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Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534; fax (706) 265-3276; or email to editor@dawsonnews.com.
DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, July 11, 2018
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
Who says
politicians
can’t lower
expectations?
Just when you think expectations can go no
lower in politics, our gubernatorial candidates
continue to prove us wrong.
Here we sit, about to put our collective
future into the hands of a new chief executive
of the eighth largest state in the nation and
what do we have from which to select? A guy
that would kiss a
goat if he thought
it would get him
elected; a gun-
totin’ good ol’
boy who wants to
make sure
nobody don’t
mess with his
dadgum family
and an ultra-liberal black woman who wants
to sandblast Stone Mountain. Good grief.
The recent revelation by Republican guber
natorial candidate Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle that
he pushed for passage of a bill he considered
bad public policy in order to keep the Walton
Foundation from pouring millions of dollars
into the campaign of rival candidate, Hunter
Hill, pretty much got a shrug from voters if
my reader mail is any indication.
Not that you approved of what he confessed
to in a secretly recorded conversation with for
mer Republican gubernatorial candidate Clay
Tippins but, rather, it was just another example
of a politician being a politician. Like, what’s
new?
Casey Cagle is Georgia’s Teflon man. He
compromised his integrity, screwed public
schools and our hard-working and unappreci
ated schoolteachers, said a bunch of stuff he
would have been better served to have winked
or nodded and offered no apologies. And he
seems to have gotten away with it.
The Atlanta newspapers are reporting now
that Cagle regularly uses state planes to ferry
him between his home in Gainesville and the
state capitol 55 miles away. Neat. We taxpay
ers fund his airplane trips (over a quarter of a
million dollars during the past eight years)
while we buy our own gas for our own cars to
ferry our own selves from one place to another
including on occasion, Gainesville.
And then there is his opponent in the
Republican primary runoff, Secretary of State
Brian “Hee-Haw” Kemp. He wants to be sure
we know he has a gun and he is willing to use
it, fer dem sure. If some young whippersnap-
per makes eyes at his daughters, he’ll fill ’em
full of lead, by cracky.
I’m sure that compone stuff delights his
supporters no end, but a lot of people who are
slightly nauseous of Casey Cagle’s political
behavior have asked my opinion about
Kemp’s stand on the issues. They know he
likes guns, but how would he govern? Shoot
anybody who disagrees with him? What are
his views on the substantive matters that
impact our daily lives? Is he as anti-public
education and pro-voucher as are most of his
colleagues? I’m not about to ask him. Never
rile a good ol’ boy with a shotgun in his lap.
He’s just liable to use the goldam thing.
No matter how things play out between
Casey Cagle and Brian Kemp, it is a foregone
conclusion that whoever wins the Republican
runoff on July 24 is destined to be our next
governor. That is because the Democratic can
didate, Stacey Abrams, while the darling of the
national media, is too far left for the majority
of Georgians and shows scant interest for
those in the middle. Plus, there is the small
matter of back taxes. If she can’t manage her
own finances, how can we expect her to man
age the state’s $25 billion budget?
Abrams makes a big point of saying she
wants to sandblast the Confederate Memorial
off Stone Mountain. Oh, please. She might
want to check the state statute that prohibits
such an action and would take an act of the
Legislature to change it. On the extreme out
side chance she was elected governor, the
Republican-dominated Legislature wouldn’t
give her the time of day, let alone change the
law.
You might want to be seated for this one. I
believe if Jason Carter had chosen to ran this
time around, he would have had a good
chance of being elected. Yes, Jason Carter,
grandson of the man about whom my feelings
are well-known. The former Democratic state
senator lost to Gov. Nathan Deal in 2014 but
ran a good race. I’m surprised he didn’t have
another go at it this time around. Instead, he
has chosen to run the Carter Center. He’s a
good man.
So, who are we left with to choose for our
next governor? A goat-kisser, Yosemite Sam
and a potential successor to our Ambassador
to Outer Space, Cynthia McKinney. Who said
politicians couldn’t lower our expectations?
Not me.
DICKYARBROUGH
Columnist
"I see Trump has announced
his Supreme Court nominee."
Why Capital Gazette reporter s
tweet is on our masthead today
“I can tell you this: We are
putting out a damn paper
tomorrow.”
Capital Gazette reporter
Chase Cook’s tweet after the
deadly mass shooting in his
newsroom was as bold as it
was inspiring, but it was
hardly surprising to his fel
low journalists.
As another tweet shortly
after Cook’s put it simply:
“Of course they are.”
Cook’s sentiment was
more than just defiance in
the face of violence and
madness. It was an electronic
verbalization of journalism’s
creed.
It’s what journalists do.
Our methods of delivery
vary from digital signals to
printed paper, but the result
is the same: We deliver the
news. More importantly, we
try to deliver the truth in an
age in which some have
decided that even that is
NATE MCCULLOUGH
Publications Manager
negotiable.
The task is hard enough
when everything is going
well. It gets harder in tough
economic climates. Add
weather events or natural
disasters, and doing it
becomes all the more mirac
ulous. Most of us have been
in one or more of these situa
tions and put out the paper.
Save for war correspon
dents, almost none of us
have had to do it in the face
of gunfire. And even then,
the correspondents went to
the war.
On June 28, the war came
to the Capital Gazette. After
years of taking up so much
of journalism’s print space
and airwaves, America’s
mass shooting epidemic
finally trained its crosshairs
on journalists themselves.
The rest of us in this pro
fession cried. We said,
“There but for the grace of
God go I.” But few of us
wondered, “What will the
surviving Capital Gazette
staff members do in the face
of such tragedy?”
Because we already knew,
even before Cook’s tweet.
They’d put out the paper. At
a time when they had every
right to focus on themselves,
they respected the people’s
right to know.
Journalism isn’t dead.
Their actions are confirma
tion that it is alive, and it is
vigorous.
We’ve had a moment of
silence. Now we’re saying
something.
As a salute to those at the
Capital Gazette who lost
their lives and those who ral
lied in the aftermath, The
Times is echoing Cook’s ral
lying cry by replacing its slo
gan, Honestly Local, on the
front-page masthead with
Cook’s tweet. The Forsyth
County News and Dawson
County News are taking sim
ilar action. We invited all
newspapers around the coun
try to do the same and hope
we have a lot of company.
On Friday, papers can go
back to whatever their ver
sion is of “All the news that
fits.” But for one day, let this
profession repeat Cook’s
statement again, and remind
everyone that we mean it, no
matter what:
We are putting out a damn
paper.
Nate McCullough is the
publications managerfor
Metro Market Media.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Immigration not
always a good thing
I like the Mexican people
that I know. They are usually
Christians, hardworking and
family oriented. It seems to
me that they have about the
normal human standard of
goodness and sorryness com
mon to the whole human
race.
I have traveled a pretty
good bit in Mexico and done
business there and while it is
a beautiful place it seems to
me that most of the sorry
class of Mexicans work in
their national government.
That is why so many want to
leave it and try and make it to
the U.S. I don’t blame them. I
would try and escape if I
were a Mexican.
The pressure to get out of
Mexico and some of the Latin
American countries is about
like that which was on the
Germanic tribes trying to get
to the Roman Empire.
A mass movement started
from Germany and finally
destroyed the Romans. The
lights of civilization went out.
Europe entered the Dark
Ages for almost 1,000 years.
Immigration is not always a
good thing. Historically large
immigrations violently dis
rupt areas and sometimes
destroy entire nations.
Even if the South American
flow is not sufficient to min
us, we should be aware of the
economic implications of the
current immigration flow
continuing. It suppresses
working class wages.
If you want non-wealthy
Americans to earn more
money, simply restrict the
supply of workers coming
across the border doing that
kind of work. Wages for labor
will start to rise. The price
will go up to fill the demand.
The really rich will have to
pay a higher wage for their
maids and drivers and gar
deners. The rest of us will pay
a little more for our lettuce. I
am willing to do that.
Those that insist that we
need immigrants for cheap
labor sound exactly like those
that argued to keep slavery
alive. Slavery is really the
cheapest labor you can get. Is
that condition what we want
for immigrants?
This brings me to my main
points. No one, not one per
son, should ever be allowed
to enter our county without
going through some process
of registration and vetting.
Once they become citizens
they should have the full
rights due them that are due
all citizens.
People should only be
allowed in at a gate. We
should use all means to repel
them from the non-gated por
tions of all our borders,
beaches, ports and airways.
Congress should set the num
ber legally allowed in each
year.
People that want open bor
ders are wrong and we should
never let them near the levers
of power. If we are stupid
enough to do that, our chil
dren will pay a terrible price
as the new age comes about.
Gary Pichon
Marble Hill
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyar-
brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA
31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb.
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