Yes, Ms. Cooper, greed is running amok and America is in far greater danger than we know because of it.

Call me a cynic but I imagine that things wouldn't be any different in Austin if the Master's was held there every year either...

Just because "everyone else is doing it" is not a valid excuse. We were taught this as children--maybe we need a refresher course on the Golden Rule.

I'm appalled by the price-gouging at Master's time. That is greed, but there are other factors at work regarding obesity. I'm fat, but it's my own fault, I eat when I'm stressed, because I haven't figured out a way to cope with the stress since my choices for exercise have been diminished and I didn't properly adjust my diet for the change in my lifestyle, which does now include a lot of sit-down work. What has contributed to this stress? We don't like to walk in our neighborhood anymore because the neighbors curse, sing vulgar lyrics and play vulgar, headache-inducing, booming music and allow their aggressive dogs to roam loose 24 hours a day. If you complain they gather up all their co-dependent druggie friends and bear false witness against you, not just to shut you up but to destroy you. Once you've seen their dogs maul and shake your cat and then your dog to death right in front of you, you are afraid to even walk to your mailbox. I've gained weight because I won't garden even in my backyard anymore after the vet found pellets in our (fenced in the backyard) pets and an investigator told us one of the neighbors confessed to shooting our dog after the statute of limitations ran out. I haven't successfully adapted to my change in calorie needs because I am afraid to ride my exercise bike on the deck because a bullet hit the porch wall just two feet from where I was standing. Maybe my children and I struggle with our weight because I used to walk 4 miles a day at the track and let our children play ball in the area in the middle of it and they complained that the other ball players were offering them free drugs, so I stopped bringing them there. I don't even go there myself anymore because someone with a BB gun missed me and hit another track walker right behind me in the hand on a Sunday afternoon. Another setback to our exercise goals is every time the children rode their bikes and put them up behind the two fences and gates and behind the house under the deck, one got stolen. After 5 bikes were stolen in the first year we lived there, my children stopped riding in this suburban neighborhood. At the cost of gas, we can't afford to drive anywhere else safer to ride the replacement bikes either. (and pray tell, where would that be?!) Maybe we've gained fat because we are discouraged to leave the house because everything that isn't nailed down gets stolen even in broad daylight. Maybe we're too exhausted to exercise because of all the sleepless nights wondering if that noise in the night is another door getting kicked in for another home invasion. I tried to take a nap one afternoon, boom, I look across the street and a person I don't recognize is running out the front door of a house right as the owners pull up under their carport. Three days later I see they've got someone making a new front door for their house. I thought it had been just a friend of theirs kidding around with them, but no, the kid had just kicked the front door in. Doors got kicked in all around us. A certain person tried to kick in ours, too, but he just cracked it, it was an old solid wood door with a regular lock plus two bolt locks on it. The suspect is still limping around the neighborhood, several years later. I took my children and moved to a safer neighborhood from which I've had my lawnmower stolen one hour and a half after I unloaded it from my car even thought I hid it in an enclosed area and put obstacles around it. I hadn't even used it yet! Over several months, various things were stolen off my porch and I didn't realize they were even gone until 2 weeks after I saw many of the items for sale at one booth at a local flea market. I asked the neighbors if they had had any trouble with theft and two had their lawnmowers stolen, one a bike, another a shed broken into, another had all their holiday decorations stolen every time they put them out, so they gave up putting them out. I asked them if they reported these thefts, they almost all said no. My decorations hadn't even had a chance to get out of the container yet, the thieves walked off with all my indoor and outdoor Easter decorations and didn't even bother to change the unique container when they were displaying them at the Flea Market. The container was right under the display table but my mind still didn't want to accept that someone would be that cold and bold to do this, so I checked every inch of my home, shed and carport before my mind could accept that these irreplaceable items were in fact stolen, only then did I report it, but it was too late. I've tried to live by the Golden Rule, as evidenced by my inability to conclude my precious decorations, etc. had been stolen, because I was giving those people the benefit of my doubt, but it certainly hasn't been reciprocated. If it wasn't for the excellent school my children are attending and thriving at, I would be out of Richmond county. We added up nearly $1000 worth of items stolen during the few months we've lived here and it hasn't stopped yet. I am not a newcomer however, I've lived in a few different homes within a mile of the same church since the mid '60's so I've been a caring, contributing member of this community for nearly all my life. I left a yard decoration right outside my side door a few days ago, remarked to the children they must not have liked that and it was gone the next day! Yes, there is greed, selfishness and downright evil at our doorstep. I pray to God I can protect my family from anything worse than has already happened to us. If they will trespass on your property in broad daylight and have the audacity to openly sell your stuff in public, what else will they do? We have had our hearts broken over and over and we are really discouraged. Yet we are often told, "There is no crime in this neighborhood." ????? If crime is not being reported, it doesn't mean it's not happening. If you don't report the thefts, why don't you just open your front doors, hand the thieves some hefty bags and a dolly, and invite them in for refreshments while they loot your possessions. You might as well. Oh, and an acquaintance heard my story and told me that as she walked the Crosswalk on Good Friday to the same church I attend, in honor of our Lord's sacrifice for us, someone was breaking into her car and stealing her stereo. I told her my lawnmower was stolen while I was at church service on a Tuesday morning praying for healing for certain family members surgeries. I guess no good deeds go unpunished, but I'm not the type to give up. I am still counting my blessings and doing my best to make things better. I just want other victims to know they are not alone. We have to stand up, get our heads out of the sand and work together to make things better. Is price-gouging another form of theft? What can we or should we do about it? No wonder people didn't show up for First Friday, they probably were upset about the price-gouging and/or simply didn't have enough money left over to spend out on the town. I would think the smaill business owners downtown would like to mount a protest against the gougers.

I reread my BIG comment and must confess, just like the Title says, "Bigger is not always better". My apologies for going on and on like that, I'll try to keep my comments shorter, if not necessarily sweeter, in the future.

Welcome to capitalism......