About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 2023)
Wednesday, July 12,2023 FAYETTE VIEWS A4 Fayette County News The Dual Plagues of Antisemitism and Guns "There is absolutely no place for this hate and antisemi tism in our state. I share in the outrage over this shameful act and stand with Georgians everywhere in condemning it. We remain vigilant in the face of these disgusting acts of bigotry," -Gov. Brian Kemp. Recently, we experienced neo-Nazi agitators demon strating outside of a Cobb County synagogue. For a change, Kemp and I agree, at least about the bigots trying to upset worshippers. There was no violence - this time. But what about the next wave? The 2018 Pittsburg shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue resulted in over a dozen worshippers slaugh tered or seriously injured. Plus, four police officers were hurt. Almost all the 11 congregants murdered were very elderly, with one being 97 years old. After an unreasonable (and inexcusable) five-year delay, Robert Gregory Bowers has finally been brought to trial. But that is just the worst of the many recent antisemitic crimes, some with guns. Per the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), there were 3,697 antisemitic incidents in 2022, a record high. And double what it was just a few years before. These incidents included vandalism (half), plus harassment and physical assaults. Jews are one of the more prosperous minority groups in the USA. Many of our most respected Americans have been Jewish. Being Jewish has generally not been a point of contention in 21st Century America, at least until re cently. However, in the last few years, we, as a nation, have clearly gone downhill regarding tolerance of minority groups... including our own. Antisemitism is once again on the rise, stoked by the nationalistic rhetoric spouted by our former President. The 2022 Colleyville, Texas synagogue standoff out come was miraculous in that no one was killed. I once lived a few miles away from Colleyville. If I had gone to a syn agogue service, it would have been there. The aggressor was a recent immigrant, with a criminal record. Why he was admitted into the U.S. is perplexing. But he then easily bought his semi-automatic gun for $150... from another convicted felon. In Texas, all adults (except felons) can buy firearms. But there are no background checks, restrictions, or monitoring of gun sales. Guns are everywhere, hard to track, and relatively See Bernard, A6 JACK BERNARD Raised on Radio I started elementary school in 1961, when my family lived in Holland. I can’t remember what it is I did for fun during those first three grades, but I do know that whatever it was, it didn’t involve a television. That’s because we didn’t own one. Even if we did, we wouldn’t have understood what anyone was saying because the shows were in Dutch, which none of us knew. And there were no subtitles back then (Besides, who wants to read when they’re watching TV? Doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose?). We did, however, have a rather large stereo system. You might have seen one like it if you’ve ever seen Don Draper’s living room in Mad Men. It had a turntable and a radio, and that’s it. Cassette tapes and CDs were something you only read about in Jules Verne novels in the early 60s. On the rare occasions mom and dad didn’t have Elvis Presley and Dean Martin albums spinning on the turntable, I had the radio playing. AM stations only, of course (FM was still a few years away). I won’t bother mentioning which musical artists were popular at the time, because I don’t want you to feel sorry for me - or think that I made them up. Seriously: Chubby Checker? Freddie and the Dreamers? Teddy and the Pan das? (Let me put the music on pause for a moment. When I first started listening to the radio, it never occurred to me that there was such a thing as “disc jockeys” and that they were playing records. I thought that all the musicians were cooped up in the same room, waiting for their turn to perform their song. I was always amazed at how their songs sounded exactly the same - every single time.) Just before we packed up to move to Rhode Island, we learned that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated - by hearing about it on the radio. Seventeen years later, I would hear about the assassination of John Lennon the exact same way: on the radio. It’s funny how you remember every last detail of certain moments in time. I still vividly remember where I was, who I was with, and how I felt. Always will, I imagine. For the last three years of the decade, we lived in Ha waii. Since they speak English in the 50th state, we owned a television, a color television. It had a 19” screen that, in those days, was rather large (And yes, I know that now they make iPads with screens almost that size. But remember, this was 1967). But having a television didn’t mean I stopped listening to my take-it-with-me-everywhere-I-went transistor radio. •I listened to all the wonderful music of the Summer of Love on that radio. •I digested every intricate detail of the “Is Paul McCart ney dead” rumor, hoping against hope that it wasn’t true on that radio (Note: it turned out to be just a rumor, but I guess you already knew that). •I followed every pitch of the World Series on that radio. I had to, you see, because back then sporting events weren’t See Ludwig, A6 SCOTT LUDWIG Summer Certainties: Hot Weather and Property Tax Increases My calendar says we’re now squarely into July, and it’s time for a seasonal adjustment. In Georgia, this means complaints should now focus on two distinct areas: the oppressive heat or property tax increases. Tis the season, or something. The truth is, there’s not much any of us can do about either. It’s also somewhat futile to try and ex plain the weather other than to say, “It’s summer, it does this every year, and why are you acting surprised by this?” Property taxes, however, have a bit more background and nuance, at least as far as understanding why things are the way they are. Property taxes are solely a function of local tax revenues. The state quit taking a cut of your property tax bills decades ago. Note to those of you who want our tax structure to be more like Texas: their legislature is in a special session trying to figure out how to lower Texans’ property tax burden, which is roughly double what the aver age Georgian pays. Back here in Georgia, property taxes are set by multiple authorities that will differ slightly depending on where in the state you live. In all loca tions you will have a county govern ment and a local school board, each wanting their take. If you live within a city, that’s another level of taxing authority added to your bill, though you’ll also get a credit from the county for the services that the city provides to avoid dupli cate charges. Each county has a tax assessor who is responsible for setting the value of each property. The total value of all properties is known as the “tax digest.” The board of education, county, and city, if applicable, each decide on their budget for the year, then divide that among all the property owners to de termine their share of the total tax bill for each property. This is all relatively mundane and boring until the values of properties start to increase rapidly, and/or the amount of the actual tax bills increase. When these notices begin to flow from the assessors, or the follow up bills come from the tax commissioners, then we’re in full complaint season. While it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and property owner to property owner, it seems property tax bills are going up across the board. Rapidly increasing home values have equaled rising assessments, but city, county, and school board budgets are increasing too. Roughly a quarter century ago, Georgia’s legislature passed the “Prop erty Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights” which included a provision that taxing au thorities must either roll back the mil- lage rate to adjust for increases in assessments or must notify the public that they are increasing taxes. Commissions, councils, and school boards are often reluctant to vote for tax increases, especially in Republican controlled areas. Yet, inflation doesn’t just impact the properties being taxed, but the cost of delivering government services like police, fire, and educa tion. While it’s easy to complain about the ever-increasing cost of govern ment, and the burden that places on homeowners, there should be some empathy for those elected to fund the delivery of local services. They must determine how much of a pay raise to give police and firemen who are also trying to put food on their families’ tables with ever-increasing costs. It’s not only more difficult to re cruit new hires for all positions, but employee retention is a real problem as well. With today’s strong job mar ket, workers are increasingly willing to change jobs or even careers to ensure their paychecks keep up with the cost of living. This, of course, puts local govern ments in a bind. They can either tax to keep up with the cost of doing business or let the quantity and/or quality of services offered decline in an effort to keep the budget low. The taxpayer solution is always See Harper, A6 The First Big Case Every trial lawyer can tell you about their first “big” case. Whether it is a criminal or civil case, it has the fol lowing characteristics. You are the attorney with primary responsibility for presenting the case - we call this sit ting “first chair.” It is the first case where the outcome bears extraordi nary signifi cance to the people involved - think life in prison or a multi-million- dollar verdict. And you are scared to death. For prosecutors who try felony cases, their first big case is most often a murder. Victims have lost a cher ished loved one. The defendant is fac ing the prospect of spending a life incarcerated. The stakes are life and death. Every time one of my prosecutors steps up for their first big case, I share in their anxiety and nervousness. On the one hand, I can empathize with them as it has not been so long ago that I cannot remember the pit in your stomach when you begin an opening argument in such a case. On the other hand, as a boss, you are cautiously op timistic that they will perform well and do their best to bring about a good re sult. But you are still nervous. Needless to say, any nervousness I might have had regarding a case re cently tried in Upson County was cast aside after the excellent performance of two assistant district attorneys. Two of my AD As, Audrey Holliday and Jonathan P. Richardson, tried their first big case last month in Upson County. While I knew they were scared to death, they never showed it and fought hard for Mohammed “Seth” Mohiuddin. Mr. Mohiuddin was stabbed by Shekhard Rao Suryavamsham in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, 2020. See Broder, A6 CHARLIE HARPER MARIE BRODER Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em There is a little convenience store near my house that sells gas. I noticed on the back wall, out of customer reach, were rows upon endless rows of little ci gars (tiparillos), of every flavor imagina ble. I was encouraged by the display, thinking that my neighbors were morphing into discriminating cosmopolitans. The Mart proprietor also noticed the in terest in verbena products, and jacked the price a bit, commensurate with the law of supply and demand. At each visit to the local quickie mart, I re alized that it was not a cultivation in taste for verbena per se that drove up sales, but it was, in any event, all about a green leafy plant. And all the time, I had visions of grandeur that my property value located a block or two away from the Mart would increase exponentially and con comitantly with the sophisticate’s inter est in the trendy tiparillos. My interest in the sudden uptick of cigarillo sales piqued and I began a sort of non-scientific study of the phenom ena. I was standing in line at the quick Mart behind a young gentleman, around, say 21-ish, who was in the line behind a lottery-holic type who was on the phone with his wife confirming his wife’s lottery request. I only concluded that it was his wife, as he was speaking in an impatient, rather curt, stiletto fashion, “Flo, what is it, a, quick pick or straight box? Flo, dammit, hurry up, I got a line behind me.” (as the line grew longer). Finally, after the lottery purchase was complete (about a 10-minute call to his wife), the young gentleman afore said, stepped up to the counter and said (and I paraphrase), “Yo, let me have one Mango, and two Swisher Sweets, and uh, that’s it, I’m down.” I figured this might be a good time to approach him about his purchase, so I followed him out of the Mart and as politely as possible, asked him about his interest in flavored cigarillos. He was suspect, kept walking, and ignored my question. I persisted. As he approached his bicycle, he be came patently irritated and said, “Yo, dude, you need to stop trippin’ on me. What you need? You wanna know about these blunts?” (argot for cigarillos). After he was satisfied that I was not the police, he opined, “Here’s the way it goes down. I use it to smoke dope, dig, marijuana. Check this, you slice the shell, and you break it down. You’ve got a straight split down the middle, and you take all the tobacco out. You fill it with weed and then you roll it, and you lick it back together then you light it up and then you smoke it.” I pressed him, further searching for his reason for the cigarillos, and sug gested that rolling papers would be less expensive. Abruptly, without further comment, but with a distinct eye roll, he mounted his bicycle and pedaled away in the general direction of my house. JAMES STUDDARD
