About Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2017)
Friday, February 24, 2017 Lake Oconee News Page A5 Update from the Capitol The pace of session has picked up drastically as we continue to do the people’s business. We have now completed day 20 and are halfway through the 2017 legislation session. The Senate is halfway to fulfilling our annual con stitutional requirement to pass a balanced budget with the unanimous passage of House Bill 43, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 amended budget, on Tuesday. We agreed to the House sub stitute and the compro mises made between the two chambers. Governor Nathan Deal signed HB 43 into law on Thursday and we will now begin work on House Bill 44, the FY 2018 general budget. Supporting business es, big and small, is a top priority for me each year. Friday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 2, “The FAST Act - Fairness, Ac countability, Simplification, and Transparency - Em powering Our Small Busi nesses to Succeed.” This pro-business, pro-job creation legislation will reduce the regulatory Burt Jones State Senator burdens placed on Geor gia’s small businesses, while simplifying the licensing processes and eliminating nuisance taxes. Our small businesses employ millions of people throughout the state and it’s important that we don’t hold them back from success with redun dant bureaucratic practices. I’m proud of the work we have done on the FAST Act as we continue to look at avenues to remove pointless constraints for our greatest drivers of job creation. In July 2016, a Georgia Court of Appeals Judge ruled that the practice of taking a photo or video of someone’s intimate parts under or through their clothing without their consent, commonly referred to as “upskirting,” was legal in our state due to a technicality in Georgia law. To remedy this, the Senate passed SB 45 on Wednesday. This legislation criminalizes the act of “up- skirting” and makes it clear any person who commits an act of this nature is breaking the law and will face conviction. I am happy we were able to pass an im portant piece of legislation that closes a loophole and guarantees all Georgians’ right to privacy. The Port of Savannah is a huge economic driver in Georgia. In fact, it is the fourth largest shipping port in the United States, which means we have millions of cargo contain ers being moved through and around our state. Often these containers are moved by semi-trucks, which are known to cause irrepara ble damage to our state’s roads and highways. In an effort to improve our Port’s efficiency and lessen the damage to our roads, the Senate passed the “Georgia Right Track Act,” a bill sponsored by Sen. David Shafer (R - Duluth). This bill would provide for state investments in railways, railroad facilities and all necessary equipment. It also enables the Commis sioner of the Georgia De partment of Transportation to oversee a Georgia Freight Railroad Program. These investments and program will enhance Georgia’s transportation system and ensure that it remains safe. If there is anything I can ever do for you, or if you have any questions or concerns regarding pending legislation, please reach out to me. I look forward to talking with you! Sen. Burt Jones is the Chairman of the Insur ance and Labor Commit tee. He represents the 25th Senate District which includes Baldwin, Butts, Greene, Jasper, Morgan and Putnam counties and portions of Bibb, Jones and Walton counties. He may be reached at 404.656.0082 or via email at burt.jones@ senate.ga.gov. Letters to the Editor Letters must be signed and include your full address and phone number for verification; only name and town are printed. Submissions may be edited for content and length. The deadline is 1 p.m. Monday. Send to news@lakeoconeenews.us Inaugural Fire and Ice festival a success Dear editor, I would like to thank on behalf of Eatonton Main Street the following that sponsored, performed and supported the staging of the inaugural Eatonton Main Street Fire and Ice festival: Shoppers Pharmacy, The People’s Bank, On Cloud 9, Maggie Lane, Edward Jones Eatonton-the office of Teresa Doster, Vining Ivy Hill Chapel, Woodmen Life, Sinclair Shooting Sports, Robert D. Betzel, DDS, Rossee Oil, The Clothing Depot, Eatonton Chiropractic Center, Smith’s Costals Grill, Blackwell’s Furniture, 97 Big FM, Putnam County High School Entertain ment Technology, Ritz Carlton Recreation Depart ment and Eatonton Cotton Warehouse. I also would like to thank the performers: K&Z Ice Carvings, Ice Sculptures Unliimited, Saturn Suns Hoops, Kyo Flow, Array of Light, Ritz Carlton Reynolds Lake Oconee Recreation Department Party Princesses. Lastly, I want to thank the City of Eatonton Public Works Dept., City of Eatonton Fire Dept., City of Eatonton Police Dept., Clayviation and Pat Strawser Music for their help. Sincerely, Andrew Simpson, Eatonton Main Street Director Yarbrough Continued from A4 Today, Mel Pender is approaching 80, and has embarked on a nationwide tour to discuss his just-pub lished book, “Expression of Hope” (Christian Faith Publishing.) A visit to his website, www.mdconsult- ingfirm.net, will list some of Pender’s upcoming speaking engagements, including this Saturday at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. “It is a book I have been encouraged to write for many years,” he told me. “It is a chance to help young people andparticularlyyoungblacks to understand what it takes to be successful.” You owe it to yourself to hear this man’s story. And what a story it is. The first time he ever ran track was in the Army, while stationed in Okinawa. His first-ever competitive race was against members of the Japanese Olympic team. He won. He was 25, a time many elite sprinters are slowing down. Mel Pender was just getting started. “I was fast,” he says matter-of-factly. Was he ever. Today, some six decades later, in addition to Olympic gold, he still holds the world record in the 50- and 60-yard dash and once owned the world record for the 100- meter dash. Pender and I got off to a rocky start in our relationship when he took umbrage at one of my columns regarding a local political race in whichhe was serving as an adviser and I didn’t particularly care for his analysis of my analysis. Out of that initial cranky contact has come a mutual admira tion and a strong friendship. A short black guy fast as the wind and atall white guy who couldn’t walk and chew gum simultaneously. Who would have thought? Dr. Melvin Pender Jr. beat a lot of people in a lot of races. He also beat the odds stacked against him. He is proof that in this country, one can get Dr. Melvin Pender Jr. is a bona fide American hero - an Olympic gold medalist (4x100 relay in the 1968 Mexico City Games at 31 years of age)and a Bronze Star recipient with two tours of duty in Vietnam. Contributed out of life what one is willing to put into it. He is truly an American hero. You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb2400@ bellsouth.net; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139; online at dickyar- brough.com oronFacebook at ioww.facebook.com/dickyarb. Tyranny of the do-gooders In 2012 Jeffrey Dallas Gay Jr. (age 22) died of an overdose of prescription drugs. There is little more tragic than death resulting from something so easily preventable. As a parent the instinct is strong to stamp from the face of this earth that which our child became entangled in. But just as setting a national five mph speed limit would be a counterproductive response to death by automobile acci dent, so too are the knee-jerk reaction of legislators when faced with these sortsofdrug related tragedies. Senate Bill 81 was recently introduced into the Georgia General Assembly with the stated goal of trying to eliminate opioid overdoses. As with all such intrusions by the state into the lives of individuals, it leaves in its wake the col lateral damage of individual lives sacrificed on the altar of the greater good. The bill preamble first cites a scary-sounding decontextualized statis tics (that roughly 30,000 die annually from opioid overdose - context: 0.008 percent of the US popula tion) it then moves headlong into the “solution.” Now, if 30,000 people a year were dying because some enemy was lobbing bombs at US cities, then yes, the govern ment should do something about that. But we aren’t dealing with an external foe, rather an internal one, ourselves. Laws on gam bling, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, compulsory health insurance, etc. all share in common the well-inten tioned desire to protect us from ourselves. But such laws undermine the very idea of a free nation built on individual rights. Doyou sell your soul to save your life? SB 81 purports to solve, or at least mitigate, the opioid “epidemic” by limiting first time opioid prescriptions in the state of Georgia to no more than a five-day supply. Additionally every pharmacist is required to log all such prescriptions into a statewide database (cough, Big Brother, cough) so usage can be tracked to preventsomeonebuying“too much” (whatever that may be). Just as someone today can hit a wall if they try to buy “too much” Sudafed so too will the unintended Greg Morin Guest Columnist consequence be that some must suffer in agonizing pain because their prescrip tion is “too much” under the eyes of “the law.” But hey, who cares about individual suffering if we think our policy might help someone. What’s next, tracking our grocery purchases to be sure we aren’t “abusing” our bodies by buying the food that makes us less healthy and leading to higher health care care costs? The greater good of publichealth” would surely allowfor such reason ing. Yes, laugh now, but it’s coming one day. Of course these legislators want their cake and eat it too. The paragraph stipulating no more than a five-day supply is quickly followed by a paragraph supporting the right of a physician to prescribe whatever they deem medically necessary. So once again politicians get to bask in the limelight of “doing something” while not actually doing any thing other than adding yet another layer ofbureaucracy for doctors who are already over-burdened with amoun- tain ofregulatorypaperwork they have to comply with from the local, state, and federal level. The sad fact that no one wants to face is there no way to solve the opioid overdose problem other than getting peopletofollowtheprescrip- tion on the bottle. And that’s notgoingtohappenbecause people are people and some peoplejustcan’tfollowdirec- tions. People “abuse” anti biotics as well by doing the reverse, not taking enough. This promotes antibiotic resistance. Indeed, nearly as many people (23,000) die each year due to anti biotic resistance. Why no bills designed to solve that “crisis”? Perhaps because no SEE MORIN » A9 AIRLINE CAREER 2017 Get FAA approved hands on Aviation training. Financial aid for qualified students - Career placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866-564-9634 ri DIAMOND MASQUERADE ^ A MARTI GRAS GALA Honorary Chairs: Kaye and Stan DeJarnett Saturday, February 25, 2017 7:00pm - 10:00pm • The Madison Tea Room • Madison GA I wA I PKIZE S; . jewelry from SILENT AUC '° Framed stetten ^dby Jewelers .New Orleans Tho mas Artwork # Fine Potte ry by Hote ' j unus • And more! B en 0 wen HI Accommodation The Atlanta Seventeen Big Band New Orleans Cuisine from Washington Grass Inn Cocktails & Complimentary Wine and Beer w $100 per person Gather Your Friends and Reserve a Table! Tickets Available: STMA website, by phone, and at Whidby Jewelers Proceeds benefit STMA Arts Outreach Presented by the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art 706-342-7557 • www.steffenthomas.org
