Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2008
BARROW JOURNAL
PAGE 5A
letters
City of ethics or antics?
Dear Editor:
With all the good things happening and being talked about
in Auburn, I try not to air the negative side in public, but the
Auburn City Council has left me few options.
I was somewhat disappointed when I attended Auburn’s
City Council’s Business Meeting and Workshop last Thursday.
In our Mayor’s rush to push through city business and keep
the meeting short, she deleted the pledge, prayer, and citizen
comment from the agenda of both meetings. Since I could not
bring up concerns there, let me share some here.
Madam Mayor has asked why we can not get more citizens
involved. Let me shed some light.
A while back, a group of concerned citizens researched the
history of Auburn’s downtown area, took photos, made maps,
and went through the efforts to have the historical district listed
on the National Registry.
Others continued the effort gathering items for a museum
in one of the historical section houses and a Boy Scout com
pleted his Eagle project by filming, marking, and mapping out
a walk of the area. Your recent plan for the Downtown Overlay
District covers this whole area.
When asked about the Historical District, the reply from
your Administrator was, “We may be able to save the shell of
one of the buildings.” I take that to mean you will continue to
bulldoze until all the Historical District is gone. I thank those
citizens for their efforts but preserving our history is not in our
Mayor’s plan.
For two years many people have worked on expanding
recreation opportunities for our youth, including a skate park.
Four Skatefests were held with ramps loaned to the city from
the local skate shop, as many as two hundred people showed
up, and a petition with over 600 names was submitted in favor
of the skate park. Money was moved from reserves by our
previous mayor to purchase ten acres for a sport complex, to
include a skate park.
When the sports complex came up on the agenda at a
workshop, you refused to accept the recommendation of your
Park and Leisure Commission to include the skate park, you
would not let citizens on the agenda to present their views, and
Councilwoman Shackleford was bold enough to tell them “we
are not ignoring you, we are denying you.”
Reasons I heard for denying the skate park ranged from “we
do not want to attract that element to Auburn” and “skate parks
attract drug and gang activity.” The element are our youth, who
are already here and are skating on makeshift ramps in their
driveways or streets.
The activity is skating and staying fit instead of sitting in
front of a TV and joining the growing overweight population
putting the strain on our healthcare system. I prefer the family
activities I see at the Hamilton Mill skate park to the drug and
adult activities James Shackleford Park is attracting. Instead
of an additional 10 acre sports complex we are gaining a pony
field and a retention pond for the city’s runoff. I thank those
people for their efforts to expand our recreational offerings but
that is not in our mayor’s plan.
And last Thursday, the city charter was on the agenda at the
workshop. For eighteen months I have held meetings, at the
city’s request, with other citizens as we researched our current
charter and other city charters to help address some of the chal
lenges caused by wording in our charter.
When I brought up at the meeting not to just cross out the
section that was put in by referendum following a petition by
almost a thousand voters, I was told to be quiet, “this is a meet
ing of city council and you can speak at the public hearings.”
To those who were appointed with me on the committee, and
those who came to give their input, I thank you and again citi
zen input is not in our Mayor’s plan.
Madam Mayor, instead of force feeding us your plan and
touting your ethics certificate with t-shirts, pins, and another
flag for the great wall, show us you have some by includ
ing citizen input into “your plan” and making it “our plan.”
Just because you can legally do something doesn’t mean you
should.
Ethics are similar to porn in that it is hard to define but you
know it when you see it. If you feel you know why the vot
ers voted for the referendum, and debt and utilities are not an
issue, do the right thing and hold another referendum and let
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the citizens be heard.
Don’t rush two public hearings between two holidays so
only your chosen few show up and say they speak for all.
For the citizens of Auburn who want to voice your opinion
on the charter changes, the public hearings are December 4th
and 18th, 7 p.m., at city council/courtroom.
Sincerely,
Paul Brown,
Chairman, Charter Review Committee
President, Citizens for a Better Auburn, Inc.
Denied visitation rights
Dear Editor:
Are you being denied the privilege of visitation with your
great-grandchildren? My husband and I encountered this
problem.
Facts were presented in court. We lost this case, and because
of the way Georgia law is written, we cannot take this matter
back to court. The verbiage states, “great-grandparents have no
standing” (no rights)... We need this law changed.
Rep. Terry England has introduced a bill to justify the injus
tice. We need signatures to move this bill forward.
If interested in assisting in this matter, pleased contact E.
Anne Elsea at 404-313-7348 or email elizelsea@aol.com.
Sincerely,
Anne and Don Elsea
Trying to create controversy
Dear Editor:
I am sorry to have witnessed a disturbing new ploy by some
television news stations to create controversy of ugly dimen
sions.
I watched a program where the news commentator was
inviting audience participation in citing incidents of racial bias
towards President-elect Barack Obama. This was an obvious
attempt to create an atmosphere of rejection and non-accep
tance of the idea of a Black President. What a time to inject
sensationalism into such an historic event!
I truly believe that most Americans have gotten past the
color thing and are ready to move on to judging our leaders
and each other by the quality of our characters.
Sometimes in the eagerness to make news, the media goes
over the top by resorting to such outrageous means to do so.
Of course there are citizens who may never accept and sup
port a candidate whose race or religion differs from their own,
but they leave a sad smear on the framework on the kind of
Democracy most Americans aspire to.
Having spent some time as a substitute teacher, I found that
our young people are sometimes way ahead of the curve when
it comes to rejecting bigotry and racism and for that, we should
all be grateful.
That, more than any other single thing, guarantees our future
as the world’s premier Democracy and the path of hope for us
all.
Sincerely,
George Morin
Auburn
Letters to The Editor Policies
The Barrow Journal will accept letters to the editor where
readers wish to discuss current local, state or national events.
The deadline for letters to the editor is 5 p.m. Monday for that
week’s publication.
Letters should be addressed to the editor and not to third
parties.
Letters should be brief, less than 500 words.
All letters must have the name of the person writing it, their
address and contact information, such as a phone number and
email address. That information will not be published.
All letters are subject to editing for length and clarity.
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The memory vault
Did you ever wonder about
writers? I mean, what makes
their lives so different from
yours? What makes their
uncle’s
gall blad
der sur
gery fun
nier than
yours?
Other than
the fact it
wasn’tyour
gall blad
der, that is.
Why do
you sup
pose we
get such
a kick out of reading what
happened in somebody else’s
childhood when it wasn’t so
different from your own?
Simple. We can identify with
it without it being too close to
home. We love to read about
things with which we can find
common ground without actu
ally being on the same turf.
We all have neighborhood
kid tales, sagas from trips to
the department store with our
mother, or the stories of epi
sodes with our siblings that
over the years have catapulted
to epic proportions. But we
don’t take the time to write
them down for future genera
tions to share.
A few years ago my friend
Bob Hill sat down with his
father Robert to chronicle sto
ries from the Hill and House
families. Filmed in a Ken
Burns-esque style, the Hill fam
ily video starring Robert Hill
not only tells stories of the
family, but of pieces of Barrow
County’s history - even some
before it was Barrow County.
Hoping to do something
similar for the Arnold family
- if 1 can get my brothers to
build in more time for a fam
ily video than touch football
- we’ve been combing through
the boxes of family snapshots
my mother has lovingly tucked
away in Pangburn’s candy and
Heiress petticoat boxes. At
least, they are cataloged by
decades - sort of. I really can’t
say anything about the system;
since the advent of the digital
age, I have never-printed pho
tos on my computers that no
one will ever see if I don’t take
the time to print them.
We thought we’d also add
a few artifacts preserved for
posterity. A couple of years
ago, my husband Darrell and
I decided to buy my parents a
new upright freezer replacing
the chest job in their laundry
room in the dungeon. They
had bought the chest freezer in
1963 when mothers still froze
a lot of fresh vegetables and
frozen dinners were beginning
to come into their own. Mr.
Massey and Mr. Sheats weren’t
importing produce from Chile
back then, so we needed to
get the corn and green beans
through the winter for fresh-
picked goodness in the middle
of January.
Mother decided she’d save
a quart of vegetable soup. We
found it in the bottom of the
freezer (that we just knew had
to have a body or two in it -
the thing was gigantic). We
saved the top since the soup
wasn’t in too good a shape. It
had been gently placed in the
freezer just after its purchase
some 42 years prior.
When she reads this, she
probably won’t speak to me for
a couple of weeks.
Every now and again, some
writer will share a piece of life
that triggers a rusty door to a
vault of childhood chronicles
buried deep in your brain.
You’ll pick up the phone and
call your brother, e-mail your
sister, or wish your mom or
dad was here to share that
story - and maybe add a little
embroidery from the parental
perspective. I’m so grateful
my folks are still hopping at 87
and 88.
With the holidays upon us,
memories tend to be more
prolific. Treasure them. Share
them. There just might be a
column in them.
Helen Person is a native
of Barrow County and has
returned to her home com
munity after 20 years of living
in Gwinnett County. She can
be reached at helenperson@
windstream.net.
helen
person
Christmas meal for seniors set
The Auburn-Carl Lions Club will conduct its annual Senior
Citizens Christmas Show Saturday beginning at 5 p.m. A chick
en stew supper will be served.
During the meal, music will be performed by the Wayne
Barlett singing group and door prizes will be given to conclude
the evening activities.
The public is invited to attend. The Lions Club building is
located on County Line Road behind Fire Station #4 in Auburn.
Reservations are not required.
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