About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2023)
Wednesday, February 22,2023 FAYETTE VIEWS A4 Fayette County News Well-being of Children is Priority for Fayette County I t is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” -Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and statesman Many people move to our county because it has great schools. It’s a wonderful place to raise a family. But we can not take that situation for granted. As a community, we must work to make it even better. I have recently become much more involved with Fay ette FACTOR (Fayette Alliance Connecting Together Our Resources, Inc.), a locally based non-profit group ded icated to improving the lives of county residents. The exact mission reads, “FACTOR convenes community stake holders to assess and strategically improve the health and well-being of local residents,” (http://www.fay- ettefactor.org/initiatives.html). Fayette FACTOR networks and coordinates with Georgia Family Connection Partnership (https://gafcp.org), a statewide or ganization which “empower(s) our communities to craft local solutions based on local decisions.” In other words, both groups bring together social, civic, and political leaders to discuss problems and derive optimum solutions.” On Jan. 23, Georgia Family Connection Partnership made a presentation to our Fayette County community at a luncheon event sponsored by Fayette Factor. It was di rected towards issues surrounding our youth. Among the laudable goals detailed are to decrease substance abuse by our youth. As many of you know, Fayette is not a typical Georgia county. Our income level is significantly higher, over 50 percent more than the average Georgia county. And whites make up a larger proportion of our population (61 percent) versus other counties (52 percent). And our five percent poverty rate is about one-third of the state rate of 14 per cent. On most measures of health and education we do very well, with a few surprising exceptions. We have a higher low birth rate than Georgia. Plus, we have more of our youth dropping out of school before completing high school. Also, the percent of babies born to mothers who never completed high school is dropping statewide... but escalating in Fayette County. Another very surprising exception is that for the most recent year available (2018), we had more non-violent crime (33/1,000 residents) than the Georgia average (28/1,000 residents). Not only that, but our county’s non violent crime increased by about a third between 2014 and 2018. Fayette FACTOR is heavily involved with our com munity. Among their initiatives are actions to lessen drug and alcohol abuse and to encourage limiting tobacco use to outside areas. The bottom line is that we must all get more involved in local community action agencies such as Fayette FAC TOR, which is trying to build a better community for all of us. JACK BERNARD A Walk to Remember olf,” according to Mark Twain, “is a good walk spoiled.” Then again, Mark Twain never had the chance to play golf on Pebble Beach Golf Links. Twain passed away in 1910, almost a decade before the course had its grand opening in 1919. Playing Pebble Beach, carved into the landscape along the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, is on the bucket list of almost every golfer I have ever known, in cluding me. I’ve been fascinated with the course ever since I saw Jack Nicklaus’ ball hit the flagstick on the par three 17th hole in the final round of the 1972 U.S. Open on his way to winning the tournament. Incidentally, that shot left him with a tap-in birdie after hitting a one-iron directly into a gale-force wind blowing off the Pacific Ocean. How good was the shot? Well, ask any golfer and they’ll tell you: Even God can’t hit a one-iron. However, my personal dream of playing golf at Pebble Beach died when I gave up the game several years ago. For all in tents and purposes, I put it entirely out of my mind. However, that was never the case for Marshall, a good friend of mine. On the day after the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am - incidentally, Justin Rose won - Marshall had the opportunity to play the same course that Nicklaus himself once said was the one he would play if he had “just one round of golf left to play.” Make no mistake: playing golf at Pebble Beach is going to cost you a pretty penny. Technically, it takes al most 60,000 of them, but that’s not the point. The point is that if Pebble Beach is on your bucket list, then ex pense should not be an issue. If you don’t believe me, ask any golfer and they’ll back me up on that (just don’t ask my Uncle Mike; he’s been known to pinch a penny or two). Here’s where the story gets better, at least from my point of view: Marshall invited me to walk the course with him while he played (to make the story even better, it didn’t cost me a single penny; Uncle Mike would have been so proud of me). To show my appreciation, I of fered to caddy for him. Fortunately, he accepted. So, for 18 holes, I toted Marshall’s clubs (OK, so they See Ludwig, A7 SCOTT LUDWIG Gangs in Our Backyard O ne of the more disturbing trends that has worsened dur ing my time as a prosecutor is gang member recruitment of young children. Gangs now target children as young as 10 years old. We often see this begin in juvenile court. As the focus of juvenile court is on rehabilita- tion and redi- r e c t i o n , ^ incarceration is . A the exception, " ' M rather than the rule. Con- F ’ JBjpl sequently, young children DA Marie Broder seeking ap proval from gang members are encouraged to commit crimes (entering unlocked automobiles, etc.), because they face less serious consequences than an adult commit ting the same crime. The proceeds from these crimes either go towards enriching older gang members or improving the status of the child with the gang. As you might imagine, the severity of the crimes only escalate - and they often culminate in violence. A common violent crime com mitted by gangs is armed robbery. As its name implies, armed robbery is a crime where a person intends to commit theft and takes someone’s property by using a weapon (or something that appears to be a weapon). Our offices tend to take a harsh stand against armed robberies, as the difference between the loss of someone’s possessions and the loss of their life is a trigger pull away. Our office saw that awful result, yet again, in the murder of a young father and devoted fiance, Jeffery Ryan Deluca. On July 24, 2020, Mr. Deluca was attacked in his home while his fiancee and children were present. His attackers, members and associ ates of the Rollings 20s Neighbor hood Bloods, shot him in the back of the head. Mr. Deluca was targeted as part of a plot to commit an armed robbery. A Spalding County jury convicted two of Mr. Deluca’s murderers, Rob ert Freeman III and Xavier Carter, with felony murder, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, three counts of aggravated assault, and violation of the Criminal Street Gang Act. The Honorable Scott Ballard sentenced these defendants to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 20 years for the Street Gang Act vio lation. An additional conspirator and at tacker, Damarion Sinkfield, pre viously pleaded guilty to felony murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Senior Assistant District Attorney Ashton Jordan and Assistant District Attorney Holly MacDonald tried this case for the state. Evidence at trial indicated that the armed robbery plot was tied to initiating one of the defendants into the Rolling 20s Neighborhood Bloods. So, what can be done to stop gangs from poisoning the children in our community and dooming them to a life of violence, death, or incar ceration? The district attorneys’ of fice is, by its nature, a reactive body. We can only prosecute those who have already committed crimes and try to bring peace to a victim who has already been wounded. However, recent proposed changes to our laws regarding crim inal gang activity could make re cruitment of new gang members a See Broder, A7 To Grow or Not to Grow? That is Not the Question I grew up in rural Fayette County, Georgia. Or, perhaps I should say, I grew up with rural Fayette County. When the 1970 census was taken shortly after I was born, the county due south of Atlanta’s airport, nes tled between interstates 75 and 85, had under 12,000 residents - and only about 150 more than it had con tained in 1900. We added 17,000 people during that next dec ade, when new- comers suddenly out numbered the “locals.” Things were just get ting started for growth, as the next two dec ades brought about 30,000 res idents each. Now, a bit more than a half century later, Fayette County has more than 10 times the number of citizens as we had when I arrived on the scene. You can still find traces of the rural county where I grew up, but you have to look well outside the in corporated areas of Fayetteville or Peachtree City. Fayette has seen the wave of suburban growth come, ex plode, pause, and... morph. When I graduated college, my first job was as a banker in Cobb County. I quickly learned that a banker’s job had expectations to work closely with the local chamber. Cobb had about 450,000 residents, whereas Fayette had just eclipsed the 60,000-resident mark. Neither county showed signs of slowing down, as growth itself was a major industry in the metro Atlanta area. The approach, however, was dif ferent within each county. My home county decided that the best way to “control” growth was to pretend it wasn’t happening. Plans to add a limited access highway through the heart of Fayette County to ease access to and from Atlanta, where most residents work, were killed almost as soon as they were floated. Sewer access was de nied outside of the larger municipal ities, with one-acre lots established as the minimum for homes in the county on septic tanks. Minimum home sizes were established, and mobile homes were no longer per mitted to be added on lots or land. I can recall as these issues were being debated in my home county, a specific presentation given in Cobb with some of the chamber folks. They put a population on the county for 2020, noting that we would be adding 200,000 people to the county over that timeframe. They didn’t question IF we would grow, nor fret about how to stop it. The plans were for HOW to grow, and to do their best to get ahead and stay ahead of it. A new divided, four-lane road was proposed through the southern end of the county that circled up to link with Town Center Mall. It’s now known as the East West Connector. A system of grid roads was built and/or aligned around the Cumber land/Galleria area. This road system is what made it possible, three decades later, to drop an entire baseball stadium and en tertainment district into the area with little disruption to traffic flows. Cobb hit their growth target within a decade, and now has more than three quarters of a million res idents. Fayette, while resisting pop ulation growth, has still seen its population double in the last three See Haper, A7 CHARLIE HARPER Jesus Gets it; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Does Not S ome years after law school, I at tended a seminary. My concen trated course of study was the New Testament, generally, and par ticularly the juxtaposition of the Jesus of the scriptures with the Jesus of verifiably recorded history. I di gress. As a preludial, let me quote the above pol itician, A.K.A. AOC: She blo viated, “I do not believe Jesus would support Super Bowl commer cials that make fascism look benign.” Joy Reid, a liberal, pro gressive hack and an AOC syco phant, echoed the same vitriol about the Jesus commercial, demonstrat ing her folie a deux route step with the Puerto Rican big mouth (AOC’s mama, Blanca Ocasio-Cortez, A.K.A BOC, was born in Puerto Rica). Fascist: Webster’s 9th Edition, n. (1) apolitical theory ad vocating an authoritarian hierar chical government; opposed to de mocracy and liberalism. 2. an au thoritarian system of government under absolute control of a single dictator, allowing no political oppo sition, forcibly suppressing dissent, and rigidly controlling most indus trial and economic activities. Jesus: Pacifist and Egalitarian Fascist: No. Most modern-day seminars have adopted a teaching discipline known as “historical criticism.” Simply, this method contrasts the dyad of Jesus of History and Jesus of Scripture. I purposefully pretermit, and make no personal judgment as to the birth, death, and/or resurrection of Jesus, as this approach is to historical/scriptural considerations. Did Jesus advocate a political theory advocating an authoritarian, hierarchical government? No. Was Jesus opposed to democracy and lib eralism? No. Did Jesus advocate an authori tarian system of government under absolute control of a singular dicta tor, allowing no political opposition, or forcibly suppress dissent, and control most of Palestine’s industrial and economic activities? No. During the time Jesus minis tered, until his death in 33 AD (give or take), the only government was ruled by Tiberius, Emperor of Rome, and his client kings, e.g. Herod and his enforcers, e.g. Pontius Pilate, et al. Josephus, a writer, philosopher, and contemporary of Jesus, noted in his writings that Jesus was a good and righteous man who preached forgiveness and succor for the needy. He was rumored to have healed the sick and raised the dead. Jesus, ac cording to Josephus, was apolitical and was heard to say to his disciples, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.” That doesn’t have a fascist ring to it, ya think? Maybe AOC should fa miliarize herself with Benito Musso lini. AOC’s comments smack of either, A) bog ignorance, or B) late stages of aphasia that is commonly extant among liberals who, when lacking a legitimate concern of which to whinge, simply resort to pointless flummery. JAMES STUDDARD
