Wow. A nice weekend with friends. A good way to end up. I do have SOME information for you. I did find out who "Jerry Gilbert" is… He is the Executive Director of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia. I still haven’t received a written reply, but after several tries, I reached Mr. Gilbert on the phone. He indicated he had been busy with "The Board" and had not had a chance to reply to my letter yet. (I wrote near the end of July…) He responded to the restatement on my two questions with answers I disagreed with, but nevertheless I did pledge to him that I would hold my full response until I had received his answers in writing. With what he said on the phone, I am most anxious to share his feelings with you when I "officially" receive that response. He seemed to blame any of the shortcomings I believed in within the Retirement System, on the General Assembly. He stated that his function was to carry out the rulings of the Assembly. In this he seemed frank and honest. Mr. Gilbert has been with the State Government since the 60’s and was very comfortable in answering my questions. Next week could be a long column….

In the meantime, did you ever notice that when a political district moves beyond the "born here, raised here" qualification to win public office that the inefficiency decreases and the efficiency increases? One of the first places to notice this in our part of the country was Florida. I think maybe this is happening here and I wonder the effects when the Black, the Hispanic, and the Student voters outnumber the "old locals." Never forget that the "renters" pay just as much property tax as the "owners" through their rent. How else does the landlord get the money? (I was a landlord here for a while…)

As usual, I’ve got to end with a pet peeve. As a teacher, I have a good sense of the students that receive free and reduced lunch prices. I believe in the free lunch program. No student should have to go, because of family finances, without a healthy lunch. Nothing bothers me more though, as a taxpayer, than the number of students that receive free lunch, yet have enough money during the same day to buy Cokes, ice cream, and other snacks. Shouldn’t these students use their money FIRST to pay for lunch and not depend on my tax money? So many of these students are coming to school with $100+ tennis shoes, gold chains, pagers, etc., and they always remember to remind me of what was on HBO the night before…. What is wrong with this picture?

Remember, keep smiling, we’re on the right side, huh? See y’all next week…