Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
A new beginning
and thoughts on
the election
The past six months have been somewhat of
a whirlwind for me.
In early April, Debbie Burgamy, publisher of
the now former Barrow County News, called
and offered me the opportunity to become the
newspaper’s new editor.
It was the next logical step for me: a chance
to start a path toward an editing career and a
chance for my wife, son and me to get back to
her hometown of Athens.
I was learning new things every day about a
wonderful small, but bustling, Barrow County.
Three months after I started that job, we were
acquired by this compa
ny and merged with The
Barrow Journal. It was a
challenging transition for
everyone involved, but I
think we’ve all come out
with a healthy perspective
and been able to blend
together the strengths of
both papers.
I will always be proud
of the work we were
doing with the old paper,
and now I’m excited to
continue building on the
award-winning tradition set forth by this publi
cation.
We may have undergone some personnel
changes, but our commitment to providing one
of the most essential public services to this
community remains unchanged.
I am grateful to Mike and Scott Buffington
for trusting me to lead this paper when Chris
Bridges, the man who built it from the ground
up, announced he was leaving to pursue other
professional opportunities.
Chris himself was a tremendous help in get
ting me ready for this latest transition.
Believe it or not, newspapers still have a vital
role to play in society.
We seek to be the eyes and ears of a commu
nity and a watchdog to make sure the decision
makers are doing right by you and your tax
dollars.
“The media” often gets a lot of flack from the
public — some legitimate, some not so much.
But it’s worth repeating that media is needed
to ask tough questions in order to ensure a
healthy society.
I believe that newspapers have an especially
strong future in smaller communities like this
one, and we will remain committed to provid
ing you with necessary journalism while also
celebrating the stories of the everyday people
who make this community special.
Election time is coming
If you want to talk about a media circus, we’re
now less than three weeks away from Election
Day, and it can’t get here soon enough.
This year’s presidential election, which I
saw the first half of up close and personal as
a reporter in South Carolina, has long been a
mind-numbing exercise where celebrity, gos
sip, bombast and mostly empty promises have
invaded the country’s conscience, and what
should be the real issues of the campaign have
largely taken a back seat.
I’ve always considered myself political and
engaged, but not partisan. So, it probably
shouldn’t come as a surprise that I have a gen
uine distaste for the way politics work a lot of
the time and how both our major parties are
constantly being usurped by partisan hacks
who can’t stand to have their worldview chal
lenged on anything.
The election between Donald Trump and
Hillary Clinton has angered many people but
also, unfortunately, made Americans angry
at each other. The choice seems like no real
choice at all, and the only substantial argument
I hear for either of them on a regular basis is
they’re less evil than the other one.
I’ve written before that it’s time for Americans
to move beyond the “lesser of two evils” com
plex. We need to demand new leadership and
new vision, an entirely new way of thinking and
doing things.
We need to vote for people with honesty and
integrity and who uphold a commitment to
country over political party.
Sure, that’s easier said than done, but we all
can do better than the choices we now have in
front of us.
Even if you’re completely disgusted with the
entire process like I am, it’s still important to get
to the polls on or before Election Day.
Early voting here in Barrow County is now
open, and we have three locally contested
races along with other state-level races that will
help dictate our future.
The more local the decision-making is, the
more it will affect your day-to-day life.
Your vote will still count.
Scott Thompson is editor of the Barrow
News-Journal. You can reach him at sthomp-
son@barrowjournal. com.
/
scott
thompson
Experience doesn’t count
anymore in politics
If you learned you had cancer, what
would you do?
You’d try to see a physician who has
lots of experience treating this dreaded
disease.
You wouldn’t see a plumber or an
insurance adjuster - you would
see an oncologist who knows
what they are doing and is
licensed to practice medicine.
If you were charged with a seri
ous criminal offense that might
mean jail time, what would you
do?
You’d try to retain an attorney
who has years of experience
trying criminal cases.
You wouldn’t hire an insurance
salesman or a short order cook
- you would hire someone who
knows what they are doing and
is licensed to practice law.
That’s what people do in the real
world, anyway.
In the world of Georgia politics, as
we saw last week, experience and pro
fessional credentials often don’t mean
much of anything.
For example, there was the decision
by the Board of Regents to appoint
Attorney General Sam Olens as the new
president of Kennesaw State University.
It’s obvious why Olens wanted the
job. He only made $140,000 as attorney
general and the president’s job at KSU
pays more than twice as much.
Olens has been a county commis
sioner and the state’s highest legal offi
cer, but he has never held any type of
administrative position at any campus.
In appointing Olens, the regents vio
lated several of their own longstanding
policies.
In other cases where a college needs a
president, the regents appoint a search
committee that spends several weeks
interviewing and assessing candidates
from across the country.
The search committee typically for
wards the names of three finalists to the
board, whose members then vote on
the one they want for the job.
None of that was done in this
instance: no search committee, no
national search, no list of three finalists
to choose from.
Olens was the only name considered.
That did not sit well with either the
faculty or the students at Kennesaw
State.
They held campus protests and gath
ered thousands of petition signatures
urging the regents to conduct a nation
wide search.
Students and faculty also objected
to Olens’ actions as attorney general,
where he opposed same-sex marriage
and tried to keep transgender students
out of public bathrooms.
There are some LGBT students at
KSU who don’t think their own presi
dent should be discriminating against
them.
When asked why a person with so
few qualifications for the job was being
picked, the best that Chancellor Hank
Huckaby could come up with was this:
“He knows Cobb County so well and
he’s been a very dedicated citizen of
this community.”
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 sthompson@main-
streetnews.com Please put “Letter to
the Editor’’ in the subject line. Please
include the city of the writer.
There are thousands of people in
Cobb County who fit that same descrip
tion, but you didn’t see any of them
being proposed as the new president.
The real reasons for Olens’ appoint
ment became clear a few minutes after
the regents confirmed
him as the new presi
dent.
Gov. Nathan Deal -
who appoints all the
members of the Board
of Regents - called
reporters to his office to
announce the appoint
ment of Chris Carr, the
state’s economic devel
opment commissioner,
as the new attorney gen
eral.
The title of Carr’s new
job implies that the per
son is at least a practicing attorney.
The Georgia Constitution also has
something to say about this: “No person
shall be Attorney General unless such
person shall have been an active status
member of the State Bar of Georgia for
seven years.”
Until the day before his appointment
was announced, Carr had been on inac
tive status with the State Bar and hadn’t
practiced law since 2007.
During that long-ago period when he
did practice law, Carr was an attorney
who never saw the inside of a court
room.
“No, I’ve never tried a case,” he admit
ted in response to a reporter’s question.
But not to worry, Deal assured every
body.
“We checked with the State Bar,” the
governor said.
“The State Bar verified that he did
(meet the constitutional requirement).”
Carr may not be exactly up to date on
the practice of law, but he meets two
very important qualifications: he was
a loyal Deal department head and was
formerly chief of staff to Sen. Johnny
Isakson.
In the world of politics, things like
experience and education and ability
don’t count for very much. Connections
are really all that matter
(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.BarrowJournal.com
Mike Buffington
Scott Buffington
Co-Publisher
Co-Publisher
Scott Thompson
Editor
Jessica Brown
Photographer
Susan Treadwell
Advertising
Sharon Hogan
Office & Reporter
Also covering beats is Alex Pace.
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.
Trumpite: Muslims
are ‘rats’ who need
to be killed
The United States is fraying. This elec
tion cycle has unleashed an angry flood
of hate that this nation hasn’t seen since
Bull Conner sent attack dogs on black chil
dren in Birmingham during the Civil Rights
movement.
As the election heads into its final three
weeks, there is open
talk of violence. Some
Donald Trump sup
porters have called
for an assassination
if Hillary Clinton
wins. Others speak of
“revolution” if Trump
doesn’t win.
Trump himself has
only fed the frenzy
by claiming the elec
tion is “rigged.” Never
before in modern his
tory has a major pres
idential candidate sought to undermine
the nation’s democratic election system in
such a manner.
All of this was predictable. For over a
year, Trump has whipped up fear and
hatred among his diehard followers. From
calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” to
threatening to ban people from the U.S.
because of their religion, Trump has paint
ed a dark picture of America that is far
removed from the reality. His propaganda
has frightened many of his followers who
now believe the world will end unless
Savior Donald gets elected.
Still, I was shocked over the weekend
during a Facebook exchange with a local
community man who is a huge Trump
supporter.
During a back and forth about the arrest
of three men in Kansas who planned to
blow up a housing complex of Muslim
Somali immigrants, my Facebook corre
spondent said the three wouldn’t be con
victed because they were “entrapped” and
that “they are the shock troops for things
to come.”
I replied that he couldn’t justify murder
ing people just because of their religious
beliefs.
He responded with the following, quoted
in full from his Facebook comment:
“Mike why not debate in an open public
forum. I have first hand dealings with mus
lins and can tell you what they think and
how they will act when they reach a critical
mass. You were raised in a rural county ,
but not in the country. If you ever heard of
having a rat killing??? Well when rats are in
numbers to be a problem you have to go
out and get rid of all of them, that includes
males females and all little rats, because we
all know a little rats grows up to be a big rat
and then the problem starts again.”
I had to read that three times. I couldn’t
believe this man actually compared
Muslims to “rats” and that they should be
murdered.
That children “little rats” — should be
murdered.
Vile.
Disgusting.
Deplorable.
I will only identify this man as “LP”
here. He’s known in the community, a
former military man and a self-proclaimed
Christian.
And yet he openly calls for murdering
men, women and children who have done
nothing wrong simply because they have
different religious beliefs than he does.
In a follow-up comment, LP doubled
down by saying Muslims in America have
four choices:
“1) disavow 2) convert to another belief
system 3) leave 4) die....”
In other words, the U.S. should ethnically
cleanse Muslims from our soil, religious
freedom be damned. This is how Trump is
“going to make America great again?”
LP’s comments sound very similar to
how Hitler felt about Jews:
“Nature is cruel; therefore we are also
entitled to be cruel. When I send the flower
of German youth into the steel hail of the
next war without feeling the slightest regret
over the precious German blood that is
being spilled, should I not also have the
right to eliminate millions of an inferior
race that multiplies like vermin?”
The first thing you do when you want to
murder people because of their religion
or ethnic background is to dehumanize
them. Call them vermin, or rats. Make them
appear as animals, not as human beings.
Hitler did that to Jews and the German
people went along.
Trump is doing that today. He is dog
whistling to people like LP that it’s OK to
See Buffington on Page 5A
mike
buffington