Fayette County Board of Education, how about prosecuting those who file false affidavits? We all know that a majority of these affidavits are bogus. Currently, all an out-of-county parent needs to do to get their child in our schools is to find a willing relative or friend to sign a piece of paper stating that that child resides with them. Most of the out-of-county students in our schools are here on affidavits and the majority of those are at Fayette Middle School and Fayette County High School. Could this be the reason why the school board is not interested in going after these students? Taxpayers of Fayette County, even if you don’t have a student at either of these schools you should outraged at the school board ignoring this problem.

I saw this headline in the on-line version of the AJC this morning: “Jury picked in Campbell trial; 7 blacks, 5 whites chosen.” So get off your soap box about being offended by the headline that appeared in The Citizen.

Editor, an excellent and powerful book suggestion for your readers: 3rd edition of “Race and the Rise of the Republican Party, 1848-1865.” This is a serious treatment of U.S. racism/ethnocentrism using four disciplines: U.S. history/political science/psychology/sociology. This book offers a pro-Southern view of the onset of the Civil War.

I recently attended the honors assembly at an elementary school for kids to receive their awards for their grades and reading achievements. I was very disappointed with the way it was handled. I was very uncomfortable with the fact that my children go to such a prejudiced school. We were supposed to be honoring our children for their hard work but it started out with honoring all the great African-Americans. Not once was one great caucasian, native American or any other race honored. Granted Martin Luther King’s birthday was the following Monday, but come on. We are not teaching our children anything positive about either race if we are always going to let majority of a school rule and not consider the students as a whole, not a color. Besides I grew up and went to school in Fayette County all my life and I have never encountered such racism as I have since I have become an adult. There are many races at this school and I felt as if I and everyone else who wasn’t an African-American didn’t belong that day.

School board, you could learn a lot about putting the well-being of students before political concerns from your counterparts in Coweta County. Despite parental objections, they are going to redistrict. Maybe they were forced to take action, because, unlike Fayette County, they don’t have an abundance of empty trailers and extra tax dollars available.

It appears that an administrator at [a local high school] is changing grades over the heads of the teachers. Students who achieve under a 70 average can now pass a class with a click of an administrator’s button. Is this an attempt to make the school look good under No Child Left Behind or just better than the other high schools in the Kingdom of Fayette? Is this an illegal activity or just an unethical one? How many ways can we dumb down our children now?

[For the new Fayetteville chief of police, it will] be interesting to see if the best qualified is hired or a puppet. Need to keep a close eye on this.

Why not just go ahead and call this section therapy for the county commissioners? Seriously, how do they have this kind of time on their hands? Happily, the “concerned citizens who fear the Sheriff’s Department” letters are at least being lumped together now at the beginning of the section for maximum humor.

What is Greg Dunn’s problem with drug officers? Some of his own employees’ children are struggling with drug addiction due to the drug dealers in the county and Dunn fights the people who are fighting the problem. Mr. Dunn, you are too self-absorbed in your own power to the detriment of parents in this county who desperately need the drug officers to fight and win the battle. I don’t care who gets to spend the money they take from the dealers.

Why are the people in Greg Dunn’s camp criticizing Derwin Brown? He is a fallen hero to DeKalb County. Were you just trying to name every black sheriff you could think of?

Lt. Colonel Bruce Jordan? Huh? Everyone at the S.O. has been laughing at that one. The funny part is that while we see it, the public does not. Law enforcement has sheriffs or chiefs and then the next rank is major. No admirals; no counts; no brigadier generals. Why then did BJ get the rank of light colonel? Here’s how: The ARC did a pay study. He was grossly overcompensated for the rank of major, as was [the sheriff’s] secretary. The only way to make the ARC pay scale work was to make him a lieutenant colonel. What does he know about Randall’s good ol’ days that we don’t? Next thing you know, when Bruce gets another raise and another brand spanking new car, ARC will have to elevate him to a new title. How about poet laureate?

Traveling through Clayton County recently, I noticed large billboards (the biggest in Atlanta area, I believe) promoting some person for county commissioner. These are part-time posts, I think, and I thought at rather insignificant pay. I was wrong. A current proposal is to raise these salaries into the $70,000 range with the chairman getting about $150,000. I don’t know about expenses. It also appears that the chairman has a driver. What with PTC now having two highly paid city managers, recreational managers, highly paid city attorneys, and others, and hints of wanting to raise the current salaries, I foresee further tax and fee increases to support these positions. Part-time means to me: work when you want, but keep your day job. I know there is nothing much else around here to do for a living except serve one another, but us fixed income people are sliding down the totem pole,fast and many of you (boomers) are coming into that category fast; you better watch the purse. Let knowledgeable, independent people run our towns for a small fee and everyone else work.

Thanks to the writer who reminded us all about the senior development that was rejected by the county commissioners in Fayette County. Something about that whole deal really stinks. It makes you wonder if our county commissioners are corrupt and are being paid off by developers. We all need to start attending more of these county commission meetings and confront these commissioners. There was no good reason to deny that project.

My husband and I recently went to a “Rated R” movie at the dollar theater. The movie poster said it was filled with strong, crude and sexual humor, bad language and some drug use. We are in our 30s, and even for me, the movie was very crude. Needless to say, I was disgusted to see a family with two young boys about 6 and 9 years old (which is not so unusual at this theater) being allowed to watch this movie. Then about 30 minutes before the movie was to end, this man brought in four young children, one was about 9 and the rest were under the age of 5. I was so disturbed by this that I couldn’t even watch the ending of the movie. I was almost brought to tears because I have three small children at home, and it broke my heart that this man allowed these children to watch a movie that was clearly inappropriate for any child to watch (even a 17-year-old). I thought maybe he just went in to kill some time and didn’t realize what the movie was, but after the F word was being used nonstop, drug use and sexual acts were being shown, he did not get up and remove these children. He sat there until the very end. The little children were just staring at the screen while sex, bad language and drug use was literally being thrown into their faces. I am still disturbed by seeing these little children in there. When I left the theater, I asked the usher person about the rule that is posted at the box office where it states no children under the age of 6 can be allowed into a Rated R movie after 6 p.m. (it was close to 9 p.m.), and he said he would tell the man. I mean, the man should’ve been told before he took these children in that movie. I think it was a little too late (I don’t think the usher confronted the man because I waited around to see if he did, and he did not). In my opinion, children under the age of 14 should not be allowed into a Rated R movie period. I don’t understand how parents can sit comfortably in a Rated R movie while their young children are there watching sex, drugs, violence, and bad language. It’s sick. I know the rating says no one under the age of 17 can be allowed into a Rated R movie without a parent, but what kind of parent will let a 5-year-old watch a Rated R movie. Can’t people use common sense?

The following things increased or are increasing recently: Personal property taxes; SPLOST; trash pickup; stormwater; golf cart fees. Notice that they all are separate charges so as not to increase the property taxes even more. It has to be a vast conspiracy to create more and more jobs within the tax and fee type of payroll. Some day we will all have to hold a job again not paid by taxes, fees, or illegalities.

Apparently the Peachtree City Council staff is now out of the box (at last) and making recommendations to make up for lost time. This is good, I suppose, hope. But as long as they are handing spaghetti to the council members for the against-the-wall stick test it would be useful to attach names to the nebulous moniker “staff.” Accountability is great stuff and encourages first-class staff work.

The city government thinks that having a single trash provider will help with customer service issues? Get a clue. Free enterprise is the key to fair prices and good customer service. And if you don’t like the one you’re with, you can change to another. Keep Monopoly a board game, please.

Blessed is the PTC City Council that they find it necessary to socialize my garbage pickup. As the public information officer states, there are reasons that this is taking place. Let’s examine these reasons. First off it will cost more money? That’s a good reason to have a monopoly. OK, let’s examine the second reason. The city could have better control over customer service. Hmmm, I ask myself on this one, what else could a socialized government do for me in reference to customer service? Health care? Reason number three, a cost cut for recyclable materials. The PTC City Council doesn’t care what I pay for a gallon of milk or a fridge pack of Cokes. Why would they care what it cost me to get rid of it? And my favorite reason is to reduce the truck traffic on residential streets. “Many neighborhoods have to deal with three different trucks, some of which come twice a week.” OK, let’s do some math: Three trucks two times a week, that’s six trucks a week at full capacity. Assuming a five-day workweek that is 1.2 trucks a day that pick up garbage. Let’s talk about other trucks, as long as we are reducing truck traffic. My street has a UPS truck at least once a day, A FedEx truck at a minimum of four times a week. Oh, don’t forget about FedEx Ground, at least twice a week. An occasional DHL truck and the USPS truck (mail man) comes every day (except Sunday). That works out to about 3.6 trucks a day just for deliveries. Now, this doesn’t even cover that big yellow bus that comes four times a day. Why not limit them also? We could monopolize parcel delivery to PTC and if you did not receive your package from the city’s provider you could go to a central location to pick it up. Oh, while you going to pick up your mail and packages, take your kids with you and drop them off at school. Come on, people, get a life and stay out of mine.

I have lived in Fayette County all of my life. I moved to Peachtree City in August 2005. I have a golf cart path running through my front yard which I think is really cool. However, I get really annoyed by the fact that every single day since I moved here, I have to go out into my yard and pick up trash that has obviously flown out of someone’s golf cart. I look up and down the road and it’s never on the other side of the road, only on the cart path side. Should the no littering laws not apply to golf carts as well? Peachtree City has always been such a beautiful place and it’s a shame that homeowners have to pick up behind their inconsiderate neighbors. I am sure it is unintentional but none the less annoying. Please take the extra few minutes to either secure your trash in your cart or throw it away before you drive off so it does not end up in the street or someone’s yard. You would not throw trash out of your car window, why then do you throw it out of your golf cart? Please help keep our city clean and beautiful.

There’s been a fundamental change, be it good or bad, at the local level in Peachtree City. The Logsdon administration restructured the tourism association so that the city no longer has a direct report on the association’s board. If I’m correct, the city funneled millions of hotel and convention tax dollars into the development authority in years past and the result was unprofessional conduct and financial neglect. The rumors are already rampant that Mayor Logsdon’s goal is to eventually replace the current tourism association board with his cronies who created the last tennis center catastrophe. While the current tennis center staff may not have the same charisma as the old days, my family appreciates the fact that the facility is well-run and accountable. There are no more freebies for pals of the director and my daughter can receive the same priority for lessons without appearing on the “Who’s Who” list in tennis. The worrisome fact that leads us to believe that the Logsdon rumors are correct is that the city council members made such a radical decision and they never spend any time at the tennis center to see how things are actually run.

I thought the premier of “The Grace and Gloria Show” was a hit. I predict it will be the highest rated show on Thursday nights at 7 p.m., guaranteed. I bet that more Tyrone citizens will be coming to Town Hall to see the show than ever before. The Opening Night show was spectacular. Grace demanded a meeting with the “sewer attorney” and Gloria questioned the appointment of a new planning commissioner who asked the mayor in an e-mail, “Do I really need to send in a resume?” And, yes, folks, he got the job over some very qualified citizens. I guess that Mayor Bea felt that Mayberry needed the entire Darling Gang on Planning Commission. Gomer and Goober had her back and agreed that Ginger Blackstone, Donny James and Kevin Edwards would be assets to the town. Let’s see, Donny James? How many council/PC meetings have you been to? Kevin Edwards, you came to a handful when you ran for council and when you lost that election by a huge margin, you dropped out of sight, until you were obviously recruited for PC. All I have left to say is, Lee, Letourneau, and Smola, enjoy your time in the spotlight now because you three will be ousted on the next election go-round, leaving who to protect Barney and Thelma Lou.

To the guy who “counted” the lines in last week’s Free Speech, all I can say is: 64! Wow, probably not a record. Maybe you could tell me, what is the record for number of lines? Seems you have way too much time on your hands. You certainly need a life. By the way, your snappy comeback was sure a good one. Must have spent a lot of time coming up with it. You sure are witty.

I’m confused by the so called “democratic” election just held in Iraq. It seems that the Shiites didn’t get a majority of the vote, nor did the Kurds or the Sunnis, so a coalition must be formed for a government. Would this be similar to our democracy providing we allowed the Catholics,the Protestants, and the Jews, and maybe one other to cover our Muslims, Hindus, etc., to have an election and then form a coalition? Isn’t that the dreaded theocracy we said we wouldn’t allow to happen?