Opinions
07/03/02
The True Citizen
P.O.Box 948
Waynesboro, GA 30830
(706) 554-2111
Quote
of the Week: A
Challenge
“It’s going to be a little more challenge for him, and we think
he’s definitely going to be able to accept the challenge there.”
– Lon Joyce, director of scouting for the Los Angeles Dodgers, talking
about the assignment of Jonathan Broxton to Great Falls, Mont.
See story, page 9 in The True Citizen.
Harold
Roland
Under
God
 |
Abraham Lincoln made a brief address at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863. In that address, revered by Americans of every stripe, President Lincoln voiced the hope “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
At the same time that a court ruled the phrase “under God” unconstitutional, the Supreme Court declared that school vouchers were acceptable under the Constitution. A great shout of rejoicing has come from many proponents of this use of tax money to support private and religious schools. One must believe that it is a reaction to the miserable record of our public schools in educating our children. We are casting ourselves adrift on dangerous waters with both these rulings.
The first amendment to the Constitution does not require that the government be divorced from any reference to or appeal to that divine providence acknowledged in every branch of government since the founding of this nation. It does prohibit any act of government that would tend to establish, sanction, favor or finance any religious denomination or sect.
Scanning the Constitution, I see no reference to the government’s responsibility to provide any system of public or private education. It may be implied by acts designed to provide for the general welfare of the United States as stated in Article I Section 8. This, however, is a function no thinking person would reject. It might arguably be one more properly administered by each sovereign state.
Even so, any vouchers, grants or infusion of government monies in any religious system of education seems a clear violation of the implied doctrine of the separation of church and state. The right of parents to send their children to private or religious schools is not and should not be infringed upon by the law of the land. But the financing of such a choice cannot be shifted to the public at large.
A great cry of indignation has greeted the court’s asinine ruling that “under God” must be deleted from our pledge of allegiance to the flag. Many will fail to see that government financing of religious schools by vouchers or any other means is a violation of those principles that have long been respected in this country.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The Ninth Court of Appeals would violate the latter rule while vouchers contradict the former. Maintaining a system whereby the rights of all are ensured is no easy task. It requires a great deal of discernment.
Proud To Be An American
 |
“Love
it or leave it,” as they say. It’s been a tough year for the good
ol’ U.S. of A; but we’re still the big dog, whether everybody else
wants to admit it or not. As if you needed reminding, here are 50 reasons
why I’m proud to be an American.
1. The First Amendment.
2. We invented the airplane.
3. Pork barbecue.
4. If it weren’t for our boys and girls, the whole of Europe would be
speaking German and sporting little black mustaches.
5. July 4, 1776.
6. We have the Grand Canyon.
7. Football.
8. SEC Football.
9. University of Georgia Football (the Dawgs will face their usual rivals
of Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, South Carolina and Tech, but also Clemson and
’Bama this year).
10. John Wayne was American.
11. When terrorist make the mistake of messing with us, we don’t have
to ask for anybody else’s permission to bring out the big stick.
12. We have more and bigger guns.
13. Willie Nelson live in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 25 (and I’ll be there).
14. Jimmy Buffett live in Atlanta (and I was at my brother’s wedding).
15. Freedom of Religion.
16. The Pledge of Allegiance.
17. This country survived a Civil War and remained “one nation under
God.”
18. McDonald’s french fries.
19. Tiger Woods is currently the world’s greatest golfer.
20. We sent our boys to the moon – and brought them back.
21. Chili dogs.
22. June 6, 1944.
23. Team USA at this year’s World Cup.
24. Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, John Stienbeck and William Faulkner –
those boys could tell a good story.
25. Jim Harrison, Thomas McGuane, Rick Bass and Cormac McCarthy – these
boys still do.
26. We invented Coca-Cola.
27. The argument of Ford vs. Chevy.
28. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.
29. Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers
Band.
30. We said, “Give us your tired, your poor and your unwanted,”
and built the greatest nation on this earth with them.
31. September 11, 2001.
32. Even with its problems, what kind of American doesn’t like baseball?
33. Apple pie.
34. Venus and Serena Williams are currently the two greatest women tennis
players in the world.
35. Paul Newman, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda and Steve McQueen.
36. NASCAR.
37. The Gulf of Mexico (Why Mexico?).
38. Red, white and blue – ’nuff said.
39. We wear cowboy boots.
40. Lucky Charms, Capt. Crunch and Count Chocula.
41. Billy the Kid, Wyatt Erp and Doc Holiday.
42. Amazon.com.
43. We have buffalo that roam.
44. CNN, the Weather Channel and the Home Shopping Network.
45. Freedom of the Press.
46. Rita Hayworth, Lucy Arnez and Marilyn Monroe.
47. We have New York City, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Charleston, S.C.
48. And Burke County, GA.
49. Three words for you: blondes, brunettes and redheads.
50. “We say grace and we say ma’am and if you ain’t into that,”
well, you know the rest.
God bless America. Have a safe and happy holiday.
A Barnes Burner
 |
The attempted destruction of Democratic Gov. Barnes’ administration has begun with a vengeance. Amazingly, the most damaging blows are coming from his old liberal friends and Democratic allies.
Understandably, his Republican adversaries – Sonny Perdue, Bill Byrne and Linda Schrenko – seem stunned. They stand by and watch the destruction without doing much more than adding “me too” or “Amen” at the appropriate moment.
Let’s review the early rounds of this Democratic demolition:
• The Georgia Association of Educators, a friend to all Democratic governors in memory, has refused to endorse Barnes for re-election. GAE objects to Barnes’ school reform plan, the one that calls for more teacher accountability. In their rush to snub the governor, the GAE policy-makers forgot a couple of things: First, Barnes has handed out hefty pay raises to teachers, making them the highest-paid public educators in the Southeast and among the best paid in the country. Second, Barnes opposes the voucher system, the one just approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. Vouchers contain the seeds of the destruction of the American public school system – and the GAE with it. Nearly every other high-level public official in the state – Democrat and Republican – endorses the voucher idea in one form or another. Barnes has been the GAE’s lone ally on the matter. Yet, they spit on him, and they pointedly refuse to endorse him for re-election when they seem to need most his support – and he theirs.
•For at least three decades, Georgia governors have ignored the environment – and environmentalists. Brushing aside business concerns, Barnes broke with recent history and attacked environmental problems head on. He made his first priority cleaning up metro Atlanta’s filthy air. He ordered dramatic abatement of pollution of the major rivers. He appointed recognized tree-huggers to the Natural Resources Board and even to the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority. That wasn’t enough. The environmentalists – the Sierra Club and the rest of them – are tearing at his throat for daring to advocate one minor stretch of highway in North Georgia to relieve traffic.
•From the looks of Barnes’ record, you’d think he was a member of the board of the state’s largest newspaper. He has agreed to nearly everything The Atlanta Journal-Constitution moguls advocated. They wanted a new state flag; Barnes gave it to them. They demanded real education reform; he provided that too. They moaned over Georgia’s weak open-records statutes; he strengthened them. They asked for a comprehensive transportation plan; he set up GRTA. They wanted bike paths; they even got those. They wanted more emphasis on trains; they got more emphasis on trains. They called for tougher ethics legislation; he unveiled a new Code of Ethics as thick as a city phone book. No matter what the Atlanta editorialists advocated, Barnes obliged. Again, not enough.
For the past two weeks, the state’s largest newspaper and its liberal editorial writers have hammered Barnes relentlessly for first one thing, then another. One above-the-fold front-page exposè breathlessly revealed that Barnes had appointed loyal supporters and generous contributors to state boards and commissions throughout state government. The newspapers have repeatedly reported that persons owning homes and property near the Barnes-supported Northern Arc stand to lose thousands as the value of their holdings diminish because of the highway. These tales have been followed by a series on how property-owners, all good contributors to the Barnes political cause, stand to reap millions because their tracts are near the Northern Arc. After reading all these stories, one can only conclude: People who own land near the Arc will lose money, and people who own land near the Arc will make money — if they contribute to Barnes’ re-election campaign. Lewis Carroll would be proud.
Now the newspaper is crying foul at Barnes’ decision to keep secret details of a complicated $1 billion-plus bid on overhauling the state telecommunications system. Trouble is, Barnes did not make the decision. It was dictated by a state law enacted to curb abuses of the bid process. Memories are short. A few years back, taxpayers lost millions (and some highway builders went to jail) when details of scores of highway contracts leaked out and bidders colluded on handing out the contracts to one another. Open bidding is a great concept — if you’re a crooked contractor hoping to make a few more bucks off the taxpayer.
The media, TV as well as newspapers, also have laid at Barnes’ doorstep the Pardons and Paroles Board influence-peddling scandal. Indeed, a case could be made that the governor waited a mite too long to act. But when he did move, he did so decisively. In addition, every principal involved in the scandal came to power through appointment by a previous governor.
Would it not be ironic if those all-wise Democratic liberals, whom Barnes tried to please most, purposely succeed in turning the 2002 general election into a referendum on his record and allow his enemies (the new flag haters, the teachers’ union, anti-open records officials, etc.) to replace him with a reactionary dolt?
Not only would it be ironic, the situation would make for great headlines for another decade or so. It also might leave Georgia in the same shape as Mississippi or even Alabama.
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
