Why I still love this community

My mother was recently taken ill just before Thanksgiving. She is recovering well and my family thanks the emergency responders, the staff of St. Francis Hospital, her doctors, and most especially, her friends. So why a letter to the editor?

Because even though I'm one of the many young adults who left Columbus to pursue other dreams, I am very thankful I grew up in Columbus. I'm thankful that the community is still the same, wonderful, caring group of people that I've known practically all my life. And I'm especially thankful that despite the divide that might exist with our individual personal beliefs, people of all types can come together and be caring, considerate and kind to one another.

This is a shout out to the Britt David Pottery Studio, Temple Israel, Muscogee Home Health Care and the many wonderful friends my Mom has made through the years.

Thank you, people of Columbus, and carry on with being kind to each other.

An easy choice

When the Sheriff, the chief law enforcement officer of the county, stands up in Federal Court and speaks on behalf of a convicted felon the Sheriff has decided that enforcing the law is not important. Sheriff Darr did just that for Sawan “Sunny” Shah. The judge ignored Sheriff Darr's plea on behalf of his criminal friend and sentenced "Sunny" Shah to 21 months in federal prison for his role in a large income tax refund check cashing scheme that bilked more than $24 million from the taxpayers. In addition to this and many other financial errors in judgment, I think John Darr has forfeited his right to serve in law enforcement.

On the other hand, we have Donna Land Tompkins who almost became our new sheriff in the general , receiving 21,429 votes to incumbent John Darr's 14,464, or 46 to 31 percent. Donna is better prepared to be Sheriff. She holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice, a master’s in public administration, professional human resource national certification. And Captain Tompkins has 31 years of professional experience in all areas of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office. She has acquired a breadth of knowledge critical to the competent administration of the Sheriff's Office.

I urge you to elect Donna Land Tompkins Muscogee County Sheriff.

Amnesiac hypocrisy

I find it hilarious that the same people whom I have listened to for the past eight years belittle, degrade and make hateful and discriminatory and racist remarks about our President and the First Lady now all the sudden have found peace in life. They want to stop bringing up the past. They all scream give [Trump] a chance! Like they gave Obama a chance? Yeah, right.

Such hypocrites! I hope you get just as much as you gave in regards to your presidential pick. Enjoy the ride -- it's going to be a bumpy one.

‘Rigged’ indeed

President-elect Donald Trump made many comments about how “rigged” the election process is. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders also made many comments on this subject.

The main difference in had mostly to do with Trump complaining the media were unfair to him; Sanders’ complaint was about how the process is set up to support only one candidate.

Ms. Warren makes the most sense: She said most U.S. citizens are convinced the entire system is rigged, and she is right.

The economy is rigged to favor the upper echelon due to laws and rules enacted over the last 20 years by Congress to allow companies to shift trillions offshore to avoid taxes. The common citizen pays taxes and is limited in write-offs, while big business firms get specially tailored deductions set up for them, again by the Congress. So the tax code is rigged.

The redrawing of voting districts in almost every state in the union is set up to guarantee that the votes go only to one candidate of the party who has redrawn that district. This is why both the House and Senate have a majority of Republicans at this time. Both parties have used this to their advantage over the years. Ms. Warren stated: "It's just politics 101 that the party in charge will draw lines to its advantage." So the election process is rigged.

The elected representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate spend most of their time blocking any meaningful legislation and delaying any major decisions, as a stated objective by the Senate Republicans since President Obama took office. They do not represent their electorate so, due to the gridlock in Congress, it also can be viewed as rigged.

Leadership hope

An important part of being an effective leader is to convince citizens to trust that he or she is speaking for them and that the leader has the will power to carry out the will of the people .... with a severe warning back to them that people cannot have rights without responsibility. Hence a Constitution, the Bible of America.

The leadership style of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama was more of being charmers ... totally different in style from Donald Trump. There are churches with charmers in the pulpit and there are churches that have fire and wind preachers that call out sinners. Jesus was a balanced leader with a little of both. His leadership style so far has outlasted all the rest because his words were not his, but were from a higher authority, a higher truth which when subscribed to will make for a Heaven on Earth, but when ignored by "charmables" can eventually have a way to create Hell on Earth.

So we swing back and forth. I hope to God that Trump is the person who can keep our focus on the Constitution that has made us the greatest nation on earth, a people focused on the family that is America, who understand our responsibilities as the leaders of the Free World, and who demonstrate by example the workable advantages of honestly sticking to The Plan in our fairly caring about each other.

Ominous sign

I am a retired healthcare executive and former state of Georgia healthcare regulatory official. I am also a Republican fiscal conservative and social liberal.

Before he began his campaign, Trump was convinced that the Canadian single-payer system is far superior to ours and repeatedly stated this fact. His views regarding phased-in expansion of Medicare to eventually cover all Americans fit nicely with mine.

But now he has decided that Rep. Tom Price should head DHHS. Price and his ilk are against Medicare, wanting to do away with it and substitute some sort of voucher system. He is also against basic well-established DHHS programs such as family planning.

Price was a key congressman in what many believe to be the worst Congress in history. Price and the rest of the leadership of the House believe that any compromise with the other party to get things done to help Americans is wrong, and they are proud of it.

That is why Gallup found that approval ratings for Congress are at historic lows, ranging from about 10% to 20%. The public is fed up with the inertia in Congress and with ideologues, which leads me to where we are now.

We need someone who can bring the nation together. After his speech to the nation upon winning the election, I thought Trump might do so. Appointing radical right-wingers like Price simply sends the wrong message.

By definition

A tyrant signifies a cruel lord who, by force, craft or treachery, has obtained power over any realm or country. He is of such nature that once he has grown strong in the land of his domain his focus is to strive for his own profit and to forego the common profit of all for they always live in fear of losing what they have.

A tyrant uses his empowerment against the people in three manners, the sole purpose of which is to perpetuate his power unencumbered and unchallenged:

He strives that those under his mastery be ever ignorant: and timorous, because when they are such they may not be bold to rise against him or to resist his will.

He strives to divide his subjects in such wise they do not trust one another; for while they live in disagreement and disunity they shall not dare to make any discourse against their lord.

He strives to make them poor and to put them upon great undertakings which they can never finish, whereby they may have so much harm to themselves that it never enters their hearts to devise anything against their ruler.

Source: Alfonso the Wise (A Spanish King of great learning; 1221-1284), adapted and transformed from The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest, 1915, Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878-1968).

As we endure the “election” of Trump and the demise of both the Democrat and Republican political parties, it is clear that a divided and ignorant populace is easily manipulated to subjugation and can only cling to the scraps that are left to do battle about for survival. Pray to Alfonso the Wise for his intercession on our behalf.

This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 12:19 PM with the headline "Why I still love this community."