Opinions
5/01/02
The True Citizen
P.O.Box 948
Waynesboro, GA 30830
(706) 554-2111
Quote
of the Week: New Blood
“I am very proud to have worked with it (Relay For Life) for the past
four years, but it is time for some new blood and new ideas.” –
Gloria Shivers, co-chairman of the Burke County Relay For Life since its
inception.
>>See
Story Page On Page 1<<
A Crisis!
The Burke County Commission is facing a crisis concerning the county Emergency
Management Agency and to solve the manpower problem existing there affects
all 300-plus county employees.
While money is a concern for the Fire-EMA employees, they must have relief
from the long hours they are working providing around-the-clock protection
for the 600 square mile county. To get people to work and to retain what we
have at the EMA and other county departments, means more money. But the revenues
are not there. The continued “escape” from the EMA will keep on
until the commission does something about the pay, benefits, manpower and
leadership.
To solve this problem means the county also must consider its other employees.
It’s not a simple matter of deciding to increase the wages of the EMA.
County administrator Merv Waldrop also must consider employees in the other
departments such as sheriff’s, roads, recreation, courts and others.
We urge the commissioners to look at the possibility of implementing a 10
percent across the board increase for everyone who has at least six months
of employment effective July 1. This would be for the final six months of
the current 2002 budget year. At the same time Waldrop needs to study the
county’s pay plan and adjust the step increases accordingly.
To finance this increase will be painful. Each department has overtime monies
built into their budget and these monies could be used to help defray the
costs of the increase. This does not mean overtime will be completely eliminated,
it won’t, but it would be curtailed.
It will take an increase in the county’s millage of two-tenths of a mill,
$300,000, to finance a 10 percent hike over a 12-month period. Since it will
cover six months for the remainder of this year, the cost will be about $150,000.
In the meantime, Waldrop should implement severe controls over the spending
of every county agency for the remainder of the year to save money.
It will take GUTS for the commission to enact such a plan. There will be some
in the county who do not care for progress nor the EMA or Fire and will oppose
it. Such a move by the governing body probably would result in some commissioners
not being re-elected two years down the road. This problem has been in the
works a long time because previous commissioners would not take the bull by
the horns and implement adequate salaries.
The commission also should direct Earl Porterfield, the chief of the EMA,
to devise a plan that will reduce the number of stations with ambulances from
the current 10 to five, strategically placed around the county. It’s
easier to get people trained as firefighters than getting them EMS certified.
This would assure the county of not having to close fire stations on a given
day because of not having people on duty. If these stations are closed too
many times, the county’s fire insurance rating could be adversely affected.
Reducing the number of ambulances would affect the response time for medical
assistance. The county EMA has a great record of quick responses to emergency
calls, which make up 80 percent of the agency’s responses. The county
is facing a crisis … the commission must take prompt and positive action
now and not delay.
Sins Of The Father
 |
It would be serious if there were only a handful of priests so accused. That there are scores of them exposes the enormity of the problem. The church has already spent millions in settlements and faces many more court cases. The resultant monetary awards could well bankrupt the church in America. The church is still dependent upon the contributions of its parishioners.
Finances aside, the greater injury lies in the church’s witness in an increasingly secular society. Already it has created distrust of the priesthood. Young boys have confessed that now they are suspicious of priests and avoid being alone with them.
Non-Catholics have quick and simple answers to the dilemma. Eliminate celibacy for priests. Fine, except for the fact that not all pedophiles are unmarried and that thousands of priests have found greater freedom to serve their God and their calling by being wed only to the church.
Do not allow homosexuals to enter the priesthood. To me this is a no brainer. The practice is plainly condemned in the Bible, is clearly against nature and should certainly disqualify one for a clerical vocation.
But this plague within the Catholic priesthood should not be occasion for a slaughter of the innocent. Perhaps we should recall David’s ugly sins of adultery and murder, yet he was called a man after God’s own heart and was used to accomplish the divine will. He did not get off scot-free. Fact is, “the sword never departed from his house.” There is obviously a pressing need for some housecleaning within the priesthood but the goodness and commitment of the faithful must be preserved and protected.
Our Catholic brothers have some serious work to do. Ultimately it may drastically change the way the church does business. Married clergy may be somewhere in the church’s future. Certainly only a more aggressive and honest method of dealing with the aberrant priest and his victims will be tolerated by Catholic laity and society at large.
Meanwhile, let all Christians mourn the weakness of human flesh. Pray for the fallen and those who were victimized by their overt acts. Pray harder for those who have been alienated by the shameful depravity of some who supposedly held the keys to the kingdom.
Pass The Biscuits Please
 |
I am
wrestling with myself. I don’t mean wrestling with inner demons or failures
of the past; I mean I am literally wrestling with myself. Or more specifically,
wrestling with my waistline.
Let me back up for a minute. For about as long as I can remember, I’ve
wanted to be a Southern writer. There’s certain awe in the literary community
given to writers who are from and write about the South.
This goes for the general public, too. Sure, we’re ridiculed and folks
like to think we’re backwards, but at the same time, they are curiously
drawn to us. They secretly like the way we talk, the eccentricities of our
culture and, of course, our endless supply of fine Southern women.
On a merchant ship in Alaska, I once had a young man from Washington state
ask me, “You have really pretty girls in the South, don’t you, I
mean, a lot of them?” He was talking to me and our foreman, a black shrimper,
from Savannah. The black man, I can’t recall his name now, leaned back
in his chair, stroked his goatee, looked up at the ceiling recalling memories
from the past and smiled simply, “Yes we do. Yes, sir, we do.”
There’s an old adage that the first step to becoming a writer is to “put
tail to chair,” meaning grab yourself a seat and get started. Unfortunately,
this is a profession that requires you to stay seated the vast majority of
the time. Many of the young men I know in Burke County are busy farming, cruising
timber and generally moving around physically throughout their day. As I type
this, my entire body sits prone in this chair, with only nine of my 10 fingers
moving. I can double my exertion if I tap my foot to the beat of my fingers
on the keys.
Combine this occupational hazard with the fact that I am indeed a man –
a Southern man – and I eat like a Southern man, and you begin to understand
the problem I’m having.
I am fortunate that my frame is just large enough to carry my weight —
up to a certain point. Unfortunately, that point has certainly been reached.
Someone recently asked if I worked out. "Yes,” I mumbled, “at
Mobley’s. Roy Black is my personal trainer.”
The only thing keeping me in my current pair of pants is the fact that my
paltry newspaper salary won’t afford for me to eat as I wish. If money
were no object, I’d rotate between Mobley’s, Frank’s, Taylor’s
and The Lake every week. Throw in a walk next door to Del-Mac for a couple
of chili-slaw dogs, a mess of tator logs and a sweet tea so big it takes two
hands to carry, and you’re talking about a solid week of good eating.
Food is an important part of our Southern culture. We eat at church, weddings
and funerals. We have pig pickin’s, fish fry’s and low country boils.
Something bad happens to a neighbor? Fry up a bucket of chicken or bake a
casserole to let them know your prayers are with them. (Speaking of that,
I’ve recently suffered some personal setbacks and my address is …)
Of course, exercise is the obvious answer. I was running on my family’s
property for a solid two months, but then my knees started bothering me. I
tried riding my mountain bike, but I busted a tire and gave up. I took it
as a sign from God that I should not be exerting myself in such a manner.
Besides, between snakes and turkey hunters, it’s not safe to be running
in the woods right now. And I don’t want to run the blacktops because
I’ve seen the way some of you drive.
I’ve thought about dieting, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten
with the idea. Some folks here in the office are trying that no carbohydrates
diet. I don’t know whom this Atkins fellow is that thought this scheme
up, but he sure wasn’t from the South. A man needs his carbs, and there’s
no better way to take them than in the form of cornbread, mac and cheese and
mashed potatoes bathed in gravy. At least if I have a side of rice slathered
in tomatoes and okra, I’m getting two vegetables along with it.
I’ve had one of those yellow sticky notes stuck to my desk reminding
me to call Chris Beard over at Body Right for a while now. I guess it’s
time I nip this thing in the bud and finally give in. On second thought, it’s
almost noon, maybe I’ll try him after lunch.
Diogenes In The Gold Dome
 |
That’s how long it has been since state government had an honest-to-goodness, seemingly independent state auditor. His name was B. E. Thrasher Jr. He scared the daylights out of state officials and legislators. Reporters adored him.
He was the ultimate whistle-blower. He was worth a headline a week as he reported graft, corruption and waste wherever he found them, from Jekyll Island to the State Education Commission. The Fulton County grand jury appeared to be in constant session, investigating state government and calling on Thrasher to testify.
Then, one day about 40 years ago, Thrasher retired. The position of auditor gradually went from high-profile to low-profile to no-profile. The whistleblowing stopped. The dust settled. The grand jury adjourned.
(A few years after Thrasher exited, an ethics revival stirred all too briefly. Attorney General Mike Bowers emerged as a hard-charging corruption fighter. Bowers resigned in 1998 to run for governor, only to have his personal dirty laundry catch up with him and destroy his campaign.)
Flip the calendar forward to 2002. Corruption, or the appearance thereof, has become institutionalized in the Gold Dome. Legislators brazenly pick up multimillion-dollar chunks of state funds for their private endeavors. Nepotism is rampant in every branch of government. Obvious conflicts of interest are shrugged off as routine.
Ethics has been relegated to the back of the government bus. The state auditor (Can you name him? Try Russell Hinton, and don’t say Russell who?) is now a third-level career bureaucrat who works directly for the General Assembly and never acts without the express consent of the Legislative leadership.
Then consider the State Ethics Commission, a purposely underfunded, understaffed panel concerned principally with whether i‘s are dotted and t’s crossed in campaign finance reports. The commission has no authority to delve into conflicts of interest or even plain stealing.
As for the once assertive attorney general’s office, AG Thurbert Baker’s staff has spent months without result sifting through allegations of wrongdoing regarding the Pardons and Paroles Board. The attorney general also has under advisement a thick folder on Senate Majority Leader Charlie Walker of Augusta, concerning Walker’s commingling of state and personal business. No action is in sight. To his credit, Baker’s office recently secured an indictment of state Sen. Van Streat, D-Nicholls, on charges of accepting money to get kinder, gentler prison treatment for a convicted killer.
The case appears weak. Sen. Streat’s main defense is likely to turn on that tried-and-true legal theory, “Everybody does it.” The evidence suggests he may be right.
On another front, former state Sen. Sonny Perdue, the Republicans’ leading candidate for governor, has set out to make ethics the centerpiece of his campaign against Gov. Roy Barnes. Three days before Perdue unveiled his proposal for a state inspector general, his main Republican rival, Cobb Commission Chairman Bill Byrne, publicly documented instance after instance of Perdue’s phoning the prison system about softer treatment or transfers for at least 20 murderers, rapists, child molesters and other assorted felons.
The State Ethics Commission also took Perdue to task in late April for improperly handling $30,000 in campaign funds. Would-be governor Perdue may have trouble establishing his credentials as a crusader for a purer government.
Perdue’s accuser, Chairman Byrne, is not without ethics problems of his own. Byrne’s best pal and one-time financial adviser is said to be a very successful Cobb zoning lawyer, and Byrne’s most lavish campaign contributors are real estate developers.
As for Gov. Barnes, he began his administration on sound moral footing. He released all his tax returns dating back to 1985, and has made his returns public every year he has been in office. He sacked a couple of department managers for playing footsie with vendors and, in one case, allowing the theft of millions from state cash registers. Barnes established firm rules against state employees accepting gifts from folks who desire to conduct business with the state.
In recent months, however, Barnes’ ethical slope has begun to get slippery. His Senate floor leader and confidant, Sen. Steve Thompson, D-Powder Springs, is involved, perhaps indirectly, in the Pardons and Paroles mess. Thompson’s estranged wife, Lisa, contends she lost her job as a lobbyist for the P&P board because her soured marriage to the senator crippled her ability to influence legislation.
Barnes has remained mum about the paroles board problems as well as Sen. Walker, an ally the governor needs to energize the African-American vote in November.
This week Gov. Barnes opened his TV campaign for re-election. His first round of commercials dwells on his Georgia roots and his determination to improve education. Those are sound themes. His spots are persuasive.
But, at some point during the coming months, the governor needs to use some of his campaign millions to reassure Georgians he is on the side of honesty and ethics. He ought to consider proposing the establishment of an additional high-level position in the state government — that of state auditor to be elected statewide in a nonpartisan election. Perhaps then the spirit of B. E. Thrasher will again stalk the corridors of the Capitol, infecting would-be miscreants with a fear and trembling they have not experienced in four decades.
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
