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PAGE 4A BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2020 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ” - Henry Ward Beecher ~ The Okefenokee and the weight of 'me 5 vs. we 5 2020 — aberration or the new normal? How much importance do you give to things that are not just yours, but ours? Some people seem to feel that anything that is “ours” is worthless unless it can be made into “mine.” I put litterers in this mindset. They see roadsides in the realm of “mine,” not “ours.” Public schools are “ours.” Libraries, “ours.” Roads, “ours.” I doubt anyone wants to swap out public roads for private toll roads. Imag ine the headaches of travel if we didn’t have publicly-funded roads and could only drive places if we paid the private owners. The things that are “ours” matter. But somehow, in this crazy time, the notion of maintaining anything for the “public good” seems to be a bad thing in some circles. All as sets must be rendered private, not public. And here’s why: anything enforced as a collective asset actu ally does cost someone a chance to make themselves fabulously rich. And when certain people feel de nied a fortune due to public interest, they protest to kingdom come. They hire PR firms. They will pay politicians to do their bidding. They will play the long game of public opin ion shifting. And that has paid off righteously for some. Think I’m wrong, then remember that the very notion of “collective good” has died as a principle with much of this country. Instead, America is all about “me.” You think that hasn’t been accompanied by a huge effort to kill the public’s concern for its collective in terests? If you are in the religion of me-first, then selfishness becomes morally right, and anything with a “we” turns morally suspect. Things that are “ours” hardly matter these days for far too many people. Folks, that’s exactly where we are in the U.S.A. in 2020- 21. If you don’t see this, you’re sleeping. This is what I thought about as I read re cently about the proposed strip-mining of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp. I thought, yes, oh yes, here it is again, that process at work. It takes a lot to pry public lands from the public, doesn’t it? It is not an easy game of tug of war. It goes against the grain of past generations who sought to save such lands. So why care? Well, I will likely never see the Grand Canyon. I will probably not make it to Yellowstone National Park in my life. Maybe I will. I’d like to. But even if I per sonally never lay eyes on those locales, they matter to me in principle. Because public lands are important to American society, not just me. They were preserved so I can see them if I choose. Public lands need to be pre served for future generations, too. The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge probably doesn’t matter personally to most Georgians, but it should as a matter of prin ciple. The Okefenokee is 438,000 acres, of which about 402,000 acres are protected in the Na tional Wildlife Refuge, and 354,000 acres are federal wilderness. It is the largest National Wildlife Refuge east of the Mississippi River and provides headwaters for the Suwannee and St. Mary’s rivers. The refuge is home to abundant plant and animal life and a source of considerable tourism. The words “regulation” and “deregulation” are so loaded with partisan tension these days. That’s unfortunate, because neither is good or bad. In life, some rules are sensible. Some are not. We need sense enough to rec ognize that a speed limit is necessary for the public good, but not one that is too slow or too fast, right? I apply that thought to all reg ulations. The Okefenokee was long off limits for mining. DuPont wanted to mine there in the 1990s, but it didn’t get the regulatory go ahead. Well, that was then, this is now. We just had sweeping environmental deregula tion in these past few years. Mining at the Okefenokee is not a done deal, but it’s dis tinctly possible at the moment if state per mits are received. Twin Pines Minerals, an Alabama company which is controlled by Raymon Bean and Steve Ingle, who also con trol GreenFuels Energy, LLC and Georgia Renewable Power, is aiming to mine titanium there. Deregulation has enabled Twin Pines Minerals LLC to bypass the federal wetlands permitting process and any federal environ mental oversight of the mining proposal. In Madison County, GRP burned creosote-treated railroad ties at its Colbert biomass facility until the state government put a halt to the practice after protests from neigh bors about the harmful health ef fects of burning the carcinogen. It intrigues me to see that connection between GRP and the proposed mining project. I think a paragraph in a Nov. 25 article in The Washington Post titled “Trump rule eases effort to strip-mine near Okefenokee Swamp” succinctly outlines the problem with the proposed project. It reads: “One distinctive feature of the Okefenokee is that it’s shaped like a bowl, and most of it is depressed. What helps keep the shallow water inside is the Trail Ridge, which runs along the eastern side of the swamp and acts like a dam. Poke a hole in the ridge, like a break in the rim of a bowl, and water will leak out. That’s a key part of the area Twin Pines Minerals wants to mine.” In today’s hyper-partisan environment, it feels almost pointless to point out that, yes, these efforts involve campaign contributions to Republican candidates, including David Perdue. No one is going to change their vote after hearing this. In fact, I’m pointing it out to you fully expecting this to harden your re solve if you’re already voting that way. But the bigger point is that there is a process involved in getting major projects like this through the hoops. And it has a lot to do with cash. That’s where we are as a country. And I absolutely hate this ugly reality and feel that the “public good” has been totally swallowed by the “private gain.” This project is just one of so many examples. The door for corrupting the Okefenokee has been opened, but it’s not a done deal. And there is a coalition of over 40 nation al, state and local conservation groups and businesses called the Okefenokee Protection Alliance (OPA) that is fighting this propos al. Check them out at protectokefenokee.org. This project may still be shot down. But the fact that it’s even on the table is a testament to the potential harms of overzealous deregu lation. And yes, there are indeed examples of absurd over-regulation in other facets of life. As I said, we need sensible speed limits in all walks of life. The potential degradation of the Okefeno kee raises the broader issue of public lands. Do we protect them? Do we let them go? Do you care? And broader still, is collective good a thing anymore? Or is it dead? Do you care? If we want things to be maintained for the public, for us and our descendants, then well, the public needs to speak up and de mand as much. Right? This is especially true these days as profit grabbing at the expense of the collective good is such a lucrative po litical game. Do you also see the essential seesaw of “me” vs. “we?” Push the weight too far one way and there’s trouble. Personal and public interests both have their place in this life. It’s all about balance. And in my eyes, we’re too heavy on the “me” these days. It takes effort and sincere care to be engaged together for the good of us all. Or is that too much for us to ask of our leaders — or of each other? Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal, a sister newspaper of The Barrow News-Journal. He can be reached at zach @ mainstreetnews. com, Letter to the Editor Social programs are not 'socialist 5 Dear Editor: Social programs are not socialism. Among the accusations that have been hurled this election year is that the Demo cratic Party is all about socialism. I wonder how many people really know what social ism is. Its two underlying premises are state ownership of resources and collective con trol over the means of production. The Democratic Party supports neither. Social programs to improve conditions for middle- and lower- class Americans are not socialism. Social programs include the entitlements of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, housing assis tance, welfare assistance for those in need and a host of other programs too long to list. Work programs from years past, such as the interstate highway system, TVA and energy dam construction, were all social programs and helped make America great. Unfortunately, the GOP seems to use the word "socialism” to refer to any program that benefits the majority of society as a scare tactic to make the unknowing and un educated support its candidates. Shameful. Peggy Perkins Winder As we enter 2021, we are a na tion torn apart. Our economy is uneven amid the coronavirus with some places do ing well while other places suffer from pandemic shutdowns. Even worse, the pandemic has quickly widened the social and economic gap between the "haves” and the “have-nots.” Socially and culturally, we’re a nation depressed and despondent. The tone of 2020 has been like a sledgehammer, battering us with wave after wave of bad news and turmoil. We’re tired and just want to return to some kind of “normal” existence. But it is in our politics that we’re perhaps the most damaged. The elections of 2020 have splintered the nation, giving birth to crazy conspiracy theories. As the year ends, half the nation has been convinced, without any evidence, that the presidential election was somehow "stolen” or “rigged.” Next week on Jan. 6, Congress meets to accept the results of the Electoral College vote, a vote that names Joe Biden as president. Some observers, however, be lieve there could be chaos on the streets of Washington that day, chaos driven by unfounded social media stories and a president who has yet to acknowledge that he lost the election. • •• If you think this is just some mi nor thing, think again. Some people are calling for vi olence in the wake of the election. Not since 1861 and the start of the Civil War has an election ended with this kind of ominous cloud. Consider: •In November following the election, a right-wing pastor in Florida called for Democrats and members of the media to be shot by firing squads if they had con spired to rig the elections (the election was not rigged.) •A lawyer with President Trump’s campaign said that former U.S. cybersecurity official Chris topher Krebs should be “shot” for having rejected claims that the election was stolen from Trump. •In early December, armed pro testors congregated outside the home of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and de manded that she overturn the re sults of the state’s balloting, which showed that Joe Biden had carried the state. Some Trump supporters had earlier been arrested in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, a Democrat. •Former National Security Ad visor Michael Flynn, who pled guilty of lying to the FBI but was pardoned by Trump, has called on Trump to declare martial law and send the military into Georgia and other swing states to force an elec tion do-over at the point of a bay onet. Others have echoed Flynn’s call for what amounts to a military coup in the nation. •The head of the Arizona GOP has called for Trump to "cross the Rubicon,” a reference to when Ju lius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River and started a Roman Civil War after which Caesar became dictator. •Closer to home, Georgia offi cials have received death threats after they refused to overturn the state’s election results, which went narrowly for Biden. •Locally, some people have called for Georgia’s leaders to be arrested and "strung up” because they refused to overturn legitimate votes. • •• Write a Letter to the Editor: Let us know your thoughts: Send letters to sthompson@barrownews- joumal.com. Please put “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line. Please include the city of the writer. All of which begs the question: has America become a banana re public? Since when did calls for violence following an election become part of the American political lexicon? This is deplorable. No matter who won the election, this nation has a tradi tion of holding a peace ful transfer of power. We don’t resort to violence and intimidation. We don’t threaten to kill peo ple because the election doesn’t go our way. Even many of Trump’s own supporters have balked at these calls for violence. But Trump hasn’t. In fact, he has egged on those who would do violence in the name of politics. Over the weekend, he tweeted a message to supporters to rally in Washington on Jan. 6. "Be there, be wild” he said. Protesting is one thing, but Trump’s tweet is a thinly-veiled call for people to threaten Con gress as they accept the vote of the Electoral College. According to some administra tion insiders. Trump has mulled the idea of declaring martial law because he lost the election. Some observers believe that Trump wants to foment violence on Jan. 6 as a cover to declare mar tial law. Such a move would ensure vio lence in America. I’m doubtful that Trump would seek to use the military and even if he did, it’s unlikely the military would follow his command. But it’s still a sober, sad begin ning to 2021. • •• If the nation can avoid this po litical violence, the year 2021 may be a year of hope, a new beginning. As the vaccine for the pandemic begins to slow its spread, there’s hope that our lives will return to normal. There’s hope that we can again gather with friends and family. There’s hope that our jobs and economy will stabilize and pro vide less uncertainty. There’s hope that we can bury the political divisions that have haunted 2020 and find a path to ward a more bipartisan spirit in public offices. • •• And yet, I’m worried. We may indeed have a glorious rebirth in 2021. In fact, we may enter a decade like the “Roaring ‘20s.” We all want to forget 2020, close the door on it, move forward and not look back. But I fear the seeds of something sinister were sown this year, seeds of a terrible fury that someday in the future, will ripen with ven geance and violence. Only history will tell us if 2020 was an aberration, or the begin ning of the end. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike @ mainstreet news. 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 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Barrow News-Journal PO BOX 908 Jefferson, Georgia 30549 Published 52 times per year by Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Winder, Georgia 30680 (USPS 025-132) Phone: 706-367-5233 Subscriptions: $45/yr., $40 for seniors. mike buffington