When the government wanted to bail out the airlines after 9/11 (which Delta did not accept), the public was outraged. Now, the government is helping out with this mortgage mess, which is a LOT more, and not a sound. What gives?

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Lighten up! I would never ridicule organ donations. My cousin was given a lung transplant that extended her life 10 years. There was no need to be self-righteous. I was just innocently joshing about the Horgan name in this regard. If anyone else took offense, then I apologize.

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Which comes first, the loss of health or sense of humor?

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I did something at the past election that would make my great-grandfather turn in his grave. I voted Republican. I did this because I attended a neighborhood meet and greet back in April and I listened to a candidate explain his reasons for wanting to be sheriff of Fayette County. I attended as an obligation to a friend, but I was very impressed by this man’s honesty and intelligence. He told us of crime statistics and issues occurring in our neighborhoods, shopping areas and schools. I knew some of this was true because I have a teenager and I was concerned about some of the stories she has shared with me and I have even spoken to the principal on one serious incident. He shared his agenda at how he would work to prevent the rise of crime in our county, whereas criminals wouldn’t feel so comfortable coming out of their comfort zone and preying on Fayette County as easy pickings. His resume was credited with an extensive law enforcement background. He was articulate and he had a plan. I have 11 years of law enforcement background and I recognized this man to be genuine. This man was Dave Simmons. Two months later I read about some of the information he had alerted us to in the paper. The crime rate had become an issue in Fayette County, but no one was telling us. It was easier just to say, “Say it ain’t so, Randall!” And he did. Well, folks, have you heard the increase in police sirens lately? Have you been reading about the restaurant robberies at gunpoint and the business robberies? I was on my way home from work when I saw about 10 police cars speeding past the Pavilion and later learned they were responding to a robbery and kidnapping. The higher crime rate may have been inevitable. Fayette County is growing. But we as citizens need to be aware and we need to be prepared. Mr. Simmons was the only candidate that told us the truth and how he would work to stop it. And for this, he was accused of lying, being the source of the new criminal activity, and the reason for the police corruption in Detroit. Mr. Simmons, I’m sorry you didn’t win. I’m sorry your family had to be subjected to people dishonoring your character. As a Fayette County resident, I hope you continue to be a watchdog for our county. If the elected administration was smart, they would capitalize on your experience. It’s a new day and crime has to dealt with in a new way. I’ll leave you all with one thought: Clayton County didn’t see it coming either.

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So now the “seniors” are stepping up to the public trough of money and will be asking for $75K a year to allow them to get around Peachtree City without using their golf carts. You’ve got to be kidding! If someone is that far gone, where are their kin? Seems everyone and their uncle thinks “public” funds are free. Understand this, for every buck you want to spend, some poor taxpaying sap has to ante up. Why don’t these people dream up ways to reduce public spending instead of constantly thinking up ways to spend it?

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It’s clear we need a new Fayette County Board of Education. If they think for one minute we’re going to let them shirk their responsibility of effectively managing the school budget by asking for the easy way out, a $100-million-plus tax increase, they’ve got another think coming. Anyone can manage an unlimited budget. You were hired/elected to make hard decisions, not to make easy decisions with easy money. Don’t try hiding it under the guise of “only” a 1 percent tax increase. You’ve got plenty of excuses but little to offer in solutions. Do your job or get out of the way.

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Enough already! Please help stop the madness. It amazes me to see all the subsidy proposals made to Peachtree City in light of our suffering economy. First, the ice skating rink. Mr. Thompson, please do research before proposing your pie in the sky theories. Why should we fund your initiative? Your promise to lease the facility does not ease my mind. Undoubtedly [it will be] under an L.L.C. umbrella so you can bankrupt out of that commitment when it fails and walk away without accountability. Second, the pool at Clover Reach. Mr. DeLorenzo, the other city pools you state should be closed are centrally located to multiple neighborhoods, not one. I live south of Peachtree Parkway where there is not a public pool. If they close your pool, you will still be closer to a pool than these neighborhoods on the south side of Peachtree City. I took a trip to this pool, and I would not be able to justify leaving it open. It appears your neighborhood is the only one utilizing this facility. I recommend Peachtree City turn it back over to your neighborhood. If you don’t want to accept responsibility, it should be closed. Last, but not least, the senior bus service. Have you looked into the services provided by Fayette Senior Services? Why should we be “double dipped” for this service? Could it be that this would be very lucrative for Mr. Hoff?

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Where do I sign up for the Dar Thompson program? I would like the city and the taxpayers of Peachtree City to give me $10 million to start my own business. I think this town needs a bowling alley, a strip joint, and a movie theater. I can provide all three in one facility. Please send the $10 million in cash. P.S. City Council will approve the strip joint; after all, they approved a tattoo parlor.

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Here’s a suggestion: instead of building a new ice rink and ANOTHER fitness center, put the money into the PTC Little League baseball park. After playing at the baseball complexes in West Point and Murphey Candler in Dunwoody, I think the PTC complex is an embarrassment. PTC is touted as an upscale community, but next year when we host the all-star tournament, we will look like an impoverished community. Our boys deserve better. Once again, somebody looking to line his own pockets wants to build something in PTC that we don’t need nor want, and what we do have is neglected.

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Thank you so much to the other citizen in Peachtree City who is fed up with the lack of enforcement of rules on golf carts, and especially the lack of supervision in the Target Shopping Center. I worked in that area for several months, was outside during breaks and lunch, and you will never believe the lack of supervision, underage, loud music, foolish conduct. I have been tempted to walk over as a citizen and ask for ID or to tell a parent with a tiny child sitting alone on the passenger side, children 5 or under on the back seat sitting alone, carts packed with teens, and stop them until I can contact enforcement. Not to mention the speed in which they fly through, not stopping for the stop signs, hanging out on the side of Target doing God knows what. Forget it, as my friend who is 90 says. The police would rather let their officers sit two or three in a group between Camden and the strip mall (the empty end) with their engines running, talking, doing nothing. I know we have all noticed the two cars on the railroad track on Sunday mornings through Sunday afternoons, just sitting there. Well, you better start doing something with all the aliens here that can’t afford a car, can’t speak English, live in multiples in single housing, also driving carts, adding to the teens’ lack of supervision. There are many other issues more important, I know, but we need some real laws about the use of golf carts in Peachtree City. It probably won’t happen in my lifetime. It won’t affect anyone until some child dies, an adult is injured and the parents start raising all heck to sue the victims. Idiots.

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Many thanks to the Public Works Department for immediately covering up some graffiti along a cart path that is frequented by families and children. I know they are having a difficult time keeping up with this growing problem, but when I told them the nature of this particular “artwork,” they dispatched a work crew out to the site that day to cover it up. Thanks not only for the work you are doing to keep PTC beautiful, but also for caring as much as I do about the things our children are exposed to.

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To Michelle Daniels from the “Letters, faxes, e-mail” section of last week’s paper: will you run for office, please?

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After reading the letter written by Michelle Daniels, “Should facts be ignored to protect sensitivities of one racial group?” at my place of employment, my coworkers and I felt compelled to write and fully support the thoughts expressed. We strongly agree with her when she stated that “we should all feel truly blessed to live in the greatest country on earth, regardless of how we got here.” There really is no place for, and no reason why, any one group of people in the United States should feel more oppressed and therefore, more entitled than any other segment of our population. Every one of our ancestors at one point in history had to suffer some sort of persecution or prejudice, whether it be those that came here through Ellis Island from foreign lands, or whether it be the inequality endured by women for centuries in our society. All this man’s inhumanity to man occurred in the past, and in the case of the minority group in question over 140 years in the past. It’s time to move ahead, stop blaming, stop making excuses for negative behavior, stop bitterly searching for restitution. I never owned slaves, nor did my grandparents, or their grandparents. I’m not suggesting that anyone forget their heritage, or the hardships endured by their ancestors, but instead, to attempt to become part of a better, more civilized present and future. The past is just that — the past. It’s over. It’s behind us. Any person of weak character can whine and complain and make themselves out to be victims. It takes of a person of strength and integrity to forgive old wrongdoings and move on from injustices done to them and their people, and in that way, become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. By choosing to live with anger and bitterness as the forefront of your life, and waiting for someone to reimburse you for it, is like continuing to live your life in shackles. There’s no question that slavery was an atrocity, a horrific, unacceptable way to treat any group of people, but the atrocity of slavery is over. Let’s not let this unspeakable part of history divide us any further. There is a late and great leader that I know would agree with me by the name of Martin Luther King. We tell our children to be accountable for their actions, to take responsibility and not to make excuses when circumstances in society don’t go their way. We teach them about forgiveness, and how to persevere in the face of adversity. Shouldn’t these fundamental practices be expected from adults of all races? The famous Christian pastor, author and educator, Mr. Charles Swindoll, was quoted as saying once, “Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.” I think that is one of the world’s greatest truths.

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Michelle Daniels: The white man’s Jessie Jackson. Rock on, my sister.

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No one complains about the Fayette County DAR being all white women. They have the right to exist and so does the Fayetteville Mocha Moms group. I ask: When can the members of our community (all Fayette Countians) move past race? Why not celebrate that moms are coming together for the benefit of their kids?

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Look at all the angry people in this weekly fight. Free Speech might be inspiring if none of them could write. They vilify with venom and compose a bitter letter and never understand why life does not get better.

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I am a grandmother who raised my now 4-year-old grandson for 2 1/2 years from 15 months old. His parents were drug addicts, in and out of jail. The father abandoned him and when my grandson was 3 years old, the father came out of nowhere and started legal proceedings to start visitation with the child. The first time my grandson saw the father, he did not even know who the man was. The father now has permanent, legal custody. I want to know what can be done to change the laws that automatically grant custody of a child to a biological parent, regardless of that parent’s past. I have written my senators, representatives, with no response. I would like to help another grandparent and helpless child from going through what I and my grandson have gone through and are continuing to go through.

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Support wildlife. Vote “YES” for Sunday alcohol sales.

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My thanks to the men and women of the city of Fayetteville Police Department, Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, Peachtree City Police Department and the Coweta County Sheriff’s Department. They coordinated their efforts to guide the funeral procession that carried my husband’s body to the church and cemetery. What a nice tradition. It was very heart-warming.

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It’s the dog days of summer, so a lot of the summer crops in your gardens will be showing the wear and tear of the season. If you have peppers and eggplants, or flowers, for that matter, a little supplemental fertilization will help these plants through the heat of summer and pay off with a bountiful crop as the temperatures start cooling in a few weeks.

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I witnessed something I never thought I’d see. The DirectTV screensaver logo was bouncing around and I actually saw the upper left hand corner of the logo hit exactly in the upper left hand part of the screen and bounce straight out towards the center of the screen. I can now leave this earth in peace.