Opinions
4/10/02
The True Citizen
P.O.Box 948
Waynesboro, GA 30830
(706) 554-2111
"I believe at the end, the total number of employees we will lose will be less than 40." - Greg Gluchowski, manager of the Waynesboro Kwikset plant, which will be laying off 120 workers over the next nine months.
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Working
Together
Law enforcement is under the microscope at all times -receiving more criticism
than thanks - but that's the nature of the profession.
In the past several weeks, quick work by Waynesboro police officers and the
cooperation of just plain citizens has taken two young "desperados"
off the streets and a life of crime for at least several years. The unfortunate
part of this story, however, is that these two troublemakers are only 12-
and 14-year-old boys.
Over a five-week period they were responsible for more than 30 car break-ins
and car vandalism cases throughout the city, according to Waynesboro Police
Chief Karl E. Allen
The youngest of the pair was characterized by Allen as the ringleader of a
young gang of juveniles.
Because a Waynesboro couple were alert and not afraid to call police, the
12-year-old and two accomplices were apprehended in the yard of Affordable
Automotive where a number of cars were kept, as they had started vandalizing
them and stealing parts.
The couple called city police who requested assistance from the Burke County
Sheriff's Office, and the lot and business were surrounded within minutes.
Two of the boys escaped but the 12 year old was apprehended, He had a "rap
sheet" that would make a seasoned criminal blush. The 14 year old was
apprehended a week later because of the alertness of a city police officer.
Since their arrest the two boys have been tried in juvenile court and now
will stay behind bars in a state youth detention center for the next 18 to
44 months.
An angry Chief Allen knew there was a city ordinance on the books making parents
and guardians responsible for their children, so he ordered the mothers of
the two boys arrested on the charges. They, too, now have a date in city municipal
court.
We congratulate the chief and his officers for a job well done, we thank the
couple who were not afraid to get involved and the chief Juvenile Court Judge
Herbert Kernaghan for his quick handling of these two cases and putting these
youths behind bars where, hopefully, they will come out better citizens in
a few years.
Harold
Rowland
Spring Thoughts
Tennyson
remarked, "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts
of love." Well, why not? The world is awakening from a long winter's
nap. The trees are stretching and putting on their spring wardrobe of shimmering
greens. Every flowering shrub, tulips and daffodils, even the lowly dandelions
are painting the earth with dazzling colors. The birds are singing their love
songs, building their nests and feeding their young.
Life is stirring in everything. The girls are prettier in the spring. The
air is perfumed in the spring. The sunlight is more seductive in the spring.
The young man is a part of this sensuous release of energy and primeval force.
He is at the mercy of nature, an unwary prey to the mystic power of love.
So where does that leave those of us who are past our prime, over the hill,
no longer aptly described as young, inured to the charms of spring by physical
maturity? Let me tell you, in a far more enviable position than that panting
youth.
In the spring our fancy turns to a hammock slung between huge shade trees,
a gentle breeze whispering sweet nothings in our ears, a glass of iced tea
perspiring in our hand. We long for a quiet creek bank, a can of worms and
a fishing pole.
In the rising tides of springtime we find comfort and pleasure in our companion
of many years. There are no tortuous ordeals of courtship, no threatening
rivals, no uncharted seas of relationships. There is the solid comfort of
a oneness, an indivisible blending of personalities that is the work of many
years. Love is like a pair of old slippers, a perfect fit that produces a
sigh of total contentment.
Our spring fancy is undisturbed by the hectic rush of the young. We can pace
ourselves to the mood of the moment. If we don't do it today, we can do it
tomorrow. It may not need to be done at all. We can smell the roses, amble
down a country lane, take a long nap.
Old friends, accumulated memories, grandchildren, scent the air for us. They
know no season. Even in the dead of winter they are cheering bursts of color
in the landscape of our life.
Samuel Butler opined, ". youth is like spring, an over-praised season,
delightful if it happens to be a favored one, but in practice very rarely
favored and more remarkable, as a general rule, for biting east winds than
genial breezes."
So, pity us not, you who are young and filled with flaming fancies. There
is satisfaction for us in every season. There are some biting winds that blow
upon us, but they are expected and we are prepared to face them. You must
yet endure them. We wish you well in the springtime of your life.
The Fork in the Road
 |
How's
this for irony: I'm a college drop-out who is trying desperately to climb
out of a deep hole of debt and this week I'll be teaching several 8th grade
classes at the Middle School the benefits of time and money management and
why education is important.
Okay, maybe that's not the best way to look at it. Actually, myself, along
with several other volunteers from area businesses, are working with the CSRA
School-to-Work Program. We'll be teaching a two-day course called Choices.
Through various activities and some role-playing with students, we hope to
show them how the choices they make, even at such an early age, can affect
them for the rest of their lives.
When you look at it from that perspective, I'm a prime candidate to teach
this class. In fact, I just might be one of the most qualified out of the
whole bunch. Of course, I can think of quite a few other adults who could
stand to sit in on one of the courses themselves.
People constantly want to know how I ended up in Burke County. Most times,
I assume they're just being polite or they're curious, so I give them the
short short story: "My mother was from here." In truth, the story
is much longer than that, with many twists and turns in between. If you're
ever looking to kill a couple of hours, swing by Munnerlyn, and I can give
you the unabridged version sometime.
It's a tale that spans almost 10 years, stretches from the cotton fields of
Georgia to the snow swept coast of Alaska and includes a litany of odd jobs
and professions to pay the bills. From working as a part-time deer processor
to wearing starched white shirts and talking on the phone with corporate big-wigs
in New York and London and nearly everything in between.
Before every move to a new city or changing of a job though, there was a choice.
And every choice led to another. The smallest thing can affect the rest of
your day and ultimately your life. And just like a stone thrown into a pond,
the ripples of your choice can affect those around you as well.
As a friend said this morning, "Do you go out for lunch or order in?"
Maybe you go out and bump into the man or woman of your dreams. Maybe you
order a pizza, and Mr. or Mrs. Right meets the guy or girl who would've been
standing behind you in line.
Sometimes though, those same choices can have serious consequences. A veterinarian
was recently killed in Atlanta on his way home from work. He decided to stay
late and help another vet with a surgery. Two fleeing robbers hit his Pathfinder
at an intersection, sending it end over end. Reports say the husband and father
of three was killed instantly. Co-workers said he was just that type of guy
who wouldn't think twice about sticking around to help out, a simple choice
with drastic consequences.
A month or so ago, I did something as simple as place a phone call. In hindsight,
I should have never picked up the phone, and I knew it. That choice has now
cost me a dear friend and changed the remainder of my life in the process.
A whole new set of choices will lay ahead of me now. Maybe, hopefully, one
of those down the road will help to correct some of the others I've made.
Usually, about once a week, my friend and distant relative, Cecil Hickman
(in my defense, it's by marriage only), will come by the house and ask for
some assistance with some small project or chore. It normally requires me
to dig, lift or carry something.
Once, I was duped into cranking the handle of a diesel pump that could be
described as "stubborn," at the very least. Before I finished the
task, I had rapped my knuckles against the steel tread of a gas tank until
every bit of the flesh was gone.
In between Mr. Cecil giving me explicit instructions and accusing me of working
like a city boy, we usually find the time to discuss the philosophies of life.
Somewhere near the end of these talks, Mr. Cecil always finds a way to slip
in one of his favorite sayings, "Well, you know you can't un-ring a bell."
Sage advice. And I would do well to think about the sound that bell might
make and for just how long its ring might last long before I ever struck it.
The Redistricting Decision: What Does It All Mean
 |
Hip-hip-hooray was a bit out of place. But you can't blame the Georgia Republican chairman for trying. Reed is noted for finding the tiniest silver lining in the darkest bank of roiling thunderheads.
This time he outdid himself. A three-judge panel in the District of Columbia handed Reed's Georgia Republicans a resounding defeat last week, one that the GOP must endure for another 10 years.
The court ruled that the state's Democratic leadership had drawn constitutionally acceptable legislative and congressional maps for a total of 249 districts. The judges found fault with only three jurisdictions, all in the state Senate. The Democrats had made no bones about it: They drew the maps to maximize and protect their partisan power, which is apparently just fine with the court.
Despite much noise and protest, the Legislature will make quick work of tweaking and bringing into compliance those deficient districts. Then the General Assembly will go home, finally. The election season will begin in earnest.
Unless Reed and his fellow Republicans can find a legal rabbit in a hat to prolong the court battle, the legislative elections will result inevitably in another round of Democratic triumphs. When the dust clears and the 2003 Legislature convenes, the Democrats will still be firmly in charge of the Georgia House and Senate. And Democrats will increase their number from three to as many as six or seven U.S. representatives in Georgia's new 13-member congressional delegation. So what do this decision and its ramifications mean for you and me?
Probably this:
Business as usual in the Georgia Legislature. Democrats will continue to run the show. For the most part, Republicans will be kept at bay and out of power. If Speaker Tom Murphy retires soon, his successor in the House could provide a better demonstration of civility toward the out-of-luck GOP members. But that will only be show.
The resurgence of Democrats in the Georgia delegation may give the donkeys enough strength in Washington to recapture majority control of the House of Representatives. In the olden days, such a shift would have meant some senior influential Georgians would move up in the congressional hierarchy. Today, Georgia Democrats have no senior influential members in the House. So a new Democratic majority won't mean much, if it comes to pass.
Taxpayers ought to be happy. This matter was settled in record time with perhaps record-low legal fees. Georgia government filed a lawsuit to test the legality of its maps without going through the bureaucratic hoop-jumping of getting "pre-approval" from the Justice Department.
(Remember the 1990s The Justice Department of President George Bush the Elder played an unprecedented role in dictating how the state's districts should be drawn even before the charts were submitted to the Legislature. Then, when the Legislature approved the new districts, the Department of Justice rejected both the legislative and congressional maps on the basis of racial discrimination. The Legislature redrew a third set of maps in 1992. The federal court decreed that the new congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act and indicated the court was prepared to find the state legislative maps unlawful as well. Not until 1996 - just four years before the new reapportionment census - did Georgia finally gain court approval of its congressional and legislative districts for the 1990s. Even that was better than the 1980s, when the state was forced to hold special elections after the courts rejected the "official maps," and the Supreme Court upheld the rejection.)
At least Republican and Democratic candidates know where they stand as they go into the next round of elections, even if many of their constituents don't have the vaguest idea which district they live in or who might represent them in Washington or Atlanta.
Despite the likely continuing reign of Democrats thanks to the court decision, demographics suggest Republicans and independents command a steadily growing plurality of Georgia voters. Those statistics indicate a Republican governor and/or lieutenant governor could preside over a Democratic-controlled Legislature in, say, 2006 or 2010. The century-long love-in of the Democratic good old boys might at last come to an end.
One more thing: To hang on to power, Democratic leaders made unprecedented concessions to some black leaders. For instance, a whacky-looking congressional district was created in east Georgia to provide Senate Majority Leader Charlie Walker with a good chance of anointing a new congressman. And 4th District Rep. Cynthia McKinney, whose words and antics in Washington routinely embarrass Georgians, was given a rock-solid safe district as a reward for her good works for King Roy & Company.
Bill Shipp
is editor of Bill Shipp's Georgia, a weekly newsletter on government and business.
He can be reached at P.O. Box 440755, Kennesaw, GA 30144 or by calling (770)
422-2543,
e-mail: bshipp@bellsouth.net,
Web address:
http://www.billshipp.com
