To the Editor:

My 87-year-old mother often says, "What has happened to America?"  I believe we've gradually accepted wrong for right, and that to turn the Ship of State around, we should correct the worst – first!
The greatest evil is the untimely death of innocent children.  Thanks to the editorial by Celia Murray in the "Citizen," one truth I've been trying to convey to fellow Christians has been openly declared by a liberal Democrat!  To quote her, "The IUD and the birth control pill would be illegal because they prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterine wall, again, 'murdering' them."  TRUE!
The destruction of life comes when a days-old baby (which we all were
at one time) has traveled down the fallopian tube to the womb, only to be met with a chemically induced hostile environment. At the (possibly lucrative) urging of powerful drug companies, the American Medical Association agreed to change the definition of "conception" from "fertilization" to "implantation," and thereby being able to advertise that the birth control pill prevents "conception" (IMPLANTATION) 99-plus percent  of the time.
How can we Christians rail against abortion if we're not willing to say we've been wrong, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways. We need God to hear from Heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land.
We have been duped, and we're not willing to face facts.  The Bible says that, "Wisdom is justified of her children," and in this case, verified by a pro-abortion advocate.  

Jeanette Dantice
Bostwick
Via e-mail

Printed in the August 30, 2012 edition

To the Ediitor:

The 12th annual Festival of Friends has been enormously successful thanks to countless Morgan Memorial Hospital friends and supporters and their incredible generosity! Initial estimates indicate the 2012 Festival has raised close to $25,000 for future equipment donations to MMH. With close to 200 dinner guests served, over 100 silent auction items donated and purchased, and a superbly festive cocktail event, the Festival has many, many thanks to extend:
Our dinner hosts who provide spectacular dining experiences:
• Mael Bowman
• Gary Cecil and Sheila Palmer
• Melissa Howe
• Bob and Rose Mary Hughes
• Hoyt and Brillo Jackson
• Joseph and Connie Kullman
• Bill and Susan Kurtz
• Ed and Pam Latham
• Pat Leming
• Jim and Lorene Malanowski
• Linda McNeal
• Garry and Lissa Phelps
• Bill and Renee Pritchard
• Bill and Bobbie Rushing
• Dick and Kathi Russell
• Lee and Sandy Sanford
• Rick and Cindy Starling
• Alan and Sue Ellen Verner
• Jan Wilbanks
• Mark Wilson
• Individual members of the Morgan Memorial Hospital Authority
Our physicians who made our cocktail party possible:
• Dr. Subodh Agrawal
• Dr. Ross Campbell
• Dr. David Fletcher
• Georgia Imaging Associations
• Dr. Pamela Hall
• Dr. Shahzad Hashmi
• Dr. L. Ken Lewis
• Dr. Harvey Ouzts
• Dr. Shane Smith
• Dr. Dennis Spencer
• Dr. Rose Ann Weaver
• Dr. Dan Zant
• Cerner
The multitude of local businesses, service providers, artisans, and generous individuals who donate their products and services to our immensely popular silent auction.

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Morgan County High School Marching Band please accept our sincere thank you for the generous support you provided during our "Dress A Band Student" Uniform Drive. Thanks to you the drive was a success. We achieved our goal and our new uniforms are here at last!
Your staff has done an excellent job of covering our band recently and over the past year!  We appreciate the opportunities you have given us to advertise our spring fundraiser concert and most recently to thank our donors.
As we march out onto the field this fall you should take pride in knowing the Morgan County Citizen made a difference. Our band program is a vital part of our school and community and we do appreciate your support!
We look forward to seeing you this fall at the MCHS Stadium.
With sincere thanks,

Jeffrey Rowser
Band Director, and the MCHS Band Program
Mailed

Printed in the August 30, 2012 edition

To the Editor:

We have to cut spending!
Doing the math on last weeks article about insurance for library employees its easy to see why we are in such debt. It appears that the government will need to steal more than $7200 more per year to pay for library employee insurance. This will bring their insurance premiums to  $11,208 per year. What kind of insurance do we provide for our servants? Multiply this times millions of government servants. Thats not even considering the multi-million dollar library government found it nesasary to build because of a roof leak in the existing library.  Does anyone else see a problem here? And people have to ask how we got to the financial mess we are in.
As for TSPLOST, is 441 so congested down at the Putnam County line that government finds it needs to steal millions of dollars from us serfs for a widening project? Does anyone see multi-million dollar congestion on 441? And why are we expected to pay for all of this infrastructure at Baxter? Why does the government find they can steal money from us serfs, doing all we can just to survive, in order to build infrastructure for multi-million dollar companies?
Government is suppose to be our servants. I'm getting confused as to who is serving who.
Governments a joke.

Alan McKay
Buckhead
Via e-mail

Printed in the August 23, 2012 edition

To The Editor:

Now comes the logic of our elected and un-elected bureaucrats at the BOE. Quotes printed in the Citizen from Superintendent Bennett and BOE member Howard instruct us (whether more revenue collection or not) that raising the millage rate is not raising our property taxes. For the sake of simplicity (or logic) a property owner paid $1,500 in tax for 2011 on property assessed at $200,000. In 2012 the property owner pays $1,500 on an asset assessed at $150,000 (worth $50,000 less). Apply a bit of critical thinking here; pay the same amount for two different asset values on value higher and one value lower, paying more for an asset of lower value is, by definition, a property tax increase. Property taxes for the BOE have increased 5 mills since 2008 while property values have plummeted, the value of the dollar has shrunk, unemployment has risen, wages have shrunk, (except for government employees), business income is way down and investment portfolio value has taken a big loss.
Calling it a “Rollback Rate” or saying “we aren’t collecting any more revenues” is putting lipstick on the pig makes it something other than a pig. These bureaucrats are taking a greater portion of our asset values and this is not a tax increase? Hmm! Wonder what sorts of math, logic and critical thinking skills are being taught in the Morgan County Schools.

Mark Grubaugh
Buckhead
Via e-mail

Printed in the August 16, 2012 edition

To the Editor:

With the recent mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin, not to mention the dozens of others over the decade, proponents of the second amendment see no reason to do anything about gun violence or gun control. Just like fundamental racists of capitalism and conservatism have spent all their time since the last presidential election spreading fear and propaganda and thinly veiled racism to hold to their ideal that America should only be run by rich old white capitalism. And then there are the gays who are just as fanatical and out of touch as the racists on the right working to suppress and bully everybody who disagrees with them and their agenda and idealism.
None of these things appeal to me because I am a reasonable person. No matter how passionate I may feel about something it doesn’t give me the right to run over everyone else’s rights because I have money and power. Your job as a voter is to make sure that extremists and fear mongers aren’t playing your passions and fears like a fiddle all the way to the voting booth. If you really truly want to fix what’s wrong with our country then stop voting your fears, passions, prejudices and hatred. And stop listening to people who blame just one man, the president for absolutely everything.

Chris Murray
Madison
Hand-delivered

Printed in the August 9, 2012