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OpEd
Watching teens grow up
is a source of pleasure
I have been keenly aware of
the joys of watching the growth
and progress of young friends
and their families. With the
weddings and babies anticipat
ed, I recall with pleasure their
years as children and teens.
No family and no person
can go through life without a
few joys or a few problems. It
matters not what our circum
stances, our age, our position in
life, or our place in the business
or social community, joys and
sorrows will find us.
When we were young we
believed that life was a joy ride
and had a ticket to ride. We
were always looking forward to
the next turn or twist. Our par
ents would never grow old;
they were old to us already. We
did not anticipate the time
when we would be the care
givers to them.
When we were teenagers
everything was a major catas
trophe. Girls feared they would
not have a date for the prom
and boys feared the funds
would not be available to ask a
special girl to go with him. But
nobody, especially grownups,
understood our problems or
even noticed the traumas of
growing up.
Our high school annuals
were filled with the words
“friends forever” and for most
of these friends we can neither
remember their faces nor their
names. The closeness we felt to
a boyfriend or a girlfriend has
long been replaced with other
friends who have also passed
through our lives.
As a young adult we trav
eled on our way to maturity,
some of us reached it and some
never would. We celebrated our
youth with fascination and the
good times we believed would
Ethics & Religion
Sound arguments exist to oppose
legalization of same sex marriages
In hours of debate by the
Massachusetts Constitutional
Convention over whether to
legalize “same sex marriage”
the more articulate advocates
opposed a constitutional
amendment limiting marriage
to “one man, one woman.”
Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, an
African-American, said she
was born “one generation
removed from slavery” in an
Arkansas shack “because the
public hospital would not allow
blacks to deliver children.” She
saw same sex marriage as a
civil rights issue: “I know the
pain of being less than equal
and I cannot and will not
impose that status on anyone
else. I could not in good con
science ever vote to send any
one to that place from which
my family fled.”
However, marriage is not a
civil rights issue. No one at the
Constitutional Convention
noted that America’s major
black denominations support a
Federal Marriage Amendment
which states “Marriage in the
United States shall consist only
of the union of a man and a
woman.”
House Speaker Thomas
Finneran, a Democrat, was elo
quent at one point, “Every
society, every culture, every
nation in all of recorded histo
ry, including Massachusetts,
has up until this point at least
defined marriage as one man
and one woman.”
Yes, but why? Social sci
ence research can answer that
question, but it was not offered.
Outside the Constitutional
Convention, Ron Crews,
President of the Massachusetts
Family Institute said, “The rea
son we are in this battle to pre
serve the definition of marriage
is that we believe the state
should be concerned about the
highest good. And we believe
that the highest good, the ideal,
is that children need a mom
and a dad.”
That is backed up by a large
and growing body of social sci-
<* fF Julianne
, Boling
gAjfci y"
go on forever. We made our
own decisions and some of
them were definitely the wrong
ones, but time has erased most
of them from our minds.
Os course, there were times
of sorrow. A good friend killed
in an automobile accident; a
favorite teacher diagnosed with
polio; a grandparent who died
with cancer; all moments of
sadness for us.
For the first time in our
lives we understood that we
could not control what would
hurt us no more than we could
turn every day into a happy
one.
I am older now and not a lot
wiser, but I have begun to expe
rience the joys of watching
young friends become fine
adults. I have been witness to
their ups and downs as
teenagers, their accidents, their
accomplishments, and their
selections of lifetime partners. I
have been blessed to read
announcements of weddings,
babies being born, and the
achievements in their chosen
careers.
I know their parents are
pleased with them, but do they
know that it pleases us older
adults who have watched their
lives change and watched with
excitement as they grew up?
Do they know that our pleasure
is also connected to their joys
and their sorrows? I hope I do
not fail to tell them how special
they are to me!
Cumming resident Julianne
Boling writes a weekly column.
■ 1
Mike
ence research.
The Witherspoon Institute
at Princeton has posted the
“Top 10 Social' Scientific
Arguments Against Same Sex
Marriage (SSM).”
1. Children hunger for their
biological parents.
A third of lesbians have
children according to the
Census. Some do it by in vitro
fertilization, deliberately creat
ing a class of children who will
never know their father. Yale
Psychiatrist Kyle Pruett reports
that children of IVF often ask,
“Mommy, what did you do
with my daddy?” “Can I write
him a letter?” “Has he ever
seen me?” “Didn’t he like
me?”
2. Children need fathers:
“We know that fathers excel
in reducing antisocial behav
ior/delinquency in boys and
sexual activity in girls,” says
Witherspoon. “Girls who grow
up apart from their biological
father were much more likely
to experience early puberty and
a teen pregnancy than girls
who spent their entire child
hood in an intact family.”
3. Children need mothers:
A fifth of gay couples have
children. There will be more if
SSM is legalized. “Mothers
excel in providing children
with emotional security and in
reading the physical and emo
tional cues of infants.
Obviously, they also give their
daughters unique counsel as
they confront the physical,
emotional and social chal
lenges (of) puberty and adoles
cence.”
4. Evidence suggests chil
dren raised in SS homes expe
rience gender and sexual disor
ders.
Judith Stacey, an advocate
for SSM and a sociologist,
SPLOST not viable for Justice Center, jail
By Roger L. Crow
When it comes to leadership and stand
ing up for what one feels is right, Cumming
Mayor Ford Gravitt is one of my heroes.
Mayor Gravitt is always concerned about
the tax burden placed on citizens, more
especially citizen property owners. I cannot
recollect a single tax related issue on which
he hasn’t advocated evaluating alternatives
to property tax. That is the reason
Cumming’s city hall was fully paid for the
day it was occupied.
Mayor Gravitt has stated “there is no
question the facilities (law enforcement/
judicial complex) are needed” and he
remains consistent with his philosophy by
advocating the Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners utilize SPLOST funds to
pay for the law enforcement/judicial com
plex.
This would be a very good idea if it
could work, but it is not a viable alternative
and will not work.
The Citizens Task Force proposing the
complex evaluated several financing strate
gies including SPLOST and issuing bonds.
Finance without SPLOST - The Task
Force felt SPLOST would be an ideal
financing solution if it were available as an
option. It is NOT available as an option.
Long-term jail costs demand other options
By Pam Bowman
Hats off to Mayor Gravitt for having the
courage to publicly voice his concern and
opposition to the March 2nd vote on bonds
to fund the construction of new Justice
Center facilities.
One of the aspects of all of the informa
tion given has been conveniently not men
tioned. The construction is not the most
costly aspect of adding new capacity of a
jail facility. It is the operating costs after the
facility is built. Based on a “national aver
age” of about $54 per day per inmate, a
100-bed jail would cost about $1,971,000
per year to operate. Given that the county
jail is one of the most expensive budget
items in a county budget, if not the most
expensive, it is essential that informed deci
sions about jail issues are made.
As I recall, the city of Alpharetta decid
ed a few years ago that it was cheaper for
them to pay to house their inmates in
Roswell rather than use a new facility that
they had built because of the operating
costs. On the “Let’s Build It” Web site
writes “lesbian parenting may
free daughters and sons from a
broad but uneven range of tra
ditional gender prescriptions.”
For example, sons of lesbians
are less masculine and daugh
ters of lesbians are more mas
culine. She found that a “sig
nificantly greater proportion of
young adult children raised by
lesbian mothers than those
raised by heterosexual mothers
... reported having a homoerot
ic relationship.”
5. Sexual fidelity:
Witherspoon asserts, “One
of the biggest threats that SSM
poses to marriage is that it
would probably undercut the
norm of sexual fidelity in mar
riage.” In his book, “Virtually
Normal,” Andrew Sullivan
writes “There is more likely to
be greater understanding of the
need for extramarital outlets
between two men than between
a man and a woman.” Research
of civil unions and marriages in
Vermont reveals that while 79
percent of heterosexual men
and women value sexual fideli
ty, “only about 50 percent of
gay men in civil unions” felt
similarly.
6. Women and marriage
domesticate men.
Witherspoon reports, “Men
who are married earn more,
work harder, drink less, live
longer, spend more time
attending religious services and
are more sexually faithful ... It
is unlikely that SSM would
domesticate men in the way
heterosexual marriage does.”
Gay activists like Andrew
Sullivan disagree but are likely
“clinging to a foolish hope.
This foolish hope does not jus
tify yet another effort to med
dle with marriage.”
For the other “Top 10” find
ings, see Witherspoon’s web
site, www.winst.org/topten
lists.htm. Advocates for tradi
tional marriage need to cite this
sort of research if they expect
to win the day.
Mike McManus is a nation
ally syndicated columnist.
The voters approved a SPLOST in March
2003 and statutorily another SPLOST
authorization cannot be considered until
2008. Only about 20 percent of SPLOST
revenue is collected per year. $99,100,000
t>f the 2003 SPLOST approval was allocat
ed by the county for road-and-intersection
improvements and because of that alloca
tion the county was able to obtain a match
ing commitment of $74,325,000 from the
Georgia Department of Transportation for
road and intersection improvements.
If we had not or do not allocate funds
for future road and intersection improve
ments, then we lose the matching funds
from the DOT. The county just cannot
afford to do that. Our only need more press
ing than the law enforcement/judicial com
plex is roads/ traffic.
In theory, we could wait until 2008 and
attempt to pass (passage is not guaranteed)
a SPLOST to pay for the proposed com
plex. It would then take an additional five
years to collect the money, meaning we
could not have a “paid for” complex until
2013.
If we pursued such a theory, we would
have to increase our property taxes to pro
vide for road improvements and to qualify
for Department of Transportation matching
funds. Otherwise we would lose the match-
under the Tax Payer Impact section is listed,
for one to see an approximate, proportioned
tax increase by constructing and owning the
proposed capital projects vs. renting. Look
at these side by side to compare:
Construct & Estimated Rent Difference
Own Fair Annual Estimated
Market Value Additional Annual
Os Home Tax Additional Tax
SIOO,OOO $32.99 $34.00 $4.00
$200,000 $64.00 $68.00 $4.00
$300,000 $96.00 $102.00 $6.00
There is not such a dramatic difference
between the costs to warrant $62 million
dollars in General Obligation Bonds.
All across the United States many coun
ties have pursued the construction of new
jails without assessing if the demand for
bed space could be reduced. There are often
other ways to deal with jail crowding other
than calling on the taxpayer to support con
struction of new facilities.
In keeping with the maxim of good
administration there is no system that can
not be improved. The size of the jail popu
lation is a combination of two conditions:
Crescent
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, February 15,2004 I
ing funds.
General obligation bond - The financ
ing arrangement recommended for the com
plex is issuance of a General Obligation
Bond. A bond is essentially a loan which
would bear interest at 4.5 percent. Total cost
of the proposed complex plus interest on
the bond would be $99,821,560 and we
would own the facilities outright after 20
years.
To continue to ignore our needs/prob
lems like the city of Atlanta does in the
hope that the federal/state governments will
come along and bail us out of our problems
is ludicrous. Taking care of our own needs
is our problem and responsibility.
Please DO THE MATH: to not build the
complex and just keep throwing rent money
down the drain will cost us at least
$61,216,440 more over the next 20 years
than if we built the complex and we would
have nothing to show for having spent over
$161,000,000 dollars in rent and inmate
outsourcing.
Please look objectively at the referen
dum issue and to do the right and logical
thing by voting YES for passage of the
March 2 bond referendum.
Roger Crow is the chairman of the
Citizens Task Force working to win
approval of the Justice Center and jail.
how many persons are brought to jail and
their length of stay. Jail bloating occurs
when inefficiencies in the criminal justice
system negatively affect these two condi
tions. Primarily, jail bloating is a condition
in which a jail population is unnecessarily
enlarged due to causes other than crime and
sentencing laws. Unlike the business world
where inefficiency in operations might
mean the difference between staying in
business or going out of business, no such
market pressures encourages the justice sys
tem to higher functioning.
I am still not convinced that Forsyth
County needs a Justice Center and a Jail. I
would have liked to have seen these as sep
arate issues. The Task Force report, the
“Let’s Build It” campaign, and all of the ads
in the media have not convinced me. I will
vote NO on March 2, 2004. Please, people
become informed and voice your right to
speak on this issue by voting no on March
2, 2004, to $64,000,000 of Obligation
Bonds.
Pam Bowman is a Forsyth County resi
dent.
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