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TODAY'S FOCUS
White House's "Wish Tree" Makes Visit Distinctive
By KITTY BARKSDALE
Special to GwinnettForum.com

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 23, 2009 -- This year is the first year that the Obama family will spend the holidays at The White House. They have celebrated throughout the month with 30 formal receptions, and invitations for some in the D.C. area to tour the decorations.

At the White House this year, with a focus on the state of the economy (bad) and keeping green, the decor has an overarching theme of "reflect, rejoice, renew." This is evident in the choice of lighting (LED); the use of found objects (taking magnolia leaves from The White House grounds, spray-painting them in a bright red lacquer and forming them into wreaths); natural elements in all of the rooms (from pepperberry garlands to fruit and flower centerpieces); and even the use of ornaments from past years on the many trees that adorn the hallways.

Georgia's peach ornament on the White House Christmas tree

The official tree -- a Douglas-fir from West Virginia that measures 18 1/2 feet tall -- stands in The Blue Room, and is decorated with gorgeous wire ribbon, garlands, those LED lights, and state-themed ornaments (yes -- Georgia is represented there with a great peach orb).

But while this tree is impressive for many reasons, the tree that struck my fancy was the White House Wish Tree, a nine-foot slotted "tree" made from recycled cardboard. This tree, which stands at the entrance of the East Wing and is the first decorative element that visitors encounter, sits next to a simple table with brightly colored slips of paper. Visitors are encouraged to write a wish on one of these paper slips and insert their wish into one of the many slots on the tree. When I visited, the tree was full of wishes on the bottom, and the top had a few slots that remained available.

The remarkable thing about the Wish Tree is the look of wonder that everyone, from toddlers to those who have more grey in their hair than not, had in their eyes looking at the tree. It was a look of humility, combined with an amped up brightness in their eyes, as they envisioned their wish being granted.

This is a very simple, very effective idea that reminds you of the meaning of the holidays, regardless of which holiday you and your family celebrate. It's also an idea that is fairly simple to replicate in your own home: fashion a tree out of cardboard tubes left over from paper towels and toilet paper, and hang wishes written on brightly colored paper slips and rolled into a circle (secured with tape or glue gun) with paper clips fashioned into hooks. Or, you could forego the candy this year and fill each family member's stocking with good wishes for the new year.

Washington, D.C. is a remarkable town, and always offers visitors and residents alike new treats for the eye and imagination. The Obama White House decorations have lived up to this standard, demonstrating that there are festive ways to use natural elements, and creativity, to celebrate the season.

Happy Holidays in 2009 from the Winter Wonderland of D.C.

EEB PERSPECTIVE
As days get longer, we say to you "Happy Holidays!"
By ELLIOTT BRACK
Editor and publisher

DEC. 23, 2009 -- First, "Happy Holidays!" to all. We say this knowing that some people question the use of this term "Happy Holidays," saying that we are being super politically correct by saying that, and by omission, not saying "Merry Christmas."

Brack

That's not us. We've been using the term "Happy Holidays" on our Christmas cards for 45 years. Yes, it's inclusive. But there's another reason for using "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

It's akin to the cobbler's children who do not have shoes. In my past, I once published a weekly newspaper. In those days, most weekly publishers also had a print shop. And during the holiday season, the print shop had many "rush" jobs for customers. This meant that my own printing job of Christmas cards was often pushed aside. The effect was that often we did not get our cards printed, or have them mailed, until after December 25 itself.

So, mailing so late, it didn't seem right to say "Merry Christmas" when you already knew that the actual Christmas day had passed even before you mailed the cards. That's why our cards early on began saying "Happy Holidays."
And it's a tradition to continue. It has nothing to do with political correctness, though it does merge well.

* * * * * *

Those of us in Metro Atlanta know something of heavy rainfalls in short periods. We counted 15 inches in a few days earlier this year at our house.

Yet we generally live atop the Eastern Continental Divide, meaning our rains flow to lower reaches from our property. But think what if it rained really hard in a flat coastal area?

We were in Charleston last week, where on Friday the rainfall downtown totaled 3.93 inches. Other nearby areas had over five inches. Most of the heavy rain luckily fell during the daytime, which was a blessing. You see, high tide was at 8 p.m.

In effect, low-lying Charleston had many, many flooded streets. If you are ever in Charleston during high water, just remember: the main downtown street, King Street, is higher than the adjacent streets. If may help you get around some day.

Luckily, we were inside most of Friday. But others had difficulty negotiating the city. The high water got to the point that law enforcement authorities took the extreme measure of closing off Charleston to incoming traffic. The police said that additional cars, whose drivers might not know the area, could become stranded, causing loss of property and possibly lives.

We applaud those authorities for their quick and unexpected action. In our way of thinking, that was a responsible position to take for Charleston. They didn't dawdle.

* * * * *

On Monday we crossed the hump toward longer days. Haven't you enjoyed the few moments on the slide toward the longest day of the year? If you didn't catch it, on Wednesday, the day was five seconds longer than on Tuesday! Doesn't that excite you, as you look forward to a longer day taking place each day toward June?

Officially, Wednesday will have 9 hours, 54 minutes and 35 seconds of daylight! That will grow to the longest day in June when Atlanta will have a full 14 hours, 24 minutes and two seconds. We're on a roll!

Happy Holidays!

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McLEMORE'S WORLD
What is it?

FEEDBACK
Concealed weapons move us to days of the Wild West

Editor, the Forum:

I read with interest your piece and the reader's rebuttal on "licensed concealed carry" of firearms. Two thoughts come to mind.

No. 1. I don't think licensed concealed carry is a deterrent to crime. I really don't think criminals care whether anyone is carrying a weapon. They KNOW they're carrying and usually have the drop on anyone else who is. This puts the would-be defender at an enormous disadvantage, and also puts him at a good chance of getting one or more slugs in the gut.

No. 2. I am far more afraid of getting caught in a crossfire between some thug and a would-be Wyatt Earp than I am being involved in a robbery. Such an event happened a number of years ago at a McDonalds in Florida when a citizen who was packing heat opened up on a would be hold-up thug, with devastating results. It was far worse than if, in accordance with the policy of most businesses, the cashiers had given the thief money and let him get out of there. At least no one would have been killed or injured.

The increased arming of citizens, if it continues, will result in our own "arms race" that will take us back the days of the Wild West, where, as an old song says, "the point of a gun is the only law" that anyone understands.

And this is bad.

-- Robert H. Hanson, Loganville

Send us a letter. We encourage readers to submit feedback or letters to the editor. Send your thoughts to editor at elliott@brack.net. We will edit for length and clarity. Make sure to include your name and city where you live. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Please keep your comment to 200 words or less. However, if you write 500 words, we'll consider it for Today's Focus.

UPCOMING
Libraries want citizens to complete survey by Jan. 1

Gwinnett County Public Library is conducting a survey of its customers. It asks questions related to preferred hours and days open.

The survey can be completed online at www.gwinnettpl.org or at a library branch. The survey completion deadline is January 1, 2010. All responses will be compiled and used to help determine library hours and days open for 2010.

Nancy Stanbery-Kellam, executive director, says: "We want library customers to complete the survey to ensure that we are meeting the library service needs of this community and so we have accurate information as we develop the new library schedule for 2010." Library administration expects to implement new service hours in late Spring 2010.

Suwanee to shred Yule trees through Jan. 16

When the needles on your Christmas tree start shedding at an alarming rate, the lights are unplugged one final time, and the ornaments are placed in storage, there's just one thing left to do with the tree: Bring One (or more) for the Chipper.

The City of Suwanee will accept unadorned former Christmas trees for recycling from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily December 26-January 16 at Sims Lake Park, 4600 Suwanee Dam Road. The designated tree drop-off area is in the right-hand parking lot. Suwanee will provide seedlings to area residents who drop off their trees from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, January 9. For more information about Suwanee's program, contact Tammy Hiler at thiler@suwanee.com or 770/945-8996.

County to save $400,000 with new energy program

Gwinnett County has a new energy management system for its drinking water production plants and the ancillary distribution system that will soon cut the electricity cost to run the complete drinking water system by about 10 percent.

By the end of this month, the new equipment and software will be operating. Acting Water Resources Director Lynn Smarr says: "We expect to reduce energy costs by about $400,000 annually by running pumps at off-peak times when its electric rates are lower. And the system will save enough to pay for itself in three years."

Commissioners awarded the system-design contract to CH2MHill and Derceto, Inc. USA in November 2008. The energy needed to pump both raw and finished water accounts for about 90 percent of the energy costs for the drinking water utility, according to Smarr. The new system also helps efficiently manage the turnover of finished water stored in multi-million-gallon tanks.

Four Gwinnett students in UGA research program

Four University of Georgia undergraduates from Gwinnett, Eric Ekwueme and Amanda McKenley, both of Snellville, Rachel Johnson of Dacula, and Akil Piggott of Suwanee, are among 30 first- and second-year students in the 2009-2010 Apprentice Program sponsored by the Honors Program's Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) at UGA.

Through faculty-mentored research partnerships, the students are engaged in inquiry-based research in a variety of disciplines ranging from infectious diseases and kinesiology to music and international affairs. Their environments range from the lab to the library to the field.

Ekwueme

Ekwueme, a graduate of South Gwinnett High School, is a freshman pursuing a bachelor's degree in business. His project is focused on marketing techniques and trends used in social media.

McKenley

McKenley, a graduate of Saint Piux X Catholic High School, is a sophomore pursuing a bachelor's degree in psychology. She is studying how four-year-old children bond with their mothers and how that attachment affects their development.

Johnson

Johnson, a graduate of Central Gwinnett High School, is a freshman pursuing a bachelor's degree in Spanish (with a pre-med emphasis). She is investigating the genetic behavior of a particular strain of a mosquito-transmitted parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which attaches to the placenta in pregnant women and causes malaria.

Piggott

Piggott, a graduate of Peachtree Ridge High School, is a freshman pursuing a bachelor's degree in management. He is focused on studying the effects of exercise on women's anxiety and pain.

The Apprentice Program provides further engagement and support through weekly seminars and special workshops that focus on pedagogy practices or guest speakers who share their latest academic and research activities. The students also receive advice and guidance from three teaching assistants, all former CURO apprentices, who facilitate small group discussions and share their own research experiences.

NOTABLE
ChemFree of Norcross wins Georgia Exporter Award

ChemFree in Norcross has won the 2009 Georgia Distinguished Exporter Award for innovation and excellence in international trade. The award honors a small- or medium-sized company with the most potential for creating employment in Georgia though the export of a unique product or service produced in Georgia

ChemFree provides an alternative method to cleaning vehicle and maintenance parts without harming the environment or humans with its patented SmartWasher® Parts Washing System. These products allow the user to eliminate or dramatically reduce waste streams, the expense of hazardous waste removal and associated liabilities. The ChemFree product line is sold in more than 40 countries worldwide. ChemFree Corporation is a subsidiary of Intelligent Systems Corporation, with its head office and main factory located in Norcross.

The award was presented by Ken Stewart, commissioner of the state of Georgia's Department of Economic Development.

Gwinnett Community Clinic needs clerical volunteers

For 20 years, Gwinnett Community Clinic, a 501c3 charitable organization, has provided healthcare to the working, uninsured poor of Gwinnett County. The doctors, nurses and other clinical people providing care donate their time during Clinic on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, usually from 6 until 9 p.m.

Other clerical volunteers donate their time checking in patients, collecting their money, verifying records to be sure patient documents are ready when the patient is examined.

Now, the clinic is in great need of more of these heroic volunteers--clinical and clerical. Anyone who is interested in working with those who are in need and providing a much needed services should contact Sheila Adcock at 770-985-3640, ext. 1, for more details.

Former Braselton mayor Henry Braselton dead at 82

Longtime Braselton mayor Henry Edward Braselton died December 21 at age 82.

Henry Braselton

He served more than 40 years on the Braselton Town Council, including 14 years as mayor (1988-2001). His accomplishments are legendary, as he recruited high quality businesses and industries to the small town, including Chateau Elan, Sears Logistics, Haverty's, Panoz Automotive, Mayfield Dairy, Braselton Poultry and more. He personally directed the upgrade of the Town's public works including water tanks, water and wastewater plants and started the Town's first, full-time police force. Under his leadership, the Town purchased and renovated a Greek-revival home for its Town Hall and won national awards for historic preservation in the venture.

He was a Naval veteran, attended Emory University and graduated from the University of Georgia. He was married to the former Janice Martin of Gainesville for forty-eight years. They have three daughters, three granddaughters and two grandsons. He was a lifelong member of Zion Baptist Church where he served as Sunday School superintendent and president of the Mulberry Youth Organization for many years.

Mayor Pat Graham says: "We mourn the passing of Mayor Henry Braselton, the consummate mayor who embodied the good life of small town America. He served with high distinction as Mayor of Braselton for 14 years, carrying forth the honored tradition of his ancestors. His efforts to recruit business and industry for jobs for the citizens of Braselton are unparalleled. His love for the historic traditions of the Town will be long remembered. We express our profound sympathy to his family as he was a legendary Southerner with a wonderful sense of history and place and pride. Forever, we will remember his oft-spoken gentlemanly invitation, "come to see us."

RECOMMENDED
Send us your reviews, recommendations

• 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 ENCYCLOPEDIA
Working-class Latinos flock to Georgia in late 1970s

(Continued from previous edition)

The working-class Latin American immigrants who first came to Georgia in the late 1970s were mostly single men who worked temporarily within the state in urban construction or migrant farming, often returning to their families across the Mexican border after short terms of employment. During the 1980s two developments shifted migration patterns toward permanent, family-oriented immigration, and made the South a primary immigrant destination.

The first was the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which tightened security on the border between the United States and Mexico, while granting amnesty to undocumented residents who had entered the United States prior to 1982.

Latino store

Second, of equal importance, the IRCA went hand-in-hand with two economic recessions, one in Mexico and another in the American Southwest, which was previously the destination of most Latino immigrants. As the southeastern economy boomed in the 1980s, Latinos on both sides of the border first heard of work in Georgia through informal immigrant networks and active recruitment by labor-hungry Georgia companies. In this period Latino immigrant employment was predominantly concentrated in a few enclave industries, such as suburban construction outside Atlanta, carpet weaving in Dalton, and poultry processing in Gainesville.

Preparation for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta also provided numerous jobs, and the influx of immigrant labor was a boon for city planners, who worried about completing construction projects in time for the games.

Yet Atlanta was not the only area to attract Latino workers and families. The northeast Georgia poultry industry, based in Gainesville and surrounding Hall County, witnessed a massive influx of Latino labor during the 1980s and 1990s, and poultry processing was rapidly transformed from a black and white industry to one that was almost exclusively Hispanic by the turn of the 21st century. The carpet industry in Dalton and Whitfield County underwent a similar transformation, and by the year 2000 Whitfield County's population had the highest percentage of Latinos in the state.

As their numbers increased, Latinos began to open their own businesses as well. In 1984 the Atlanta Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was created to help facilitate the efforts of Latino entrepreneurs. In 1991 the organization, under the leadership of Sara González, became the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

(To be continued)

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HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

Special Notice: We have an abbreviated schedule during the holidays. The next edition will be published on Wednesday, December 30, 2009.--eeb

TODAY'S QUOTE
The heart of Christmas comes with songs of cheer

"The earth has grown old with its burden of care but at Christmas it always is young, The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair and its soul full of music breaks the air, when the song of angels is sung."

-- Phillips Brooks (1835-93), American Episcopal bishop, and writer of "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

MODERN HISTORY OF 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. Get yours before they're gone. Go to www.elliottbrack.com to order, or buy the book at a local bookstore shown on the site.

The books are available at:

• Books for Less in downtown Snellville and Lawrenceville (Highway 20 near the Braves park);
• Labaire Pottery, downtown Norcross

MORE EEB PERSPECTIVE

	12/30: Loss of confidence
	12/23: We say, "Happy Holidays"
	12/18: Remembering Mr. Tubs
	12/15: Hidden weapons not jolly
	12/11: Gwinnett most diverse
	12/8: County is arrogant
	12/4: Defining moment for Obama?
	12/1: Atlanta train stations razed
	11/25: Remembering John Adams
	11/20: Better schools needed
	11/17: Privatizing rest areas
	11/13: Batty congressman
	11/17: Privatizing rest areas
	11/13: Batty congressman
	11/10: About Ga's bank failures
	11/6: Freida Hill, more
	11/3: Shepherd of the Hills
	EEB index of columns

MORE RECENT COMMENTARY

	12/30: Guynn: Teaching giving
	12/23: Barksdale: White House tree
	12/18: Mason: P'tree Cnrs tipping pt?
	12/15: Anders: Hospitality honors
	12/11: Wascher: Rail favored
	12/8: Page: Be safe during holidays
	12/4: Piccolo: Gwinnett Place
	12/1: Collins: Turkey dinners
	11/25: Dominy: Great liftoff
	11/20: Bland: Gwinnett, Nicaragua
	11/17: Sharp: Homelessness
	11/13: Baxter: A Better South
	11/10: Markwalter: Lawrenceville
	11/6: Pope: DOT project
	11/3: Kurtz: About P-cards
	COMMENTARY INDEX

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 770-497-1888, or email to info@gwinnettforum.com.

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CharlestonCurrents.com -- an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Charleston, S.C.

SC Statehouse Report -- a weekly legislative forecast that keeps you a step ahead of what happens at the South Carolina Statehouse. It's free.

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