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PAGE 4A BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 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 Thankful for special grandparents Columnist’s Note: This was a column I origi nally wrote for another MainStreet Newspaper publication in December 2005 that I wanted to share with readers of The Barrow News- Journal. Only a few slight edits have been made. While we are still almost two months away from Thanksgiving, my mind has been looking ahead to that date in recent days. For me, I’ve always associated that day on the calendar with my grandparents. I know Thanksgiving is not officially known as “Grandparents’ Appreciation Day,” but, for me, the connect will always be there. Through the years, I’ve written several “Thankful” columns and many times I have stated the fact I was blessed to grow up with all four grandparents as part of my life. Every child should be as fortunate. Some of my earliest childhood memories go back to my grandparents and the positive influence each had on me. I didn’t lose a grandparent until 1 was 18. It’s something many of my friends weren’t as fortunate to have. My maternal grandparents — always known to me as Pop and Nanny — lived just a couple of miles away. Being such a short distance between us, it wasn’t uncommon for over night stays at their house. I still vividly remem ber watching that 80s classic “The Dukes of Hazzard” at their house on Friday nights. When 8 o’clock on Friday night rolled around, it was time to venture to Hazzard County. I also remember Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at Pop and Nanny’s house. It was some thing I treasured then and still remember fondly. Pop and Nanny never met a stranger. They welcomed anyone into their home. Pop was long involved in Boy Scouts and he helped inspire many by his hard-working, honest exam ple. They raised more children than their own and there was always a place for you under their roof. My paternal grandparents — known as Papa Lee and Mama Bridges — lived a little further away, but they didn’t live so far far off that fre quent visits were out of the question. Holiday memories are tied to them as well. 1 also remember the times spending a week during the summer at their farm. It was a time of a 100 percent carefree life for a child who even at such a young age realized how special those moments and times were. Papa Lee was a farmer by trade. He could work magic with anything you might grow from the land. I’ve never known anyone to grow watermelons and sweet potatoes better than he did. Mama Bridges was the definition of being dedicated to one’s family. I remember one day she started talking about birthdays for family members. She was able to rattle off birthdays of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, brothers, sisters and anyone even closely relat ed to the family. There’s no denying what family meant to her. We said goodbye to my last living grandpar ent in 2003. The loss came after an extended decline in health for my maternal grandmother and it was sad in more ways than you can imagine. Knowing a part of my life — the part in which my grandparents were a part of — was over, was, and is, hard to accept. 1 know life goes on. I know death is a part of life. Yet, I can’t help but think back to those times when Pop, Nanny, Papa Lee and Mama Bridges were part of mine. Many times after a long, tiring day at work 1 collapse in my recliner or on my couch and think about those times. I hope my work habits and life make them proud. They set such a high standard with their lives, that many times I find it hard to follow what they accomplished. Down deep though, 1 realize each would be proud of what I have accomplished. I do my best to honor them each day, each week and each year. And I trust they all know how much they meant to me, then and now. • • • What a great turnout from the community and what a great football game (and great weather) we enjoyed last Friday as Winder-Barrow High School and Apalachee High School went toe- to-toe in region play. From the pre-game events, which saw WBHS principal A1 Darby kiss a goat, to the bands to the cheerleaders to the fans, it was a great night for our local schools and local teams, who both gave their all in an attempt for victory. See this week’s sports section for complete coverage of the contest and a look ahead for both the Wildcats and Bulldoggs as they contin ue in their quest to qualify for the postseason. Winder resident Chris Bridges is editor of the Barrow News-Journal. You can reach him at cbridges@barrowjournal. com. chris bridges Taking a closer look at constitutional amendments In recent columns, we have discussed two of the four constitutional amend ments that voters will see on their ballots Nov. 8. Amendment 1, as it is numbered on the ballot, would authorize the cre ation of an “Opportunity School District,” Gov. Nathan Deal’s pro posal for the state to take over the operation of under-perform ing schools. Nearly three dozen local school boards have passed resolutions opposing this amendment. The state Board of Education, whose members are all appointed by the governor, supports passage. Amendment 3 would dis solve the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the agency that investigates misconduct by judg es, and replace it with a commis sion controlled by the legislature. Misbehaving judges would love to see this amendment approved, because it would enable them to use their influence with lawmakers to escape punishment. Those who believe bad judges should be weeded out oppose the amendment. Two other constitutional amendments are also on the ballot, so let’s take a look at them. Amendment 2, authored by state Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), would cre ate a “Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Fund” that would collect state funds and use them to pay for housing, counseling, and medical treatment of young people who are exploited by sexual traffickers. The money would come from two sources: a $2,500 fine levied upon those convicted of sexual exploitation crimes and an annual fee from topless night clubs and other adult businesses that amounts to $5,000 or 1 percent of their yearly revenues, whichever is greater. “Our children need to be harbored and sheltered,” said Unterman, who introduced the legislation last year. “People aren’t selling drugs anymore, they’re selling people, they’re selling humanity. We’ve got a war on human ity.” “The fact that Georgia and particu larly Atlanta is recognized throughout the country as a region where a child is likely to be exploited is a shame and a disgrace,” said Sen. Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) during debate on the measure. Critics of Unterman’s proposal argue that it’s not equal treatment to force nightclub owners who haven’t broken any laws to pay for crimes committed by other people. The legislation does not impose fines on other venues that are used by sex traffickers, such as mas sage parlors, internet websites, hotels, or truck stops. “This bill is wrong and, quite honest ly, it is dishonest,” Rep. David Stover (R-Newnan) said before joining other Libertarian-minded legislators to vote against the measure. Amendment 4 would require that the excise taxes collected on the sale of fireworks be spent only for trauma care, fire services, and local public safety pur poses in Georgia. 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. The tax revenues would be dedicated strictly to these uses and could not be diverted to other programs when legisla tors are writing the budget. If Amendment 4 is approved by the voters in November, the excise tax revenues would be divided this way: 55 percent to the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission, 40 percent to the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council for the training of firefighters, and 5 per cent to local govern ments for public safety purposes. “There are no new taxes in this bill,” said Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), who sponsored the legislation. “It’s simply an allocation of where the existing taxes go.” Of all the amendments on the ballot, Amendment 4 may be the one that’s the most worthy of passage. One of Georgia’s biggest healthcare shortcomings is the lack of medical facilities that can provide trauma care for seriously injured people. South Georgia especially is lacking in trauma care centers that could provide urgently needed treatment for people who are mangled in car crashes or shot in hunting accidents. The Interstate 75 corridor from Macon to the Florida border has been called the “Corridor of Death” because there aren’t enough conveniently located trauma care facili ties to serve the population. There was a similar constitution al amendment on the 2010 ballot that would have generated about $80 million a year for the state’s trauma care net work through the addition of a $10 fee on license tag renewals. Although there was support for this badly needed amendment, it wasn’t quite enough — the ballot question lost by a 53-47 percent margin. Voters have another chance with Amendment 4 to raise some badly need ed funds for trauma care if they should vote to pass it. Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an internet news service at gare- port.com that reports on state govern ment and politics. He can be reached at tcrawford@gareport. com. The Barrow News-Journal Winder. Barrow County. Ga. www.BarrowJoumal.com Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Chris Bridges Editor Jessica Brown Photographer Susan Treadwell Advertising Sharon Hoaan Office & Recorder Also covering beats are Alex Pace and Scott Thompson POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Barrow News-Journal 77 East May Street Winder, Georgia 30680 Published 52 times per year by Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Winder, Georgia 30680 (USPS 025-132) Email: chris@mainstreetnews.com Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397) SUBSCRIPTIONS: $25.00/yr. mike buffington OSD proposal should be rejected There are four proposed Georgia Constitutional Amendments on the upcoming November ballot. All four deserve to be defeated, but only one is getting a lot of attention. The proposal to create Opportunity School Districts has been hugely contro versial across the state. Many local school boards have adopted resolutions opposing the amend ment, including boards in Barrow and Jackson coun ties. That has irked Gov. Nathan Deal who is the godfather of the proposed OSD plan. On the surface, the idea behind this looks reasonable. Nobody wants failing schools in the state. We all want our children to have access to a decent edu cation. The problem with the proposal is in the details. The proposal would allow the gover nor to take over a “failing” school and appoint a school czar to run it. That person would only report to the gover nor and would have total power over the school, including the physical building, the employees and finances. The local school board would have no say in the school once the state has taken it over. There are some problems with that plan: •The state gets to define what a “fail ing school” is. That could change over time in a way that would allow the state to take over any local school it wants to. •There is no transparency or account ability in the proposal. The governor’s appointee would have total control with no checks-and-balances from any local board or state board. In effect, the state would appoint a school dictator who only answers to one person, the gover nor. •Most of the schools that would be subject to a state takeover are in poor, urban areas. Most are predominantly in minority communities. A state take over of a school won’t change the bro ken nature of those communities. Many of those communities suffer from drug abuse, high crime, poverty and broken homes. Those are the real problems. Taking over a local school won’t change the shattered community environment that surrounds them. •This is the same state that has for over a decade underfunded local school districts and shifted the cost of education more and more away from the state and onto the backs of local property taxpay ers. If the state can’t fully fund local schools based on its own funding formu la, then what gives it the moral authority to take over any local school? All of those are problems, but there’s more going on here than meets the eye. The real game behind this is to crack the door open for the state to begin privatiz ing public schools. Under this proposal, the state could take over a school, then pay a private company to come in and run it. The local school czar would have total authority to hire that company without any oversight (can you say “conflict of interest?”) This is a backdoor way the state is attempting to create private charter schools without actually saying it. That’s the real idea behind this proposed legislation. By targeting only “failing” schools, the state hopes to get this amendment adopted. But once adopted, the state could expand its definition of “failing” to include more schools and therefore, expand its vision of more private charter schools in the state funded by tax dollars. If privatizing the state’s worst schools would improve education, most people would support the idea. But private companies would confront the same problem that exists today — bro ken communities where education isn’t a priority. Georgia does have some bad schools, but those schools only reflect the communities that surround them. Nobody can fix that problem except the people who live in those communities. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow News-Journal and Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. He can be reached at mike @ mainstreetnews. com.