Did anyone else notice the naked man jogging near the Rite Aid at City Circle Thursday, Oct. 6? I came out of the pharmacy and discovered that it must be true what they say about the effects of the cold on men.

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Yesterday I was driving past The Avenue Shops and to my surprise, I saw a naked man running by. At first, I did a double-take to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. Just what is this world coming to? I am shocked to see this kind of display in Fayette County.

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I found the Jan. 20 letter regarding “PTC cops stake out slow light” disturbing, assuming it was reasonably accurate, and even more so the judge’s response. Nothing was accomplished by the police or the court. Nothing except creation of feelings of abuse, lack of justice, and being ripped off. This judge did not show any sense of justice. He only contributed more disgust and hard feelings toward the police and the court system. I believe any judge that says, “There is no exception to this law,” excluding criminal intent to harm, needs to be booted. The police have on the side of their cars the statement “To protect and serve.” They made a mockery of it here. This light was a problem, and they knew it, which is why they were sitting there watching it. It was obvious that people would run it, meaning that it also was a hazard and would contribute to the possibility of an accident. Had they been doing their job, they would have been out directing traffic when cars approached this obviously malfunctioning light. Yet they sat back and waited, knowing the light had an unreasonable delay. They should have been trying to get the light reprogrammed so drivers would not be led to believe that it was necessary to run the light to get through the intersection. The police involved need to be charged with neglecting their obligations and duty, and it speaks for itself that they were not trying to remedy a hazardous situation. Had an accident happened, the cops should be writing themselves a ticket for letting it happen.

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Mayor Logsdon and Councilman Boone are total nut jobs. The city’s revenues are sliding and he wants to reduce the millage rate. The city manager said they could use most of the “fund balance” to make up the losses. This is ridiculous. If the mayor is a personal investment person by trade, I sure feel sorry for his clients. This kind of budget bungling is a sure sign of incompetence. Even the mayor’s developer friends had to browbeat him to keep him from wasting our money on that laughable police station. Just say no, Mr. Mayor.

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What’s going on with the activation of the traffic lights at Ga. Highway 54 and McElroy Road? The turn lanes and markings have been completed for over a month. These lights cost taxpayers plenty. I hope there’s not an accident with fatalities because someone is dragging their feet.

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Words to live by. Lincoln on happiness: Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President.

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Can you please give me an update on the golf cart bridge on Hwy. 54 that crosses over the railroad tracks? It seems it has been sitting there for almost two years now with no end in sight.

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Come on, Peachtree City, let’s rally again like we did on the Kroger/Goodwill issue. Why do we need two pharmacies standing side by side on the same street corner? I am referring to Walgreens wanting to get in on the corner of Hwy. 54 and Peachtree Parkway. We don’t want Walgreens there, we don’t need Walgreens there. I am petitioning Ruby Tuesday to extend their lease and contacting Walgreens with my protest of their intended purchase on that corner. To the Peachtree City planners, shame on you for your insane city planning. Have some [courage] and deny these corporate giants for once. The taxpayers of this city do not want or need another pharmacy.

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I was shocked to walk into a Tyrone Town Meeting and see that the attorney for the town was Chamber of Commerce president and junior McNally lawyer Dennis Davenport. When this new crowd hired McNally they gave him a one-third pay hike. Now he sends in Junior and just cashes the check. Isn’t that like a bait and switch? John Thompson reported that a “visibly angry” Davenport had been outsmarted by Virgil Fludd who pointed out the legal errors by the McNally firm in trying to get the town charter changed. Do we get a refund for this?

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Over two months have passed and the list of issues that Don Rehwaldt presented last year at almost every Tyrone Council meeting under public comment that he and the Tyrone Neighborhood Alliance felt were ”paramount to assuring that Tyrone continues to grow and prosper in accordance with the wishes of those citizens who expressed their desires via the comprehensive plan” have yet to make it to a council agenda. These issues included the lack of an emergency entrance to Shamrock Industrial Park (their primary concern), air pollution in Shamrock Industrial Park, Millbrook Village sewer system (another priority issue), to name a few. It is apparent that these issues were only crucial for political purposes and once they served that purpose are now non-issues. Politics at its worst.

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What is the real reason that the Courtside Cafe in Peachtree City Tennis Center was closed down?

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Hey, Morallion Hills neighbor. Sorry to hear your Clinton 2008 sign was taken. If it was kids, then that happens all the time in any neighborhood. If it was from another adult, them shame on that person. You have a right to have your property respected. I do think you are a little wacko and do not have these security cameras. So let’s see who this person is that took your sign; call the police. By the way, I also live in the same subdivision. This morning at 6:30 a.m. I saw your sprinklers on and water all over your yard and street. Have you been on Mars all this time? We are in a drought, regardless if the last several weeks we got some good rain storms. No one has given authority for Fayette residents to water. You do not have newly installed sod. Your grass was laid a long time ago by the past owner when he was trying to sell that house before you came along. Next time I see your lawn being watered, I am calling the police and water department. Our mayor lives [close to] you. He can also see your sprinklers and knows who to call.

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To the woman in the gold Lexus SUV (a GX model perhaps) the tag “UGA GT” who passed me this evening on Peachtree Parkway as I was driving south out of Kedron Hills, I ask you the following: Didn’t you realize that this is a residential area with solid yellow lines, meaning it’s a “no passing” zone? Did you see that a car was traveling north on Peachtree Parkway near North Cove and that you might have had a head-on collision? When I caught up to you at Robinson Road and Hwy. 54 and knocked on your window, you claimed you were in a hurry to pick up your son. Why were you in such a hurry to break the law and possibly cause a serious accident to pick up your son? My 15-year-old daughter was in the front seat, and I’m trying to teach her the rules of the road before she gets her driver’s permit. You certainly taught her a lesson about being a moron.

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Some people have commented that the Free Speech section is filled with hate letters. The Free Speech section is the best thing a newspaper has ever come up with. It allows people to vent their feelings and frustrations and bring to public attention certain conditions that the public may not be aware of. This can be done through the Free Speech section without the writer being directly attacked by the politically correct or holier than thou crowd. To those people, why don’t you just clam up and read the funny papers, which is probably more your speed anyway?

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Am I missing something here? Did I read in The Citizen newspaper that Sundiata Kamara was upset at Mr. Scott Ballard for sending two black boys to jail and letting the white boy go free? Why would he want the innocent victim of a vicious attack by two hoodlums to go to jail? I guess he shouldn’t have gotten on the ground and driven his head and body into their boots again and again. And did I read that he says the Bloods and Crips are a youth organization? Yeah, and so are the Ku Klux Klan and the skinheads. I have heard a lot out of LA on the Bloods and Crips, and the words good, constructive, civic-minded, responsible, and friendly were NEVER used. Does Kamara think we are that gullible? But I really loved the picture of the sign with the word “Racism” printed on it. That took me back to the 1960s. Can’t you think of anything better? You have worn that puppy out. I did like the picture of the protesters — all three of them. At least Hosea would bus them in from out of town. I do agree with Kamara on the unfairness of the sentencing of two and four years in jail. I would really like to see that doubled; make an example out of them. If they want to act like that, they can go someplace else to live; it’s a free country. But I can tell you one thing: If the situation were reversed and it were white boys beating a black kid, Katie, bar the door. You would be screaming for their heads on a plate, crying, “Hate crime, hate crime.”

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Everyone who believes the oil companies are paying $105 per barrel for oil, please hold up your hands and then proceed to stand in the corner with your dunce cap on. OPEC hasn’t raised oil prices in almost two years and the thousands of oil wells pumping in Texas, Oklahoma, California, Pennsylvania and Alaska belong to the oil companies, so the only cost is in pumping it out of the ground. The $105 per barrel that the news media pounds into our head numerous times a day is the stock market trading price, and that is the result of the fat cats in Washington and Wall Street manipulating the market with their millions. They use that figure to justify the astronomical price of gasoline. How else do you suppose the oil industry is making billions of dollars in profit beyond anything ever experienced in corporate history?

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A parent at J.C. Booth’s Accelerated Math meeting held last week had a very good suggestion. Could the current accelerated math students who have A averages, yet will be repeating this year’s course again next year, be grouped together in that course, so it could be run at a pace appropriate to students who had already excelled in it? Why the need for such a crazy question? Some background. The coordinator of mathematics for the Fayette County Board of Education continues to be ineffective and has implemented a math curriculum plan counter to that approved by state School Superintendent Kathy Cox. After two years of teachers, students and parents struggling along without textbooks, and three years of a new-wave, “math by committee” teaching philosophy, the coordinator unveils the next step in her policy. The curriculum plan unveiled at the Booth meeting lacks an option for a top-tier accelerated math student who has trouble in this unprecedented curriculum to switch to a lower-level math course, and still graduate on time. You got it; stumble attempting pre-calculus as a ninth-grader, and you don’t graduate on time, as there’s no provision in the curriculum to allow a child to earn replacement credit. These are the county’s best and brightest. To deal with this glaring oversight, Fayette’s math department has worked hard the past few months to instill an environment of fear into middle school teachers, students and parents. Even students who are excelling in the accelerated curriculum are being encouraged to avoid the top-accelerated track in high school, which means that next year, they must repeat this year’s course. (Not because they’re having any trouble with the content; because of their school district’s failure to plan.) So now, back to our parent’s very reasoned question, mentioned at the beginning of this letter. If a child and his/her parents feel the benefits of continuing on this accelerated track do not exceed the risks, and elect to re-enroll in their current course next year, could these students be grouped together into the same class? This would allow the teacher to move the children along at a pace appropriate for their knowledge, enrich the curriculum when able, and maybe, keep the children from being bored out of their minds, and essentially, lose an instructional year. McIntosh’s registrar was quick to answer the question. She will have to see what the registration numbers look like once registration is complete. “No promises.” Why is a policy issue this important apparently being decided by an administrative assistant-level employee? Is this not more appropriately addressed by McIntosh’s math department chair, counselors and principal? Let’s hope she spoke out of turn, and that those appropriately responsible for decisions such as these will intervene and serve our children. In closing, I would like to express my sincere appreciation, and that of many other parents as well, to the teachers and students who have struggled valiantly with the implementation of this new curriculum. I do believe Kathy Cox when she says it will eventually prove more than worthwhile. Fayette County’s implementation, however, has been abysmal. Our children and teachers deserve better.