

When he wanted the helicopter, he got the sheriff to move two deputy positions to fly it. At that time the sheriff considered it a high enough priority to reassign assets.

If conditions are as severe in the Criminal Investigations Division as the public is being led to believe by Col. Jordan, then I am sure the sheriff would do what he believes is necessary to compensate.

Some of the statements being made might cause people to believe that the five drug investigators in the CID are on their own with no help whatsoever.

These outstanding deputies are assisted when necessary by all or part of the 18 member Special Entry Team trained for just such dangerous operations.

They are also part of the Regional Drug Task Force and work in concert with other departments in and outside Fayette County.

Fayette County citizens need to also keep in mind that the fight against drugs is actively pursued by the Peachtree City, Fayetteville and Tyrone police departments as well.

In closing, let me address two other unbelievable statements. Col. Jordan singled out Commissioner Wells and me despite the fact that the Commission votes were unanimous (5 to 0), and one of his deputies said that the other four commissioners do whatever I tell them to do.

I believe singling out Linda Wells and me must be politically motivated. Col. Jordan knows Linda and I are as tough as anyone when it comes to crime. I worked in the law enforcement profession most of my adult life and Linda has worked tirelessly with victims of crime for years.

I believe Col. Jordan also knows we are the next two commissioners likely to be running for reelection and that as long as we five commissioners are in office we will continue to insist on strict accountability of taxpayers’ money in accordance with federal and state laws and regulations.

It seems he would like to begin the process of getting some of us out of his way as soon as possible.

The issue of whether the other four commissioners do whatever I tell them to do is patently absurd. It is also an enormous insult to those four individuals who have given years of their lives to serve their community.

They are all strong-willed, decent, honest public servants. We debate the issues vigorously and all of us win some and lose some. Each of us controls only 20 percent of the outcome of each issue.

The individual who made this statement obviously does not know any of us very well and could not have observed us doing our jobs.

To insult the governing authority of Fayette County in this fashion and to ascribe some mystical power to me does nothing to improve the lives of our citizens or to ensure the community that we are all doing as much as we can to provide for their safety.

I have asked Sheriff Johnson to restrain Col. Jordan from continuing to make unprofessional remarks. I am hopeful [the sheriff] will do what is right for our citizens. He has a long-established record of doing just that.

Greg Dunn, chairman
Fayette County Board of Commissioners
Fayetteville, Ga.

Why we need more funds for Drug Task Force

When I worked in the District Attorney’s office, I handled all of the Fayette County drug cases and I routinely encountered defendants who said they did not know they had crossed into Fayette County, and regretted that mistake.

However, more and more we are losing that fight. Criminals are not as afraid to come to Fayette County as they once were.

The recent actions by the County Commission have essentially hung up a sign at the county line that says, “Come on in, we won’t pay for the agents that are needed to stop you.”

The Drug Task Force agents put their lives on the line days, nights, and even weekends. Drug offenders don’t take holidays.

Serious drug dealers are able to evade normal police activity. While traffic stops can catch a few, it is only through undercover work, and developing a network of informants that police can continue to stop these offenders at the door.

However, we are letting many of them slip in. By not increasing funding for DTF the county is unable to stop many offenders.

Each year more and more drug dealers are slipping into our county and even our schools.

A third or more of the felony cases in this county are drug offenses. Yet we still have the same size drug task force as we had in the early ’90s!

Once drug pushers get a foothold they become even harder to stop, and our citizens are put at higher risk.

By increasing the funding for DTF now, we can be proactive and stop drug pushers before they have developed a base of operations.

This in effect saves the county money in enforcement and prosecution of the offenders, in addition to lowering the negative side effects of drugs in the community.

A DTF agent can only handle a set number of informants effectively while also handling undercover work as well as surveillance.

Arrests don’t just happen; they take hours (or weeks) of work and surveillance.

Additional agents could gather more information, increase surveillance and lead the DTF to more arrests of drug pushers early on in the cycle, keeping Fayette County as a safe community.

There are three things that can be done immediately to help that happen.

First the County Commission could approve the two additional agents that the budget office has recommended.

The fact that the Commission does not like Lt. Col. [Bruce] Jordan is irrelevant.

When I worked at the DA’s office there were many times that I did not see eye to eye with Col. Jordan or one of his detectives.

But the fact of the matter is that we can’t let personality disputes get in the way of getting this done. The bottom line is that we need more agents and the budget has room for it.

Some fight about a helicopter has got nothing to do with the need to defend this county from crime.

Separate the two issues, and do what is right for the citizens of Fayette County. The money doesn’t go to Bruce Jordan, it goes to fight crime!

The other two things are also basic. Currently Peachtree City and Fayetteville do not participate in the drug task force (Tyrone does).

This is again a product of political bickering. The cities don’t want to send an officer if they can’t control the operation.

However the bottom line is that only a united approach can stop drugs in both cities. Without undercover work it cannot be stopped.

Also by not participating, it means that either both groups of law enforcement are following the same leads, or neither follows the leads because they don’t have the appropriate manpower. Either way the citizens lose.

Worse yet, now that I am a Defense attorney, I see innocent county residents hassled by the police while dealers drive through untouched, simply because the police don’t have the proper resources to investigate. That is not right!

Both cities should commit to assigning an officer to the DTF. I propose that right now, today, both cities and the commission put aside their fights with the sheriff and come together on this issue. It is the right thing to do.

Damon Sanderson
Peachtree City, Ga.

Damon Sanderson is a criminal defense attorney with Sanderson Law P.C. in Peachtree City.

How to help our troops help some Iraqi kids

The 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, US Army, stationed south of Baghdad, has established a “Friendship Team” to deliver gifts to Iraqi children from generous citizens who wish to help.

Most needed are shoes and school supplies. Children’s shoes can be purchased on sale at Wal-Mart and discount outlets for as little as $3 a pair. Athletic-type shoes and sneakers, size 7 and smaller, are probably best, but soccer shoes would also be welcome.

Needed school supplies include: wood graphite and coloring pencils with small plastic sharpeners and erasers; ball-point pens; and binders with both lined and plain paper for coloring. Staples and Office Depot offers these items in bulk at excellent prices.

Additional items requested include: socks, sweatshirts (without messages or symbols), and soccer balls.

Mail sturdy boxes secured with tape to the following address:

Friendship Team
c/o CPT Sam Cook
HHT, 3rd Sqdn, 3rd ACR
APO AE 09361.

Include a return address on the outside of the package. If you wish to receive an acknowledgment, place a self-addressed and stamped (23 cents) postcard in the package.

If the postcard contains an e-mail address, an attempt will be made to send photographs of Iraqi children back to you by e-mail.

The Post Office requires a customs form (available at the Post Office) with a summary of items. The cost of mailing to military post offices in Iraq is about $1 per pound.

Packages can be sent at any time before the end of 2005, but not after that time, as the regiment is due to return to its home station at Fort Carson, Colo., soon after the first of the year.

The officers and soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, as well as the Iraqi children you will be helping, will never forget your thoughtfulness and generosity.

William Fielder
Peachtree City, Ga.
hoostwo(at)earthlink.net

The march of civilization proceeds apace: From ‘1776’ to Paris Hilton

I love American history and biography. And a favorite author in this regard is David McCullough. His “John Adams’s” summer read of two or three years ago was nothing short of inspirational. And so when I learned that his new book, “1776,” was to be released May 24, I rushed out that very day to buy it.

Something else was released to the public on May 24. Some hamburger chain ran an advertisement featuring the fabulously wealthy and scandalously promiscuous Paris Hilton in what critics call soft porn. MSNBC.com offered a preview of the video before its debut.

I confess that I watched it.

While washing a car, the scantily clad Hilton manages to thrust nearly every part of her anatomy at the camera in the 30-second spot.

Of course, critics might wonder what an expensive hooker washing a car has to do with hamburgers, so, to provide the necessary conceptual connections, she is eventually seen simultaneously washing a car, gyrating her pelvis, and eating a largish sandwich. (The sandwich does look rather good, I admit.)

What’s all the fuss? People behave as though they have never seen a nearly naked woman washing a car, while doing a striptease dance and eating a sandwich! Add some inline skates and a hoola hoop and the effect would be complete.

The juxtaposition of these two releases is ironic. On the one hand, we have a celebration of character, of valor and perseverance, and of those high democratic ideals that have secured our liberties. The heroes of 1776 looked ahead to the establishment of the greatest democracy that the world has ever seen.

On the other hand, Hilton’s Hamburger Hustle represents some of the greatest fears that even those founding fathers had regarding the possible course that a democratic society might take: the tyranny of the vulgar and unenlightened.

All of this brings to mind a memorable quote from the late Allen Bloom’s controversial book of 18 years ago, “The Closing of The American Mind.” Bloom writes:

“Picture a 13-year-old boy sitting in the living room of his family home doing his math assignment while wearing his Walkman headphones or watching MTV. He enjoys the liberties hard won over centuries by the alliance of philosophic genius and political heroism, consecrated by the blood of martyrs; he is provided with comfort and leisure by the most productive economy ever known to mankind; science has penetrated the secrets of nature in order to provide him with the marvelous, lifelike electronic sound and image reproduction he is enjoying. And in what does progress culminate? A pubescent child whose body throbs with orgasmic rhythms; whose feelings are made articulate in hymns to the joys of onanism or the killing of parents; whose ambition is to win fame and wealth in imitating the drag-queen who makes the music. In short, life is made into a nonstop, commercially prepackaged masturbational fantasy.”

Malcolm Muggeridge once said that the slogan of the day ought to be “Copulo ergo sum!” How far have we come since his day!

And C. S. Lewis once compared Western society’s fascination with sex to a society of meat lovers where one might gather an eager, paying crowd by gradually revealing a bit of mutton, a sort of striptease for carnivores. What would Lewis have thought of this ploy to sell hamburgers by exposing a bit of bun?

Mark D. Linville
Fayetteville, Ga.

PTC ‘peace’ protesters: What are we fighting for?

On April 15, 2005, The Citizen featured a front-page article with a color picture of four members of the anti-war group, “Voices for Peace,” carrying signs like “U.S. out of Iraq,” “100,000 Iraqis dead for oil $$$,” “Honk for Peace,” etc.

The day these people were protesting and after the news media had left, I stopped and gave them my handouts about the Iraqi (Persian Gulf War II) and talked with VoP members Andy Burtt and his sweet, beautiful wife, Cindy.

“Corporate greed caused this war,” and other anti-capitalist rhetoric came forth. But, both these people did not know what capitalism was; they were just against it. Were Andy and Cindy Marxist-socialists or “useful idiots”?

I go on the Internet and google “Voices for Peace.” The usual suspects pop up on their Web site:

1. “The Nation,” The NKVD (AKA: KGB) founded, Marxist-socialist mouthpiece for Moscow and world socialism since before WWII.

2. Moveon.org, The George Soros-backed, angry left, 527 group that really pushed to elect Dean and then Kerry.

3. “Mother Jones,” newsmagazine for eco-wackos, neo-Luddites, and other associated leftie loonies who worship Gaia but despise Christ.

Yep, Voices for Peace is another leftie front outfit; but, like a broken clock that’s right twice a day, these “useful idiot (UI)” peace activists do have some valid points.

This Second Gulf is about 90 percent for oil while the other 10 percent is idealistic slop fed to an ignorant American public yearning to be fooled again.

What are we fighting for?

1. Liberation of Iraq? Indeed. Why didn’t the U.S. liberate Iraq in 1991 and save almost a million Kurdish and Iraqi Shiite lives?

“Oh, our mandate was governed by the UN and limited the U.S. to just freeing Kuwait in 1990-91,” said a Bush 41 spokesman. Indeed.

“Free Kuwait?” The Bush Administration gave Saddam sanction to invade our ally, Kuwait, in 1989 and finalized that promise in July 1990. (See the leftie “Frontline” program about then U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, caught on video promising Saddam twice that the U.S. would not object too much if Saddam invaded Kuwait (as a reward for Saddam killing about 1 million Iranians). Or, google “April Glaspie” and read the transcript of another American RealPolitik betrayal of another ally.

Anyway, it was only after Saddam invaded Kuwait and then threatened our buds, the Saudis, and all that Saudi oil, that the U.S. mobilized UN forces for the First Persian Gulf War (for oil).

What are we fighting for?

2. To fight the war on terror? That’s laughable. Have you been on a commercial airline flight since 9-11? Been subjected to moronic searches by TSA? Read about how intentionally porous our national borders are? Roadblocks put in place by the Bush Administration to arm commercial airline pilots? Bush ordering our U.S. Border Patrol to go easy protecting our borders from economic refugees and terrorists ... excuse me, “undocumented aliens,” etc.?

What are we fighting for?

3. Democracy in Iraq? Iraq was cobbled together from various ethnic provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire by the British and French Sykes/Picot Treaty to be ungovernable:

“The borders we’ve given (this new nation) ‘Iraq’ guarantee ethnic strife for the next 100 years and abundant opportunities for advancement and military glory,” said Winston S. Churchill, quoting a fellow Sykes/Picot diplomat in his memoirs.

If the U.S. were really serious about peace and democracy in Iraq, they’d let the Iraqis vote to dissolve a country that wasn’t supposed to be and let the various ethnic and religious groups become free nations or be absorbed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, etc., and let them deal with their fellow Muslims.

(Digression: Iraq reminds me of Vietnam and its push for independence from France before WWII. During WWII almost 2 million Vietnamese and very few Vichy French died at the hands of the Japanese. During this horror the U.S. promised our allies, the Vietnamese, that after WWII they could be free. After V-J Day, the U.S. thwarted Vietnamese independence and gave Vietnam back to the Nazi-collaborating Vichy French. Part of a long Anti-Christian tradition of U.S. foreign policies stabbing our allies in the back and rewarding our enemies.)

But, all the above really doesn’t matter because the U.S. of A. continues to be the largest funder of Islamic worldwide terrorism. Right now. May 2005. The U.S. sends over $200 million per day to the coffers of our Islamic enemies.

How is any nation going to win a war when its own money supplies most of the arms and salaries of its enemies? And, you wonder why Germany and France are peeved at us? The U.S. is funding their Islamic enemies too.

And why does the U.S. send over $200 million per day since 9-11 to our Islamic enemies? Oil.

For over 35 years the U.S. turned Islamic friends into Islamic enemies via our RealPolitik energy and anti-Christian foreign policies put in place by Nixon and Kissinger and nurtured by Ford, Carter (especially), (even my hero) Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and a host of organizations like the Sierra Club, GANE, SANE, Voices for Peace, etc.

Voices for Peace in bed with the likes of Nixon and Kissinger? The same people who are protesting the very preventable Second Gulf War (for oil), the liberation of Iraq (oil) are in bed with Nixon?

Yup. And most of these Voices for Peace lefties are too militantly ignorant to realize they’re pawns of the very people they despise. There are many good reasons that Lenin called his ivory tower, college-educated, leftie allies like Voices for Peace “useful idiots.”

And Bush, most Democrats and many Republicans and many parents promise to keep their children’s blood flowing for oil when we could have an honorable, and very prosperous peace.

To paraphrase a 1938 Churchill quote: “We could have had peace with honor; We chose dishonor; we shall have war.”

“Voices of Peace,” indeed.

Bill Bryan
EducationChoiceActivist@yahoo.com

What is feud’s cost?

I believe the constant battle between the commissioners and the sheriff is detrimental to the county. How much has this cost us in lawyer’s fees for the law suits and bickering?

The commissioners should just do their job and let the sheriff do his. Can’t we all get along?

Barlow Williams
Peachtree City, Ga.

Mayor: Congratulations to Class of 2005 grads

I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to our graduating high school Senior Class of 2005.

This class is a very special one for me. Many of the young men and women that initiated our very successful Peachtree City Youth Council program a couple of years ago are now graduating.

Quite a few of the students that worked on the teen study circles program and the ordinance that allows 15-year-olds to drive the golf carts are graduating. The exceptionally hard-working former City Hall student interns are also graduating.

The sheer volume of academic excellence that our schools have generated is astounding. Some of the best colleges and universities in the country will have our students in the fall.

For all of our graduating high school athletes, cheerleaders, dance team and band members, thank you for some of best efforts I have ever witnessed at the high school level.

One of my favorite high school sports teams of all time is the McIntosh Girls Varsity Soccer Team. They have accomplished (several times) what my high school teams could only dream about.

The principals, Sam Sweat and Tracie Fleming, who run the high schools where our Peachtree City students attend are first-rate.

Mr. Sweat won principal of the year and Starr’s Mill won School of Excellence.

To the parents of the seniors, you did a great job bringing them up in this world. I wish all of the students the very best and please do not forget about us back home in Peachtree City. Make us proud and enjoy the bright futures that lie ahead of you.

Steve Brown, mayor
Peachtree City, Ga.

Sunrise, sunset: Playing with time, life, death

An ephemeral beckoning warps to the past and a portal opens. Through the portal spy timeless yesterdays were the constraints of reality and the laws of jaded men are cast aside allowing the old to become young and the young to imagine and then touch the fabric of a bygone era.

During that bygone era young ones, enveloped by the enticing comfort of a sunny southern land, found enjoyment through games transitioning from reality to fantasy.

Sometimes the sprightly and effervescence quality of that southern air paradoxically dulled and stimulated their minds simultaneously. Dulled their minds to the preconceived rules for living and stimulated their minds to step out of bounds and seek what lay beyond.

That atmosphere subtly infiltrated their young minds like a covert invasion of mosquitoes on a picnicking day. The essences of those lazy summers days affected their minds already predisposed to mischief by tickling parts of their brains inclined to make them think the unthinkable.

And so one particular game began. A couple of boys, brothers that wore similar genes, not being shy when it came to having their brains occasionally tickled, stepped out of bounds and put a cat, mouse and thousands of books that passed before their progenitor’s hands and eyes to dubious use.

Disinclined to waste the talents of a good cat and mouse, an unwritten script was spun. A separate reality was constructed. An impromptu choreography of unrehearsed drama lay before cat, mouse and boys feinting gods.

Their mother, resigned to the inevitability of her boys pushing at and exceeding the restraints of her reality, passed through the helter-skelter chaos of her previously highly ordered realm and noted the haphazard placement of furniture, an out of place mouse cage, a cat contemptuously pacing about the mouse’s domicile, and books not behaving as books.

Seeking the solace and blissfulness of ignorance she resisted the urge to bring order to disorder, resisted questioning the two that possessed her genetic link to a fabled immortality, and not quite silently, beseeched her Lord to have mercy as she ensconced herself into a more acceptable world beyond her once inviting living room.

Their father was inclined to read those books. The boys would also when favorable conditions existed. But as cotton is not picked when rotten, the conditions for reading were not at hand.

During those particular days these vessels of words became not the building blocks of knowledge but the bounds of an intricate maze.

Demonstrating the latent skills of a couple of renegade engineers, the boys constructed a labyrinthine fantasy world in which the epic struggle between life and death, made real through the confluence of cat, mouse and themselves, would come into play.

The catacombs of ancient Rome that once provided a false sense of reclusive security for nascent Christians were comparable to the exquisite construct emanating from the hands of these proverbial boys of summer.

The maze was built with numerous cul-de-sacs, blind alleys, empty sluices, shadowy ravines and concentric networks of meandering paths straying to the edges of reality into which cat and mouse would sally forth and partake in the eternal dance of life and death.

The mouse was released under the pretense of freedom. On a desultory stroll like a teenage girl enchanted with the fabrics of a clothing store, the mouse became one with its fabricated world of endless paths.

Nibbling on classic tomes like “Stranger in a Strange Land,” “Cities in Flight” and the esoteric world of “Foundation,” the mouse enjoyed its flight into fantasy. Like an insect in a garden unaware of the gods hovering above spraying clouds of death, the mouse ventured forth blissfully ignorant of the demigods who moved the cat into play.

The cat’s docile domesticated countenance was replaced with the intense ornate facade of a rapacious killing machine. Brewing was the perfect storm.

As the rumble of a distant thunder with its accompanying electrified flavor, beckons one to seek shelter from a gathering storm; the mouse with instincts forged in the crucible of creation and honed on the evolutionary plains of antiquity, raised upon its hind legs, sniffed a deadly breeze and questioned its fate.

The cat with ethereal patience stealthily navigated the labyrinthine jungle as it stalked its unseen prey with a steadfast determination not unlike a junkie determined to score her next hit.

The demigods with their characteristic air of arrogance gleefully hovered above like mechanical airborne drones awaiting the impending death and destruction on a battlefield.

Fear engulfed the rodent. Its visceral fear became manifest and dominated its incipient intelligence. Terror propelled it willy-nilly from cul-de-sac to blind alley. It scurried through interminable straight paths to nowhere, around curvaceous routes to lands once visited, but no route availed an escape from its entrapment.

As terror and physical exertion brought on exhaustion it stumbled down a final path. A path well-worn at previous attempts to escape what it instinctively knew lead to an unwanted calamitous fate.

It is like how a man weary with the burden of burying his dead creates a path to his own destiny.

Whether for a friend, a sibling, a parent, a child, a lover, or even an enemy, a path is laid and trodden to the grave. The path improves with use and age, as the man grows old.

Saplings become towering shades that cast shadows on the increasingly well-trodden path. Straight back and strong arms become crooked and weak as over the years those he loved and hated were carried to the grave.

Inevitably, without fail, the cold reality of death disallows him a walk back from whence he came. The primordial linkage of space and time, the perfect interpreters of life and death, dictates the body’s rendering to earth’s deadly adobe. And so it seemed the rodent carried its own body to the graveside and laid its own body down.

Instinctively the cat sensed the benefit of fear in the one it sought. It sniffed the air, sought and followed the path. It moved beyond the bend and faced its quarry with determination. Its tail twitched and swayed to provide balance.

With ears folded back, fur flat, claws dug in, and teeth maliciously exposed, the efficiently aerodynamic killing machine was poised to fulfill its destiny and strike its target with impunity like storm’s lightening. The maelstrom spread to engulf.

And the imperious demigods watched and pondered the drama in silence, knowing that woven into the script was the power to postpone but not prevent the inevitability of death.

Then without warning lightning struck from a parallel reality. Their mother called, “Come on, boys, let’s have some chicken for supper,” as their father set down his book and slowly, habitually, and methodically crushed a spark of life out with his cigarette.

• **

Though the arrow of time is relentless in its pursuit, it was not conceived as begin mercilessness, for life laid waste by its piercing trajectory is replaced in due course.

Now in the new reality of the present, these mortal men (and women) have given life for new summers to grab hold of and to weave new steps into the dance of life and death.

These new demigods, the ones able to temporarily harness and corral the passage of time into the confines of summer days, have brought forth new creatures to care for.

Cats still have commonplace roles and against all odds dogs have made the scene. And the one once crushed under the holy woman’s foot has been accepted into the family.

Now the boys of summers past have children that fancy snakes as pets. The Adolescent Punk brought home a ball python to enhance his sleeping room. Ickybro has a milk snake. A king snake eats from the hand of Ickys’s.

Their mothers, struggling, and bewilderingly stumbling toward holiness, have yielded to the siren song of capitalism by allowing their homes to become snake feed and seed stores.

The Teenage Diplomat with a nascent entrepreneurial spirit endeavors to propagate rodents to feed to the legless ones. Imagine his signs and connotations: “Small fuzzies, $1. Hoppers, small, $2, large, $5.”

All the while the Silicon Sister giggles like one being tickled and mischievously smiles at mysterious, undisclosed thoughts of summer’s promise while a coldhearted reptile curls itself around her body as it seeks warmth from her abundant life.

A little girl yells, “Grandpa! Grandpa! Daddy is home. Let’s go upstairs and watch him feed the snakes.” So the old man, feeling the ever present conspiratorial tug of space and time, exhales the dusty breath of the ancients, takes the hand of his grandchild and together they walk that well-trodden path where trees still cast shadows.

r. j. desprez
Tyrone, Ga.

Puppy mills? How about abortion mills?

Regarding the letter about the puppy mills: Indeed it is a shame that helpless animals are so abused, and I share the author’s abhorrence of such inhumane treatment.

However, in a culture that does not value the life of a yet-to-be born human infant, why do you think anyone would give a thought for a dog?

We are a nation that has lost complete touch with the sacredness and value of all life.

Sex is undervalued and has become a game that is represented as having no consequences (witness Booth Middle School, television, movies, radio, etc.).

Until there is respect and dignity given for all life, we will continue to see these types of practices. Until the abortion mills are closed, I cannot personally spend too much time worrying about the puppy mills.

P.S. Thank you, Ted Lombard, for trying to uphold a modicum of decency in the way our middle school children dress and act.

Susan Bertram
Peachtree City, Ga.