Fighting hunger

The sixth annual Georgia Legal Food Frenzy is a joint effort by the Young Lawyers Division, the Attorney General’s Office and the Georgia Food Bank Association and is a statewide fund and food drive supporting local Georgia food banks. More than $5 million has been raised in six years with this campaign. Participating in our service area this year were Columbus law firms Waldrep Mullin & Callahan LLC, Hall Booth Smith, P.C., Page Scrantom, Sprouse Tucker & Ford P.C., Butler Wooten, The Finley Firm, P.C., Pope, McGlamry, Kilpatrick, Morrison and Norwood, P.C., U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Georgia, Fort Benning Legal Assistance Division, Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, Columbus Consolidated Government, and TSYS General Counsel. Also participating was the Coweta Judicial Circuit DA Office in LaGrange.

Tyler Pritchard with Hall Booth Smith, and Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson led the efforts of the Columbus campaign. Brett Adams with the LaGrange District Attorney’s office led the campaign efforts in LaGrange.

More than $5,000 and more than 21,000 pounds of food was donated along with raising awareness about hunger in the community. Many thanks to these individuals and organizations.

In Georgia, one in five children are considered food insecure, often not knowing where their next meal is coming from. As summer approaches, many of our food programs expand to more areas to reach more children who are not in school for breakfast or lunch programs. Food and fund donations are even more vital to us during this time of the year.

We are grateful for the generosity and support of our legal community in our efforts to solve the problem of hunger in our community.

Degraded debate

Now that the Democratic cabal has dropped the Sword of Damocles (special council) on the Gordian knot, will they reap what they have sown and be beleaguered by the unforeseen consequences of Mr. Mueller's authority to investigate anything and everything including the Clinton email scandal? What goes around may just come around.

How do we build the future, to be builders of civility not only in Congress but in the tendentious media as well? We have built a new tower of "Babel phenomenon" evolving with everyone scattering into their own 'little identities." "The only alternative to the civility of encounter is the civility of conflict; there is no other way."

Hope that government will work toward the common good has been displaced by an unbridled pessimism. Civility — courting in speech and behavior — a singular requirement in meaningful dialogue has been banished. The art of dialogue has been replaced mostly by one-way arguments that aim to crush the other person rather than debate fairly with facts and often lead to ad hominem attacks negating any constructive dialogue. Ad hominems are wrong.

How do we instill a resurgence of civility in public dialogue to solve all the domestic and foreign crises we are besieged with? How do we as a nation faced with possible nuclear annihilation become a unified nation? How do we put an end to greed, intemperate power, aggrandizement, solipsism, agitprop and apocryphal news?

We all know the answers: civil and moral responsibility, accountability, humility, love of neighbor, unity of purpose, respect for our duly elected representatives, an end to the "resistance” movement and a search for the common good. It is a tremendous comfort that in a nation founded under God that our sanity and hope depend on God and not man.

High-level rot

President Trump swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. In keeping with his oath, he fires the man who is investigating possible ethical and criminal violations on the part of the President. I am sure that every person accused of crimes would like to be able to fire their prosecutor and replace that person with someone they choose.

President Trump had presented himself as a brilliant businessperson. As such he would file bankruptcy whenever he got involved in a bad business deal. As President he simply fires the problem.

President Trump bragged about his ability to grope women just because he was so important. President Trump has said he had never done anything for which he felt the need to apologize.

Trump and his team have ties to Russia and he does not want the truth to come out. Failure to disclose one’s tax returns is another example of the arrogant attitude of this administration.

Skakespearean lines about something rotten in Denmark could more aptly be applied to the present White House.

Not an ‘issue’

A letter writer described the studies of CSU scientists as “climate hoax” and the scientists as an “evolution pushing, God-denying” group. We need Holy Scripture to keep our faith and we need science to understand natural phenomena.

There are natural causes of global warming — solar cycles, volcanic eruptions, drought, forest fires, fluctuations in ocean currents. However, human activities are the main cause for the recent rapid acceleration.

It is one of the biggest challenges facing our civilization. We can’t afford to view it as a political or a religious issue.

This story was originally published May 24, 2017 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Fighting hunger."