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What our Readers Are Saying

Letters to the Editor

The things you read in the paper lately ...

When Mark Twain was made temporary editor of a small rural weekly magazine, his flights of agricultural fancy evoked such strong response from his readers, they made their way to his offices and petitioned him to verify their sanity.

Having read the latest issue of The Citizen, I find myself in a similar state of mind: am I mad or you?

On page one, we find the county tax collector, an unpopular man to be sure, cited for displaying a shotgun, a raffle prize, to his friends and employees. A county marshal, no doubt a recipient of an unfavorable real estate assessment, issued the citation upon reflection and a somewhat belated study of the penal code.

A woman is arrested and jailed for the offense of failing to report the neutering of her now dead cat. The estimable Judge Fletcher Sams seems taken aback at the miscarriage of justice, but not to the extent he would punish the obvious transgressors.

The principal of Booth Middle School is alarmed at the sexual proclivities of his charges and admonishes the parents of same to give their children a good talking to.

It is my firm belief, one not shared by Mr. Lombard, that the children in question already know their parents stand on sexual misconduct in school and further discourse will be quite ... impotent?

The newly installed public defender, due to an unfortunate "accident" (a word now completely irrelevant to police and lawyers), faces the prospect of finding himself his first truly needy client.

That's page one. Inside, in the rather lengthy section titled "Letter, faxes, e-mail," we glimpse the madness that has surely afflicted our community.

County Commissioner Pfeifer (a pseudonym if ever I saw one) tells us he's on a mission from God and shares his life-altering experience in grueling detail to a frankly amazed audience. Is this man allowed sharp objects?

Lt. Colonel Bruce Jordan [of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department], a thoroughly ambitious man if not a scrupulous adherent to the Constitution (not the newspaper, sir) rambles through a sort of apology to you, our esteemed editor, then ends with the indubitable truth that no one really understands him save Reba, his dog.

Cal Thomas advises us that God has selected those in authority over us and we dare not rebel against them lest we offend Him as well. Hello, Idi Amin!

And grace and selflessness as superior weapons in the fight for Terri Schiavo's life? I submit a glass of water and a crust of bread will aid her better.

The entire purpose in trying to save Terri Schiavo is to save Terri Schiavo, not make a political statement. Future discourse will serve her not a whit. And a further note: it is not the courts that are a mess that needs be reformed. We have met the enemy and ....

It gets worse. "Bubba" ball barks, Mr. Parker vs. Mr. Dickinson, bicyclists vs. little leaguers, Joe Maloy against the disabled, Trey Hoffman against (as near as I can figure) everything, John Munford against Dell Computers ("None dare call it paranoia") and the Peachtree (Ga.) Little League against large red ants.

And this is all before an innocent turns the page to a section euphemistically called "Free Speech." Wow.

My only hope is that the circulation of The Citizen extends not beyond the county's borders and that every last copy is collected from its readers and destroyed without a remaining trace. Otherwise, I'm afraid a county marshal will come and take us all away.

Bill McNew

Fayetteville, Ga.

Sen. Seabaugh, why so selective with ID?

[State Senator Mitch Seabaugh,] how can you require a most stringent ID requirement (accepting only five, most of which are not readily available to all voters, and non-driving photo IDs being available in only 50 places for 159 counties) for "in person" voting, while there are 17 forms of ID accepted for voter registration and absolutely NONE required for absentee ballot voting?

Common sense (and the AARP) says there are other considerations than security in choosing to only tighten one of three areas.

We had the same concern with golf cart driving for senior citizens in Peachtree City when a driver's license was required. My neighbor lost her means of getting to the grocery store until we changed that law back.

Why did you chose only one area to tighten?

Kathie Cheney

Peachtree City, Ga.

Walgreens instead of a church is a LULU (locally unwanted land use)

How could a CUCU become a LULU? More importantly, what in heaven's name could this have to do with the proposed demolition of Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Peachtree City?

If this all sounds like acronym alphabet soup read on. A LULU is a newly coined term for Locally Unwanted Land Use in a "Field Guide To Sprawl" dictionary written by esteemed Yale professor of architecture, Dolores Hayden.

In an AJC article she says, "If you can't name things you can not define problems, and if you can't define problems, you can't correct them."

A Walgreens at the heart of the Peachtree City would be a LULU. This bears repeating. It would be a Locally Unwanted Land Use.

That is what more than 1,600 local signers of a petition opposing the commercial rezoning of Christ Our Shepherd church property are saying. The most common reaction has been, "We do not need another drug store and certainly not there."

Does this matter to Chicago-based Walgreen Company? No. The very first line of their 2003 Annual Report, after the customary letter to the stockholders, reads, "We build stores where we want to be, rather than where sites happen to be." Look it up.

Site selection is critical to Walgreens. They tried to buy out the Church Of Latter-Day Saints (with a much smaller building complex on the diagonal corner across from Christ Our Shepherd) first and were rebuffed.

Christ Our Shepherd is, however, probably neither the second nor last church that Walgreens is trying to buy out, demolish and replace somewhere in America.

Think about it. Getting a pillar of the community with a highly respected pastor behind a commercial rezoning request simply makes good business sense.

However, should this obvious tactic make a LULU more palatable for our City Council? What it unfortunately has done is focus much of the issue on the church rather than on the suitability of Walgreens' selected site. This also bears repeating.

For me it's about Walgreens' commercial rezoning, not the fine folks at Christ Our Shepherd. The central issue is the potential long-range impact of setting the wrong rezoning precedent at this intersection for the wrong reasons. Yes, money talks, but we do not always have to listen.

So what is a CUCU? Hint: It has nothing to do with a clock. It is an acronym for Covenant Undone Community Upset.

In the 1975 sale of land to the Board of America Missions of the Lutheran Church of America there was a long list of restrictive covenants.

First and foremost, "No portion of the property shall be used except for church and church related purposes." The restrictions were valid for 20 years.

Now the very same people are telling us that by placing another 20-year restriction in the form of LUC (Limited Use Commercial) the community will be protected. What is the old saying? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

The decision to sell to Walgreens was, however, not easy. What congregation would want a signature church, fountain and grounds to be bulldozed? Based on what we are hearing a lot of members still don't.

The original intent of the restrictive covenant was clear. Walgreens' approach is equally clear. They build 24-hour stores where they want them to be, rather than where sites happen to be. Still, a property owner has rights. One of which is the right to request a rezoning.

Churches are private property owners, not public entities. They already have special property privileges in recognition of community service. Churches do not pay taxes and they can build in any zoning, residential or otherwise.

The rezoning to commercial is what so many in the community oppose. It is an over-simplification, but for many this seems to be a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Only about 3 percent of Peachtree citizens are members of Christ Our Shepherd, and we already have nine pharmacies in town with a tenth on the way at Target.

If not a Walgreens plus another business to be named, then what? Christ Our Shepherd is in my opinion a resilient, engaged congregation whose ministry will grow no matter what the decision. They also have other options.

Chicago-based Walgreen Company probably would not even notice. They are growing the business. In an average week Walgreens opens one new store a day and two on Sundays. Losing one corner in Peachtree City certainly won't affect their stock price. There are of course more suitable building sites in town, with the proper zoning, for commercial development.

Walgreens also has other LULUs. Just talk to the residents of Buckhead where jackhammers recently began tearing apart yet another community icon, and for what? They are relentless. Walgreens knows what they want and they usually get it, regardless of the cost.

This is a very serious issue that hopefully I have not trivialized, but rather added more definition. What we are hearing across the community is that this is a real LULU, Locally Unwanted Land Use.