Ask not what the school administration can do for the community, but what can the community do for the school administration.

----------------------------------------------------------------

To all the parents crying over the recent school boundary changes: There’s always private school.

----------------------------------------------------------------

This is the first middle school built since Rising Starr. All of us who are being districted need to support and make Bennett’s Mill the Rising Starr Middle School in the county. All of this fighting happened when Rising Starr opened and they pulled Peachtree City into the Starr’s Mill Complex and it is a wonderful school. It should be the model for the county. Fayette community schools are working. Teachers from all of the schools will fight to get to teach in the new complex, a state of the art building with “smart boards” and the $20 million price tag. Yes, I live in Peachtree City; it is hard to think I live two miles from Booth but now I’m going five miles to Bennett’s Mill. But some students in North Fayette get bused over 10 miles to Flat Rock Middle. Only one middle school in the whole county is north of Ga. Highway 54. Fact: there is going to be busing. It will be good for us to get out of our PTC bubble drive in our cars from time to time and see the great way the county is growing. There are beautiful neighborhoods going in over there, golf cart paths are being paved throughout the whole county since the voting of the SPLOST. The county is giving us PTC residents a compliment even though they will never admit it. Our community is growing and it is a wonderful place to live. Bennett’s Mill is in the growing area of the county and it will be a good thing.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Compulsory schooling until a diploma is earned or a student reaches the age of 21 is now getting a big push from the National Education Association. It’s the union’s response to the dropout crisis. Coincidentally, compulsory schooling to age 21 would require more teachers, meaning expanded membership, revenues, and clout for the NEA. Funny how that works out.

----------------------------------------------------------------

This is in response to Mr. Garlock’s article last week. My wife and I first moved here in 1986. PTC had a population of approximately 15,000 people. We had no traffic problems, no big boxes, ample green space, no crime to speak of, virtually no litter and, last but not least, no Harmony Village. Over the years we have witnessed this town slowly go down hill on all of the above. We now have armed robberies, rapes, drugs, gangs infiltrating from Clayton and Coweta counties, litter, out of control commercial development, etc. Basically all we are now is just another Atlanta suburb with cart paths and good schools. Anyone who believes otherwise is delusional. Summation: The party is over. Our youngest is now a senior in high school and the day she graduates is the day the sign goes up in the front yard. It was a great place to raise kids and we do not regret it, but unfortunately the writing is on the wall now and it is time for us to move on. In short, your article hit the nail right on the head, Mr. Garlock. Well done. The truth hurts sometimes.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Terry Garlock wrote what many of us have been thinking. The old Peachtree City is going to be a fleeting memory. Most of the new homeowners don’t know what they are missing. They are more concerned with Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson. The mayor signed off on a land deal with the developer ruffians that will change things for good.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I agree with Terry Garlock’s article on balance in Peachtree City. We are drowning in too much. It is a very sad loss indeed when every strip of undeveloped land is being developed by someone who looks at it and all they see is $. These people don’t care that there will be no more trees or animals or think about environmental issues like pollution or about traffic or crime. It all boils down to greed and poor planning. The charm of this city and surrounding areas is disappearing with undeveloped land. Like this city needs another store, church, bank, restaurant, residential areas, etc. What about all these empty buildings all over the city now? The representatives of this city need to have the sight to see what state this city will be in if the development continues and to say enough is enough and have the courage to do so.

----------------------------------------------------------------

From every article I’ve read in the newspapers, it appears that the TDK Extension will bring us nothing but traffic problems. So why is the mayor going to great lengths to make it happen? How come local developers are getting all kinds of sweetheart deals from the city?

----------------------------------------------------------------

On Nov. 15 at 7:35 a.m. my daughter was sitting in the car with me at the corner of Sunderland Circle and Lester Road. I had decided to drive her to the bus stop this morning because it was raining. We watched as the bus came up Lester Road in our direction from the Cleveland Elementary School area. The bus caution lights came on about 300 feet from our location in preparation for the stop. My daughter removed her seat belt and opened the car door and stepped out. As she was pulling her backpack out of the car, it got tangled on the seat and the bus came to a stop. She pulled out the back pack and grabbed her lunch bag and bolted for the waiting bus. I watched as the bus driver slide his window back for a clear view. In an instant I saw panic on the bus driver’s face and he yelled or maybe made the attempt to yell at my daughter. A white Volvo SUV traveling at a high rate of speed shot between the bus and my running daughter. My being 50 feet from her and the edge of the road I could see she was within one or two feet from being struck by the speeding vehicle. I do not know if the hung bag in the car saved her life or she saw the bus driver’s face and slowed. I do know that if she had been one step closer she would have been hit by the side view mirror on the SUV. If she had been two steps closer she would have been killed right before my eyes.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Hello to you in the burgundy van, license APG9371. I’d like to find out where you were going in such a hurry that you had to speed past me through the school zone on Peachtree Parkway near Huddleston Elementary. Loved the rolling stop at the stop sign. Perhaps the driving laws should be required reading every six months or so.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The Whitewater Country Club’s $1.8 million government bail-out sure sounds familiar. You got your good old boy developers like Joel Cowan involved. You got board members from the local government. You got the disastrous financial record keeping. You got the local bank running around like a chicken with its head cut off. The only difference between Whitewater and the Peachtree City Development Authority is the Whitewater deal was a legal, above-board catastrophe and the Development Authority was a backdoor, under the table, illegal debacle. Proof again thats it’s not what you know, but who you know.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I am concerned about the continued mixing of one’s personal religion with the functions of the government. Not because it might ruin the government, but that it might ruin religion. The talk of the “Godly” men who are supposedly now charged with curing the Colorado homosexual preacher, who was a high official in the evangelical churches, of homosexuality and possible dope addiction, by berating him for a few years, seems to me to be an indication of the law ignoring church “matters” as has been done greatly in the Catholic Church, and many others who pop up in the news occasionally. They can’t cure this man’s desires, although they may reduce the occurrences of such desires. It seems to me that this “pastor” duped this church and hurt the people in it, just as if he had extorted a million dollars from it. False pretenses such as this should be illegal. We can’t make homosexuality illegal anymore, because it is as natural as are other brain distortions. We put many in prison for being homosexual up until recent years, but scientific study indicates it is there from the start, the desire, that is. Most women are never “outed,” due to their different nature, anyway. Making laws based upon one particular religion — that is, rules to live by — is surely destined to failure.

----------------------------------------------------------------

President Bush had it right the first time back in 1999 when he was campaigning for his current day job: “we are not in the business of nation building.” As a result of bungled planning, flawed policy and incompetence, Mr. Bush finds himself deep into a business that he did not want. As all of his previous business ventures, this one failed as well. The sad part is that he is now the focus of what has happened to many businesses of this day: outsourcing. His father has had to organize a SWAT team to come in and help him finish out his last two years. Bankruptcy and business survival is a hard topic in this town, but it is a sad note when our nation is at risk. If I were Harvard University, I would issue a recall of business degree awarded years ago to our current president.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Now that greed and corruption and vengeance has weakened the Republican organization (ignoring the destruction of the middle class, fighting an unnecessary war) we need to be very careful that the new group, with their slim majority, doesn’t just stagnate Congress. We are in great need to correct some serious errors. These are the war, citizen health, corporate corruption, political corruption, the environment, new fuel supply, investigate college costs and medical costs which are totally out of hand, trying to make jobs where none are needed for this credit economy. I believe the balancing of the budget is a lost cause and should be abandoned to free enterprise. The next two years will be about the next presidential election and not about us. They didn’t quite reach total power before the heads were chopped.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Is it a sign of techno-progress that shoppers are now fighting over Play-Stations instead of Cabbage Patch dolls or Beanie Babies?

----------------------------------------------------------------

Please put me on a jury for anyone who sends spam or creates a computer virus. I’m still thinking up an appropriate punishment. Something with hot coals comes to mind.

----------------------------------------------------------------

This is to the person who wrote about being treated rudely at FCFT’s “An Evening of Broadway”: Your statement saddens FCFT very much. We strive to have wonderful patron-theater staff relations and have never been told in our history that we were rude to anyone. Our policy across the board is the patron is always right and highly valued. We are a family-based organization made up of primarily Christian people who are dedicated to bringing high quality and moral entertainment to our community. We urge whoever wrote the negative comments in the Nov. 15 Citizen to contact us at fcftdirector1@aol.com and let us know what the problem was so that we can attempt to rectify it and, at the very least, offer our personal apologies.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Turn about is fair play. All of those candidates who called your house deserve a return call. Actually many return calls. What do you expect from them? Pick up the phone or fax and get up close and personal. Immigration is my issue, what’s yours?

----------------------------------------------------------------

Want to discourage gangs? The FBI says that one-half of gang-bangers in some areas are either deportable aliens or minor children of illegal aliens. When these gangster-vermin so much as spit on the sidewalk, their illegal alien parents should be deported, along with their gangster offspring.

----------------------------------------------------------------

In my 69 years, I have seen both Republicans and Democrats in office. This election is just a part of that cycle. Sometimes if the change later proves to not have been a good one, it can be corrected in another cycle without having created a disaster.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Memo to employers who cannot survive without underpaying your labor: You’re going down. In Darwinist terms, if you rely on an influx of poverty-stricken immigrants, you are not fit enough to survive. Goodbye, so long, adios, good riddance.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve often reflected on advice given by a guest-speaker to my child development class: “Having happiness as a goal for your life is a formula for unhappiness. Better to strive for the contentment of having done your duty.”

----------------------------------------------------------------

As a grandson of immigrants, I recognize that the United States draws newcomers because our founders established a civil society wherein ordinary citizens can lead rewarding lives, not because legions of prior immigrants left unpromising situations to come here. And even if immigration had dominated American history, this shouldn’t guide 21st century decisions now that our population exceeds the land’s carrying capacity.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to the History Channel, where anyone, even those unable or too busy to read, can learn that many wars fought for freedom didn’t go well at first.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Any study that cites how many people have no health insurance, without citing the number who are illegal aliens, isn’t worth the paper its written on. Ditto for any news story that mindlessly repeats that flawed data.

login to post comments