Censoring medical info has real consequences
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new administration has ordered purges to block key health information from doctors and the public. As just one example, the CDC’s respected Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report has been regularly published for decades but has been censored for the past two weeks.
The excuse given for withholding so much health information is that it would somehow “promote gender ideology.”
Such political prudery is not just a policy issue; it has real consequences for real people.
Ronald Reagan’s Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop, warned against letting prejudice censor medical information. During the early days of the AIDS crisis, he said, “(O)ur first public health priority, that was to stop the further transmission of the AIDS virus, became needlessly mired in the homosexual politics of the early 1980s and we lost a great deal of precious time because of this and I suspect that we lost some lives as well.”
STEVENSON RICHARDSON, ATLANTA
Fulton taxpayers not getting full homestead relief
How can Georgia homeowners stop the rip-off by Fulton County, the city of Atlanta and Fulton County Schools? Every year, we pay a tax to each tier of government based on the assessed value of our homes. Since 2019, officials have increased the value of our homes on the municipal tax record by 59%. This far outpaces inflation. Yes, during the social and economic chaos of COVID-19, without buying a new home or improving our homes, the basis upon which we are taxed has increased by 59%.
Don’t overlook the sneaky August 2024 Fulton County Commission’s 3.74% property tax increase.
In November’s 2024 election, Georgia citizens thought they had said ENOUGH when Amendment 1 was approved by 63% of the voters. Amendment 1 directed the state to create a Homestead Exemption using 2025 assessed values as a “base year” and limiting annual increases in value thereafter to the prior year’s inflation rate — regardless of real estate dynamics.
At this moment, both Atlanta Public Schools and Fulton County Schools are blatantly negating the voters’ will as they elect to opt out of the Homestead Exemption with their plan to continue disproportionate annual tax increases.
It’s time for taxpayers to revolt. In two years, it will be time to replace these officials who think they can rip taxpayers off for tens of millions of dollars.
STEVE OPPENHEIMER, DDS, ATLANTA
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