The way a few of us local business owners see it, the Fayetteville government doesn’t give a darn about our chances of survival. We’re told there’s nothing they can do about expanding the roads downtown because of the historic district. But they don’t have any problems bending the rules to put a stupid big box store downtown to screw traffic up even more. We’re not worried about the competition from the big box store. No, we started losing good customers a long time ago because of the dangerous, congested traffic. We’re already going to be hit with a huge tax increase by the county and we don’t need to be punished from the city. I just wish someone cared about the small businessman in Fayetteville.

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Only a handful of Fayette County’s current residents were lucky enough to be born here. Most of the rest of us moved here for the quality of life, excellent schools, low crime, property values, etc. But some seem to come here determined to undo the conditions that made Fayette the success it is. If you don’t like our county government, the way we elect commissioners, our sheriff’s department, or zoning restrictions, why not live someplace else, maybe Clayton County or a large city up north?

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I have an idea — Let’s make May “ride the school bus month” for all Fayette County students for a couple of reasons. First of all, it would be great for the environment. The bus is ready to take loads of kids TO and FROM school and is already heading that way. It will teach the kids some discipline since if they get in trouble on it, you will find out. It may also be good to actually find out it was your own kid that is in fact the troublemaker you were trying to protect them from. Discipline does need to start at home. Then fresh off the SB458 mess, we could help clean up the county schools of all of the out of county students. If all of the “legal kids” rode the bus, walked, biked or golf carted to school, then only the out of county students would be waiting in the car pool lines with their out of county tags on their cars. It would be so noticeable and so easy to enforce. So as you can see I think only good can come out of the “ride the school bus, walk, bike or golf cart to school month” that I have planned for the entire month of May. Ride in May for Fayette!

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Taxpayers, before schools open in August of 2008 we will see a large influx of new students. All of these students will claim they live in Fayette County. Have you ever noticed all the students out in front of FCHS or at Arby’s long after school has been dismissed? If they lived in Fayette County, they should have taken the bus home. Are they waiting for out of county parents to pick them up after work? Check out your local school in the morning and/or afternoon. Solution: school staff could identify the students that are dropped off in the morning or picked up in the evening by out of county cars. Then have the county make home visits to verify residency. The law states that new county residents have 30 days to register their vehicle in Fayette County. So after September we should not see any out of county cars dropping off students. Right? Can local law enforcement help by stopping out of county cars and checking residency? Can local PTSOs help? They know who lives in their neighborhoods and I am sure they do not want overcrowded classrooms or higher property taxes. The bottom line is that one person at the Welcome Center and two part-time investigators are not sufficient to identify all the illegal students coming into our county. Call the school board members and insist that they get much tougher on residency checks before this fall. We all must get actively involved to protect our excellent schools.

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What a disgrace to see Fayette Republican Chairman Josh Bonner defending Rep. Matt Ramsey’s reshuffle on Senate Bill 458. The Republican leadership in the legislature told Ramsey everything he needed to know on the voucher bill in advance, and he didn’t actually oppose the thing until Fayette parents found out what was going on. Old Bonner spoke poorly of Democrat Sen. Seay, but she voted against the bill in committee. Both Sen. Chance and Rep. Ramsey still supported the bill out of committee with a few word changes. The situation got so embarrassing for Ramsey he had to vote against the thing even though he promised the Republican leaders otherwise. Hey, Mr. Bonner, the next time you want to trash-talk the Democrats, maybe you might want to see what your Republicans are up to first. It’s pretty laughable how the Republicans try to sneak things through and then change their votes at the last minute when they’re found out.

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The mea culpa in the newspaper from Matt Ramsey was contemptible. He went spineless by denying he never supported SB 458 when he should have just apologized to the people of Fayette County instead. I also have a difficult time accepting the fact Ramsey voted for tens of thousands of state pay raises in a year where the state accounting office says Georgia will experience a large revenue shortfall. In the future, Mr. Ramsey should make sure his brain is engaged before letting his finger cast a vote.

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Great, let’s form a non-traditional high school and kowtow to the lowest common denominator. What about kids who are doing well in high school and can’t get their “counselors” to help them find ways to excel (i.e., information about off-campus classes, online classes, etc.)? My freshman son has made numerous appointments with his appointed counselor to ask about taking classes at some of the surrounding colleges, only to be shot down and made to feel as though he is annoyance. Why can’t these people who are in such an influential position realize the kind of damage they might be doing to these exceptionally bright, hard-working kids? I’ll bet we won’t be seeing any non-traditional schools for them.

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I love the idea of the new extended school zones for Peachtree City. We need it for those who don’t know that a speed limit is a maximum, not a minimum.

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Thank you, Peachtree City Public Works, for all of the new street signs and all of the fresh mulch around the city. You guys are working hard, and the city looks good. That is why we love to call it home. Thanks.

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Our system of government doesn’t work anymore. Elected representatives can’t go to the bathroom without asking permission of an attorney. Officials are not trained in how to govern. This is a failure of the education system. Few with any business sense even run for office, most considering politics to be beneath their dignity. Governments always spend and tax too much, get into financial trouble, then have to call in private business to try and straighten out the mess. Clayton County has destroyed their educational system and has brought in outside help. Atlanta’s Tax Office has also brought in private help. Lithonia’s Council has locked their mayor out of the council chambers, and she has set up a dual government in a coffee shop. Tyrone has called in outside auditors to investigate missing funds and is bound and determined to defend an awful zoning ordinance that the entire business community hates. The federal government can’t stay out of wars and has destroyed our monetary system. State government representatives vote on laws that they don’t read. And local governments like Tyrone are a complete joke; a circus of self-interest clowns fumbling around in their egotistical darkness. Our system of government cannot last; it is destined to collapse into chaos and anarchy. Like a stock market crash, our governments have hit the bottom. Best we all start thinking about how to dissolve it and start over.

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In last week’s letter to the editor, Tyrone Councilwoman Grace Caldwell thanked Senator Chance and fellow Councilman Dial for all their hard work in guiding the passage of the town of Tyrone charter through the General Assembly. Apparently Ms. Caldwell did not think it was necessary to thank Representative Virgil Fludd, who not only sponsored the bill for the charter changes but also worked diligently to fix the advertising mistakes made by her town attorney. A class act would have been for Grace Caldwell to apologize for falsely accusing Rep. Fludd of blocking the charter changes in retaliation for her position on district voting and include him in her appreciation; but then, class is something that she obviously is not familiar with.

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This week, slow down on North Peachtree Parkway and just enjoy the Dogwoods — Beautiful!

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According to the town of Tyrone’s meeting minutes Judy Jefferson has been before the council twice asking for money for Shamrock Park. What happened to all the grants that Councilwoman Caldwell said Ms. Jefferson could get?

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To the person at the doctor’s office on the woman not being able to have her baby seen: If you are low income, there is Medicaid. If you make too much money for Medicaid, there is Peachcare ($15 per month). There is a sliding-scale-fee clinic in Palmetto. There is even a FREE clinic in Fayetteville. Grady does not turn anyone away. You don’t know that person’s situation. Maybe she thought her payment on her SUV and the gas it takes to run it is more important than healthcare. Of those “40 million uninsured” people in America, many of them qualify for federal and state funded healthcare; they just haven’t gone through the steps of receiving it. Many of them are illegal aliens. Some of them are people that make the choice not to pay the premiums, gambling with their own finances and health. At least, for now, it is a choice. Socialism has never worked. See for yourself: Cuba, China, the Soviet Union. Educate yourself on national healthcare in Canada and the UK. Ask yourself, “Why do people who get ‘free’ healthcare in Canada come to the U.S. for treatment?” Just wait until the government gets to decide what treatment you qualify for and how long you have to wait to get it. Then take a look at all the taxes you’ll pay for the “gift.” Even if you live a healthy lifestyle, prefer alternative or natural healing, you’ll still be funding others’ addictions, dependencies, and pollution by Big Pharmaceuticals. Right now there are options. When the population depends on the government to insure their jobs, homes, healthcare, etc., there is no more choice. At least in America we are free to reach for our highest potential, instead of waiting to be hand-fed. Use your head and not a bleeding heart.

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Equal for whom? The apartment community does not lease to individuals under 21 (per policy of “the level of management high enough to be immune from complaints”). While the Equal Housing Act does not prohibit discrimination based on age, the policy does seem unconstitutional. Some may argue that 18-20-year-olds are “irresponsible” anyway. (Adult citizenship used to grant full rights.) I ask, however, how many of those are considered “irresponsible” because they live at home?

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I had the distinct pleasure of witnessing what is right with the Fayette County School System. The Starr’s Mill Choir was invited to sing at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. It was not only the beautiful angelic singing of the choir that I witnessed, it was the character of the students, parents and Starr’s Mill staff that Fayette County should proudly boast. I witnessed students taking time out of their busy schedule to sing the National Anthem to a group of World War II veterans in front of the Air Force Memorial. I witnessed proud parents taking time out of their busy schedule and traveling for hours to witness just a few moments of singing. I witnessed a dedicated Starr’s Mill staff that worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of students. I salute the dedicated students, parents and staff of Starr’s Mill High School; you are doing it right.

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I am the other person who “allegedly” got my feelings hurt when I read your nasty response to the person pointing out the good citizen to her children. My feelings were not hurt but I did feel compelled to respond to your mean words about how the parent should be a role model to their kids, not the stranger picking up trash. So once again I am writing in about another one of your silly comments. Now I am thinking maybe they didn’t help the person pick up trash because he was doing it along a road and that probably isn’t the best place to have younger children. So maybe they saw that person picking up trash and it spurred them to find a safe, family-friendly, different place that needed trash to be picked up because the spot along the road was already well looked after. And the only reason I wrote in was because you even had the audacity to criticize this person and her family in the first place. There should be way more letters in the Free Speech section pointing out the good deeds of others.

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There is a comment in the summer brochure of the Fayette Parks and Recreation Brochure about the recent change in the use of the “emergency warning” (i.e., tornado) sirens in Fayette County parks areas. I am very disappointed that the 911 center can issue a siren for a severe thunderstorm warning or “significant weather alert”(instead of just tornado warnings). We have a weather radio in the house that alerts us if there is a severe thunderstorm watch, thunderstorm warning, tornado watch and tornado warning. But I have taught my sons that if they ever hear the county’s siren, take immediate cover in the basement because a tornado is imminent. It is the last resort and my boys take it very seriously. Lately, however, the alarms have been going off frequently and scaring my boys unnecessarily. Turns out, the county is using the siren for lesser storm warnings. I understand that it can be helpful to alert walkers in Patriot Park or baseball players at Kiwanis Park that bad weather is coming and to go home, but we live in the neighborhood across the street and the siren went off at 10:20 p.m. the other night, jolting my sons awake. The parks close at dusk. Why did it go off for a thunderstorm warning after the parks are closed? I fear that the sirens will be going off frequently this summer, as Georgia is notorious for severe thunderstorms in summertime. I also worry that the importance of the alarm will be diminished and citizens will begin to ignore it, figuring it is “just another thunderstorm.” This siren should be reserved for tornado warnings only. Another solution is to find another pattern (a few quick, short blares or only one long sounding blare, then shut off) so we can differentiate between thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings, which should continue to blare several times. Ironically, I have to go outside in order to hear what the speaker is saying, as the voice echoes inside the house, which in itself is dangerous to do in bad weather. There have been incidences where I have heard one blare and no message following. What does THAT mean? Fayette County needs to do a better job of informing the public. Keep the sirens sacred, so their severity is not undermined.