MITCH SNEED EDITOR (256) 234-4281 X213
editor@alexcityoutlook.com
EDITORIAL BOARD Steve Baker Mitch Sneed
www.alexcityoutlook.com
Page 4
Opinion
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A
re you looking for a way to voice you opinion on current events? Are you tired of only being able to air you opinion with friends? Why not try the public? The Outlook is looking for well thought out letters of opinion. It does not matter if anyone agrees with you. Get involved and make your opinion on issues known. We will even let you do that through the newspaper. What do you think about the way our city government is being run? How about the recent non-reappointments of our former police and fire chiefs? Or how about the idea of repealing Obamacare? Do you have thoughts on how Tallapoosa County can attract more new businesses and industry that will provide jobs for our residents? Have you been on the receiving end of a good deed and would like to give credit where credit is due? Do you have a bone to pick with any of the stories in this newspaper? If you have something to say about any of these questions, then the answer is a letter to the editor or a guest column. This newspaper’s editorial page is an open forum for our community and we encourage you to write us and make your opinion known. It’s free. If you need help writing, our editors will be happy to help you craft a letter. Our rules are simple: no cussin’, no libel, no slander. Basically, if you’d say it around the dinner table with your grandmother, it’s probably acceptable as a letter to the editor. So let’s get the conversation started. What’s on your mind? Write us at editor@alexcityoutlook.com or Editor, The Alexander City Outlook, P.O. Box 999, Alexander City, AL 25011.
Outlook The
Friday, January 13, 2017
A refrigerator can reflect a warm home
T
he older I get the more nostalgic I become. I can still remember as a child walking by the refrigerator and only seeing, of all things, a refrigerator. Today I go by our modern icebox and it has been turned into an art gallery, calendar holder and the magnet capitol of the world. There are enough magnets on that refrigerator door to lift a pick-up truck. They come from the Middle East to middle America. This collection of adhesive additions represents everything from alligators to angels. A fellow can’t even get an iron skillet near the door or it will pull it out of his hands and stick it to the face of the refrigerator. I use to think the tug I felt toward the refrig was just my appetite, but now I believe it is the magnets working on my belt buckle. One day when all those magnetic poles align I’m going to be stuck to the door like a fly in a spider web. I must admit these sticky things serve a purpose. After all, they hold up an extensive gallery of family pictures and grand kid’s original works of art. A person can trace my family history by standing in front of the refrigerator. There are pictures of our grown sons when they were babies, in high school and college, and even a few wedding prints. Along with these
DR. GERALD HALLMARK Guest Columnist
mementos are all the latest grandchildren’s pictures and colorings. It has gotten so bad that I can hardly find the door! To complete this eclectic décor there are cut out recipes, discount coupons and various newspaper clippings randomly interspersed among this hodgepodge. I think there is an unwritten rule that once an item is attached to the refrigerator door it can never be removed. Some of the newspaper clippings are about the new, durable shag carpet for your home or van. One of the discount coupons is for the latest release of a 78-rpm long play album by Doris Day and the recipes tell you how to use the exciting, new drink sensation Tang. Ugh! These things have added so much weight to the door that I have to put my foot against the wall just to open it. When it closes it has momentum of its own and just pulls you along until it seals itself. It reminds me of a large bank vault door opening and closing. I’m thinking of incorporating a vault’s hydraulic system on
my refrigerator just to open the thing! Pictures, memos and mementos are all apart of our lives. They are the little, tangible scraps of memories that remind us of love, good times and precious people. We locate them on a refrigerator door where they will be in the center of our daily activities and we can relive them at our leisure. These things trigger our minds as reminders that we are not alone. Christian homes reflect this security with the outward displays of this inward commitment. Whether it is a picture on a refrigerator door, or an open Bible on the coffee table, it is a reminder and testimony that love lives in that home. All who enter that committed home immediately feel His presence with His people. I may have overstated that nothing ever comes off the door once it gets put up. Last year I put up some colored pictures of me field dressing a deer. When my wife saw them she said something about it being gross and took them down. I think it may have been picture number four that got to her. So much for my security! Dr. Hallmark is a retired minister and a regular columnist for The Outlook. His column appears in this space every Friday.
Communication with elected officials is the key to good government. To let your most local representatives know how you feel about state or local matters, contact any of the following. Governor Robert Bentley represents the state of Alabama and its 67 counties. He was elected to office on Nov. 2, 2010, and can be reached at 334-2427100. His office is located at the State Capitol at 600 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama.
Kay Ivey is the Lt. Governor of the state of Alabama. Ivey was elected Lt. Governor in 2010. The Office of the Lieutenant Governor is located in Suite 725 of the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Alabama.
Robert Bentley
Kay Ivey
Luther Strange was elected Alabama’s 49th Attorney General first elected in 2010, and serves as the State’s chief law enforcement officer. He can be reached at 334-242-7300, and his office is located at 501 Washington Avenue, Montgomery. Mark Tuggle (R) represents the 81st District covering Coosa, Chilton and Tallapoosa counties. He can be reached by phone at 256-392-2006 or by email at tughd81@gmail.com. His office is located at 110 Calhoun Street, Suite 108, Alexander City.
Luther Strange
Mark Tuggle
Tom Whatley represents the 27th District covering Lee, Russell and Tallapoosa County. He was elected to the Alabama Senate on Tom Whatley Nov. 2, 2010, and can be reached at 334-242t7865. His office is located at 337 East Magnolia Drive, Auburn.
Quote
“Very superstitious, writings on the wall, very superstitious, ladders ‘bout to fall, Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass, seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past.” – Stevie Wonder
Today’s
Scripture
“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31
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Friday’s Question: Do you consider yourself to be superstitious?
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Today’s
Letters to the Editor
The incredible wisdom of our founding fathers
Dear Editor, We hear a cacophony of blaring outcry from the media and the Hillary crowd that she won the popular vote and therefore she should be president: 65,844,610 to 62,979,636. (48.2% to 46.1%) with the remaining going to the other candidates. But here are the facts: Trump won the popular vote in 30 states to her 20 and DC. Hillary won California 7,362,440 to Trump’s 3,916,209, 61.1% to 28.8% exclusive of the other candidates. Thus, California gave Hillary the popular vote for national totals as claimed by the Democrats and much of the media. But deduct her California vote from her national vote leaving her with 58,482,120 and deduct
Trump’s California vote from his national total, leaving him with 59,063,427. He wins in the other 49 states, 51.3% to her 48.7%. (*) So, in effect, Hillary was elected president of California and Trump was elected president of the rest of the country! This exemplifies the wisdom of the Electoral College, to prevent the vote of any one populace state from overriding the vote of the others. Trump’s campaign manager, Kelly Anne Conway, whose expertise is polling saw this early on, devised her strategy of “6 pathways to the White House”. This meant shifting focus away from California with its huge Democrat majority and going after the states that would give him the necessary electoral votes to win, FL, NC, MI, PA,
OH, and WI. At its lowest point since the civil war, could this mean the end of the Democrat Party? On the afternoon of Jan. 20, the Republican Party will dominate The White House, both houses of Congress, own 2/3 of the governorships and state legislatures with an opportunity to control the Supreme Court. Never before in American history! Think about that and let it sink in for a moment. With the demand that we do away with the Electoral College and take the popular vote being pushed by the media, etc, all Americans need to know that the Electoral College is working exactly as our Founding Fathers intended. God Bless them all James W. Anderson Talladega, Al
Monday holiday celebrates ‘America’s greatest general’ Dear Editor, Monday is a State Holiday in honor of Robert E. Lee, America’s greatest general. By April 1863, General Lee had brilliantly defeated four of Lincoln’s invading Generals. In Lincoln’s obsession to collect his 40 percent Federal sales tax for his Wall Street owners, he next selected General Hooker, pitting 134,000 Federals against 57,000 Confederates. Lee sent General Jackson undetected around Hooker’s right flank, while Lee faced the center. Jackson’s surprise attack sent Lincoln’s tax collectors reeling, whereupon Lee charged Hooker’s center,
thereby trouncing Lincoln’s fifth General. Confederate Colonel Charles Marshall recalls: “On the morning of May 3, 1863 the final assault was made upon the Federal lines at Chancellorsville. General Lee accompanied the troops and as they emerged from the fierce combat waged in that tangled wilderness, driving the superior forces of the enemy before them, Lee rode to the front of his advancing battalions. “The white smoke of musketry fringed the front of the line of battle, while the artillery on the hills in the rear of the infantry shook the earth with its
thunder. “The soldiers with their faces blackened with the smoke of battle, the wounded crawling with feeble limbs from the fury of the devouring flames, all seemed possessed with a common impulse. “One long, unbroken cheer, in which the feeble cry of those who lay helpless on the earth blended with the strong voices of those who still fought, rose high above the roar of battle, and hailed the presence of their victorious chief.” Roger K. Broxton President Confederate Heritage Fund Andalusia, Alabama
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