Opinions

1/16/02

The True Citizen
P.O.Box 948
Waynesboro, GA 30830
(706) 554-2111

One Map Please!
One map please! Presently, Burke County has two redistricting maps on the table. One has been approved by the Burke County Commission for its five districts. The other is on the table of the Burke County Board of Education (BOE) and differs from the county plan. This is not good. There should be one map for both, and right now there is a difference that exists because Willie Latimore, vice chairman of the board of education, dislikes the county plan and decided to have one drawn that he likes and will support. We sincerely believe this confrontation could have been avoided had the county commission and the school board met jointly to discuss the redistricting. Our view on the issue of a joint meeting is shared by some members of the commission, the school board and other county officials. When the county commission considered the map that chairman Jimmy Dixon brought back from Atlanta, the school board should have been invited to sit in.

They were not. Why not? We don't know and no one has offered an explanation. Latimore told The True Citizen he did not like the county map because it gave his district too many blacks, and he did not want someone else telling him what the district lines would be. So he went to Atlanta last Tuesday, the same day that the board of education held its night meeting, and had a map he "can live with" drafted. It was put on the table Tuesday night. Because of the difference, BOE chairman Johnny Jenkins told the board to take the map home with them and come back later this week to make a decision. Timing is of essence here. The map or maps must go to the general assembly for approval after which they will be sent to the U.S. Justice Department for review. There is nothing that says that the county commission district lines have to be the same as the school board district lines. But they always have been and for orderly voting this has proved to be successful. Can you imagine what will happen if the Burke County Board of Elections and Registrars had to cope with two different sets of district lines in voting in coming elections? As we see it after viewing both maps, the county map appears to be the best and meets all the requirements concerning population and equal representation, and the BOE should concur in this and reject the "Latimore map."

Same Leadership
The leadership of the Burke County Commission and the Burke County Board of Education for the year 2002 remains in the hands of Jimmy Dixon and Johnny Jenkins, respectively. Both men were re-elected by their boards last week. For Dixon this is his second straight year at the helm of the county governing body. Jenkins has served as chairman of the board of education for 18 of his 22 years as a board member. Frank Williams will continue as vice chairman of the county commission, and Willie Latimore will hold a similar post with the BOE. It is important that our community continues to prosper economically and educationally, and we believe Dixon and Jenkins are capable of providing the leadership necessary to be sure this happens.

You've heard the term oxymoron. In case you never met one face to face it is a figure of speech that puts contradictory things together for emphasis - like describing a nonpartisan quest of anything among politicians. Down here in our neck of the woods when we see buzzards circling we know right off that there's something rotten somewhere. The buzzards are there to do what nature intended them to do: to clean up the mess. I think it safe to say that when buzzards congregate over a rotting carcass they operate in a truly nonpartisan way. Unfortunately we can't say the same for the flocks that hover over the plains of public domain. While vigorously proclaiming their nonpartisan dedication to truth, virtue and the wants of the American people, they perch around the putrefaction loudly squawking about the culpability of the opposing party. An undertaker friend of mine once told me that he had a cartoon posted above his cooling board. It featured a bedraggled old buzzard sitting on a fence.

The starving scavenger mused, "Wait hell, I'm going out and kill me something." To avoid speculation that mortician was not a resident of this area and has been dead for many years. The hullabaloo over the Enron failure made me think of that impatient buzzard. Denying that the Republican administration had done anything to illegally assist the imploding energy company, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said, "Companies come and go. It's . the genius of capitalism." Sensing a chance to kill him something, Senator Joseph Lieberman pounced on that remark calling the secretary's sentiments as "cold-blooded" and more suited to the 18th century than the 21st. Of course the senator will conduct "a nonpartisan investigation" into the whole affair.

But what if the administration had gone to the aid of the failing company? Who doubts for a minute that loud squawks of collusion and favoritism and corporate largesse would have been heard from coast to coast? The most honest remark I've heard to date was that of Senator John McClain who admitted that the whole political flock, from the Senate to the House, was tainted by the enormous sums of money donated to Republicans and Democrats alike by the industrial giant. Obviously there should be an investigation into the deliberate deception practiced by the executives who emerged from the ashes with billions while the employees and retirees suffered irreparable loss. But Secretary O'Neill was right. Businesses come and go in the natural course of commerce. Chrysler was successfully bailed out years ago saving hundreds of jobs and a major corporation. The savings and loan scandal of years past demanded enormous government contributions to salvage what they could, again with implications of political collusion. The pity is that political egos and power struggles get in the way of decisions that should demand impartial and deliberate action to protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and preserve the moral and economic strength of the nation. Must we suppose that this is too Utopian, too idealistic, too impractical in this ear of multimillion-dollar political campaigns? Or have we all come to expect the government to cover all our losses, protect us from every risk, and spare us any personal responsibility? A Roman poet from the first century A.D, bemoaned the situation of the empire; "The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now concerns itself no more, and long eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses." Even more disastrous in a republic is such limited concern on the part of the people.

Making the rounds is a newspaper poll purporting to show that an overwhelming majority of Georgians don't care what the Legislature does. Well, care about this: A group of lawyers feted Public Service Commissioner Lauren "Bubba" McDonald at a campaign fund-raising luncheon last Friday. On the same day, the Atlanta Gas Light Co. filed for a $50.3 million rate increase. Among the hosts at the McDonald affair were members of the law firm that represents Atlanta Gas Light. McDonald will be a key player in the AGL rate case. If you don't care whether the Legislature enacts a law to stop utilities' regulators from taking money from agents of the big utilities, you probably don't care how much you pay for natural gas. With great fanfare, the State Ethics Commission fined Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker of Augusta a measly $8,500 for failing to report business deals with Grady Hospital and the Medical College of Georgia. Both institutions receive millions in state taxpayer dollars allocated under the direction of Sen. Walker and his colleagues.

The administrative fine amounted to a light tap on the wrist for millionaire businessman Walker, whom the GBI is investigating for another business deal involving the Department of Corrections. Sen. Walker, by the way, agreed to the gentle fine, which pleased the Ethics Commission. The Legislature has given the Ethics Commission so little money that it cannot afford attorney fees to battle for tougher penalties against public officials who might fight back more than Sen. Walker. Besides, the Legislature empowers the Ethics Commission to investigate only technical financial-reporting failures and not more serious problems involving flagrant conflicts of interest. If you don't care that the Legislature makes certain Georgia has one of the weakest ethics laws in the country, you probably don't care whether lawmakers chip the public's gold off the Capitol dome.

A Fulton County grand jury indicted yet another state senator last week, this time on charges of taking money for getting a violent convicted killer transferred to a less secure prison facility. Does that situation hit your "I care" button? The charges against Sen. Van Streat, D-Nicholls, are said to be part of a widening probe into irregularities involving the state Department of Corrections and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Talk about d‚j… vu. When was the last time a Georgia governor completed his watch without a major scandal involving prisons and paroles? Probably some time before the Civil War, which was about a century and a half ago. Who's to blame for the perennial prison scandals? The Legislature. Remember this axiom about the Georgia General Assembly. The fix always appears to be in (especially on prison matters). One reason is that the Legislature refuses to police itself and demand conduct above suspicion from its members.

Again, tougher ethics laws and enforcement might improve the perception, if not necessarily the behavior, of this bunch. A sensible proposal that has been hanging around for years would allow an authority to take over management of Hartsfield International Airport from a perpetually corrupt Atlanta city government. Though Hartsfield is one of the state's most important economic assets, the Legislature has refused to move to protect it. Lobbyists for the airlines, who carry big sticks (and fat checkbooks) in the halls of the Georgia Capitol, would rather deal with a smaller and more malleable city government. Political experts tell us that the Legislature of 2002 will be mostly a do-nothing session, addressing the budget and then adjourning to prepare for elections. Of course, the usual Sturm und Drang will mark the 40-day session. Substance will be in short supply. Imagery will reign supreme. If Georgians really ignore that Legislature (as the poll suggests), they probably just don't find it entertaining enough to bother with. The body seldom does the unexpected, having been under the control of the same Democratic Party for more than 150 years.

Watching a Georgia legislative session is like keeping up with recent American League pennant races - New York always wins. In Georgia, Democrats are the New York Yankees of politics. Though in every other state Republicans have gained control of at least one legislative chamber or the executive office, the GOP in Georgia has never risen beyond the constantly carping stage. Surely, there's a reason. Maybe - to continue the metaphor - on any given legislative day Republicans are always short of heavy hitters and good pitching.