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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Driving in "4/8"
manner might save you from injury in accident
By
Marsha Bomar
Street Smarts
Special to GwinnettForum.com
SEPT. 10, 2004, Duluth, Ga. -- The 12th of September 1970 was a
very special day for me. It was the day my driver's license showed
up in my mailbox (I remember the date because it was also my sister's
birthday). I grew up in New York City and took my test shortly after
my 18th birthday - that was the youngest you could be to have a
license back then.
More than 30 years of driving all across the US and overseas, I
thought there was nothing new to learn. With changes in technology
and safety-related research, as my 16 year old prepared to drive,
I found out that there is much to learn all the time.
A recent seminar with the Road Ready (www.roadreadyusa.com/)
staff highlighted some of the points that new and experienced drivers
need to know.
Air bags came into general use in 1993; designs have changed as
have the materials, but the form of the deployment is the same balloon
type rapid expansion.
When I was learning to drive, we held the steering wheel at 10
o'clock/2 o'clock. I was told that was for stability and control
- which translated into safety. That was before the introduction
of air bags into vehicles. Now as my son prepares to drive the rule
is 4 o'clock/8 o'clock.
The Oklahoma Police Notebook talks about air bags and safety saying,
"An air bag is not a soft, billowy pillow. To do its important
job, an air bag comes out of the dashboard at up to 200 miles per
hour - faster than the blink of an eye." The new 4/8 rule provides
just as much control of the vehicle but an extra margin of safety
should the air bag deploy. In Manitoba, Canada the Public Insurance
Company is promoting 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock for the same reason.
It seems to me that 4/8 is a better. Just picture where your hands
go from the 10/2 position as the air bag pushes on them. They may
hit your face or the driver's side window. In either case, injury
can occur from the force alone, or from jewelry, or from glass if
the window breaks.
If your hands are at 4/8, they are simply pushed down on to your
lap or to the soft seat. This safe hand position must be gaining
in popularity, as the cruise control and radio controls are now
often placed so they are most accessible from 4/8 (see photo).
At the other extreme, there are car manufacturers removing air
bags and putting televisions in their place on the steering wheel.
This is a double safety issue in that you lose the protection an
air bag provides and add a clear distraction to the driving experience.
As you choose your driving style and the configuration of your
automobile, remember the 4/8 position. It might save you from injury!
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Board
of Regents can keep "University Center" in college name
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
SEPT. 10, 2004 -- The announcement by the Board of Regents that
it will designate college status for the Gwinnett University Center
is welcome news. While we are happy with this news, in view of the
continually swelling enrollment at the Gwinnett University Center,
it appears this announcement came much later than it should have.
 Some
have questioned whether this will be good for Gwinnett. All you
have to do is look across Atlanta at Kennesaw State University to
see what a campus of a University System of Georgia can do for a
community.
Kennesaw started as a junior college in 1966, enrolling 1,014 students
in its first year. Today it is the third largest campus of the System
(more than 18,000 students projected this year). It continues to
grow. It's amazing to tour the Kennesaw campus and see all the construction
going on to accommodate this growing student body. In most cases,
funds for this construction have been pumped into the Cobb County
community by the University System of Georgia. The Board of Regents'
policy is for the "money to follow the student," both
in support through staffing and in constructing additional facilities
as needed.
Gwinnett will see that same sense of ownership on the part of the
Board of Regents once it begins operating as a four-year state college
here. Gwinnett's Board of Commissioners has contributed initial
funding for the University Center campus, purchasing 159 acres for
the campus. The commission's willingness helped establish the toehold
of the campus and should pay big dividends for the future.
Gwinnett's designation as a "University Center" has been
an innovative and unique advancement on the part of the University
System.
Perhaps the Regents will consider adopting the name and concept
of Gwinnett State College AND University Center. Here's why: It
would allow Gwinnett State College to offer its own degree program,
and promote and set policy for the campus. The "University
Center" component would keep in place the opportunity to offer
in Gwinnett the best of the entire University System. It would keep
the University of Georgia graduate program, now about 10 per cent
of the enrollment in Gwinnett; keep the Medical College of Georgia
nursing and allied health programs; keep the Southern Polytechnic
engineering technology offering…all on one campus.
It would make the Gwinnett campus more complete, not merely offering
a liberal arts base, but a wider array of disciplines.
After all, more and more freshmen cannot get into Georgia's research
universities, simply because of space allocation. To allow these
three specific institutions to have components at the large Gwinnett
campus would be more efficient for both the student and University
System.
In effect, keeping the University Center status would be a "win-win"
for the new State college, for students and for the University Center.
The missing link, right now, is for a strong leader to guide and
promote Gwinnett State College (and University Center.) What is
sorely needed is a president on campus to smooth the transition
from a partnership with other institutions, to lobby for status
and to help mold its own image as a stand-alone entity----all no
small tasks. When the Regents open this search for a leader, we
expect a whopping number of professional educators will jump at
the chance to apply for what should be one of the most sought-after
positions in this country.
Regents: identify this leader, quickly. The campus needs that person,
and so do you, so that the new institution can become an even greater
central cog in providing an innovative education in Georgia in growing
Gwinnett.
ABOUT OUR SPONSORS
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to you at no cost to readers. Today's sponsor is the Gwinnett
Chamber of Commerce. From answering your questions and providing
a host of useful information, to promoting growth in our county,
there are people working every day to help make Gwinnett a place
where businesses thrive and success lives. For more detail, go to
www.gwinnettchamber.org.
For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm.
McLEMORE'S
WORLD
A call from the president
The latest from cartoonist Bill McLemore:
NEWS
Gwinnett's second largest,
newest park to open Saturday
Gwinnett County Parks & Recreation will host a grand opening
celebration for Phase One of Little Mulberry Park in Auburn on Saturday,
September 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A ribbon cutting ceremony to
officially open the park will be at 11 a.m.
This initial phase encompasses 485 acres of the 890-acre park,
located north of Dacula. The park is bordered by Hog Mountain Road
to the north and Fence Road to the south, with access to the first
phase at 3855 Fence Road.
Little Mulberry Park features five miles of trails including two
one-mile paved multi-purpose trails, a handicap-accessible trail
around a pond, and more than two miles of woodland foot trails.
Other amenities include a large rustic-looking picnic pavilion,
two smaller picnic pavilions, restrooms, a playground, and an observation
terrace at the peak of the West Meadow, which is one of the highest
elevations in Gwinnett County.
"I think the size and natural beauty will be part of the appeal
of Little Mulberry Park," said Sharon Plunkett, director of
Gwinnett County Parks & Recreation. "It's rare that we
have the opportunity to preserve such a large tract of land, especially
in areas growing as quickly as Auburn and Dacula."
Construction of the first phase of Little Mulberry Park was funded
through the 2001 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
A second phase will be constructed at a later date on the remaining
405 acres of park property. This phase will include the 200-acre
Karina Miller Nature Preserve, additional trails, including those
designed for equestrian use, a lake with several fishing piers,
and a second entrance on Hog Mountain Road. Future phases with additional
amenities are possible.
On Saturday at 10 a.m., a special Blue-Bird House Workshop will
be held for children and families, along with live animal programs
from the Lanier Museum of Natural History. Children will learn about
blue bird habitats and will have hands-on step-by-step instructions
how to build an actual bluebird house that they can take home from
the park. Nature walks and hikes, a wildflower meadow planting children's
activity, and storytelling are some of the activities that will
take place during the celebration. REI will be on hand with displays
and instruction on outdoor gear for hiking, and Crystal Springs
will pass out free bottled water while supplies last.
Little Mulberry Park is the second largest park owned by Gwinnett
County. The largest, a 1,795-acre tract east of Grayson in the Harbins
area, was purchased in 2002 and is not yet open to the public. Tribble
Mill Park in Grayson is the third largest park with 700 acres, followed
by Yellow River Park in Stone Mountain with 566 acres. Altogether,
Gwinnett County owns more than 7,791 acres of parkland and greenspace.
For more information call (770) 822-8840.Or go online at www.gwinnettparks.com.
Royal Art Festival coming Sept. 18 in Norcross
The Royal Arts Society is sponsoring an Arts Festival and 5K Twilight
Run on September 18 in Norcross. The event will be from noon until
7:30 p.m. in Thrasher Park, in Historic Norcross.
Many activities will be offered during the Arts Festival. They
include art demonstrations and hands-on-fun with painting and pottery
on the Royal Court; live theatre performances and music on the Royal
Stage; storytelling and poetry readings in the Royal Gazebo; a Royal
Feast with food and drink sold by downtown and area restaurants;
and, the Royal 5K Run, Tot-Trot and Fun-Run. T-shirts with award-winning
art on the front will be given to all 5K runners or sold to Festival
participants.
The Royal Arts Society, Inc. is a Georgia non-profit corporation
established to champion an appreciation of the arts and to promote
active participation in artistic endeavors.
Visit www.royalnorcross.com
for race registration and additional information or call 770-823-0694
for more information.
ENCYCLOPEDIA
TIDBIT
9/10: Georgia's Yerby
was first black novelist to have bestseller
Frank
Yerby (1916-1991) rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction
tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. He was the first African
American to write a best-selling novel and to have a book purchased
by a Hollywood studio for a film adaptation. During his prolific
career, Yerby wrote 33 novels and sold more than 55 million hardback
and paperback books worldwide.
Frank Garvin Yerby was born in Augusta on September 5, 1916. His
mother was Scots-Irish and his father African American. He graduated
from Haines Institute (1933) and Paine College (1937), both located
in Augusta. Yerby continued his education at Fisk University in
Nashville, Tenn., where he received an M.A. in 1938, and at the
University of Chicago, where he began studies toward a doctorate
in 1939. He later migrated north, first to Dearborn, Mich., where
he worked as a technician at Ford Motor Company, and soon thereafter
to Jamaica, N.Y., where he was employed as an inspector at Ranger
Aircraft.
Yerby's first literary success came in 1944 when he received the
O. Henry Memorial Award for his short story "Health Card,"
which focused on the racial inequities faced by an African American
steel worker. The Foxes of Harrow (1946), in particular, laid the
foundation for his career as a popular novelist by becoming the
first best-selling novel by an African American author and earning
him the title "king of the costume novel." Many of his
novels are set in the antebellum South and feature dashing white
male protagonists who experience adventures of romance, mystery,
and intrigue.
In the late 1950s and 1960s he wrote novels that touched upon issues
of race and southern culture. The 1971 publication of his masterpiece,
Dahomean, which focuses on the life of an enslaved African chief's
son who is transported to America, serves as the culmination of
Yerby's efforts toward incorporating racial themes into his works.
On November 29, 1991, Yerby died of congestive heart failure. At
the time, he was living in Madrid, Spain, his place of residence
since his self-imposed exile in 1955. Throughout his career Yerby
remained a beloved native son of the South, receiving honorary degrees
from Fisk University (1976) and Paine College (1977).
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Who is your competitor
when it comes to superiority
"The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior
to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to
your former self."
-- Whitney Young, (1921-1971), educator, civil rights leader.
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