Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, February 4, 2016
The Braselton News
Page 3
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Best costume winner
Saydi, 2 1/2, Kallie Grace, 7, and Tatum Jones, 11, are shown at Jackson
County’s Got Talent Saturday night. Tatum won best costume.
Photos by Wesleigh Sagon
Showcase on Jackson’s talent
By Wesleigh Sagon
Tammy Babb won
the first place Peoples’
Choice Award at the Jack-
son County’s Got Talent
Saturday night during
the Jackson County Art’s
Council fundraiser. She
represented the Jefferson
Rotary Club.
McKenna Brandenburg
won the second place
Peoples’ Choice Award.
She represented Bra
selton Main Street.
The Jackson County’s
Got Talent fundraiser
brings in revenue that
goes toward the art coun
cil’s “Celebrate the Arts”
event in the spring.
Other contestants were:
Commerce School of
Dance, Senior One Com
pany, representing Com
merce Public Library;
East Jackson Compre
hensive High School
Eagle Dancers; Jenny
Grace Ray, representing
Hope Resource Center;
and Mac McKenzie,
representing Piedmont
CASA.
Guests and support
ers had the chance to
vote for the contestants
to help raise funds to
support the performers’
chosen charity organiza
tion. This year, the JCAC
raised over $4,000 for
their non-profit partners
in Jackson County.
The JCAC works in
partnership with the art
teachers from the middle
and high schools in Jack-
son County to identify
students to participate in
“Celebrating the Arts.”
The art students are
given an opportunity to
display their art in a jur
ied art show setting, and
receive awards and rec
ognition.
The artwork remains
on display several days
for the community to
Lohmeier speaks
Teddie Lohmeier, the Jackson County Arts
Council president, addressed the crowd during
the fundraiser at the Jefferson Civic Center
Saturday evening.
UGA honors Emily Howell
Emily Howell of Howell
Orthodontics, Jefferson,
was honored Saturday night
at the Marriott Marquis in
Adanta as owner of one of
the University of Georgia
Alumni Association’s Bulldog
100 Businesses — the 100
fastest-growing businesses
in America owned by UGA
alumni.
Howell Orthodontics was
ranked No. 90.
The firm also made the
Bulldog 100 in 2014 and
2015. Howell is a member of
the UGA Class of 2000 and
holds a doctor of dental med
icine degree from the Medical
College of Georgia. She start
ed Howell Orthodontics in
2007 and is currently build
ing a new, larger office on
Memorial Drive in Jefferson.
EMILY HOWELL
Access to information is the public’s most valuable
tool when it comes to protecting your homes, your
communities and your government. Newspapers
have the unique ability to reach a broad audience,
regardless of the socioeconomic status, by providing
public notices in print and online.
The public notices appearing in this newspaper
provide important information on actions of local
government such as alcoholic beverage licenses and
rezoning hearings.
Read public notices in your local newspaper or
online at www.GeorgiaPublicNotice.com.
www.GeorgiaPublicNotice.com
Rep. Benton pulls bill
after KKK comments
By Mark Beardsley
Comments in an interview
with The Atlanta Journal-Con
stitution that appeared to show
Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jef-
ferson) supportive of the Ku
Klux Klan created a firestorm
of media attention last week.
Late Monday, Benton with
drew three bills that had made
him the center of controversy.
“It was not my intention
to create a situation whereby
my comments would create a
negative perception,” Benton
said in a brief statement issued
Monday afternoon. “There
fore, today I am withdrawing
my sponsorship of HB 854,
HB 855 and HR 1179 to allow
the business of the House to
move forward in an orderly
manner.
House Speaker David
Ralston at the same time issued
a statement rebuking Benton
for his comments, but he did
not strip Benton of his com
mittee chairmanship as some
critics had demanded.
“I condemn commentary
that would seek to reverse the
progress that we have made
in the last century and a half,”
Ralston, (R-Blue Ridge) said.
“While we are mindful of our
history, the business of the
General Assembly isn’t in
rewriting or reinterpreting the
past, but rather to focus on
improving Georgia’s future."
The AJC interviewed Ben
ton in regard to three bills he
dropped. House Resolution
1179 would protect Stone
Mountain Park as “an appro
priate and suitable memorial
for the Confederacy.” House
Bill 854 would require that
state streets, bridges or over
passes once named for Con
federate heroes but whose
names were changed since
1968 to revert on Jan. 1, 2017,
back to their original names.
House Bill 855 would have
required the state to formally
recognize Confederate Memo
rial Day and Robert E. Lee’s
birthday as state holidays.
KKK COMMENTS
But it wasn’t just the legis
lation that attracted attention;
it also was Benton’s statement
in the AJC article that in its
origin, the KKK “was not so
much a racist thing, but a vig
ilante thing to keep law and
order... .It made a lot of people
straighten up. I'm not saying
what they did was right. It’s
just the way things were.”
Benton also lamented what
he calls the “cultural cleans
ing” of Southern history and
expressed the view — consis
tent with his previous asser
tions — that the Civil War was
not fought over slavery.
Once the AJC posted the
story, it went viral, but in an
early Monday interview Ben
ton claimed that the email
responses he’d gotten were 3:1
in favor of his statements. The
others, he said, ranged from
vulgar to hateful to threaten
ing.
“The emails that are opposed
to me, they’re venomous. They
threaten me and my family,”
Benton said Monday morning.
“I had phone calls in my office
threatening me and my family.
It will soon get to where peo
ple can’t say anything because
they’re afraid of offending one
or two people.”
The former middle school
Georgia history teacher, who
lives in Jefferson, said his bills
were in response to Senate
Bill 294, which proposes to
change Stone Mountain Park
from a Confederate memorial
to a park about Civil War his
tory and would forbid the state
from recognizing holidays in
honor of the Confederacy and
its leaders. He called it “cultur
al terrorism.”
“That’s no better than what
ISIS is doing, destroying
museums and monuments,”
he told the AJC. “I feel very
strongly about this. I think it
has gone far enough. There is
some idea out there that certain
parts of history out there don’t
matter anymore and that’s a
bunch of bunk.”
Rep. Vincent Fort (D-Dekalb
County) introduced SB 294,
and he was not happy about
Benton’s characterization of
his bill.
“For him to degenerate
into that kind of name call
ing is beneath a response from
me,” Fort, D-Atlanta, told the
AJC. “That kind of hyperbole
does not allow for anything
approaching a debate. It’s
unfortunate that he would use
that language.”
Fort added that the state
should not be "recognizing
people who were slave own
ers or who fought to protect
slavery.”
Benton said Monday he
thinks changing the nature of
Stone Mountain Park might
violate the original agreement
when the state acquired the
property.
“My understanding was that
the family that owned Stone
Mountain deeded it to the
state with the understanding
it would always be a Confed
erate memorial,” he said. "I
don't know whether it could be
changed or not, but I presented
the amendment because I think
most people, a majority, would
be opposed.”
Benton called the carving
featuring Robert E. Lee, Stone
wall Jackson and Jeb Stuart “a
piece of art.”
“The three men on the side
of Stone Mountain were not
members of the Klan,” he
added. "Two of them did not
own slaves and one of them
adopted a black boy.”
Benton said his comments
were “blown way out of pro
portion, and I probably helped
it a little bit.”
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Tickets are $5 per person
(We kindly request that walkers be at least
16 years old to receive a bag.)
Reserve your ticket at
www.BraseltonChocolateWalk.eventbrite.com
For more information contact
apinnell@braselton.net
www.DowntownBraselton.com
