About StarNews. (Carrollton, GA) 20??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 2024)
Page 17 January 14, 2024 Commentary StarNews / StarNews Online www.starnewsgaonline.com “Not just what happened, but what matters’ Susan m. horn EDITOR/PUBLISHER ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Wayne Reynolds GRAPHICS DESIGNER: Sherry Reynolds REPORTERS: JANICE DANIEL WAYNE REYNOLDS Our goal is to produce a quality newspaper, locally oriented and designed with the readers ’ interest in mind. Letters to the editor are welcomed and should include a signature, address/email addrees, phone number. Liability for an error will not exceed the cost of the space occupied by the error. We welcome reader input, ideas and criticisms. Your right to read this newspaper is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Published monthly. Periodical postage paid permit #16154 Carrollton GA. Delivery mail/carrier $35 per two year subscription. $45 out of county. Send address changes: PO. Box 680, Carrollton, GA30112. , . ro P O. Box 680 Carrollton, GA 30112 suehorn.starnews@gmail.com © 2024 Palindrome Enterprises cell: 770-301-1275 dba StarNews / StarNews Online Bye, bye, Barber: Be kind to your city, Tom Barber, and resign as city manager Our front page story (stoiy jump below) on Tom Barber, City of Villa Rica’s city manager, reveals examples of his abuses of power, his disdain for those who disagree with him, his vainglorious ness. I am familiar with Barber, as he has been in that hired position for many years. Today, I will share my opinion. Please note, dear reader, that my criticisms are not lengthy only because my space is short today. Tom Barber may know about governmental mles and contract details, but he is a smug operator and has exhibited mdeness and condescention often in his official role: this is extremely undesirable behavior for a city’s main business representative. There are equally knowledgeable city man ager candidates out there who ALSO possess basic civilized interpersonal skills. Tom Barber conducts himself by a double standard. He instmeted employees not to “engage in any political campaign activities while on duty” and then he did just that (Augusta Woods letter). That’s a hypocrite. Tom Barber used his position as a threat (that he would resign) if enough citizens did not vote for the mayoral candidate of HIS choice. I have to wonder if/ how often, he may have used squeeze tactics like this to obtain business arrangements for the city? Or, perhaps lose business for the city? Most importantly, Tom Barber publicly announced: “I have made it clear that if Mrs. McPherson wins next month’s runoff, I’ll have to look for another job. I simply have no interest in working with someone who.... will be ineffective”. I believe him. I believe that he has no interest in working with the new mayor. So, now, how can any city business be accomplished? And for a clear message of “no interest in working with” the new mayor, when asked by Mayor Leslie McPherson for the usual monthly City Manager’s Report at the Jan. 9th meeting, Barber - sitting at his work seat - replied he did not have one to present. That is a very clear message. Tom Barber, be kind to your city and make good on your threat to quit. Bye, bye, Barber. Sue horn EVANS EDITOR/ PUBLISHER “BYE BYE BARBER” from page 14 resignation letter. The Times Georgian reported, ‘Villa Rica City Manager Vows to leave if McPherson wins runoff” and that the City Manager Tom Barber confirmed that a letter circulating in the Augusta Woods neighbor hood in Villa Rica is indeed from him and is authentic.” Lang pointed out what he believed are two direct violations per the Employee Handbook, “I have made it clear that if Mrs. McPherson wins next month’s runoff, I’ll have to look for a job’. He then went on to imply that Mrs. McPherson lied and that she would be ineffective as mayor. I see this as being a direct vio lation of campaigning on behalf of any candidate. Whereas the Handbook states, ‘city employees may not engage in any political campaign activities while on duty, while in the workplace’.” Lang said, “I now read the second violation from Tom Barber’s ‘resignation letter’: ‘Please feel free to call me at City Hall if you have any questions at 678-840-1203’. I direct your attention to the handbook relating to the use of city time and property.” StarNews obtained a copy of Barber’s August 5th 3:32 p.m. email to city “staff” in which he instructs them that “no Villa Rica employee may assist a candidate... in any aspect of his/her campaign.” Lang concluded with, “Last, I hope council will hold a special meeting on this matter to check into any potential wrongdoing and so we, the city can determine where we stand with a city manager and actively manage this situation. As the mayor said, it was a rough election and now is the time for all of us to pull together and get back to running the city.” At the regular meeting at 6:00 p.m., when asked by Mayor McPherson for the usual monthly City Manager’s Report, Barber - sitting at his work seat - replied he did not have one to present. Despite this and Barber’s prior behavior, council voted to continue Barber’s employment with a 5-0 vote. Per the city’s charter, the mayor’s seat is a non-voting seat. Transgender “The Transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly; activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize on its behalf and activist health pro fession als are promoting the mutilation of children under the euphemistic ban ner of ‘Gender-affirming care. ” - Christopher F. Rufo, Author, America s Cultural Revolution The above is the opening line of a talk given at Hillsdale College as part of the AWC Family Foundation Series. Please read the entire lecture if you are interested in the actual surger ies and lifetime consequences that result. My suggestion is to not read this lecture before dinner. Transgender is only the latest expression of the sexual revolu tion/liberation dating back to the 1960s, which was a social movement that challenged traditional behavior about sexuality and personal relation ships. The nonnalization of The Pill, public nudity, premarital sex, alternate Travis S PITTMAN GEORGIA TECH Beta Theta Pi tpittman4787@comcast.net forms of sexuality, and the legaliza tion of abortion slowly became accepted. By 1976, French philoso pher Michael Foucault had published The History of Sexuality, Volume I (three more to follow), which set out to frame the argument that sexuality was a historical, societal construct, and not biological. In the 1980s, even though “Queer Theory” had mainly been used in academic settings, the derogatory term was reclaimed as a general activist position for those who did not identify with heterononnativity. You may remember the protest chants like “We’re here! We’re queer! Get used to it!” By this time, a group of academics had established the disciplines of “transgender studies” and pushed gender to be a fonnative social constmct. Early 1990s, the transgender schol arship movement blossomed with conferences and awards such as the Kessler Award for significant impact on the field of LGBTQ Studies, and the first Queer Theory Conferences at Yale and Harvard. In 2008, Susan Stryker, a male-to- female professor currently at the University of Arizona, advocated that “transgender ideology was a spiritual resource for social and environmental transformation.” The movement fig ured out that to get accepted by the mainstream, they would have to hitch their wagon to a star. They would have to get money and power while getting aboard the train of the See TRAVIS PITTMAN page 19 What’s better than instate tuition for illegal aliens?: Georgia’s Dual Enrollment Program “While conservative Republicans wage an annual battle under the Gold Dome to stop other Republicans from changing state law so as to award in state college tuition to Georgia’s “undocumented” foreign high school grads, it looks like we are paying for zero-cost college tuition as well as fees and books for the illegal aliens who haven’t yet graduated our tax- funded high schools.” So went part of a letter to the editor published in the Brunswick News last week from retired Border Patrol agent and INS agent, Robert Trent. Trent, a St. Mary’s resident and active member of the Camden County Republican Party, was writ ing about Georgia’s Dual Enrollment program which, for taxpayers who are funding the program but who may not be aware, is best described by the Georgia Student Finance D.A. KING PRESIDENT The Dustin Inman Society 404-316-6712 Commission: “Georgia’s Dual Enrollment Program provides stu dents enrolled at an eligible public or private high school or home study program in Georgia the opportunity to earn high school and college credit at a participating eligible postsecon dary institution in Georgia.” Now capped at thirty semester hours, prior to changes pushed by Kemp in 2020 designed to lower costs, some students were reportedly taking 60 to 70 hours - which was making the program financially Finding the “common good” requires compromise unsustainable. About 45,000 Georgia students participated in dual enroll ment last year according to reliable news reports. This writer has been asking a vari ety of politicos since 2020 to point to a provision in the law or Georgia Student Finance Commission eligibil ity policy governing the DE program that excludes illegal aliens. A result was that the then-pending DE-related House bill saw a surprise and mshed, unscheduled vote that resulted in the bill passing before we were able to send out too much infonnation. Earlier this month, I sent an Open Records Request to the Georgia Student Finance Commission asking for a copy of any record or document that illustrated an exclusion for illegal aliens in the DE program or a verifi cation system to check immigration See D.A. KING page 19 Making decisions about public pol icy is no simple task. It requires bal ancing interests, exercising our values and making choices among compet ing ideas. When we vote, should we favor candidates who will cut taxes or those who will improve services? Should we support a strong American presence in the world or keep our focus on domestic issues? The answers aren’t easy. And where do we look to develop the values that shape these decisions? For many of us, they start with our families, friends and col leagues. Faith and community organizations play a role. We often look to people whom we admire: examples from his tory, influential figures in pub lic life and admirable individu als we have known. Ultimately, we should return to this guiding standard: Will our decisions advance the common good? We won’t all agree on what the common good is, but the question should be a Lee HAMILTON PROFESSOR Indiana University Center on Representative Government starting point. In fact, the idea of the common good runs through public life in the United States. It was a key concept And where do we look to develop the values that shape these decisions? For many of us, they start with our families, friends and colleagues. Faith and community organizations play a role. for the Enlightenment philosophers who influenced America’s founders. They connected it to the ideal of citi zenship, the notion that people should engage in public life. John Adams, our second president, wrote, “Government is instituted for the common good... and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.” James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers that governments should identify wise leaders in search of the common good. But, what do we mean by the com mon good? The founders left some hints in the Preamble to the Constitution. They sought “a more perfect union” that would promote elements of the common good: justice, domestic tranquility, the common defense, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty. These phrases are meaning ful, but they leave room for debate. What is the “general welfare.” What happens when domestic tranquility conflicts with individual liberty? In today’s world, does the “common defense” include See LEE HAMILTON page 19
