Newspaper Page Text
OpEd
What do YOU think
...about the upcoming closure of Hwy. 369 for
road work? Which detour route will you take?
Mail your response to:
THE FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS
P.O. Box 210
Cumming, Ga. 30028
Hand-deliver to: 302 Old Buford Road
Fax to: (770) 889-6017
e-mail to: editor@forsythnews-com
‘lf our boy falls in the battle... he could not meet death more gloriously’
By Alton Bridges
Staff Writer
(Between September and mid-
October of 1917, the Forsyth
County News still told of who went
visiting and who was sick. The
paper told of the different church
services that were held in each com
munity. There were no editorials or
pictures, but the editor had a col
umn where he would slip in a one
liner that expressed his opinion on a
wide variety of issues.
World War I was beginning to
affect Forsyth County and most of
the young men who were leaving for
military duty were going to Camp
Gordon, Ga., which was located in
what is today the metropolitan
Atlanta area. It was in the early
1930 s that the Fort Gordon was
built in Richmond County near
Augusta.
If anyone has any copies of the
Forsyth County News before 1917,
we would like to see copies of
them.)
The Sept. 14 issue tells us that
Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Harris enter
tained with a luncheon the first five
boys selected from Forsyth County
to enter the military. The home was
decorated with flags and each
young man was given a comfort bag
Relative worth: Incongruity
between true value of work
I am always surprised and often
dismayed at the disparate value our
society places on various occupations
that people hold. If what people get
paid is an indication of the value that
our society places on the work of
individuals, then by simply examin
ing the highest and lowest paid posi
tions, one should be able to deduce
the real values held by our society.
Within our society, the highest
paid jobs are those of entertainers,
athletes, chief executive officers of major corporations,
lobbyists for major corporations and medical and legal
specialists. Granted, not everyone who would called
themselves an entertainer, athlete, etc., would be as
highly paid as the most successful people in their field.
However, on average, these occupations are the high
est paid ones in our nation. The average professional
baseball player in the major leagues makes a million
dollars a year. This is a lifetime of work for the aver
age American. Some baseball players make more per
pitch than the median income figure of Americans
which is $25,000 annually. Michael Eisner, the CEO
of Walt Disney Entertainment, made something like
SBOO million last year in stock and salary. Oprah
Winfrey makes perhaps a SIOO million per year
President Clinton’s close friend Vernon Jordan is esti
mated to make well over a million dollars a year. I
read recently where John Elway had a net worth of
just over SIOO million. It is not just the extraordinary
salaries that cause me some mental distress, it is the
average salaries as well. The average player on a pro
fessional sports team who may never play, whose
name you may never know, makes more than the aver
age American will make in an entire lifetime of work.
Something just seems remiss to me. flow could any
person really be worth these kinds of salaries? What
does our society value after all?
In contrast to the highest-paid positions, teachers,
fireman and police officers are at the lower end of the
salary scale. Child care providers are even lower. It's
interesting to note that those whom we trust our own
personal safety and most importantly, the lives and
that was made by the folks in the
county.
At the luncheon, the hostess told
them: “If any boy comes back in
safety, we shall never cease to be
thankful. If our boy falls in the bat
tle he will fall in the line of duty to
his country, and he could not meet
death more gloriously.”
The first five young men chosen
from Forsyth County were Mark
and Frank Hulsey, Harris Moore,
Roscoe Echols and John Pruitt. All
were to report to Camp Gordon.
We learn from the paper that
Camp Gordon cost $5,800,653 to
build and that a post office was
being built so the soldiers could get
their mail. People from Forsyth
County were encouraged to write to
the soldiers. The War Department
was investing $78,000 to build a
road through DeKalb County to
Camp Gordon.
Sen. Hardwick introduced a bill
to pay soldiers SSO per month who
went out of the country to fight. The
bill was defeated by a large majori
ty-
The Sept. 26 issue informed the
people that arrests have been made
for carrying “old John Barley Com”
to Camp Gordon. When a man can
make from $6 to $lO on one gallon
/Bn
Phil
public. Yet he makes less money than baggage handlers
at the airport, and many janitors in New York City. As
a matter of fact, many cities pay their garbage collec
tors more than the average median salary for police
officers and teachers and firefighters. Despite low pay,
the public still has tremendous expectations for those
who labor in education and public safety and childcare.
I do not begrudge those who earn huge salaries.
This is America after all, and if someone can legally
demand millions of dollars in salary and get it, God
bless them.
What is troubling though is the striking incongruity
between the actual value of the work performed by the
groups I have mentioned. I believe that those who serve
the public in education, childcare and public safety per
form a far more valuable service to society than a
bench warmer on the worse team in baseball, or for that
matter, the CEO of Walt Disney Entertainment. Yet this
striking incongruity remains in our society. Poor
salaries combined with high stress and demands make
it increasingly difficult to attract the brightest and best
people to educate our children and to provide for the
public safety. Yet if you ask people what they are con
cerned about in our country they will invariably say
education and public safety. Many of the best educators
and public servants are leaving the field. Replacing
them is becoming increasingly more difficult. In my
view, society needs to reward the labor of its citizens in
such away that those who are entrusted with the great
est responsibilities, receive the greatest compensation,
especially writers.
What do you think?
Tool of the devil: Pinballs of progress
They used to line the walls at bowling
alleys, occupy corners in cheap restaurants
and beckon from the far end of long, dark pool
halls. They were bright, noisy four-legged
creatures of metal and glass, no two look alike
regardless of outward appearances. And they
must have been magic, because they could
make a handful of dimes disappear as quick as
a hiccup.
Oh, pinball machines are not exactly
extinct. If you enter one of these modern
arcades with your kid, you may find a small
handful unused in some abandoned recess of
the room. They amuse us fathers between the
fistfuls of cash we hand our youngsters. But
they aren’t the same ones that we grew up
with. It’s as if the manufacturers tried to create
a hybrid, a contraption that looks old-fashioned
enough to attract Dad but yet has enough bells
and whistles that Junior might play, too.
The old machines were simple. You put a
steel ball into play, it bounced around making a
ringy-dingy noise, and you tried to keep it
from going out of play using two flippers. Each
machine had its own soul. You had to get to
know it, to learn just exactly how much you
could shove it and hit it and abuse it in general
without causing it to tilt. This was good, clean
all-American fun, vastly exceeding the plea
sure one could derive from, say, doing home-
of whiskey it is very tempting, but
then “we should remember that
when we violate the law, we must
suffer the penalty.”
Also, “thousands of women are
marrying soldier boys before they
enter the war. This is probably a
result of the insurance feature of the
government.”
• • •
The Bethel Community writer
said that fodder pulling was the
order of the day in his community.
• • •
Judge Pendleton of the Fulton
Superior Court has found three cer
tain things: death, taxes and
lawyer’s delays.
• • •
Under the new Flood Control
Law, whiskey-making in the U.S.
ceased last Saturday night at 11
o’clock.
• • •
The city of Atlanta is rounding
up loafers. “That’s right, too much
work to be done in this prosperous
old state to allow them to run at
large.”
• • •
A great many railroads are peti
tioning the Railroad Commission
for permission to operate freight
trains on Sunday.
safety of our children are among
the lowest paid professions. For all
our talk about valuing education
and appreciating those who serve
and protect, the truth is society
does not value such services.
Those who labor in such fields
often do so at great financial sacri
fice for themselves and their fami
lies. I have a son-in-law who is a
police officer. Everyday he quite
literally risks his life protecting the
I Walker
ML Bramblett
work.
As usual with a good thing, some jerk
decided he could improve on the trusty old
pinball machine. They started coming out with
elaborate systems of ramps and holes and
spinning doors for the ball to go over and into
and through. Worse, they came with three and
even four flippers, which is preposterous. It
should be clear that two flippers are enough
for the average person, who generally has not
more than two hands and two eyes.
Somewhere about this same time, electronic
games with no steel balls and no flippers began
to appear alongside the humble pinball
machine. Many of us, knowing a tool of the
devil when we saw it, refused to have anything
to do with these flashing beasts. It was no use.
They gained quick acceptance with the
younger, more impressionable crowd, and the
dark lords who spawned and created ever
The Board of Education has
increased the school term to five
months for next year without cut
ting the pay of the teachers. The
editor approved of this.
• • •
Tom Watson has bought the
Thomson Guard, a weekly paper of
Thomson, to replace the
Jeffersonian, which was being
forced to pay first-class mail rates
when it was learned Watson was
protesting the draft.
• • •
On Oct. 5, Sheriff Merritt and
his force of deputies captured two
cars Monday night with 80 gallons
I We’re s not
EL. \ everybody
I ■ \ T,
L \ i \ But we. ,
just might
be right
■^^^k^ or you.
|f|J| Ifyou’ii lm.kinxh'l lii-nuvi-tv e\iiieii’,ei’.i
challeni’e .inti rcwaui ./hhhc b. >m-. take
r / I a good look at Lakeview Academy
o. j x *' - * Imagine. |oi i:\uiiiplf. u joint Histoiv l.itcwtum
.'.■jS f ■> 7 . ■ I exam that takes ihc slui|Y i>| a mvstciv you solve k
using/>ok'<-rs <>/iV’scnution otii/logk
IT « I are small and creative, our teaching styles are
y a innovative, our technology is up tool.itc And
I our biggest difference is finding just the nght
Brok* t wa y k) bnpg oul | x . st
every day. It’s no wonder Lakeview students
' iii
We W„. nationally recognized achievement tests.
I know it BL B Dare yourself to be head and shoulders above
I can be a the crowd. If you’re up for a challenge that can
I sacrifice to ! change your life, Lakeview Academy just might
I send your kids be right for you. Wmt to find out more? Call our I
I to Lakeview, hut . I Admission Office at 770/532-4996.
| because we are Serving A>vs and girls in grades lie K through 12
I committed to uttracting
I and the most I I
I talented students, we are 1 y sWg 3 /
I offering a new financial \ /
I outreach program that may \ TalT /
I help you become part of the
I Lakeview community. SSuBkSBk
LAKEVIEW ACADEMY vv ( - dr e conveniently kuted o//L‘W5 new Exit 7
796 Lakeview Drive an j transportation to students throughout
I Gainesville, GA 30501-2099 Northeast Georgia.
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS W>dnwday, February 4,1t0» I
of whiskey. The contents of the
kegs were poured out on the streets
of Cumming and furnished a scent
for the town that will last several
days.
“We don’t know whether this
pouring out had anything to do with
it or not, but the Board of Education
was in session at the time and
adjourned in a very few minutes
thereafter.”
Two board members said it
didn’t.
• • •
The doctors over in Buford have
raised their fees, while the doctors
here in Cumming are trying to raise
the fees already made.
smaller and quicker enticements until the
inevitable happened. They entered the home.
First there was Atari. Then came
Commodore. Now, heaven help us, we are at
the mercy of Nintendo. It beeps. It whistles. It
gobbles and chums and boinks. This would be
bad enough in some remote, isolated part of
the house, but it is attached to the television set
10 feet in front of the chair where I try to read.
Although I have rigged it for easy relocation to
another set, my children derive no pleasure
from the thing unless they know that it is mak
ing the spot under my left eyeball twitch.
Are you suffering from the same affliction?
Are you hoping it will go away as your chil
dren age and mature? Allow me to dash all of
your hopes. My soon-to-be 21-year-old laid
down his college textbook and took the
Nintendo control from my 12-year-old earlier
this afternoon. He kept at it for three and a half
hours straight, face awash in the glow of some
chopping, hopping electronic little being. Do
not delude yourself; children don’t outgrow
these demons, they just start tag-teaming you.
Only one generation ago, kids played pin
ball in a smoke-filled pool room 10 miles or
more away from home. Now days they play
Nintendo on the TV set 10 feet or less from
our noses.
And we call this progress.
Editor’s note:
The Forsyth County News
will mark its 80th year as
this community’s
hometown newspaper
during 1998. During the
year, news from past
editions of the Forsyth
County News will appear
in feature articles to give
us a chance to see from
whence we - the
newspaper and this
community - came.
PAGE 11A