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, 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 Telephone num- I / bers will not be published.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 We do not publish poetry or blanket letters and generally do not publish letters concerning I consumer complaints.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