Newspaper Page Text
OPINION
THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17-23, 2019 • Page 5
Ugly side of Super Bowl mania
Excitement is building in metro
Atlanta. The 53rd Super Bowl is
less than a month away.
Hordes of sports fans, celebrities,
athletes and folks who just love
the whirlwind of mega events will
descend on Atlanta for the big NFL
face-off at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
on Feb. 3. Whether they have tickets
for the game or not, thousands will
come to attend the free concerts
and activities planned at Centennial
Olympic Park and ticketed events
scheduled for other venues in the
city and surrounding areas.
Businesses such as hotels and
restaurants as well as smaller
entrepreneurs such as food truck
owners and T-shirt vendors are
hoping to cash in as visitors invade
the city to play and spend.
Unfortunately, a mega event
such as the Super Bowl also
has a dark side, attracting those
-
Gale Horton Gay
gale@dekalbchamp.com
who will exploit children, teens
and vulnerable adults in the sex
trade. Metro Atlanta has already
established itself as a place where
human trafficking thrives. It is
one of the top cities for human
trafficking, according to numerous
sources. Major sporting events
escalate sex trade activities with the
young and defenseless most at risk.
The Super Bowl has a reputation as
such an event.
A coalition of more than 30 law
enforcement agencies, public and
private groups, faith-based and civic
organizations in metro Atlanta—
including the DeKalb County
District Attorney’s Office—has been
working on a three-year strategic
plan to accelerate efforts to end
human trafficking.
January is National Slavery
and Human Trafficking Prevention
Month with events taking place
nationwide to increase awareness
and efforts to aid the victims of this
exploitation of children and adults
and put an end to the ugly practice.
On Jan. 18, the 4th annual Human
Trafficking Forum is scheduled to
take place at Agnes Scott College.
The daylong forum is put on by
Tapestri, a nonprofit dedicated to
ending violence and oppression
among immigrant and refugee
communities.
Among efforts individuals can
take to become part of the solution:
• Educate yourself and others on
what’s taking place locally.
• Know the signs of human traffick
ing.
• Lobby for legislation that address
es the issue.
• Volunteer for one of the many
anti-trafficking nonprofits.
• Donate financially or with in-kind
gifts to groups working to assist
victims.
The coming of Super Bowl LIII
is a flashpoint that should make us
all more aware and hopefully more
responsive to the dire circumstances
of those being victimized.
Find a way to help.
Gwinnett turns 200 at a crossroads
One of Georgia’s oldest counties,
Gwinnett, became 200 years old on
Dec. 15, 2018. Looking ahead, as
the man whom the county is named
for frequently did, it may be time for
bold decisions and potentially new
directions.
Button Gwinnett—briefly
Georgia’s provisional president in
1777, an early speaker of the Georgia
state legislature and later signer of the
Declaration of Independence—like
most Georgians of his time felt that an
independent United States might be
unthinkable. Great Britain was then
the world’s mightiest empire; and the
colonies of the Americas were but
a fledgling cluster of port cities and
plantation towns up and down the
eastern seaboard of North America with
no organized militia.
But while first serving in a Georgia
provincial assembly in Savannah in
January 1776, Gwinnett was selected as
a delegate to the Continental Congress
in Philadelphia, where he was first
seated that May. Gwinnett became
convinced that American independence
was worth the risk and price that
would likely be paid, and on July 2,
1776, and again on July 4, Gwinnett
voted in support of the Declaration of
Independence. Though Georgia was
considered a remote colony, all three
of its delegates to the Continental
Congress became enthusiastic
supporters of the declaration and the
American Revolution which followed.
During the century that followed,
Gwinnett County remained
m
‘One Man's
Opinion’
Bill Crane
bill.csicrane@gmail.com
predominantly rural, and still later a
somewhat remote bedroom community
for fast growing Atlanta to its south. By
the 1940 census, prior to World War
II, the county population remained just
under 30,000. Rapid growth defined
the post-war decades and approaching
the 2020 census, Gwinnett has become
Georgia’s second most-populous
county, now with nearly a million
residents.
Gwinnett is home to Georgia’s
largest public school system and one of
its highest performing. A strong cluster
of municipalities offer differing tastes
of Gwinnett life and county pride and
its percentage of lifelong residents
remains high. A strong technology
corridor exists along the county
center and the 1-85 corridor is ripe for
redevelopment.
But Gwinnett County is also
changing. During the last census,
Gwinnett’s population became
majority-minority. For decades
thousands of Gwinnett workers
streamed each morning along
interstates, state highways and major
thoroughfares into metro Atlanta’s
core. But that traffic is now much more
two-way, with workers of the high- and
low-skill variety heading in and out.
Interstate connectivity along 1-85,
985, 316 and U.S. Highway 78 remain
almost unmatched in the region, while
east/west connectors apart from the
Ronald Reagan Parkway are few and
far between. While Gwinnett Transit
System and GRTA Xpress buses offer
service across Gwinnett to other parts
of the metro Atlanta region, route
frequency is largely limited to rush
hour commutes.
Gwinnett County sites were
left on the sidelines recently during
competition for the nation’s largest
economic development prospect,
the Amazon HQ2 search, solely
because of lack of direct access to
region-wide transit. The Gwinnett
County Commission has developed an
ambitious transportation plan for the
future, but they are leaving the decision
on whether the county significantly
expands and enhances its local
transit options to area residents and
businesses.
Gwinnett voters previously
approved Special Purpose Local Option
Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendums to
improve local schools, parks, libraries
and other infrastructure. Now they
have the opportunity to even more
significantly invest in their future
through a March 2019 Transportation
SPLOST special referendum.
Gwinnett County has reached many
milestones with an even brighter future
potentially ahead, but to maximize
those successes and share the wealth
with all levels of the local citizenry,
a deeper and more tangible series of
connections to the rest of the metro
region are needed. A dedicated lane
on Ronald Reagan Parkway or the
Highway 120 corridor for high
occupancy vehicles or bus rapid transit
could easily improve and expedite
county traffic east and west. Direct rail
or light rail access from Hartsfield-
Jackson Atlanta International Airport
would provide an explosive boost in
convention and tourism business at the
Gwinnett Convention Center, Infinite
Energy Arena and the upcoming Revel
development.
In his day, Button Gwinnett—
British born and raised, first a modest
merchant and later a plantation
owner—heard the voices of those
afraid of the future, but he also knew
that America and its people could not
prosper as a subordinate, under the yolk
and thumb of a large and sometimes
oppressive government. If Button
Gwinnett were still around today, I’m
pretty sure he would be leading the way
to get on board this train. Go Gwinnett.
Bill Crane also serves as a political
analyst and commentator for Channel 2’s
Action News, WSB-AM News/Talk 750
and now 95.5 FM, as well as a columnist
for The Champion, DeKalb Free Press
and Georgia Trend. Crane is a DeKalb
native and business owner, living in
Scottdale. You can reach him or comment
on a column at bill.csicrane@gmail.com.
