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TODAY'S ISSUE
What should and should not our government do for us
By Randall C. Parker
Special to GwinnettForum.com

CUMMING, APRIL 15, 2005 -- First, I want to express my appreciation for the GwinnettForum. I have enjoyed and found thought provoking every issue, particularly the articles relating local history--both first hand stories and from the Georgia Encyclopedia. Although I live in Forsyth County your publication uniquely addresses my greatest concern about ignorance. Yes, I do believe that we can learn from our mistakes--if we acknowledge and remember them. And yes, we are doomed to repeat them, if we do not.

On your recent topic, leaders (winners) of government have always used whatever media was available to promote their own views. Spoils of war and patronage for supporters have always been a part of government. Perhaps we are being awakened to the inherent costs of supporting governments that feel obligated to intrude into every portion of private lives.

As I age, I have come to trust that well informed citizens will ultimately make decisions and behave with consideration for the greater good of society on their own, given the opportunity. This may not be the most efficient process, there may be many false starts and lessons to be learned, but ultimately decision making by consensus achieves the most lasting benefits.

I think the framers of the American government were trying to achieve this by limiting the powers of any individual so that action would (should) require some consensus, if only by a majority. It seems that the need for substantial funds to be elected (or appointed) to a part of government today has corrupted their intent. It seems inherently unfair that elections can be bought by manipulations of the facts, packaged attractively, and broadcast widely. Perhaps the long term solution is to educate Americans about classical liberal values, that the best government is the one that intrudes in private lives the least.

Government does not need to be involved in the adult individual’s spiritual and religious beliefs, including the right to live and the right to die, and or what drugs we use and how we acquire them. I believe that government no longer needs to provide universal education, since private school proliferation, home-schooling materials, and on-line opportunities are now available.

Yes, in the short term, government will need to provide child daycare in the form of public schools and mandate comprehensive exams as a prerequisite to adulthood (with areas of weakness diagnosed and remedial education mandated).

But in the long run, perhaps we need to allow our venerated elders the opportunity and the challenge to provide the social and moral skills transfer to our children without a government mandated curriculum. This was considered standard only a 150 years ago in America, and more recently in other cultures.

Perhaps the easier access to news and information that the internet has afforded us the ability to disclose individual acts of government manipulation more easily. Perhaps we are less cynical today about our expectations of government ethics. Perhaps we are learning from our mistakes.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Aurora's new home, spring, cameras and a rhymer for purple
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

APRIL 15, 2005 -- Congratulations, to Lawrenceville, on winning the race to be the home of the Aurora Theatre. This is a major building block in re-vitalizing downtown Lawrenceville. Mayor Bobby Sikes and the City Council should be most proud of this accomplishment.

What the Aurora Theatre has done in its nine years in Duluth is truly amazing. They have enriched the area with a professional acting company, showing the rest of us what good, live entertainment can be.

Now their decision to locate in Lawrenceville in an environment that will be especially framed for them,
Is another feather in their cap. It also recycled an older, but quite useful building, in what promises to become a vital new downtown image for Lawrenceville.

For the City of Duluth, the loss is a blow. Some have suggested that it focuses the need for the city government to renew its efforts to strengthen the city through improved communications among its officials. It hampers impetus that the re-building of the downtown effort has achieved in recent years.

Catch up day: Ah, spring! We've never disliked rain, realizing this is what gives us in Metro Atlanta the beautiful trees, the lush lawns, and the overflowing flowers that are so abundant these days.

In particular these days, we have even another reason to appreciate the rain: the temporary relief it gives us from the continuous flow of pollen. The rain helps rinse the trees and bushes (and our cars) of the pollen. And if a heavy enough rain, it even flows the pollen toward the gutters and ditches, and away from us. (By the way, even Cartoonist Bill McLemore has a view on pollen this week. See below.)

Pollen in recent days has been unusually heavy, and for some people, quite an irritant. Yet just like the rain, we must have pollen in order to have the abundant vegetation that we so love in Atlanta. Soon, pollen will be gone from our sneezes and congestion. And the rain will continue to bless us. Even with small problems, ah, this is spring. Enjoy!

To enjoy the springtime even more, don¹t wait until really hot weather: get out and enjoy our Georgia mountains one day soon. The feeling is almost electric as you walk or ride through the mountain country, breathing in the fresh air. If you are close enough, the springtime is also a great time to enjoy the Georgia beaches, with the sun not the searing heat we will see later in July and August. Ah, spring: enjoy all you can!

Red light cameras, granted, can stimulate safety. But at least one magazine says that red light cameras that many local governments are installing at busy intersections are primarily for generating revenue, not creating safer driving conditions. In Montgomery County, Md., local officials re-timed the yellow light from four seconds to two seconds to get more drivers to run red lights. In Washington, the company that operates the cameras in the District of Columbia gets a bonus when tickets exceed a quota. All this from The New Republic.

This just in from a friend: "There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!" Who can come up with the most outrageous rhyme for these three words? How about "slurple"for that sound a straw makes when you are sucking out the last tidbit of juice?

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today¹s sponsor is Norcross Station, located on Peachtree Street in downtown Norcross. Come enjoy meals cooked as you remember them from your mother's table, tasty items, with generous portions. There's a family atmosphere, with a railroad motif in this converted former rail station. We're in the middle of Norcross, easy to get to, and open Monday-Saturday for lunch and dinner. No reservations required. Check out our web site at www. NorcrossStation.com.

Today's AJC headline reads that "Airport may lose 400 screeners". That's right, lose baggage screeners, not Wal-Mart greeters.

Airport manager Bob DeCosta has requested more airport screeners for the world's busiest airport. The TSA has plans to cut 400 screeners. I have some questions for politicians of both parties.

Should we expect the terror alert code to be raised or lowered when we dismiss 400 baggage screeners (at the world's busiest airport)? There is already a failure within the Homeland Security Department to secure the nation's ports of entry by air, land and sea over the past four years despite the millions of dollars spent on "security."I wonder is there any accounting for all the money spent on "securing" the nation.

I keep hearing politicians say the nation is more secure now. Where? Are we checking all baggage loaded onto planes yet as promised in 2001? Did we secure our chemical plants like the one which recently dumped noxious fumes all over a section of Atlanta? What about our nuclear reactors like the Savannah River facility five hours east of Atlanta?

In keeping with government tradition we need to make yet another bureaucratic change to our national security. Let's add a new color to the terror alert code system!! So let's add Purple for the color I see when I think about how well the US government has responded to 9-11 or rather failed to respond.

Oh sure, we bombed Afghanistan back to the Stone Age, then we attacked Iraq, which according to the Presidents own 9-11 Commission report had absolutely nothing to do with 9-11. This is tantamount to having left our house to go into several other houses to protect ourselves, all the while leaving no one at home to guard our own house.

Given that we have not found the original government appointed boogey man in Osama bin Laden, one must draw the conclusion that the government does not care that Osama is trying to get into our house while they are off looking in other wrong houses to find him.

So I am changing my own terror alert code to add the color purple. Since I am so mad I am seeing purple every time I hear the government talk about securing the nation while reducing the people we use to do so. Code Purple: Hopping Mad!

Dr. George Kelling, a leading criminologist and the man who helped Mayor Rudy Giuliani save New York City, will be the featured speaker at a special breakfast meeting in Gwinnett on Wednesday, April 27.

The breakfast will be held at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, and is hosted by six different Gwinnett organizations. They include Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, Gwinnett Municipal Association, Council for Quality Growth and Gwinnett Police Chief's Association. Registration will begin at 7:15 a.m. The breakfast and program will begin at 7:45 and conclude at 9:30 a.m.

Dr. Kelling will be sharing the results of his research, which led to the theory of the "broken window," a metaphor for the breakdown of community organization and stability. Such revitalization is an important issue in our county now. We believe Dr. Kelling's experiences and research can benefit our community leaders as we work together to ensure the quality of life we value here in Gwinnett County.

Dr. Kelling has consulted on crime prevention projects in numerous cities including Newark, Kansas City, Seattle, San Francisco and Baltimore. Dr. Kelling¹s most recent publication, "Fixing Broken Windows," which he published with his wife Catherine M. Coles, explains in detail their prescription for solving the pervasion of problems with crime and decay in our nation¹s urban centers. In their book, Kelling and Coles offer fresh new strategies for restoring order to our communities.

Jim Maran, President/CEO, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, says: "We are honored to have Dr. Kelling speak at our community breakfast. Kelling's innovative and forward thoughts on revitalizing neighborhoods offer strategies that every community can use. In our county, we have experienced great success in terms of responsible growth and we look to Dr. Kelling's ideas on restoration to continue our path to success."

The Special Edition Breakfast will replace the Gwinnett Chamber April General Membership Luncheon. Advanced reservations are required.

Cost for the breakfast meeting is $30 per person. Reservations can be made by contacting Meghan Beard at Meghan@gwinnettchamber.org or 770/232-8816. The presenting sponsor is Gwinnett Medical Center and the breakfast sponsor is Quantum National Bank. For more information, contact Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful at 770/822-5187 or Meghan Beard at 770/232-8816.

Gwinnett's Technology Forum meets Tuesday, April 19, at 7 a.m. to hear Benn Konsynski, from Goizueta School of Business at Emory University, address their group.

Dr. Konsynski will speak on "Technology and the Art of the Possible."The meeting will be held in the Scientific Atlanta Auditorium of Gwinnett Technical College. A light breakfast will be served.

Sheer Madness is the longest running American play, continuing now over 10,000 performances in Boston. Recently it has taken legs, being performed in various cities in the country, and each time localized for that city.

Now it's in Atlanta, and we tell you, it's sheer fun. It's at the Hertz stage of the Alliance Theatre through the summer. (Many nights are now sold out!) Your eyes may water from laughing so much, as the performances tickles you throughout the body. Listen carefully to catch the many Atlanta references. There's even one Gwinnett angle, since one of the characters claims being from Snellville. Go enjoy the Sheer Madness for sheer pleasure! ---eeb

ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBIT
4/15: Georgia native is first black in Major League Baseball

Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) became the first black man to play major league baseball in the 20th century when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. He went on to become the first black player to be named Rookie of the Year, to win the most valuable player award, and to be inducted into major league baseball's Hall of Fame.

In the summer of 1945 Rickey discovered Jackie Robinson, a native of Cairo, Ga., playing shortstop for the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs. Believing Robinson would find a warmer reception in Canada, Rickey assigned him to play for Montreal during the 1946 season as a warm-up for his rookie season in the majors the following year. Rickey's hunch was correct. Robinson, the first black player in the International League in 57 years, was exceedingly popular with the fans as he led the league in batting and runs scored, and his team won the pennant.

In 1947 Rickey invited Robinson to take the historic step of playing for his Brooklyn Dodgers in the major leagues. Rickey asked Robinson to remain passive in the face of the discrimination and cruelty he was sure to encounter. Robinson agreed, though to do so was very much out of character; he was once court-martialed in the army for refusing to move to the back of a bus. Rickey and Robinson had an understanding that Robinson would be silent for three seasons. Robinson was widely revered for his show of restraint in the face of jeers, slurs, and discrimination from fans, opposing players, and even his own teammates. Robinson was named the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1949, winning the batting title that season with a .342 average. After a career of significant accomplishments, Robinson was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1962.

Robinson died of a heart attack on October 24, 1972, at the age of fifty-three. In March 2005 U.S. president George W. Bush awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Robinson. His widow, Rachel, accepted the medal, the highest honor the U.S. Congress can award a civilian.

"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others."

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