KKK using Adopt-A-Highway for publicity
Something is wrong with our state’s Adopt-A-Highway program if the Ku Klux Klan is allowed to participate with its name on a state sign that credits that organization with keeping a roadside free of litter. If any organization with six members and three backups is eligible, then what is to stop al-Qaeda, Neo-Nazis or criminal gangs from doing this? Is this really about picking up trash and freedom of speech? No, you can do those things anyway without this program. This is about using our government for publicity and credit for doing something useful by putting your name on a sign.
Drive through some counties and you’ll see crews of uniformed inmates collecting and bagging trash. Now that’s government at work.
TONY GARDNER, CUMMING
Sanchez’s defense of Clinton predictable
Mary Sanchez’s columns are a trite treadmill, as predictable as they are shopworn. In “As a woman, Clinton faces some unfair headwinds” on July 5, Sanchez again lifts the tired tirade of Hillary Clinton’s gender being such a burden in the sexist world of presidential politics — especially running against a sexist Donald Trump. Her lament: “The unsettling reality is that Trump can get elected by being a jerk. Clinton cannot.”
However, Hillary may get elected despite her lying about such a wide range of matters as to make her completely untrustworthy. Combined with her “excessive carelessness” with national security as cited by FBI Director James Comey, Clinton’s handicap is not her gender, but her character and competency.
Ms. Sanchez closes with: “We live in a time when Donald Trump can be seriously considered as a candidate to lead the greatest nation on Earth. We clearly have work to do.” To be gender-equal, she could just as easily have used Hillary Clinton’s name in place of Donald Trump’s.
GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA
Let’s stop investing in nuclear power
Georgia Power wants its customers to pay $175 million to study economic viability and environmental impacts for a new nuclear power plant 20 miles south of Columbus.
Why should customers pay an additional $175 million to research building a nuclear power plant that is not needed? Customers already pay 5 percent of their bill as a Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery tariff. Georgia Power and its shareholders should spend some of the company’s $1.3 billion 2015 profits.
Georgia Power is currently stuck with two nuclear units under construction, which are years behind schedule and $2 billion over budget. Six billion dollars has been spent on Plant Vogtle, which is only 31 percent complete. Georgia Power customers pay part of the cost overruns.
The Public Service Commission should reject Georgia Power’s request for $175 million in its 2016 Integrated Resource Plan.
Instead of researching the impacts of an expensive, outdated nuclear power plant, Georgia Power should move toward the 21st century. Use the requested $175 million plus the $12 billion needed to complete Plant Vogtle and lead the way toward cheap, clean, safe, reliable solar and wind energy.
CYNTHIA PATTERSON, MARIETTA
Does Trump want a Reign of Terror?
Mr. Trump has stated that Muslims in this country must turn in or report other Muslims who are enemies of the state. When I heard Trump speak on the subject, I thought about the French Revolution of 1789. French citizens started turning on each other and before long the Reign of Terror had engulfed the country. Do we want that ? How close are we?
PHIL DAVIS, POWDER SPRINGS
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