VOICES

Haven't heard the voices

I sent a voice in three weeks ago. Why have you not printed any lately?

Answer:

Space was a little scare with so many ads running during election time. We normally like to keep the editorial page free of ads, but due to the high volume of political ads, we didn't have much choice. Voices were basically the odd man out, and had to be omitted or saved until things slowed down.

Election roundup

Is there some issue about any of the election results? One media source claimed that a website had misinformation showing that Representative Charles Jenkins was losing his race for much of election night. But another newspaper in our district says that he was in fact trailing most of the night. An article on the Clayton Tribune website, "Jenkins retains house seat" said, "Jenkins had just received results from Union County, which gave him 52.4 percent of the vote to Wheeler's 47.6 percent. Jenkins had been behind all night." So who is right and who is wrong?

Answer:

The Clayton Tribune website [the Rabun County newspaper] has the correct information. Many media outlets in the district (websites, radio stations, newspapers, etc.) including the Union Sentinel website, posted updates as results were obtained from around the district on election night. If someone looked at the results on our site, or any other site that posted vote updates on election night, they would have seen Representative Jenkins trailing, and possibly other candidates (in close races) that ended up coming from behind to win, until the final vote totals were posted. Anyone with the capability to gather vote results from around the district had this information. But a website only kept up with the local totals may not have been aware of what was going on around the district, leaving them confused about why everyone else had different (correct) vote counts.

What would George do?

If he were alive today, what do you suppose George Washington would think about the current il legal immigration situation? Here's what he had to say in 1783: "The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment." It seems to me that anyone in our country illegally, automatically flunks the "propriety of conduct" test and therefore, does not merit our welcome to "a participation of all our rights and privileges."

Holiday shopping

I now remember why I hate shopping during the holidays. Everyone in the store turns into a crazy person this time of year.

Dragging our feet

Not all Sentinel readers believe that the Iraq army can get up to speed within six months so they can take over responsibilities currently being performed by the US military but apparently, Nuri al- Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, does. Late last month Maliki told Reuters he could get the country under control in six months if US forces gave him more weapons and responsibility, "If, as we are asking, the rebuilding of our forces was in our own hands, then it would take not 12 - 18 months but six might be enough. If anyone is responsible for the poor security situation in Iraq it is the (US-led) Coalition."

Civil war or sectarian violence?

So the White House is upset with NBC News for making the decision to call the situation in Iraq a "civil war." Maybe they should worry less over terminology like "civil war" or "stay the course," and worry a whole lot more about how to resolve a big mess they have put our soliders in.