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TODAY'S ISSUE
Redistricting: Great opportunity to put policy over politics
By Kelly McCutchen
Executive Vice President
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Special to GwinnettForum.com

FEB. 17, 2004 -- In ordering legislators to redraw the state House and Senate district maps by March 1, a panel of federal judges has given Georgia legislators an opportunity to put sound policy over politics.

The sound policy in this case is to draw compact, logical districts that keep communities together and encourage competitive elections. Districts designed to protect incumbents of one particular party only encourage voter apathy and cynicism about our government, increase the influence of special interests and produce career politicians who become more interested in increasing their own influence and power rather than representing the people they serve.

Our democratic republic is at risk when the average citizen - even politically active citizens - cannot describe the boundaries of their U.S. congressional district, or their Georgia House and Senate district. It's bad enough that most voters can't identify their elected officials, as Jay Leno so often points out with his "man on the street" interviews. If we create these irregular districts, we should not be surprised that voters are not only uninformed, but unengaged and confused.

Armed with laptop computers loaded with sophisticated software, the redistricting gurus can target Democrat and Republican voters with the accuracy of a smart bomb. Little thought is given to communities and common sense as they jump from street to street and carve through neighborhood after neighborhood in search of every last voter to consolidate their power and fine-tune their master plan.

This high-tech "gerrymandering" is not only bad public policy, but it often backfires. Georgia is a perfect example. Despite attempts in 1990 and 2000 by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to create districts favorable to Democrats, the result is now a Republican-dominated congressional delegation, a Republican governor and a Republican-controlled state Senate.

Democrats certainly are not alone in their partisan fervor. Districts created in 2000 by Michigan Republicans would easily win a spot in the Gerrymandering Hall of Fame. In fact, the GOP-controlled legislature managed to stuff six Democratic incumbents into just three seats. Both political parties are equal-opportunity offenders. Back-room deals are even cut in legislatures without one dominating party. "You protect me and I'll protect you" is the behind-the-scenes motto.

Politicians like to talk about their involvement in the community, but how can a state senator really get to know his constituents in a district like the 51st that runs from Cherokee County in metro Atlanta more than 100 miles all the way up to rural Rabun County in the state's northeast corner? What about the countless citizens whose views have little chance of being heard because they live in a district drawn to so overwhelm their party that the incumbent is never challenged and voters have no choices? Or think about the 14,253 residents of Pike County in Middle Georgia, who are represented by one state representative, but find themselves divided by three state Senate districts.

Partisan redistricting limits the people's voice by protecting career politicians and arbitrarily insulating them from competition. Partisan districts also make the power of incumbency nearly insurmountable. Setting the standard of a fair, objective, nonpartisan process will restore trust in elected officials, increase voter participation and create a better Georgia for us all. © Georgia Public Policy Foundation (February, 2004).

ELLIOTT BRACK
Time to come clean with my own military experiences
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

FEB. 17, 2004 -- Since others are coming clean with their military records, perhaps it will be good to authorize release of my records, too.

My eight year obligation included three and a half years duty in Germany, with a strategic mission. Lucky for me, I was never tested under fire…of one sort.

My military service began with nearly two years as a member of 48th Infantry Division of the Georgia National Guard. I attained the private first class rank. Another two years came in the Army Reserve, attaining the rank of Specialist Fourth Class. Note I was moving up.

After graduation from college, I was commissioned through the Reserve Officer's Training Corps in the Quartermaster Corps.

After the Quartermaster Officer's Course, I was shipped aboard the USS Darby to the Giessen (Germany) Post of the United States Army, Europe. For the next three plus years, my daily operating duty was as a commissary (supermarket) and Class VI (liquor) officer first in Bad Nauheim, and later, at Giessen, both north of Frankfurt.

That's right. I faced the rigors of duty each day trying to satisfy mostly military wives when it came to food. Sometimes it was even hostile action, for military wives can be quite demanding.

Yet there was another duty I was assigned, one of strategic importance. You see, our location was 50 miles from the East German border. You must remember that both the United States and the Soviets of that day had missiles pointed at each other. This was the height of the Cold War. Literally, we were at a fever pitch, both sides armed, facing one another, and waiting for the other one to blink.

So my strategic job: in case there were hostilities, at a moment's notice, I was to get the military dependents, women and children at our post on an escape route over back roads to a point west of the Rhine River. By these back roads (the autobahn would be used for military traffic) the distance was about 50 miles.

To do my job right, I had to travel these back roads regularly, to be familiar with them, knowing any detours, problems, bottlenecks. After all, I would be leading this group to so-called "safety" in case of hostilities.

So once a month or so, my wife and I (she spent the entire tour with me in Germany) on the weekends would drive the "escape route" through the back German countryside. It was pleasant enough, but always done with your eyes wide open, hoping you never had to do it for real.

And can't you envision what it would have been like to lead a group of military housewives on such a frantic trip?

COMMAND: The colonel said one day: "You ever had a command?" giving me the additional duty, as commanding officer of the 61st Army Postal Unit, with 18 men in 17 locations. The main job: once a month, the sergeant with a .45 revolver, and I, armed with cash, had to make the circuit to the 17 post offices to pay my "men." I had that added job about four months, while the officer in charge was ill.

THE MESS TRAYS: Ordered to Frankfurt one day, a train sergeant had me "sign" for an entire transport train hauling soldiers that had been court martialed. Our designation was Bremerhaven, to return these misfits to the States, where they would be dishonorably discharged. Next morning the sergeant woke me up to report that the men had thrown their mess trays out the windows when going through a tunnel. It took about eight months for a Report of Survey to find no fault with the officer who had signed for the train (me). Whew!

The military taught me so much. It was a wonderful experience. Today's youth, many of us feel, should be required to spend time in such training, and learn from other good sergeants. It would make our country a whole lot safer…..from military foes. But probably no one can prepare anyone for military housewives.

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FEEDBACK
2/17: Says smoking ban about rights, not about health

Editor, the Forum:

I have grown up to believe that America was about freedom and opportunity… For the first time in my life I am questioning if this is being taken away. For government to dictate whether or not smoking should be allowed in a private business is overstepping boundaries and taking away our freedom of choice.

Smoking is unhealthy - that is a proven fact; but that is NOT the issue here. A restaurant owner takes the risks, buys the food, and pays the rent. If they "choose" to provide for a smoking section or even to allow smoking in the entire restaurant, that should be their "choice". As Americans you can "choose" to go or not go to that restaurant. It is all about choices and government has no right to dictate those choices.

I hear Americans talking about protecting public health. I hear Americans saying: "There is no such thing as a non-smoking section in a restaurant." Don't go to that restaurant. There are plenty of restaurant owners who have "chosen" to make the entire restaurant non-smoking. Again, their "choice"…

I also said that America was about opportunity. The people that "choose" to risk it all and open a restaurant, or a bowling alley, or a pool hall, or a tavern in hope of success should not be dictated to by government. Is government taking the risks? Are they buying the food or just collecting the taxes? If some Americans do not want to be "subjected" to second-hand smoke then demonstrate those beliefs by making a "choice" not to go to those restaurants.

America is supposed to be about choices and freedom. Government should not be allowed to dictate what occurs in private business - it isn't American. I am passionate about freedom and proud to be an American and this is wrong.

-- Susan Halpert, Alpharetta

ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBIT
2/17: Wiregrass country abounds in south central Georgia

Wiregrass country, named for its native tall grass (Aristida stricta), is an historic area of the South shared by southcentral Georgia, southeastern Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida. In wiregrass Georgia, folk-cultural traditions include a range of phenomena: folk art (quilting to yard decorations); festivals (peanut festivals to rattlesnake roundups); foodways (chicken pilaf to mullet); music and dance (shape-note singing to play-party songs); play and recreational activities (fireball to fishing); occupational lore (turpentining to shade tobacco); vernacular architecture (shotgun houses to tobacco barns); and religious observations (Baptist Union meetings to funerary customs).

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
What it takes concerning state of happiness

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."

-- Martha Washington, first "First Lady," via Roy McCreary, Dacula.