Looking at Letters to the Editor

Recently in the city in which I near, Augusta, GA there has been a new storm water fee enacted and they are trying to pass an additional SPLOST to pay for different projects. This storm water fee has come up against quite a bit of controversy and anger from people locally because it is supposedly one of the highest in Georgia at $6.40 per household.  Now, in addition to this fee the city wants to take $100,000 of this money and divert it to another fund that is not used for the intended purposes that people would like (which is infrastructure) but rather beautification of some areas in Augusta—including downtown intersections that already have plenty of beautification done to them.  The people on the committees feel that beautifying all parts of the city is A PART of infrastructure for the city and that the city needs these changes to happen.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2015-10-12/augusta-storm-fee-funds-eyed-beautfication

 The letter to the editor however I want to talk about is speaking about how now some of this money is going to be taken and not used for certain projects in areas of Augusta that need better sewer, storm drainage, and infrastructure and about how that is wrong. The lady in question asks why Augusta needs more trees and strategically placed plants and things when things like sewers, storm drains are supposedly so vitally needed.  She believes this a “slap in the face” to all the taxpayers. She also says that she wishes she could move and that previous attempts at beautifying the city in this matter have met with the plants and things being neglected and thus the money was wasted.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/letters/2015-10-19/scrap-intersection-plan

My relationship with Literature

My relationship with literature has I think been an interesting one—at one time I wrote lots of poetry and different short stories. Though since I’ve gotten married to a librarian (and all my in-laws are librarians) I think my relationship with books and literature has certainly taken a different turn. But in my past I was always attracted to literature that was against the grain or things other people just were not reading. Either because for some people it was “too long” like Treasure Island or some people at some point deemed it subversive like “Fahrenheit 451”.  I would read Poe stories or Stephen King. I had read ‘A Rose For Emily’ as a part of a collection of short stories long before I came here to Kennesaw State. I suppose in literature I’ve either had a taste for things that were “gothic” or were going to get you talking.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember much of school and literature. I remember not liking a lot of assignments because they just seemed to be boring. At least in Middle School there were boring.  I wrote poetry and stories on my own. I didn’t like having to do it because someone told me to.  High School brought some relief with the venture into World Literature, American Literature, and then British Literature. One thing I remember specifically about Senior British Literature was we were studying the time period that involved ‘The Canterbury Tales’ and we each had to write a story that was in the same kind of vain. Basically a morality tale or play told by someone else or from the point of view of someone else. Well—as usual—being the person to read or write things that bucked the status quo I wrote about a female knight who went around performing good deeds who was eventually highly honored and rewarded. My instructor was very impressed and suggested I should seek out a publisher to have it publisher. I never did but that made me feel very good.

I don’t write very much now as I don’t simply have the time but I do try to still write poetry now and again. I recently submitted to a literary magazine and even though I was turned down I hope I’ll find another magazine and can be published that way.