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I am a senior citizen who came of voting age in the 1950s. My first presidential vote was for a Democrat because my father was a devout Democrat, and they seemed to have helped our nation prosper after the war.
Over the years, my devotion has been to our country, our president and Congress, regardless whether they were Democrats or Republicans. I voted for the person I believed most qualified, a true blood-and-guts American citizen who believed in our Constitution, someone I believe would give themselves for their country.
Over my 55 years of voting, I have proudly voted for many great presidents and others in Washington who went to work for us to make it better for everyone.
However, over these same years, we have had many tragic events that have changed our country and could have been prevented if we only took a stand. The most tragic event to lower of our standards as "one Nation under God" was when we allowed one person, an atheist, to remove God from the classroom.
By us doing nothing, we told God we did not want him affecting the lives of our children. We no longer wanted him in the classroom and could do a better job without him. By allowing that to happen, we have greatly diminished our society. We cannot build prisons fast enough.
All these years, I have had a tremendous respect for the office of president and most congressional seats. I believed it would be a pleasure to meet the people we trusted to represent us.
I am so sorry to say I no longer trust my government. I now believe nine out of 10 in Washington are not there to represent us. They represent themselves for the perks provided. They are there for the prestige and to serve their party. I would not even walk across a street to speak to or say "thanks" to most anyone from Washington. I would not want to dirty my hands.
For several months before the November election, I had a sign on my pickup that read, "Three people I fear: Osama, Obama and Chelsea's mama." There are many dictators, foreign rulers, terrorists and others in the world, along with the atomic threat, that are enough to worry about. After considering every threat, I have come to a sad conclusion. I am worried about the future of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. So I will be putting a new sign on my truck: "The three in the world I fear: President Obama, U.S. Congress and the ACLU!"
I believe most problems we and the next generation face directly relate to us citizens who call ourselves the silent majority. We are good people. We go to church Sunday morning, we work hard, and most of the time we treat our fellow human beings as we would like to be treated.
However, we have one bad side which might be a sin in itself: We do not care. If we did, we would not allow our corrupt government to burden our grandchildren with debt they can never pay and change our country to socialism. If the millions of Christians would only wake up, we would be a mighty force. But we just do not care!
Lamar Wilbanks
Baldwin
Prayer did more for drought than any political policies
I'm sure we've all noticed that Lake Lanier is nearing full pool again and looks so beautiful after seeing ugly banks these past months.
I believe it was approximately a year ago when our Gov. Sonny Perdue and Alabama's Gov. Bob Riley both called on all of us to pray for rain as the situation was looking bad for our water supply. Many of us did pray and had been praying, and now thank God the result is obvious: An end to the drought.
I believe all of this talk on global warming and now talk of cap-and-trade taxes is all politically motivated. God is the one who controls our weather. If we'd give Him the glory and praise He deserves, we wouldn't have to worry about global warming, which we can't change one way or the other anyway.
Doris Humphries
Gainesville