Newspaper Page Text
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ForsythOpinion
Sunday, December 30,2012
Take a new
approach
in new year
Should old acquain¬
tance he forgot,
And never brought
to mind?
Should old acquain¬
tance be forgot.
And old long syne?
We're an angry
society.
Road rage. Political
attack ads.
Fighting over
Christmas gifts on
Black Friday.
Anonymous online
posts full of name¬
calling.
Add to our anger
consistent frustration
with Washington.
At the time of this
writing, Congress
and the president
have yet to come to a
deal on taxes and
spending cuts. The
“fiscal cliff’ seems
inevitable.
It’s a shame. If ever
we needed leaders,
it’s now.
At the risk of
sounding cynical,
politicians tickle our
ears because that’s
what we want from
them.
~ What if wanted
we
to hear this; “I'll
fight for issues
important to you,
constituents. I'll also
be willing to compro¬
mise on issues with
those across the aisle,
looking for a com¬
mon solution we can
all agree on.
We complain about
political gridlock, yet
continue to expect
our legislators to par¬
ticipate in partisan
bickering that looks
like they're fighting
for something.
They’re fighting to
keep their jobs.
They want to keep
the war isn’t content with
In the fortnight since Chuck
Hagel’s name was floated for
secretary of defense, we have
witnessed Washington at its
worst.
Who is Chuck Hagel?
Bom in North Platte, Neb., he
was a squad leader in Vietnam,
twice wounded, who came
home to work in Ronald
Reagan’s 1980 campaign, was
twice elected U.S. senator, and
is chairman of the Atlantic
Council and co-chair of the
President’s Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board.
To The Weekly Standard’s
Bill Kristol, however, Hagel is a
man “out on the fringes,” who
has a decade-long record of
“hostility to Israel" and is “pro
appeasement-of-Iran.”
Lest we miss Kristol’s point,
Standard blogger Daniel Halper
helpfully adds that a “top
Republican Senate aide" said,
“Send us Hagel, and we will
make sure every American
knows he is an anti-Semite.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Bret
Stephens continued in this vein.
“Prejudice ... has an olfactory
element,” he writes, and with
Hagel, “the odor is especially
ripe." Stephens is saying that
Chuck Hagel reeks of anti
Semitism.
Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 210 Camming, GA 30028; fexitto (770) 889-6017; or e-mail it to editor(g>forsythnews.com.
us happy, and an
angry politician satis¬
fies an angry popu¬
lace.
As 2012 comes to a
close and we spend
time with loved ones
ringing in a new year,
it's time for reflec¬
tion. It’s time for a
little peace and hope¬
fully a little quiet.
In these moments,
let’s slow down and
ask ourselves, “Do
we have so much to
be angry about?
Don’t we have some¬
thing to be thankful
for? • i
Here in Forsyth
County, we can’t
help but count our
blessings. A giving,
engaged community.
Fantastic schools.
And economically
we’re better off than
many of our neigh¬
bors. International
firms left and right
are choosing Forsyth
County for their U.S.
home. Property taxes
are still low here.
This is not to say
avoid passion for
change. Some anger
can be good, but it
seems like America
has had its fill.
To change the tone
in Washington, we
have to change the
tone in ourselves.
For the new year,
let’s each resolve to
find it in ourselves to
spread more kindness
than frustration. A
deep breath and a lit¬
tle perspective can go
a long way.
For auld lang syne,
my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We ’ll take a cup of
kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
PAT BUCHANAN
Columnist
Hagel’s enemies contend that
his own words disqualify him.
First, he told author Aaron
David Miller that the “Jewish
lobby intimidates a lot of peo¬
ple up there" on the Hill.
Second, he urged us to talk to
Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran. Third,
Hagel said several years ago,
“A military strike against Iran
... is not a viable, feasible,
responsible option.”
Hagel has conceded he mis¬
spoke in using the phrase
“Jewish lobby.” But as for a pro
Israel lobby, its existence is the
subject of books and countless
articles. When A1PAC sends up
to the Hill one of its scripted
pro-Israel resolutions, it is whis¬
tled through. Hagel’s problem:
He did not treat these sacred
texts with sufficient reverence.
“1 am a United States senator,
not an Israeli senator,” he told
Miller. “1 support Israel. But
my first interest is I take an
oath ... to the Constitution of
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Jim Powell for the Forsyth County News
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Outgoing sheriff thanks
community he served
As my tenure as sheriff of
Forsyth County draws to a close, 1
want to thank you for allowing me
the opportunity to serve you dur¬
ing the past 12 years.
With your support and trust, we
were able to accomplish a lot dur¬
ing that time, and everything we
did was done with your protection
in mind.
For example, as promised dur¬
ing my first campaign, one of our
first goals was for the sheriff’s
office to become accredited. We
accomplished that in 2003. As a
result, the county saves over
$50,000 per year in liability insur¬
ance premiums. One side benefit
of accreditation is that during my
12 years as sheriff there was not
one successful lawsuit filed
against the sheriffs office. In fact,
the sheriff’s office was just re¬
accredited last month and was
awarded “accreditation with
excellence.”
It has been my pleasure to see
our sheriff’s office grow into a
professional law enforcement
organization, one with vastly
improved training and account¬
ability to our citizens. On numer¬
ous occasions, our sheriff’s office
has been recognized nationwide
for its professionalism.
Our neighborhood watch pro¬
gram was greatly expanded and
now has over 300 neighborhoods
actively participating. We started a
business watch program and have
seen it grow to cover virtually
every Forsyth County business. As
a matter of fact, the National
Sheriffs’ Association picked our
the United States. Not to a
president. Not to a party. Not to
Israel. If I go run for Senate in
Israel, I’ll do that.”
Hagel puts U.S. national
interests first. And sometimes
those interests clash with the
policies of the Israeli govern¬
ment.
In 1957, President
Eisenhower told Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion to get his
army out of Sinai. Would that
disqualify Ike from being secre¬
tary of defense because, to
quote Kristol, this would show
Ike was not “serious about hav¬
ing Israel’s back”?
If a senator or defense secre¬
tary believes an Israeli action —
like bisecting the West Bank
with new settlements — will kill
any chance for a Palestinian
state and guarantee another inti¬
fada, what should he do?
Defend the U.S. position, or
make sure there is “no daylight”
between him and the Israeli
prime minister?
As for talking to Hamas,
Hezbollah and Iran, what are we
afraid of?
Harry Truman talked to Josef
Stalin and read Vyacheslav
Molotov the riot act in the Oval
Office. Ike invited Nikita
Khrushchev to tour the United
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
neighborhood watch program as a
model for sheriffs across the
country to follow.
Our crime scene unit is second
to none in the state of Georgia and
has been recognized for its suc¬
cess in solving several high profile
crimes in our area. In addition,
our efforts to curtail impaired and
dangerous drivers have won doz¬
ens of awards both from the
Governor’s Office of Highway
Safety and nationally.
1 plan to remain in Forsyth
County and 1 will remain active in
the community. I’m not planning
to ride off into the sunset. After
all, in the General Election, 47.6
percent of you who voted voiced
your support for me. I will be here
to help you in any way 1 can.
Please feel free to call me on me
whenever 1 can be of assistance.
And to the men and women of
the Forsyth County Sheriff’s
Office, thank you for your support
and the excellent job you’ve done
for the past dozen years. You are
true professionals in every sense
of the word. May God bless each
and every one of you and keep
you safe.
Tad Paxton
Sheriff
Tired of conservative
slant on opinion page
After two and a half years of
reading the Forsyth News 1 have
grown so weary of the conserva¬
tive slant of the content on your
Opinion page that I felt the need
to comment myself.
One need to look no further
than Friday the 21st Forsyth
Opinion page chock full of 1) car-
States three years after he sent
tanks into Budapest.
Richard Nixon went to China
and toasted Mao Zedong, 20
years after the Chinese were
killing U.S. soldiers in Korea
and brainwashing our POWs,
and at the same time they were
conducting their maniacal cul¬
tural revolution and shipping
weapons to Hanoi.
Israel negotiated with
Hezbollah to retrieve the
remains of airman Ron Arad
and traded 1,000 Palestinian
prisoners in a deal with Hamas
for the return of Pvt. Gilad
Shalit. And we can’t talk to
them?
If Hagel’s view that a war
with Iran is not a “responsible
option” is a disqualification for
defense secretary, what are we
to make of this statement from
Robert Gates, defense secretary
for Bush 11 and Obama:
“Any future defense secretary
who advises the president to
again send a big American land
army into Asia or into the
Middle East or Africa should
‘have his head examined,’ as
Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur so
delicately put it.”
If Hagel were an anti-Semite,
would he have the support of so
many Jewish columnists and
toon slam on Time magazine pick
of President Obama as their man
of the year; 2) Columnist Malkin’s
pro-gun piece; or 3) Columnist
Garvin’s anti-union piece to see
an all too common example of
your newspaper’s apparent avoid¬
ance to provide any balance when
it comes to its choices to fill the
Opinion page.
But, hey, I do get it — I’ve cho¬
sen to live in a conservative
Republican county within a con¬
servative Republican state and 1
recognize that progressive liberal
opinions might be scarce. Still,
there are many, many cartoonists
and columnists for you to choose
from in the national arena.
Please consider presenting at
least one minority opinion piece
in every Opinion page and not just
the token one every so often. It
elevates the collective community
conversation when thoughtful
intelligent readers have multiple
views to consider.
Marybeth Magallanes
Cumming
Fairness an important
part of our society
In [Vince Coyner’s column,
Dec. 23] we were told fairness
isn’t in our U.S. Constitution. The
implication was that to seek fair¬
ness is un-American. I am so
naive that 1 thought the right to a
trial by a jury was an effort to
inject fairness into our system. 1
thought freedom from state-spon¬
sored religions was an effort to
create fairness.
See LETTERS 17A
writers? If he were really “out
on the fringes,” would national
security advisers for presidents
Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I
and Obama be in his camp?
Neocon hostility to Hagel is
rooted in a fear that in Obama’s
inner councils his voice would
be raised in favor of negotiating
with Iran and against a preven¬
tive war or pre-emptive strike.
But if Obama permits these
assaults to persuade him not to
nominate Hagel, he will only be
postponing a defining battle of
his presidency, not avoiding it.
For Bibi Netanyahu is going
to be re-elected this January.
And the government he forms
looks to be more bellicose than
the last. And Bibi’s highest pri¬
ority, shared by his neocon
allies, is a U.S. war on Iran in
2013.
If Obama does not want that
war, he is going to have to
defeat the war party. Throwing
an old warrior like Chuck Hagel
over the side to appease these
wolves is not the way to begin
this fight.
Nominate him, Mr. President.
Let’s get it on.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author
of “Suicide of a Superpower. Will
America Survive to 2025?“