I have been attending, monitoring, and making audio recordings of the Hall County Tax Assessor meetings since November 2008 representing the Hall Citizens for Efficient Government organization, an organization of approximately 100 members formed to promote fiscal responsibility in local government by exposing waste and inefficiency.

I attended a work session of the Hall County Tax Board on March 4 and was disturbed by comments made by assessor Terrell Gaines and board chairman Bobby Hulsey after Commissioner Ashley Bell spoke to the board.

Bell requested the tax board to consider a meeting time change from 8:30 a.m. for work sessions and regular business meetings to a more convenient time for taxpayers to attend and observe the meetings of this board, as well as to accommodate the work schedule of the newest assessor, Belinda Lipscomb, who is not retired.

He simply asked the tax board to consider adopting a schedule similar to the Hall County Board of Commissioners or the Planning Commission to encourage more citizen participation in observing tax board meetings and provide a more convenient time for taxpayers.

Hulsey stated a time change to the afternoon from the current 8:30 a.m. meeting would severely affect his grass-cutting business.

When Bell finished speaking to the board, I requested to be allowed to speak and expressed support for the move. Most members of HCCFEG are not retired and cannot attend the early meeting, but would certainly attend meetings scheduled at an appropriate time. However, I was denied the opportunity to speak.

To my surprise, immediately after Bell left the meeting, Chairman Hulsey stated he felt this issue as "just another attempt by the commission to have control over what we do."

Assessor Whit Powell then said he disagreed with the statement, and said he believed Bell was trying to give more public access to the their meetings and to have complete clarity of the tax assessor office operation. Assessor Vicki Cook agreed.

My observation and opinion after attending this three-hour-plus meeting and listening to the issue of changing the tax board meeting time is: (1) Powell and Cook are willing to compromise and change meeting times to accommodate the new assessors' work schedule and encourage public attendance at the tax board meeting; and (2) Hulsey and Gaines are opposed to any time change primarily because of their negative feelings toward Bell, as evidenced by what was said in the discussion that is digitally recorded.

Hopefully, this board membership will come together and agree upon a reasonable time for meetings that would encourage citizen attendance and observation. I feel this would go a long way in "clearing the clouds" that have been hanging over this office since the GBI investigation that was conducted last year.

Roy Don Stroud
Gainesville

Political leaders supporting their own brand of genocide
Genocide is the policy and practice of killing groups of people for some perceived or imagined benefit to the people doing the killing. This imagined benefit may be economic, territorial or eugenic; i.e. to improve the evolutionary success of the human race by eliminating inferior specimens and groups or preventing their propagation.

In this country, are we carrying on a genocide or holocaust against the black race? Of 1.2 million abortions last year in the U.S., 37 percent were black babies. Blacks make up only about 10 percent of our population. In Georgia, blacks make up about 27 percent of the population, but have 55 percent of the abortions.

When Margaret Sanger, a leader in the eugenics movement a century ago, founded Planned Parenthood of America, one of the express purposes was to eliminate the propagation of the black race. The eugenics movement was a natural result of Darwin's theory of evolution. This philosophy led directly to Stalin's' slaughter of millions in Russia in the 1930s, to Hitler's attempt to eliminate the Jews and to other murderous practices throughout the world. Claiming to be more civilized, the population control movements of our day descend from the same philosophical foundations.

One terrible irony in all this is that almost every black leader in our society supports this genocide. They vote millions of our tax dollars for abortion and population control programs. They subsidize Planned Parenthood's abortion mills. They support programs that destroy black families.

They allow drug cultures to flourish in inner cities, destroying youth. They support educational systems which fail to teach our youth moral values, codes of conduct and successful work ethics. They create a perpetual victim class. They have sold out their people for political power. They have sold their souls for the approval of the elitist groups who would destroy them. How sad.

Jimmy Echols
Alto

If speed is posted, it's not a trap
You know, if you drive at the speed limit, there are no worries about getting a speeding ticket. Believe it or not, those big white signs with numbers on them are there for a reason. I don't care if you are going to church or to the bar, if the speed is posted, its not a trap.

Someone wrote about seeing cars stopped on sunny days with no traffic on the road. But you can get killed on a pretty day same as a rainy one. Wake up and support your police department.

Kenny Thompson
Lula

Progress' good news welcomed
I just want to commend the Times on the wonderful Progress articles in the Sunday issue. During these anxious times, it was very uplifting to read so many positive reports regarding the local economy.

I think we need more "good" news instead of dwelling on the downside of all the financial failures. Keep up the good work. I'm all for positive thinking. I think a positive attitude will help things to turn around and we will feel better in the process.

Mary Frances Norris
Gainesville