Suwannee Countians, it’s time to speak your mind! How? By calling the Suwannee Democrat Rant and Rave hotline. The hotline never closes and is your way to let it out. You can let everyone know how you feel — as long as you express yourself in a respectful way.

Note: In written entries to Rant and Rave, errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation are those of the authors.

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Hi, I was reading Friday’s newspaper on the Dawg’on News, the newspaper at Suwannee High. They were talking about taking out Senior Year, and I was thinking that maybe if they do take senior year out, if of the students have their credits and don’t need senior year, maybe they can use the senior year   to help get ready for college. Then when they go to college they will be ready mentally, and they won’t miss out on anything. It was just kinda interesting and I just wanted to comment on that. Thank you.

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Yes, I am calling on the comment that was made about Councilman Bennie Thomas, and about replacing him with Mr. Douglas Udell. And I agree on that 100 percent. The mayor should appoint Mr. Udell, and Mr. Thomas should resign. He needs to step down now. Thank you.

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I am a political candidate asking for your vote in the November election. I promise to tell as many lies as possible to get elected. I will bring up dirt about the other candidates, to distract you from hearing  the truth about me or other candidates. Before the election I will pat you on the back and shake hands with you and smile to your face. I give you my word that once I am elected I will totally ignore you and vote for every bill that will raise your taxes. I will lie, cheat and steal just as much as I can while in this political office. I will vote on any deals that will make you and your family’s living conditions miserable and will deprive you of your rights as a citizen. For those of you that do not go to the polls and vote, you deserve to be miserable and I will make every effort to help you and the voters to stay home. Vote for me, I am your worst nightmare.

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On the issue of school bus routing. The transportation department arranges the route schedules. All efforts are taken to deliver students to school safely and on time. Stops are arranged according to where the students live along the  morning route. The afternoon route is routed in the opposite direction for safety reasons. There are some special situations and there are some inconveniences. Everybody cannot be first on the bus and all students cannot sit in the front  on the school seats of the school buses.  There are no private seats on the buses. There is one other option for those who are not satisfied with the of transportation offered, use your own vehicle. School bus riding is a privilege or favor offered by our community. The school bus drivers has the authority to assign seats and report behaviors. The principals at each school level has the responsibility to determine if the student’s conduct warrants the privilege of riding the bus.

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This is to whomever said that Bennie Thomas should retire because he is an embarrassment to the city, well, let me tell you, Bennie Thomas is not the only one with the city. You could start with the Mayor and go all the way down to the City Administrator, Bob Farley, the finance director, and you could continue to go right on further down the line. The  whole City Hall is an embarrassment to the city. You can’t even go in there and pay your bills without  being put under a surveillance camera to be watched and what is the city coming to, what are they trying to do, taking our taxes money to surveil us for paying our tax money. Well the City Hall needs to be cleaned up and cleaned out because they are a joke and an embarrassment to the county. Get out of town for the City Hall.

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This is toward the Mayor of the City of Live Oak. What are you gonna do about the meters being read, and the refunds going  out now we being cameraed when we go up in the City Hall to pay our bills and stuff. These people  down here need to know where their money is going. Y’all talking about budgets. OK, Mayor, what you gonna do?

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In response to the idiot who responded to the idiots regarding the Suwannee County deputies at the game in Columbia County… You are a fool if you believe they were there on their own dime. First of all, what is the need for security when Fort White has paid deputies at the ball field? (not Suwannee County jurisdiction) Secondly, where does the money come from that fuels the deputies cars? (our tax dollars) And who pays for the cleaning of their uniforms? (again tax dollars) I’m sick of being raped of my hard earned paycheck while watching the local tax paid positions continue on the way they do. If you don’t have a problem with this then maybe you would be willing to share your paycheck with me. I would love to have a company car that I could use to drive my children to school and go grocery shopping in.

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I’ve been reading and hearing about the music on the school buses thing for a while now. First of all, IT IS NOT the school board’s responsibility to regulate what comes through a radio! That would be under the FCC’s control. If the school board decides to keep the radios in the buses, fine. If they decide to remove them entirely, fine. But I don’t feel like its THEIR place to regulate what comes out of it. From the FCC website: “What are the statutes and rules regarding the broadcast of obscene, indecent, and profane programming? Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 1464, prohibits the utterance of “any obscene, indecent or profane language by means of radio communication.” Consistent with a subsequent statute and court case, the Commission’s rules prohibit the broadcast of indecent material during the period of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.” Last time I checked school hours were between 6AM and 10PM.

Second, what is the difference between a Nickleback song on 102.7 (That this originally apparently stemmed from), and some of the stuff that plays on any local country? Like there aren’t country songs that have the same content as the Nickleback song. A Hank Williams Jr. song that talks about drug use, is OK? Are we seriously that blind?

If you wanted your child to hear something different, give them a walk-man with whatever you do approve of and tell them to listen to it instead.

Schoolboard has already made their decision obviously, but I honestly feel like it would have been better to remove them entirely if it was such a controversy. Sure didn’t have any radios on the bus when I was riding it.

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To the person that posted they would like to commend coach spears and the coaching staff on a good job and said suwannee is winning again. LOL  its a little to early to say they are winning since they have won 2 games so far keep in mind coach spears has not stayed in any place very long also keep in mind this is a suwannee team that has to bring JV players on the team to have enough players to use. When they start winning state titles like they use to then you can say they are winning again but with a 2-2 record that makes you look dumb. And i think spears seems like a good guy but well see one or 2 seasons from now if hes still around. I would not bet on it ask jefferson county high about that!!!!

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Callers to 386-208-8314 may express their thoughts, good or bad, 24/7 about community issues and politics, but not about private individuals or businesses. If you prefer, you may email your comments to nf.editorial@gaflnews.com. You don’t have to give your name, and please, keep submissions to less than 45 seconds (that’s about 150 words). We want everybody to have a chance to be heard. Submissions that are overly long will be discarded. If 45 seconds isn’t enough time, write a Letter to the Editor. (Guidelines for letters appear on Page 6A of our print edition.)