TODAY'S ISSUE: A Journey in the Evolution of Our Personal Freedoms
ELLIOTT BRACK: UNC Press Continues to Observe Button Gwinnett Day
McLEMORE: Unemployment line
FEEDBACK: What Goes on in a Museum During Dog Days of Summer
UPCOMING: First Diversity Seminar on Tap at Gwinnett Chamber
TODAY'S QUOTE: How Difficult This Situation Must Be For the Apes

"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man."

-- H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956).

"What goes on in a fine art museum during the dog days of summer? I bet you picture us with our feet up on the desk enjoying a nice cold lemonade, right?"

-- Lisa Conner, Grayson

TODAY'S ISSUE
Protecting our "freedoms" has "evoluted" considerably
By Jerry Queen
Lafayette, La.
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's note: Today's writer is a former resident of Atlanta, where he taught first at Chamblee, then at Marist School, from 1970 until 1988, and was their baseball coach, winning five state championships. He later built houses near Lake Lanier, before moving in retirement to Louisiana in 1996. He conducted youth league baseball camps for 17 years in Atlanta. He was an early member of the Atlanta Dugout Club (1966), and belonged to the Gwinnett Rotary Club. -eeb.)

AUG. 22, 2003---When we lived in tents, we worried about bad animals, bad people and bad weather. Guards were often posted outside the tents for protection --- but we had our "Freedom"-- in a wide open world. Communication beyond the confines of the home was limited to live air-carried, sometimes relayed, sounds; and for further distances, hand-carried letters.

Dwellings of logs eliminated the dangers from bad animals. However, concerns about bad people and bad weather were still present. Guards, still used, were moved to a more comfortable inside. We continued to hold on to our precious "Freedom". The telegraph and the Post Office arose to accommodate our desired, and later necessary, long reaching correspondence.

Next, homes of secured roofs and insulated interior walls lessened our worries from bad weather. Bad people were also deterred, but not for very long. We resorted to locks on the egresses. We still maintained our "Freedom". Radios and telephones began to appear, but mostly as luxury items.

With the "bad" perpetually challenging the "good", and time marching on, locks were no longer adequate. Someone invented the electrical home alarm system. The Internet was only an idea when personal computers began to emerge. That original idea was nothing close to what would eventually develop. Our "Freedom", still, was never in doubt.

In late 2001 we returned to posting guards. The "bad" had evoluted ( I made that word up from "evolved" and "convoluted") to the point of ignoring electronic barriers. The new guards this time were posted, inside, outside, and even in invisible places. Be that protection from real people or artificial intelligence, we still retained our "Freedom". The entire world had grown to depend on electronic media to service communication. Trivial keyboard conversation between an Australian outbacker and a North Carolina hillbilly (me) was possible and could traverse the 'net in tenths of a second.

As we approach early fall, 2003, we must again rise to fend off the "bad". But what's next? How do we build a better shield around our lives? How do we protect our communication system, the life blood of our "Freedom"?

Yelling "fire" in a theater, a public place, with the intent of mass hysteria has long been a crime. It's only a matter of time until some sort of mass hysteria will be imposed upon us via our public communication network. This almost occurred twice last week.

The present (and potential) "e-Yelling" passing through our computer systems must be addressed. Hundreds of thousands of business and personal computers were knocked out of service last week by an essentially small virus-coded file. The reason for the electrical blackout in the northeast is still unknown but was initially reported as possibly the result of computer hackers.

Five years ago pioneers in the computer world, in mass, claimed the "Internet" could be "self-policed." Wrong!

Criminals do not make good police. Now is the time for those same pioneers to rise up again and develop "ABC simple" solutions for ALL computers owners and support global laws that would severely punish writers of bad-code. Or else we will have more either false alarms, or real emergencies, once again. We need protection against this encroachment of our freedoms.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Take quiz to see how much you know about old Button
By Elliott Brack
editor and publisher
GwinnettForum.com

AUG. 22, 2003 -- In no place except Chapel Hill, N.C,. is the namesake of our county, Button Gwinnett, honored each year. It's at the University of North Carolina Press. The 51st consecutive observance of Button Gwinnett Day was August 11 this year.

Now all this is on the Internet. To learn more, go to http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/button_gwinnett/.

Their web page says: "In 1953, several members of the staff of the University of North Carolina Press became interested in Button Gwinnett while examining a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

"His unusual name prompted us to find out more about him, and we were distressed to hear his sad story: the date of his birth was not recorded; he died as the result of a duel; he left no estate and, it was then believed, no descendants; the extant portraits of him have been disputed; his signature is rare; and at that time his place of burial was not known.

"Our hearts went out to poor Button, and we decided to proclaim a day to commemorate this forgotten hero."
Also on their web site is a quiz about Gwinnett. Check out how much you know about old Button himself:

Button Gwinnett History Quiz

1. BG was born in: (a) Australia; (b) California; (c) England; (d) Massachusetts.

2. BG married: (a) Anne Brontë; (b) Ann Bourne; (c) Anne Boleyn; (d) Ann Landers.

3. BG was a: (a) religious leader; (b) planter; (c) baseball player; (d) gambler.

4. BG owned: (a) St. Catherine Island; (b) Catalina Island; (c) Hatteras Island; (d) Manhattan Island.

5. BG played an important role in: (a) legalizing draft beer; (b) eliminating drafts in public buildings; (c) prosecuting draft dodgers; (d) drafting the Georgia Constitution.

6. BG was a good friend of: (a) Lyman Hall; (b) Memorial Hall (c) Tammany Hall; (d) Grayson Hall.

7. BG was a signer of the (a) Bill of Rights; (b) Constitution; (c) Declaration of Independence; (d) Magna Carta.

8. BG was wounded in a: (a) bar brawl; (b) duel; (c) public riot; (d) riding accident.

9. BG died three days after an encounter with: (a) Polly Adler; (b) Lachlan McIntosh; (c) Betsy Ross; (d) John Quincy Adams.

10. BG died at the age of: (a) ten; (b) twenty-five; (c) forty-two; (d) ninety-nine.

11. BG's signature is the: (a) least valuable of the Signers; (b) most valuable of the Signers; (c) hardest to read of the Signers; (d) most ornate of the Signers.

12. BG left, at his death: (a) many children; (b) many debts; (c) many paramours; (d) many personal documents.

13. BG was buried: (a) in Grant's Tomb; (b) in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; (c) somewhere in Savannah--maybe; (d) at sea.

14. BG's portrait: (a) does not exist; (b) currently hangs in the lobby of Atlanta's Fulton Federal Savings & Loan building; (c) was briefly on loan to the National Art Museum; (d) is thought to be in the hands of an anonymous private collector.

15. The UNC Press BG Society is the: (a) oldest in the country; (b) largest in the country; (c) possessor of the largest collection of BG memorabilia; (d) all of the above.

For the answers, see at bottom of today's Forum, just before the Thought of the Day.

McLEMORE'S WORLD
Another employment opportunity

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