From an article by Matt Barnwell posted on today’s macon.com:
Meanwhile, (Macon City Council) has been luke warm at best to the idea of privatizing garbage collection…
(Council member Ed) DeFore told administration officials they still do not have enough votes on the council to pass privatization.
“They’re not going to do it,” he said. “And y’all can put that in your pipe and smoke it.” DeFore and other council members said shifting Macon’s trash to a private landfill is the best option because it preserves the jobs of city employees and could provide financial help in closing the city dump. (Emphasis added.)
Preserving the jobs of city employees. Now be thoughtful, not just caustic. If you were a city councilperson, should you consider preserving public employment as a legitimate concern of city government?
“Council committee wants mayor to close Macon’s landfill, pay company to take city trash” macon.com 7/21/2008
24 responses so far ↓
1 missoldmacon // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:48 am
Seems to me that some on Macon City Council have forgotten they themselves were hired (elected) to work for Macon taxpayers. Not the other way around.
Putting this issue off is an extremely short-sighted action - and if something isn’t done within a reasonable amount of time to privatize garbage collection, it’s going to cost the good taxpayers much more in the future.
2 Cotton Avenue Solon // Jul 22, 2008 at 9:36 am
Anchor, the answer to your question is NO!!!
I would consider un-preserving and terminating the terms of ignorant and self-serving councilmen as a legitimate concern of city taxpayers.
3 Angel // Jul 22, 2008 at 10:31 am
Unfortunately, I hear supposedly well educated people opine that the purpose of government - city, county, state, or federal - is to employ people. There’s a fellow who writes letters to the Telegraph on a regular basis to this effect. It is implied in the employment policies of almost every government agency.
As long as government is limited and small, this foolishness is relatively harmless, but in my lifetime all levels of government have been constantly on an up escalator.
I am old enough that the piper won’t be paid in my lifetime but I despair for my grandchildren.
4 gladiator // Jul 22, 2008 at 11:00 am
I am pretty old. When I was coming up (in rural Michigan, initially, a stone’s throw from U of M) and then outside Atlanta and later SoWeGa, I thought of government employees as part of the middle class.
Now they drive Rolls and Bentleys to my non-profit fundraisers, and show me their recent Cartier acquisitions….Thinking about it???
5 eveneeser // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:02 pm
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned — this is the sum of good government.”
-Thomas Jefferson
6 Ima Thinkin // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Maybe it’s because I am trying to be more conscientious as to what goes into my body in the form of food, but I think the play on words between “…smoke….” and “preserves” is interesting. In my mind’s eye, I see a smokehouse full of hams, not jobs. Then, the words “salt-cured”, “freeze-dried”, “frozen”, and “pickling” flood my mind!
Hmmm, what do I want for lunch?
7 augustus // Jul 22, 2008 at 2:54 pm
The official purpose of government is the frugal and efficient administration of services in a way that suits the needs and wishes of the tax payers.
What is the real use of gov by the politicians? Why it is to build a personal power base to control and form society according to the personal whims and social desires of individual politicians, and to soothe inflated egos.
Was I allowed to say that, Ima?
8 Grayrider // Jul 22, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Macon city goverment has out lived it usefulness. It has become an self serving all consuming to the point that it can not support themselves from the taxes taken from those within it boundries. I know that for most whom will read this blog an my entry that I speakin to the choir. I see on a daily basis the waste of time and money on goverment employees. In many cases door stop are more productive than a goverment worker. Most have a It’s not my job mentality, Therefore it is never goverments job to perserve jobs. Lastly, I know for fact how goverment works (pardon the pun) Having been a former frustrated goverment employee tired of watching people getting paid for not working, I am now a very highly paid contractor doing the same job as when I was a state employee, however, now thing get done.
9 gladiator // Jul 22, 2008 at 4:39 pm
There are people in government who work hard, serve us well, have big fat ole brains to think with, and use them. I hear them say how frustrating their work can be when, after a lot of good work, some nincompoop comes along and wrecks it. There are people in the military who give their lives for our freedoms, and they work with people who are professional, all-day-long nose pickers. Every industry has its useless baggage. It seems that the feds, states and cities often have a big ole load of those who we marvel at, due to their amazing lack of purpose.
10 Ima Thinkin // Jul 22, 2008 at 5:55 pm
It was absolutely perfect, Gus!! Thank you for your consideration and effort. XXXOOO
I am, however, turning Grayrider into the
spell checker, the Apostrophe Protection Society, and his high school English teacher!! Stick with us kid, you’ll learn.
11 Ima Thinkin // Jul 22, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Whoa! Before y’all get carried away!! I am fully aware that Grayrider can not be turned “into”, so, instead, I will be turning him “in to….”
lol
12 gladiator // Jul 22, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Ima, you are targeting poor Gray selectively. Did you not see my 101 faux pas of grammar over the past few (many?) posts. I am a mess. Time for more coffee and less syntax errors. So glad no one, (esp. Ms Francis), did not notice!!!!
13 Cotton Avenue Solon // Jul 22, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Ima………just a word of caution to you. I heard that the Reverend Jesse Jackson arrived in Bibbiottville this afternoon on a Greyhound bus, and is staying at a downtown hotel.
Be careful in how you address newcomers such as Grayrider. Jackson would say that you are “speaking down” to the “Grayriders of our country” if call them “kids”.
14 augustus // Jul 22, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Ima approves!
15 Citro // Jul 22, 2008 at 7:34 pm
“Close enough for government work…..”
16 The Photographer // Jul 22, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Dang man! Way to philosophical. I thought the purpose of government was to screw the public out of their tax dollars while smiling. Then tell the public they’re too stupid to make a decision on their own and make them think we’re blessed to have them screw us.
17 gladiator // Jul 22, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Ima, I don’t think Photo is going to elude the syntax police any time soon.
18 Ima Thinkin // Jul 22, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Rev. Jackson has arrived in Bibbiotsville?!! You’re absolutely right, Cotton, “kid” was inappropriate; I should have used the word “wether”.
19 missoldmacon // Jul 23, 2008 at 1:33 am
While we are on the subject of city workers, etc., I shall never forget the day I was stopped at the light @ Riverside & Pierce Ave. waiting to turn left onto Pierce. Over on the right hand side where I-75 N. ramp comes into Riverside is a concrete divider - rather large - that directs traffic either across Riverside or else to right going north on R’side.
There were two city workers standing on that concrete divider spraying weeds. They were using a hand pump sprayer, probably a 2 gallon size. One was holding the wand directing the weed killer towards the weeds, the other was holding the sprayer by its handle.
And there I said to myself “Goodness sakes, I didn’t know that was a 2 man job working a hand sprayer. Here I’ve been using my same type 2 gallon hand sprayer by holding it with my right hand & directing the wand with the left hand!”
A fine example of waste in our city - 2 people doing a job that could be done by only one!!
I swear it is a true story, too.
20 Ima Thinkin // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:10 am
Glad, please note that I, too, am subject to my own proof-reading. :-)
21 gladiator // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:16 am
Ima, you would have been one of those golden-haired kids in my English class. I rarely see you misuse the King’s English. Of course, in this vernacular, I think the King I refer to is Elvis. Or Cotton.
22 gladiator // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:18 am
Are we imagining poor Cotton’s life now, living in the house with Miss America? Was he prepared for this? When she opens her mouth, there is no “rah rah” as from a cheerleader, like, say, Mary Katherine Gallagher. Rather, it is like having Miss America Phyllis George open her mouth and talk like Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Three cheers for the guys who dare to marry smarter on the evolutionary ladder.
23 Cotton Avenue Solon // Jul 23, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Thanks a bunch, Gladiator……..I very much needed to hear that comment.
24 gladiator // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Thank your own self, Cotton. You were the one smart enough to seal that deal. Kudos.
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