GwinnettForum | Number 21.52 | July 22, 2022
RING GIVEAWAY: The Atlanta Braves world champion ring caught the fancy of Giovani Laguer, son of Suleima Salgado, as this ring replica was passed around when Giovani attended a recent meeting of the Gwinnett Rotary Club. The Gwinnett Stripers on July 30 and 31 will have a World Champions Braves Replica Ring Giveaway thanks to Coolray Heating and Cooling. The first 2,500 ticketed fans through the gates at Coolray Field on these two dates will receive a 2021 Braves replica championship ring.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Some reasons that newspapers may be declining
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Norcross Council considering charging seniors for waste pick-up
ANOTHER VIEW: Marjorie Taylor Greene is snookering the Democrats
SPOTLIGHT: PCOM Georgia
FEEDBACK: PCOM pleased to give medical insight to prospective doctors
UPCOMING: County adds new SPLOST proposal to ballot this November
NOTABLE: Gas South District, Northside Hospital form outreach pact
RECOMMENDED: How the Brain Works
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Cotton Patch Gospel author was Clarence Jordan
MYSTERY PHOTO: You may think this Mystery is in a rain-soaked area
Some reasons that newspapers may be declining
By Joe Briggs
SUWANEE, Ga. | While I grieve with Raleigh Perry on the demise of U.S. newspapers, I disagree with his analysis. He states that people who once stayed informed through daily newspapers have shifted to the convenience of the internet. But he then laments the absence of any substance in the nightly broadcasts. So have the consumers lost interest in the news, or have the news providers lost interest in the consumers?
Briggs
I suspect the newspaper’s epitaph is not “Killed by internet” but rather “Squashed by special interests.” I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal for 22 years until Rupert Murdoch replaced front-page wit with bad opinions. Shifting to the New York Times, Ellen Barry and David Sanger wrote politically charged front-page narratives of the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict that were often refuted by their own reporters deeper in the folds.
Many people have taken more multiple papers – often a national paper such as the NYT, USA Today, WSJ, a regional paper like the Boston Globe or AJC, and a local paper such as the Gwinnett Daily Post. This was up until the regional and local papers fired their reporters and started printing the same Associated Press articles, with all these newspapers showing the same stories. To most families, what really mattered was the school board, the honor roll, zoning changes, property taxes, the police blotter, and the yard sales that local newspapers ought to have. If you don’t have such news in your local paper, you might as well drop the papers and get cable. (But you have almost no local news on cable.)
There is very little in print or major media today that passes as old-school investigative news reporting. There are no Bob Woodwards anymore because there are no longer any news gathering agencies willing to pay a salary with health insurance.
There might be lots of reasons for little investigative reporting. They might include advertisers not wanting to sponsor controversial events such as the 2014 Israeli attack on Palestine where so many children were killed. Or eliminating the Fairness Doctrine (for broadcast media) which led to single-sided reporting. Or the 1991 Gulf War provided embedded journalists and those attending the daily military press briefings canned footage and quotes. Other than a few like CNN’s Peter Arnett, who strayed to cover the war’s impact from the Iraqi side — which got him dubbed “anti-patriotic,”— the media did little to distinguish itself or go beyond what the military wanted us to know.
If people are willing to tune in to accept what the government is telling them for free, then why would networks pay reporters to gather it? This occurred before the I-Phone ever hit the market.
The good news is that there are over 5,000 blogs and podcasts on the internet today featuring a range of topics and discussions. However, the recent hysteria over COVID, vaccines, Me Too, and social justice, has led to a Congressional demand for a crackdown on free speech and shuttered many of them. This created fear and censorship hasn’t been seen since the McCarthy hearings. Misinformation is the new communism.
Mr. Perry suggests that our democracy is only as strong as our free press. I think the last few election cycles have shown him to be correct, as voter ignorance, confusion, and frustration have never been greater. I wish we and he had a solution.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Norcross considering charging seniors for waste pick-up
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 22, 2022 | Ever try to take a bone away from a dog?
If so, you might remember getting scuffed up considerably by the dog. They often do more than growl. Most animals, and people too, don’t like to have anything taken from them.
You would think that elected officials would understand this.
Every so often, politicians seem to lose their memories, and suggest eliminating some benefit that the voters enjoy. The result is at least a “dust-up,” if not all-out fight. And it’s possible that, no matter the resolution of the matter, the people, that is the voters, have a long term memory, and show it at the polls.
The latest political unit dis-remembering this is the Norcross City Council. At a recent work session, the Council discussed at length what they might do to meet increased collection costs from their garbage hauler, Waste Management. What with inflation, rising personnel cost and higher fuel cost, Waste Management has told the city that there would be a higher cost to the city for collecting its waste next year. The contract with the company would jump from $180 per residential customer to $320 a year.
So the Council delved into this quandary. Soon someone on the Council remembered that senior citizens in Norcross get their garbage picked up for free, an idea instituted years ago before any of the current council was elected. That benefit is for 624 households with the homeowner at least age 62, out of a population of 16,876 (2022). If the city eliminated the senior garbage benefit, it would bring to the city another $200,000 in revenue at the new rate for collecting garbage.
This matter should be on the agenda at the next Norcross Council meeting, which will be on August 1 at 6:30 p.m. (However, there is a special called meeting scheduled for that same day at 11 a.m. to talk about the new millage rate.) That regular August 1 meeting might hear some howling from senior residents.
There’s another taxing consideration. With many homeowners seeing a significant jump in their home assessment, that means that many of the Norcross property owners will see a jump in their property taxes when tax bills go out in a few weeks. Should the city of Norcross eliminate the senior garbage benefit, these households will see a double-whammy in taxes.
While the City of Norcross has, like other municipalities, higher cost in many categories, it offsets some increased costs by having higher revenues. Those higher revenues are not small.
For 2021, the City of Norcross across-the-board budget for all its funds amounted to $41 million. But for the next fiscal year, 2023, the City will have a much higher anticipated budget. By happenstance, in the last issue of GwinnettForum, it was shown that new city budget for 2022 would be $44,546,294. This $3 million higher revenues anticipated for 2023 run the gamut across the board, and are largely driven by the city’s enterprise revenues from its electrical department. That reaps a “profit” to the city and helps keep taxes lower.
That increase in revenues makes the anticipated revenue from charging Norcross seniors $200,000 for garbage collection seem mighty small. You might think that the City could have funded what it cost to collect garbage for seniors through the $3 million more in its anticipated income.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Marjorie Taylor Greene is snookering the Democrats
By Jack Bernard
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | “Snooker: To make a dupe of, hoodwink” (Merriam-Webster dictionary).
When I was in high school, my father moved my family to a small North Georgia town. I had little to do, so I hung out at the local pool halls with the good old boys. Sometimes, an out-of-town foolish braggart would come in, bet big on a game of pool and be taken to the cleaners by a local pool shark. The guys would just laugh at him and say he had been “snookered.”
That town was very close to Margorie Taylor Greene’s district, where she is snookering the Democrats.
Understand that Republican Margorie Taylor Greene is a QAnon fanatic who believes in destructive conspiracy theories. She is an anti-semitic racist who says that the election was somehow stolen, that President Biden is a threat to national security, that there are Jewish space lasers, that Muslims should not hold elected positions, that people of color are drug dealing criminals, and that a rifle is the answer to every dispute.
Once upon a time, the Grand Old Party had a big tent. There were liberal GOP governors like Nelson Rockefeller and Senators like Jacob Javits. But Richard Nixon’s race-based Southern strategy successfully wooed the conservative Dixiecrats into the GOP. So, that big tent gradually disappeared. The GOP has lost its soul and become the party of misogynists, bigots… and kooks like Ms. Greene.
So, how has Ms. Greene snookered the Democrats? The answer is she has them wasting their time trying to get her defeated rather than placing their efforts on swing districts.
I’m on both GOP and Democratic donor lists. I’m absolutely inundated with requests to contribute to this campaign or that one. But the one candidate that I hear from most frequently is Marcus Flowers, an African American Democrat competing for Greene’s seat in a district that is one of the nation’s most conservative and 90 percent white.
He has every right to run, even though he has never held any political office and appears unqualified (just like Ms. Greene). And I would vote for him if I lived in his district. Further, because Democrats are frustrated with his opponent, he has raised over $ 8 million.
But Flowers is not a good old boy white conservative, who would be the only electable Democrats in most rural Southern districts. Does the Democratic Party think that Flowers has any chance at all of actually winning? Has a black Democrat ever been elected to Congress in a conservative solid GOP Southern district like this one?
You wonder why the Democrats nominated him? Was it to make a political statement of some sort? If so, it is the kind that relieves frustration but produces no results!
I was an elected official, elected twice as a Republican. But I personally despise what the GOP is becoming, a radical, anti-democracy party characterized by conservative zealotry, religious extremism, and bigotry.
But I am a pragmatist, not a “woke” type. In very reactionary districts like the one Ms. Greene represents, the situation will not change in my lifetime. In the meantime, she and her ilk are snookering the Democrats who put their time, effort and money into losing campaigns like Flowers ($8 million). Instead, they should concentrate on getting local Democratic parties more active, recruit good candidates and place more effort and money into swing districts where they actually have a chance of winning.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
PCOM Georgia
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Established in 2005, PCOM Georgia is a private, not-for-profit, accredited institute of higher education dedicated to the healthcare professions. The Suwanee, Ga., campus is affiliated with Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, a premier osteopathic medical school with a storied history. Doctoral degrees in Pharmacy (PharmD), Physical Therapy (DPT) and Osteopathic Medicine (DO) are offered at PCOM Georgia. Graduate degrees at the master’s level can be earned in Biomedical Sciences and Physician Assistant (PA) Studies. Emphasizing “a whole person approach to care,” PCOM also offers a master’s degree in Medical Laboratory Science as well. PCOM Georgia focuses on educational excellence, interprofessional education and service to the wider community. To learn more about how PCOM Georgia is shaping the future of health, visit www.pcom.edu or call 678-225-7500.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
PCOM pleased to give medical insight to prospective doctors
Editor, the Forum:
It was good to see the GwinnettForum article highlighting the Pathway to Med School program offered by the Foothills Area Health Education Center (AHEC). This program affords college students, interested in medicine as a career, exposure to valuable perspectives and insight from healthcare providers, medical school faculty and staff, and healthcare delivery networks as they explore options for the future.
Here at PCOM Georgia, under the leadership of faculty member Francis Jenney, PhD, a professor in the Biomedical Science program, PCOM was delighted to host these enthusiastic students as they explored the intricacies of the human body in our Anatomy Lab, experienced Osteopathic manipulative medicine and its benefits to health, were tutored on the importance of the complex medical school admissions process and MCAT entrance exams, and explored Advanced Clinical Skills in our Simulation Center with School of Medicine Dean, Andrea Mann. PCOM Georgia is dedicated to building the physician and healthcare workforce here in Georgia. We are proud partners with Foothills AHEC in working toward this lofty goal.
The aspiring doctors in this program are current upper-level undergraduate college students at multiple universities around the state. The program, sponsored by the Foothills AHEC, gives them exposure to physicians who are currently in practice. It also allows medical schools to highlight the importance of scholastic success while in college, highlights approaches for consideration in completing medical school applications, the weight of the Medical College Admissions Test, and the importance of the interview(s) with faculty Admissions Committee members at any medical school to which they chose to apply. Applying to medical school is certainly a process.
– R. Bryan Ginn Jr., chief campus officer, PCOM, Suwanee
Chattanooga newspaper goes to daily delivery via iPads
Editor, the Forum:
Let me say I couldn’t agree more about the decline of our newspapers. I blame it on the trashy internet. Is Raleigh Perry aware that the Chattanooga news is no longer being delivered and residents can only read it online except for Sundays. I fear the AJC may be headed there also.
– Virginia Stapley, Lawrenceville
Dear Ginger: The Chattanooga Times Free Press has adopted a unique system, providing its subscribers with free Apple iPads to read the daily newspaper. The paper now prints and delivers only the Sunday edition. The parent company pioneered this format first in Little Rock. Readers benefit from getting later news (last night ball scores, for instance), not having to go to the street to pick up the paper, and can change the type size for ease of reading. You may see more newspapers go to this format. –eeb
Will younger generation remember our “Good old days?”
Editor, the Forum:
Don’t you wonder if today’s young generation will long for the “good old days” as so many of us on the Social Security system enjoy?
Simpler times, but not without scars and issues that have been thankfully erased. No need to go into any great detail: polio impacted kids until it was eradicated in 1955. Segregation was rampant, not just in the South, but its ugliness infected a whole nation.
Raleigh Perry talks about the demise of the news media. Consider the changing lifestyles including the thirst for instant gratification and addiction to the latest technology, and sadly so often, the addiction to pills.
Back then the best job a kid, mostly boys, could have was delivering the daily newspaper. I did. They were locally owned, ubiquitous and highly profitable.
Those days are gone. News was 10 hours old when that paper hit your front porch. Now we watch local/world events live on tv.
The most profitable advertising for newspapers, the tiny classifieds for jobs, cars, homes, have now gravitated to on-line sites. The headquarters downtown landmark high rise for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution left downtown, and their home is now in the old Haverty’s Financial digs in Dunwoody. Newspaper ownership has largely fallen to out-of-market groups, some investment and hedge funds, whose cost-cutting has left the newspaper with a shell of what was once a must-read.
Walter Cronkite didn’t have HBO (1972) or ESPN (1979) or umpteen other cable competitors. I worked for PARADE magazine, which was the largest circulating (through Sunday newspapers) magazine in the U.S. with advertising rates of $750,000/page. A few years ago it “sold” for $1 to a Tennessee media group. Today PARADE is a ghost of its former self, crawling in with 8-10-12 pages and not picked up by many newspapers. Its time may be gone.”
— Howard Hoffman, Berkeley Lake
- Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
County adds new SPLOST proposal to ballot this November
When Gwinnett County voters head to the polls during November’s General Election, they will decide on the renewal of the one-cent special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.)
Since 2001, the county and all 16 cities within Gwinnett have agreed on how to share the proceeds. This time around, cities are expected to receive 25 percent of the funds.
If given the green light by voters, the new program could raise $1.35 billion over the next six years, an increase over the $950 million the current SPLOST was estimated to collect through its end date of March 31, 2023.
Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson says one of the keys to the success of SPLOST is the collaboration between county government and the cities.
“SPLOST keeps Gwinnett growing in the right direction with pay-as-you-go funding for building needed projects. It’s beneficial to our residents – who have come to expect top-notch services and amenities across the County – from our quality road system to our thriving senior service centers and from our supportive public safety facilities to our beautiful parks.”
Here is an estimated breakdown on how the county plans to use just over $1 billion in 2023 SPLOST funds:
- Transportation: $736.3 million (roads, streets, bridges, facilities and equipment);
- Public safety facilities/equipment: $133.9 million ($86.4 million will go towards a new police headquarters);
- Recreational facilities/equipment: $108 million;
- Courthouse facility renovation: $12.5 million;
- Animal welfare facility renovation: $5.2 million; and
- Senior Services facilities: $4.7 million.
Hendrickson adds that the County will again form a committee made up of residents who will review and prioritize transportation projects, the largest category in the proposed sales tax program.
Gwinnett voters have approved a series of SPLOST programs that since 1985 have raised more than $3.9 billion, allowing the County to save more than $1.9 billion in financing costs compared to issuing bonds.
Gas South District, Northside Hospital form outreach pact
Gas South District and Northside Hospital have announced a new community outreach partnership. The three-year agreement brings an opportunity for Gas South District and Northside Hospital employees to work together and engage in community related initiatives.
Lee Echols, chief of marketing for Northside Hospital says: “Our work with local organizations is a big part of our mission to heal in Gwinnett. The team at Gas South District has been totally supportive of this initiative, and we look forward to building it out over the next few years.”
The partnership will kick off in August with the first co-branded community outreach effort. With a goal of supporting local teachers and creating a unique experience for them, Gas South District and Northside Hospital will look to the community to nominate teachers for a chance to win a $500 Amazon gift card and a VIP concert experience during the Georgia Jam event on August 27h being held at Gas South Arena.
To nominate a teacher visit GasSouthDistrict.com/Connect-With-Us/Classroom-VIP and give an example of how this person demonstrates their special gifts and talents in the classroom. Gas South District and Northside Hospital will review the nominations and 10 teachers will be selected for their outstanding work. Submissions are due by August 12 and winners will be selected the week of August 15.
Penn. firm buys Chattahoochee Corners for $45 million
Chattahoochee Corners business park at River Green in Duluth has been sold to Pennsylvania-based Somerset Properties in a $45 million transaction. The single-story office/flex portfolio property totals 388,213 square feet and is comprised of nine buildings featuring floor-to-ceiling glass windows on all four sides west of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
Built in 1997, the property was planned with the future in mind. Single-story buildings provide efficient access for tenants and limit unwanted exposure. In addition, the property’s proximity to the Chattahoochee River Nature Trail provides quick access to a range of outdoor amenities. For tenants in need of warehouse space, buildings 4350 and 4570 have clear dock-high space for light manufacturing and distribution.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
How the Brain Works
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain, Ga.: This book is a pictorial explanation of how the most important organ in the body operates all the systems that keeps people alive. There are two sets of tables of contents: one dealing with the physical brain and one dealing with brain functions and the senses. A most revealing series of chapters discuss how memories are formed and how they are retrieved. There is a suggestion that the best way to retrieve information that has been just learned is to take a nap! This is a way of moving the information into the memory centers thus solidifying its easy retrieval. Learning and language are covered and describe why it is easier to learn languages at an early age than after adulthood though it is stressed that it is not impossible. It also covers Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, dyslexia, Parkinson’s and other abnormalities. The full title is: How the Brain Works: The Facts Visually Explained.
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Cotton Patch Gospel author was Clarence Jordan
The “Cotton Patch” Gospel is a colloquial translation of most of the New Testament by Southern Baptist minister Clarence Jordan. (Jordan also founded the Christian community Koinonia Farm, in Sumter County, near Americus.)
Between 1968 and 1973 Jordan published four Cotton Patch volumes: The Cotton Patch Version of Paul’s Epistles, The Cotton Patch Version of Luke and Acts: Jesus’ Doings and the Happenings, The Cotton Patch Version of Matthew and John: Including the Gospel of Matthew (Except for the “Begat” Verses) and the First Eight Chapters of the Gospel of John, and The Cotton Patch Version of Hebrews and the General Epistles. He did not attempt a translation of Revelation.
Jordan’s goal was to communicate the New Testament in the idiom of the South so that “plain folks” could better understand it. To do this, Jordan, who worked from Greek texts, changed both the setting and the language of the New Testament. For example, John the Baptist conducts baptisms in the Chattahoochee River, the disciple Peter is given a “Yankee” accent, and Jesus is born in Gainesville. Also, Jesus makes such statements as “Come to me, all of you who are frustrated and have had a bellyful, and I will give you zest” (as opposed to the Matthew 11:28 verse, traditionally translated from the Greek as “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”).
A musical, Cotton Patch Gospel (1982), written by Atlanta-based actor Tom Key and stage director Russell Treyz, was based on Jordan’s version of the Gospels of Matthew and John. The popular music songwriter Harry Chapin collaborated with Key and Treyz on the adaptation, which they completed in June 1981, one month before Chapin was killed in an automobile accident. Three months later the musical opened off-Broadway and had a successful run; it has since been performed in numerous venues.
The adaptation delves even further into the Southern vernacular than Jordan’s original; for example, Jesus’ mother, Mary, becomes Mary Hagler, daughter of a deacon at First Baptist Church of Clayton; Mary gives birth to Jesus in an abandoned trailer behind Dixie Delite Motor Lodge as she and Joseph travel to Atlanta for an income-tax audit; and Jesus is not crucified but lynched by the Ku Klux Klan and Georgia Governor Pilate. The production’s country songs move the characters through the stages of Jesus’ earthly ministry, most of which is set in Georgia. Like Jordan’s original, the musical adaptation is intended to offer people a fresh perspective on Jesus’ life and provide a modern twist on the Gospel message.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
You may think this mystery is in a rain-soaked area
Here’s a photo of distinctive building for our readers to ponder as the Mystery Photo. It gives the impression of possibly being in Scandinavia or some other rain-soaked area. Figure out where this building is and send your answer to elliott@brack.net, including your hometown.
First in with the answer to the last Mystery Photo was Lou Camerio, Lilburn, for the second straight issue. He recognized Mount Adams in Washington state. The photo came from Karen Garner, formerly of Gwinnett, now living in Robesonia, Penn.
Others recognizing it include Stacey Stavish, Winder; Susan McBayer, Sugar Hill; Mark Smith, Eatonton; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; and Rick Krause, Lilburn, who told us: “Mount Adams is the ‘A’ in BRASH of the Cascade mountains, north to south: Baker, Rainier, Adams, St. Helens and Hood.”
Allen Peel of San Antonio, Tex. gave more detail: “Mount Adams is in Washington state, approximately halfway between Mount Hood to its south, and Mount Rainier to its north. The infamous Mount St. Helens lies less approximately 34 miles to the west of Mount Adams. It was named after President John Adams and is not considered extinct.
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