TODAY'S ISSUE
27th Elisha Winn Fair commemorates founding of Gwinnett
By Terry Manning
Winn Fair Chairman
For GwinnettForum.com

SEPT. 27, 2005 -- The 27th Elisha Winn Fair is set for the weekend of October 1-2 at the site where Gwinnett County was founded in 1818. The site is the Elisha Winn House, located on Dacula Road about two miles from Dacula.

Who Holds the Fair? The Gwinnett Historical Society annually holds a two-day fair to raise funds for the operation of Gwinnett County's circa 1812 Elisha Winn House and associated buildings and properties,. That includes a one-room schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, mule barn, one -room jail, and log cabin. The society's Winn House Restoration Committee joins with other volunteers to host this old fashioned fair. The fair is open to the public and is a favorite fall activity in the Dacula area.

What Is There To Do at the Fair? Activities planned this year include bluegrass and country music bands live on the outdoor stage, a quilt competition, show and raffle, old fashioned games for the young at heart (checkers, horseshoes, stilt races, potato sack races, three-legged races, hoop rolling, etc.), clogging and square dance exhibitions, and harmonica sing-alongs. There are also crafting demonstrations (blacksmithing, quilting, looming, tatting, etc.), shopping at vendors' booths, a children's Color Guard, tours of the Elisha Winn House (decorated in early 1800s style) and outbuildings, and walks along our new nature trail. A Civil War era fashion show will be held on Saturday. The Fair has expanded from one staging area to three staging areas this year.

Where Is the Fair? The fair is just north of Dacula in Gwinnett County at 908 Dacula Road. The 20-acre complex is south of the intersection of Auburn and Dacula Roads, or is only a few miles from the major intersection of Highway 316 and Route 29. Going toward Lawrenceville from Dacula on Highway 316, turn right on the first street, Fence Road, and follow Fence Road 1.6 miles to the Dacula Post Office. Turn left onto Dacula Road and the Winn House is 2.1 miles on the right (just past the Trophy Club golf course). A four-acre parking lot is located across the street from the Winn House. Parking is free.

When Is the Fair? The fair is always the first weekend in October and will be held on October 1-2, 2005, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

How Much Are Tickets? Admission tickets are purchased at the gate and are $5 for ages 10 years old and up. Admission is free through age 9.

Will There Be Anything New This Year? Yes! If you haven't visited the Winn House since last year, or haven't been to a Winn Fair for several years, now is the time to visit again. Since last year, lots of fixing up has gone on. That includes painting the exterior of the main house, adding new gardens and landscaping, furthered renovation of the Jackson log cabin, adding a new nature walk, moving an early 1900s mule barn to the property, air-conditioning the Winn House tour areas, providing new staging areas, increasing the games and entertainment venues, and making improvements to several of the other outbuildings.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Osteopathic college of medicine opens campus in Suwanee
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

SEPT. 27, 2005 -- A trip to what was once a Suwanee warehouse surprised me the other day. It's no warehouse now, but a fully-running medical college, right smack here in Gwinnett, at 625 Old Peachtree Road.

It's the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Georgia campus of a 106 year old Philadelphia, Pa. medical school. And we bet most Gwinnettians don't know the county as a medical school within its borders, which already has 86 students busily studying to become osteopathic physicians!

Osteopathic medicine includes manipulation of soft tissues, with its practice emphasizing more of a holistic approach, since the theory feels there is a relationship between body, mind, spirit, organs and skeletal tissues.

The new Gwinnett college is a private school. Tuition is $34,122 a year. It set sights on Georgia last year after the Osteopathic Institute of the South, in Grayson, recognized a need to place more osteopathic physicians in Georgia. Barry Doublestein, president of the Institute, says: "We're thrilled that the PCOM saw fit to put their branch here in Gwinnett. We think it will help solve the physician shortage in Georgia and the surrounding states. The PCOM has an excellent reputation and we are excited about them being here."

Up in Philadelphia, the original medical college there enrolls nearly 1,000 students each year in its four year program. But the college also offers seven other degree programs, and other medical speciality studies, currently enrolling some 658 students. It even offers the Ph. D. program in psychology and medicine, and has 7,864 alumni of its doctoral program.

Work began here last January to convert a former Suwanee Solectron assembly plant and warehouse into facilities for the medical school. The retrofitting is neat and sparkling modern, utilizing the two-story-building to accentuate the space. Skylights in two places flood light in to give a feeling of openness.

About two-thirds of the building is presently used, with other programs expected to fill up the space eventually. The school bought an additional 30 acres adjacent to the building for expansion.

Dr. John Fleischman is the top administrative officer on campus. He's no physician, but a life-long educator who has been with the Board of Regents and Georgia State, and now lives near Braselton.

Dr. Fleischman began his duties on campus last July, working through retrofitting to student arrival last month. He takes a person on a walking tour of the building, points out the classrooms, a big lecture room, the on-site cafeteria and the Anatomy lab, where dissection takes place. "Want to go in there?" he asked a visitor recently, who declined.

Each class of medical students takes all their instruction in the same room at the same time, 86 together this first year. In coming years, the school expects to have 110 in each year's class.

All classes are recorded by in-house television, with students even in the back of the room able to see the instructor's demonstration on several large screen TV monitors. Taping the class allows students to go to the internet and review each class, as a way to study, as each class can be accessed via the internet for review….from anywhere.

As students progress through the year's study, they will face another technique: appointments with actors….working from a script with made-up illnesses. Again, the session between student and fake patient will be taped, for critique later by a physician-teacher. It's an innovative method for instruction, again possible for review by the student by internet.

The idea is that four years from now, today's students will be finished their regular studies, and in residency programs, prior to starting a medical career, which began for them in Suwanee.

We never considered the departure of Solectron could turn that building into such a distinctive and useful facility. Welcome to Gwinnett, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

ABOUT OUR SPONSORS

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today's sponsor is the Gwinnett Philharmonic which will begin its second decade of offering great music to the community on October 18, 2005, in the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center. The Gwinnett Philharmonic's upcoming seven-concert season will present events featuring the full orchestra and a variety of acclaimed chamber ensembles. The October 18 concert will feature the full orchestra and is titled From Russia With Love. Pianist Brent Runnels will perform Prokofiev's First Piano Concerto, and the program will also include music by Khachaturian, Borodin, and Tchaikovsky. For tickets call Ticketmaster at 404-249-6400 or visit the Web site for information on the Gwinnett Philharmonic's exciting new season: www.gwinnettphilharmonic.org.

For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm

FEEDBACK
9/26: Bring up issue abut who is really paying all these taxes

Editor, the Forum:

Interesting notes on the county tax digest. But I am dismayed that you continue to propagate the myth that business pay taxes as in, "After all, the commercial firms are paying taxes---including school taxes----and not the first firm has a child in school."

Business collect taxes from individuals (their customers) by embedding their tax liabilities in the cost of their goods and services. They then pass along those collections to the government entity (schools, city, state, federal) under the guise of some purported tax liability.

Enough with the charade. The only true tax payers in the United States are individuals.

-- Patrick Malone, Snellville

(Dear Patrick: Your ilk probably also says that we need to pay for schools by having a sales tax, such as has been proposed by the Republicans in the Legislature. Every time a tax is shifted, you can bet someone benefits. And it will be the large landowners (timberlands, etc) and corporate America who benefit if Georgia shifts its taxes for education from property based to sales based. And the sales tax in Georgia will probably run up to 12-15 per cent! Granted, business revenue has funds embedded in it for taxes. You can always bet that any legislative change in taxation benefits someone, or else legislators would not introduce. -eeb)

9/26: Remember Hoke O'Kelley and Harold Stassen as candidates

Editor, the Forum:

Yes, I remember Hoke O'Kelley. I recall meeting him on one of his many campaigns, I think it was 1966. He seemed like a nice guy and perhaps could have been elected to a smaller office.

Wasn't he mayor of Loganville years back ? He would be surprised at Loganville today, wouldn't he?

Another perennial candidate: remember Wyman Lowe ? There was some guy in Alabama who ran for governor many times, I think his name was Shorty Price. I guess those guys are all over the place. Harold Stassen was one guy who stayed too long around the political game. Wasn't he governor of Minnesota while still in his 20s or early 30s ?

-- Marshall Miller, Lilburn

(Dear Marshall: Hoke O'Kelley of Loganville was a non-practicing attorney and perennial candidate for governor, and resident of Gwinnett. He did not live within the Loganville city limits, our source tells us. He at one time owned 18,000 acres of land, which at his death went to Emory at Oxford, Young Harris and the Univeristy of Georgia. Harold Stassen had more luck running for office than did Mr. O'Kelley, though Mr. Stassen tried repeatedly for the presidency but never made it. -eeb)

UPCOMING
Deadline approaches for military academy applications

Georgia Congressmen are currently accepting applications for nomination to our nation's military service academies.

Students who are residents of Georgia and interested in nomination to the United States Naval Academy, United States Air Force Academy, United States Merchant Marine Academy or the United States Military Academy may obtain applications through their Congressman's Office or through the internet office of their Congressmen. Candidates for nomination must be U.S. citizens and at least 17 years old but not have passed their 23rd birthday on July 1 of the year of admission. Applicants must also be unmarried, not pregnant, and have no legal obligation to support children or other dependents.

Applicants will be evaluated using the "whole person concept." This includes an assessment of academic performance, leadership ability, moral character, adequacy of preparation, and commitment to attend a service academy. Completed applications must be received by no later than 5 p.m., Friday, October 14, 2005.

NOTABLE
Duluth sends team to help in Hurricane Katrina operations

The City of Duluth is assisting with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts by responding to a request from FEMA to deploy its police officers along with the City's Communication Command Vehicle and other equipment to the storm ravaged area. The City sent seven officers along with special equipment capable of providing communications between the many agencies working in the area. The specialized equipment is part of the Homeland Security effort to make local government better prepared to handle crisis.

The Command Center and a seven person team left September 18 in route to Warner Robins to meet a 50 person Search and Rescue Team. They left Warner Robins September 19 to travel to Saint Bernard Parish, La. The Command Center is being uses a the Communications and Command Center for the Search and Rescue teams. It is anticipated they would be in Saint Bernard for seven days.

RECOMMENDATION

• An invitation: What Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  
  

GEORGIA TIDBIT
Watson achieved national support for egalitarian agenda

Thomas E. Watson (1856-1922) is perhaps best known to Georgians today by his imposing statue near the steps of the Georgia capitol. His public life has been considered one of the most perplexing and controversial of all Georgia politicians. In his early years he was characterized as a liberal, especially for his time. In later years he emerged as a force for white supremacy and anti-Catholic rhetoric.

Watson

He was elected to the Georgia General Assembly (1882), the U.S. House of Representatives (1890) and the U.S. Senate (1920), where he served for only a year before his death. Nominated by the Populist Party as its vice presidential candidate in 1896, he achieved national recognition for his egalitarian, agrarian agenda. Although his terms of elective office were short, for more than 30 years his support was essential for anyone running for public office in Georgia.

In addition to his political achievements, Watson was a practicing lawyer, a magazine publisher, and a novelist. He is known as a voice for populism and the disenfranchised, and later in life, as a southern demagogue and bigot.

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Those with lofty thoughts have to wade through the truth

"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."

-- Aristotle, via Roy McCreary, Dacula.

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com

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