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~PQRSYTH COUNTY NEWS—SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, IW
Forsyth County News
(Establistwd 1908)
Forsyth County News
107 DaNonega Street
Cumming, Georgia 30130
Telephone BB7-3126
USPS 205-540
9t&.
NORMAN BAGGS HARRIET HOUSTON
EDITOR & PUBLISHER ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Published Sundays and Wednesdays by Forsyth County News Company. Second
class postage paid at post office in Cumming, Ga. Subscription rate for Forsyth
and adjacent counties, $15.80 per year, other Georgia counties and out of state
subscriptions are $20.80 per year. Advertising rates and deadline* available upon
request. Postmaster: Send address changes to Forsyth County Ntwa/P.O Box
210, Cumming, Ga. 30130
—Opinion—
City-Chamber feud
should be resolved
The bickering and sniping be
tween officials of the Cumming-
Forsyth County Chamber of Com
merce and officials of the city of
Cumming needs to come to an end.
Chamber officials feel they are
owed money by the city. City offi
cials feel the Chamber has failed
to be responsive to city needs. The
fighting between the two bodies,
has gone on for nearly a year.
Enough is enough.
First, a determination should be
made by legal authorities, perhaps
an attorney from the chamber’s
board of directors and an attorney
representing the city, as to
whether the Cumming city govern
ment has a contractual obligation
to the Chamber.
If there is such an obligation, it
should be met. If, however, there
is no valid contract for payment
from the city to the Chamber, then
the Chamber should discontinue
its efforts to collect funds from the
city.
In either case, the actual dollar
amount in question is insignificant
when compared to the amount of
Parents have obligation
to control youth environment
Editor:
I wish to comment on (Norman Baggs’)
article “Don’t Blame the Books and Mu
sic.”
First of all, your article leads one to
categorize those who favor censorship of
sex gs, satanism, etc. from our youth’s
bo*. . .usic, movies, and television shows
as being anti-youth, hypocritical, and one
looking for a scapegoat. You have done this
with no reference to factual information.
You give no examples or other support for
your accusations. Could it be because there
are not any?
I feel that most of today’s youth are good
and decent, that there is nothing uniquely
wrong with today’s youth, and that it does
make for a creative world when youth
strive out on their own initiative. We love
our youth, and it is because of this love that
we want to see our good and decent youth
grow to be good and decent adults. Is it
wrong to protect our youth from the prolife
ration of illicit sex, life-threatening drugs,
and the evils of satanism which is ever
present in the books, music, and television
shows of today’s world? No, it is not wrong,
but instead can be labeled as good parent
ing and good citizenship.
Your article states that “there is nothing
more hypocritical than a child of the ‘6os,
raised on rebellion, psychedelic colors, and
acid rock putting down the young people of
today for pink hairstyles and punk music.”
Using your own words, yesterday’s youth,
like today’s youth, were “good and decent”
people. So why is it hypocritical for today’s
adults to be concerned about today’s
youth? Could it be that yesterday’s good
Ctfj &ONNW BEJMW/ •
ill-will created by bickering be
tween the two parties.
The damage already done by the
failure of officials from both the
city and the county to work to
gether is already greater than the
amount Chamber officials claim
they are owed by the city govern
ment.
A valid philosophical argument
can be made against using tax
money to support the Chamber of
Commerce, but that is not the
issue here. Instead, the problem is
one of personalities and petty
squabbling problems which
truly progressive communities
must learn to conquer.
There is nothing to be gained by
the Chamber sending bills to the
city, only to have the city refuse
payment and the whole silly affair
repeated time and time again. If
there is not wisdom and maturity
enough among the leadership of
the Chamber of Commerce and the
county seat to make intelligent
dialogue and mutual compromise
possible, then we are indeed in
trouble.
Letters
and decent youth were not so good and
decent adults due to an uncontrolled envi
ronment?
Your article states that parents of Gwin
nett County are “looking for a scapegoat to
sacrifice for their own shortcomings.” This
is journalism jibberish, or in your own
words “balderdash.” Again, you are cat
egorizing your opposition without refer
ences to facts and figures. The concerns of
the parents of Gwinnett County dealt pri
marily with a book in the elementary
school libraries. These are children, not yet
youth, whose minds can be so easily in
fluenced by what they read, see and hear.
You poison your pen to lead readers to
believe that those who favor applying rat
ings to records “blame popular music for
the downfall of civilization.” Come on. Do
you think your readers will get sucked into
that one? Again, where are your facta?
You state that “all the outside influences
in the world aren’t going to make any
difference.” Try to tell that to the parents
of those children who have been brain
washed by the Moonies. Try to tell that to
the Communist leaders who thrive on prop
aganda. Try to tell that to the thousands of
parents of drug addicted youth who suc
cumbed to the pressure of their peers.
Our youth are simply that, youth, and not
adults. Part of good parenting is controlling
our youth’s environment. If parents don’t
take charge, their children will be at the
mercy of money-hungry book publishers,
movied producers, recording studios, and
some newspaper editors.
RfloaM Yeaag
Camming
The case of the vanishing lake
It Is clearly a perplexing case, one which
in another place and time might well have
warranted the attentions of the most famous
of all detectives, the incomparable Sherlock
Holmps.
Doctor Watson, the faithful scribe respon
sible for preserving the detective’s greatest
exploits, would likely have entitled this chap
ter “The Case of Lanier’s Lost Stanza.”
“Holmes,” Watson would write, “was
clearly mystified, though only one who knew
him as well as myself could fathom the
amazement which crept into his eyes on
crossing the earthen dam. The look was one
of pure astonishment, the likes of which I
had not seen on Holmes since the nasty
business with the serpent in India, and
truthfully I was myself in less than full
control of my facial expressions, for the fact
was I was totally bewildered
“ The lake, you see, had disappeared.”
Yes indeed, Watson, in a mystery no less
strange for the ease with which it is ex
plained the lake has again begun its disap
pearing act one perfected over the years
so that now it slips away in the night, with no
one noticing until weeks later that the rocks
once under water are now dry.
Each year about this time the birds of the
-me REPRESENTATIVE from tme FREE world fcEGAN to SERIOUSLY
DOUBT HIS CHANCES OF WINNING THE PROPAGANDA DUEL-!
The leaf-lookers invade Cornelia
I was talking over the telephone with my
mother the other day something I enjoy
doing now that I have grown out of my
teenage years where all communication was
at beit in short, incomplete sentences, or
mumbles if necessary when I found out
some pertinent information about my home
town. This was, of course, before dear ol’ dad
taps in with his usual “Hurry up you two,
money doesn’t grow on trees, you know.”
Anyway, this bit of news came in response
to my innocent question, “Have the leaf
lookers arrived?”
“Yes.”
Now I know that autumn is truely here for
the leaf-lookers have converged upon my
hometown of Cornelia.
And they will keep the mountain roads hot
as long as the foliage is fiery red, burnt
orange and golden yellow. And the apples
are prime for picking with a jug of cider on
the side. And the peanuts are boiling in huge,
cast iron pots and there are festivals to lure
city slickers and good ol’ boys from south
Georgia to God’s country the northeast
Georgia mountains.
Cornelia isn’t exactly famous for its moun
tain scenery but rather its apples and has
given the Red Delicious some honor by
erecting a statue next to the town’s depot.
Manufacturing is still important
While looking through the morning paper
Tuesday, I ran across an advertisement
urging consumers to buy American products
if they were concerned about the well-being
of Uwir country.
The ad Inked if we as consumers would
help America’s enemies bring this country to
Ha knees “industrially, economically, politi
cally and militarily?’’
If so, we woe told to do one or more of the
following:
(1) Purchase stock in major American
corporations that do business with Commu
nist and other enemy nations; and
(2) Use our “private enterprise” dollars to
buy and sell foreign steel, glass, textiles,
apparel, dues, autos, TVs, radios, sound
equipment, semi-conductors, machinery and
ether foreign-manufactured products.
The threat to American manufacturers
from foreign competition has been well-pub-
Ucixed lately.
There’s also been talk about America’s
growing service sector and the decline of
manufacturing in a “post industrial so
ciety.”
>0991
Q r
north plan their winter trek to warmer
climates, and in doing so check along the
way to make sure that the world is still
resting comfortably as they left it the spring
before.
The lake, too, plans its migration south,
heeding the wishes of the dammasters as
they open and close the gates to allow the
sparkling waters of the reservoir free pas
sage to trade winds and the salty bite of sea
air.
Even Holmes would be hard pressed to
stop the escape, as the waters surf away on
the waves of night, disappearing from under
boat docks and around swimming holes
abandnoned until again the sun beats a
clarion call for attention.
If fog tiptoes on cats’ feet then water runs
like a millipede scared by the lifting of the
1 mim
■iWVI
Managing Editor
Folks will merely pass through our town on
the way to greater heights such as Helen,
Blairsville, Mountain City and Dillard.
Places where the peaks are higher and the
leaves are, supposedly, prettier. Cornelians
will argue differently, even those whose jobs
have taken them away from the homestead.
I boast with pride when someone asks me
about my hometown, especially some city
slicker who thinks that Stone Mountain is
beautiful. In my estimation this chunk of
granite isn’t even a mountain but just a huge
rock which serves no other purpose but to
lure tourists’ money, shoot off fireworks
during the summer and create another
obstacle for Atlanta’s expanding suburbs.
When I say I’m from Cornelia folks auto
matically respond with such compliments as
“That’s a pretty town.” They’re right. It is.
Like a beach town during the summer,
- ogft, m
■ pi
• -•--—
[ NewsCditor
However, according to a quarterly report
from Oglethorpe Power Corporation, we
cannot forget manufacturing while overly
concentrating on services.
This year in the service sector we’ve seen
600,000 new jobs, which have more than
offset the loss of 163,000 manufacturing jobs.
But, economists are questioning whether
services can continue to keep the economic
fire burning.
“The pessimism is based partly on the
growing belief that services are not as stable
and immune from recessions as economists
had long thought,” Oglethorpe says. “It is
also based on tbe fact that service jobs pay
30 percent less than manufacturing jobs.”
V
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log under which it sought a midday nap,
rolling in a never-ending rippling of motion
from place to place and stopped again long
before it is settled.
So into the night the lake goes, disappear
ing for the winter in search of climates
where fair-weather friends have not shut
themselves up for the duration of that most
challenging of seasons.
Every year it is the same. One day the lake
is there, and the next it is gone, leaving
behind rusty treasures of the summer and
tracks of animals scared by the “shluuckkp”
of hind legs being pulled from the still wet
mud of a not-so-long-ago lake bed.
Then before you know it the lake will come
again, appearing mysteriously one day just
as the first flowers of March jump out
overnight from wintry soil.
Technologically we have advanced to the
point that miracles are usually easily ex
plained, and thus it is no real secret that the
coming and going of the lake demands not
the skill of a detective but rather that of an
engineer.
Watching the lake disappear each fall
demands a demonstration of faith in our
fellow man; knowing full well that it will
return each spring requires faith in a slightly
higher authority.
Cornelians look forward to autumn and the
ever-present leaf-lookers. These tourists will
travel from all points on the Georgia map on
their way to a Saturday afternoon of “ooh
ing” and “aahing” at nature’s beauty. And
what can you expect from folks who have no
trees to speak of?
They will bring their varied license plates
through my fair city where hometowners
immediately recognize them as strangers.
It’s not only by the fact that they drive a
fancy, large car instead of a 4-wheel-drive
vehicle or sports model for zapping around
the narrow mountain roads, but they drive so
dang slow. These people brake for each and
every curve in the road and feel compelled to
try out the 35mm at all clearings.
Cornelians wait all summer for the leaf
lookers. And when the air gets that first nip
then the apple stands come out and fresh
cider is poured. The peanuts are ready to
boil and crafts are stocked for the season.
For no one can resist a sampling of moun
tain-made crafts.
So come on leaf-looker, Cornelia is ready
for your annual ritual. But don’t be surprised
if these mountain residents snicker when you
return home, for they can see God’s beauty
all year long without going any further than
their back yard.
“Therefore, more service jobs must be
created than manufacturing jobs lost to
offset the loss of income in the economy.”
Oglethorpe points out that strong growth in
services is “directly related” to the health of
manufacturing.
Thus, when industries decline, the services
they use decline.
“Some of the fastest-growing services
financial, business, transportation, commu
nications and public utilities sell a large
portion of their output to manufacturing,”
Oglethorpe says. “After each of the last
three recessions, employment growth in
these services slowed.”
In summary, we as consumers should not
forget the importance of American manufac
turing, and buy as fnany American-made
products as we can afford.
As explained by one spokesman for the
local textile industry, we’re actually helping
to maintain the economies of foreign coun
tries when we buy their products.
So, what happens to the economy of Amer
ica? If it suffers so do we, and that’s hitting
ourselves where it hurts.