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BARROW JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2008
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher -
Chris Bridges, editor • Email: cbridges@barrowjournal.com
our views
Big 3 begging
a low point
in capitalism
T HE SCENE last week of
the leaders of the Big
Three U.S. auto firms
begging Congress for a financial
handout has to be a low point in
America’s economic history.
There sat the titans of
American capitalism—the quint
essential silk-stocking CEOs, the
essence of American industrial
power — shaking a tin cup on
Capital Hill.
The public may not under
stand all the complex debt
“instruments” that led to the
recent failures of Wall Street
financial firms — it’s doubtful
if Wall Street even understood
those toxic mortgages packages
— but everyone identifies with
cars and the symbolism they
carry of American industrial
might. Perhaps no other indus
try is so closely identified with
Corporate America as are the
Big Three American auto firms
of GM, Ford and Chrysler.
Yet there they sat, the Big
Three from Detroit, groveling
before Congress for taxpayer
dollars to “rescue” their jobs. It
was a humiliating moment in
American corporate history.
Whatever these firms’ impor
tance to the economy it’s dif
ficult for other business lead
ers to feel sorry for them. For
decades, Detroit has been cap
tive to union labor where work
ers made far more than many
other Americans.
Now, the high cost of those
union jobs has virtually bank
rupted the Big Three automak
ers. The bailout being begged for
is not a rescue of the automotive
industry — there are plenty of
other automakers around who
are manufacturing better cars —
it is for the unions to maintain
their stranglehold on the indus
try in Detroit.
Congress’ answer should be
a resounding “No.” Let the Big
Three swim in their own inflated
pension funds.
Isn’t that what capitalism is all
about, the survival of the stron
gest and best prepared?
Or has this nation moved so
far away from its economic roots
that Congress would willingly
slip tax dollars into the pockets
of those begging Captains of
Capitalism?
The Barrow Journal
Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
www.BarrowJoumal.com
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher
Chris Bridges Editor
Susan Norman Reporter & Web Editor
Susan Treadwell Advertising Manager
Susan Mobley Office Manager
Jeremy Ginn Marketing Manager
Jessica Brown Photographer
The Barrow Journal
77 East May Street
Winder, Georgia 30680
Web Site: www.BarrowJournal.com
Email: news@barrowjournal.com
Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397)
Fax: 678-425-1435
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
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Surrounding Counties $19.75/yr.
Other In-State $38.85/yr.
Out of State $44.50/yr.
Military/APO $42.50/yr.
Out of county Senior Citizens Deduct $2
Believe in the small miracles
I BELIEVE in miracles, both big and small. Thankfully,
I’ve been blessed thus far with a life that has not needed or
requested any major miracles. My miracles have all been
of the minor variety but oh, so many there have been!
Car trouble that didn’t happen
until it was safe... Animals healed
or, when lost, found... Loving
homes found for all the cats, kit
tens, puppies and dogs that have
ended up on my doorstep... Work
showing up when it was most
needed... Trouble or trauma that
seemed inevitable, faded away...
God is good, and He has been
very very good to me and mine
over the years.
The most recent miracle that
happened involved my elderly
neighbors, the Petermans, and a sweet kitty named Sarah
Elisabeth. A well-placed phone call and, yes, yet another
cat rescue by me.
A month or so ago, my neighbor, John Peterman, left a
message on our answering machine. He said a little yellow
and white cat had “taken up” at their house. He wondered
if it was mine.
I didn’t return the call because it wasn’t mine and I’m a
believer that every home should have a cat. I figured that
cat had just found hers and I wanted the Petermans to give
her a shot.
Then one afternoon last week, there was a flurry of dog
activity on our back porch. I ran to see what it was and
caught a glimpse of a white tail, then watched as a yellow
and white cat ran from my dogs to scale a tall, thin, tree not
far from the house.
I ran after the dogs and called to Mr. Clark to put the dogs
inside. He did and I went to check on the cat, who by then
had climbed very high in the tree.
She was a little half-grown female, yellow and white, very
scared and very friendly. She had no clue how to get down
from the small limb where she was perilously perched. I
tried the time-tested trick of opening a can of cat food and
banging a little on the plate right below the tree. She was
clearly motivated, but couldn’t figure out how to get down.
She managed to swing — and nearly fall — to the limb
below, which was still quite high. She cried and cried, but
wouldn’t, or couldn’t, come down.
Mr. Clark got the tall ladder and propped it against the
tree trunk. I held the ladder while he grabbed the cat. Boy,
was she glad to be safe again!
I took her into Mr. Clark’s office (which serves as the
rescued animal holding room), fed her and assessed the
situation. She was clearly someone’s cat. She was well-fed,
affectionate, healthy and she had a great big purr.
Since we couldn’t keep her, I began forming the adop
tion plan. Then it hit me, this was the Petermans’ cat!
I called them, but no one was home. I left a message.
Later, I took the cat over to their house. All the lights were
out — only the porch light on — no one was home. The cat
spent the night in Mr. Clark’s office.
The next day I left another message on Lou and John’s
answering machine and I walked her over to their house
again, but it still appeared that no one was home.
We had appointments in Athens all day so the cat spent
the day in Mr. Clark’s office. If the Petermans didn’t return
or respond soon, I’d have to come up with an adoption
plan.
Then John called my cell. He said he’d not been able to
understand much in my messages, but he had heard we
had a cat and he wanted to “take a look at it.” I told him I’d
bring her right over.
The look on Lou and John’s faces when they opened
the door and saw their beloved Sarah Elisabeth again
would make the coldest heart believe in miracles.
It turned out Sarah Elisabeth had been gone for two
nights and they’d been looking for her. But with limited
mobility, their search had been unsuccessful. Lou had
been praying and John had been hoping and calling out
the back door. But as the third night approached, they had
almost given up hope.
“We’ve never had a cat before,” Lou said. “I’ve never
even liked cats, but Sarah Elisabeth is different. When she
came to us she was so small and skinny and pitiful and
now look at her! I had no idea I would come to love her
so much in such a short time.”
And Sarah Elisabeth was clearly right back where she
belonged. She rolled around on the carpet, ate a little,
roamed the house, then settled happily in Lou’s lap.
We had a nice visit. I gave them some cat care tips and
then I went home, so glad that Sarah Elisabeth and the
Petermans were reunited once more.
These are the little miracles that mean so much. A tiny
cat finds a loving home... an elderly couple discovering
what an excellent companion a cat can be... I find the cat
when she wanders off... and thanks to John’s message,
return Sarah Elisabeth to the people who now so dearly
love her.
God is good!
Lorin Sinn-Clark is a columnist for the Barrow Journal.
She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.
HE SAYS 386 YEARS FROM NOW, HIS
POSITION WILL MAKE PERFECT SENSE TO US.
CLOSED
TO
ILLEGAL
immigrants
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THE FIRST D.M.V
Don’t mess with the teachers
IF YOU want to accomplish anything in Georgia politics,
you had better remember one thing: don’t mess around
with public school teachers, par
ticularly with their pensions.
Teachers are one of the state’s
best educated groups of work
ers and they are also among
the most politically active. The
politician who does anything that
makes teachers mad will surely
pay the price at the ballot box.
Roy Barnes could attest to that.
Eight years ago, when he was
Georgia’s governor, he persuad
ed the Legislature to adopt an
education reform measure that
he promptly signed into law.
Barnes wanted to improve stu
dent performance by reducing class sizes and providing
more resources for local school systems. Teachers were
fine with that, but they were very unhappy over a provision
that eliminated their right to a fair dismissal hearing. To
add insult to injury, Barnes commented on several occa
sions that one of the problems with public schools was
that “it’s too difficult to get rid of bad teachers.”
That was the match that touched off the explosion.
Angered at the lack of respect shown by the governor,
educators decided to teach Barnes a lesson when he
ran for reelection in 2002. Teachers around the state
denounced the incumbent and supported his Republican
challenger, Sonny Perdue. With the teachers’ help,
Perdue defeated Barnes in one of the most astounding
political upsets in the state’s history.
The lesson that Barnes learned at such a high price does
not seem to have hit home with Perdue, however. Two
months ago, Perdue tried to reduce pension benefits for
teachers by proposing that the Teacher Retirement System
(TRS) eliminate their annual three percent increase in
cost-of-living adjustments to pension benefits.
This increase has been granted automatically to retired
teachers for nearly 40 years, but Perdue suggested giving
the TRS board of trustees the flexibility to grant smaller
increases because he said he wanted to protect the fiscal
soundness of the $41 billion pension fund.
Just as they did six years ago with Barnes, teachers
went ballistic over the Perdue proposal. They flooded the
governor’s office and the office of the TRS board with an
estimated 20,000 letters and emails protesting the policy
change.
Teachers felt, not unreasonably that they and their local
school boards have been making hefty contributions to
the pension fund for decades to make sure there would
be enough money to pay for those of cost-of-living adjust
ments. If the governor would not listen to them, they
made sure that the legislative leadership got the message
about the perils of reducing pension benefits.
That message was received. By the time the TRS board
met last week to vote on Perdue’s pension proposal,
teachers had such key officials as Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle,
House Speaker Pro Tern Mark Burkhalter and House
Minority Leader DuBose Porter on their side. Perdue
may have been tone-deaf to the feelings of teachers, but
lawmakers were not going to make that same mistake.
Realizing too late that he did not have the votes on the
TRS board, Perdue attempted to have the proposal with
drawn. The board refused to allow the withdrawal and
every member voted to reject Perdue’s proposal - even
though more than half of the trustees are appointed by
the governor.
Perdue’s political mistake probably won’t cost him
the way it cost Barnes in 2002. He can’t run for gover
nor again because he’s term-limited and he can’t step
up to run for higher office because Johnny Isakson
isn’t going to vacate his U.S. Senate seat in 2010.
One politician who does plan to run for something
in 2010, Cagle, made sure that the teachers knew
who had been in their corner. He issued a state
ment soon after the TRS vote saying he supported
the decision and followed that up with a letter to
each teacher who had written to him about the issue.
“I know many of you have waited weeks for this decision,
and I want you to know that I reached out to the TRS
Board to express my concern in taking the proposed
actions to change this rule,” Cagle wrote. “I am happy that
they listened to my advice, as well as the voice of many
teachers across our state.”
Any politicians who want to keep getting elected to pub
lic office will make very sure that they listen to the voice
of Georgia’s teachers. The events of last week made that
crystal clear.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia
Report, an Internet news service._ He can be reached at
tcrawford@caDitolimDact. net.
Political junkie
gets to share
the spotlight
AS I entered the Winder
Women’s Club building last week,
I had no idea what was in store.
I was
there to
cover the
Barrow
County
Republican
Party
meeting
since state
Rep. Terry
England
was to
preview
the upcom
ing 2009 legislative session. As I
make it a habit of doing, I arrived
at the meeting early and as I
walked in the building, only a
handful of people were there.
One of those already inside
was Lauren “Bubba” McDonald,
Republican candidate for a
seat on the state Public Service
Commission. County Republican
Party chairman Ken Young
introduced McDonald to me and
while I admittedly have a few dif
ferences of opinion with him on
issues, I will say it was an honor
for a Georgia political junkie like
myself to be talking with him one-
on-one.
It was 18-years-ago, a generation
now, that McDonald was stump
ing for the highest elected office
in the Peach State. McDonald
campaigned for the governor’s
office that year although the race
eventually went to Zell Miller.
During my conversation with
McDonald (he doesn’t use the
“Bubba” part in his campaigns
these days), my mind drifted
back to that time when I voted
for the first time in the primary
during the summer of 1990.
McDonald was campaigning
as a Democrat then, although
he has changed camps now
to the Republican side. (Miller
never officially changed parties,
but since he hasn’t backed a
Democrat for office in years, he
might as well have gone ahead
and made it official).
In 1990, Georgia still voted
Democratic as Miller’s general
election opponent, Republican
Johnny Isakson had little, if any,
chance against him, although
years later he would be elected to
the U.S. Senate.
I still have a copy of a
Democratic primary debate from
the 1990 governor’s race which
featured McDonald, Miller, Roy
Barnes (the first time he ran for
governor), Andrew Young and
the Lester Maddox. I admit to still
watching the old VHS tape from
time to time, although I need
to have it converted to a DVD
before I wear the tape too thin.
So there I was last Monday
night in Winder, a place I had
never visited back in 1990, talking
with Lauren McDonald, former
candidate for governor and cur
rent candidate for a seat on the
PSC. I guess I should have felt for
tunate the candidate would even
say two words to any newspaper
reporter, considering he had
been raked over the coals that
day by our state’s largest news
paper. McDonald’s opponent in
the Dec. 2 runoff was endorsed
by that paper in question and no
doubt was trying to explain some
of the allegations hurled at him
by what had been written.
I wasn’t at the local Republican
Party meeting to cover
McDonald. In fact, I didn’t know
he was even going to be there.
However, to someone who
has always had a passion for
Georgia politics it was a moment
to remember. When you get to
have a one-on-one conversation
with someone who has run for
governor in your state, you seize
the moment.
To some, it would have not
been a big deal. To me, it was
special, if only for a few minutes.
Chris Bridges is editor of the
Barrow Journal. He can be
reached at: cbridges@barrow-
journal.com.