Newspaper Page Text
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The Braselton News
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Opinion
“Difference of opinion leads
to enquiry, and enquiry to
truth. ” -Thomas Jefferson
Braseltoons
by John Sheppard
"Wait a minute, Ed. It s Neighborhood
Watch, not Search and Destroy. 1 '
‘Medical mystery’ goes from tears to laughter
our views
Time to set ‘08 goals
WHAT ARE the goals in the Braselton and Ho-
schton areas for 2008?
As we approach the New Year, our local govern
ments and other community institutions should
take a moment to set some goals for next year.
What do these leading community institutions want
to accomplish in 2008?
Of course, we don’t live our lives just within the
calendar. Many of the goals for 2008 would likely
be unfinished business from the current year, or
even from the past several years. In government,
especially, it takes time to accomplish many of the
things that need to be done.
But just as we set individual New Year’s resolu
tions to lose weight or to get out of debt, local gov
ernments and their various agencies should also
set some specific goals.
Here are some categories they should look at:
1. FINANCIAL— What are the sources of in
come, is that stable, and where is the money being
spent and is it providing services for citizens?
2. LAND USE— Are the zoning rules and
other land use tools being used wisely? Are they
fair, both to landowners and the surrounding com
munity?
3. TRANSPORTATION— How can the move
ment of people be done better in the community?
What upgrades or new roads need to be built?
4. WATER RESOURCES— Given the severe
drought this year, is the area capable of surviving
another drought in 2008?
5. PUBLIC SAFETY— Are the local govern
ments providing for the overall public safety in the
area? Have some local agencies gone too far in
becoming sources of revenue rather than being
community policing departments?
6. HUMAN RESOURCES— Is the commu
nity, through its governments and other civic insti
tutions, harnessing all the local talent and human
resources in the community?
Those are just some of the broad areas that local
community, political and civic leaders need to ad
dress. Progress starts when a community is willing
to ask itself tough questions and seek long-term
solutions.
The Braselton News
A Publication of The Jackson Herald &
Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc.
Mike Buffington Editor & Co-Publisher
mike @ mainstreetnews.com
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
scott@mainstreenews.com
Angela Gary Managing Editor
angie @ mainstreetnews.com
Kerri Testement News Editor
kerri@mainstreetnews. com
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jeremy @ mainstreetnews. com
Web Site: braseltonnews.com
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PO Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
General Phone: 706-367-5233
BY ANGELA GARY
I STARTED a recent Monday writing and editing
as usual. I ended up in a wheelchair with a nurse
racing me down the hallway, yelling “Code 2 chest
pains.”
I didn’t think I was having a heart attack but I
decided to go to the emergency room because
the pain was so bad. Since my blood pressure
was high and the pain was so bad, they decided I
needed immediate attention. Before I knew it, there
I was in the wheelchair being pushed down the
hallway.
In just a few minutes, I was getting an IV in one
arm, blood taken from the other hand and was
given oxygen. I kept insisting that it wasn’t my
heart, but I soon had an EKG and chest X-ray.
While I didn’t go to the hospital thinking I was
having a heart attack, I was beginning to wonder.
Maybe I was...
For several hours, I waited and waited. More time
to think maybe I was having a heart attack. I got so
tired of waiting I pulled the oxygen out. I tried to talk
my mother into taking the IV out but she wasn’t too
sure about that.
Finally, I got the news. No heart attack. I must
have looked disappointed because the doctor told
me that it was good news. I didn’t want a heart
attack but I didn’t want to return home with the
mystery chest pains.
When I was waiting for my prescription to be
filled, I kept picturing myself being raced down the
hallway in first a wheelchair and then a hospital
bed. While I still didn’t know what was wrong with
me, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was all a little sur
real.
A few weeks later, after more doctors and more
tests, I finally got a diagnosis. I have stomach
spasms and severe acid reflux. You would think
that would make your stomach hurt instead of your
chest.
It’s always stressful when you don’t know what is
wrong with you. My nephew, Jake, offered the best
advice when I told him I was nervous about one of
the tests I was going in for.
“Angie, don’t be scared. God is right beside
you.” I had to wait for my tears to dry up before I
thanked him for reminding me of that. From laugh
ter to tears, you never know what will come from a
medical mystery.
Angela Gary is managing editor of The Braselton
News. She can be reached at AngieEditor@aol.
com.
Murphy had a mean streak
THE OBITUARIES of longtime House Speaker Tom Murphy, who was buried
in Haralson County last Saturday after his death from the lingering effects of
a stroke, have all reported (and rightfully so) on the many positive things he
accomplished for the state during his 29-year tenure as the
most powerful man in the Legislature.
These accounts of Murphy’s life have treaded lightly on
a very important aspect of his character: he was a mean,
tough-minded politician. The speaker never let anyone for
get that he was a hot-headed, two-fisted Irishman who would
fight at the drop of a hat with anyone who crossed him.
It was that toughness - or meanness - that enabled him to
hold together a Democratic majority in the House of Repre
sentatives for so many years.
Some of Murphy’s friends and supporters weren’t shy about
mentioning that toughness as they gathered for the memorial
service for “Mr. Speaker” at the capital last week.
“He had a mean streak,” said lobbyist Mo Thrash, whose
father was the House messenger for many years during
Murphy’s record-breaking service as speaker. “He was a mean one. He kicked
Democrats as much as he kicked Republicans.”
Wayne Garner, a former state senator and corrections commissioner from Car
rollton, remembered how Murphy’s legendary temper flared up during a confron
tation with another capital veteran, Sen. Culver Kidd of Milledgeville.
“I remember one time Culver came back from lunch and ran into the speaker
getting off the elevator,” Garner recounted. “Mr. Murphy had that Stetson hat on
and was wearing a red sport coat and was sick or something, because he had
a big old red nose.”
George Bagby, the diminutive state game and fish commissioner who was just
an inch or two taller than five feet in height, was standing beside Murphy as the
speaker came off the elevator, Garner recalled.
“Culver said, The circus must be in town - here’s the clown and the midget,”’
Garner said. “Murphy got so mad he started cussing him out and they almost
got into a fist-fight right there.”
Murphy didn’t care very much for Republicans, or members of the state Sen
ate, or newspaper reporters, and he didn’t hesitate to let any of them know it.
It was ironic that his memorial service at the capital was administered by the
Republicans who are now in control of state government and featured eulogies
from GOP figures like current House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Gov. Sonny
Perdue.
“The old man would be spinning in his grave if he knew that Republicans were
running his funeral,” said one of Murphy’s longtime friends.
One of the amazing things about the capital service, in fact, was the presence
of so many Republicans (and Democrats too) who fought against Murphy’s auto
cratic style of leadership.
Former GOP House member Steve Stancil, for example, who once introduced
legislation to have Murphy censured, was in the capital watching the honor
guard carry the speaker’s casket to the rotunda. Rep. DuBose Porter (D-Dublin),
who launched a futile challenge against Murphy for the speakership in 1992,
was there. So was former House member Ken Poston from northwest Georgia,
who fought Murphy in the early 1990s on the issue of tougher ethical standards
for legislators and lost.
“I think you get to know a man better by facing him than by going around
behind his back,” Poston said when asked why he was attending the funeral of
his old antagonist.
Former governor Zell Miller, who would certainly qualify as the bitterest of
Murphy’s political enemies, was also at the memorial service. Miller not only
opposed Murphy on important issues of government transparency - he was also
a former state senator, a life form that Murphy considered to be as low as being
a Republican.
Miller sat in the first row of the House gallery with Perdue and former governor
Carl Sanders to listen to the eulogies for Murphy. Former state senator Ron Fen
nell asked Miller afterwards, “How did you like being up in the cheap seats?”
Miller replied: “You know, I kind of like looking down on the House.”
Rep. Alan Powell (D-Hartwell) surmised that Murphy, even in death, got the
last laugh on the state Senate that he insulted so much during his 42 years as a
lawmaker. Powell noted that House members were allowed to pay their respects
first as Murphy’s body was lying in state in the rotunda, while Senate members
were forced to wait their turn in line.
“He’s laughing his head off,” Powell said. “To the very end, he made the Sen
ate stand in line at the back.”
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.
Slow time of
the season
now upon us
THE RUSH is no more. The flur
ry of activity has been calmed.
The stress has subsided.
It’s that time after Christmas
— when you can finally take a
moment to enjoy
the season. Or,
at least whatever
“season” Mother
Nature throws
at us this week
— hot one day,
cold the next
and rainy a few
days later. And
I’m certainly not
complaining
about the rain.
There is so much hype about
Christmas that when Dec. 26
arrives we don’t know what to do
with ourselves.
As a kid, I remember getting so
excited in anticipation of Christ
mas. In the days leading up to
Dec. 25, I usually searched the
hiding places in our house for
more gifts. My sister and I would
get Santa’s milk and cookies
ready before we went to bed on
Christmas Eve. Heck, my sister
and I would even sleep in the
same room together waiting for
St. Nick.
And when 4 a.m. arrived — oh,
that was so much fun. That was
the hour when we could finally go
downstairs to see our gifts. Need
less to say, my parents weren’t as
excited at that hour.
But just a few days after open
ing those gifts I remember some
thing else — boredom. That feel
ing of waiting through the holiday
break until school starts again.
That’s not to say that I didn't ap
preciate the gifts, but the hype
of Christmas apparently left me
wanting for more.
The period between Christmas
and New Year’s can be a slow
time. Most businesses are closed
at least a couple of days during
that time. Government services
are postponed for the holidays.
And, in general, things just seem
slower.
That’s why it’s a good reason
to “declutter” the things in your
house now, too.
This is the one time of the
year that I will actually clean our
bonus room — or storage room
— in our house. Throughout the
year, the bonus room becomes
the dumping ground of general
stuff. I don’t care how clean your
house is — every house has a
“dumping ground” in it. Whether
it’s the closet in the hallway, the
guest bedroom or that space by
the kitchen door — every house
has a dumping ground.
And when you start having kids,
the dumping ground just seems
to keep getting bigger — and
hopeless for you to tackle.
But, a new year is approaching
and I may finally have some time
to enjoy the “slowness” of the
season. So. I’ll stay busy with this
project.
Kerri Testement is news editor
of The Braselton News. Her e-
mail address is kerri@mainstreet-
news.com.
Kerri
Testement
kerri@mainstreet-
news.com