Newspaper Page Text
♦ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2006
4A
Muusimt BaUn
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Perry planning ahead
Growth is good news for the most part,
but there are times when it hits the
taxpayer hard, because the infra
structure must keep up with the growth,
and the big payoff of more property taxes
doesn’t come soon enough.
The debate about requiring impact fees
from subdivision developers has been going
on for several years in Houston County, and
many have argued that impact fees should
be used rather than Special Purpose Local
Option Sales Taxes to build the necessary
highways, schools and other facilities that
are needed to keep pace with the growing
residential population.
We don’t
agree with
that prem
ise, or believe
that impact
fees could
ever bring in
enough funds
to cover the
massive school
building and
highway
improvement
efforts being
undertaken
in Houston
County. We
hope that
all citizens
will under
stand that the
SPLOSTs are
unlikely to go
away. Houston
County has
had huge
growth, and
its elected
leaders are
working hard
to keep up.
Without those
SPLOSTs, we
would be in
gridlock now, and probably have more chil
dren in trailers than in classrooms.
We do, however, see a place for impact
fees in the overall picture.
If the fees can be kept fair and at a level
that doesn’t discourage reasonable growth,
then it makes sense that developers should
pitch in and help with some of the costs of
growth.
The Perry City Council is embarking on a
study of impact fees and going about it in
the right way. It’s going to take a while, and
it’s going to take a lot of discussion with
developers and input from the community,
but we think they’re heading in the right
direction, and that a conservative approach
is essential.
The city government put out a request for
proposals from consultants and on Tuesday
night at their work session they heard pre
sentations from two consultants, both of
whom were well-informed and had exten
sive experience with helping cities and
counties set up impact fees.
After picking one, they’ll be working
toward a feasible plan. Public hearings will
be part of the process, and one goal will be
to have something in the long run that is so
fair, and so transparent, that it will stand
up under any court challenge.
This is something new for this area, but
impact fees are already in place in a num
ber of cities and counties in Georgia - most
ly in the northern metro areas.
They are, where they are in place, a part
of the big financial picture, not a "silver bul
let” answer.
The mayor and council will have a lot
of homework to do, and a lot of different
points of view to consider.
We wish them well and hope that the end
result will be good for the city, good for
the taxpayers, and not too burdensome for
developers.
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
We don't agree with
that premise, or
believe that impact fees
could ever bring in
enough funds to cover
the massive school
building and highway
improvement efforts
being undertaken
in Houston County.
We hope that all
citizens will understand
that the SPLOSTs are
unlikely to go away.
Houston County has
had huge growth, and
its elected leaders are
working hard to keep
up. Without those
SPLOSTs, we would be
in gridlock now, and
probably have more
children in trailers than
in classrooms.
What a difference time has made
My, how things have changed.
We are at war in Iraq. If one
of our soldiers kills a civil
ian he could wind up going to prison.
Forget the fact the civilian might kill
them while they hesitate to avoid a
court martial.
Aerial and ground attacks that could
result in death or capture of enemy
leaders are called off or diverted if
there is a possibility that some civilians
could be killed. And when civilians are
killed accidentally we break our necks
apologizing.
How different today than it was in
World War 11.
Civilians were fair targets in the
war in which President Franklin D.
Roosevelt said that the only acceptable
outcome was “unconditional surren
der” by our enemies. How long has it
been since that was our policy?
The Germans targeted civil
ians when they bombed London
and other cities in England before
the United States entered the war.
But it was the Allies that really went
after civilians as a means of bringing
an end to the war with Germany.
The Allied Command decided, after
bombing munitions plants and mili
tary installations incessantly, that this
tactic was not working.
It was decided that the only way to
defeat the Nazis was to destroy the
morale of the
German people. The way to do that
was to bomb cities and kill civilians.
The first truly overwhelming attack
on a German city came at Hamburg.
Thousands of bombs were dropped by
hundreds of Allied bombers on this
important city.
~
TjG«IMY,-rHKe 1 r^ o WTHE * "1 (T l<9 WiEGAL?!
f ARE PILWiM's j L^E^
Sanders reflects on career, current state
Sometimes you get to do some
thing for free that you would pay
for the privilege of doing like
having a two-hour conversation with
one of your political heroes, former
Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders. He even
bought lunch. It doesn’t get much bet
ter than that.
I got to know Gov. Sanders while he
was a member of the board of direc
tors of the Atlanta Committee for the
Olympic Games, but I had admired
him from afar long before that. I voted
for him when he was elected in 1962,
and I voted for him again in 1970 when
he ran against Jimmy Carter for gover
nor and lost.
Looking fit and trim at 81 years old
the former UGA quarterback works
out three days a week Sanders
reflected on his political career and
the current state of politics in Georgia,
and dispensed some advice to the cur
rent generation of officeholders in the
state.
His tenure as governor came at a
critical time in the state’s history as
the South grappled with the volatile
issue of integration. “Looking back,”
he said, “I wasn’t thinking about his
tory then. I was thinking about doing
the best I could as governor, and as it
turned out, some of the work I did has
stood the test of time.”
Sanders, generally considered
the first “New South governor,” led
Georgia through one of its most tur
bulent periods and put the state on
an economic path that helped it .leap
frog past neighboring states, in part
because of the way the state handled
its civil rights issues. “At the time I was
elected, Birmingham was as well posi
tioned or maybe better positioned
OPINION
Hamburg was bombed into ruins and
then incendiary bombs were dropped
to burn the destroyed buildings.
According to historical documents,
more than 60,000 German civilians
were killed in the destruction of
Hamburg.
There was no outcry in the United
States demanding that servicemen
and military leaders be tried for their
actions. Americans cheered while
being shocked at the same time. They
knew that our side finally was winning.
We learned about the destruction of
Hamburg through newspapers. There
was no television. Theaters at that
time showed movie newsreels weekly
and we saw the city being bombed in
not so clear black and white.
Other cities in Germany were bombed
to break the morale of the German
people. Another city that suffered tre
mendously was Dresden.
Our soldiers were sent to war to win
a war. They were not criticized for
doing it as best they could.
President Harry Truman made
the call to drop atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
Civilians were targeted to break the
morale of the Japanese government. It
worked. Despite the fact that hundreds
of thousands of Japanese were either
6Y mots a PUBLIC CELEBRATIONS
Foy
Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox net
Dick
Yarbrough
Columnist
yarb24oo@bellsouth.net
as Atlanta, but look what happened
there,” he said. “We had some tensions
in Albany and Crawfordville and a few
other places, but we were able to avoid
significant clashes in our state between
law enforcement and people who were
protesting.”
The governor talked about the sup
port he received from white business
leaders such as Robert Woodruff, the
legendary Coca-Cola executive and phi
lanthropist, bankers Mills Lane and
John Sibley, Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen,
along with the black leaders of the day:
Leroy Johnson, the state’s first black
senator, State Rep. Grace Hamilton,
educator Benjamin Mays, and Martin
Luther King Sr. Collectively, they
were instrumental in keeping a lid on
the emotions of both black and white
Georgians. “I will always be grateful,”
Sanders said, “to these business and
community leaders for their support of
my efforts.”
Sanders also credits his predecessor,
the late Ernest Vandiver, for making
the decision to keep the state’s uni
versities open when politicians like
Alabama Gov. George Wallace were
blocking the schoolhouse door to keep
black students out. Sanders, then a
state senator, admits he “strongly”
counseled Vandiver, in an emotional
1 ::
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
killed or injured there was no outcry
in this country condemning President
Truman.
War is hell, as Gen. Sherman said,
and we looked at it that way more than
60 years ago.
Times have changed. And we haven’t
won a real war since.
■ ■■
The movie “Borat” has been pack
ing theaters the past few weeks. I had
some spare time during a trip last
weekend, so I dropped in and took a
look at this movie. In my opinion, it
was juvenile and silly and I walked out
on it in about 20 minutes.
■ ■■
Some viewers were shocked when
Rep. John Murtha, a vowed opponent
of ethics reform in Congress, said “we
should be dealing with the Iraq war
not ethics”, adding that dealing
with ethics is “pure crap.” I got the
impression that the outcome of the
recent elections was a demand by vot
ers to clean up the corruptness that
has infected Congress.
■ ■■
Australia is making it clear that
it will not tolerate radical Islamic
Muslims putting their religious beliefs
above loyalty to the country. Radical
Islamic Muslims have been ordered to
leave the country and clerics unwill
ing to pledge their loyalty to Australia
have been put on notice that they will
be deported.
meeting with the governor and mem
bers of the Legislature, not to close the
University of Georgia.
Did he feel a lot of pressure to knuckle
under to those who wanted to emulate
our neighbors in Alabama, Mississippi,
Arkansas and other Southern states?
“Not one bit,” Sanders says with
emphasis. “I knew what I was going
to do. We were going to follow the
law of the land. I appointed the lead
ers in the Legislature, and they knew
they had better support my programs.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the
leadership for long.”
Such tactics wouldn’t fly today, he
admits. “When Lester Maddox was
elected governor, the Legislature took
a lot of political power away from the
governor’s office, and they have never
given it back.”
Sanders doesn’t think having Georgia
governors eligible for two terms is nec
essarily a good thing. “They become
risk-averse in the first term so they can
get re-elected,” he says, “and then take
eight years to do what previous gover
nors did in four.” He cites Roy Barnes
as an example of a risk-taking gover
nor, whose first-term activism cost him
a second term.
We finally got around to talking
about his run for governor in 1970
against Jimmy Carter. “Jimmy Carter
effectively used race as a wedge issue
against me,” Sanders says matter-of
factly. More next week on the sleazy
campaign Carter conducted, the one he
would like you to forget.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
yarb24oo@bellsouth.net P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or Web
site: www.dickyarbrough.com.