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©[PiMJIMS
Answer Is Needed
For Intersection
The intersection of Georgia
highways 400 and 369 is likely
the most dangerous in the
county.
Since it opened June 11,1980,
two people have been killed and
many more have been injured
in collisions there.
The intersection of divided,
four-lane Highway 400 and two
lane Highway 369 is the respon
sibility of the state Department
of Transportation. We are glad
to see DOT is moving to do
something about it.
DOT has requested the serv
ices of a special work crew to
modify the stop lights to give a
longer green light to cars on
Highway 369.
DOT also has ordered red
strobe lights to replace the reg
ular red lights on Highway 400.
“You can see them for miles,”
DOT engineer Lewis Canup ex
plained.
A larger and better sign an
nouncing the end of limited
access will be placed on High
way 400.
All the remedies sound like
the right thing to do, but even
Canup frankly says he is not
really sure why the intersection
is like it is.
After all, right in this area
there are other, similar inter
sections with less visibility that
are not as fatal.
Dawson Voters Okay
Beer And Wine Sales
It’s interesting to note that
Dawson County voters recently
voted for beer and wine to be
sold in their county. The “opin
ion poll”, which was not bind
ing, showed 593 voted for and
363 voted against.
The total number of regis
tered voters in Dawson County
totals 2,554, so just less than 50
percent of the voters went to
the polls.
As a result of the poll vote,
County Commission Chairman
Joe Lane Cox said he would
comply with the voters wishes
and would begin to issue beer
and wine licenses.
Now that Dawson County has
beer and wine, that means that
every county adjoining Forsyth
sells beer and wine. All of our
neighboring counties are sell
ing alcoholic beverages.
It was about four years ago
when Forsyth County voters
went to the polls to give a re
sounding no to beer and wine
sales. The referendum was de
feated two to one, with 2,197
voters saying no and 1,003 say
ing yes.
In that voting, just over a
third of the voters in the county
went to the polls. Out of 9,099
registered voters, 3,200 cast
ballots.
Now Dawson County will
VfVV|fi FORSYTH RTWlIfg
InXi COUNTY IlCl TV 9
USPS 205-540
(Established 1908)
P.O. Box 210, Cumming, Georgia 30130
Telephone • 887-3126
EDDIE STOWE PUBLISHER & EDITOR
ROGER HENDERSON ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
SHEILA MARTIN ADVERTISING
JAY JORDAN ...NEWS EDITOR
LANE GARDNER CAMP NEWS
SCOTT VAUGHAN SPORTS
LINDA SMITH OFFICE
CANDY ADAMS OFFICE
Published every Wednesday by The Forsyth County News
Company. Second Class Postage paid at: Post Office in
Cumming, Georgia under act of March Bth in 1897.
Subscription rates in Forsyth and adjacent counties $10.40 per
year, including state sales tax. Other Georgia counties and
out-of-state $15.00 per year, includes sales tax.
News and Ad Copy Deadline is 1 p.m. Mondays.
ADVERTISING RATES UPON REQUEST
Theories abound as to what is
wrong.
This intersection is at the end
of 30 or 40 miles of limited
access expressway. A stop light
is not what drivers are expect
ing.
Highway 369 is heavily trav
elled. On a trip out to the inter
section last week, we counted
about as many cars on High
way 369 as we did on Highway
400. Simply, there are more
chances for a wreck.
The traffic lights at the inter
section stay red for about the
same length of time. Yet, driv
ers on Highway 369 have to
drive three or four times as far
as do those on Highway 400 to
clear the intersection. More
were seen to cross with yellow
caution lights on Highway 369
than on Highway 400
we hope DOT’S im
provements are made as fast as
possible.
In the meantime, let’s do two
more things.
Let’s have the sheriff patrol
the intersection frequently. The
word needs to get around that
the area is dangerous.
DOT should send some ex
perts to study the area so we
can have the best solution for
that intersection instead of
some quick answer that may or
may not work.
share in the tax Dawsonville
has been collecting off it’s beer
sales. Last year, Dawsonville
received $26,081 from beer and
wine sales.
Meanwhile, the City of Cum
ming last year collected a total
of $154,917, which did not in
clude fees for beer and wine
licenses.
It will be interesting to see
what effect beer and wine sales
in Dawson County will have on
the sales in the City of Dawson
ville and the City of Cumming.
In 1980, Georgia had the high
est excise taxes on beer and
wine in the country. For every
case of beer sold, SI.OB went to
the state treasury and $1.20
went to the local licensing au
thority.
The fact that Dawson County
voted for beer and wine
wouldn’t necessarily mean that
there will be more beer drink
ers than there are now, but it
will mean for some Forsyth
Countians, that it will be more
accessible.
Since we have beer in Cum
ming already, beer drinkers
should remember, the tax
money returns home and beer
bought from our neighbors can
often mean they get the taxes,
and we get the cans.
t
Jay Jordan
The Percheron Project May
Not Be Such A Bad Deal
Many of the space satellites launched
by American rockets belong to the
government. Spy satellites are a good
example. They are the ones that count
Russian missies and tanks.
The other satellites belong to private
companies. These are the ones that
bring you the Braves game from Los
Angeles, or that carry your telephone
call to Peru.
As it stands now, the National Aero
nautics and Space Administration has a
monopoly on these launches; it is the
only one with the rockets. Shooting a
television satellite into orbit on board a
Delta rocket will cost, in round num
bers, $23 million.
But costs may actually drop dramati
cally in just a few years.
Down on Matagorda Island, a sand
dune just off the coast of Texas, and
incidentally a very good rocket launch
ing site, the Percheron Project is read
ying the engine of its rocket for test in
early July. If all goes well, the actual
rocket, with slightly less power than the
one that blasted the Mercury astro
nauts aloft 20 years ago, will be
launched before the end of the month.
By 1983, the Percheron Project hopes
to have a bundle of up to five engines to
hurl satellites into orbit.
The price is estimated at one-sixth
less than $4 million of the NASA
price. The Texas, Colorado and Hong
Kong millionaires who are behind the
project believe cheap rocket launches
will open up a tremendous market in
Julianne Boling
Sometimes Doing Your Own
Thing Might Hurt Others
Some people believe that, “Do your
own thing" is a right and a privilege of
every adult. I, too, believe in doing your
own thing as long as there are limita
tions and proper conduct involved. I
believe in it until doing your own thing
begins hurting other people, abusing
the rights of others, and causing worry
and concern that is unnecessary.
Quite often an attitude of doing our
own thing becomes ridiculous, selfish,
self-centered, uncaring, and unrealis
tic. When we consider our own needs
and desires to be superior to those of
other people; when we think that our
actions and life style are important and
that the hurt and worry we cause other
people is not, these attitudes become
Returning To Hometown Newspaper
Eddie Stowe wrote a sports column this
week and Scott Vaughan wrote a news
column. That being the case, we’ve
switched their places. You’ll Find
Stowe’s column on Page 1-B.
There are those who think the great
Watergate scandal was the worst thing
to happen to journalism since the first
written word. There are those who
think the television show “Lou Grant”
is the most dramatic and just represen
tation of the life of the daily reporter. I
can agree with both of these
statements.
I look at Watergate as the great
exploitation of journalism in our time.
Everyone knows the story of the two
reporters who turned up all the garbage
in Washington and led to the demise of
President Nixon. What people don’t
realize is that following this national
experience, everyone wanted to be a
journalist and become investigative
reporters.
Saturday, June 13, 1981 I completed
17 long years of education (including
kindergarten at The First Baptist
Church in Cumming). I will not stand
for a bunch of half-witted reporters
getting out of journalism school and
trying to be white crusaders on govern
ment. Neither will I stand for some
pulpit sermon about the great evils of
journalism and how journalism is de-
A DANGEROUS INTERSECTION HERE?
...highways 369 and 400
space shots.
The idea was bom last Christmas and
a group of engineers have already built
and tested model rocket engines. The
engines themselves use kerosene and
alcohol for fuel; the technology is well
understood. Most of the parts were off
the-shelf.
Costs to date are only $1.2 million.
Percheron Project engineers esti
mate they have a 50-50 chance of suc
cess at next month’s launch.
NASA is not taking this lying down.
Its answer is the space shuttle, the
selfsame one you saw just a few weeks
ago on TV.
But you know, the space shuttle is
going to cost three to five times as
much to launch as the Delta rocket it
will replace.
NASA would have us believe the
shuttle is cheap, that we can commute
to space, that “the payoff is not in
dollars, but in flexibility and expanded
horizons.”
Listen to “The Washington Month
ly’s” Gregg Easterbrook: “But the
question never answered is what will
the shuttle do that rockets couldn’t do ?
“It can’t launch more than they can;
sometimes it can’t launch as much.
(Even the 65,000-pound target pales
compared to the 250,000 pounds a Sa
turn V could hoist.) It can’t bring back
satellites. It can’t keep a space station
aloft even a fraction as long as Skylab
stayed up there. It has no scientific
value. It just has men in the front seats
wrong.
Parents are stunned when their teen
ager becomes addicted to drugs or
considers sex something fun to do. They
are upset when young people do not
realize the consequences of their own
behavior, but for years they instill in
them a disrespect for their own bodies
by allowing them to wear flimsy, re
vealing, and improper clothes and
swim wear to public places.
Adults disregard the effects of drugs
and alcohol on their own minds and
bodies but are appalled when their
children do likewise. Alcohol and drugs
are character and personality killers at
every age and the adult who ignores
this fact is only fooling himself or
stroying the United States.
The journalist today is either bad or
good. He is his own worst critic. When
ever I write something bad, I know it’s
bad. It may look good coming out of the
typewriter, but when I read the paper I
know I could have done a little better.
Whenever a journalist stops trying to
learn and stops trying to improve,
whenever he or she thinks they have a
paper at its best, they are, or at least
should be, history.
I feel the newspaper today has two
responsibilities: to be a watchdog of
government, and to be open-minded
with readers. And, by readers, I mean
advertisers as well.
Yes, we all know there are facets of
our government which should be
changed, albeit nation, state, or local. It
is the journalist’s duty to the govern-
-THE FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS—WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1911
PAGE 4A
... and an enormous amount of weight
and equipment devoted to bringing
them, and an empty cargo bay, back in
one piece. It’s a horse trained to gallop
in a circle; the men are there to ride the
thing back to the bam, and the horse
has to be big and powerful and expen
sive because it carries men.”
All this brings me to my point: The
Percheron Project seems to be doing a
much better job of exploiting space
than NASA. We should leave the com
merical use of space to private enter
prise, which shows every evidence of
doing it in a more logical, effective,
economical and efficient manner than
NASA is now.
But someone should be out on the
fringes of technology and the known
universe, sending rockets to Mars and
beyond. Only the government has the
money for this; only the government
has the inclination to walk around on
the Moon just because it shines down
from the night sky.
After all, even the multi-na
tional giants would probably baulk at
spending S2O billion for a TV shot of Neil
Armstrong standing by the STP sticker
on the “Eagle,” and pointing to the
Goodyear radials on the Moon rover.
Maybe we should just write off the
space shuttle as a bad deal and spend
NASA’s money on cheap Delta rockets
and on unglamorous but necessary
probes to Jupiter and Mars.
I’m certain we should wish the Per
cheron Project Godspeed and good
luck.
herself.
Some people consider any life style
they choose to be okay and they expect
everyone to accept their choice. They
come up with all kinds of alibis, rea
sons, and excuses for their decisions
but none of them can make some
choices legal or moral.
We are sometimes forced to accept
“doing your own thing.” Quite often it is
against our principles, our beliefs, our
morals, and our feelings of fair play.
Being forced to accept the choices of
others when we condier these choices to
be wrong, can make us frustrated,
angry, and resentful These feelings are
difficult to overcome.
ment, and to the people, to report
truthfully, and with fact, what is hap
pening from day to day in government.
If it’s true it should be printed, if it’s not
it shouldn’t be. But, I don’t want some
lunatic coming to me with a story
unless he’s sure it is based on fact.
Newspaper readers deserve a prod
uct of which they can be proud. They
deserve a product they can look for
ward to seeing. Everything in the paper
doesn’t have to make them happy, but it
doesn’t have to ruin their day either.
There should be something in the pa
per, even if it’s just two lines, for
everyone. Then you’re on the road to a
successful newspaper.
Besides looking after government
and being a mainline for the public, the
newspaper has a responsibility to ad
vertisers. Sometimes, that responsibil
ity walks a thin line. Prior to
graduation, the topic of ethics in jour
nalism was a big subject. It has been
stressed over and over: Make sure you
give your advertisers the courtesy and
service they deserve, but don’t let them
give you too many favors, or buy you
out.
Shockingly, the newspaper is not de
signed as a community service, or a
public tool. The main function of a
newspaper? To make money. The
ethics and laws surrounding newspa
pers keep us from going overboard with
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A Slogan
For City
Not Easy
I read somewhere the other day that
the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce was
considering spending $150,000 on an
advertising campaign for the city.
I suppose the idea is that the money
spent will surely be realized in revenue
and good publicity for the city.
As for the slogan which will accom
pany the ad campaign, it’s “Let’s pull
together, Atlanta.”
Catchy, huh? And probably appropri
ate considering the city’s current run of
problems.
It seems to me Atlanta got another
promotional slogan a while back that
went something like, “Amazing At
lanta, Up Town, Down South.” Real
nice, but as it turned out, the “Up Town,
Down South” part already belonged to
another southern city.
With all this talk of city slogans, I got
to wondering what one would do for the
town of Cumming, realizing, of course,
the local Chamber of Commerce has
little money to spend on such things.
But just for fun, I decided to set my
mind to work to come up some slogans:
Not to copy “Let’s Pull Together,
Atlanta,” but how does, “Let’s Collabo
rate, Cumming” sound?
No?
Well, how about “Cum to Cumming”'
or “Cumming is Cumming Up” or “Be
Cunning in Cumming.”
Still haven’t found one that appeals to
you, huh? W ould you consider “Crowd
into Cumming,” “Commune in Cum
ming,” or “Commit yourself to
Cumming.”
You say I’ve got the right idea, but I
just haven’t found the right combina
tion?
Surely one of these will arouse some
thing in you?
• Cumming Compares.
• Come Through in Cumming.
• Comely Cumming.
• Citified, Countrified Cumming.
• Create in Cumming.
Still no fireworks?
“Afraid not,” you say.
Well, how about “Cruise Cumming?”
...I know, I know, not at today’s gaso
line prices.
Since you haven’t liked too many of
the others, I don’t suppose you’d chew
on “Console Yourself in Cumming” a
while? or “Cumming is Confident?”
“Sorry,” you say?
Well, I’ve only got one more. Surely
you’ll keep your mind open to this one.
Picture it, now. ...“Nothing cutrate
about Cumming.”
0.K., O .K., let’s just forget I ever
brought the subject up.
On Your Payroll
The names and addresses of your
elected representatives in Washington
are:
Senator Sam Nunn, Senate Office
Building, Washington, D.C. 20510.
Senator Mack Mattingly, Senate Of
fice Building, Washington, D.C. 20510.
Congressman Ed Jenkins, 217 Cannon
House Office Building, Washington,
D.C. 20515.
that principle.
I’m proud to say I’m a journalist and
I will be for the rest of my life. But, I’m
proud of other people and their jobs.
I’m proud the construction crew is in
construction so we can have a building.
I’m proud the farmers have the wil
lpower to grow products so we can eat. I
don’t think there is any profession
which deserves more credit in our
society than another.
I’m proud to say that no matter what
happens, when my alarm clock goes off
in the morning, or at night, I can get up
and not dread going to work. It bothers
me when people criticize the press, or
make remarks about the press destroy
ing the United States. I hope that in my
years as a journalist, I can weed
through the people who don’t belong in
the business and bring a new respect to
the media.
It’s going to be enlightening to return
home full time. To be able to eat food at
home, see my friends everyday, go to
the lake, or just sit on the porch.
Things are going to be changing more
and more in this county and I’m glad of
the fact that I’ll get to see them change.
I’m glad that I’ve lived here in For
syth County all my life and I’ve re
turned to the “hometown” newspaper.
This was once just a part-time hobby of
mine, now it’s a full-time job. I hope
you’ll see the difference.