About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2023)
Wednesday, April 5,2023 FAYETTE VIEWS A4 Fayette County News Democrats Likely to Lose Key Senate Seat in 2024 - Unless They Fight for It H e (Trump) cares about us in West Virginia... I love him to death,” -Governor Jim Justice, 2017. After the runoff election in Georgia, Senator Ra phael Warnock was elected. This gave Democrats their 51- member majority in Congress. Vice-President Harris was no longer needed to break tie votes, a key factor, which is why keeping very red West Virginia’s Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is so important... and difficult. Governor Justice indicated his intention to switch parties at an August 2017 Trump WV rally, stating the above regarding our then President, billionaire Donald Trump, who is now our disgraced, now indicted, twice-impeached former President. At the time, I found it to be an odd thing to say, considering that WV is the second poorest state in the union. And then-President Trump had a long record of evading the taxes that are paid by ordinary work- But then I looked into Justice... and I found out why he liked Trump so much. He’s also a wealthy guy (with mining, resort, and farming interests) who evades taxes. Everyone in the state knows about the Greenbrier, which is by far the ritziest resort in West Virginia. Certainly, I do. Way back when the local hospital was owned by Humana, I was over planning for that facility, among others. Man of the people, Jim Justice, owns it. Four years ago, Forbes ran a rather unflattering portrait of Jim Justice (https: //www.forbes.com/ sites/christopher- helman/ 2019/04/09/the-deadbeat-billionaire-the-inside- story-of-how-west-virginia-gov-jim-justice-ducks-taxes-an d-slow-pays-his- bills/?sh=iae723242acc&utm_source=newsletter&utm_m edium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiossneak- peek&stream=top). But in the political world, that may just as well have been four decades ago. Voters seem to con veniently have very short memories. Recent polling shows Justice, the 36th governor of the coal-mining state, to be highly popular with WV voters of all parties, more so than Manchin. In that, it is rumored that Justice will run against Senator Joe Manchin in 2024, and beat him 52 percent to 42 percent, according to one poll. So, let’s review that Forbes analysis. Per the 2018 report, at the time Justice owed $10 mil lion to various government agencies, employees, and sup pliers, plus he was potentially on the line for a lot more in civil cases, fines, and reclamation fees. Trump used illegal immigrants to build Trump Tower, his NYC flagship. Then he stiffed them when it came time to pay. No wonder Jus tice stated, “You know we are a lot alike” when asked about Trump. Further, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Commis sion stated of Justice-owned mines, "Kentucky Fuel's his tory regarding the payment of penalties is abysmal." Plus, See Bernard, A6 JACK BERNARD ing people. Take Me Out of the Ball Game — Pleasel B aseball season is here. Big deal. Even though I’ve done my best to forget, I re member playing a season of organized baseball when I was 11 years old. It was - for lack of a better word and be cause it was the absolute truth - traumatizing. I played for the Wolves in the Rhode Island Little League, although that might have been the name of the Boy Scout patrol I was in at the time. Like I said, there are some things I’d rather forget - like baseball and Boy Scouts. Occasionally, however, there are certain things that will leave an emo tional scar on a person that will never heal. Little League is most certainly one of mine. I was the farthest thing from a “natural” you could ever imagine. I couldn’t hit, throw, or catch. On top of all that, I was the only boy on the team that didn’t chew sunflower seeds in the dugout. The only place I fit on a baseball diamond was in my uniform, although to be honest, it was always a little snug. The first time I went to bat, I struck out on three straight pitches. The first two bounced in front of the plate, and the third was so far over my head that I couldn’t have touched it with a 10-foot bat. Over the course of the season, however, I grew more se lective at choosing my pitches. Once, I got really lucky and hit a triple. According to my dad, had I run a little bit faster - or maybe he said remotely fast - I could have had an in- side-the-park home run. I told him the reason I only got to third base was that I couldn’t run fast because my uniform was too tight (i was a chubby, pint-sized Babe Ruth... A chubby, pint-sized Babe Ruth who couldn’t hit, throw, catch... or run). I wasn’t the slowest player on the team, however. Not by a long shot. That distinction went to a boy named - and I am not making this up - Johnny Speed. He once hit a ball into the left field corner and was thrown out at first base. On a relay, no less: from left field to shortstop to first - which, in Little League, takes about as long as it takes to sing the Star-Spangled Banner. When our team took the field for the first time, I played in center field. That is, up until the third game, when I failed to move a muscle as a ball went flying directly over my head. I told the team in the dugout after the inning was over that I lost the ball in the sun, which was my way of saying that when the ball was hit, I was actually looking at the conces sion stand behind the first base dugout, wondering if there would be any funnel cakes left when the game was over. See Ludwig, A6 SCOTT LUDWIG This Week is a Time to Reflect on What is Next A s someone whose annual calen dar is heavily anchored in the ac tivities of the Georgia General Assembly, the annual declaration of Sine Die for adjournment is a bit of re lief. In fact, it’s quite freeing. It’s time to consider what is next. The immediate focus for the capitol and capital community turns to The Masters in Augusta. It’s easy to deride this priority for the legislators to finish business prior to golfers taking practice swings with the state’s best azaleas as a backdrop, but the Masters Tournament is a serious business venture for the state. The elite of the inter national business community convene here for a week, and our top leaders in government and commerce put on a full court press to lure more economic activity in the aftermath. Think of it as Davos with a southern drawl. For most of the rest of us, we have Passover, Easter, and/or spring break marking our calendars. Some are look ing ahead a few weeks further, as grad uations begin in earnest in about a month. There’s a lot of “what’s next?” to go around. Part of the allure of the “what’s next?” mindset is leaving the present and moving more items into our past. This can be in the form of marking ac complishments on our permanent record or turning the page on current struggles in the hopes of better things tomorrow. With the longer and warmer days accompanied by green shoots and col orful blooms, it’s a good time to shift mindsets to positions of optimism. Ev idence of new life and growth is all around us. It’s up to us to decide to consciously join it. Optimism, at its root, is a choice. Optimism doesn’t mean a detach ment from realism. Reality is just the field on which optimism and pessi mism play against each other. Each of us gets to decide which wins. For those of us on the Christian calendar, the backdrop of Easter high lights the stark difference in the “What’s next?” mindset. The week be tween Palm Sunday and Easter is the darkest of our year. It is so dark that the imagery of Good Friday even cul minates with an eclipse. Easter is about putting the past be hind us. Our sins are paid for. Our past is irrelevant. The question of “what’s next?” is a little more complicated. The Easter story is not a fairy tale. There is no Bible verse that says “and they lived happily ever after” when Jesus as cended into heaven. Quite the con trary. The “what’s next?” part of the Easter story is not about this world but is instead a question of eternity. Throughout the Old and New Testa ment, we are prepared that this world will always have evil at work around us. We will be tried and tested. Christians, as a group, will be persecuted. Almost all of Jesus’ own apostles died as martyrs. Too many of us today believe the line that we live “in a Christian na tion,” and have become convinced that we have as such inoculated ourselves from oppression. There’s also a politi cal aspect and warning in the Easter story here. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem as the people’s choice to be their new ruler. Days later, the same masses voted for his execution. Politics is fickle. The only time Jesus was on the ballot, Barabbas won See Haper, A6 CHARLIE HARPER Easter: Doctrinal Evolution vs. Historical Investigation D uring Pilate’s governorship (circa 26-37 C.E.) of Judea, there was rel ative peace between the Romans and the Jews, though Pilate did, on oc casion, exacerbate Roman/Jewish rela tions with his callousness and ruthless brutality. There were two incidences that trig gered Pilate’s temper toward his Jewish subjects, and both involved Jesus. It was the time of Passover, the holiest of holy celebrations in the Jewish Je rusalem and in the Diaspora. Pi late was aware of the possibility for restive be havior during the Passover and was well equipped to deal with any slight distur bance of Roman peace. During Passover, Pilate would travel to Jerusalem, and along with him came a cohort (300 to 600) of soldiers just in case any disturbance arose. The temple in Jerusalem was the social, political, and religious center of the Jewish world. The temple was quite large (20 football fields) and guarded internally by Roman guards stationed in the Antonia fortress within the temple itself. Once in Jerusalem, the soldiers had a bird’s eye view of all the activity within the synagogue walls. This tactical setup by Pilate causes one to wonder how, as related in the NewTestament, Jesus was able to enter a synagogue packed with Jewish pilgrims, turn over their tables, and swear at and beat vendors without any reprisal from the Roman guards. However, during Passover there would have been literally 10s of thousands of pilgrims in the temple so that perhaps a minor skirmish could have gone unno ticed by the Roman guards. The Barabbas episode, from a Chris tian perspective, is an attempt to portray Pilate as a weak, kindly, and compas sionate man, unable to resist the Jewish demand for the crucifixion of Jesus. The gospel authors in the New Testament seem to exonerate Pilate and the Ro mans in the death of Jesus, while casting the worst light possible on the Jews. Pilate is said to have found no fault with Jesus and was opposed to his con demnation but was coerced by Jewish pressure to yield to their cry for a cru cifixion. Given Pilate’s reputation for ruling with an iron hand, the New Tes tament’s description of his sudden sym pathy for an alleged seditionist (who claimed to be a king) seems a Biblical stretch. Pilate could not have cared less about some intra-Jewish squabble un less it threatened Roman authority; like wise, he would have had no reservations about executing a trouble making Jew. With this in mind, Christians seized upon a segue to lay complete blame for the death of Jesus upon the Jews and not upon the Romans. The New Testament tells us that the final argument by the Jews for the cru cifixion of Jesus was to intimate to Pilate that his (Pilate’s) refusing their demands to crucify Jesus, who claimed to be a king, would show that Pilate was no “friend of Caesar” (Emperor Tiberius) John 19:12. Pilate, notwithstanding any personal considerations, and his fear of the em peror, relented. That a Roman governor of an already rebellion-prone province would submit to the demands of a local crowd and release Barabbas, a known insurrectionist and murderer, while or dering the crucifixion of a harmless preacher, is rather incredible. Had Pilate really believed Jesus to be an insurrectionist, not only would he have crucified Jesus, but he would also have rounded up as many Jesus fol lowers as possible and crucified them as well. Not one disciple of Jesus or Apostle was killed in the crucifixion aftermath. They all fled. Philo the philosopher (circa, 25 B.C. to 50 A.D.), described Pilate as naturally inflexible, possessing a blend of self-will and relentlessness. Pilate’s tenure as prefect was infamous for briberies, in sults, robberies, and the outrages of wanton injuries, executions without trials and constantly repeated careless and supremely grievous cruelty. Hardly a man who would cow-tow to a gang of Jews looking to settle a religious dispute. What was one less Jew to Pilate? The story of the freeing of Barabbas, as told by Christians and disputed by Jews over millennia, whatever the his torical facts might have been, succeeded in placing the blame for Jesus’ death on all Jews, in all places, for all time. *Apologia Caiaphas, the chief priest of Judea and overseer of the temple, harbored no personal grudge against Jesus; his ac tions were purely self-serving. Caiaphas and Pilate had a quid pro quo relation ship, i.e., so long as Caiaphas squelched any anti-Roman disturbance, he (Cai aphas) could continue in his (lucrative) position. If not, Pilate would move against Caiaphas personally, and by ex tension, order a brutal reprisal against all Jews in the province. **Coda This is not, in any way, an attempt to discount, dispute, or disregard the Bib lical Easter story of the death of Jesus. It is merely the thoughts entertained by some that Biblical interpretation often differs in many ways, especially when the historical record conflicts with scrip tural description of the same event. Christians accept the Bible version; the Jews do not. You may, and should, let your belief control which side you are on, but listen to others’ views. JAMES STUDDARD Bl I ff) Americans-Care.com LV *£>2023 Creators.com %v\ OOTRM&D! 4( this is killimg I KIDS' this is Killing a LOT MORE! Where's that OUTRAGE ?
