The only meeting facility in the city of Fayetteville that is charming and historical, the Hollingsworth House, is now in foreclosure.

Sometimes it matters to hold onto material – notes, books, old addresses, friends – because odds are they’ll be useful some day.

Those of you familiar with this column are no stranger to what I believe is the sometimes criminal misuse and abuse of the Constitution and its rights by Congress and the President (the Ruling Elite) in administrations than span decades.

Two letters on this page take the cap off my own lengthy simmerings on these two related matters.

The first is a super-expensive solution to a limited problem: pedestrians crossing state highway intersections.

Well, here we are. In another few days we will be facing another decade. It seems as if just yesterday we were ushering in the new millennium. Where have the past 10 years gone?

So here’s the January 2010 PTC Council lineup: The grizzled two-year veteran, Doug Sturbaum; the newly promoted two-year veteran Don Haddix as mayor; and three rookies — Vanessa Fleisch, Kim Learnard and Eric Imker.

Really, what drives her decision-making process?

In the few instances where Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett actually owns up to her infamous support of selling city streets to enable a big-box developer to construct larger big boxes, she cites aesthetics — her personal notion of aesthetics, not anything in city planning or zoning documents.

What am I thankful for as I sit down to write this column a day before Thanksgiving? The same things most of you are probably thankful for - family, health, central air and heat, indoor plumbing... my iPhone. I love all of those things but I don’t want to write about any of those things. It’s overdone. My family knows how much I love them, as does my iPhone.

Can you spell r-e-p-u-d-i-a-t-i-o-n?

That’s the resounding verdict of the voters of Peachtree City to the two incumbent City Council members running for another four-year term.

I eyeballed the whole slate of Peachtree City Council candidates at the recent forum at McIntosh High School and came away impressed with the strength and substance of the field.

Faced with the imminent expiration of their publicly funded slush fund for profligate governments, the Fayette County Commissioners convened an urgent gathering, inviting all mayors in Fayette to bring in their Santa Claus wish lists for a big “renewed” SPLOST.

Last Thursday, I emailed political position questions to all candidates in council races for Peachtree City, Fayetteville and Tyrone.

Deadline for email responses to questions is 5 p.m. this Wednesday, Oct. 14.

Since there has been loud opposition to President Obama’s address to America’s students, I thought I would give them the antithesis of his speech so that they can read this to their children and deliver the exact opposite message.

On healthcare, I’m just one of the ‘mob’

My laborious page-by-page reading and opining on the 1,000-plus-page House healthcare bill has been rendered moot by events and my slow reading pace.

It’s now obvious that HR3200 is dead on arrival and likely will never get to even a vote in the House of Representatives.

What happened?

Governments erode as they exert control that sooner or later diminishes human rights.

I think that, unless it is altered, our future will see past governmental/societal models morph into something relatively new and better suited for today’s more technologically-proficient systems of mass control.

“Where is America headed?” and “Who is in control our destiny?” As before in our history, these questions are being asked by some today. Everybody’s got an opinion. Here’s mine in abbreviated form.

I passed another major milestone in my life a couple of months ago. I have been the official religion editor for The citizen for 10 years — one seventh of my life. Before that, I was a graphic artist here at The Citizen, starting in 1993.

Part 2 of the continuing horror

I’m reading the thousand-plus-page House healthcare act from the perspective of a small-business person running a business of under 20 employees.

I’ve downloaded the healthcare reform act known as HR 3200. I’ve read the first 170 pages of the 1,017-page bill (probably about 170 pages more than most members of Congress).

My initial impression: God save us from Democrats. Unlike many pieces of legislation, this bill is worse even than its opponents are depicting it.

My son starts Pre-K next Monday. As most parents out there probably can guess, especially if they have gone through this themselves, my wife and I are more excited and nervous than Colin is. We have been running practices to get up and out of the house earlier so he makes it to school on time, have gone back to school shopping and are going to an orientation tonight. I’m glad we get to meet the teacher because I’m not sure exactly what Pre-K involves. Pre-K is pre-kindergarten, but I never really thought that children needed preparation for kindergarten. I had always assumed kindergarten was preparation in itself.

On the issues facing Fayette: Where are the adults?

What should we think of local officials whose response to declining tax revenues is to seek higher tax rates?

I have been telling friends and anyone sitting still that when your oldest child becomes old enough to join AARP, then you are really old.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: As of Thursday afternoon, the rezoning vote on Callula Hill has been postponed to mid-July.]

Once upon a time in Peachtree City’s history (like up to about 10 years ago), the volunteer Planning Commission served as the diligent, sometimes picky, but always faithful guardian of the city’s land use plan.

Scene: The Fayette County Commission goes behind closed doors for an executive session devoted to “personnel matters.”

I’ve been thinking about my comments in this column back in April when I argued for supporting the tea party initiatives across America.

Regarding the article by Steve Brown, The Citizen, May 13, I must take issue with his premise.

Brown, a parvenu if there ever was one, has evidently decided that living in a community means being divisive and questioning well-established historical facts. As a native of the area, one would think Brown would not want to do this.

All the discussion lately about swine flu and quarantine reminded me of a time in my past, one that took place before the war, as they say. I was living in the Kenmore community of Akron, Ohio.

Lauren Leak, a homeschool student, last week emailed me the following questions for her thesis:

“I just have a couple of questions about factors that are playing into the current death of the newspaper and where you see the future of journalism going:

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Well, not me. At least not right now. That’s a quote from the film “Network.”

[Editor’s note: A version of this column originally appeared in The Citizen in 1998.]

What if the mainstream media had been around approximately 1,976 years ago, this week after Passover? Return with me to sample today’s media coverage back then, courtesy of the Jerusalem Constitution and CNN (Centurion News Network) ...