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Tribune & Georgian
Opinion
Friday, September 20, 2013
A successful
collaboration
I t is often said citizen participation is one
of the most powerful tools that law en
forcement agencies have in the fight
against crime.
People see things and they know things, and
effective investigators know how to use them
to connect the dots. A regular feature in the
Tribune & Georgian demonstrates how this
is true.
Last spring, we launched a high-profile fea
ture called Camden’s Most Wanted with the
help of the local sheriff’s department.
The Camden County Sheriff’s Office had
begun featuring wanted felons on its Face-
book page and we hoped to widen that scope
by putting those same mugshots on our front
page. Other media outlets in the area are also
helping circulate this information so deputies
could bring these individuals back into cus
tody.
Wanted criminals find it difficult to hold le
gitimate jobs or legal driver’s licenses, so their
criminal behavior is likely to continue for as
long as they remain on the run. Their next
victim might be you. Those who know the
whereabouts of a suspect are asked to call the
sheriff’s office, anonymously if they wish, and
report the information.
Dozens of arrests have resulted from the
Camden’s Most Wanted series. Based on its
success, the sheriff’s office began publicizing a
new wanted suspects feature each week.
Front-page publicity, including a photo, ob
viously works. It also means there are good
people in our community who want to see
people held accountable for their actions and
want to keep their streets crime free. We ap
plaud all of those who called in tips to the
sheriff’s office because we understand it is not
always easy to do the right thing.
With a high level of trust and communica
tion between law enforcement officers and
our citizens, we can all work together to make
Camden County a better and safer place to
live.
Get in touch with leaders
Rep. Jason Spencer, State House 180
Jason.spencer@house.ga.gov • (912) 541 -0243
Rep. Ellis Black, State House 174
blackellis@bellsouth.net • (229) 251 -0303
Sen.William Ligon, State Senate
William@senatorligon.com • (912) 261-2263
Tribune & Qeorgian
P. O. Box 6960 — 206 Osborne Street
St. Marys, Georgia 31558
(912) 882-4927 - Fax (912) 882-6519
Publication Number (086-640)
ISSN Number (1551-8353)
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"It's about time we got some new voters.
The ones we've got now haven't done so well."
Coconuts more dangerous than sharks
I tend not to worry. My
wife does, occasionally. I
usually counter her con
cerns by saying, “What are
the odds of... (insert poten
tially dangerous activity)?”
Then, I follow by making up
the odds.
“Oh, let the kids play with
fireworks, honey. What are
the odds they’ll get hurt?”
Actually, it’s 1 in 19,556,
which is less dangerous than
playing with a chainsaw (1 in
4,464) but more dangerous
than swimming with alliga
tors (1 in 53,000 chance of
being bit).
By the way, I was way, way
off with my figures on all
three of the above. The odds
I quoted were: Getting in
jured by playing with fire
works: 1 in a million; odds of
getting hurt by playing with
a chainsaw: none whatsoever;
and odds of getting bit by an
alligator: 1 in a gazillion.
So, in the interests of uti
lizing accurate odds for these
instances, I did some re
search and found the actual
chances for catastrophe/acci
dent, for usage by myself,
and you, the curious reader,
Len Robbins
Opinion
in our everyday reckoning.
So, the chance of you:
Being struck by lightning:
1 in 576,000.
Getting away with murder:
1 in 2.
Winning an Olympic gold
medal: 1 in 662,000.
Getting hemorrhoids: 1 in
25.
Dying from a shark attack:
1 in 300,000,000 (that’s 300
million).
Dying from a falling co
conut: 1 in 250 million.
Dying from a dog attack: 1
in 700,000.
Dying for falling down: 1
in 246.
Winning the Mega Mil
lions lottery: 1 in
135,145,920.
Having your identity
stolen: 1 in 200.
Hitting a hole-in-one in
golf (if you’re an amateur): 1
in 5,000.
Hitting a hole-in-one in
golf (if you’re a professional):
1 in 2,500.
Being a victim of a serious
crime in your lifetime: 1 in
20.
Being injured while mow
ing your lawn: 1 in 3,623.
Dying in an airplane acci
dent: 1 in 354,319.
Dying from heart disease:
1 in 3.
Becoming president of the
United States: 1 in 10 mil
lion.
Dying from parts falling
off an airplane: 1 in 10 mil
lion.
Getting divorced: 1 in 3.
Living to be 100 years old:
1 in 50.
Dying from a bicycling ac
cident: 1 in 140,845.
Dying from a football in
jury: 1 in 1.85 million.
Dying from jogging: 1 in 1
million.
Dying from skiing: 1 in 1.4
million.
Dying from a hunting ac
cident: 1 in 68,000.
Getting injured while
shaving: 1 in 6,585.
Dying from an alligator at
tack: 1 in 12 million.
Getting colon cancer: 1 in
20.
Being audited by the IRS:
1 in 175.
Becoming a professional
athlete: 1 in 22,000.
Bowling a 300 game: 1 in
11,500.
Getting the flu this year: 1
in 10.
Of course, I’m no statisti
cian (although I did pretend
to be one at a wedding re
cently). But I do think that if
you have hemorrhoids, and
are swimming with sharks,
while on a lawn mower, after
cutting yourself shaving, and
barely survived a falling co
conut, after being notified
you’re being audited by the
IRS, your chances of getting
a divorce may increase.
Len Robbins is a regular Friday
columnist in the Tribune & Geor
gian.
Letters to the Editor
Seeing foxes is
a fun experience
Dear Editor,
For about eight months
the people who live in the
downtown area of St. Marys
have been privileged to get
numerous glimpses of wild
foxes trotting across the
street, loping through their
yards and peeking at them
from the trees and bushes.
It’s been an exciting expe
rience for most of us. I’ve
talked to at least 20 or 30
people who enjoy this bit of
wildlife in our midst.
When googled, fox facts
tell us that they are not dan
gerous to people — unless
they contract rabies; they
mostly eat small, really small,
animals, such as rats, moles
and squirrels. We have
plenty of all three in town.
They are shy animals who
will mostly keep to them
selves. A fox will dig a den, as
one of our neighbors has
told us, because one was dug
under their deck. The
“pups” were fun to watch
when they emerged from the
den on occasion.
Others have told me they
observed some young foxes
playing in their yard until
they saw people watching.
And I’ve watched one out
smart my dog on a couple of
occasions. The old saying sly
like a fox has a lot of truth in
it. They know exactly how to
elude and double back.
The reason for this letter
is that I’ve been told that a
person has killed some of the
foxes. I haven’t seen one in
two months. Why would
anyone want to kill these
beautiful wild animals?
If you have small animals
such as tiny dogs or kittens,
you need to keep them in at
night. That should be the
case even if there are no
foxes, because of dogs or
other wild animals that
might get them.
The wild foxes sort of be
long to all of us. I miss them.
If you know anyone who is
pleased with himself for hav
ing killed the foxes, please
remind him that other peo
ple might have a totally dif
ferent attitude about it.
Ginny Caldwell
St. Marys
Consider before
chasing funds
Dear Editor,
With all the debate about
Race to the Top taking place
around the state and nation
wide, I am frankly disturbed
that our local school board is
moving forward with an ap
plication for a Race to the
Top district grant.
Certainly, a $2 0-million
grant is a tempting proposi
tion, but taxpayers deserve
an accounting of not only
what this is going to cost us
in the long run in unfunded
mandates, but also what we
may be giving away to the
federal government in the
bargain. There are some
things that money should
not buy, and local control of
education is one of them.
I want to ask the Camden
County school board where
is the cost analysis on the
conditions of the grant for
the long term? Have there
been any hearings for Cam
den citizens to weigh in on
this grant proposal? Has
there been any discussion of
the overall terms of the
grant?
For example, how much
would the following grant
condition cost?
The grant states that our
school district should ensure
that “all participating stu
dents, parents, educators and
other stakeholders, regard
less of income, have access to
necessary content, tools, and
other learning resources,
both in and out of school, to
support the implementation
of the applicant’s proposal.”
As a taxpayer, I’d like to
know what additional costs
this will create on my family
and on our tax digest.
Another concern is what
happens if the state decides
to exit the Common Core
standards just as it exited the
Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College and
Careers testing consortium?
The RTTT district grant
requires any school system
receiving funds to imple
ment “standards that are
common to a significant
number of states,” which
means the Common Core.
Those are the only stan
dards common to a signifi
cant number of states. It
would be quite possible that
Camden’s students could be
locked into the Common
Core until 2017 while the
rest of the school districts
around the state could be
moving on to better stan
dards. How would our stu
dents deal with the testing
differences that would occur
under that scenario?
From a privacy standpoint,
I would like to know why
this grant requires a school
district to have a “robust data
system that has, as a mini
mum — an individual
teacher identifier with a
teacher-student match” and
further why the district must
have the “capability to re
ceive or match student-level
See LETTERS, page 5A