Let’s have the truth

Hillary Clinton should demand that president-elect Trump pursue an investigation into the allegations raised against her. Throughout Trump's campaign, helping him win the election, he convinced millions of Americans that she had committed egregious crimes constituting treason, while she claims she is innocent. One of them has lied to us. Further, Trump promised that he would prosecute her because his administration would be marked by the rule of law. Was he lying?

It is only fair that the American people learn the truth. If Hillary is innocent, she deserves to be publicly exonerated and Trump shamed; likewise, if she is in fact guilty, she deserves to be convicted just like anyone else. Justice is on the people's side and on that of the innocent, not on Hillary's or Trump's. There needs to be a reckoning, for at least one of them has committed an injustice.

New post

I was elected Muscogee County supervisor within the Pine Mountain Soil and Water Conservation District. There are 40 such districts in Georgia. The Pine Mountain district consists of five counties, Harris, Muscogee, Chattahoochee, Marion and Talbot. Each has an appointed and an elected Supervisor. The appointed supervisor for Muscogee County Is Harvey Milner.

Soil and Water Conservation Districts were first designated 80 years ago during the Depression when poor agricultural practices led to soil erosion and deterioration of our streams. Our mission is to “work in voluntary cooperation with private landowners to encourage the conservation of the state’s natural resources that are the basis of economic growth and prosperity. Aided by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission, this effort ensures productive lands and healthy ecosystems.”

District supervisors meet periodically to discuss and vote on applications by landowners for federal and state cost-sharing programs to aid agriculture and forestry. We also get reports on the status of the more than 300 watershed dams in the District which are inspected throughout the year. The Pine Mountain Soil and Water Conservation District also sponsors a forestry field day in February at Marion County High School for students from all five counties to learn about forestry. I plan to visit the county’s high schools and talk about the District and invite the students to the forestry field day activities.

Loss to us all

On behalf of the State Bar of Georgia, I wish to extend condolences to the family, colleagues and many friends of longtime attorney Richard A. Bunn of Hamilton on his recent passing.

During his exemplary legal career of 37 years, Mr. Bunn became a leader among Georgia’s criminal defense attorneys. He served as past president of the Chattahoochee Bar Association and was a Sustaining Member and former area vice president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He was a Master in the Columbus American Inns of Court, a Fellow of the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia and a founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project. Mr. Bunn also served his country as a decorated Air Force veteran.

All members of the State Bar of Georgia can be inspired by the lifetime of service of Richard Bunn. We appreciate his many contributions toward strengthening the foundations of our justice system, which protects the rights and liberties of all Americans.

Left out

You consider Alabama, Auburn and Georgia as the only sports teams of interest in our area. As a Georgia Tech graduate, I wish you considered Tech as a school of interest. There are a number of Tech graduates and fans in our area. Why does the paper and local TV news ignore GT?

Unimpressed

There are two local sacred cows that none dare criticize. One is Fort Benning and the other is Columbus State University (oops, I almost typed "college").

CSU has accomplished much over the years (thanks in large part to huge local financial contributions). I am afraid, however, that I cannot muster much enthusiasm for the downtown campus. I know students spend money, so that makes some merchants happy, but there is a very much of a downside in that the few parking spaces are harder to come by despite parking garages. Also, the sidewalks are unsafe as students zip around on bicycles. Riding on sidewalks is illegal, but perhaps a special dispensation has been granted for CSU students.

I much preferred the corner of Broadway and Twelfth Street when the old Ledger-Enquirer occupied that space and published a first-class newspaper each day, and I appreciated even more the days from antiquity (i.e., the 1950s) when the Enquirer and Ledger were separate newspapers: the Enquirer was the morning paper and the Ledger was the evening paper. Those were the days of real local newspapers chock full of news as opposed to the present newspaper that is hardly more than a full-scale advertisement.

I cannot help but wonder what Latimer Watson would think of the current "Twelfth Street Rag."

This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Let’s have the truth."