What can be the purpose of including an opinion piece in a major newpaper ("Democrats leave us dumbstruck" by David Gelernter, professor of computer science at Yale and a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard, printed in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 5, 2005) which spends its quarter page name calling, slandering, and belittling people, individuals and groups. Gelernter tells us what the Democrats believe. He insists that the current Georgia democrats are against solving the problem of voter fraud. He wanders on to say that they are against letting people invest some of their payroll taxes in private accounts in addition to social security. He calls democrats liars. Having covered the complex issues of voter fraud and social security reform in 9 paragraphs (Most of his points are merely angry ridicule. Are we supposed to be impressed by the logic in angry ridicule?), he moves on to school vouchers, which he claims are good things opposed by those terrible teachers unions. Oh and having covered school vouchers he has time to claim the democrats are socialists, even Marxists, and has room for a closing paragragh of nothing but name calling.

Why couldn't the Atlanta Journal find someone in Georgia to address the issue of voter fraud in Georgia, which was the pretext for this diatribe by the Yalie against all things democratic? I have no answers for what the Journal Constitution people are thinking or what purpose they think is served by such poorly written, illogical thoughts, given in such a large forum. But I have some thoughts about voter fraud, social security, and school vouchers.

Have we had a big problem with voter fraud in Georgia? I watch the news religiously and I've missed any reports on fraudulent voting. I've seen lots of stories on problems with counting votes. I've seen that voting machines were distributed in the last election in such a way that blacks in Georgia waited all day to vote, but wealthy white voters could vote in 15 minutes. The primary focus of the current Georgia legislature, which is Republican in both houses, with a Republican governor to boot, has been to try and secure their unusual good fortune of being in charge. They want to stay in charge. So they have changed the voting districts for the third time since the last census, an unprecidented action, creating as many problems as possible for democrats seeking office in Georgia. The anti voter fraud bill was designed with the same purpose. In this case, the Republicans are hoping that by making it harder for older, poor people (mostly black) to have the credentials they need to vote that perhaps they can shave off a few thousand more democratic voters. There is no other purpose in this legislation, because there has been no voter fraud.

As for social security, has the president of the United States proposed anything to solidify the solvency of social security? I thought he said there is a crisis. What then is his solution? His only idea so far is to cut benefits by 40% for those "rich" people who retire making as much as 60K. Private accounts are a non issue. Democrats think they are fine, right after solvency without cutting social security.

As for the old voucher issue, I've been around longer than this issue. How come no one wanted vouchers in 1965? Were the schools better? Well actually, no they weren't. And they were segregated too. What's different today is that public schools are integrated, which has given rise to a huge new industry, private (largely "Christian") schools, which are very nearly as segregated as the schools of the 1960's. Vouchers are simply an attempt by the racist mentality that created those "Christian" institutions to find a way to make it easier for their clients to attend, by taking money out of public education to put it into segregated parochial institutions. Is there anyone who thinks there is any other issue behind school vouchers? Well hey, I'm a good ole Georgia boy and I can tell you . . . that is the issue.

And those teacher unions, are they controlling anything? Teachers join "unions" in Georgia for protection from law suits and for no other reason. The unions can't help them in any way because Georgia outlaws collective bargaining for educators. Unions in Georgia have zero power. Well I take that back, they can call the newspaper and complain about bad policies, and that is what bothers the Republican mouthpieces like Gelernter. He's angry that anyone dares oppose him. He offers no facts to support his position, but slanders, and slobers over his enemies. Gelernter is a bad writer, and it seems like he's a bad person. The Journal and Constitution do their readers a disservice by not finding something better to print. That column was rotting garbage. Phew!