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Group seeks to upgrade medical care for ethnic people
By Dr. Charles A. Parrish
President, Foundations of Futures in Medicine
Special to GwinnettForum.com

DULUTH, Ga. Nov. 17, 2006 -- Imagine you're in a foreign country and you're sick, really sick. You know you should go to a doctor or a hospital, but you're not sure what you'll find there, so you don't go and just hope that you'll feel better.

But you don't and soon you're really, really sick, so you go to a doctor, but it's just as bad of an experience as you feared. There are so many cultural and language barriers in the way that you are never truly able to communicate what the problem is, you never really understand what the doctor is saying or what your treatment is supposed to be.

You get a bottle of pills, but you're not sure how you're supposed to use them and you can't read what's printed on the bottle. You're really, really sick, you've been to the doctor, but likely tomorrow you'll be even sicker.

This scenario is played out thousands of times per day as Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and even African-Americans seek out medical care in this country. The Foundation for Futures in Medicine is going to change that.

A Gwinnett-based nonprofit, the Foundation for Futures in Medicine (FFM), wants to level the medical playing field. Currently Hispanics and African-Americans make up roughly 25 percent of the total US population, but account for less than 6 percent of all doctors, according to the American Medical Association. AMA statistics show that of all minority ethnic groups, only Asian, Indian and Pakistani doctors are adequately represented in the medical community, relative to their respective positions in the U.S. population. Resultantly, cultural and language barriers and trust issues often prevent Koreans, Hispanics, African-American, Asian and other minorities from receiving the kind of quality health care that most white Americans take for granted.

FFM's goal is to send 25 Georgia minority students to medical school every year, beginning fall of 2007. To do this, FFM wants to reach down into middle school,
high school, and college campuses with a mentoring program matching minority doctors with students of like ethnicity. One of the two main reasons minority students say why they would not consider medicine as a vocation is that they simply do not know a doctor who looks like them and talks like them.

The other reason is cost. The total cost for a public medical school education can run as high as $150,000 for four years of medical schools. Private schools run about twice that. FFM's goal is to raise enough money to give 25 minority students full scholarships to cover 100 percent of all their medical school costs.

But there is a catch. No, FFM does not want the money repaid. What FFM does want is to help change health care in America. FFM will require that its scholarship recipients, upon completing their education, return to work in an under-served community, ideally of their own ethnicity, for three years as a means of "paying it forward" and positively impacting healthcare for minorities.

When the American people decide to do something, there is little that cannot be accomplished. Partisan politics may make it impossible for the government to ever solve the health care crisis. But grassroots, private sector, nonprofit organizations like FFM, can accomplish great things with the support of the American people and succeed and change healthcare for America.

Small colleges bring back football to attract more males
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

NOV. 17, 2006 -- Up until recently, I was somewhat smug when it came to the athletic programs at my alma mater, Mercer University in Macon. This school, as did many others, cut football from its athletic program in 1942, after having started it back in 1892.

Now some people would advocate that Mercer University and other small schools could benefit by having a football program. It was a surprise to me that many other small colleges, including Shorter College in Rome, are bringing back football. The reason: to attract more male students, and at the same time, to court the school's alumni. With the increasing female-dominated campuses, a football program can pull more males to a college.

These colleges which start a football program are not large, usually Division III teams, nor do they usually offer scholarships to its football players. Many good athletes want to continue to play football after high school, but do not have professional football ambitions. Instead, these athletes come to college and pay their own tuition, which at most small colleges is relatively high. Their tuition helps offset the cost of football. Start up cost for most college programs is about $1 million, which can often be raised from alumni and local community support.

Overlay that with increased alumni support for the college, and bringing back football is justified economically. In the last 10 years, some 50 mostly smaller colleges have started football programs. However, some 25 mostly larger colleges have dropped the sport.

Advocates say that having more men on campus raises the morale of students, gives the institution more statewide exposure, and opens the school year with a spirited focus. It also gives more clout to ancillary programs, like cheerleading and the college band. Having football is even important to smaller private high schools, which find the sport beneficial, putting the school at a higher level of visibility, we have recently learned from prep school educators. (Note GAC, Wesleyan, Holy Innocents locally.)

The University of Georgia's first football game was against Mercer back on January 15, 1892. (Mercer lost.) Mercer was also Georgia Tech's first opponent, and Mercer was on the schedule the first season for Florida and Miami.

Interestingly, the person who was president of Mercer in 1942 was Dr. Spright Dowell, himself a graduate of Wake Forest, who had previously been president of Auburn University from 1920-27. Caught up in the politics of Alabama, he was forced out as Auburn president in 1927 as he tried to upgrade that schools' academic program, some said at the expense of the football program.

A year later he landed on his feet as president of Mercer, a position he held until 1953. (He was also interim president of Mercer in 1959-60 at the untimely death of his successor, George Connell.)

Dr. Bobby Wilder of Macon, former Mercer basketball coach and for 40 years on its faculty as a professor, wrote the definitive history of Mercer football. Mercer stopped football, he says, since "finances were the crux of the matter. They were never in good shape financially, absolutely never. Coaches were not always honorable. They would buy equipment from sporting goods stores and not pay for it, and the coach might stay a couple of years and be gone.

"They stopped football in 1942, but it wasn't just World War II. A whole lot of things came together. Mercer never had the players, and squads would be 20-30. They would visit and play Army, Navy and SEC schools to get the big money from the game, but would get beat by 40 points or so."

You wonder if Mercer University, just this week now non-affiliated with the Baptist Convention, and with a new president in Dr. William Underwood, will bring back football. It'll be interesting to see what my alma mater does.

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Suwanee will ring in the holiday season with its annual Caboose Lighting event from 5-7 p.m. Saturday, December 2, along Main Street in historic Old Town Suwanee. This year's event will include expanded festivities as well as favorite traditional activities to celebrate the holiday season.

New to the Old Town holiday festival this year will be free craft activities for children (while supplies last), carriage rides (for a nominal fee), and grilled hot dogs and bratwurst for sale. In addition to performances by schoolchildren from Level Creek, Riverside, and Suwanee elementary schools, the Georgia Brass Band will be on hand performing favorite holiday tunes. The Suwanee Academy of the Arts and local churches will provide strolling carolers.

Santa will make the long trek from the North Pole, arriving in Suwanee, as he does every year, on a tractor-drawn sleigh. After helping Santa light the caboose, children can share their wish lists and have their photos taken with the jolly ol' elf; bring your cameras. Free cookies, s'mores, coffee, hot chocolate, and wassail will be available.

Two employees of the City of Snellville have been honored by the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association.

Lisa Platt, park maintenance supervisor, and Kathi Clotfelter, senior recreation program supervisor and special events coordinator, were recognized at the Georgia Recreation and Park Association state conference held at the Savannah Civic Center. Platt was named the "Distinguished Professional" for the Facilities and Grounds Section. Clotfelter was named the "Distinguished Professional" for the Senior Adult Section.

Cyndee Bonacci, Snellville Parks and Recreation director, says: "Both Lisa and Kathi are outstanding individuals. Both go above and beyond in their jobs. Their dedication is evident to those of us who work with them daily and to others throughout GRPA. Congratulations to Lisa and Kathi on this statewide recognition."

An intergovernmental agreement between the Town of Braselton and the City of Oakwood will create the opportunity for Oakwood to provide sewer service in designated areas of southern Hall County.

According to the agreement, Oakwood will have the authority to purchase sewer treatment capacity from the Braselton Water Reclamation Facility as it undergoes future capacity upgrades. Currently built to process 1.27 millions of sewage per day, the design, engineering and permitting is underway to increase its capacity to 2.9 million gallons per day. The project will continue in order to meet the needs of Braselton's sewer service area. Oakwood's future purchases will be coordinated by the two governments after the plant expansion projects are completed by Braselton.

Braselton Mayor Pat Graham says: "Oakwood contacted us to plan for the long term needs of their city and surrounding area. Our staff and engineers explored the ramifications as this was the first overture we've ever had from another government which we felt did not attempt to restrict the economic development strategies of Braselton."

Oakwood Mayor Lamar Scroggs was complimentary of the reception and facilities in nearby Braselton. "It only made sense to talk to Braselton," he said "as it has a state of the art plant that is slated to undergo a series of planned expansions. We approached Braselton not just looking to purchase sewer capacity, but to partner with them. This is an example of intergovernmental cooperation at its finest."

The agreement confirms that Oakwood will pay a proportional share of the cost associated with the capacity it needs during future plant expansions. It will also take an equal amount of reuse water as capacity received. The City of Oakwood will install, own and operate its infrastructure to the connecting point with the Braselton system.

Carlton Robertson has been named director of the new Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center, according to City Administrator Warren Hutmacher. Robertson comes to the post from Erwin, N.C., where he was the director of recreation and parks. He was selected from a pool of 35 applicants, after recommendation from a panel of citizens of Norcross. Robertson is a graduate of California State University at Fresno. The city has recently acquired a 20,000 square foot former church which the city is rehabilitating into the Cultural Center. Mr. Robertson will assume his duties on November 27.

Rebecca Latimer Felton, who died in 1930 at the age of 94, was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. Rebecca Ann Latimer was born on June 10, 1835 and graduated, at the top of her class, from Madison Female College in 1852. A year later she married the commencement speaker, William H. Felton, a recently widowed state legislator, physician, Methodist minister, and planter in Bartow County. Of the five children born to the couple, only one, Howard Erwin, survived childhood.

In 1874 William Felton ran for the Seventh Congressional District seat from Georgia as an Independent Democrat. In 1874 William Felton won that election and served three terms (1875-81) in the U.S. Congress. From 1884 to 1890 he served another three terms in the state legislature. Rebecca Felton became more than just a campaign manager. She polished his speeches and wrote dozens of newspaper articles, both signed and unsigned, on his behalf. Until late in her life, Felton herself saw her career as tied completely to her husband's.

Felton's career after her husband's retirement in the 1890s (about the time she turned 60) was marked more by her own desires for reform. Not until the early 20th century did Felton embrace the reform with which she is most associated: woman suffrage. She became the South's best known and most effective champion of women's right to vote. In 1899 Felton began writing for the semiweekly edition of the Atlanta Journal, an edition started by publisher Hoke Smith to appeal to the state's rural readers. "The Country Home" was a far-ranging column that included everything from homemaking advice to Felton's opinions on almost anything. The column, which continued for more than two decades, provided the most direct link rural Georgians had with Felton.

Felton is perhaps best remembered today as the first woman in the U.S. Senate. When Senator Thomas E. Watson died on September 26, 1922, Governor Thomas Hardwick appointed a replacement to serve until a special election could be held. Hardwick pointed out that his appointee would not actually "serve" because Congress was not in session when Watson died, and the next session would not begin until after the special election. Hardwick himself wanted to be a senator, and he knew that the person he appointed would have a real advantage (as incumbent) in the special election. Hardwick appointed the 87 year old Felton on October 3.

Hardwick lost the special election two weeks later to Walter F. George. When the session opened George allowed Felton to present her credentials before he claimed his seat. She was sworn in at noon on November 21. The next morning she made a speech thanking the Senate for allowing her to be sworn in and noting that the women who followed her would serve with "ability," "integrity of purpose," and "unstinted usefulness." Senator-elect George was then sworn in. Felton's term had lasted for just 24 hours.

Rebecca Felton was very much a person of her time and place. She died on January 24, 1930, and is buried in Cartersville's Oak Hill Cemetery.

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."

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