Kathy Cox’s true character has been revealed. Knowing full well that money she borrowed was owed to debtors, she instead decided to give away $1 million in winnings from a game show as a gift. Give me a break! I’d be mad as heck if I were someone to whom she owed, say, $500 grand. She tried to look like an angel but instead now looks like a true scam artist. I say take her to court and force her to pay up by giving up the rest of her assets. Else the next chump will see the easy way out and also give away owed money. She made a promise to pay back her debtors when she borrowed the money. Make her keep her promise now that the facts have come to light.

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In your disclaimer you say, “No personal attacks on private persons, but just about any aspect of public life is fair game.” This is really ironic. I just picked up your newspaper for 11-26-08 and what should be on the front page? “Ga. Sup’t Kathy Cox files for bankruptcy.” I know that getting into people’s lives and exposing their faults and shortcomings is such an easy way to make a few extra bucks. Everyone wants to gossip and everyone wants to see these type of issues, but since when did The Citizen turn into a tabloid? Kathy Cox isn’t a “celebrity.” She is a woman who works five days a week and has a family at home. Her husband, like many of the contractors, is going through a very tough time. It could have happened to anybody, and I am ashamed that you have decided to put this kind of very private and embarrassing news on the front page of your paper. I hope nothing like this ever happens to you, but it would be wise to remember that what goes around comes around.

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Will someone from The Citizen please clarify the use of the word “ironically” in the context of this sentence used last week? “Ironically, Huddleston Elementary and McIntosh High schools tied for top honors for being at the tops of the 3rd congressional district.” What exactly are you intimating? Your use of the word, “ironically,” seems to reflect that The Citizen thinks that this fact is apparently contradictory. Explain this please. I am a parent at Huddleston Elementary and I can easily attest that the school is, in fact, excellent. The principal, teachers, staff, and parents work together to give all children at Huddleston the best possible education. I knew that a move to Fayette County was in the best interests of our children, but I had no idea how the staff at Huddleston Elementary would become a second family. Just to clarify: there is nothing ironic about my statement.

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Every once in a while someone likes to take a shot at poor Father Epps. Obviously his heart is in the right place, but perhaps his literary style may work against him. Perhaps less first person would stop so many eyes from rolling.

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Hey, DOT, please give PTC a Christmas present. Simply disassociate with PTC. Then perhaps we can get that “Bridge to Nowhere” open. Hey, PTC Planning Commission, since you think the Braelinn Center “facelift” is such a good idea, why not do your part and install a traffic light on Crosstown Road, so people can walk across the street to have lunch at Pizza Hut or Taco Bell? (Any of you ever tried to walk across Crosstown Road? Sometimes it’s like trying to walk across an expressway.) Presently, there is not even a marked crosswalk on Crosstown Road. And don’t give me that garbage about using the tunnels. Who wants to walk a mile out of their way, and risk getting hit by an out-of-control golf cart, speeding through the tunnel, just to get across a street? Besides, it may rain. (And what about a handicap person in a motorized chair?) PTC is all about jogging, walking, etc, as long as you restrict those activities to the cart paths.

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There has got to be something done about the stoplight on Ga. Highway 54 and Steven’s Entry. The light takes about 3 to 4 minutes if you are trying to go straight on Steven’s Entry. Please, please, somebody help.

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Jack Smith, Eric Maxwell and the County Commission’s connections to developers and real estate, although not necessarily wrong, need to be examined, particularly for the West Fayetteville Bypass. The bypass has supposedly been “planned” for a long time but is now, oddly, being pushed by developers and Commission Chairman and former Chamber of Commerce President Jack Smith. Being in the midst of the worst economic times since the Great Depression, the timing is, as I say, odd. Apparently the President-elect is planning a strategy similar to FDR’s public works projects, with many roads and infrastructure improvements. Let’s wait for the feds to build the road. If it is so necessary, they will do it. And, in the meantime, who owns the road that Smith and Maxwell are pushing so hard? Is it owned by any developers, builders or Realtors? Are not developers, builders or Realtors most in need of money now? Didn’t builder President Enterkin write a letter to builder Congressman Westmoreland begging for fed money? Isn’t our money tight and taxes and SPLOSTS already being added on? What sense does it make to say we save money on employee packages when we now turn around and waste on it on the “Road to Nowhere”? Are we showing exemplary compliance with environmental laws in the location of this road? Is the location of the road a “done deal” with developers having bought up large tracts in anticipation of a previously undisclosed map that they knew about and we did not? Was that old map really the best map? Again, Mr. Smith, who owns the property that the county will now spend millions on to buy? Who owns the property that will now be prime development land because it is connected with a brand new road? These questions should be answered before we waste this money in the worst of economic times in our lifetime.

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I must say that after attending a youth football championship game in Fayette County, I was appalled. I do not know who is heading up the Fayette County Blue Devils league, but something is very wrong. We were a visiting team and a lot of the parents were cussing and trash-talking during the game. When our girls were doing their half-time routine (which won overall grand champion this year), there were some teenage boys in the press-box along with two refs, several coaches and announcers. During our routine, these boys were calling our young 10-year-old girls some awful names. For the entire two-and-a-half-minute routine, our young girls were constantly being cussed about, talked about, and not once did any of the men in the room ever tell the boys to hush. It is seems like this is accepted behavior with the Fayette County Blue Devils. I coach some terrific girls, and the first thing I emphasize is being a good sport, being polite and never trashing an opponent. I have two daughters and one niece on this team, and I find it horrible that 9- and 10-year-old girls can be called such “adult” names. Looks like the Blue Devil adults could take a lesson in this. Hopefully, next year we will not be in the same league as them.

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I want the citizens of Fayette County to know that the crime of Clayton County is not coming — it is already here. I see the Fayetteville Police every day, especially on Sundays, ticketing citizens for going 10 mph over the speed limit on Jeff Davis Drive. However, I never see them at the Pavilion arresting the real criminals. As a 15-year veteran detective of the Clayton County Police Department, I feel that the FPD and the FCSO need to be more aggressive in their policing and stop the crime on the north end before it becomes more serious on the south end. Speeding leads to vehicle accidents. However, crime at the Pavilion is going to get someone killed.

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Bloomberg News is suing the government to find out where the taxpayer’s $700 billion bailout money is going. It is suspected that hundreds of millions of dollars are going directly into the pockets of the CEO gang who brought the financial problem upon us with their excessive compensation and bonuses in the first place.

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The World War II generation is referred to as “The Greatest Generation.” No doubt we will be known in the future as “The Stupidest Generation” because of the people we have elected to lead our country and the unnecessary wars they have gotten our country into. That is, if we still exist far enough into the future for the truth to become evident, as it always does.

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Why is the cost of diesel fuel $1.50 more than regular gasoline when the cost of production for diesel fuel is one-third of the cost of production for gasoline? This excessive cost for diesel fuel is why you are paying four times more for food and other commodities today than you did two or three years ago. It is all delivered by diesel-burning trucks. Who is getting this huge profit made off diesel fuel and food? You don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. His initials are CEO.

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It looks like OPEC finally realized that they played a large part in the worldwide financial crisis with their excessive pricing of oil. Instead of trumpeting $500 a barrel for oil someday, as they have in the past, they are now begging for $75 a barrel. In all probability the United States will become independent of foreign oil in the future, and when that happens, OPEC countries will be lucky to get $5 a barrel because the United States is the only country that supports their excesses by paying the astronomically high prices they charge.