I am writing to the parents in Peachtree City that allow their underage teens and their friends to drink alcohol at their homes, as long as they “give you their car keys at the door.” In the past three months, my two older teenagers have been to several parties and get-togethers where the kids were allowed by the parents to bring and drink beer or alcohol at the home. It seems this is quite a common practice amongst parents here. The kids are told they have to be ”checked out” by the parents before their keys will be returned to them. What gives these parents the right or authority to allow my underage child to drink alcohol without my knowledge or permission, and then, to make the determination whether my child is sober enough to get behind the wheel of a car to drive home? Are these parents aware of the liability they are assuming? If one of these kids gets pulled over, and is asked by the officer where they have been drinking, or even worse, causes an accident where people are hurt or killed, they can be held responsible. I know I would consider them responsible. There are good reasons for a law prohibiting people under 21 to drink alcohol. I won’t get into them, we all know what they are. Parents, with prom and graduation around the corner, we as parents have to work together, not against each other, to encourage these teens to have fun without drinking, and if you’re aware that they have been drinking, to either drive them home yourself, call their parent for a ride home, or see if they can stay the night with you. I know kids drink, but they absolutely should not be driving afterwards, whether you think they appear sober enough, or not. None of us are qualified, or have the ability to determine how impaired someone really is, especially other people’s children. I think the majority of parents of teens will not, under any circumstances, give our underage kids permission to drink. Please don’t undermine our authority.

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How sad it was watching Levitt and Sons bully the PTC City Council into submission. The council looked as though they didn’t have a clue. No one addressed how the schools are going to deal with all of the students. The Board of Education is already saying they need another tax increase. One thing I will say is that all of the pro-annexation Centennial parents need to have their children sent to the schools out in the county. There should be no reward for a group of people who are willing to do anything for a bridge. This is only fair: the city is forced to sacrifice for them, so they should sacrifice for us so our children don’t get bumped from their schools.

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Well, who didn’t know that? The Peachtree City Council is going to do what they want to do regardless of what the people in Peachtree City want. Before you know it, they will annex the very ground you are standing on now. Won’t be too long and we will all be confined as inmates in our own little 6x10-foot space.

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The Citizen is filled with stories and letters imploring the Peachtree City mayor and city council to heed the will of the majority and vote down development that is disfavored by most Peachtree City residents. However, in juxtaposition to this view of majority wisdom, The Citizen publishes opinion pieces, political cartoons, and many letters supporting the United States’ continued military action in Iraq. The majority of Americans are strongly opposed to a continued military presence in a civil war that cannot possibly lead to success by any reasonable measure. Perhaps the majority’s voice and will should be heeded in both situations.

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Speaking on behalf of NASCAR, America’s premier stock car racing association, Bill LaFrance rejected rumors that Holly Grove Road would be considered as a NASCAR race venue, because of the 74 South Retail Center which will cause an explosion in traffic. “We do not like to site venues too close together,” LaFrance said. “We already have the super-speedway in Hampton and a race course planned for Crosstown-Ebenezer in Peachtree City and so Holly Grove is out of the running.” NASCAR officials indicated that with the TDK road being extended into Coweta County that the Crosstown-Ebenezer-54-74 Connector will be a state of the art high speed course, sure to satisfy both open wheel and formula drivers and fans. The TDK Road is being named for Mutt Hunter, Coweta Commission Chair and Fayette County “Consultant.” Lafrance was questioned on the wisdom of putting in a race venue in a residential area. “It may be a little rough on the elementary school but we plan on putting in a Med-First facility at Braelinn Village which surely boost retail spending and help Fayette overcome the loud sucking sound of sales tax dollars into Coweta.” NASCAR gave special recognition to Mayor Harold Logsdon for his continued support and funding of what is sure to be a “world class motorsports venue.”

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Munford was being very kind by saying they “struggled” with Roberts Rules of order. Mayor Logsdon is just inept. Isn’t truly amazing how each of the developers swore they had to have the number of houses they requested in order to build the bridge, but they later admitted they could drop 70 homes and still have a comfortable profit margin? People are starting to see through the developer smoke screens. Logsdon and Boone proved, once again, that they’ll vote for any development you throw at them with very little resistance.

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Surprise, surprise, surprise — Two landfills discovered in Tyrone; another landfill discovered in Peachtree City. Tyrone’s latest is the library location; Peachtree City’s is the new annexed property. Town governments, you need to listen to Dennis Chase. He could save you a lot of money.

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You may debate about the amount of homework at Starr’s Mill High School, but the quality of the teachers is more important. Why is there a 10th grade biology teacher who will not teach evolution when it is on the EOCT (the state end-of-course test), and another one who will not dissect anything when all of the other biology teachers have had their students dissecting all year long? Why did they hire these teachers and why do they get away with this poor teaching? Please complain to the Board of Education if your child had one of these teachers of any others who are not teaching the curriculum.

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I can’t decide who is the worst parent, Anna Nicole Smith, Alec Baldwin, or Kim Basinger. All three put themselves ahead of the welfare of their own children. In addition, Anna Nicole set a terrible example for her son by regularly drugging herself with prescription medications while Baldwin and Basinger apparently cussed at and around their daughter regularly and used her as a weapon against the other parent. I wonder why the entertainment/news media has given them a pass?

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Just a quick note to those who have entitlement issues for one reason or another. The area directly in front of Kroger at Braelinn is called the “Fire Lane,” not the entitlement lane. The white lines out in the parking lot are called parking spaces; please park there in case of FIRE. Also, HCAP parking spaces are for the handicapped. If you park there with a fake handicap sticker then you also have entitlement issues and should be fined $500 as the law provides and made to park at the far end of the lot and walk your lazy butt all the way to Kroger. Speaking of HCAPs, the gold tees are for single HCAP golfers. If your HCAP index is, say, 15, then you need to move up to the blue tees with the rest of us as you are living a life of illusion not to mention holding up the entire golf course.

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Someone wrote several months ago about the shoddy service at the cafeteria at Piedmont Fayette Hospital. In my church duties I have the privilege to visit many different hospitals in the area including Atlanta. This is absolutely the pits. The manager should be fired. A whole list could be derived about what goes on there. This will be taken care of again soon.

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To Sheriff Johnson: Today in a couple of minutes I saw two deputies cruising around in their police cars talking on their cell phones. Aside from safety concerns and setting a bad example, do you think they were accomplishing any police work while talking to their girlfriends or wives?

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This letter is regarding Mr. Jansen’s letter last week condoning a “Wild West” strategy in which everyone is armed with handguns. While it is quite reasonable to say that everyone needs to be able to defend themselves (and I actually tend to agree with this concept generally), it is more important to look at other industrialized nations whose homicide statistics truly make the U.S. look like the Wild West. Consider these facts: there were more murders via handguns in California last year than in the whole of Western Europe. If that does not get your attention then consider this: Japan has a population of approximately 100 million people. The amount of people killed via firearms annually is less than 100 people. That is approximately 40 percent of the U.S. population, folks. England’s population is about 60 million (approximately one-quarter of the U.S.) and has about 250 murders annually via firearms which is about the same as Atlanta. The reality is that we are already living in the Wild West and that if we outlaw handguns then only outlaws will have guns, so it is too late to outlaw them. Lynyrd Skynyrd put it best in the song “Saturday Night Special” when they said, “Handguns are made for killin’, ain’t no good for nothin’ else.” The fact is that our violent crime statistics are by far the highest among the industrialized nations in the entire world. Oh, one last fact which I forgot to mention. Handguns are illegal in Western Europe and Japan. Purely coincidence, I’m sure.

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Re: the minister forgetting it was Easter Sunday. The “little lady” or “little man” does not know my identity. My spouse does not even have privy to that information. Just some issues we have had at the church. The writer could have been anyone of about 100 members. Many of us, however, know the identity of the one who replied. She gets very involved ever so often and sits down very close to the front so her amens can be heard.

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Is anyone else totally fed up with Comcast? Poor customer service, price increases and channel elimination without notice. I guess what irks me most is what they cram down your throat that is part of your “package.” I do NOT want to pay for, and am tired of paying for Spanish language channels, BET, rap music, and other channels that are innocuous and irrelevant to my life. Satellite is not such a great alternative, too many glitches and outages. Don’t you think having a choice for the big bucks we pay to Comcast would be reasonable? Too bad there are no other companies to give them competition.

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Chickens fed the toxic pet food pose only a “minimal risk” to humans who eat the chicken or eggs. “Minimal” sounds too much like “collateral damage” for comfort.

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An “atta-boy” to the Peachtree City Public Works Department. Great job on repaving and rerouting the cart path along Log House Road. Thanks very much.

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Chris Matthews didn’t just ask fluff questions at the Republican debate. His questions were lint, scavenged from the media’s spin cycle.

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My dream slate for the 2008 presidential race would be Duncan Hunter for president and Lou Dobbs for vice president.

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A word of advice for the mainstream print media who are losing readers: Follow Lou Dobbs’s example and reflect the people’s concerns instead of big business and watch your readers return.

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Contrary to some candidates, America isn’t great because of our people, but because of our form of government. The world is full of wonderful people, but only American government is based on principles that set the people’s best characteristics free to bless us all.

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President Bush’s Cinco de Mayo speech reminded me of an old joke: “How do you tell when a politician is lying? When his lips move.”

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I commend the high school girl who is raising money to build a school in Cambodia. The story got good press. But where are the stories of U.S. troops building schools in Iraq? Not as politically newsworthy, I guess. And has anybody even giving a thought to what happens to those children if the U.S. would pull out? Likely they would be part of the bloodbath that would follow. But they are not Americans, so we don’t care. We would rather complain about the price of gas being $3 while we go to Starbucks for a $5 cup of coffee.

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The difference between legal and illegal should not be determined by illegal aliens.

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New French President Sarkozy was elected because he promised immigration reform. Will street riots replace the election with mob rule?

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A mob of criminals (illegal aliens) take to the street to demonstrate against the government that gives them free food, schooling, medical care and more at the taxpayers’ expense. The police chief has his men break up the demonstration. He could have arrested and jailed them as the criminals they are. The mayor of that city who just happened to be of the same ethnic background as the demonstrators demotes the police chief and fires him. By demoting him first he effectively reduced the amount of money the former police chief will take home to support his family. This police chief worked hard as an honest American citizen for many years. Just who is calling the shots in this country and what future do we honest citizens have if this goes on?