About Sandy Springs reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2019)
18 | Commentary Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News Reporter Newspapers Our mission is to provide our readers with fresh and engaging information about life in their communities. Published by Springs Publishing LLC 6065 Roswell Road, Suite 225 Sandy Springs, GA 30328 Phone: 404-917-2200 • Fax: 404-917-2201 Brookhaven Reporter | Buckhead Reporter Dunwoody Reporter | Sandy Springs Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net Atlanta INtown www.AtlantaINtownPaper.com Atlanta Senior Life wwwAtlantaSeniorLife.com CONTACT US Founder & Publisher Steve Levene stevelevene@reporternewspapers.net Editorial Managing Editor John Ruch johnruch@reporternewspapers.net INtown Editor: Collin Kelley Editor-at-Large Joe Earle Staff Writers Dyana Bagby, Evelyn Andrews Creative and Production Creative Director Rico Figliolini rico@reporternewspapers.net Graphic Designer Julie Murcia Advertising Director of Sales Development Amy Arno amyarno@reporternewspapers.net Sales Executives Jeff Kremer, Janet Porter, Jim Speakman Office Manager Deborah Davis deborahdavis@reporternewspapers.net Contributors Robin Conte, Doug Carroll, Phil Mosier, Katia Martinez, Judith Schonbak, Jaclyn Turner Free Home Delivery 60,000 copies of Reporter Newspapers are mailed monthly to homes in ZIP codes 30305,30319,30326, 30327,30328,30338, 30342 and 30350 and delivered to more than 200 business/retail locations. For delivery requests, please email delivery@reporternewspapers.net Honored as a newspaper of General Excellence © 2019 with all rights reserved Publisher reserves the right to refuse editorial or advertising for any reason. Publisher assumes no responsibility for information contained in advertising. Any opinions expressed in print or online do not necessarily represent the views of Reporter Newspapers or Springs Publishing, LLC. Voices Simple steps to reduce killing wildlife in parks We Atlantans are extremely fortunate to live in a forest teeming with plant and animal life. We, not the animals, are the invaders. A few common-sense practices can greatly reduce the number of creatures needlessly killed every year in our parks and nature preserves. As screen time has expo nentially increased in our society, the connection with the immediate world around us has suffered. In recent years, I have seen hundreds of people use natural areas as their daycare centers, dia per disposal bins, dog parks, drone training grounds or garbage dumps. Sure, 98 percent of the people visiting these areas are great stew ards of nature. Unfortunate ly, it only takes a few people to ruin the environment and devastate the wildlife in a small park or preserve. “My dog is friendly, he doesn’t need to be on a leash” is something I hear often. City, county and state law differ with this conclusion, and for good reason. One dog running through a pond or wooded area can kill thousands of amphibian or reptile eggs, and I can’t tell you how many wading bird carcass es I have found after off-leash dog attacks. Their owners certainly harm the en vironment by leaving their poop piles all over the place. The ones who bag the poop and then leave it are particularly grievous. While I was tracking a heron injured by fishing line in March at Brookhav- en’s Murphey Candler Park, I saw at least a dozen off- leash dogs. One owner even allowed his dog to run down the embankment towards the injured heron! Please, keep your dog, friendly or not, on a leash at all times while in a nature area. Each of the last three years has seen at least one great blue heron killed by fishing line or other trash left at Murphey Candler Park. It’s amazing how many people will walk, jog or bike through a natural area and thoughtlessly dump their drink contain ers, cigarette/cigar butts, or plastic wrap pers on the ground. I have noticed that the majority of these people operate from ig norance versus malice and would like to believe they simply don’t know the dam age they are doing. Of course, some just don’t care. Simply put, discarded trash is a ma jor killer of wildlife. Animals assume it is food, eat it, and die. One candy bar wrap per is enough to choke a small mammal. One piece of fishing line will strangle most small animals. Your beer/soda can or bottle can kill numerous creatures in several horrible ways. Please, please, please, don’t litter our beautiful natural areas, and if you see gar bage, pick it up. If there is a fishing lure caught in a tree or line on the ground, dis card of it properly. Turning your head and ignoring these thin gs is almost as bad as leaving them in the first place. Let’s work together to provide safe habitats and beautiful green areas for all of us. Wading birds are a real treat for nature lovers. Let’s take some common- sense steps to ensure that the next genera tion can enjoy them. Stephen W. Ramsden is the founder and director of the global nonprofits The Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project and Sunlit Earth. Power and money are at stake in 2020 Census Come next spring, our country will be in the midst of our most inclusive exer cise in civic engagement: a complete count of every person living in the United States. Though April 1,2020 - the official day of the count - is almost a year away, it’s not too early to start preparing our communities. There is simply too much at stake in the 2020 Census, especially for populations that are hard to count. The decennial Census is about much more than com piling a demographic snap shot of our nation. It is about the allocation of power and money. If we don’t get an accurate and complete count of all people living and breathing in our country, we are all di minished. Our democracy is, after all, a collective endeavor that empowers “We the People” through voting and other forms of politi cal and civic participation. For those who can’t - or choose not to - vote in elections, something as simple as filling out the Cen sus questionnaire can be a source of em powerment. The Census is a tradition steeped in our country’s history. Mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the first Census was con ducted in 1790. An “enumeration” is called for in the same article and section that ad dresses membership in the House of Rep resentatives, underlining the importance of the Census in distributing political power. The 435 voting seats in the House are fixed by law and proportionally repre sent the population of all 50 states, with each member of the House representing a set number of constituents. After the 2010 Census, Georgia gained one seat. The Peach State was one of only eight states that added rep resentatives in Congress, ac cording to the National Con ference of State Legislatures. Congressional representa tion is also consequential be cause the number of a state’s representatives in Washing ton, D.C., factors into the all-important electoral votes that determine who gets to be president. Moreover, the critical task of redraw ing the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts also occurs in the aftermath of the Census. We cannot un derestimate the importance of redistrict ing in shaping political outcomes. Census data has a bearing on who gets to vote. In December 2016, the Census Bu reau designated Gwinnett County, which has more Latinos than any other county in Georgia, as a jurisdiction that falls un der Section 203 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Since more than 5 percent of voting- age citizens in the county are members of a single-language minority group and have difficulty understanding English, this action ensures that these voters can access Spanish-language ballots. Between 2015 and 2040, Latinos in metro Atlanta will grow faster than any other racial or ethnic group, with Gwin nett County seeing the biggest growth, ac cording to the Atlanta Regional Commis sion. How tax dollars from Washington are allotted to states is also derived from Cen sus numbers. Data from the decennial count determines the geographic distribu tion of about $900 billion in federal funds. For many metro communities in Geor gia this is of utmost importance, since many cities have been incorporated in the past decade and the 2020 Census will be their first decennial count. In 2016, guided by data gathered from the 2010 Census, Georgia received $24 billion through 55 federal spending pro grams, according to a recent study by the George Washington University’s Insti tute of Public Policy. For every person not counted in the Census, the state forfeits $1,339 annually in the 16 largest federal as sistance programs, the report said. As Georgia’s population grows and be comes increasingly polychromatic, it is imperative that all our communities and residents get access to the resources we need so that Georgia can remain competi tive as a business destination. In order for Georgia to reap the politi cal benefits of a population growth pow ered by Latinos and to retain for decades to come its spot as the top state to do busi ness in, all Georgians need to be counted. Aixa M. Pascual is senior lead for advocacy, thought leadership, civic affairs and cultural engagement at the Latin American Association in Brookhaven.
