Starr’s Mill graduation — what an absolute embarrassment. The Starr’s Mill principal’s speech was a disgrace. Is this what the school system wants to portray to our children? You are aware that these children will be the leaders of tomorrow. I guess the principal just wanted to let our kids know that it’s OK to “ax” “quershions” just as long as you do it with “didnity” and are “sussessful.” All this comes from the woman that our school board has selected to lead our children. This is a true shame. She may have been a good administrator, but she is a poor principal. From some of the children I have spoken with, she, the principal, came in and demanded respect. From my experience, when you demand respect, you receive rebellion. I feel that the school board needs to rethink the person they have selected to be the principal of Starr’s Mill. From my experience, she does not relate to the students of the school. For the life of me, I am still trying to figure out what a “foo” is.

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I came home today to find that the graduation sign for my neighborhood, Kenton Place, had been stolen. Thanks. It is a small thing — the sign, that is — but I have really looked forward to the day when I would get to follow a great tradition and put one up for my child along with the kids he has grown up with in our neighborhood. Stupidly, I waited for a free moment to take his picture by the sign and it didn’t come before graduation. Now you have taken it before I could get that picture. Did I say thanks? No, it’s not the end of the world. I have many great pictures and that sign in no way added to the pride I have in my son and his accomplishments and character, but what I can’t reconcile in my mind is why. Why would you do this? Did you want a souvenir so bad you had to steal? Do you think you should have it more than all of the parents of the rest of those graduates? Is this just a joke? Yeah, I was going to have to take it down on Thursday. It truly would just be a memento for us probably to be kept in the garage. Well, actually it is or was reusable as the lettering could be changed, but you have it now and I hope you enjoy it because it comes at a cost for me. My prayer for you is that someday you will be worthy of the pride your parents have in you. That day is not today.

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I was saddened to hear about the few seniors at Starr’s Mill who wrote very rude and disrespectful graffiti on the walls of the school. There is a thin line between senior pranks and criminal behavior. These students showed such poor judgment by crossing it. Unfortunately, these people as seniors are role models for the younger classes. My son’s initial response when he told me about it was, “It was so funny, Mom.” I had to then reinforce to him that this was criminal behavior. I am glad that the police were called and the guilty students were hopefully arrested. I hope the Starr’s Mill administration has also set an appropriate consequence for these students. These students should not be allowed to graduate with their class. A strong message needs to be sent to any other would-be vandals.

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Does anyone know of a golf cart path that one can use to go to Gilroy’s Got-It or Clothes Less Traveled in PTC?

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As a resident of PTC, a few days ago I needed to stop at the post office in Sharpsburg. What a pleasant experience. The post office employees were very friendly and professional. Maybe the employees at the PTC post office could go there for customer service training.

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Have you noticed the epidemic of hundreds of homes under foreclosure in Fayette County? Who did the loan approvals, The Dodo Bird National Bank? A family of 10 with one medium income cannot afford a brand-new, half-million dollar house with four A/C units at the full asking price. Nobody on the up-and-up ever pays the full asking price for a new house. Two words: Caveat emptor. Some of these houses have been beaten up and stripped clean of appliances and fixtures and the Dodo Bird National Bank is asking the same price as when the house was new. Some damages might not be apparent until you have lived in the house for a while. Make the Dodo Bird National Bank pay. We should not reward people and institutions in this country for being stupid.

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Why on Earth are they building something new adjacent to the Braelinn Village Shopping Center (more greenspace gone!) when the shopping center has large empty storefronts? Why don’t we just cut down every tree right now, and blacktop-over any unused land right now, and get it over with? Our wonderful planned community is quickly turning into another suburban rat race with litter, noise, traffic, crime, riffraff.

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A bill is pending and will probably pass and become law soon to make price gouging a felony crime. If this law is passed some of the oil industry and pharmaceutical industry executives that are taking home hundreds of millions of dollars yearly will see the inside of a jail cell as they should. In many other countries profiteering off the public gets the perpetrator a moment of glory in front of a firing squad.

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The toughest domestic issue our country faces today is immigration. How sad it is to see our local governments right here in Fayette County denying U.S. citizens jobs and giving them to illegals. Fayetteville is already farming out landscaping jobs to companies who provide almost no real citizens to do the work. Peachtree City looks like they are going to follow Fayetteville’s lead. Saying our citizens won’t take those jobs is a lie. Don’t go raising the flag on Memorial Day and July 4th and popping off fireworks at the same time you are paying illegals with our tax dollars and forcing local citizens into the unemployment line. Fayetteville and Peachtree City ought to be ashamed.

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To those people who do not work outside the home: Please be considerate of those of us who do. Do your errands during the day while I am at work so that I can get home too. I am especially talking about grocery shopping. It is very frustrating standing in line behind you listening to the “hard” day you had at the tennis/golf/nail place. I had a hard day too and I just want to go home!

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I have to agree with former Mayor Steve Brown about the growth panel. It does look like the event is going to be a TDK love fest. Why would we tap Coweta Chairman Higgins after he has insulted us in the newspaper so many times? The guy said they were going to do whatever they wanted and now we look to him to advise us on Peachtree City’s future? If I’m not mistaken, all of the other panel members but Brown tried to convince us TDK was going to save us all a lot of time driving. What a lie that turned out to be.

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Fayetteville has erected new street signs near the Log House and they look great. Maybe the county, state and other cities can follow suit. A continuing project to upgrade the signage by each level of government would be terrific and add to our property values.

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We have the shortest school year in the industrial world. In spite of this, the last couple of days before each holiday and the entire week before the end of school are spent throwing parties, field days, and other fluff. Americans are going to continue to be an educational embarrassment until our teachers and students both start taking school as seriously as you would, say, a job. School is not supposed to be cute and sentimental but it can be rewarding when you work hard and take pride in your accomplishments.

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The speed limit on Robinson Road is not 75 mph. Slow down before you kill somebody.

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Here we go again with Steve Brown taking another victory lap in the “I Told You So 500” race. Please don’t go blaming the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce for handing out their support for TDK and a SPLOST tax plan with some considerable flaws. The Chamber didn’t prepare the plans or have anything to do with the results. Blame the bad numbers on the Fayette County Board of Commissioners and not the Chamber. The Chamber took the information as presented by the county government and concluded the right choice was to support both the SPLOST and the TDK Extension. Just because Steve Brown ended up having some valid points doesn’t mean the Chamber did anything intentionally wrong. Steve Brown will one day learn gloating about being right is childish.

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I’m tired of getting jerked around by the city council on these growth issues. Follow the city’s laws and deny the big box store on Ga. Highway 74. Expanding TDK is also a really, really, really bad idea, so kill the darn thing. We don’t need any twisted talking heads session on why TDK is a good thing because we all know better. Listening to Robert Lenox and the Chamber of Commerce is how we got into the TDK mess in the first place.

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Who was the brainchild behind Peachtree City’s 50-year into the future panel discussion? I question whether we can endure the next two or three years at the rate we’re going with crazy decisions like running TDK into Coweta County. Our illustrious mayor and council have done more damage in two years than all the other city councils combined. Speculating about the next five decades suggests there will be something left to appreciate by then, which is debatable. Some of us old-timers remember that East Point, College Park and Riverdale used to be wonderful places before they permitted a handful of imbeciles to run the places down.

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When I lived in Japan, I learned to speak Japanese. When I lived in Germany, I learned German. When I lived in Bermuda, I drove on the left side of the road. There are many reasons why one might choose to live in a foreign land, but when you do, one of benefits of the experience is learning about the culture that you have adopted. As a stranger in a strange land, I would never want or expect the locals to modify their customs or language to my ways, and why in the world should they? The recent trend in this country has been to cater to those from other countries by trying to make them feel “at home.” Why do that? They left “home” and should adopt the customs and language of their new country in order to assimilate themselves into a new way of life that they have chosen.

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Just in time for Memorial Day, the Senate tosses our national sovereignty on the trash heap. Just another way to say “thanks, sucker,” to present and past military men for their sacrifices.

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An old proverb perfectly fits the Senate’s 1,000-page immigration transformation: “He who promises too much, intends nothing.”