Common safety hazard

During the recent rainy weather, I saw a number of cars in traffic with either their headlights off or only the daytime running lights (DRL) on. It's Georgia state law to have your headlights on in the rain for visibility to others. Many do not realize that vehicles do not have their rear running lights illuminated when just the DRLs are functioning.

As if partial or no lights were bad enough, a great number of motorists insist on driving with the fog/driving lights on in town. It's as bad as running your high beams on all the time and blinding to other motorists.

Please be more careful. Lives depend upon it!

Bad last act

It has been said that if you wish to test the character of a man, "give him power." This test of Mr. Obama's character was framed when his personal animus to Donald Trump for interfering in the United Nations Israeli policy and pique to Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel and the State of Israel became shamefully evident.

The UN resolution harshly criticized Israel's expansion of Jewish territories to include its most holy site in Bethlehem. By the Obama administration abstaining, the resolution passed. On more than 40 occasions in the last decade the United States has vetoed resolutions critical to Israel. This resolution cannot be rescinded because of Russia's and China's veto power and emboldens Palestine to keep returning to the UN to solve the "two-state solution" rather than solving the issue by direct negotiations by the two parties.

No president has shown such hostility to Israel, our most trusted democratic ally in the Mideast, as has Mr. Obama. His lack of grace in his final hours of office is also evident by his providing the transition team with skewed or incomplete information as well as lectures on climate change, never mind his new autocratic regulations, bans on drilling and shutting down the North Dakota Access pipeline. His wife's recent comment that we are no longer a country of hope but rather a country in despair now that her husband is leaving office only adds to the divisiveness of our nation, and certainly is not a uniting force.

We would best recall Jesus' saying in St. John's Gospel: "I have called you friends." Would not calling all our neighbors friends, and working toward the common good in all things, place us in an environment in which we all might thrive with dignity?

Real-world approach

I wait until a President is in office six months before I look at policies. This is about the wild reactions to the people Mr. Trump is appointing. OMG, they are not policy wonks, not politicians, have not spent their whole lives on the public dime. Well, we have had the academics, the study group members and the politicians who have worked up to this level for over 20 years. Anyone see improvement? Anyone who lives in the real world when they hear these academics describe the perfect office setting, the best methods to follow projects, the study they have done showing this is the perfect way, laughs, rolls their eyes and knows this will never work in the real world.

Reality seldom matches the academics in the colleges that teach studies and think-tank policy papers. Then these kids get to the real world and have no idea what is going on … Let’s try this reality.

Thumbs down

The area you call Cooper Creek Park could be more aptly called "an abused and neglected cesspool surrounded by abused and neglected vegetation” ... adjacent to a "High Dollar" tennis court … Duh!

Blessing indeed

Monday, December 26, I was going through the McDonald's drive-thru on Manchester Expressway at around 6:30 p.m. The nicest thing happened! When I came up to the window where Jessie was working, he said, "The lady in front of you has already paid for your food. She said that she wanted to bless somebody today." And what a blessing she was!

Thank you to this young lady and her child in the car in front of me. I believe that her blessing was from God. She could not have known that right before she did that (minutes before), I had been involved in trying to help a person in Kenya who is very sick with typhoid fever. The doctors and nurses are on strike in Kenya, and the person needed to know the path to get the antibiotic and medical care from a private hospital. When I was in that drive-thru line, my heart was heavy for the suffering of immigrants/refugees. This lady was like an angel sent by God.

As a city, let's follow the example of this beautiful lady who "just wanted to bless somebody today." By doing that, we can change the world.

This story was originally published December 28, 2016 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Common safety hazard."