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PAGE 18A
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.
Local jails bear
burden for state
I t high-profile that isn’t will a particularly capture issue or one the
public’s imagination, but a
piece of litigation working
its way through the state’s
court system could help
ease some of the burden on
local taxpayers when it
comes to operating expens¬
es at county jails.
In a lawsuit filed against
the state by Chatham
County, a Fulton County
Superior Court judge ruled
last week that the state is
not adequately reimbursing
local jails for expenses
incurred housing state pris¬
oners. Local sheriffs across
Georgia have been saying
the same thing for years.
The state currently pays
local governments $20 per
day for housing of state
inmates. The Glynn County
lawsuit says the actual cost
is double that.
The purpose of local
jails, and the distinction
between them and state
prisons, are often misunder¬
stood by the general public.
The primary purpose of a
county jail is to houses
those who have been
accused of a crime, but have
not been convicted. Once
convicted of a state crime,
prisoners are moved from
local jails to state prisons or
some other correctional
facility.
At least in theory. In fact,
shortages of bed space in
state prison facilities results
in convicted prisoners
remaining in local jails,
sometimes for many
months, before they are
moved elsewhere. While
there, the local government
bears the financial burden
Letters
Our tolerance is
becoming sedation
As I was shopping the other day, I
was appalled. Not in regard to some
thing I saw, but more of something
that I did not see.
It is time for the holidays. This is
supposed to be a time of joy and cele¬
bration. For Christians, it is primarily
a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ. CHRISTmas, get it? I noticed
that throughout several stores, not one
decoration said Merry Christmas.
I was curious and bewildered by
this, so I decided to ask a clerk why
there were no Christmas decorations.
He told me that specifically putting
Christmas might offend some people
that do not celebrate the holiday.
Excuse me? When did society become
so anesthetized that rather than cele¬
brating their beliefs they carefully tip¬
toe around them so as not to offend a
certain group of people?
When did it become OK to offend
Christians instead of nonChristians? I
understand that this is America, and
everyone is allowed to celebrate what
they desire, and that is fine with me.
Who am I to judge? I just believe that
tolerance is turning into sedation.
There is a vast difference between the
two.
Society as a whole is becoming
numb to everything. Rather than deal
ing with issues, we simply turn away
and pretend they are not there. Have
you ever seen a mother turn away
from her child’s bad behavior because
she would rather not deal with the
!
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Sunday, December 4,2005
of housing and is reim¬
bursed by the state.
Statewide, thousands of
prisoners sit in local jails
awaiting transfer to a state
facility.
The lack of space in state
prisons can be attributed, at
least in part, to short-sighted
political expediency.
Elected officials cloak
themselves in law-and-order
politics to gain favor with
the voters by enacting
mandatory sentencing laws
and toughening parole and
probation policies, but then
fail to allocate the tax
money needed to provide
space for the growing
inamte population.
The end result is often
that local jails are over¬
whelmed by the numbers of
inmates they house, and
local voters are called upon
to finance expansions and
new facilities that might not
be as urgently needed if
state prisoners were where
they belonged. Forsyth
County doesn’t have room
for the local inmates it
should be housing, much
less the additional prisoners
the state leaves behind.
The Glynn County rul¬
ing is certain to be
appealed, so no resolution
to the problem is immedi¬
ately in sight. Even a man¬
dated increase in the rate of
reimbursement is but a
short-term solution. Event¬
ually the legislature has to
face the fact that tougher
laws meant to more severe¬
ly punish criminals demand
additional space for housing
those who are convicted —
and that’s an obligation of
the state, not the local tax¬
payer.
child? Rather than standing up for our
beliefs, we are afraid to speak of
them.
I believe that this wonderful nation
was founded because several men
stood up for their beliefs. I also
believe that several changes have
come about because, throughout his¬
tory, Americans have continually
stood up for their beliefs. Martin
Luther King, for example. The numb
ness of society is a dangerous and
treacherous path to follow and we
must be made aware before we all
sacrifice our own beliefs.
Hannah Trowbridge
Cumming
What happened ____„j tO ^
‘Merry Christmas’ ?
As I walked through the malls in
our area, I failed to get the Christmas
feeling I’ve enjoyed in the past. Could
it be that the Grinch really stole
Christmas?
The only thing I saw was some
snowflakes on walls, holiday wishes,
sales displays and a few green
wreaths. I did not see any “Merry
Christmas” greetings.
I enjoy our walks very much, how¬
ever, I was disappointed in the decora
tions in the stores, as they seemed
rather dull. The Christmas feeling was
not there,
If things don’t change to include
Christmas, I’U just give cash this year,
I did say “Merry Christmas” to
friends at the mall. Did I do some-
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TKa AUGUSTA CH^NICLE
State’s economy makes strong showing
“Georgia median income
[is] just shy of national aver¬
age,” read the happiest
Georgia headline that we have
seen in months.
The story beneath the cap¬
tion glistened like a gold
nugget in the midst of a dark
night of economic pessimism.
Georgians’ income has just
about caught up with the
income of other Americans,
the U.S. Census Bureau said
in a news release last week. It
may be time to celebrate.
Look what has happened:
• Georgia’s median
household income in 2003
rose to $42,421. At No. 28
among the states, we are just
$897 shy of the national aver¬
age.
• The Peach State had a
higher median household
income than any other
Southern state except Virginia,
which reported a median
income of $50,028.
• Georgia beat its imme¬
diate neighbors handily. The
feds reported $39,438 for
North Carolina, $38,985 for
Florida, $38,003 for South
Carolina, $37,925 for
Tennessee and $36,131 for
Alabama. Mississippi ranked
last in the nation with a medi¬
an family income of just
$32,297. By the way,
Connecticut ($56,409) came
in first, and New Jersey
($56,356) was second.
• Several suburban coun¬
ties boosted Georgia’s num¬
bers considerably. Fayette
County ($74,320), heavily
populated by well-paid air
transportation personnel, led
the state. Forsyth County
thing outrageous? I looked around for
the Grinch. He was nowhere to be
found. I probably just missed him.
Dewey A. Bedingfield Jr.
Cumming
Christmas parades
are not yet extinct
Can you stand it? Three, count
them three, cities were haying
Christmas Parades, not Holiday
Parades but Christmas Parades,
Saturday! Perry, Ft. Valley and Warner
Robins!
Think there was anyone who was
offendqd attending?
Richard ^ Powers
Cumming
Clinton deserves
blame for Iraq
Thank you Gary Cooper! Finally
someone is sticking up for President
Bush. If he lied about the WMDs, so
did Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John
Kerry, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, to
name a few. All the democrats who
are now yelling the loudest that
President Bush lied said the exact
same thing. Remember, Bill Clinton
even bombed Iraq after his speech that
Saddam had to go. He bombed an
aspirin factory, at night when only the
janitor was there, and he also sunk an
empty tent. People seem to forget that.
As far as I am concerned, I place
A-:
Bill
Shipp
*4
COLUMNIST
($72,945) was second, and
Cherokee ($63,616) ran third.
Admittedly, those numbers
are two years old. Since 2003,
Georgia has been struck by a
series of economic downers,
including Delta Air Lines’
bankruptcy. Some energy may
have been sapped from the
steady climb.
Still, the dull government
numbers represent a dramatic
story of economic turnaround
that ought to make the gloomi¬
est soul stir with optimism.
When one considers where
Georgia started, the state’s
arrival at 98 percent of the
national average stands as a
stunning achievement. Barely
50 years ago, statisticians
gauged Georgians’ incomes at
less than half the national
average.
Compared to the rest of the
United States, Georgia was
bogged down in poverty, from
the mountains to the seashore.
Our economic engine
began to warm up slightly dur¬
ing World War II. In the
1960s, Georgians determined¬
ly began to march toward eco¬
nomic parity. The movement
was especially noticeable in
state politics.
Elected on a segregationist
platform in 1958, Gov. Ernest
Vandiver decided in the early
1960s that Georgia had had
enough of empty dema¬
goguery. He vowed to pre¬
the blame for the whole situtation
squarely on Bill Clinton’s shoulders,
We were bombed five times while he
was in office and he did nothing. Bin
Laden said in an interview he decided
on the 9/11 attack after the disaster in
Somalia (Black Hawk Down). Clinton
refused to send our soldiers back up,
so we lost 19 of our finest.
Our soldiers wanted to go back
and finish the job in the worst way,
but Clinton wouldn’t let them. Bin
Laden thought we were wimps and he
could do anything he wanted to us and
get away with it. If Clinton had gone
a ft er the terroists in 1993, the first
time they tried to knock the towers
down, we wouldn’t have this problem
today. Instead of trying to keep us
safe, he was too busy giving our secret
missile technology to China, and
nuclear reactors to North Korea,
President Bush has inherited a night
mare, thanks to Bill Clinton.
Barbara Howard
Cumming
County needs
more bicycle lanes
To work off the holiday fat, I
decided to go out and ride my bicycle,
To be safe, I headed for a road marked
bike route on the county road map. I
found signs saying I was on a “bike
route,” but could not find a safe path
or shoulder by the road on which to
ride my bike,
Where is a bicycle supposed to be
when riding this bike route? On the
serve the state’s public school
system in the face of court
ordered racial integration. He
oversaw the comparatively
peaceful desegregation of the
university system. Meanwhile,
other Southern states seethed
with violence. Vandiver’s
moderate policies sent a signal
to the nation’s economic
movers and shakers that
Georgia’s business climate
was stable and inviting.
The election of Gov. Carl
Sanders in 1962 marked the
real beginning of a 40-year
cycle of economic growth.
Georgia broke from its
decrepit past of race-baiting
and sharecropping.
At the behest of visionary
business leaders, the Sanders
administration focused on
improving public schools and
upgrading the university sys¬
tem.
The politics of race were
pushed aside. Creating more
jobs and putting more cash
into Georgians’ pockets
became a foremost goal of
Sanders and most of the 20th
century governors who fol¬
lowed him.
The 1960s produced a
boom for Georgia, especially
in metro Atlanta. Even cur¬
rent expansion numbers can¬
not match the growth in that
era.
By the early 1970s,
Georgia residents’ income had
achieved more than 70 percent
of national parity. At last,
Georgia was living up to its
self-bestowed grand title,
“Empire State of the South.”
Despite the generally high
growth numbers, much of
bike route I had to ride on a narrow
road wide enough for only one car.
There is no way a car and bike could
share the lane simultaneously, which
means someone could get hurt.
With all the high energy costs,
gridlocked traffic and fat, unhealthy
kids and adults, we need roads on
which bicycles and cars can safely
share the road. We need wider county
roads with paved shoulders wide
enough to keep a bicycle from ham
pering the flow of traffic, and we need
bike paths along major highways such
as 400 for commuters. If you go to the
state of Oregon, you will see these
safe bike paths everywhere. Safer bike
paths would encourage people to ride
bicycles whereas any one who rides
now is placing their life in jeopardy. It
is scary and very dangerous to ride the
roads in any area of Forsyth County.
The roads are too narrow for a bike to
safely share the road with a car, so
drivers get impatient, honk, and very
often encroach into the on-coming
lane just to get around the bike.
I love riding a bike and very often
could get to work faster and happier
on my bike than I could drive down
400 in rush hour. Give us bike riders a
safe route and we will gladly leave the
car in the garage. More bike riding
commuters would make happier,
healthier employees, eliminate a lot of
road rage and eliminate a lot of cell
phone usage. With all the SPLOST
money collected, surely, there is
enough to make the roads bicycle
friendly.
Pam Wood
Cumming
Georgia — known in some
circles as “the other Georgia”
— has not fared well. In rural
areas, deep pockets of bone¬
crunching poverty still exist,
as they have for a hundred
years. White flight and white
abandonment of public
schools have turned some
urban centers into virtual ghet
tos.
At the beginning of the
new century, the tone of state
politics has changed.
Education is no longer the
state’s No. 1 priority. The once
fiercely independent universi¬
ty system is in danger of
becoming a state-level FEMA,
a resting place for cronies and
political meddlers. Georgia is
experiencing its highest unem¬
ployment rate since 1989.
What’s more, state-spon¬
sored economic development
has been downgraded. Georgia
government has become
infected with a whiny anti¬
metro mentality. Worsening
suburban congestion and the
depleted budgets in some of
the state’s top-performing
school districts are unmistak¬
able signs that the Statehouse
is shrugging off suburbia, the
home of our hottest wealth
generators.
Unless trends shift, the
census reports that placed
Georgia as the income leader
of the South in 2003 may
show us running badly behind
in 2005. The ship that took so
long to turn around might very
well be heading back from
where it came.
Bill Shipp’s column is pub¬
lished each Sunday and
Wednesday.