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LETTERS
¢ ‘Media continues to confuse issues The Masters is a joke to Augusta
Our local news media contin
ues a campaign of misinforma
tion that presents Senator
Charles Walker’s proposed al
ternative to consolidation as “con
solidation.” The media is pub
lishing false information such as
their claim that the reorganized
“government would receive mil
lions of dollars in utility fran
chise fees. The fact is that
Jefferson Electric Membership
Corporation, which serves most
of Richmond County, is a non
profit Cooperative, and by law
cannot be charged a franchise
“fee.
~ In the court case of Athens-
Clarke County, the Supreme
Court ruled that they were both
a municipality and a County be
causeitscharter gave the consol
idated government the powers of
-a City while maintaining Clarke
County as a political subdivision,
therefore enabling them to col
lect franchise fees in the unin
corporated area. However, the
Walker bill is only an alternative
to consolidation, because it does
not provide procedures and re
quirements for the establishment
of charter commissions to draft
proposed charters for the consol
idated government, as is clearly
outlined in our State Constitu
tion, Article IX, Section Il Para
graph 11 (a).
The media is irresponsible and
continues to skirt serious issues,
such as the loss of the City’s
present revenue derived from
Send your letters to: Augusta Focus Editorials
1143 Laney-Walker Blvd.
Augusta, GA 30901
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'WEEKDAYS
ONE LAUGH AFTER ANOTHER!
, 5:00 PM - FAMILY MATTERS
5:30 PM - A DIFFERENT WORLD
6:00 PM - GOOD TIMES
Tht -
double water rates being charged
in the County, which can only be
recovered by either a county-wide
water rate increase, or a County
mileage rate increase. The me
dia addresses the bonded indebt
edness to be charged to the City
or County, whichever incurred
the indebtedness, but they fail to
addressthe unsecured debts such
as the $2 million loan from the
airport, or the $5 million credit
from the bank, or the $2.5 mil
lion shortage of operating capi
tal the City has misbudgeted.
Last, a county-wide elected
Mayor-Chairman being given the
power to vote to make a tie, or
vote to break a tie, is radically
different from the U.S. Justice
Department’s approval of the
existing Richmond County school
district organization. Inaddition
the Walker bill would dilute the
present 58 percent black voting
strength, which is enjoyed in the
City, with a only a 45 percent
black voting strength County
wide.
Why aren’t these and other
important issues being ad
dressed by the media? The an
swer is simple: addressing these
issues would serve only to edu
catethe public. An educated pub
lic can make informed decisions,
and that can only spell defeat for
the Walker bill.
James D. Bernea
: HEPHZIBAH
Closer Look
I guess I better substantiate
what I am about to say by declar
ing my status as an Augusta
native, as everyone around here
seems compelled to dobefore crit
icizing something inherently
Augustan, Because that's exact
ly what I'm about to do.
Once a year, we suffer through
the hell of that godawful ritual
we call the Masters: bad traffic,
golf reports on every station, bad
traffic, ridiculous lines at res
taurants, and bad traffic. Then,
even afterall thatisover, we still
have to look at unsightly golf
murals all over the damn place.
And ifthat’s not bad enough, golf
— that boring, suburban, got-a
big-house, my-kids-all-take-bal
let, ride-a-riding-mower-on-the
weekend-and-use-words-like-
nigger-and-poor-white-trash
kind of elitist game — has taint
ed something that used to be
something really nice about Au
gusta. Our baseball team.
Harsh actions not necessary
Thebombingin Oklahoma City
was a shock to most of the Amer
ican public. When news of the
bombing first hit the airwaves
and pictures were shown via tele
vision, it looked like a newsstory
reporting from Beirut or Leba
non not the United States.
As a federal employee it horri
fies me to think that this type of
action is being done to innocent
people for some militant cause
against the United States gov
ernment. Those children that
were killed, what had they done
to deserve such harsh actions?
Not to mention the other inno-
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Q 1995 JOSEPH E. SEAGRAM AND SONSONEW YORK, N BEENDED CANADIAN WHISKEY. 40% ALCOTOLBY YOLUME (50 PROOF ). 2
Ever since they changed the
name from the Pirates to the
GreendJackets, it's made me sick
to even think about going to a
game. Baseball is a game that
everyone can enjoy, doctors and
trash collectors. Everyone is
equal at a baseball game. Well,
except the ones sitting between
home and first. Baseball is hon
est, non-judgemental. And now
our team is affiliated with that
other game.
Admitit, folks. There was noth
ing wrong with the old name.
Changing it to Green Jackets
makes Augusta baseball a big
sellout, a big ass-kissing jambo
ree to benefit the fat-cat golfing
nuts who cause their city a lot of
inconvenience, yet squirrel away
the money that comes out of it,
without doing a damn thing to
improve things around here.
R. Kincain
AUGUSTA
cent adults whose lives were tak
en because of extremist views.
Yes, it scares me to think that
America hasreached a crossroad
where violence begets violence
and you must think like me or
else. We can all agree to dis
agree. It does not take harsh
actions, such as the bombing of a
federal building in Oklahoma
City, OK to get a point across. If
it does take that kind of action,
then God help us all.
T.D. Ricuaroson
i AUGUSTA
AUGUSTA FOCUS April 27, 1995
Roll back to the days
before FDR? No Way!
By Daniel Schoor
News Analyst for National Public Radio
hen the brash young Re-
W publican lawmakers of
today talk of rolling back
tothe Johnson Great Society and
even the Roosevelt New Deal, do
they have any idea of what they
might be rolling back to?
One ofthe advantages of age is
being able to remember, not only
when we lost Franklin Delano
Roosevelt 50 years ago, but what
America was like before FDR.
In 1932, three years into the
Great Depression, the unem
ployed stood on corners selling
apples, and banks were closing
about one a day, wiping out de
positors’ savings. A great part of
the drought-stricken farmland
of the Southwest had become a
dustbowl, forcing sharecroppers
to become nomads. There was no
federal welfare. My widowed
mother received assistance un
der a relief program that Gover
nor Roosevelt had introduced to
New York State.
About two million Americans,
some of them called hobos,
roamed the country on freight
trains or on foot, looking for a
churchora Salvation Army store
front that might feed them. In
the South, Negroes were some
times lynched on trumped-up
rape charges. Poll taxes kept all
but a few Negroes from voting,
big-city politics was ruled by po
litical machines, sometimes al
lied with prohibition- spawned
racketeers.
There was no minimum wage.
There was no consumer protec
tion. There was no safety protec
tion in the workplace. There were
no child-labor laws. Schools ran
out of money and closed.
I remember that people who
slept in the parks sometimes
wrapped themse]ves in newspa
perthat they called “Hoover blan
kets.” And the shanties some
lived in were called
“Hoovervilles.” President
Hoover, whose 1928 campaign
slogan had been “A chicken in
every pot — two cars in every
garage,” refused to recognize that
something in America desper
ately needed to be fixed.
One big story of 1932 was the
Bonus March on Washington —
the 25,000 impoverished veter
ans of World War I who camped
and demonstrated around the
White House, appealing for ear
ly payment of a bonus that had
been promised them.
Finally, on Hoover’s orders,
they were driven out with tear
gas and bayonets by the US Army
theyhad served.
So then, in 1933, came Roosevelt
and all those “alphabet soup”
agencies, as we all called them.
The NRA to spur revocery and
the FDIC to insure bank depos
its. The CCC to put the jobless to
work in conservation and the
WPA to put them to work build
ing bridges. The TVA to electrify
the South Central states and the
SEC to protect security inves
tors. The FCC to regulate radio
and telephone and the NLRB to
protect labor rights.
That was when the great bu
reaucracies were born that are
today the targets of a political
generation too young to have
experienced what came before.
Maybe you have to be a child of
the Great Depression to not hate
bureaucracy. And now you have
to think: Roll back? Roll back to
what?
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