Newspaper Page Text
, 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.
Letter policy
The Forsyth County News welcomes IC'-A
your opinions on issues of public / 'i
concern. Letters must be signed \
and include full address and a / I jcA 71
daytime and evening phone num- |
ber for verification. Names and r*4 /
hometowns of letter writers will I I ZfH I
be included for publication with- i HF /
out exception. Telephone num- I /
bers will not be published. ./
Letters should be limited to
350 words and may be edited or A*
condensed. The same writer or
group may only submit one letter per ’ V p.—[ '
month for consideration. I/maß? \
Letters must be submitted by noon
Wednesday for Sunday publication. We do
not publish poetry or blanket letters and
generally do not publish letters concerning I
consumer complaints. Unsigned or incor- j S
rectly identified letters will be withheld. |li I
Mail letters to the Forsyth County V'
News, P.O. Box 210, Cumming,
GA 30028, hand deliver to 302
Veterans Memorial Blvd.,
fax to (770) 889-6017
or email to editor@forsythnews.com.
On your payroll
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
P.0.80x 3177
Cumming, GA 30028
(770)887-4342
Mayor Pro-Tem, Lewis
Ledbetter
205 Mountain Brook Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-3019
Ralph Perry
1420 Pilgrim Road
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-7474
Quincy Holton
103 Hickory Ridge Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-5279
Rupert Sexton
705 Pine Lake Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-4332
John Pugh
10813th Street
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
John Kieffer, Post 1
4403 Pine Tree Close
Cumming, GA 30041
(770)889-3255
office, (770)886-2810
David “A.J.” Pritchett, Post 2
4840 Chesterfield Court
Suwanee, GA 30024
(770)798-4524
office, (770) 888-5080
Michael Bennett, Post 3
4301 Post Road
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)889-4515
office, (770) 886-2807
Marcie Kreager, Post 4
9810 Kings Road
Gainesville, GA 30506
office, (770) 886-2806
Eddie Taylor, Post 5
562 Lakeland Plaza, Ste. 349
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)886-2802
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Chairman Ben Benson
1265 Dahlonega Highway
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)889-9892
Paul Kreager
9810 Kings Road
Gainesville, GA 30506
(770)889-9971
Don Hendricks
5985 Polo Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)889-2909
Vice Chairman Sherry
Sagemiller
1460 Squire Lane
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-8388
Nancy Roche
7840 Chestnut Hill Road
Cumming, GA 30041
(770)889-0229 .
NATIONAL
LEGISLATORS
U.S. Sen. Zell Miller
Russell Senate Office
Building y
Room C-3 |r IHg|
Washington, lb
D.C.20510 ,M|
Telephone:
(202) 224-3643; ■XJI
Fax:(202)228-2090
U.S. Sen. Max Cleland
75 Spring Street
Suite 1700
Atlanta, GA S'
30303 i - - |
Telephone:
(404)331-4811
Washington: r """
(202) 224-3521
Fax: (202) 224-0072
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal,
9th District
2437 Rayburn House Office
Building, ______
Washington,
DC. 20515 |L J
Gainesville: P.O. ■ /Jgß
Box 1015,
Gainesville, GA m
30503
Gainesville, (770) 535-2592
Washington: (202) 225-5211
Fax:(202)225-8272
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. Billy Ray, 48th District
State Capitol, Suite 301,
Legislative Office
Building, Atlanta, jp’Rb
GA 30334
(fax) (404) 656-
6581 rt
Telephone: (404) I
656-0048 (office)
or (770) 822-0900
email:
bray@legis.state.gov.us
Sen. Casey Cagle,
49th District
421 State Capitol IF
Atlanta, GA H
30334 (fax) (404) r ~
651 -6768
Telephone: (404)
656-6578
email: ccagle@ inet.legis.-
state.ga.us
Rep. Tom Knox, 28th District
Legislative
Office Building
Room 504 : ~ ,
18 Capitol
Square
Atlanta, GA IBIAR
30334
Telephone: (404) 656-0188;
Rep. Bobby Reese,
85th District K-s
State Capitol, L .<*■ w
Suite 511 B
Legislative
Office Building hOOrl
18 Capitol Square
Atlanta, GA 30334
Telephone: (404) 656-6372
Fax: (404) 651-8086
email: breese@legis.state.gov.us
/ WIWUOESE \ mtom quiamLp
FotmcEii .
IB;rM b i via ft c£?
y • JLAg/ | \ .
AWbM JbUWAL® 61
In memory of an inspirational writer
The second anniversary of
Celestine Sibley's death just
passed, Aug. 15, and with it
came a resurgence of memo
ries for those who cherished
her writing. This is a column
published in The Forsyth
County News just after her
death in 1999.
I suspect Celestine Sibley
would have smiled and nodded
had I told her how I feel about
writing.
Today, I read some of her
earliest columns and recog
nized a kindred spirit. Not,
perhaps, in the topics she
chose or the experiences she
described.
She began telling her sto
ries in the early ’4os, decades
before I sucked in my first
breath and my lung collapsed.
Her tales of gardening and log
cabins and mending quilts
spoke of a world I have never
known.
But I can feel it in the
cadence of her tales that we
share a common love:-lan
guage.
Crafting a sentence well
and breathing renewed life
into a memory, simply through
the telling, invigorates me. As
does reading those who do it
well.
I confess the simple beauty
of her mastery is daunting.
The great budget scare gets under way
WASHINGTON ln a
capital city deserted in
August, anxiety knots stom
achs of Republicans left in
Washington. They await with
fear and loathing the midyear
review Wednesday by the
Office of Management and
Budget. It is expected to show
the government’s estimated
budget surplus reduced 40
percent to “only” $l6O billion.
The diminished surplus is
caused mainly by an economy
close to recession.
Nevertheless, a $l6O bil
lion surplus would have been
viewed at any previous point
in the nation’s history as
miraculous during prosperity
much more so in a decline.
Yet Republicans cringe as they
await a Democratic onslaught
when Congress reconvenes
after Labor Day.
President Bush will be
accused of creating a budget
ary crisis by passing tax
reduction, almost all of it tak
ing effect in future years. The
alleged crisis is that the
Republicans now are “dip
ping” into the Social Security
and Medicare “funds.” Those
funds do not exist in real
terms, but the argument is irra
tionally made that the budget
surplus would be all but
erased if it were not for pay
roll taxes to finance Social
Security and Medicare.
Ability to strike fear in
GOP hearts with the Great
Cheryl ,
Rhodes
I know now why Naomi
Williams bothered to show up
each day in my high school to
teach us, by the dozens but by
the ones, that grammar made
sense and would serve us well
if we would only take the time
to absorb its wisdom. That
in the intricate network of
rules and structure was a free
dom that our learning must
first unleash, and then our
nature explore.
Rules that could be broken,
but only with due respect and
astute intent.
It is evident from the lyri
cal beauty of her prose that
Ms. Sibley embraced the same
soulful friend, this flame hun
gering to tame the mysteries
of translation, to reach the
fluid telling.
But there is more.
Writing means risk, as
does any exchange of humani
ty. Put pen to paper (or key
stroke to screen) and, if you
have been true, you will shed
your shield, one stitch at a
time, until your wardrobe has
Robert ~
Novak
Budget Scare of 2001 is large
ly due to tireless efforts by the
“North Dakota Twins”: Kent
Conrad, chairman of the
Budget Committee, and Byron
Dorgan, deputy Democratic
floor leader. These remarkable
senators, both former tax com
missioners from a sparsely
settled remote state, have
imposed their fiscal theories
on the government in away
that seemed impossible a few
years ago.
In repeated floor speeches,
the North Dakota Twins over
the years argued that there
really is a trust fund for Social
Security that was being rav
aged for money by the rest of
the government. Actually, all
that drawers at Parkersburg,
W.V., contain are government
lOUs.
William J. Quirk, an icono
clastic University of South
Carolina law professor, des
cribes more clearly than econ
omists the futility of relying
on these lOUs: “Government
bonds held by the government
have no value. They are not
cash.” In 1996, even Senate
Democratic Leader Thomas
Daschle conceded to me, in a
moment of candor, that “there
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS —Thursday, August 23, 2001— I
been peeled from your
staunchly protesting frame.
You will, at times, war
with yourself, balking at the
discomfort of exposure.
Walking out on that limb
oft slows to a tentative tiptoe.
Though at times your words
may please those around you
and, in time, perhaps even
yourself, there will be other
moments.
Your flaws will glare, the
rough edges of your reasoning
grate, the audacity of your
ideals incense.
Therein lies the beauty.
The scrutiny and excavat
ing the courage to invite it
is freeing. There is a story to
tell; sometimes it is your own,
sometimes it belongs to anoth
er.
Perhaps the kernel of
thought that you initiate will
generate discussion, inspire
communication all its own,
sometimes heated, sometimes
kindred.
To illuminate the plight of
one is to invite the compassion
or wrath —of many.
Yes, there is risk.
Or perhaps, as Ms. Sibley
so ably proved, writing’s
greatest gift is simply in the
giving.
She gave to all who came
to her feast the stories and
is no such (Social Security)
fund per se.”
Ironically, the North
Dakota theory took hold only
after relative constraint on
spending by the Republican
controlled Congress produced
continuing budget surpluses.
Republicans tried to outdo
President Clinton in establish
ing a “lock box” to protect the
Social Security fund. In the
House, the GOP went even
further in creating a lock box
for Medicare, ignoring
Medicare’s existing reliance
on money from the govern
ment’s general fund.
Thus, as the declining
economy reduces surplus
expectations, Republicans
have found themselves trap
ped. Thanks to their lock-box
commitment, they are suscep
tible to Conrad-Dorgan accu
sations of dipping into ephe
meral trust funds.
“There is no box or lock,”
says Professor Quirk. “There
is a ‘Social Security Trust
Fund,’ but it’s empty.”
Members of the Bush eco
nomic high command
Treasury Secretary Paul
O’Neill, National Economic
Advisor Lawrence Lindsey
and OMB Director Mitchell
Daniels surely understand
this. But they cannot admit
this, and so repudiate commit
ments of their Republican sup
porters in Congress.
The GOP’s only advantage
through them her spirit that
made us laugh and cry a,nd
relate and respond.
And we did for one reason:
her obvious love for the task
at hand flowed into her craft
and from her subjects straight
into our living room.
In her remarkable 55 years
of writing for all willing to
plop down the spare change it
took to buy a newspaper, she
contributed more than 10,000
columns. I’ve amassed 75. It
is humbling.
Perhaps she would have
smiled and nodded when I told
her how I feel about writing,
or maybe she would just be
amused at my assumption that
my feelings about our shared
craft have anything at all to do
with being able to tackle the
nitty gritty of producing such
a prodigious collection of
organized thought.
One thing is certain.
Celestine Sibley wrapped
her life around her writing and
her writing around her life and
chose her words well so that
the rest of us could breathe in
and out right alongside her.
Someone said we should
all live the life she led.
And, thanks to her, we did.
Cheryl Rhodes ’ column is
published every Thursday and
Sunday.
is that the Democratic strategy
also leads to a cul de sac.
What is the alternative to
alleged plundering of trust
funds?
Certainly not Draconian
cuts in a Bush budget already
viewed by Democrats as too
lean.
That leaves rolling back
tax cuts, which would be mad
ness in today’s economy.
No senator is more sensi
tive to criticism than Kent
Conrad.
So, he erupted in reaction
to Lindsey’s remarks at the
Philadelphia Reserve Bank on
July 19. Conrad had “hinted at
a tax increase in 2002, just as
the economy is recovering,"
Lindsey charged.
On the next day, Conrad
took the Senate floor to claim
“a total misrepresentation of
the record of this senator.”
Therein lies the answer to
the great budget scare. If the
spurious lock box is to be
observed and spending not
reduced, tax cuts have to be
rolled back. , , ,
President Bush’s economic
agents this week will be chai-,
lenged to respond to a smaller
surplus not with accounting
tricks, but with affirmatjqn
that the goal of government is
restoring economic vitality
instead of debt-reduction.
Robert Novak is a nation
ally syndicated columnist and
political commentator.
PAGE 9A