Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2018
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
The legacy of
Bill and Cliff
Throughout his adult life, Bill Cosby was a ground
breaking entertainer with the public reputation of a
fundamentally decent human; a wonderful, loving and
caring family man.
That reputation was reflected in the television charac
ter of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show, perhaps
Cosby’s most groundbreaking achievement in a legend
ary career.
The show was one of my
favorites. While I was born half
way through its run and not old
enough to see the back half as
it originally aired, I’ve seen pret
ty much every episode through
syndication and some multiple
times.
One of the episodes that
stands out, among many is the
pilot episode and the talk Cliff
gives his son, Theo, about the
importance of good grades and
going to college. While Theo
says his poor grades don’t matter and that he intends
to live life as a “regular person,” Cliff uses Monopoly
money to show him how difficult it would be for a
“regular person” to live the life they wanted without a
steady income.
Much has been written about the show and its pro
found impact on the black community, and in more
recent years, much has been written about whether
it spoke to everyone and fully encapsulated the black
experience in America.
As a white kid, I didn’t have that frame of reference
to draw from. But I enjoyed the show, learned valuable
lessons from it and considered Cliff Huxtable, and by
extension Cosby a role model.
Much of that has been erased in recent years and
especially last week as Cosby was convicted on three
counts of indecent assault. He is now facing up to 30
years in prison —10 for each count. I doubt he will face
even 10, but even if he never serves a single day in pris
on, the term convicted felon will forever be attached to
him. Almost 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual
assault or rape. If only half, or a third, or a fourth, or a
fifth, of the accusations were true, that would make him
a monster and a predator who deserves to be behind
bars.
There has been a lot of discussion about the impli
cations of the verdict; what it means for the #MeToo
movement and comforting and assuring women who
may be scared of speaking out against powerful men;
that in this case the justice system, which too often is
slanted in favor of the rich and powerful and against
the poor and voiceless, worked like it was supposed to.
But as Mark Dawidziak of The Cleveland Plain Dealer
wrote last weekend, once the sentence is handed down
and appeals are exhausted, “there will still be lingering
questions regarding (Cosby’s) legacy and career. Will
we ever be able to again laugh with Cosby? Will we ever
reach the point where it’s possible to separate the man
from the art?”
Although not a perfectly neat comparison, these
questions reminded me of the discussion that sur
rounded college football coach Joe Paterno and the
fallout from the child sex abuse scandal at Penn
State University that led to former Penn State assistant
Jerry Sandusky’s conviction and life imprisonment,
Paterno’s firing, eventual death shortly thereafter, and
the complete tarnishing of the legacy he’d built up and
more and more revelations about his conduct surfaced.
Throughout his life, Paterno became celebrated and
revered just as much for his philanthropy as his achieve
ments on the field. He was widely considered to be a
great man, a titan of collegiate athletics. But in the big
gest possible moral test of his life, he failed miserably.
He harbored a child rapist. He may not have physically
harmed them himself, but he betrayed children in the
darkest moments of their young lives.
Powerful and influential enough to be the governor
of Pennsylvania if he wanted to, he could have outed
a monster, but he proved himself to be a different kind
of monster and a complete coward. How great the
library is, and how high his football players’ grade-point
averages were, lose a lot of meaning when you consider
that. The lessons he taught all his former players surely
remain with them. But the man will never be worth cel
ebrating. He will only be an example of how too much
power invites corruption and of how people should be
careful about who they idolize, especially when they
don’t know the person.
Which brings me back to Cosby whose show has
been stripped from almost all of the cable networks
that had it as part of their syndicated programming, and
Dawidziak’s piece.
“Should we — can we — at some point enjoy the com
pany of Cliff Huxtable without hearing that sound of the
judge’s gavel?” he wrote. “Will future generations find a
way to be comfortable with that distinction?”
I suppose that’s up to each individual person how
they choose to deal with that. I know there are many,
many people and families who can’t un-remember
watching the show and the lessons they learned from it.
Cosby’s achievements can’t be denied, but so much
of his art, his comedy and especially the character of
Cliff Huxtable, were tied so closely to him, his family
and the fagade he put up as “America’s Dad.”
But now we know, apparently that he’s a complete
fraud. And the more affable and loving I remember Cliff
Huxtable being, the more he just seems like Cosby’s
worst, sickest joke.
Scott Thompson is editor of the Barrow News-
Journal. He can be reached at sthompson@bar-
rownewsjournal. com.
f
scott
thompson
suRe,i
MAve TiMe
TO CHAT...
..I SAiD I WAS
SWAMPeD,
NOT THAT I
WAS BUSY'
Candidates run to the
right in GOP primary
We’ve talked about the difficulty
facing Democratic primary voters
who must choose between two can
didates for governor holding similar
positions on basic issues important
to Democrats.
That situation is more than dou
bly difficult in a Republican primary
where the five leading candidates are
all trying to run to the right
of each other.
The basic dynamics of the
primary haven’t changed.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is the
frontrunner, with a com
manding 30-point lead in
the polls over his closest
challenger — but he is still
about 10 points shy of win
ning without a runoff.
That leaves Cagle hoping
to pick up those last few
points while the others fight
and claw to see who’s the
most conservative and most deserv
ing of forcing their way into a runoff.
The struggle becomes almost com
ical at times.
Several weeks ago, Mississippi Gov.
Phil Bryant signed a law that bans
most abortions after 15 weeks’ ges
tation and gives the state the most
stringent restrictions in the nation.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp
promptly tweeted, “I back
Mississippi’s ban on abortions after
15 weeks and vow to sign the tough
est abortion laws in the country as
your next governor.”
“If abortion rights activists want to
sue me . . . bring it!” he tweeted. “I’ll
fight for life at the Capitol and in the
courtroom.”
Shortly after Kemp’s challenge was
issued, state Sen. Michael Williams
said he would go even farther and
sign legislation to ban abortions after
six to eight weeks.
“Brian Kemp’s latest statement is
another attempt to latch on to my
conservative agenda after witnessing
the positive response I received,”
Williams said.
“Georgia can ban abortion after a
heartbeat is detected at six to eight
weeks if we have a fearless conser
vative leading our state,” Williams
added.
Then there was the case of Atlanta’s
historic Clermont Hotel, which for
years harbored a topless lounge in its
basement.
A bill passed during the 2015 legisla
tive session provided a tax credit for
the restoration of historic buildings.
Cagle did not vote on the bill, but he
did make an appearance at the 2016
reopening of the Clermont.
That left Cagle open to attack from
Clay Tippins, a business consultant
and political novice, who ran a TV
spot declaring: “Casey Cagle talks
about his Georgia values, but he
championed tax cuts for a strip club.”
It is on the issue of gun rights that
the struggle to differentiate the candi
dates becomes most desperate.
Cagle is more or less the default
leader here, having secured the
Write a Letter to the Editor:
Let us know your thoughts: Send Let
ters to Editor, The Barrow News-Jour
nal, 122 West Athens St., Suite A,
Winder, Ga. 30680. Letters can also be
sent to sthompson@barrownewsjoumal.
com. Please put “Letter to the Editor” in
the subject line. Please include the city
of the writer.
endorsement of the National Rifle
Association for his insistence that
Delta Air Lines lose a lucrative tax
break this year for ending a discount
airfare program for NRA members.
That hasn’t stopped the other can
didates from declaring their bona
fides on the issue and insisting they
are really most deserving of that NRA
endorsement.
Hunter Hill, a former
state senator and Army
Ranger, made the mistake
of suggesting that he would
support raising the mini
mum age to purchase fire
arms from 18 to 21.
In the wake of a horrific
mass shooting in Parkland,
Fla., where 17 students or
faculty were gunned down
by an assault weapon, that
wouldn’t seem to be an
unreasonable position.
But not for Tippins, who aired a
commercial making this inflamma
tory statement: “Hunter Hill talks
like he’s Rambo, but he’s really a
Benedict Arnold who’s for gun con
trol. Just ask the NRA.”
“Clay Tippins claims to be an out
sider, but he campaigns as a slimy
politician,” said a Hill spokesman.
Even for Congressman Jody Hice,
who’s as far to the right as they come,
it was a bit much. Hice had to step in
and serve as the voice of reason.
“Likening Hunter Hill for governor
- an honorable veteran who led sol
diers on three combat tours overseas
- to ‘Benedict Arnold’ (our nation’s
first traitor) is just plain wrong,” Hice
said on Facebook.
The GOP primary has devolved into
a battle between the far-right and the
far-far-right.
How does a voter choose?
(Correction: Last week’s column
about the Democratic primary stated
that Stacey Abrams served on the
board of NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia
and did free legal work for women
seeking abortions. It was actually
Stacey Evans who took those posi
tions. We regret the error.)
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news
service 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
Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington
Co-Publisher
Scott Thompson
Editor
Susan Treadwell
Advertising
Sharon Hogan
Office & Reporter
Ron Bridaeman
ReDorter
POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to:
The Barrow News-Journal
PO BOX 1506
Winder, Georgia 30680
Published 52 times per year by
Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc.
Periodicals postage paid at
Winder, Georgia 30680
(USPS 025-132)
Email: sthompson@bar-
rownewsjournal.com
Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397)
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
$25.00/yr.
Drug laws just
clogging up
courts
America’s war on drugs has been a
catastrophic failure. Look at the arrest
and incident reports in this week’s news
paper to see just how little impact the
current legal system has had on illegal
drug use and abuse.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s a massive amount of abuse of
legal drugs across
the country, as
evidenced by the
ongoing opioid epi
demic.
It’s time the
nation, from the
federal government
down to local gov
ernments, re-think
these misguided
efforts.
We are clogging
up our courts and
jails with people
who often need addiction treatment, not
a cell. In the process, we are sometimes
ruining the lives of young people whose
only “crime” was to get caught with a
marijuana joint.
There has to be a better way to deal
with serious drug addictions and minor
recreational drug use in this country
than to push citizens through the legal
system’s meat grinder.
At the federal level, there are two things
that need to happen:
•Remove marijuana as a Schedule 1
drug. As currently classified by the DEA,
Schedule 1 drugs are supposed to have
no accepted medical use and have a
potential for abuse. Marijuana clearly
doesn’t meet that standard. There’s a
growing body of evidence that the chem
icals found in the cannabis plant do have
medical value. But medical research
on cannabis has been stymied by its
being classified by the federal govern
ment as a Schedule 1 compound. The
reason marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug
today has nothing to do with medical
or scientific evidence and everything
to do with politics. Before 1942, mar
ijuana was listed as a legal medicine
in the U.S. It was removed as a legal
substance following the 1930s “reefer
madness” propaganda. (That movement
was rooted in an anti-Mexican sentiment
sweeping California at the time. That
grew into a national movement fueled
by “yellow journalism” publisher William
Randolph Hearst.) In the early 1970s,
President Richard Nixon went on a ram
page against drugs, especially against
marijuana which was connected to the
anti-Vietnam War “hippie” movement.
Nixon punished that movement, which
didn’t support him politically, by having
cannabis listed as a Schedule 1 drug
under the DEA, an agency which his
administration had helped create. It’s
very clear that cannabis should not be
listed as a dangerous, addictive drug that
has no medical value. Congress should
force the DEA to change that.
• In addition to ending the farce about
marijuana, the federal government
should crack down harder on the phar
maceutical companies that manufacture
addictive opioid drugs and market them
as being harmless. Some of that is hap
pening and big pharma is increasingly
coming under scrutiny for its role in
creating the opioid crisis. (There isn’t
space here to outline all those details,
but if you’re interested look up Purdue
Pharma and see how that company mar
keted OxyContin in the 1990s and early
2000s.) But more can be done by the
feds to hold big pharma accountable for
its misleading marketing of dangerous,
addictive drugs.
At the state and local level, there are
things that can also be done differently:
• Marijuana use should be decriminal
ized by state and local law enforcement.
That’s already being done in some juris
dictions. Locally, the Town of Braselton
has stopped arresting for minor marijua
na possession and just issues a citation
(like a speeding ticket) instead. The
City of Jefferson does that sometimes,
depending on who the arresting officer
is. But too many other local law enforce
ment agencies continue to arrest people
for having a small amount of marijuana.
That’s nuts. It’s clogging up our courts
and ruining the lives of people whose
only offense is having a bag of weed
in their car. Issue a ticket and unless
someone is clearly under the influence
of drugs, let them go on their way.
See Buffington on Page 5A