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Page 4A The Braselton News Wednesday, November 14, 2007 Opinion “Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth. ” -Thomas Jefferson our views Bad attitude not a crime IT’S LONG been an unspoken rule among police officers to make subjects pay a little more if they have a bad attitude. It’s common for some vague charge like “interference with custody,” to be piled on top of other arrest charges if a subject mouths off to an officer. Two recent incidents, one in Braselton and one in Hoschton, take that to a new level, however. In Braselton, a man was charged after he filed a report against an officer over how his arrest was handled. He was asked if what happened in the report was true and when he said “Yes,” he was charged with filing a false report In Hoschton that same week, a man was almost charged for laughing at an officer. There’s a serious question here if a line is being crossed. Should citizens be charged for what they say to a cop, or their attitude? Is verbal disrespect for a cop a crime? Every circumstance is different, of course. But it seems like a stretch to suggest cops should be im mune from some degree of verbal backtalk. Cer tainly, charging people with a crime for having a bad attitude should only be done in very rare and threatening circumstances. When society gives a man or woman a badge and a gun, we are giving those individuals unique and special power. That authority to detain or de prive others of freedom should be exercised with restraint. In addition, while some people backtalk cops, sometimes the person behind the badge is to blame. Arrogant or abusive cops do exist. Some times, as in the case of nearby Pendergrass, en tire police departments adopt a culture of abuse and arrogance. Is it any wonder that when some one encounters an arrogant cop, a verbal backlash happens? That’s not to say the two recent incidents in Bra selton and Hoschton were provoked or unwar ranted. But they do appear to come very close to crossing a line between exercising control of a situ ation and going too far by slamming someone for what they say, not what they’ve done. Cops have a tough job. Criminals often have a bad attitude. But when you sign up to wear a badge, such situations go with the territory. If you can’t handle that, then you shouldn’t be wearing a badge in the first place. The Braselton News A Publication of The Jackson Herald & Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Mike Buffington Editor & Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager Angela Gary Managing Editor Kerri Testement News Editor Jeremy Ginn Advertising Web Site: braseltonnews.com Classified Advertising classifieds@mainstreetnews.com PO Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 General Phone: 706-367-5233 \ Surgical Suite ^ Express Regular © Less Than lO Sutures Greater Than 10 Sutures letters Student letters discuss community concerns Editor’s Note: Eleventh grade students in Kay- shelia Mitchell’s language arts class at Mill Creek High School recently wrote editorials commenting on issues in the community. This is a sample of some of those editorials. Drinking, drugs a community problem Dear Editor: Teen drinking and drug use is a major problem in our community. There have been many teen deaths in our area in the past couple of years due to drinking and driving. However, not all deaths are alcohol related. Unfortunately, some are drug related. This recent football season, many students have shown up at football games drunk or high on drugs. At school functions, the administra tors have the abusers arrested and kicked out of school for alcohol and drug use. Also, there are drug/alcohol episodes at school dances, which generally causes fights between students. These days, you can buy drugs or alcohol any where. There are kids all the time using a fake ID, or buying from others. It is obvious there needs to be a better watchout for kids and bigger con sequences for those who choose to do drugs or drink. If there is a solution to decrease the death rate for teenagers for both drunk driving or drug over dose, we need to find it. Teenage students don’t understand that one bad choice could cost them their life. Sincerely, Taylor Newman Dear Editor: Teen drinking and drug use is a very big conflict in high schools and the community these days. It causes many deaths of teens because of over doses or being killed in a car accident. The popular thing to do these days is to come to a school function, like a football game, prom, and homecoming. I believe that it is a waste of time and if teens are caught they should have a big punishment because if they think they are old enough to drink, then they are old enough to step up and take the consequence they deserve. Fake IDs are one of the way teens get their hands on alcohol. Many gas stations and liquor stores are not being strict and checking IDs as well as they need to. They are just “worked” about selling and making money. To help solve this problem, gas station owners and liquor store owners should be tested and made sure they are following the law. Conse quence should be given to the store owners and the teens. Drugs and alcohol seem like a cool thing to do, but could affect you, life in the long run and also take your life or the life of someone else. Sincerely, Amanda Milby Free clinic would help STD problems Dear Editor: I believe that our city, Buford/Dacula, should have a local free clinc. A free clinic would make our community a better place. People could go to get help and not have to pay a dime. It is good for the less wealthy people in our community. People could get checked for STD’s and AIDS. Many high school students in my school have an STD. Chlamydia is the biggest STD in my school at this time. It seems that this specific thing is growing rapidly in teens today. Also, teen pregnancy is a big issue in society. I know many teens who are pregnant. Some kids as young as 12-years-old. I have a few friends who are pregnant. Having a free clinic they could get those girls (who choose not to use protection) on birth control. This step would make a difference in my area. The free clinic could also be where teens could have somewhere to go and somewhere to have someone to talk to. The Hamilton Mill area would be a wonderful place for a free clinic, in my opin ion. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Olivia R. Contrarian state WHEN IT COMES to the ebb and flow of political trends in America, Georgia has always been a place where the voters take a different course from their counter parts in other states. As political science professor Chuck Bullock expressed it in a recent essay, “For decades the politics of Georgia and the South rarely moved in sync with that of the rest of the nation.” Indeed, Georgia is usually five or 10 years behind the curve whenever there are major changes in national or regional politics. It’s almost as if we want to make sure something has been tried and tested everywhere else before we’re willing to give it a try. Other states have gone back and forth between electing Democrats and Republicans as governors. Georgia voters didn’t elect a single Republican governor during the entire duration of the 20th century. When most of the country was electing Lyndon Johnson president by a landslide in 1964, Georgia went for Barry Gold- water. When the other states were picking Ronald Reagan for president in 1980, Georgia’s voters stuck with native son Jimmy Carter. Other Southern states flipped from Democratic to Republican control of state government throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Georgia was the last state in the Deep South to turn over control of its political machinery to the Republican Party by electing a GOP governor in 2002 and giving both Houses of the Legisla ture a Republican majority in 2004. Georgia voters were so late to catch up with that trend, in fact, that other South ern states had already started flipping back from Republican to Democratic gov ernors (as in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia) by the time Sonny Perdue was elected as the state’s first Republican chief executive. Off-year elections were held in many states last week and the results indicate that much of the country is moving away from Bush Republicanism and more towards a Democratic Party viewpoint. Kentucky voters threw out incumbent Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher and replaced him with Democrat Steve Beshear. Democrats recaptured control of the state Senate in Virginia for the first time in a decade and picked up several seats in the House as well. A former Democratic governor of Virginia, Mark Warner, is expected to win a U.S. Senate seat next year that is currently held by a Republi can. Even in the conservative stronghold of Mississippi, Democrats took back control of the state Senate from the GOP (although Mississippi voters did reelect their Republican governor, Haley Barbour, by a wide margin). For the most part, the results of last week’s elections reinforced the trend lines of 2006, when Democrats experienced a nationwide resurgence and took majority control of both the U.S. House and Senate. This nationwide trend, of course, does not appear to be having any impact on the contrarian state of Georgia. Our voters reelected Republican governor Sonny Perdue to another term in 2006 by an imposing margin. The GOP remains firmly in control of the General Assembly and probably won’t lose that control anytime soon. It’s hard to imagine, at this point in time, that Georgia’s electoral votes in the 2008 presidential race will go to a candidate from any party but the Republican Party. Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top state officeholder on the ballot for 2008, doesn’t have anything to worry about as he tries for a second term. Cham bliss has about $4 million in the campaign treasury for his reelection effort and is apparently so formidable an incumbent that no Democrat of any stature will even oppose him. The prospective challengers to Chambliss include a DeKalb County official who no one takes seriously, a former TV newsman who can’t raise any money, and several other guys that no one’s ever heard of or will ever remember. The few Democrats with the credibility to even make it a competitive race against Chambliss - Max Cleland, Roy Barnes, David Poythress, DuBose Porter - have given no indications that they will get into the ring with him. So let the rest of the country turn Democratic if it wants to. Georgia’s message to the other states will continue to be: you guys go ahead. We’ll wait a few years before we decide if we’re going to follow. Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news site at www.gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia. Too dark too soon IS IT JUST me, or has the time change really thrown you out of the loop? I don’t mean the kind of time adjust ment that occurs after the New Year -when you keep writing the previous year on all documentation for about three months. No, this year’s time change has re ally affected me. I now want to go to bed at 9 p.m., because that “seems” so late since it’s been dark for several hours at that point. It seems odd that while the sun is setting, “Oprah” is still on the air at that time (her show starts locally at 4 p.m.). And it seems like chil dren have just a few minutes from the time they step off the school bus until the street lights come on - indicating it’s time to come home for dinner. During my freshman year of high school, I had to be at the bus stop at 6:20 a.m. That’s such a dreadfully- terrible time to require a 15-year-old to be functioning, ready to conquer algebra within the hour. I don’t remember seeing light during those early mornings at the neighborhood bus stop. The flashing red light of the school bus was the only hint of color down that long, dark street. Those were the times that I wished light would come earlier. Now, on the weekends, it’s either my cat or baby that wakes before the crack of dawn. I consider myself a morning person, but even a morning person has to enjoy sleeping in past 6:30 a.m. on the weekends once in a while. * * * You have to love some of those headlines on the websites of most major newspapers, especially The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I’ve heard the AJC has people whose only job is to just write head lines — and one headline this week on their website caught my eye: “Man marries dog.” It’s straight and to the point — as it turns out some guy in India really did marry a dog. I clicked on the link and learned that the man married the dog because he believed it would remedy a curse from an incident 15 years ago when he killed two other dogs. Another headline on a different news website read: “Learn from Britney Spears’ retirement plan.” Oh, really? I thought the girl was burning through every cent she earns (report edly more than $700,000 a month) without saving anything. A click on the link confirms that sure enough, she ain’t saving a dime. The story goes on to offer other people in their 20s advice on how to save for their retirement. Britney has been at the center of some pretty wacky (and apparently true) headlines this past year. For once, this headline offered a glimpse into the pop star’s life that could actu ally benefit others with a lesson about retirement savings. * * * In about five weeks, our living room will become more packed with toys from Christmas, especially electronic toys. I used to try to avoid giving my friends’ children electronic toys as a favor to my friends — that’s one less annoying toy constantly flashing, singing or moving on its own. But my daughter loves some of those toys — she loves clapping to her singing puppy, she starts tap ping her head when one toy sings “Head and Shoulders,” and she’ll sit on her Winnie the Pooh riding car just to push the horn numerous times to activate a singing Pooh. I don’t get as annoyed with those electronic toys as I thought I would — but they are a bit creepy. Walk away from the singing puppy and he starts saying “I love you” and “hug me.” Leave the electronic piano for a while and it starts playing its own songs to entice a child to play along. Approach the musical soup bowl and it starts singing the alphabet song. The toys nowadays are getting so sophicatated that even they require the attention of someone playing with them. Kerri Testement is news editor of The Braselton News. She can be reached at kerri@mainstreetnews. com. Kerri Testement kerri@mainstreet- news.com