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The ADVANCE, October 4, 2023/Page 6A
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OPINIONS
“I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his repute for the freedom to think,
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.”
-James Russell Lowell
editorials
This week, and every week,
newspapers are for you
Americans have
more media options
than ever. We are in
undated with stories,
memes, videos and pro
motions 24 hours a day.
Most of us are on social
media, which is built
to provide an endless
feed of content to keep
us glued to our screens.
And unfortunately, mis
information is prevalent and much of that
content isn’t fact-checked, verified or pro
fessionally produced. The result is that we’re
not always shown what we need to know, or
the information that is most likely to impact
our lives. That’s where local newspapers
come in. Your local newspaper takes a dif
ferent approach.
National Newspaper Week is a good
opportunity to recognize the commitment
that local newspapers make to the com
munities they serve. Your local newspaper
is just that - local. It hires reporters who
are trained to provide reliable information
about the issues that matter most. Wheth
er it’s the latest happening from the local
school board, changes in real estate zoning,
high school football scores or a review of
that new restaurant you’ve been wanting to
try, newspapers deliver what’s important to
you.
Your local newspaper is far more than
just print. In the ever-changing media land
scape, local newspapers have evolved to
true multi-channel content providers. From
websites to apps, emails, newsletters, video
and podcasts, local newspapers are deliver
ing news in innovative ways. As a reader,
you get to choose when and where to get the
news you need, and no matter the method,
can always be assured what you’re reading is
credible and reliable.
Although the format or device readers
use to connect with their local newspaper
might vary, it’s clear that newspapers are
relied on as the source for local news. A re
cent national study conducted by the inde
pendent research firm Coda Ventures shows
that 79% of Americans use local newspapers
to stay informed about their communities
and depend on them to feel connected and
to decide where they stand on local issues
and to find places and things to do. Further,
six out of 10 American adults use newspa
per advertising to help them decide what
brands, products and local services to buy.
It’s clear that local newspapers are vital to
healthy communities.
In spite of the new ways to connect with
your local newspaper, it’s true that the news
paper industry is facing significant chal
lenges. Rising costs, national competitors
and the impact of Big Tech companies using
newspapers’ content without compensation
have all impacted your local newspaper.
Now, more than ever, we need their com
mitment to journalism's core values. As we
recognize National Newspaper Week, let’s
focus on the vital role that newspapers play,
and consider how we can support them.
Subscribing or advertising in your local
newspaper not only supports the newspa
per but is also an investment in your com
munity.
On a national level, the Community
News and Small Business Support Act (HR
4756) has recently been introduced in Con
gress. This bill would provide local newspa
pers with financial support for their news
room employees, and would go a long way
to providing your newspaper with support
for the reporters and photographers that are
sorely needed. Encourage your members of
Congress to support this bill!
Whether you access the content from
your local newspaper in print or online, re
member that it is produced for you. And be
hind the articles, columns, and images your
newspaper produces is a team of local resi
dents who are committed to making your
community stronger! Join me in thanking
your local newspaper - during National
Newspaper Week - for the good work it
does to keep your community informed.
Dean Ridings is the CEO of America's
Newspapers.
By Dean Ridings
Hey, Republicans: Don’t Forget
About Growth and Prosperity
Attention readers: Ben Shapiro is off this
week. Please enjoy the following column by
Stephen Moore.
House Republicans are in another ti
tanic battle with President Joe Biden on how
to balance the budget. Actually, it’s a lop
sided debate because Democrats have no
interest at all in reducing the deficit. They
are operating under the delusional idea par
adigm of “Modern Monetary Theory,”
which posits that the U.S. government can
borrow $2 trillion from now until the end of
days and it won’t hurt the economy.
Were these presidential advisers the
same Nobel-winning economic sages who
swore in the pages of The New York Times
that, don’t worry, Mr. Biden, your $6 trillion
spending spree won’t cause inflation?
Those of us who live down in here in the
real world are horrified by the fiscal future
we’re facing. Any week now, our publicly
traded debt will exceed 100% of our total
annual national output, and that percentage
gobbled up by government debt is expected
to accelerate from 100% of gross domestic
product today to nearly 200% over the next
30 years. That’s the path to Argentina, Bo
livia and Zimbabwe.
There’s plenty to cut in the budget, and
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Ar
rington (R-Texas) has put forward a finan
cially fit budget that would chop hundreds
of billions of dollars a year of waste, fraud,
redundancy and obsolescence.
Here’s anotherway to shave off $380 bil
lion of spending right out of the gate: kill
Biden’s green energy slush fund, which is
being run by Democratic politico John Pod-
esta. How about allowing the production of
energy that pays taxes — the oil, natural gas
and coal industry — instead of “renewable”
energy that eats hundreds of billions of tax
dollars?
But it doesn’t matter how much chain
sawing that Republicans could possibly do
— even if they had the political will to do it
— these reforms still won’t get us within a
country mile of a balanced budget.
That’s because there isn’t enough eco
nomic growth to get the revenues to catch
up with the spending. Under Biden, the U.S.
economy has grown at roughly a 1.5%
growth path — pretty pathetic given that
coming out of C OVID-19, we should have
been booming.
Worse yet, the standard forecast from
the Congressional Budget Office is predi
cated on the assumption of 1.7% annual
economic growth. But that’s way below the
3.2% average real growth rate of the U.S.
economy from 1950-2005.
To borrow a phrase from John F. Ken
nedy when he was running for president in
1960: “We can do better.” Actually, a lot bet
ter.
Former President Donald Trump gets
this. So does Vivek Ramaswamy. When you
get more growth, you get more revenues and
less spending on social welfare programs.
Ramaswamy says it well: “If we get back to
3%-plus economic growth, the fiscal prob
lems start to go away.” Conservative and
liberal economists alike have scolded the
Trump-Ramaswamy strategy for concluding
that “we can grow our way out of the deficit.”
Actually, with a modicum of the spend
ing restraint and a higher growth path, we
can avoid the fiscal train wreck.
Committee to Unleash Prosperity econ
omist Louis Woodhill finds that the debt as
a share of GDP slopes steadily downward
over the next 30 years with a 3% trajectory
of growth. And if we achieve 3.5% growth,
Please see Moore page 15A
Remembering a visit to
Iraq with Georgia's 48th
Brigade Combat Team
Eighteen
years ago this
week, I ven
tured off to Iraq
to report on the
brave men and
women of
Georgia’s 48th
Brigade Com
bat Team, lo
cated in an ac
curately-named
area of the country called the Triangle
of Death. It is thought that the Garden
of Eden was located somewhere in that
general area. If so, Adam and Eve were
lucky to get out when they did. The
serpent, too. It was not an ideal place to
raise kids or apple trees.
I got to Iraq via the suggestion of
my friend Bill Stewart in Brunswick.
Stewart, who had been chief of staff to
Georgia U.S. Sen. Mack Mattingly, sug
gested to a former aide that it might be
good to invite me over to see first-hand
what was going on in Iraq. That former
aide was now Gen. Stewart Rode-
heaver, a great American.
My media friends told me that the
trip would not be worth the effort, that
I would confined to a safe area called
the Green Zone, and watched over by
the public information people. I ex
pressed those concerns in an email to
Gen. Rodeheaver, who assured me that
would not be the case. And it was not.
I don’t know what I was expecting
when I got there, but what I discovered
is the place was dirty and dangerous.
There wasn’t much vegetation but a lot
of sand and wind. Also, unlike wars in
the past, the enemy was not necessarily
facing you. In Iraq, the bad guys could
be in front, in back or on both sides.
They were no safe havens. As the
famed arsonist William Tecumseh
Sherman once observed, “War is hell.”
So was Iraq.
I also discovered an extraordinary
group of Georgians, 4,600 citizen-sol
diers who had left their homes, fami
lies and jobs and were now stationed in
a miserable part of the world. Unlike
regular military for whom soldiering is
a full-time job, the men and women of
the 48th BCT were members of the
Georgia National Guard. Back home,
they were schoolteachers, mechanics,
prison guards, truck drivers, postal em
ployees. You name it. In Iraq, they were
soldiers, first and foremost.
Not only did they risk their lives
daily trying to avoid IEDs (Improvised
Explosive Devices), which could be
detonated in something as simple as a
soda can, as well as getting shot at and
shooting back, the 48th BCT unit also
helped in the construction and repair
of bridges and sewer systems, utilities
and operating a much-needed medical
clinic as well as teaching job skills to
the locals.
I saw the war a bit too up-close-
and-personal while on patrol with
members of the 648th Engineering
Battalion out of Statesboro as they
swept through the notorious Triangle
of Death — so called because of the
By Dick Yarbrough
terrorist activity in the area between
the cities of Mahmudiayah, Yusifiyah
and Lucafiyah — looking for IEDs. We
found one. Under the Humvee in
which I was seated. A couple of bad
guys exploded an IED as we were
crossing a bridge near our home base
of Camp Striker. Had our vehicle been
going a few seconds slower or had the
bad guys been a little faster on the
draw, someone else might be occupy
ing this weekly space, not me. We later
took a picture of the crater — about
the size of a kitchen table — which I
keep in my office as a reminder that
war is not an abstraction. War is hell.
People die.
It has been 18 years since that
memorable journey to Iraq. Gen. Stew
art Rodeheaver is retired, lives in Ea-
tonton and runs Vizitech USA, a digi
tal education and training company.
We still correspond on occasion. John
King, a former commander of the 48th
Brigade Combat Team, is now Geor
gia’s Insurance Commissioner. Then
Lt. Col. and later Major Gen. Tom
Carden is the Adjutant General of
Georgia, which oversees the Army and
Air National Guards in the state.
But there were others I wrote
about: Dr. John Vogel, of Atlanta, and
medic Angela Gowen, from Palmetto;
Sgt. Eric Farmborough, of Statesboro;
Staff Sgt. Britt Smith, of Dublin; Shaun
Todd, from Claxton; Sgt. Bruce Robin
son, from Buena Vista; Gary Thurman,
from Winder; Sgt. James Rackley, of
Montezuma; Bill Huffman, from Gray
and so many more. I don’t know where
they are today. I hope they are well.
They likely won’t remember me in the
brief time I spent with them in that
hellhole called Iraq, but I will never
forget them. Heroes are hard to forget.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.
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