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Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 210 Cumming, GA 30028; fax it to (770) 889-6017; or email it to editor@forsythnews.com.
FORSYTH
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.
Sunday, December 4, 2022
ELECTED OFFICIALS
CITY COUNCIL
MayorTroy Brumbalow, 100 Main
St., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 781-
2010
Mayor Pro Tern Christopher Light,
100 Main St., Cumming, GA 30040;
(770) 480-1396
Jason Evans, 100 Main St.,
Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 781-
2010
Joey Cochran, 100 Main St.,
Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 781-
2010
Linda Ledbetter, 100 Main St.,
Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 781-
2010
Chad Crane, 100 Main St.,
Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 781-
2010
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Vice Chairwoman Molly Cooper,
District 1,110 E. Main St.,
Cumming, GA 30040; mbcooper@
forsythco.com
Chairman Alfred John, District 2,
110 E. Main Street, Cumming, GA
30040; ajohn@forsythco.com
Todd Levent, District 3,
110 E. Main St., Cumming, GA
30040; (678) 513-5883; tlevent@for-
sythco.com
Cindy Jones Mills, District 4,110
E. Main St., Cumming, GA 30040;
(678) 513-5884; cjmills@forsythco.
com
Laura Semanson, District 5,110 E.
Main St., Cumming, GA 30040;
(678) 513-5885; losemanson@for-
sythco.com
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Chairman Wes McCall, District 1,
RO. Box 92, Cumming, GA 30028;
(678) 776-6774; wmccall@forsyth.
k12.ga.us
Vice Chairwoman Kristin
Morrissey, District 2,1120
Dahlonega Hwy, Cumming, GA
30040; (678) 250-4047; kmor-
rissey@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Tom Cleveland, District 3, 5225
Millsford Court, Cumming, GA
30040; (770) 844-9901; tcleveland@
forsyth.k12.ga.us
Darla Sexton Light, District 4,
1120 Dahlonega Hwy, Cumming,
GA 30040; (770) 887-0678; dlight@
forsyth.k12.ga.us
Lindsey Adams, District 5, District
2,1120 Dahlonega Hwy, Cumming,
GA 30040; liadams@forsyth.k12.
ga.us
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
U.S. Sen. Raphael Wamock, B85
Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C., 20510
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, 455 Russell
Senate Office Buildinq, Washington,
D.C.20510
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, 9th
District; 513 Cannon House Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20515
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, 7th
District; 1725 Longworth House
Office Building, Washington, D.C.,
20515
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. Steve Gooch, 51st District,
421-F State Capitol, Atlanta, GA
30334, Office: (404) 656-9221
Sen. Greg Dolezal, 27th District,
305-B Coverdell Legislative Office
Building, Atlanta, GA 30334, Office:
(404) 656-7127
Letter policy
The Forsyth County News welcomes
your opinions on issues of public concern.
Letters must be signed and include full
address and a daytime and evening
phone number for verification. Names and
hometowns of letter writers will be includ
ed for publication without exception.
Telephone numbers will not be published.
Letters should be limited to 350 words
and may be edited or condensed.The
same writer or group may only submit
one letter per month for consideration.
Letters must be submitted by noon
Wednesday for weekend publication. We
do not publish poetry or blanket letters
and generally do not publish letters con
cerning consumer complaints. Unsigned
or incorrectly identified letters will be with
held.
Mail letters to the Forsyth County News,
RO. Box 210, Cumming, GA 30028, hand
deliver to 327 Dahlonega St. Suite 903A,
fax to (770) 889-6017 or email to editor@
forsythnews.com.
Apple is real. Twitter, not really
What do I care about
more? Do I care about my
iPhone, my iPad, my
MacBook and the two Mac
desktops — or do I care
more about the feed on my
Twitter app? Oh, and I for
got to mention my Apple
Watch.
Guess the answer.
I used to greatly admire
Twitter owner Elon Musk
for his championing of elec
tric vehicles. That Tesla (and
the rocket company
SpaceX) made him the
world’s richest man was fine
with me. No problem here
with billionaires who build
great things and pay their
taxes.
But Musk can’t possibly
think that he can win his
fight against Apple, the
world’s most valuable com
pany. Even if that were a
possibility, he’s not going
about it the right way. Of
course, that’s assuming his
motive is to indeed win and
not just Gorilla-glue his
name to the daily headlines.
Let’s accept everyone’s
arguments at face value. In
the name of free speech,
Musk is opening Twitter to
unmoderated bigots, vaccine
deniers and other assorted
creeps. That’s his right.
O
FR0MA HARR0P
Columnist
Twitter is his toy to play
with or break.
Apple, on the other hand,
wants to keep the worst nas
tiness out of its users’ faces.
It has thus banned from its
App Store sites that do not
meet its standards for mod
erating content. That is
Apple’s right.
And it’s the right of Apple
and other big corporations
to not advertise on the burn
ing dumpster Twitter is
becoming. Apple also has
the right to demand a 30%
cut from software develop
ers wanting to put their
wares on Apple devices —
just as Twitter can charge
users $8 a month for blue
checkmarks.
At the end of the day,
what is Musk’s weapon,
really? A social media app?
“This is a battle for the
future of civilization,” Musk
tweeted grandiosely. “If free
speech is lost even in
America, tyranny is all that
lies ahead.”
To which former Rep.
Adam Kinzinger tweeted,
“It’s twitter man. Not
WW3.”
Musk overpaid $44 bil
lion to buy Twitter. Apple,
on the other hand, is worth
$2.3 trillion. (The oil giant
Saudi Aramco has a mar
ket value of $1.9 trillion.)
Investors, meanwhile,
have limited patience with
CEOs who get distracted
from their core business and
come off as jerks. Who is
taking care of Tesla? And
aren’t Musk’s provocations
turning off would-be buyers
of his electric cars?
This has been a tough
year for many stocks, but for
Tesla’s, it’s been miserable.
As of late November, Tesla
shares have lost nearly 50%
of their value. The 2022
return on Apple shares
(which includes dividends)
was down only 18.31%.
Dan Ives, a tech analyst,
has called Musk’s Twitter
fight with Apple “the gift
that keeps on giving for the
Tesla ‘bears,’” investors who
bet on the stock price going
down.
Apple world tends to be a
gentle place. Its inhabitants
undoubtedly like the compa
ny’s moves to protect user
privacy. Apple also wins
applause for banning misin
formation about COVID-19
— something Twitter has
just said it would now allow.
By the way, it’s simply
not true that only liberal
social media gets the Apple
green light. Anyone who has
used Apple products to fol
low political opinion knows
that conservative views are
easy to find.
It would appear that all
the money in the world
couldn’t buy Musk a sense
of humor. And that’s what
he’s going to need if the day
comes that Apple drops
Twitter from the App Store
and the 1 billion iPhone
owners start forgetting that
Twitter ever existed.
Apple sells real stuff,
things that need to be
recharged. Twitter does not.
It’s just an app that the
delete button can make dis
appear. Musk really should
have stuck with cars.
To find out more about Froma
Harrop and read features by
other Creators writers and
cartoonists, visit the Creators
webpage at www.creators.
com.
On NPR, leftist ideology is only consistency
When National
Public Radio
appeals for dona
tions, it explains its
mission is “to create
a more informed
public — one chal
lenged and invigo
rated by a deeper
understanding and
appreciation of events, ideas
and cultures.”
That’s fancy talk for one
sided propaganda. NPR lis
teners aren’t “challenged
and invigorated” by two
sides of a controversial
issue. They’re pushed to a
“deeper understanding” of
how conservatives are dead
wrong ... subsidized by tax
payers.
NPR calls its evening
newscast “All Things
Considered,” a title that’s a
nightly lie. Consider their
crusading Nov. 16 story, car
rying the online headline
“Carrying out executions
took a secret toll on workers
— then changed their poli
tics.” It was a one-sided
exploration of how some
execution workers are so
disturbed by their work that
they’ve considered suicide.
The “public radio” net
work started asking online
for execution workers to
come forward in July
through
reporter
Chiara
Eisner,
who came
to NPR
from The
Marshall
Project,
another
crusading leftist project
advocating a soft-on-crime
line.
One star of this story was
Indiana minister Bill
Breeden, who described his
trauma from the execution of
Cory Johnson in 2021. “So I
prayed for Cory and for all
of us. And I ended the prayer
by saying, I believe Cory, if
he could, would say the
same that Jesus said —
Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do.”
Then the execution by
lethal injection didn’t take at
first. The prisoner apparently
said, “I feel like my mouth
and my hands are on fire.”
Eisner explained the after-
math: “For months after
wards, Breeden became
claustrophobic and would
start sobbing in the middle
of conversations. He still
can’t escape the execution,
even in his sleep.”
This 12-minute report on
NPR couldn’t find the time
to describe why Cory
Johnson was given the death
penalty. According to the
Justice Department, Johnson
went on a killing spree in
early 1992, shooting and
killing seven people “for
perceived slights or rivalry
in the drug trade.” In one
case, Johnson shot and killed
one victim at the victim’s
home when he failed to pay
for crack cocaine — and he
also murdered the victim’s
sister and a male acquain
tance.
But the minister compared
him to an innocent Jesus.
Eisner turned to Joseph
Currier, a psychology pro
fessor who studies people in
the military, who explained,
“If you were to compare and
contrast which events really
haunt people the most after
their war-zone service, tak
ing someone else’s life is the
highest predictor of most
mental health problems.”
What’s amazing is just 13
days earlier, NPR’s
“Morning Edition” aired an
11-minute story from
Michigan from inside an
abortion clinic, Northland
Family Planning. Reporter
Kate Wells wasn’t there to
inquire about how killing
unborn babies on a daily
basis causes trauma for abor
tion clinic workers. They
actually aired sound of an
abortion taking place, and
when the killing was over,
the “mother” thanks every
one in the room, and they
cheer and laugh: “You did
good, you did great! You did
just fine!”
There was no trauma.
There was only relief. There
was certainly no opposing
view. There were only moth
ers saying they couldn’t have
any more babies. One even
said of their surviving chil
dren, “I love them to death.”
The point of this NPR
story was that Michigan had
a forthcoming referendum
on abortion, and what easier
venue to locate pro-abortion
voters than an abortion clin
ic?
NPR feels passionately
that executing a murderer of
seven is somehow more
immoral that dismembering
a baby. One haunts your
sleep, and the other comes
with hugs and hot cocoa. On
825 NPR affiliates across
America, leftist ideology is
the only consistency.
Tim Graham is director of
media analysis at the Media
Research Center and execu
tive editor of the blog
NewsBusters.org.
TIM GRAHAM
Columnist