Readers Write 5/17

Transportation woes will finally force action

We are told there is no Plan B on the books should T-SPLOST fail. Rest assured, should T-SPLOST fail, Plan B will appear in time and it will look surprisingly like Plan A, the only difference being that a few passing years and greater desperation will push it through, at greater cost. The all-road and all-transit people are living in a self-absorbed fool’s paradise. Politics is the art of compromise, and too many people wear visors.

BOB EBERWEIN, ATLANTA

Romney’s misdeeds are reprehensible

Recently it came out that Mitt Romney, while in high school, terrorized a fellow student by pushing him to the ground and holding him down while he cut off the boy’s hair (“Prank prompts apology,” News, May 11). This would have been called a hate crime today. It was a blatant anti-gay act.

According to Romney he does not remember it. If he is not lying, then what else does this tell you about this man? It shows a pattern of mean-spirited behavior which he seems to have carried well into his adult life when he casually stripped and sold companies and kept all the profits for himself. Fox News and other right-wing pundits and supporters are saying that this was no big deal. What part of this incident do they not get?

If President Obama had done a similar thing as a student, his supporters would have dropped him faster than you can say “hate crime.”

MICHAEL DE GIVE, DECATUR

Leaders should pay their taxes on time

Granted there can be mitigating factors, but for local elected officials to have so many tax delinquencies is unconscionable (“Local leaders late on taxes,” News, May 10).

Leaders with the responsibility to decide issues important to constituents must demonstrate the ability to manage their own personal financial lives. Failure to do so greatly reflects on perceptions of job competency. Governmental operations at every level are financially strapped, and while officials paying their tax obligations won’t solve the problem, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Get your house in order before telling others how to manage theirs.

MICHAEL L. SHAW, STONE MOUNTAIN