About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2013)
PAGE 4 - THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013 Opinions expressed by writers on this page are their own and not necessarily those of The Georgia Post CODE OF ETHICS: Seek Truth & Report It - Minimize Harm - Act Independently - Be Accountable. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe. - Thomas Jefferson Guest Editorial Transparency Is More Than Mere Compliance Editor’s Note: Ask yourself how transparent are our gov ernment entities in Crawford County. Simply complying with the law does not mean trans parency. by Jim Zachary The sun was shining brightly Sunday to usher in Sunshine Week in Georgia. As citizens become more involved in local government, show up at public meetings, comment during the allotted times, circulate petitions, protest actions they believe usurp their rights, file open records requests and hold elected officials ac countable, the more the sun will shine on local government. The darkness of executive ses sions and back-room deals casts a cloud over local government and those elected to serve. Sunshine Week is all about government transparency. Newspapers everywhere join their press associations, the American Society of News Edi tors, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Report ers Committee for the Free dom of the Press, Freedom of Information organizations, open government advocates and citi zens in communities throughout the country this week in this national initiative. Sunshine laws matter because the rights of all citizens matter. However, simply complying with the state’s open meetings and open records acts is not enough. It is disheartening that in a free nation something like Sunshine Week would even be needed. It is disenchanting that local of ficials hide behind the law when they hide the people’s business. It is disappointing to hear our elected officials lash out when someone questions their lack of transparency. Every time local officials are challenged about things that transpire in executive sessions or outside of open public meet ings, they immediately start pushing back and protesting, saying, “We didn’t break the law.” We challenge them to think about how that sounds. More over, we challenge them to think about what that means. It means they know they did the public’s business in private, but they technically complied with the provisions of Georgia’s Open Meetings Act. When public records are requested, more often than not records cus todians stall the request, check with administrators or lawyers to find out if they have to make the records available and then charge the maximum amount of money they are allowed by the law to produce the records. Think about that. The records belong to the public.The records are kept in the public’s build ings. The records are documents that were produced by public employees. The records are documents that were created using public equipment on the public’s time. And now you have to decide if the public has a right to see their own records and double charge them to produce and reproduce the records that were created using taxpayer dollars to begin with. It is high time for our county commissioners, city council members, the board of educa tion, water authorities, our state representatives and senators and all public officials to take a hard look at government transpar ency. See COMPLIANCE, Page 5 Letter To The Editor Make It Easier For Businesses Editor, The Georgia Post” Maybe the commi si oners could justify paying 5,000 an acre for a 140 acre tract when anything else that size lists for under 2,500 an acre by nam ing the person trying to sell it.. Do the commisioners ever do anything but think of ways to waste, I mean spend, our money? How can spending 700,000 plus developement NOT fall back on the taxpay ers? Here’s an idea, how bout lowering taxes, eliminating the inventory tax and making it easier for the businesses you have to grow, before wasting money in hopes of fooling new business? Lloyd McGowan ~ Quotable Quote ~ Government ”help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a govern ment can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off. Ayn Rand On Claudine & A Furbaby Update Heaven gained a saint last week. Oh, I do not mean that Claudine Gatlyn was perfect, as none of us are, but she was one of God’s children and was a great lady evange list. I was honored to know her and heard her preach on occasion. She had been in and out of the hospital the past year or so and I am sure she was tired and ready to go home. She was not one to sit still so being hospitalized was very tough on her I am sure. I first met the Gatlyns when I worked for another news paper. The Gatlyns, who ran a crisis center at one time, came in to see about placing an ad and about Dan writ ing for the newspaper. We became friends. We kept having gremlins and strange happenings at the office. Dan and Claudine prayed over the office with some of us. Things would calm down for a long time until we would have a change in employees or something crazy happen and then it seems the grem lins would again surface and we would have to pray again. I had the pleasure of attend ing their 50th wedding an niversary celebration. They had been everywhere min istering. Dan was a jokester and Claudine balanced him very well. They were a great couple and I enjoyed talking with them, not only about godly issues but Dan can hold his own in a discussion about practically anything and everything. All in ah, I guess I have known them for 15 years. Claudine will be missed by many but she was one of those who made the world a better place and she has left her footprints behind for others to follow. And we can rejoice knowing she is wor shipping at the feet of Jesus. We recently had our furb- aby, Roxie, spayed. We had no intentions of breeding her and in spite of your best efforts things can happen, especially in our neighbor hood where dogs are on the loose all the time. We did not want puppies. We waited until she was nine months old but I wish we had done it sooner be cause had she been smaller I believe it would have been easier on her. Our now 50 lbs. lap dog, did not do well after the surgery. In fact, on Tuesday night, I was begin ning to think we were going to lose her. She was not eat ing nor drinking, nor was she really hardly moving. Ah she did was he on her bed and look pitiful. I cried off and on that night, wanting the night to pass quickly so I could call the vet the next morning. My husband was also worried. The vet explained that each dog was different but after I informed them of how she was acting, wanted us to bring her in, but I could not do so until after work. I hand fed her that morning, which she did eat but she did not want to drink any thing. We were told to try popsicles which we did and that worked. I prayed over her before I left for work and we came home to a dog on the mend. The next day she was beginning to get back to her normal self though I was still hand feeding her canned food for a day or so because otherwise she did not want to eat. By the weekend, we had Roxie back and she was starting to eat her regular food without having to be hand fed. We are making much prog ress in the minding area and she definitely understands the word ”no”. She does not chew up as many household items as she did in the begin ning but still likes to get the stuffing out of her toys and some of our small pillows. She no longer gets our shoes to chew up but she still likes chewing up plastic like her frisbee. We have attemped leash training on several occasions but she, so far, is not having any of it. She wants to be the one leading the leash. Have 3 IP Too Many Chiefs, Not Enough Indians Have you ever heard the saying “you have too many chiefs and not enough Indi ans,”? It’s what people say when you have a group of people who simply want to run the show and not do any of the work. I find this is get ting more and more common nowadays. Too many people want to run the show leaving nobody to help get the work done. Sure there are plenty of people around to tell you how to do the job and plenty of people to direct you and supervise. The problem with “chiefs” in this day and age is they just want to be the head honcho and not put out any of the work they expect from their “Indians.” I was raised in a family of “Indians,” no not real Indi ans, but the kind of people who knew you had to work to get where you wanted to be and you had to work hard to become someone impor tant. I was never spoiled and by the time I was old enough to put in some hours during the summer I was a full- fledged dog kennel caretaker for a breeder for whom my mum worked. I held that job for two summers in a row and in my second year there I worked weekends too. I was only 13 when I started. I wanted better clothes and money of my own to spend. My parents lived from paycheck to paycheck trying to feed us and keep a roof over our heads and couldn’t afford to give me the best of the best. So I did what I was raised to do, I went to work! I never stopped working from then on. I held a job at a fast food restaurant hand ing out samples on the week ends after I left the job at the breeder. Then I worked every night after school and on the weekends for the lo cal grocery store, sometimes walking from the school to the store in the afternoons after I wrecked my dad’s truck on the way to school one morning. I chose to go to work right after high school instead of skipping off to college to rack up student loan bills since my parents’ income was just enough to keep me from receiving financial aide but not enough to cover my college education. I worked full-time for a Veterinary hospital and worked my way from the bottom (cleaning dog poop) to the highest I could go without a college degree (I was the technician for the exotic veterinarian there for a good long time). I stayed with animal hospitals for almost ten years. It is not a pleasant job and sometimes it could be downright heart-breaking for someone who loves animals as much as I do. I held two jobs for almost six months, Pay at a Time Victoria ’’Vicky” Simmons vsimmonsS4@gmail.com to figure out a ditferent tactic on that one. She does not like to for you to put doggie clothes on her either though she is more tolerable than she was when smaller. We also have not been able to stop her from begging food when we are eating but she is at least more patient about it! She is not greedy about food like some dogs and will actually share. In fact, sometimes, I think she is too nice. One of her favorite things is to ask for treats. We will not give her a treat unless she ’’sits” and she has this figured out and sits before being asked to sit. Other than her humans which she has to get atten tion from constantly, she loves being outdoors. She tried to help David on a project the other day. After he had dug a hole, she would run off with the clumps of grass and dirt he discarded. She also likes to chase but terflies. So far, she has not caught one. She goes with David to feed the fish, the ducks and chickens and seems to know which one he is talking about when he tells her. Our furbabies bring us much joy and are like family members. We sit and laugh at her sometimes because she is such a clown at times. Can’t imagine life without them. Blessings to you this week. Life is short so make the most of it. From Moo To You Abigail ”Abby” Adams abbyadams@pstel.net working from 7 a.m. to mid- night and sometimes for 24 hours straight. I have been exhausted and worn down to the bone, but the thought that my parents worked just as hard and even harder to give me a good life always pushed me further. I’m an “Indian”! I have worked hard ah my life. Even before I worked for money I worked for my parents in the yard, in the house, anything they needed done, I was right there doing as I was told. Learning to be the most important part of society. An “Indian!” published every week by Crawford Publishing, LLC. Our Staff Floyd Buford - President Victoria ’Vicky” Simmons - GM/Publisher vsimmons54@gmaiLcom or byronbuzz@pstel.net Abigail Adams - News Reporter/Editor’s Assistant Office Assistant - Michael Fleming Kelli Johnson- Marketing Executive Robbie Robertson - Distribution Carey Lee - Sports Photography Trenesia Y. Stubbs, Charles Cook, Nancy Gibbs, Billy Powell, Angie Carr, Jeff Cook, Wade Yoder, Dan Gatlyn, James Earnhardt Robert Tharpe, Rev. James Snyder, Spencer Price - Contributing Columnists Our Policies Deadlines are Noon on Friday prior to issue. The comments featured on the opinion pages are the sole creations of the writers, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Post management Letters to the editor must be signed and include a telephone number. We do edit grammar, spelling and punctuation when necessary. Libelous, slanderous or profane letters will not be published. 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