Voters should pick the superintendents of schools

Ever since I moved to Georgia two years ago, I have heard over and over complaints about the way the schools are run. In regards to the lack of response, accountability and transparency on behalf of superintendents and administrators in Northwest Georgia, I have serious issues with their nonchalance.

I have taught in both Georgia and Alabama and can honestly say that all superintendents should and must be elected. It is the only way they can be held accountable to the public — that is done at the polls.

I tried to reach a local principal and he just couldn’t be bothered. Folks, we pay his salary! I’ll wager if he thought his job may be on the line, he would carry a more positive attitude when dealing with the public.

Hold them accountable by making superintendents be elected and choose a ticket. Appointed superintendents do not care about the public, because they are comfortable in their positions earning the big bucks. Demand your superintendents be elected, not selected by a chosen few. Because, folks, that is an oligarchy, not democracy. Do they not trust the good people of Georgia to make educated decisions?

Please do not forget that these folks are public servants and work for you the taxpayers, not the other way around. Rhonda Gore Dennis

Rome

Ihad a car wreck on July 8 and my car was totaled. A man in a black truck stopped and asked if I was OK. I told him I was and he came up to my car and stayed and talked to me until the fire department, the EMS and police got me out of the car.

I want to thank them for their help but I did not get their names. The man had a cast on his right leg. I was taken to the hospital and asked the police if the other man (in the wreck) got hurt, but they said he was OK. I know God was helping us. I am walking and taking the bus now, but I want to say the police, the EMS and the man who stayed with me were all very good to me. Beryl Isenhower

Rome

The difference between the “political elite class of professional, career politicians” and Donald Trump is that the career politicians know what they are not capable of doing and Trump does not know what he can’t do.

Thus, the politicians focus on maintaining power and “political correctness” at the expense of actually accomplishing something for this country. At the same time, they denigrate anyone who challenges the status quo.

Enter Trump, a political outsider — not beholden to donors, unions, George Soros, environmentalists, gay rights, black rights, illegal alien rights, Muslim rights, the government-owes-me-everythingfree bunch, or a thousand other special interest groups. Trump is unconventional in the extreme, brash, crude-spoken at times, very rich (which he never tires of telling us) and he does not know what he can’t do. Therefore he is willing to try to “make this country great again.”

I think this Trumps everything else, including whatever cosmetic failings he may have.

We need a president who, in the eyes of those who wish to destroy us (foreign and domestic), is unpredicatable, respected and feared, none of which we have now. Trump fills the bill. This country does not have time left for political correctness; we are truly out of time. Jack B. Bivins

Rome

Let’s hear it for Dr. Michael Jackson — his new business model that by-passes the insurance industry is long overdue. (Rome News-Tribune, Aug. 23)

During the Republican presidential debate, Donald Trump said he had given money to most of the candidates on the stage, and then went on to proudly proclaim how Washington politicians work for him because of the money he donates to their campaigns.

This is also how the healthcare insurance industry operates. Because this industry donates to political campaigns, it greatly influences the cost of healthcare. This in turn greatly increases our taxes such as Medicare and Medicaid.

I hope Dr. Jackson’s business model works for his financial benefit. All of you doctors, surgeons and other highly skilled healthcare professionals earn and deserve financial rewards. All of you have donated the best part of your lives to intense education and training.

As a former manager, I had the unenviable job of selecting a healthcare plan for our employees. One insurance company submitted their quote using three salesmen — one arriving in a BMW, one in a Lexus and the other in a Buick. I thought to myself, “Gee, our premiums help pay for some very nice lifestyles outside of the medical community.”

I hate to break the bubble of the private-sector advocates, but the “numerous managers, marketers and overseers” in the healthcare insurance business are living the high life on our tax dollars. They have the best of both worlds — a government mandate to buy their product, and no controls on what the product costs. Bill Steiner

Rome

In reading Professor James Cook’s column of Aug. 14, I found the usual insinuations regarding our president to contain language that would make one think that President Obama is doing things that no other president had ever attempted. He states that the president, “who views the Constitution as an obstacle to achieving his legislative agenda, has found ways to circumvent it,” by appointing czars, refusing to enforce some laws and using executive orders to “(usurp) the lawmaking powers of Congress.”

Using the search terms “presidential czars” and “presidential signings,” I found information readily available on the Internet: President Franklin D. Roosevelt had 11 czars focusing on everything from food to prices and production. President George W. Bush appointed at least 33 czars, including special appointees for bird flu, bioethics, and birth control. In June 2014, PolitiFact determined that, of President Obama’s 45 special appointees, “perhaps two dozen administration officials have been genuinely referred to as czars.” Some of the other appointments were given the label “czar” by the media, not by the White House.

As for presidential signings, the first president to issue a signing statement was James Monroe. Until Ronald Reagan became president, only 75 statements had been issued. Between Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, 247 signing statements were issued. Clinton challenged 140 statutes during eight years in office. As of Jan. 30, 2008, George W. Bush had issued 157 signing statements challenging over 1,100 provisions of federal law.

The only way for President Obama to approach any similar numbers would be for Congress to actually pass some legislation for the president to sign during the remainder of his term, instead of filibustering, posturing, and complaining.

IAlfred T. Shropshire

Rome n my opinion, one of the reasons Donald Trump is surging in the polls as the top contender in the Republican primary is because he does not wear a political mask like the other contenders.

Trump can go without a mask because he is funding solely his own campaign. In a way this makes him dangerous; his stance on the immigration issue and his words against “Black Lives Matter” can further divide the country and escalate the type of fears Hitler used against Jews in Nazi Germany.

I agree with Bernie Sanders that Trump is a national disgrace. It is sad that so many Republicans are silent on Trump’s behavior. It is a scary thought and a bad dream to imagine waking up the next day in November after Election Day and find that Trump won the election. It could happen; George Bush was given the election in the 2000.

Alfred Waddell Hyannis, Massachusetts

The Rome News-Tribune accepts letters to the editor emailed to MColombo@RN-T. com, as well as by regular mail.