Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, November 1, 2023/Page 6A
Stye Aiiuancg
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
The Middle
By Ben Shapiro
The easiest moral
place to stand is in the
middle.
Standing in the
middle is comforting.
It grants you the illu
sion that you are be
ing evenhanded, that
you see nuance and complexity where oth
ers see black and white. It is flattering to be
in the middle — no one hates your view
point enough to make you their opponent,
and yet you get to stand apart from every
one, tut-tutting both sides.
When it comes to Israel and its terror
backing enemies, the West has, for some
decades, taken precisely that position.
Sure, Israel should be able to defend it
self.
But not too much.
Yes, Israel has the right to exist.
But it must make concessions to those
who seek Israel’s destruction.
When Israel’s enemies pursue the worst
atrocities in four generations, it’s difficult to
maintain that position of studied neutrality,
in which attacks on Israel are chalked up to
political differences and shrugged away. It
turns out that scenes of brutally massacred
children, women and men tend to upset the
moral stomach.
But then the stomach settles again.
All it takes to return to that sophisti
cated neutrality is a few false platitudes — a
few comforting lies.
Three of those lies have been provided
in significant supply by the hard Left and its
allies in the legacy media.
The first lie is that Israel must be warned
not to engage in human rights violations.
We hear this nostrum all the time: from
the president of the United States, from the
United Nations, from the media. The idea
is that if Israel’s leadership isn’t reminded in
the wake of the worst pogrom since the
Holocaust, those rude Jews might carpet-
bomb Gaza. The purpose of the lie is sim
ple: to get Israel to stop defending itself at
the first available opportunity. If you warn
the world that Israel is likely to pursue
atrocities, and then — as inevitably hap
pens in war — something terrible happens,
Israel can quickly be shoved back into the
box of moral equivalence.
Voila! Status quo ante restored.
Of course, this lie is a lie. And it is a
stupidly offensive lie, in the same way that it
is a lie when the United Nations warns the
United States about human rights viola
tions. Israel is a professional military that
abides by the rules of war. Its enemies
openly cheer the death of civilians, both Is
rael’s and their own. By all rights, the entire
political and media infrastructure ought to
be using their supposed moral suasion on
human rights to convince Hamas to release
hostages and protect their own citizens.
But, of course, there’s no real interest in
that. The lie must be maintained. Israel has
to be warned about human rights, because
secretly, the Jews are just like Hamas.
Then there’s the second lie: that we
must all remember the vaunted Peace Pro
cess. Yes, the Peace Process that was obvi-
Please see Shapiro page 9A
LETTER TO THE EDITOR...
Food Lion
Remodeling
Dear Editor,
You may have noticed the local Food
Lion has undergone a bit of remodeling.
One of the biggest features of this project
was the huge self service check out.
Of course, when a store opens such a
feature they close as many other registers
as possible to better train their custom
ers. I’ve observed that it doesn’t seem to
be working all that well. I’m proud to see
folks waiting in the single line rather than
check themselves out.
In the past, this store has been well
known for its excellent customer service
and reliably friendly associates. While the
associates are still friendly and helpful,
the mood of the store has changed. This
seems to be the new retail model, and
why not? Why not employ as few people
as possible?
Self service registers never complain,
call in sick, have family occurrences that
require them to miss work, and above
all they don’t expect to be paid wages or
benefits. Neither do they shop, or partici
pate in the economy in any way. They do
however threaten the livelihood of retail
workers. Self service checkout aisles are
a reality that will likely not go away, but I
see them as a threat.
W.L.Adams
715 Laurel Dr., Vidalia
Daylight
In case you
haven’t noticed, day
light is coming a little
later now. That trend
will continue as the
calendar moves to
ward the cooler tem
peratures of autumn
I don’t live by the moon and stars. Don’t
keep company with the Farmer’s Almanac
either, but when I occasionally spend time
with that publication, I think about how
savvy and brilliant the individuals of the co
lonial era really were, when our nation was
in its infancy.
Ben Franklin originated “Poor Rich
ard’s Almanack” in 1732. The “Old Farmer’s
Almanac” came about in 1792 and is still
published today. Many live by it with more
than a modicum of commitment to the
content within its pages, following the foot
steps of their great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great, grandfather.
Many agricultural families spend seri
ous time with the “Old Farmer’s Almanac”
each day. Mandyjoye, UGA’s accomplished
marine scientist, still gets a subscription of
the almanac from her mother each year.
I’m thankful for astronomers who pay
attention to the moon and the tides. If
those who do that sort of thing for a living
are convinced that global warming is a fact,
then I’m all for paying attention.
Something tells me that if the polar ice
caps are melting then we need to listen up.
To begin with, I don’t want the polar bears’
habitat to melt away, but it goes beyond
that. Such melting can’t be good for the rest
of the world. At least that is the sense of one
of the unwashed who aspires to make a so
journ to Churchill, Canada, to monitor the
activities of the polar bears on their annual
migration route.
We have had our longest day of the
year, which came about on June 21, which
brought about a bittersweet circumstance
in Biarritz, France. You may remember
Richard Tardits, the walk-on Frenchman
defensive end at Georgia.
His story is one of the most remark
able ever. He had played rugby in France,
but while watching reruns of NFL football
games when visiting friends in Augusta, in
quired about the game. That led to his try
ing out for the Bulldog team, which led to a
sensational story.
Please see Loran page 9A
By Loran Smith
and then winter.
Attorney General Carr out to stop
police training center violence
Georgia’s
Attorney Gen
eral Chris Carr
is neither a
RINO (Repub
lican in Name
Only) nor a
RITNO (Re
publican in
Trump’s Name
Only.) His solid
conservative
credentials mirror those of our late U.S.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, which is appro
priate since he once served as Isakson’s
chief of staff in Washington.
He is about to lay the wood to a
bunch of creeps who are doing their
best to turn Atlanta into a mobocracy
like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle,
where the inmates seem to be running
the asylum.
As we speak, the AG has indicted
61 people on charges of violating the
state’s Racketeer Influenced and Cor
rupt Organization’s (RICO) Act due to
their thuggish tactics in trying to pre
vent the construction of the Atlanta
Public Safety Training Center, which
they have labeled Cop City. That is a
misnomer since the center would train
fire fighters and EMS personnel as well.
The 61 defendants were indicted
in Fulton County on Aug. 29. Next
comes warrants from Fulton County
Superior Court for all of the defendants
who are then considered wanted. Some
defendants may turn themselves in,
while others will likely be arrested and
the extradition process will then begin.
Of particular note is that of the 61
protesters indicted, only 13 are from
Georgia. The other 48 hail from 24
other states as well as from Canada and
France. Most are in their 20’s. They
claim they are trying to save the trees
on the construction site. They do this
by trespassing, chaining themselves to
trees and destroying equipment being
used by developers.
They also claim the training center
is where “police will be trained on how
to inflict militant violence on their
communities.” Give them credit for
knowing something about militant vio
lence. The attorney general’s office
cites some 225 incidents in which the
defendants are alleged to have worked
together to prevent the construction of
the Atlanta Public Safety Training Cen
ter.
These include throwing a Molotov
cocktail through the window of the
Department of Public Safety and catch
ing the building on fire; throwing Mo
lotov cocktails at police officers; cut
ting the safety rope of an arborist on
site; damaging and destroying the
property of contractors and construc
tion workers in Georgia and a number
of other states as well as showing up at
their homes. The financial impact is
estimated between $30 and $50 mil
lion.
If I find this crowd guilty of any
thing, it is hyperbole. They claim the
training center will be the largest in the
U.S. The Police Foundation points out
that Reno, NV, and Meridian, MS, fa
cilities are larger. They say Blackhawk
helicopters will be on site. The City of
Atlanta owns no Blackhawks. Same
with tanks. Cop City opponents say
By Dick Yarbrough
400 acres of forest will be destroyed
while the city says the center will sit on
85 acres and the rest of the 300-plus
acres will be protected. All a bunch of
poppycock, but why spoil a good mis
guided protest?
The Stop Cop City crowd did take
time out from tossing Molotov cock
tails at the police to rally in support of
Palestine. “Fight for the freedom of
Palestine and the end of the U.S. war
machine, imperialism and colonialism
all over the world,” said Mariah Parker,
a former Athens-Clarke County Com
missioner who recently decamped to
Atlanta. I guess she couldn’t get tickets
to home football games.
Leading the opposition to the
training center is Stacey Abrams’ New
Georgia Project. After the Atlanta City
Council voted to move forward with
funding the training center, the group
issued a statement saying in part, “In a
healthy democracy, there should al
ways be room for public debate, for
protest and for residents’ concerns to
be taken seriously by their elected offi
cials.” Are they condoning the kind of
violent behavior being shown by pro
testors?
After Attorney General Carr issued
the RICO indictments, including 15
counts of money laundering, Stop Cop
City tweeted that their right of free
speech was being infringed upon. Carr
responded, “We all have a First Amend
ment right to peacefully protest. But
protesters use words. Violence is not
speech. Violence is not protected by
the First Amendment. This entire in
dictment when you look at it is about
those that engaged in violence.” Amen.
As for me, this bunch of nihilistic
nuts make the perfect case for why de
funding the police is not only a bad
idea, it is a dangerous idea. I applaud
Georgia Atty. Gen. Chris Carr for rein
ing them in along with their terroristic
tactics and bully behavior. You should,
too.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.comor at PO Box
725373, Atlanta. GA31139.
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