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Millage rates may be wrongly figured

I just read your article, “Reassessment appeal could lower your tax bill” [The Citizen, Aug. 17].

As a former Board of Equalization member, I understand that there is a problem with the property tax process that is even more disturbing than the fact that individual tax bills can increase due to reassessments. In fact, solve this problem and millage rates can actually DECREASE as the tax digest increases.

Taxing authorities (cities, counties, school boards) do not adopt mathematically-correct millage rates.

There is only one way to CORRECTLY calculate the millage rate. Taxing authorities should divide the portion of the budget that must be funded by tax dollars (A) by the net tax digest (B).

Multiply the result by 1,000 and you have the amount of tax on every $1,000 of taxable value that must be collected to fully fund the budget. That number is the millage rate (C).

By simply “doing the math,” you can see how as (B), the net tax digest, increases, the result (C) DECREASES simply by operation of the math, at least as long as (A), the portion of the budget to be funded by tax dollars doesn’t increase by the same or higher percentage than does (B), the net tax digest.

In other words, as the tax digest grows and elected officials hold the line on expenses (and increase the percentage of the budget funded by non-tax dollars such as impact fees, fines, user fees, etc.), the millage rate MUST go down and thereby individual tax bills.

A mathematical millage rate is the ONLY legal way to pass the benefit of a growing tax digest to the individual taxpayer in the form of a lower tax bill.

Here’s the sad part: our research indicates that over nine out of 10 Georgia taxing authorities do not “do the math.”

Elected officials adopt an arbitrary rate that has absolutely no mathematical connection to actual budget needs or the net tax digest.

Currently, there is no law that requires taxing authorities to adopt a mathematically-correct millage rate.

Even worse, newly-elected city council members and county commissioners are not taught the calculation.

New school board members are taught a process I call a “millage value estimation” that is flawed, mathematically.

The correct process is taught by the Department of Revenue to tax commissioners, county appraisers, assessors and Board of Equalization members. But they don’t adopt the millage rate!

I have reviewed Fayette County millage rates for 2001-2004:

School Board: The board appears to be doing the “millage value estimation” mentioned above. Most likely, the rate is not mathematically correct.

Fayette unincorporated: It is not possible to determine strictly from a review of the rates whether or not the unincorporated county rate is incorrect. It looks like they are adopting the “Taxpayers Bill of Rights” rollback rate which, in all cases, is mathematically wrong (unless they hit the right number by accident!).

Brooks: It appears that they are adopting “round number” rates or the rollback rate which are most likely mathematically incorrect.

Fayetteville: This city adopted the same rate in 2004 as it adopted in 2003, a mathematical near-impossibility. Prior to that, the city adopted “round number” rates which were also probably incorrect.

Incorporated/Fayetteville: I assume this is the county rate for incorporated Fayetteville. It appears that the county is adopting the rollback rate, worth investigating.

Peachtree City: Adopted the same rate in 2004 as in 2003, a mathematically near-impossibility and most likely incorrect.

Incorporated/Peachtree City: Looks like rollback rates, probably incorrect.

Tyrone: Has adopted the same rate for the past three years. I can guarantee that the rate is incorrect and probably too high.

Incorporated/Tyrone: Apparently rollback rates; probably incorrect.

Subject to confirmation, I can say that EVERY millage rate adopted during the past four years by every taxing authority in Fayette County has been mathematically incorrect (unless they got it right by chance). I would bet that this year’s rates are wrong as well.

If that is the case, then your county, cities and school board are either OVER-taxing or UNDER-taxing the property owners of Fayette County. It has to be one or the other.

I invite you to visit www.millagerate.com. You can learn how to calculate a millage rate or use our online calculator. You can also find more about the benefits of “doing the math” as well as what other jurisdictions are doing.

I am available to assist you in your investigation of the millage rates in your coverage area. In my opinion, you’re sitting on a very important investigative news piece.

Bob Griggs
Loganville, Ga.
millagerate.com

Shamrock Park, new library: Smola out of touch with Tyrone citizens

I have just read your article regarding [Tyrone Councilman Mike] Smola’s request to the Fayette County Commission regarding Shamrock Park.

As a citizen of Fayette County and some one who has spent many years involved in Tyrone recreation, I urgently request that the commission not release this deed restriction.

In my opinion, Mr. Smola is completely out of touch with the citizens of Tyrone. I personally know a lot of residents who spent many hours developing Shamrock Park when neither the county nor the city would or could spend the time or money on it.

These people volunteered their time and money in order for their children to have a decent place to play ball.

I also saw a lot of the same faces when we saw a need for the softball fields at Redwine Park.

For those of you who do not know, this is how the development for recreation has been handled in the past. When the community saw the need, they rolled up their sleeves and reached into their pockets.

I have not been involved in the development of Handley Park but I am sure this process has been continued.

Mr. Smola’s comment regarding this area being energized by the new library is ridiculous. Shamrock Park has been a focal point of Tyrone for the 21 years that I have lived here.

I have always found it energizing to go to the park and see parents spending time with their children. I loved to hear the cheers of the crowd and the laughter of the kids.

I cannot tell you how many wonderful friends I have made at this park, not to mention the life-long friends my children have made. It is very easy to get to know your child’s friends and parents when you sit in the stands with them.

My children are grown now, but I will always remember their excitement every year when the week of Founders Day approached.

Each year when I would top the hill at Jack’s Market and see the lights of the little carnival, I could not help but smile at how little it took to make children happy.

I was very disappointed at the decision to relocate the event to Handley Park last year. The majority of the people I spoke with were also unhappy. I assume the reason is because the town has other plans for Shamrock Park.

I have been told that there are plans to build a new town hall at this location although Mr. Smola did not mention it.

Mr. Smola’s suggestion to relocate the tennis and basketball court to the rear of the park does not make sense. I have always felt that it was safe for the kids who play on these courts at night because it is located next to the police station. The area at the rear of the park is very isolated and would not be as safe.

If Tyrone is concerned about saving money, I think the best location would be the site near Publix because of its access to sewer. Shamrock Park (as every one in Tyrone knows) will not perk for a septic tank or at least that is what we have been told for years.

Again, I urge the Fayette County Commissioners not to turn their back on these people who gave so much.

Save Shamrock Park!

Pat Carden
dhcarden (at) comcast.net

Thanks, Tyrone, for lowering speed limit

Thank you, Tyrone, for lowering the speed limit on my street.

I read with interest the complaints from nonresidents of Tyrone complaining about the lowering of Tyrone’s speed limits. As a resident of Tyrone living on Ashland Trail for 16 years, I am sure I am not alone in support of our efforts to control traffic in our town.

For most of our time in Tyrone, Ashland Trail was a neighborhood street that ended at a dirt road leading to a horse farm. The road traffic was all residents of Windsong.

Now that the horse farm is being developed as Lake Windsong, Ashland Trail now connects to paved roads in that subdivision and is being used by nonresidents from other counties as a shortcut to avoid the stop at Castlewood and Senoia roads in Tyrone.

Ashland Trail has no curbs, no sidewalks, no cart paths and no stripe painted down the middle. It’s a neighborhood street with children playing on it, people riding bikes and walking dogs, etc.

We frequently witness cars and trucks (both big and small) traveling at speeds of 45 to 55 mph.

I’ll bet all those nonresidents would be just as supportive of lowering the speed limit on their neighborhood street if they were faced with the situation on Ashland Trail.

I have a novel suggestion for the complainers: don’t drive through Tyrone on your commute.

Jim Shaughness
Tyrone, Ga.

Former Mayor Lenox disputes Mayor Brown’s PTC history

Steve Brown kicked off his campaign for reelection last week with — surprise! — a letter to the editor. As is usual with his letters it contained a number of statements that ranged from misleading to downright deceitful. Whenever this happens during his campaign I will take it upon myself to provide corrections to the major items.

First, neither Fred Brown nor any other former Mayor (there are six of us still living here) ever campaigned against Steve Brown. We hoped for the best but realized almost immediately after he took office that we had gotten the worst.

I myself gave him access to his soon-to-be office at City Hall before his term even began and then watched in disgust as he spent thousand of dollars in taxpayer money remodeling it to suit his fancy. I imagine that all of we former mayors will, in fact, strongly recommend that you not vote for him this time around.

The next big lie is an old favorite of the mayor, calling the members of the Development Authority crooks and their actions illegal.

If there was even a shred of truth or substantiation to these allegations I assure you that Mayor Brown would be swearing out warrants for their arrest and taking civil actions to recover damages from them. If his statements were true he would, in fact, have a legal and fiduciary responsibility as mayor to go after them.

He does not do so because he is fully aware that he cannot do so. His words are not facts, just the vitriolic blather of a character assassin.

It is also disingenuous to imply that “proper management” is now in place at the Tennis Center and Amphitheater. The Tourism Board gets more hotel/motel tax money than the authority ever did, has driven away over one-third (200-plus) of the Tennis Center members, refuses to pay for the facilities it uses every day, gets free services from the city, and still loses just as much money as the authority ever did.

For the first time in years the amphitheater is not sold out and hundreds of tickets go begging for every show. I guess Mayor Brown considers this “proper management.”

The next lie is a doozy. When Mr. Brown took office he inherited a balanced budget, extensive cash reserves, an excellent credit rating, very little debt and a consistently low millage rate.

Your millage rate for 2005 will be about 22 percent higher than it was in 2001, the year before he took office.

If you study your city tax bill carefully you will find that in 2005 you will be paying 35 to 50 percent more than you paid in 2001. I think the mayor wants you to believe that he rescued us from some terrible fiscal crisis so you won’t notice how much he has raised your taxes.

Next, and last for this week, is the inference by the mayor that he had anything to do with all the road money finally coming our way. The $66 million he refers to is for Ga. highways 54 West and 74 South. This money has been programmed to come to us for over 10 years.

State Senator Mitch Seabaugh, County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn and our U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland have all battled tenaciously over the years to protect our funding and to get the projects done as soon as politically possible.

With all due respect to the mayor, any one of these gentlemen, and many other knowledgeable people, would tell you that the projects are finally happening in spite of the mayor, not because of him.

We all might also remember that Mr. Brown campaigned mightily to defeat the road SPLOST but it passed anyway. Now it appears that he wants to take credit for the $11 million we got while conveniently ignoring the fact that without him Peachtree City would actually have received $17 million.

I could go on about other comments in his letter but that covers the major items. I eagerly await his next letter.

Bob Lenox
Former three-term mayor
1992 through 2001
Peachtree City, Ga.

PTC badly needs new leadership

Peachtree City is approaching what can be seen as a hallmark moment in its 46-year history. The city itself is an incredible accomplishment of planning and community involvement.

Our city is seen as being unique to many because of our signature golf cart paths, but I would contend that it is the quality of our community that truly makes us unique.

Our community is made up of some of the most wonderful people, long-time residents blended with people who have recently moved here, all taking an active role in community efforts for the preservation and improvement of our quality of life.

Our city has also been seen as unique because of the many controversies surrounding our current mayor, and I would also contend that strong stable leadership is desperately needed to face the challenges that lay before us.

In the next few years, tough decisions will have to be made concerning rezoning, our safety, and our quality of life. Making tough decisions is more than an internal battle within a leader, it takes the ability to cooperate and generate new ideas with other city and county officials to create the best outcome for our citizens. In essence I am describing strong leadership.

I have made the rounds discussing our city’s issues with county and municipal officials adjacent to PTC. All of them have said the same thing: we do not have a partner in Peachtree City to work with.

We cannot expect to maintain our quality of life unless we can work together to approach problems such as traffic congestion, financial scandals, and the EMS debacle.

I could go on for days concerning other controversies facing the city, but instead I would like to offer the citizens of Peachtree City an alternative to the current situation.

My name is Harold Logsdon, and I may not be a refined politician, but I humbly submit to the citizens of Peachtree City that I do have the experiences necessary to provide strong leadership during a transitional period for the city.

As a manager, auditor, and financial planner in the private sector, and a retired colonel from the National Guard, I want to use my experiences in leadership and financial accountability to provide a stable atmosphere in which we can move forward as a community.

Harold Logsdon
Candidate for mayor
Peachtree City, Ga.

Check Brown’s 2001 promises

The following is 2001 mayoral candidate Steve Brown’s stated position on budget and taxation:

“Steve Brown promises that raising your property taxes will [be] the last resort and not the first line of defense. No more wasting precious dollars on pet projects. We need to re-examine all our expenditures.

“Steve Brown’s number one question, ‘At what point do we begin taxing people out of Peachtree City?’… We need to set definitive goals on spending and cost reduction and report our progress regularly to the citizens (our ‘Board of Directors’). We need to provide regular accountability for our actions….

“Steve Brown believes that we should let the people decide where their tax dollars go. Anyone that is willing to usurp the authority of the general public on one issue is bound to do the same on other issues.

“I strongly believe that as an elected official, that significant changes that impact our community must be brought before the public. The mayor should provide management and vision but should never force mandates on the backs of the citizens.”

The question, as the election approaches, is did Mayor Steve Brown live up to these ideals? Decide for yourself.

A recently announced tax hike (failure to roll back the millage rate). $14,000 to hook up wi-fi at our athletics fields, $8,500 of which to allow public use. Councilman Rapson’s reasoning? It will encourage parents to come to the field and watch their children if they can do work while there.

Do you really want $8,500 of your tax dollars committed to entice uninterested parents to come participate in their children’s lives? I certainly don’t.

But my favorite expenditure is for the “Gateway Bridge.” This bridge is going to connect the north side of Ga. Highway 54 adjacent to the Wynnmeade subdivision to Line Creek. And it isn’t going to be cheap.

In fact according to the AJC Fayette section, it’s going to cost $600,000 minimum. There is federal money earmarked; however, we will still be funding around $120,000 of the bridge, plus any cost overruns.

In fact according to the AJC the “city expects the cost to be higher.” And that doesn’t even include the $850,000 we spent to buy property to anchor the bridge.

All told, after paying off the property for 15 years and with NO cost overruns, our portion of the “Gateway Bridge” will cost a minimum of $1.3 million.

And don’t forget that the “federal money” is coming out of your pocket too. Could it maybe be used to offset some of cost of the other bridge being built?

So, ask yourself, do we need the “gateway bridge”? Will enough people use it to warrant its cost? How much will upkeep cost over the years? Is this simply a “pet project” that Brown was so opposed too?

Are any of these expenses responsible “goals on spending and cost reduction”? Did any citizen actually get to vote on these costs? Did Brown and the City Council live up to Brown’s promises delineated above? Or did they simply “force mandates on the backs of the citizens”?

In these times of rapidly increasing gas prices, loss of wages and benefits to many citizens, and increased property taxes, has Mayor Brown really led in a fiscally responsible manner?

You are the citizen; you make the call. Has Mayor Brown lived up to any of his pre-election promises?

And now he is again asking you to start a “grassroots” campaign to re-elect him. Before you go to polls in November I hope you will look at Brown’s promises above, and compare them to his real actions.

Jim Stinson
Peachtree City, Ga.

Brown’s compassion is evident

When Steve Brown was elected mayor of Peachtree City, I could not help ask myself what good will this young man do for our community.

Steve Brown has certainly proved to be a great surprise and a wonderful breath of fresh air.

I have had the pleasure of dealing with him in addressing many of the problems that the minorities of our community experience.

I felt his compassion and love for his brethren, and surprisingly he is a ”what you see is what you get type of guy.” I say that in a very complimentary sense.

He calls things by their name, and is in no way the stereotype politician.

I have spoken with many young adults and teens that have the utmost respect for Mayor Brown for the way he listened to their needs and found solutions for their problems.

Peachtree City is a unique place to live, but it is not Mayberry R.F.D. We need to move forward with the times, for the good of our families and for our economy as well.

Mayor Brown has had to make some tough calls, and I truly believe he has done serious soul-searching and taken the best interest of the community at heart.

I have tremendous admiration for a man who is not petty and has taken unjust criticism for being honest and sincere.

I believe that his honesty and sincerity has taken many by surprise, since that is not the norm for a politician.

I believe the title “Honorable” surely fits Mayor Steve Brown, and I wish him blessings in his campaign.

Marta McGlade
Peachtree City, Ga.

All cart owners being penalized for the misdeeds of only a few bad ones

Here we go again, penalizing everyone for the deeds of a few.

The argument goes we need to know the owner of a golf cart that is in some violation, or other reason, so we insist everyone ante up every three to five years.

Why not impound the cart and wait? If you need to enact some kind of legislation to demonstrate to the public your interest, i.e., “directed staff to flesh out the details of such a project,” enact a time period of waiting for the following:

Case A: The owner comes forward on some illegality. Have this person pay a hefty fine. If indeed only 40 percent of the carts are correctly registered, this in itself should provide desired revenue when carts are hauled in, of course at owners’ expense.

Case B: The owner comes forward regarding a stolen cart. Give it back to him and let the insurance company handle it.

Case C: The owner doesn’t come forward. Auction it off for the benefit of cart path maintenance.

Don’t tell me this is a safety issue. How insulting. And don’t tell me this isn’t a fund-raiser. Give us all a break.

By the way, if the time to manage 10 times the workload of registering carts is available, don’t come asking for increased manpower or taxes for some other project. Or better yet, reduce current staff by a head-count or two.

I’m sure an overwhelming majority of Peachtree City residents would agree with this position. Don’t penalize us all because of the few.

Eric Imker
efifromptc (at) yahoo.com

No sacrifice asked for Iraq war

Re: Iraq a quagmire? (on-line article).

Dr. Knox Herndon writes, “You may disagree with me here, but then I don’t write articles each week for agreement. The takers are the people who NEVER put themselves, or their families, or their money, or their jobs, or their influence, in harm’s way.”

At first I thought this would be an anti-war article, but I was sadly mistaken, and I certainly do disagree.

Dr. Herndon has risen to the top of the Republican spin-writers class with this unbelievable drivel. Karl Rove will grade your missive an “A.”

Congratulations. Just wondering, have you ever read any history?

Please, Dr. Herndon, tell me what President Bush, VP Cheney, or about 90 percent of all elected Republicans ever put in “harm’s way” to “free” the Iraqis, or the Vietnamese, or just plain in “harms” way?

Themselves? Their children? Their money?

You cite Vietnam at length, so start with that. You might want to actually read some of the history of Vietnam. A good place to start is with their declaration of independence, read by Ho Chi Mihn in Hanoi.

You might find the wording of it interesting, especially for “Godless Communists.”

But let’s talk about the U.S. involvement there. Where were Bush and Cheney then? Where were Limbaugh and Boortz then? Where were all the chicken-hawk Republicans then? They all support that war now, but where were they then?

Where was John Kerry? Oh, I forgot, they were just scratches that he received over there. Maybe you have one of the little Band-Aids with a Purple Heart on it from the Republican National Convention?

Whether you agree or disagree with his anti-war activities, he EARNED the right to protest that war. And this war too.

You mention Ted Kennedy: did Ted Kennedy every serve in the military? How about Al Gore? Karl Rove? Newt Gingrich? Come on, do some research. I’ll wait.

Funny how the men who actually served in the military are the loudest opponents and most critical of the current “quagmire” and the ones who’ve never heard a shot fired in anger are most supportive of it. History repeats itself, if you’d care to read some history.

How many of our “leaders” have children in the military serving in Iraq? Are you advising your children or the children of your church to volunteer to serve?

You could host some Army and Marine recruiters at a church social; I’m sure they’d be grateful.

Maybe you could volunteer to be a chaplain over there and put your money (and life) where your mouth is. Come on, step up and draw some Kevlar and a flak jacket.

We have been asked to sacrifice NOTHING for this war. We don’t even see the flag-draped coffins coming off the transports at McGuire; it might upset us.

Only the military and military families are being asked to give. How about giving up your tax cut to help the family of a guard member pay it’s bills? A yellow ribbon magnet and a “W” sticker on your car just don’t hack it!

George Bush a “giver”? Please!

P.S. Where is Osama? The Weapons of Mass Destruction? The connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda? Remember: the reasons we were given for going to war?

P.p.S. Who would Jesus bomb?

Thomas Finnegan
USAF 1979-1983, U.S. Army National Guard 1983-1989
Fayetteville, Ga.

Coulter off base on Sheehan

I know I am going to be on the hit list for this, but after reading the article written by that poor excuse of a journalist, Ann Coulter, I can no longer keep quiet.

How dare she belittle Cindy Sheehan and use her for yet another attack on liberals? How dare she even begin to think she can feel what Mrs. Sheehan and every other parent, brother, sister, cousin, and on and on and on must feel to lose a loved one in a war?

No matter what one’s personal feelings on this war, to denigrate the feelings of one who has lost a loved one to this or any war is simply evil.

How dare she write about morals when she clearly lacks any?

Wendy Kovacs
wkovacs (at) husky.ca

I’ve seen the Ku Klux Klan and the ACLU is certainly no terrorist KKK

Imagine yourself an impoverished middle-aged black woman living on a farm in rural Georgia in the 1930s.

In the middle of the night you’re awakened by shouting in your front yard. You look outside and see men in white hoods standing by a burning cross, yelling for your husband to come outside or they’ll fire your house.

You urge him not to go, but he does anyway, to save his family. They take him away, and they torture and lynch him. You get his broken body back and demand justice.

Some arrests are made, but the suspects all have alibis. The local DA knows he’ll never get a conviction because the jury will be all-white and unsympathetic. There are no federal laws under which the malefactors may be tried. The KKK rules outside of the law.

Now imagine yourself the mayor of that same small town in 2004. You have recently placed a copy of the 10 Commandments on the walls of the town hall to show your support for the chief judge in Alabama.

You receive a certified letter from the ACLU stating their belief that this display violates the establishment clause contained in the First Amendment, and requesting that such display be removed from public property or the ACLU will take legal action on behalf of a local citizen.

You can remove the display, or you can await the legal action. If the ACLU files suit in federal court, you will need a lawyer to defend the town, and your actions. The suit itself will be heard in a federal courtroom, and will be guided by legal precedent. All proceedings will be open to the public, and whoever loses may appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if they so choose.

You can see by these imaginings what a fine analogy Mr. Arnold has drawn between the KKK and the ACLU. The ex-rebels who would form the KKK didn’t much like the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery, and they kept the slaves’ descendants in fear for 100 years after its passage.

Mr. Arnold doesn’t seem to like the 14th Amendment which applied the guaranteed Constitutional protections to the people in all states. He apparently doesn’t much like the rule of law either when it disagrees with his impressions.

And last time I looked, the ACLU will represent Nazi rights to peaceably assemble and march in predominantly Jewish Skokie,Ill. It will represent the right of perverts to talk about being perverts (not their right to act on it, nor to make, transmit or receive child pornography). It will represent churches being interfered with by any government.

It will represent even Kevin Arnold if he requests their help with a valid constitutional protection.

Filing lawsuits and legal briefs is not terrorism. The KKK doesn’t do that kind of stuff. They’re very particular whom they choose to hate, and how. They are also terrorists, and you’d think we would be a little more sensitive to that issue nowadays.

Timothy J. Parker
Peachtree City, Ga.

Let’s get the 1st Amendment right

In last week’s issue, Kathie Cheney informs us all that she doesn’t think prayer is appropriate at public meetings because (1) religion is a private matter, like sex, and (2) it imposes Christianity on all those attending.

I disagree with the silly premise that like sex, religion ought to be kept private. One keeps (or is supposed to keep) sex private because it is the most intimate act between a husband and wife. Publicizing it degrades them and degrades sexuality itself.

Religion, on the other hand, is intrinsically public. Whether attending church, synagogue, or mosque, one almost always practices religion in a public setting. Unless one is a pervert, the exact opposite is true of sex.

Her second point that prayer at public meeting imposes religion is also false. If someone prays in front of me, how does that make me become an adherent of the God they pray to?

In fact, there is no possible way to make someone believe anything. You can make them SAY they believe something, but to actually cause them to believe in something which they don’t is a philosophical impossibility.

An argument Ms. Cheney perhaps could have made is that prayer at a public meeting violates the First Amendment or established federal or state law. But since neither are true, of course, that would be wrong as well.

For the sake of absolute clarity, let us review the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof.”

Notice the first word: Congress. That refers to the federal Congress; not to state legislatures or local councils. This means that, according to the Constitution, it would be acceptable for Georgia to make the United Church of Christ the official state church and that Congress would have no say in it. The fact that most states have refrained from doing so changes not at all the meaning of the amendment.

Notice also that the amendment expressly states that Congress shall not prohibit the free exercise of religion. Therefore, if a city council decides that it wishes to start a meeting with a prayer, Congress is constitutionally barred from stopping it.

At this point, some of you may say, “Hey, what about the separation of church and state?” Well, that’s not in the Constitution.

The genesis of Ms. Cheney’s confusion is that in the past 40 years our Supreme Court, going along with a general trend in society, has sought to minimize Christianity’s role in our nation.

They have perverted the First Amendment, which was intended to protect the church from the state, to eliminate the church from the state.

In their view and the view of such lovely groups as the ACLU, who go around the country bullying cash-strapped counties and school boards into submission, the First Amendment is now interpreted as meaning that no publicly funded institution, event, or activity may recognize Christianity through prayer, display, or principle, unless it equally acknowledges every other conceivable “religion” at the same time (this makes this Wiccans very happy, by the way).

But I bring us back to the First Amendment. It says NOTHING about prayer at city council meetings, or schools, or any other government endeavor. That is why the same people who wrote the amendment went out and hired two chaplains for Congress practically the next day.

I am truly sorry that there are many people who are uncomfortable with public prayer or want to deny that Christianity is the primarily religion of our country and the foundation of its principles.

But the Constitution was not designed to prevent people from being made uncomfortable. It was written and implemented to limit government power and ensure basic freedoms: to gather, to speak, and to pray! I pray that we can all come to realize that again.

Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.

Free Speech haven for mudslinging

Because of their careful contemplation and infinite wisdom, our founding fathers bestowed upon us the gift of freedom of speech. We are blessed with this inalienable right, and as caring individuals and patriotic citizens we are obligated to use it wisely for the betterment of society.

Of the 60 submissions appearing in Free Speech in the Aug. 17 issue of The Citizen, most were as usual, complaints about the actions and choices of local governments and/or local political notables.

Letters from citizens exercising their right to say what they will without fear of retribution. Not many people in this world have such freedom.

Nevertheless, week after week I am disturbed and saddened to note the negativity of these letters that ooze with sarcasm, blatant hatefulness, personal attacks on named individuals, and rarely ever offer well-thought-out suggestions for improvements in regard to the topics with which they take issue.

Sadly, Free Speech has become a venue for competition to see who can sling the most mud the farthest.

What a blatant misuse of effort, time, and print space, and what a slap in the face of mature readers who seriously contemplate the issues and conscientiously step forward with viable alternatives.

If you, as a reader, feel strongly about an issue or happening, I suggest that you keep it to yourself unless you are willing and able to demonstrate maturity and constructive thoughtfulness in your response.

If you can’t make a positive contribution, leave the print space for those who will.

Gail M. Calhoun
gmcalhoun (at) bellsouth.net