About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2024)
Wednesday, April 3,2024 FAYETTE VIEWS A4 Fayette County News The Way We Were The modem lawyer would snigger at this piece as a fiction occurring, if at all, in the early 1870s. In actuality, the time of these proceedings was in the early 1970s -1 was barely out of law school. There were no magistrates, only JPs (an acronym for jus tice of the peace). They were a motley crew of caring people who gave unselfishly of their time and energy to promote and preserve freedom, justice, and the American way. Their day jobs ranged from surgeons to service station attendants. Since most of them were lay persons (a law degree was not a requisite), they made mistakes, had a few idiosyncrasies but a lot of com mon sense, and, in retrospect, that human side of them made my legal life a little richer. Justice of the Peace Summers, Forest Park Militia District: Justice Summers had a court room in Forest Park but there arose a flap with the locals over the noise level of his proceedings (adjacent to a church) and he was requested (to put it charitably) to vacate. Justice Summers drove a potato chip truck by day, which was lucky for him, because he needed a temporary courtroom until other facilities could be secured, so he simply converted the truck into sort of a rolling court. No one was allowed in the truck, but the justice provided, for the comfort of his litigants, a card table and folding chairs. He would sit on the tailgate of the truck, thus elevating himself to the level befitting a pre siding justice. One sleet-filled Christmas Eve, Attorney Paul Weiner and I had been retained by two gangs of warring teenagers. Paul represented the batterers, and I represented the batterees, or vice versa. Paul suggested we try to negotiate a settlement and let everybody get on with Christmas, but noooo! My gang wanted blood, Santa or no Santa, ditto for the other gang. Well, as it happened, Justice Summers got the case. It was too cold to hold court behind the potato chip truck - it had a heater, but remember, no one was allowed inside - so he or dered that all parties (over a gaggle of protests from his neighbors) convene in his living room. And so we did. Get the picture now: Here is Justice Summers ensconced in this big over-stuffed couch and on either side of him is a gang of bedraggled, battle-scarred kids with snarling parents to match. Paul and I, at about the same time, realized that things could only go downhill with this feud, plus the stores were closing soon and he and I both needed to do some last-mi nute shopping. We asked Justice Summers for permission (Paul and I) to go out on the back porch to discuss a settle ment agreement, whereupon we did, and an agreement was reached and written up by one of us. All that was required now was the justice's signature. We asked for permission to approach the couch for his signature, but his honor did not respond. Again, we re quested more of the same, only a bit louder. Finally, we dared approach the justice, uninvited, and it was then we realized that his honor was sound asleep. Paul said it was the effects of some medicine the justice was taking. We sort of helped the justice sign the document - in fact, Paul may have guided his hand a little. Neither bunch of the youthful litigants were happy with the wimpy way we settled their case, but they grumbled on out into that snowy Christmas Eve night, leav ing Justice Summers soundly sleeping and Paul and I alone with our thoughts. The following week court was convened in a Shell service station on the square in the McDonough Militia District, downtown McDonough, Henry County, Ga. JAMES STUDDARD Kids Today Why can't they be like we were, Perfect in every way? What's the matter with kids today? -Kids (from the 1963 film Bye Bye Birdie). I don’t mean to imply that I was perfect when I was a kid because, believe me, that wasn’t the case. Not by a long shot. Was I a respectful, loving son? Yes. Was I a good stu dent? Yes. Did I study hard? Well, not exactly. Was I perfect? Absolutely not. I guess I would rate myself as being somewhere in the middle of Bart and Lisa Simpson. But that’s not why I’m here. Rather, I’m here to ask the ques tion posed in the song Kids: “Why can’t they be like we were?” To be more specific: How did the younger generation become so, let’s be hon est, lazy? Sorry if I offended anyone, but just hear me out. I have some examples that illustrate... scratch that, exemplify... what I’m referring to (Note: I realize some parents may at tribute the following to “safety concerns,” and I totally un derstand. However, there are precautions that can be taken to ensure the children’s safety to ensure “the days of yore” can be resurrected). •On Halloween, when I was a kid I went house-to-house in pursuit of treats and, if the situation called for it, per forming “tricks.” Today, kids often go trunk-to-trunk from one car to the next, minimizing the actual physical effort they may otherwise have to exert by going door-to-door (I used the word lazy earlier. I stand by my word). •On Easter, with basket in hand, I went out in the yard in search of hidden eggs. It wasn’t nearly as easy as it sounds... My parents hid them really, really well - and not always in the easiest places to get to. Today, kids participate on the grounds of their church or school in what is essen tially an Easter egg “pick up,” because the only challenge they really face is bending down to pick up eggs. Eggs that are just lying on the ground in plain sight. •Have you noticed how few children get on or off school buses these days? Or how about this: Have you noticed how many cars are lined up to either drop off or pick up children before or after school? When I was a kid, everyone rode the See Ludwig, A6 1 ^=3*- SCOTT LUDWIG Georgia General Assembly Wraps Up, Giving us All a Break With Holy Week and the 2024 ses sion of the Georgia General Assembly behind us, thoughts are turning to Spring Break for many, and The Masters for fans of golf and all things “pure Georgia.” I too am among those preparing to leave the state for a bit and enjoy a brief break to take in some salt air and quiet time. Between laundry duty and pack ing, I’ve compiled a few notes on unfin ished business and other items on my mind this week. A lot of the headlines coming out of the last days of the legislative session are about bills that didn’t happen. Either the House and Senate couldn’t agree on language during the 40th day to get a bill to the governor’s desk, or the votes just weren’t there to vote on a controversial expansion of laws. The former is true of a plan to scale back a list of tax credits given to many Georgia industries in order to locate, maintain, or expand operations here. The headlines have focused on Geor gia’s ever growing film industry and the equally growing amount of income tax credits given to production companies for the portion of their work completed in Georgia. There were quite a few other industries who faced changes to their incentive structure in versions of the proposed bills. These revisions have been a goal of quite a few legislators for some time. The bills should not be considered dead, but it will take more than three days to revive them. Expect to see new versions of the bills again next year. Companies receiving or wanting tax credits should revise and update their summer and 2025 lobbying budgets ac cordingly. A bill that would have legalized on line sports betting failed to receive a vote in the Georgia House after passing the Senate. Many other states have al ready passed legislation allowing this - and have taken advantage of the windfall of state revenue from an industry that has been well es tablished out side the purview of legality since organized sport has been a thing. Sometimes it’s easier to pretend something isn’t there than to see it, tax it, and regulate it. Expect this bill to be back as well in 2025. A related bill did pass that expands “coin operated amusements” from ma chines frequently found in corner gas stations. The bill increases the take for the regulating Georgia Lottery Corpo ration from 10 percent to 13 percent in exchange for vendors’ ability to provide gift cards as “non-cash” prizes. The bill failed in its first vote in the Senate, but passed on reconsideration with the minimum 29 votes. The mar gin for passing in the Georgia House was much more favorable. Some of the critics are concerned that expanding play for monetary if not cash prizes at a 13 percent payout for the state will cannibalize the sale of lot tery tickets sold in the same outlets, which return approximately 25 percent of revenues to the state. Left unsaid is that the continued expansion of a reg ulatory framework for mechanized gambling codifies a potential future state role to operate casinos that feature video-only games with no live dealers. A transformative piece of legislation that did make it to the governor’s desk is that allowing for “Promise Scholar ships.” Critics deride the newly created “vouchers” as a full-on attack on educa tion, public schools, the teaching pro fession, decency, America, and apple pie. Beyond the histrionics are students and families who are trapped in schools based on the zip code in which they live - schools that have been on the under performing/failing lists for years if not decades. Those critics continue to demand “more,” without ever being willing to quantify how more going equally to all schools - those performing well and those with significant challenges - will raise the student performance of the schools in question. Instead, they choose to demonize those who would offer a choice to families from others who would accept the challenges and provide alternatives. This deserves and will get a piece on its own in the near fu ture. In the interim, it’s time for a break. A fortunate few will enjoy the best pi mento cheese sandwiches on the pret tiest stretches of grass in all the land. I am going in search of the best cheese burger in paradise. I’ll be back next week with perhaps more random thoughts, but with a better view and the hope that changes in latitude have brought about changes in attitude. CHARLIE HARPER Abortion - Politicians Versus Voters “Georgia is a state that values life and the governor has proudly sup ported the LIFE Act since its passage in 2019.” -Gov. Brian Kemp Kemp made the above statement as a reaction to General Assembly initia tives being put forth by Georgia Democrats. If it had been ap proved, Georgia residents would have been able to vote (Nov. 5, 2024, ballot) on a state constitu tional amend ment giving women the right to abortion. But Kemp opposed it and it died. Kemp says he is a strong supporter of individual freedom, but hypocritically wants to deny Georgia voters the oppor tunity to establish a woman’s right to choose what to do with her own body. And Kemp should be worried. Geor gia’s 2019 LIFE Act, an anti-abortion law pushed through by Kemp, has been proven to be very unpopular with Geor gians. Only 26 percent of Georgia res idents express strong support for the act, with another six percent expressing moderate support. In other words, the Georgia Legislature and our governor have forced legislation upon us that takes away a freedom formerly guaranteed under the Constitution, and voters are angry. How did this happen? A woman’s innate right to choose whether to have an abortion was estab lished via Roe v Wade (1973). But that decision was reversed in 2022 by a right- wing activist Supreme Court (Dobbs), ig noring a 50-year-old legal precedent to force its own ideological views upon Americans. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case has caused major political turmoil in many states, especially in the South. Fourteen states have subsequently made abortion illegal (with minor exceptions such as provable lethal danger to the mother). Others have made it illegal at extremely early stages, before a woman knows she is pregnant. The states surrounding Georgia fall into these categories, removing a woman’s right to choose and infringing on her freedom. Women’s rights have been further undermined by Gov. Kemp and an ex tremely partisan Georgia General As sembly that only believes in individual liberty when it is convenient, as in push ing anti-common sense, overly lax gun control laws. But when it comes to a woman having freedom to control her own body, the GOP-dominated General Assembly and our Republican governor have decided to have the government make those decisions for her. Anticipating the 2022 Dobbs deci sion, the 2019 LIFE Act was pushed through by Kemp. This Georgia law out lawed abortions when a heartbeat could be detected, a totally arbitrary criterion based on emotion rather than medicine. Per Georgia DPH, when the embryo has a heartbeat, usually around six weeks, it is only .25 inches long with no brain function. Many women do not even know that they are pregnant. There were only two exceptions in cluded - medical emergency or rape/in cest (reported to police before 20 weeks). Georgia has also restricted the use of Medicaid funds for abortions and pro hibited nurses and other non-physicians from performing them. Prior to the unprecedented overturn ing of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court (the Dobbs case), there were already very few clinics (26 in 2017) providing abor tions in Georgia. Most Georgians lived in counties with no clinic. With only 14 abortion providers left, abortions are now even harder to get, forcing people to travel to northern states. And, with the rightwing push to outlaw abortion pills sent through the mail, Georgia’s situ ation will become even more dire. When we put the broader situation in perspective, it gets even more problem atic. The U.S. ranks below all developed nations in maternal health. Our rate of maternal death is three times as high as the second worst nation (U.K.) and seven times as high as nations like Italy, Den mark, and Finland. Plus, death rates are getting worse here whereas other nations are getting better. And, the South has the highest ma ternal death rates in our nation, with Georgia one of the worst. Instead of wor rying about voluntary abortions, maybe our nation and Georgia should be put ting resources toward saving these lives... and permitting women to choose whether to end their pregnancies. JACK BERNARD
