A year ago you wouldn't go to school board meetings, parent teacher conferences, PTO meetings or support your child going to summer school. Now all of a sudden, you want to get involved. You should be ashamed and do something more productive with your time, like maybe being a parent.

Councilman Yost and Mayor Fretti thank you for your strong stance against crime. Maybe the other councilmen will get on board and let these criminals know, who do not want to be productive members of society, that they are not welcome in Valdosta.

Where is our president? Why is he not here in the U.S. dealing with our problems instead of his world tour bowing and scraping to other world leaders? We are losing jobs, our homes, our pensions and savings, and he is riding around on Air Force One.

The time for consolidating the school districts is long overdue. Unfortunately, it will probably not happen. The current system will remain because it is a legal loophole for a system that too many people still seem to want: Segregation.

After the shooting of 11 people I hope the courts will get the message that these scumbag criminals need to be put away for a long time so they can't kill anymore. Valdosta is becoming another Albany.

As a VHS graduate during Wright Bazemore's time, I feel saddened and ashamed by the treatment of Coach Tomberlin. It takes years to build a strong football program, and he was heading in the right direction, while emphasizing character and grades. Times have changed, but some people are still trying to cling to the old glory days. You are a class act, Coach Tomberlin. Best wishes to you and your family.

As a relative newcomer to Valdosta I have to admit that I am appalled at the level of violent crime in this community and further appalled at the level of black-on-black violence. While the leaders of the African- American community seem very capable of rallying people to address a cause such as not showing the president's speech to the high school students, their lack of the same attention and relative silence on the violence issues in this community, makes one wonder what the priorities are of these leaders.

Why does it takes a tragic event to happen to get people’s attention. Now everyone wants to speak out.