June 2, 2010

— What a shameful idea for our school system to require that all teachers and staff work on Memorial Day as a “snow-day make-up day,” when all the children are out of school as of Friday. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. Does the Griffin-Spalding County Board of Education not have respect for those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for their nation, especially with the superintendent being a graduate of West Point?

— Show me an honest politician and I will show you the eighth wonder of the world.

— In looking at our politicians of today, it looks as if Darwin got his theory backwards.

— When the roll is called in Washington, the senators don’t know whether to answer present or not guilty.

— A deer was hit and killed Wednesday morning at the corner of Hill Street and College Street. It lay beside Hill Street for almost 24 hours. It should have been picked up a few hours after it was hit. Shame on you Griffin Police Department, Animal Control and our city leaders.

— I read a story where Michelle Obama was taking about economic disparity but I think there is a lot of economic disparity in society because some people are lazy as all get-out and they refuse to do anything to help themselves.

— I would like to say thank you to the GDN for the pre-race NASCAR page on Friday and the good reports on the race on Tuesday.

— For a few years now, I’ve been reading The Griffin Daily News primarily for sports. A few months ago, however, I decided to flip through the newspaper and I came across the part of the newspaper where columnists talk about politics. As I read what some of your columnists had to say, I began to realize a ghastly pattern. The pattern was that The Griffin Daily News didn’t have a single columnist who didn’t trash our federal government when they were talking about politics.

— It both sickens and saddens me to see so many people still buying BP gasoline. Have you people been under a rock for the past six weeks? Are you not aware of the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico that is the result of BP’s greed and ignorance? Or are you really that selfish and don’t care about it since it’s not “directly” affecting you here in Georgia? Be an American and stop supporting the British Petroleum fiasco. Boycott BP gas.

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June 3

— Hey lady, there are no strip clubs near the Jonesboro Road Hooters. Just other restaurants like Chili’s Wendy’s, Red Lobster, no strip clubs. There are no strip clups near the Tara Boulevard store or Stonecrest Mall location. Check your facts before you put your mouth in print. You know not of what you speak.

— The Memorial Day observance this year was really nice. The military veterans that put on the program did an outstanding job. It sure is comforting to know that patriotism and respect for our military lives on.

— On May 28, 2010, at 7 p.m., I purchased regular gas right off Interstate 75 in Perry, and paid $2.38 per gallon. At 9 p.m. the same evening on my way home, I passed by the Murphy station at Wal-Mart in Griffin and gas was $2.58. Will someone please explain to me why our gas is always at least 15 cents to 20 cents higher than Macon/Perry, and don’t give me the lame excuse that it is because it takes longer to get it to Griffin through the pipeline?

— Why in the world would school system employees have to work on a holiday as important as Memorial Day, just to make up a snow day? All the other state, city, county and many local businesses were closed. Is this another attack on our patriotism?

— You hear all the dogs barking around Crescent Road and Kincaid Avenue because too many people want to own a dog, but then ignore them. They leave the animals out in the yard and the rest of us have to listen to the incessant barking. Call your city commissioner or the city manager’s office at 770-229-6400. Let them know that you’re tired of the noise.

— I just came from the baccalaureate services for Griffin High School and Spalding High School at First Assembly of God. If I didn’t know better, with all the security, I would have thought the Russians were coming.

— Why is the city of Griffin planning to use $1 million of local money to rebuild the Sixth Street bridge, in addition to the millions of state and federal money that will be spent? There is a crossing one block away at Hill Street. Was there a sudden windfall of tax money that allows the city to have an extra million dollars available?

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June 5

— Like most folks in this country, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck in my case, I am required to pass a random urine test (with which I have no problem). What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?

— If a Hooters opens in Griffin, it will attract the riffraff from all over the south metro Atlanta area. These are the type of people who are either too lazy or too poor to pay the cover charge to get into a strip club.

— The Griffin Daily News should not point out misspelled words of others until they do a spell check of their own articles.

— To the person who said that there were no adult establishments close to Hooters in Jonesboro, there is an adult bar just north of the Hooters and an adult store south of Hooters on Tara Boulevard. We don’t want that kind of stuff in Griffin.

— I would like to commend Blue Cross Blue Shield for their steadfast approach to trying to keep health-care costs down with our caregivers. Tenet: I’ll take my business to Fayette Medical Center.

— It’s totally asinine for the city of Griffin to spend $1 million-plus on a bridge that is not a necessity when our city streets and intersections are in such deplorable condition. Just try crossing the intersection at Solomon and Searcy and it isn’t the railroad tracks that are rough. It is the street and there are many more all over town.

— If Hooters came to Griffin, they would have to go outside Spalding County to hire Hooters Girls.

— Wonder how many local churches honored our veterans this past Memorial Day Sunday? The First Baptist Church of Griffin did not. No mention of veterans, no mention of Memorial Day, no patriotic music, no recognition of our veterans. We used to always do that. What a shame that we forget that the veteran is likely the reason that we even now have a church.

— In light of the terrible tragedy of the oil spill and what it is doing to the economy in the region as well as the wildlife and ecosystem, I was reminded of a plaque that hangs in my office — “The day will come when the sons and daughters of our oppressors will return to us and say, “teach us ... so that we might survive, for we have almost ruined the earth.” Black Elk, Lakota Holy Man.