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Issue 9.50 | Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 | Forward to your friends! |
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FEEDBACK UPCOMING NOTABLE ALSO INSIDE _::
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Meet a sponsor |
ABOUT US GwinnettForum.com is a twice-weekly online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA. Contact us today. NOW ON TWITTER! SEARCH GWINNETT FORUM |
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TODAY'S
FOCUS LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Sept. 22, 2009 -- The Gwinnett County Public Library has selected its 2009 Gwinnett Reads Selection: A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz.
Gwinnett Reads is a community-wide initiative that encourages Gwinnett County citizens to share the experience of reading the same book. The Gwinnett County Public Library, sponsors, and partners seek to engage adults in the joys of reading and to generate dialogue about the book throughout Gwinnett County. Previous Gwinnett Reads authors include Charles Frazier, Ferrol Sams, and Rick Bragg. In this new book, the bestselling author of Blue Latitudes and Confederates in the Attic takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America. On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Horwitz realizes he's mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus's sail in 1492 to Jamestown's founding in 1607. Did nothing happen in between? Determined to find out, he embarks on a journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America. An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs---these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers. Tracing this legacy with his own epic trek---from Florida's Fountain of Youth to Plymouth's sacred Rock, from desert pueblos to sub-arctic sweat lodges--- Horwitz explores the revealing gap between what we enshrine and what we forget. Displaying his trademark talent for humor, narrative, and historical insight, A Voyage Long and Strange allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves. About the author: As a former
Wall Street Journal reporter and current New Yorker staff
writer, Horwitz has gone places most of us are either not brave, or stupid,
enough to venture to, and returned with a collection of absorbing, affecting,
often hilarious tales set in locales from the Sudan to the American South. His second
book, Baghdad Without a Map, zings around the Middle East, from
a qat-chewing party in Yemen to a leper colony in Sudan, from the aforementioned
ferry ride to an almost equally terrifying flight on Egyptair. It was
a national bestseller, praised by The New York Times Book Review
as "a very funny and frequently insightful look at the world's most
combustible region." Horwitz
then returned to world travel, this time spurred by an obsession with
the 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook. For Blue Latitudes,
Horwitz visits the islands charted by Cook, intertwining his own travel
narrative with the life and writings of the once-famous captain. EEB
PERSPECTIVE SEPT. 22, 2009 -- The life that A.D. Hayes lived was nothing less than a major success story. He started off in a two-stall garage, repairing autos, then switched to become an auto dealer. Later he ran several auto dealerships, all this accomplished through hard work and treating his customers right. On top of that, he was a success in another way: he had his sons and grandsons and entire family working with him in his dealerships. What more could a person want?
Genial Albert David Hayes (I never knew that was his name. He was simply "A.D" to most everyone) died recently of complications from Parkinson's disease and pneumonia. Though living most of his life in Georgia, he was born in Los Angeles, Calif. Here's why. Times were tough in the late 1920's in Georgia, so A.D.'s parents, C.A. and Annie, moved to California, where jobs were more plentiful, pay was better, and his father could get work in a garage. While in California, A.D. and later his brother, Donald, were born. Meanwhile, the Hayes family returned to Georgia a few times. Driving across the nation in a Model T Ford was a long trip and far more difficult than today. Donald says he was told that on one trip the car "blew 32 tires." In those days, that meant an immediate "patch" of that tube, putting it back on, and continuing the trip.
A.D. got started in a two-bay service station on DeKalb Avenue in Decatur in the early 1950s. In 1954, his father joined A.D. in the garage, and Donald came into the business in 1956. Donald shortly bought his father's part, and the two brothers were 50/50 partners then and later as auto dealers. The garage eventually had 10 service bays and 30 employees. A.D. was a founding member of Georgia Independent Garage Owners, and Donald was later president. In 1971, the brothers moved to Lawrenceville, opening Hayes Chrysler-Dodge on Scenic Highway. They moved in 1980 to Pike Street near Highway 316. Soon they were expanding to Hayes Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in Oakwood; then to Baldwin with Hayes Chevrolet and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep; and finally to Toccoa with Hayes Buick, Pontiac, GMC and Cadillac.
A key reason that both the garage and later the dealerships were successful was how A.D. and his staff treated customers. When the Hayes family dealership was awarded the Georgia Family Business of the Year in 2002 by Kennesaw State University, Mike Hayes, general manager of the Lawrenceville outlet, said of their operations: "It's simple. We treat our customers like family. That's why we've been in business as a dealership for over 30 years. When someone becomes a customer, they also become part of our business. For us, it's more than a sale. It's a long term relationship." Today the Hayes family have served three generations of customers, who felt "treated right." A. D. and his wife of 62 years, Ann, lived for years on acreage near Snellville, raising registered Charolais cattle. Later they moved the farm to near Hoschton. A.D. was a former president of the Georgia Florida Charolais Cattleman's Association. A.D. loved riding his John Deere tractor working his farm, watching his Charolais, and being with his sons and grandsons in the business. What more success can a person achieve! A.D. Hayes: 1928-2009: may you rest in peace. ABOUT
OUR SPONSORS
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers.. The Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District (CID) is a self-taxing district organized in March 2005 comprised of 238 commercial properties. The CID's mission is to "enhance the economic vitality of Gwinnett's central business district by strengthening the area's role as the center of commercial activity." In addition to comprehensive planning efforts to address traffic congestion, an area-wide branding and marketing initiative, daily community patrols keeping the area free from graffiti and litter, landscaping enhancements, infrastructure improvements and promoting redevelopment opportunities, the CID Board of Directors remains committed to increasing the long-term economic sustainability of greater Gwinnett Place. The Gwinnett Place CID...Keeping Gwinnett Place the Place to be. To learn more about the Gwinnett Place CID and ways to find success at Gwinnett's central business district, please visit www.GwinnettPlaceCID.com or www.visitgwinnettplace.com.
FEEDBACK
Editor,
the Forum:
Raises
questions of providing health care with good doctoring Editor, the Forum: When we
insist every person have health insurance and do not specify what this
coverage will be, the medical profession cannot plan for future growth.
Bringing in 40+ million more users for small issues will put a heavy burden
on the system. Paying for these doctors will have to come from somewhere
- if we reduce payments to doctors for procedures and don't reduce costs,
they will leave the system and use their education in other ways.
Basic education
of doctors in the United States take 7-8 years minimum. Assuming 100 percent
of all doctorate graduates go on to practicing medicine, 16,000 new doctors
enter the system each year. Doctors retire earlier and a recent survey
of doctors show half plan to either reduce the amount of patients they
see or leave the profession. If all
these concerns could be eliminated we still have the issue of care rationed
by government with no input from doctor. None of the bills stipulate input
from doctors as many private insurance carriers do (even if it is from
surveys and indirect participation).
Comment
on being at the beach brings suggestion Editor, the Forum: Ah, yes, the Georgia coast: (GwinnettForum, Sept. 15). We've been to Tybee, Amelia, Jekyll, Savannah, and St. Mary's. We love it, - partly because there are far fewer HUD Section 8 properties to contend with there. I share your delight in getting away to the Georgia coast -- to locales with functional municipal and/or county governments. Maybe we can entice some of their civic leaders to run for Gwinnett Commish -- even if their vitae doesn't include experience as a developer, builder, Realtor, or contractor.
UPCOMING The Third Annual Autumn on the Green Downtown Jazz Concert will be held on Saturday, September 26 at 5 p.m. It will take place on the town green at the Snellville City Center. Opening for the event around 5:15 p.m. is "Whole Lotta Dixie", a band that combines traditional Dixieland jazz with rock classics. Set to perform around 6:30 p.m. is "The Derek McCoy Trio" which is comprised of three veteran performers with seasoned backgrounds from the Atlanta and New Orleans jazz scene. Snellville native, Adrienne Britt-Rousseau of Summit Chase Country Club will be master of ceremonies of the event this year. Jazz lovers are invited to come out with blankets, lawn chairs and snacks to share in this community celebration. Small coolers are welcomed. Concession vendor space is available for interested restaurants and caterers. No alcoholic beverages are permitted. Concessions will be available for purchase from the Snellville Lion's Club. For additional information, visit www.SnellvilleDDA.org. Gwinnett's Great Days of Service to be Oct. 2-3 this year The ninth annual Gwinnett Great Days of Service (GDOS) will be Friday and Saturday, October 2-3, 2009. This event engages thousands of volunteers in a day of community service projects all around Gwinnett. Last year there were over 15,000 volunteers, including large corporations, schools, small businesses, individuals, church groups, and families, completing 150 service projects which made it one of the largest volunteer initiatives in the country!!
The Gwinnett
Health and Human Services Coalition partners with corporate and community
teams with local agencies to work side-by-side to make a difference in
the community and to learn from each other. GDOS address specific needs
in the county through volunteers who complete much-needed service projects
for local non-profits and schools. These projects build community while
educating citizens and leaders about the needs around them. NOTABLE The Council
for Quality Growth will present its Four Pillars to Mayor Shirley Franklin,
Atlanta's 58th mayor. The presentation will be on October 8 at a dinner
at the Georgia World Congress Center. The leadership award recognizes
"Quality, Responsibility, Vision and Integrity" in Metro Atlanta.
Speaking
on Mayor Franklin's embodiment of the Four Pillars are Claire (Yum) Arnold,
CEO, Leapfrog Services; Jim Wells, chairman and CEO, SunTrust Banks; Ambassador
Andrew Young; and Sylvia Russell, president, Georgia, AT&T. The event
will be chaired by Georgia Power President and CEO Mike Garrett. Angela Palm moves to legislative coverage in January Angela Palm, currently the Georgia School Boards Association's director of policy, will assume the position of director of legislative and policy services beginning January 2010, says GSBA Executive Director Jeannie M. (Sis) Henry.
Dr. Jim
Puckett, who currently covers the Georgia Board of Education for GSBA,
will work with Ms. Palm in the Georgia General Assembly on a daily basis.
Prior to joining GSBA, Dr. Puckett was executive director of the Georgia
Association of Education Leaders (GAEL). The Georgia School Boards Association is a voluntary association of the state's 180 locally elected boards of education. Its mission is to ensure excellence in the governance of local school systems by providing leadership, advocacy and services, and by representing the collective resolve of its members.
GEORGIA
ENCYCLOPEDIA In its 1964 ruling in Wesberry v. Sanders---a suit pursued by a group of Fulton County voters against Georgia officials, including Governor Carl Sanders---the U.S. Supreme Court built on its previous ruling in Gray v. Sanders (1963) to hold that all federal congressional districts within each state had to be made up of a roughly equal number of voters. In so ruling, the Court radically altered how state legislatures would thereafter draw congressional districts, which before Wesberry often reflected long-established groupings of counties that ignored intervening urbanization and other major shifts in population. Within four months of Wesberry, the Court ruled in its most famous reapportionment case, Reynolds v. Sims (1964), out of Alabama, that the U.S. Constitution required the equal valuation of votes in virtually all elections for officials from legislatively drawn districts, including representatives who served in either chamber of any state legislature. As a result, the Court scuttled the legislative electoral systems of most states, including often-used "little federalism" systems that structured districts for one house of the state legislature according to geography, rather than population, in keeping with the model of the Constitution's treatment of the U.S. Senate. The reapportionment decisions of Chief Justice Earl Warren's court, beginning with Gray and Wesberry, dramatically reshaped the nature of representative government in Georgia and in the nation. No less important, the principle of electoral equality that underlies these decisions has continued to generate important rulings in more recent times-most prominently the Supreme Court's controversial decision in Bush v. Gore, which brought an end to the high-profile legal challenges triggered by the presidential election of 2000. CREDITS GwinnettForum is provided to you at no charge every Tuesday and Friday. If you would like to serve as an underwriter, click here to learn more. Send
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TODAY'S
QUOTE "Bipartisanship is not the answer to foreign policy challenges. Our Constitution wasn't designed for Senators to 'get along' or 'work together' in bi-partisan happy talk, and it's a perversion of the system when both parties support the same policies. Our Constitution was designed for constant controversy because that is the way we can maintain our freedom and independence."
>> SPECIAL NOTICE TO GWINNETT Those interested in the history of Gwinnett need to know that the recently published book: Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta, has sold fast, with the first editions about sold out. There are less than 50 books remaining unsold. If you want the book for yourself, or to buy for a present for someone this year, you need to take action. Go to www.elliottbrack.com to order, or buy the book at a local bookstore shown on the site. (In full disclosure, the book is authored by the publisher of this Forum, and this notice is intended not so much to hawk, but to inform, those who have delayed purchase. -eeb) The books are available at these sites:
MORE RECENT COMMENTARY
FOR CHARITY. You can give "A Gift of Laughter," a great book of cartoons by Bill McLemore, to help raise money for Rainbow Village. At just $20, it's a fun way to help. To order, call 770 840 1003, or 770 446 3800, or email to info@gwinnettforum.com. SISTER PUBLICATIONS We encourage you to check out our sister publications:
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