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BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016
Opinions
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press,
and that cannot be limited without being lost.
~ Thomas Jefferson ~
Georgia Press Association, first place, Best Editorial Page; first place, Best Serious Column
It’s not always
easy standing up
for what’s right
“It’s not easy standing up for what is right
and what your rights are.
Nydia Tisdale is a First Amendment hero
and crusader. This case is a very important
one in terms of the First Amendment. Part of
me says she will win (she has a key supporter
in Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens), but
those who are on juries often don’t really know
the law and make rulings based on personal
opinion and beliefs.
That’s what would be the scariest part for
me if I were in her shoes.
And don’t discount the
fact her indictment came
just after she filed a law
suit for wrongful arrest.
Not a coincidence. ”
• • •
The above words
were ones I posted on
Facebook a few weeks
ago concerning Nydia
Tisdale’s upcoming legal
battle after her arrest for
filming a gathering of
Republican candidates at
a pumpkin farm in Dawsonville.
Tisdale has filed a lawsuit seeking $550,000
in damages and for violation of her First
Amendment rights. The suit is against a Dawson
County deputy who physically forced her to
leave the event and then ended up arresting
her under the charge of “resisting arrest” and
“assaulting a law enforcement officer.”
The video is on Youtube and while I have
watched it, I must admit it’s tough to view it
more than once. My reason? I guess you could
say I’ve never had strong enough of a stomach
to watch a man assault a woman and that is
exactly what happened in this case.
Tisdale has gained some level of fame for
recording various government meetings and
political rallies. She does it because she knows
most people can’t attend government meetings
and, to be quite honest, no one should ever
trust an elected official to the point where they
are allowed to carry on official business with
out someone watching.
Many of Tisdale’s recordings are actually very
boring and mundane. It’s that way most of the
time with government meetings. Once though
she was forced out of a City of Cumming
(Forsyth County) meeting for trying to video
record it. Represented by Georgia’s Republican
Attorney General Sam Olens, the city was fined
$12,000, the maximum under state law.
Ironically, Olens was also at the GOP candi
date gathering in Dawson County when Tisdale
was arrested and questioned why Republicans
were so afraid of someone with a camera.
It seems some politicians though, including
State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens,
didn’t like having their words recorded. Within
seconds of him speaking, deputy Tony Wooten,
who ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in the 2016
primary, approached Tisdale from behind and
physically began forcing her to leave.
Tisdale has repeatedly said she had permis
sion to be at the event, which was advertised
as being open to the public anyway. She was
not making a spectacle of herself. During her
videos, she does not make comments or say
anything.
She lets the viewer watch them as if he or
she were at the event and then allows them
to make their own conclusions about what is
taking place.
In November of last year, Tisdale was indict
ed for felony obstruction of an officer and two
misdemeanors. The charges could carry a sev
en-year prison season. It’s no coincidence, as
stated above, the indictment was handed down
after she announced she was filing a lawsuit
over the incident.
Wooten, who will likely soon no longer be
working for the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office
since he was unsuccessful in his bid for sher
iff (credit to the voters in that county for
that), should not be able to use his badge
as a grounds that he was the victim. Tisdale
was not doing anything illegal so the fact he
approached her to begin with is wrong. How
can anyone be arrested for “resisting arrest”
when nothing was done to be arrested for to
begin with. Tisdale committed no crime by
video recording elected officials, who have no
expectation of privacy when they are at cam
paign events. It’s a clear-cut case of a person’s
First Amendment rights being violated and a
case of Tisdale being assaulted. The legal sys
tem is never clear-cut, however. Many people
honestly believe that law enforcement can do
no wrong. If Wooten did something to her, then
it was justified.
It’s why I admire Tisdale. She’s fighting for
the First Amendment and showing that the
person who violates your rights is the one in
the wrong, not the person victimized. There is a
great deal riding on this upcoming legal battle.
Winder resident Chris Bridges is editor of the
Barrow News-Journal. You can reach him at
cbridges@barrowjournal. com.
THEPE SHOULD
BE LAWS/!!
Extremism comes in many forms
When it comes to people who
observe the Muslim faith, Georgia
doesn’t exactly put out the welcome
mat. If anything, that welcome mat is
yanked out from under them.
This animosity takes several forms.
If a Muslim group attempts to open
a mosque or cemetery, local residents
will go berserk and their government
will deny the necessary rezon
ing or building permit.
That happened in Lilburn a
few years ago when the city
fathers turned down a proposal
for a mosque. It happened in
Kennesaw when a mosque in
a shopping center was tempo
rarily blocked. And it happened
in Snellville with attempts to
locate a cemetery.
Elected officials also have
a hissy fit if you talk about
of a security guard when he bombed
an Alabama abortion clinic.
In 1998, James Charles Kopp, a white
Christian, shot and killed Dr. Barnett
Slepian, a doctor who had performed
abortions.
In 2008, Jim David Adkisson, a white
Christian, went to a
Unitarian Universalist
Church in Knoxville,
Tennessee and started
shooting people, kill
ing two in the process.
Adkission said he did
it because he hated lib
erals, Democrats, and
gays.
re-settling Muslim refugees in
Georgia. That happened last
year with Gov. Nathan Deal,
who demanded that the federal gov
ernment stop the flow of Syrian refu
gees here.
The new battlefield has moved to
Newton County, where a group called
A1 Maad A1 Islami Inc. purchased a
tract of land for a new mosque. After
word of their plans got out, local citi
zens flocked to a county commission
hearing to complain.
“We have already seen bombings
and beheadings,” said one resident.
“Eight years ago our U.S. government
got a Muslim president who has put
Muslims in power.” (For the record,
Barack Obama is a Christian.)
“It’s hard for people like me, and
probably most of you tonight, to draw
the line between innocent Muslims
and radical Muslims, since they’ve
all claimed to serve the same God
and they all claim to follow the same
book,” another resident said.
“You and your children will be living
under Sharia law, putting your hand
over your heart for Allah,” said a com
plainant.
Another citizen commented: “Do
we have a right to be fearful today? Of
course we do. We don’t know these
people.” This was from a man who
claimed to be a Christian pastor.
The Newton County Commission
imposed a moratorium on zoning
actions, which put at least a temporary
hold on plans for the mosque.
You can understand the fears people
have.
When you read the news dispatch
es from the Middle East, it’s human
nature to worry that some of the same
terrorist organizations could endanger
American communities.
The mistake, however, comes from
thinking that this country will be safe
if we can just keep out all the Muslims.
Extremism comes from many sources.
Consider a few incidents from recent
history:
In 1994, John Salvi, a white Christian,
shot and killed two receptionists
at a Planned Parenthood clinic in
Massachusetts.
In 1996, Eric Rudolph, a white
Christian, carried out the Atlanta
Olympics bombing that killed one
spectator. He later caused the death
Write a Letter to the Editor:
Let us know your thoughts: Send
Letters to Editor, The Barrow
News-Journal, 77 E. May Street,
Winder, Ga. 30680. Letters can also
be emailed to cbridges@barrowjour-
nal.com. Please put “Letter to the Edi
tor” in the subject line. Please include
the city of the writer.
tom
crawford
In 2009, Scott Roeder,
a white Christian, shot
and killed Dr. George
Tiller because Tiller
had performed abor
tions.
In 2015, Robert Lewis Dear, a
white Christian, killed three people
in a shooting spree at a Planned
Parenthood clinic in Colorado.
And we haven’t even talked about
Timothy McVeigh, the white mili
tary veteran who killed 168 people
when he blew up a federal building in
Oklahoma. McVeigh wasn’t a Muslim
either.
If you extend the argument used by
Donald Trump and the opponents
of the Newton County mosque to its
logical extreme, then we should pro
hibit all white Christians from entering
the U.S. We should also deport those
who are living here back to their orig
inal country. After all, white Christians
have a demonstrated history of mur
der and violence against American
citizens.
I am not advocating that, of course. If
all white Christians were to be deport
ed, both sides of my family would be
on their way back to Scotland and
England.
I don’t want that, and I don’t want to
see us trampling on our long-held prin
ciples of religious tolerance. Be careful
who you want to keep out - you may
be putting yourself up for deportation.
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news ser
vice at gareport.com that reports on
state government and politics. He can
be reached at tcrawford@gareport.
com.
The Barrow News-Journal
Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
www. Barrow J oumal. com
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher
Chris Bridges Editor
Jessica Brown Photographer
Susan Treadwell Advertising
Sharon Hogan Office & Reporter
Also covering beats are Alex Pace and Scott Thompson
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Teachers deserve
extra credit
Sometimes I’ve thought to myself,
“Maybe I should become a teacher.” Every
day I see examples of students in college
who have been failed at some point in
their grade schooling, and I feel as though
I could impart some knowledge in young
minds.
Nope. No, I can’t. I
don’t have the person
ality to be a teacher. I
proofread my peers’
term papers, and that
turned me into the
Gordon Ramsey of
grammar. There is not
a snowball’s chance
in hell I’d survive as a
teacher.
My significant other
is at the beginning of
his first official year as a high school
English teacher. It’s a great job for him,
honestly. He loves literature and opening
up discussions about all things English.
He loves to talk about novels, poems, you
name it. It comes naturally to him to teach.
I don’t have that quality.
From what I’ve learned from our daily
talks of our day, he puts up with a lot. Of
course, other teacher friends can vouch
for that. It’s not just getting up in front of
a large group of angst-ridden teenagers. If
that’s all it was, I bet I could do it. No, it’s
much more than that. It’s not only deliv
ering the information to young minds but
crafting the delivery in a way that is fun
and engaging.
It’s learning the names of well over 100
students and becoming invested—to some
degree — in their lives. It’s being a mentor
and an authority figure to kids who may
not have one in their home lives. Outside
of the classroom, teaching requires more
administrative work and hours upon hours
of grading. I understand why my boyfriend
is always stressed. It’s a stressful job.
This weekend, he spent all of his
Saturday grading papers. I was able to help
him on Sunday, which still took close to
five hours between the two of us. I got just
a small taste of what it’s like dealing with
tenth graders.
I can’t recall how many times I read
“wanna” and “gonna” in their short writing
prompts.
I do remember the individual who
spelled “exaggerated” as “exadurated”
which made me shudder. I read plenty of
students not well versed in history trying
to explain slavery in 1920, and as a history
major it took all the restraint I had not to
write an essay in response to these inac
curacies.
Teachers have to put up with a lot. It was
apparent in the few essays I read that some
students are great while others just throw
words on a page and hope you won’t
notice. Spoiler alert: that doesn’t fool any
teacher.
After we finished the grading, I hugged
my boyfriend and told him I could never
do what he does. I don’t have the patience.
It takes a special kind of person to be a
teacher, and I respect them.
Even when I was in high school, I always
strived for academic perfection. I always
did my absolute best, and I always respect
ed my teachers (yes, even the ones I
despised). Not every student shares my
insight, though.
Teachers do way more than you think.
They don’t get the pay they deserve nor
the credit for their hard work. They deal
with all types of students including the
slackers and troublemakers who do their
best to disrupt class.
They realize that not every student they
teach will be a great one, and they do their
best to incorporate the material for these
kids who don’t want to be there. I can
imagine it’s cause for many headaches
and tears at times.
I’ve had some excellent teachers and
professors in my lifetime that really went
the extra mile to create a fun and engaging
classroom setting. Reflecting on it almost
a decade later, now I can see how much
extra went in to everything these educators
did.
Thank you to all educators who go to
work every day with the goal to make the
next generation a little wiser. You don’t get
enough credit for all that you do.
Winder resident Jessica Brown is
the staff photographer for the Barrow
News-Journal. You can reach her at
picsbyjessica 1 @gmail. com.