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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Something's
rotten in Gwinnett
By Vally Sharpe
CEO, United Writers Press
Special to GwinnettForum
(Note: Editor Elliott Brack, returning today
from France, sent the following note to serve as a preface to
today's commentary on the current controversy surrounding the
Gwinnett County Public Library: "Library commissioners shouldn't
kowtow to the tyranny of a minority in decisions involving the
administration of Gwinnett County's award-winning public library
system. If county commissioners don't put a stop before Monday
to the shenanigans going on with direction the library commission
seems to be headed, they will have to live with the fallout of
giving this county a black eye nationally. Gwinnett County needs
to keep moving forward, not forced to take two steps backward."
JUNE 9, 2006 -- Though I'm now a book publisher and author, I'm
a psychotherapist by training, and a leadership consultant. I've
been watching the situation at the Gwinnett Co Public Library develop
over the past several weeks and I've come to a conclusion. Something's
rotten in Denmark.
Sharpe |
Rumor has it that come Monday, the Library Board will vote to dismiss
Jo Ann Pinder as executive director. I can only claim Jo Ann as
an acquaintance-I don't know her very well on a personal level.
But I've worked with her and her staff on occasion-reading Dr. Seuss'
books on his birthday, judging the annual teen poetry and writing
contest (there were over 700 entries this past year), and giving
workshops. I once spoke on ethics at an employee lunch and learn.
Whether in the public or private sector, the mark of a good administrator
is her willingness to make decisions in the best interests of the
majority of her employees and patrons. And to be willing to defend
those decisions when the inevitable few in the minority are enraged
when they don't get their way. Jo Ann has done exactly that, and
as a result, the GCPL is not just Georgia's best, but has been lauded
as the best library in the nation.
I visited a website mentioned in the news to see if there was something
about Jo Ann I'd missed-something that might justify this rumored
decision to fire her. It was just as I surmised-the genealogy buffs
still smarting over a decision made years ago, those who want the
libraries and schools to police their children's reading habits
instead of doing it themselves, and a few home schoolers who apparently
want special treatment in a county whose public student population
exceeds the entire population of all but seven of Georgia's 159.
But the purveyors of the website, however incensed by what they
saw as a breach of protocol a few months ago are guilty of the same.
Without bothering to ask, they linked their website to that of the
Georgia Writers Association, which does not support their claims.
I know. I'm the president.
Jo Ann has done nothing but her job-upholding the Library Code
of Ethics and the 1st Amendment, responding to the needs and demands
of the majority of her patrons, building more libraries, using that
part of the special option sales tax allocated in a professional
and ethical way. She did lose her temper a couple of months ago-raising
her voice to a couple of her warmonger patrons, and that was clearly
a lapse in judgment. She apologized publicly, if not privately.
It was mentioned in the American Library Association newsletter.
That's more than enough reprimand for me.
This isn't about Jo Ann Pinder's performance. Couldn't be. The
fruit of her labors and those of her employees, to use a Christian
phrase, has been nothing except stellar. She has made Gwinnett County
and me, as a resident, proud. This is about politics-about somebody's
injured ego. It smells of a personal vendetta of someone who doesn't
care a whit about the library or its nearly 700,000 patrons. And
as one of them, I'm not happy about that.
Something's indeed rotten in Denmark. And it isn't Jo Ann Pinder.
I guarantee it.
I'll be at the Five Forks Trickum branch on Monday, June 12, at
6 p.m. sharp. Join me there, and wear red. Let's start finding out
what smells.
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Early cave-in by soft drink industry is good
for nation
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
JUNE 9, 2006 -- One of the most surprising announcements recently
was the word that the soft drink industry would voluntarily agree
to a ban on sweetened drinks in public schools.
Brack |
What most of us did not know was the extent of behind-the-scene
negotiations between the industry and the Alliance for a Healthier
Generation. The Alliance is a collaboration of the William J. Clinton
Foundation and the American Heart Association. It recognizes that
16 percent of all children and teens are overweight. It is concerned
with childhood obesity and physical inactivity among America's youth.
Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and Cadbury Schweppes control about 90 per
cent of bottled school sales.
Apparently this beverage industry realized it was in a bad position
in the eyes of the nation in utilizing the public schools for big
soft drink sales. And while they may have wanted to stand and fight,
they recognized the uphill battle it would be, and chose to negotiate
instead.
We'll give the beverage industry this: they understood the first
element of a public relations battle: your first loss is your best
loss. Rather than letting this issue drag on and work against them,
and draw less public support, they threw in the towel early, to
the applause of the nation's mothers and fathers concerned about
their children's health. Industry sources say 45 per cent of all
school vending sales are of sweetened soft drinks.
The victory for the Alliance has been called "the first major
victory for the obesity-litigation industry." It's more than
that. It's a victory for all of America.
Even Republicans (especially overweight ones) must have had a grudging
admiration of Mr. Clinton for pushing this issue. It is an arena
with which he obviously didn't have to become involved. Yet there
could be no better poster boy for obesity than a chubby Mr. Clinton
while he was president. Now after some medical problems, he is apparently
on a recovery path that includes fewer calories a day. That would
certainly eliminate what for the former president must have been
an extensive sweetened soft drink habit for many years.
One reason for the early soft drink cave-in on this issue must
be the companies' concern for keeping the business in schools, and
their contention that by doing this now, they can promote the use
of their other beverages, including bottled water. As a result,
the industry feels its overall school sales will not be affected
since it will replace sweetened drinks with alternates. This will
be beneficial to the 35 million public school children under the
ban.
Somehow, growing up in the South, we never gave, as a child and
later as a young adult, the first thought that soft drinks were
bad for us. We remember happy times of buying a soft drink for a
nickel, ripping open a bag of peanuts, and pouring the bag of salted
nuts into the drink. That was a good, refreshing moment many times
when a child.
Now we realize that this was not only adding unnecessary sugar
to our body, but even unnecessary salt, too. Still, its memory lingers
as a good one, and even today can make our mouth water.
We applaud Mr. Clinton, the American Heart Association, and the
soft drink industry, for this forward agreement. It's a big step
toward improving the health of our nation, and especially its children.
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McLEMORE'S
WORLD
6/9: Same-sex marriages
Another great cartoon from Bill McLemore:
FEEDBACK
6/9: Ah, a glimpse of life as it is lived
in retirement in Florida
(Editor's Note: A former Gwinnett resident and
banker, Don McEnery, who is 64, is retired and living in Florida..
He sent this along recently, which golfers might particularly
enjoy. -eeb)
Editor, the Forum:
A friend and I walked up to the green of one of the par 3's yesterday
and watched Chi Chi Rodriguez and Gary Player hit on to the green.
They walked up, Gary gets a birdie and Chi Chi pars.
As they are leaving the green, someone says something to Chi Chi
about his age (in good humor; he's 70) and he, looking over at me,
says, "That gentlemen standing there is old enough to be my
father," then turned to me and said, "Sir, how old are
you?" I said "I'm 83!" and everyone around the green
laughed.
Chi Chi tipped his hat at me and walked on by. It was really neat
the way it happened and played out.
It really is true about Chi Chi being a real character and very
fan friendly. All this happened so quickly and was just so spontaneous,
it was almost unreal. As I look back, it was a nice experience.
-- Don McEnery, Niceville, Fla.
NOTABLE
AGL Resources donates to Gwinnett Tech Education Center
Gwinnett Technical College received another corporate show of support
this month when The Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) Resources Foundation
presented a $25,000 check to fund a classroom in the college's D.
Scott Hudgens, Jr. Early Education Center.
The Hudgens Early Education Center on Gwinnett Tech's campus has
received supporting contributions from more than 50 area businesses,
corporations and private citizens who recognize the quality learning
environment the Center will provide for children and GTC's early
childhood education students when the Center opens in July.
AGL realized this impact, as well. AGL's Northeast Georgia Operations
Manager Connie McIntyre and Southeast Service Area Manager Wendell
Dallas presented a contribution in the amount of $25,000 to Gwinnett
Tech's President Sharon Rigsby and Executive Director for Institutional
Advancement Mary Beth Byerly at the newly constructed Pre-K playground
for the Center. AGL's contribution will support a Center classroom.
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
Nancy Hart one of the greatest women of early
Georgia
Georgia's most acclaimed female participant during the Revolutionary
War was Nancy
Hart (ca. 1735-1830). A devout patriot, Hart gained notoriety
during the revolution for her determined efforts to rid the area
of Tories, English soldiers, and British sympathizers.
Nancy
Hart |
It is widely assumed that Nancy Ann Morgan Hart was born in North
Carolina, somewhere in the Yadkin River valley. She died in 1830
in Henderson County, Ky., where she was buried. During the early
1770s, Hart and her family made their way into Georgia.
According to contemporary accounts, "Aunt Nancy," as
she was often called, was a tall, gangly woman who towered six feet
in height. Like the frontier she inhabited, she was rough-hewn and
rawboned, with red hair and a smallpox-scarred face.
Hart's physical appearance was matched by a feisty personal demeanor
characterized by a hotheaded temper and a fearless spirit. Although
she was illiterate, Hart was blessed with the skills necessary for
frontier survival; she was an expert herbalist, a skilled hunter,
and despite her crossed eyes, an excellent shot.
During the Revolutionary War, Hart unleashed her greatest fury
against British loyalists. She emerged as a staunch patriot, facilitating
the American cause as a spy. She often disguised herself as a simpleminded
man and wandered into Tory camps and British garrisons to gather
information, which she subsequently passed along to patriot authorities.
The Harts continued to live in the Broad River settlement for several
years after the revolution. In 1790, the area was cut from Wilkes
County and incorporated into a new county, called Elbert.
During the late 1790s, the Harts moved to Brunswick. Benjamin Hart
died shortly thereafter. Nancy Hart then moved back to the Broad
River settlement, only to find that a flood had washed away the
cabin. Eventually she settled with her son, John, along the Oconee
River in Clarke County near Athens. Around 1803, John Hart took
his mother and family to Henderson County, Ky., to live near relatives.
Hart spent the remaining years of her life there. She was buried
in the Hart family cemetery a few miles outside of Henderson.
Georgians have memorialized Nancy Hart in a number of ways. Hart
County, Elbert County's neighbor to the north, was named for her,
as was its county seat, Hartwell. In the same general area, Lake
Hartwell and the Nancy Hart Highway (Georgia Route 77) commemorate
the legendary woman. During the Civil War (1861-65), a group of
women in LaGrange founded a militia company named the Nancy Harts
to defend the town from the Union army.
THOUGHT
OF THE DAY
Words of wisdom from
our 13th President of the United States
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent
will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has
solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-- Former President Calvin Coolidge, via Diane Coleman, Lawrenceville.
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