Important public forum

For generations, Columbus families have invested time, talent and resources to ensure that our city is flourishing and to set the stage for future growth. One Columbus family has done just that with the donation of Standing Boy Creek State Park.

In 2000, 1,580 acres of wilderness were donated to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in the hope that it would one day be a state park. The land, located in North Columbus, is a hidden gem on the banks of the Chattahoochee. It is minutes from movie theaters and shopping, yet the land hasn’t been disturbed for decades. It features marshy areas, several creeks, a pond, steep rock formations and scenic vistas.

The vision of a state park inside Muscogee County is finally coming to a head, as it transitions into the hands of the DNR’s Parks & Recreations Division. What an incredible opportunity for Columbus!

While many ideas are being discussed, the primary focus should be on key attractions that are affordable to maintain, regionally attractive, and improve the quality of life in Columbus, while only minimally changing the wilderness that currently exists and makes this park special. One of the most attractive options is miles of off-road bicycling trails looped through the wilderness and overlaid with hiking trails. Trail Solutions (the design arm of the International Mountain Bicycling Association) has already completed a conceptual plan for the multiuse trails, and there's a possibility that work could begin in the very near future.

The Georgia DNR will present the Master Plan for Standing Boy Creek State Park at 6:30 PM on Thursday, February 23 (today) at the Citizens Service Center at 3111 Citizens Way. All individuals interested in the development of the Standing Boy Creek property should attend this meeting.

Alarming instability

It is becoming increasingly apparent to millions of Americans, including the 35 California psychiatrists who have signed an open letter to that effect, that the megalomaniac who has seized the reins of power in our government and has packed his cabinet with the inept and ominous detritus of the swamp that he claims to have drained, is mentally unstable, to the point of psychosis. He has alarmed and infuriated our shrinking pool of allies, while inciting to violence his nutcase despotic peers around the world.

Because of Trump’s rash and ill-considered actions, the United States has abdicated its lofty position of leadership in the world and has become an object of ridicule. We now have equally juvenile and destructive world leaders who are rising to the bait of Trump’s Tweeting dares and are answering with dares of their own: “What’re ya gonna do about it?”

Considering the level of impetuosity and diplomatic ignorance that Trump possesses, we are teetering on the brink of armed conflict, with a precipitate tyrant’s tiny fingers on the nuclear button. If this doesn’t terrify all sentient beings in this country and elsewhere on the planet, they are living in an opium dream.

‘Saving’ benefits

I am an active AARP member. I recently viewed AARP's video about President Trump vowing to save and protect Social Security and Medicare.

Contrary to his promise, he has appointed, and the Senate confirmed on a party line vote, Atlanta’s Rep. Tom Price as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Price, like his friend Speaker Paul Ryan, wants to do away with traditional Medicare and change the age of eligibility for Social Security.

Now is the time for Trump to deliver on his promise … and not by weaseling out of it.

I do not want to hear that the only way to save Social Security is to cut benefits. A better alternative is to raise the maximum taxable amount under Social Security from the current $127,000 cap.

As for Medicare, I do not want to hear that the only way to “save” it is to do away with it by making it a voucher program, dumping costs on seniors.

Instead, how about doing away with the expensive “Medicare Advantage” program? It was originally touted as a way to save money via privatization, but has cost more every year. And how about letting Medicare negotiate drug prices? And enforcing fraud and abuse provisions?

Won’t grow up

In my opinion, Mr. Trump is the personification of the fictional character Peter Pan. His immaturity is evident in his lack of speaking skills, he cannot form a cohesive sentence or follow a thought to conclusion, and his narcissistic personality is off the charts. His refusal to look at reality is making him an "alternative" head of state unfit to do his job.

This man/child is playing house with the entire world and thinks no one can tell him where to place the bombs!

God help us all unless our Congress members grow some backbone and get him out of our house.

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Important public forum."