Rockdale Citizen

"I don't like pulling forward at the drive through either! The Wendy's almost always wants me to pull forward and wait even though there is no one behind me! I am going to use your tip next time. There is nothing wrong with asking for your money back if you aren't satisfied."

"My heart really goes out to all my fellow public school teachers. I was a teacher five years and finally had to call it quits! I wanted to have a baby and be able to give more time to my child. The stress as a teacher was just too much and it was either continue teaching and die at age 30 of a heart attack from stress or live on my husband's income and raise a family. I chose the latter. Teaching used to be a great career for mothers. You could be home with your child in the afternoons and summers. Gone are those days! If you are a young woman and want to raise a family, skip this profession! You will end up neglecting your child to teach and care for other children, many of whom could not care less about your sacrifice. Another reason I left the profession is because at least 30 percent of every one of my paychecks was going towards supplies. If something isn't done the shortage of teachers will be so dire that public schools will have to shut down or hire anyone off the street to teach -- oh wait -- that's already happening!"

"The plan to put buildings close to the road as proposed, is a sure recipe for disaster and trouble. Years ago in Miami, many communities were set up that way, the city eventually had to put up 8-foot-high chain link fences, to keep the kids from being hit by cars or cars being hit by kids throwing stuff at them. The kids didn't have any space to play, it's not good planning. In the 25 years mentioned it will not be as you dream it, it will be a ghetto! So please rethink that plan, it might look good on paper, but the reality is, it only spells disaster at a very high cost."

"Twice this week, I drove on Highway 138 towards Conyers and saw four young adults walking in the righthand lane of traffic. You passed Heritage High and have to swerve over to avoid young adults casually walking in the lane of traffic. Do they want someone to hit them? Are they just stupid? Can the police please monitor this action of pedestrians? The same thing happen to me on Honey Creek. The road is for automobiles."

"Please read this article from the Salt Lake Tribune on reader comments and their task force analysis of how to prevent flaming comments. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52806057-78/comments-tribune-commenting-com.html.cs. Here is part of the editorial -- '...One thing that isn't changing is anonymous posting. This has been a contentious issue for news organizations. Several have gone to systems that require real names on comments, some through Facebook, on the hope that identifiable commenters will be more responsible with their words. In reality, the task force found those sites with real names still have plenty of inappropriate statements. Many people happily attach their names to comments that would violate our rules. And while we did hear from some who wanted to end anonymity, a much larger group told us to preserve it. Some said they would have to stop commenting if they could be identified by their employers, their neighbors or even their relatives. We have had 39,500 people comment on our stories in the past year. That number speaks to the power of our site to bring together a large community, and we don't want to dismantle that....' I hope the Citizen will reevaluate their current position on registration required to leave comments. Any system can be hacked and many who have legitimate beefs fear sign-up could lead to a possible job loss (in a roundabout way) if their identities were revealed. Like Teachers. Look how many now use the Poll to air concerns that should be brought to light. Also, many of the comments were better than the articles. It is interesting to read other viewpoints and they don't cost the Citizen a dime. Besides, wasn't it a commenter who used the FOIA to request and post the labor cost of hanging BOC portraits, whereas the Citizen forgot to request the 'labor' cost in the first article?"

Editor's note: Comments to the Citizen Poll continue to be anonymous but may be edited. Comments on the website require an email address and are monitored. The Citizen and her parent company believe that this is the responsible approach to take on the issue of reader comments.---

"To the person last week telling me to go back where I came from because Rockdale doesn't need MARTA, let me tell you that this is where I came from. That's right, I'm a native Rockdale County citizen who in fact does want to keep Rockdale like it is, a thriving, prosperous community that is a pleasure to live in. Continuing to deny Rockdale's position in the metro area is only going to drive people who want to live here away, and attract crime, particularly with all the empty buildings from people leaving and stores losing too much business. In just 10 years, the population in creased by 15,000 people, bringing Rockdale County to a population of 85,000 people, we're far from being a small rural community anymore. Back in the early '70s, Highway 138 was a two-lane road with pastures on either side,. If you want that, then maybe it's you that should leave and head east toward Covington and beyond."

"The movie theater has no respect for us. They asked me if I wanted to buy a membership card that would allow me to save money on concessions. If I bought a card, I would have the privilege of only paying $11 for popcorn and drink. I would just rather pay the $13 instead of further disrespecting myself by buying in to that stupidity!"