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PAGE 12A
, FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, August 19,2001
The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions - ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
Reapportionment
process butchers
Forsyth County
The state House and
Senate have finished
their political but
chering of Georgia’s legisla
tive election districts, leav
ing the map of the state
looking like a pizza cut with
a chain saw.
In a last ditch effort to
maintain Democratic con
trol of the state government,
Gov. Roy Barnes and his
General Assembly cohorts
have fashioned an incredi
ble hodgepodge of multi
member and gerryman
dered districts drawn at
every turn to give members
of their party political
advantage.
The big losers is this
reapportionment farce are
the residents of metro
Atlanta counties, where
efforts to dilute growing
Republican strength have
resulted in House and
Senate districts that are not
only indefensible, but in
some cases unconscionable.
Forsyth County stands to
be one of the big losers.
Rather than earning legisla
tive districts based solely
within the county’s borders,
as our current population
justifies and common sense
dictates, we have instead
been drawn into districts
Bright spirits can
take some dark turns
Each one of us has dark
places.
Where do dark places come
from? Some folks say that no one
has the power to take us to a dark
place. Some folks say we go to
our dark places on our own. I
don’t know if these things are true
or not, though I’d like to believe it
for some reason, but it still doesn’t
shed any light on what I am think
ing.
I wonder at the darkness a
friend of mine’s 15-year-old son
was seeing last night, as his moth
er brought him home from church
because he was feeling bad. I
wonder at the darkness this boy
saw while his mama went to the
kitchen to get him a drink while
he lay in bed with an upset stom
ach after returning from church.
I called my own son tonight,
just to check on his light level. It
seemed good. I was glad of that
He turns 15 next month.
I wonder these things because
my friend, the dad of the 15-year
old with a stomach-ache, has
always been a brightly shining
light in our occasional conversa
tions.
I cannot imagine the darkness
this bright-spirited man must be
facing as he sits awake all night
thinking of his son in bed with a
stomach-ache, thinking of his wife
getting the son a drink.
I cannot imagine the echo in
my bright-spirited friend’s wife’s
mind. I cannot imagine how long
she will hear the echo of the
cracking sound she heard while
she was getting a drink for her son
who had a stomach-ache.
I cannot imagine how long it
will take to replay a lifetime’s
worth of family conversations and
arguments and discussions, look
ing to find a single scrap of a clue
that crisscross county lines
and stretch far away from
the heart of the county.
Going into the redistrict
ing process the county had
one House seat solely with
in its borders. Coming out it
has lost even that, with the
one Forsyth incumbent
thrown into a two-member
district with GOP incum
bents from two other coun
ties.
Given the maps as
approved, the people of the
county face the reality of
having state representatives
and senators who represent
not only Forsyth, but also
voters in other counties as
well sometimes many
other counties, some of
which have very little in
common with Forsyth.
Which isn’t to say the
county can’t build a politi
cal identity for itself at the
state Capitol. It can still be
done, but doing so will be
much more difficult.
The state’s plans still
must win the approval of
the U.S. Justice Depart
ment. We can only hope
that someone at that level
has a passing acquaintance
with common sense. But
history has shown we
shouldn’t count on it.
David
Clark
one missed.
I am suddenly grateful for the
many times of light I have experi
enced, and I mark out a little path
to remind me where they are. I am
ashamed of my claims of darkness
over little things I stumble on
before winding my way into a
dark comer.
I think of all these things,
because I am pondering the dark
ness of the echo of the cracking
sound my friend’s wife heard
while she got the drink for her son
with the stomach-ache. I think
these things because I am ponder
ing the darkness in my bright-spir
ited friend’s spirit.
I have to believe God can turn
these thoughts into something
good, but I sure wish 01’ God
would give us a hint.
And while all the things I
wonder make a sideways sort of
sense, they don’t explain why the
beautiful 15-year-old boy with the
stomach-ache decided to cause a
cracking sound while his mama
was getting him a drink.
And it doesn’t take the chill
off the silence inside us all as we
grieve for my bright-spirited
friend and his wife as they
remember finding their beautiful
son with the stomach-ache lying
there with a bullet hole in his right
temple.
Pray for my bright-spirited
friend and his wife.
David Clark will soon begin
traveling around the Southeast.
Write to him at P.O. Box 148,
Cochran, GA 31014 or via email
at dclark@accucomm.net
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The enemies in King Roy’s court
You have to wonder just
how many new enemies Gov.
Barnes can make before he stirs
up real opposition to his re-elec
tion next year.
When Barnes first unveiled
his agenda for change in 1999,
the smart guys in the Capitol
were wiiling tobet even money
the governor would not seek a
second term. He sallied forth
against too many giant special
interests. No one who stepped
on so many toes could seriously
hope for a political future
beyond a single term as gover
nor.
Barnes fought the insurance
industry, local governments,
environmental groups, state
employees, defenders of the
Confederacy and, of course,
teachers’ organizations. He ini
tiated a list of reforms, the likes
of which have not been seen in
this state since the end of
WWII.
His seemingly uncompro
mising attacks on the status quo
on every front, from health care
and education to transportation
and technology, quickly earned
him the sobriquet “King Roy.”
(He added fuel to the royalty
fire when he appeared in a pur
ple robe and cardboard crown in
a spoof at a Georgia Press
Association banquet.) When he
demanded and won approval of
a new state flag without a refer
endum, his critics declared that
Barnes had abandoned democ
racy in favor of monarchy.
But the smart guys soon
gave up the notion Barnes
would not try for a second term.
The governor’s full-speed-ahead
fund-raising operation is clear
Ethics & Religion
Bush: Politically wise but morally questionable
President Bush’s decision to
allow limited federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research is
politically wise but is question
able and was pressured by a
biased press.
His approval rating rose in
the Gallup Poll after he fash
ioned a compromise that neither
side thought could be compro
mised.
In his first use of the bully
pulpit, he gave voice to the lib
eral side of the argument by
raising their questions: “First,
are these frozen embryos human
life and therefore something
precious to be protected?
And second, if they’re going
to be destroyed anyway, should
n’t they be used for a greater
good, for research that has the
potential to save and improve
other lives?”
Bush answered the first one,
“That cluster of cells is the
same way you and I and all the
rest of us started our lives.”
On the second question,
there is no need to destroy the
cells at all. Every one could be
implanted in infertile woman.
What has been unreported is
that there is “far greater demand
for embryos than supplies of
them,” according to Dr. Bradley
Van Vborhis, professor at the
University of lowa and director
of a program that has planted 50
Shipp
evidence King Roy has no
intention of abdicating. He will
have collected $lO million by
the time his 2002 re-election
campaign gets cranked up.
His two announced GOP
rivals State School
Superintendent Linda Schrenko
and Cobb County Commission
Chairman Bill Byrne have
barely raised pocket change.
Schrenko is basing her bizarre
campaign on an anti-school
improvement platform and
promises of delivering gigantic
raises for teachers in the midst
of an economic downturn.
Byrne has filed an ethics
charge against Gov. Barnes,
complaining the governor is dis
guising political advertising on
TV as public-service announce
ments.
Schrenko and Byrne are
both hoping unreconstructed
rebels, mad at Barnes for chang
ing the flag, will come to their
rescue on Election Day.
Those strategies are lame at
best for anyone hoping to over
throw the King of Georgia.
Still, Barnes has potentially
serious problems. His nearly
unprecedented effort to play a
role in redistricting has created
enmity even among Democrats
in the Legislature. For the first
time since his election, Barnes
is at odds with Speaker Tom
Mike WW
McManus WHL
donated embryos in infertile
women.
Yet, sadly, many more
embryos are being destroyed
than implanted. Why?
The president partially
explained the answer: In the
process of in vitro fertilization,
which helps many couples con
ceive children, “When doctors
match sperm and egg to create
life outside the womb, they usu
ally produce more embryos than
are implanted in the mother.
Once a couple successfully has
children, or if they are unsuc
cessful, the additional embryos
remain frozen in laboratories.”
The couple then has a
choice. Will they allow the
excess embryos to be implanted
in other infertile women, or will
they allow them to be donated
to science or be destroyed?
Relatively few choose to give
them to other couples.
Why?
They “are not thrilled about
the idea of having a child that is
genetically linked to them
raised by someone else,” Van
Voorhis told me.
Murphy and other House
Democratic leaders.
Several Democratic state
senators had to be cajoled
(some might say threatened)
into supporting Barnes’ and Lt.
Gov. Mark Taylor’s senatorial
redistricting plan, which divided
counties and even election
precincts, all in the name of pre
serving Democratic control for
the next decade.
It also is difficult to believe
that Georgia’s ambitious state
Republican Chairman Ralph
Reed will let Barnes pass with
only token opposition in 2002.
Even if he can’t recruit a
candidate who can defeat
Barnes, Reed certainly wants to
find one to keep the governor so
busy that he will have little time
to devote to saving Democratic
Sen. Max Cleland or attempting
to win more congressional seats
for Democrats.
The criticism and sniping
notwithstanding, the state has
needed a strong dose of Barnes
like medicine for several
decades. Georgia government
had grown fat and complacent.
Conflicts of interest, crony
ism, nepotism, a lack of
accountability all those
things had become institutional
ized in several agencies until
Barnes came along.
Oddly, the governor projects
an image that doesn’t match the
reality. Some editorial writers
have painted Barnes, or at least
his administration, as stem and
dictatorial, a ruthless, take-no
prisoners political machine.
In truth, Barnes is a mostly
affable officeholder and a first
rate storyteller who learned
This is pure selfishness. The
president might have publicly
urged donors to relinquish them
for adoption rather than consent
to their destruction.
Instead, he focused upon the
embryos used to create privately
funded stem cell lines that sci
entists believe offer great prom
ise to improve the lives of those
who suffer from such diseases
as juvenile diabetes, Alzhei
mer’s and Parkinson’s.
Do embryonic stem cells
offer great promise, or is it adult
stem cells that do so?
Which type is already being
used to help patients with multi
ple sclerosis, lupus, arthritis,
stroke, anemia, blood and liver
diseases, cancers of the brain,
ovaries, and breast, diabetes,
bone damage and repair of the
heart after heart attack?
All are being treated with
adult stem cells. No patients
have been helped with embry
onic stem cells. None.
“There is no evidence of
therapeutic benefit from embry
onic stem cells,” Marcus
Grompe, M.D., Ph.D., an expert
in cell transplantation to repair
damaged livers at Oregon
Health Sciences University, told
the National Academy of
Sciences Institute of Medicine
June 22.
What? Why hasn’t this been
many of his skills in the good
old-boy school of political sci
ence.
Some of Barnes’ most ardent
defenders blame the mean-guy
image on the governor’s top
aides, led by Chief of Staff
Bobby Kahn.
They contend that without
the presence of the brusque and
bossy Kahn, Barnes would be
among Georgia’s most admired
public figures, right up there
with the much-beloved Sen.
Zell Miller. But, alas, Kahn is
the bully at the gate, and his
offensiveness rubs off on the
governor. Or so some say.
That is a wrongheaded view.
Without Barnes, there would be
no Kahn. He is the bad-guy
executive officer for the good
guy commander in the state
house chain of command. If
Kahn tosses an insulting legisla
tor out of the executive suite
(which he has done), Barnes has
ordered it. If Kahn says no to a
political supplicant, Barnes has
told him to.
Still, regardless of who
deserves the blame, this activist
governor has amassed a very
long list of foes who pray he
will falter in his bid for a sec
ond term. Their only problem
is, they don’t have a hoss who
can outrun him.
Bill Shipp is editor of Bill
Shipp’s Georgia, a weekly
newsletter about government
and business. He can be
reached at P.O. Box 440755,
Kennesaw, GA 30144 or by call
ing (770) 422-2543, email:
bshipp@ bellsouth.net, Web
address: http://www. billshipp. -
com.
reported?
The potential of embryonic
stem cells is only that. Potential.
It has not been demonstrated in
a culture dish, let alone animals
or humans. (See stemcellre
search.org)
This bias fed Democratic
passion and lured Republican
moderates to support funding
embryonic stem cell research.
Sadly, it swayed the presi
dent as well. During the cam
paign, Bush wrote to Catholic
bishops that “taxpayer funds
should not underwrite research
that involves the destruction of
live human embryos.” Stem
cells can not be obtained from
embryos without killing them.
Bush has agreed to allow
federal funding of research of
60 “stem cell lines that were
created from embryos that have
already been destroyed.”
More important, he agreed
to “aggressively promote stem
cell research...from sources
other than embryos: adult cells,
umbilical cords and human pla
centas.”
He threatened to veto a bill
to expand embryonic stem cell
research.
The president clearly ago
nized over the issue, and could
not satisfy everyone.
Mike McManus is a nation
ally syndicated columnist.