Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2008
Named the best weekly editorial page in the nation for 2007, 2008
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
our views
Thanksgiving
Proclamation
of 1863
“IT IS THE duty of nations as
well as of men to swear their
dependence upon the overrul
ing power of God; to confess
their sins and transgressions in
humble sorrow, yet with assured
hope that genuine repentance
will lead to mercy and pardon;
and to recognize the sublime
truth, announced in holy scrip
tures and proven by all history
that those nations are blessed
whose God is the Lord.
“We know that by his divine
law, nations, like individuals,
are subjected to punishments
and chastisements in this world.
May we not justly fear that the
awful calamity of civil war which
now desolates the land may be
a punishment inflicted upon us
for our presumptuous sins, to
the needful end of our national
reformation as a whole people.
“We have been the recipi
ents of the choicest bounties of
heaven; we have been preserved
these many years in peace and
prosperity; we have grown in
numbers, wealth, and power as
no other nation has ever grown.
“But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gra
cious hand which preserved
us in peace and multiplied and
enriched and strengthened us,
and we have vainly imagined, in
the deceitfulness of our hearts,
that all these blessings were pro
duced by some superior wis
dom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken suc
cess, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity
of redeeming and preserving
grace, too proud to pray to the
God that made us.
“It has seemed to me fit and
proper that God should be sol
emnly reverently and grate
fully acknowledged, as with
one heart and one voice, by
the whole American people. I
do therefore, invite my fellow
citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those
who are at sea and those who
are sojourning in foreign lands,
to set apart and observe the
last Thursday of November as a
day of Thanksgiving and praise
to our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the heavens.”
Signed: A. Lincoln
October 3, 1863
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875 • The Official Legal
Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
News Department
Angela Gary Associate Editor
Jana Adams Mitcham Features Editor
Brandon Reed Sports Editor
Kerri Testement Reporter
Sharon Hogan Reporter
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
PO Box 908
Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908
Web Site: www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
Email: mike@mainstreetnews.com
Voice: 706.367.5233
Fax: 706.367.9355 (news)
Periodical Postage paid at Jefferson,
GA 30549 (SCED 271980)
Yearly Subscriptions: $19.75 in-county; $38.85
in state; $44.50 out-of-state; Sr. Citizens’ and
college students $2 off; Military $42.50
"I told my dad tha graduation rate is up,
but after my last report card, he sfilf isn't Convinced!
letters
Says pastor shows ‘Spirit of Christmas’
Dear Editor:
Giving is a virtue.
Give and you shall receive; Give and it shall
be given unto you.
For many of us, sadly the spirit of Christmas
is “hurry” where people do not experience that
magical feeling.
Unfortunately, many children and families
are not able to have the same enriching experi
ence as others. Many children in the United
States will not have a single gift to open this
Christmas morning. Many families will not
have a Christmas meal on their table. They will
not experience the magical feeling that they
are part of this special day unless we all join
together to help change that.
Two years ago, I met a person that has made
a profound impact in my life and in the life
of others in our community. A man that not
only does his job as a pastor but by making a
monumental contribution to future generations
by respecting and honoring families as unique
individuals.
Pastor David Carithers is a man that believes
in people and his generous and dedicated
character, heart, smile or simply his attention
gives us valuable deposits of self-esteem that
can last for the rest of our lives. Pastor Carithers
has dedicated his life to better his community
and its residents. Throughout the year, you will
find this pastor feeding the hungry, clothing the
needy and even rebuilding a roof for a family
that otherwise would be homeless.
This pastor takes time out of his busy sched
ule to feed the homeless in Athens, to host
events at the park where he feeds his commu
nity while searching for the lost and lonely to
lend a hand or simply a comforting word.
You might think that while you are reading this
article that 1 attend his ministry, but I do not. It
has been a privilege to have met someone that
holds the spirit of giving, the spirit of caring and
the spirit of Christmas throughout the year.
For all he has done and continues to do, the
Spirit of Christmas remains.
Pastor David Carithers, I thank you on behalf
of all the families you have touched and
served.
Sincerely,
Amelia and George Mischner,
Commerce
Don’t mess with the teachers
IF YOU want to accomplish anything in
Georgia politics, you had better remember
one thing: don’t mess around with public
school teachers, particularly with their pen
sions.
Teachers are one of
the state’s best edu
cated groups of work
ers and they are also
among the most politi
cally active. The poli
tician who does any
thing that makes teach
ers mad will surely pay
the price at the ballot
box.
Roy Barnes could
attest to that. Eight
years ago, when he
was Georgia’s governor, he persuaded the
Legislature to adopt an education reform mea
sure that he promptly signed into law.
Barnes wanted to improve student perfor
mance by reducing class sizes and providing
more resources for local school systems.
Teachers were fine with that, but they were
very unhappy over a provision that eliminated
their right to a fair dismissal hearing. To add
insult to injury, Barnes commented on several
occasions that one of the problems with pub
lic schools was that “it’s too difficult to get rid
of bad teachers.”
That was the match that touched off the
explosion. Angered at the lack of respect
shown by the governor, educators decided
to teach Barnes a lesson when he ran for
reelection in 2002. Teachers around the state
denounced the incumbent and supported his
Republican challenger, Sonny Perdue. With
the teachers’ help, Perdue defeated Barnes in
one of the most astounding political upsets in
the state’s history.
The lesson that Barnes learned at such
a high price does not seem to have hit
home with Perdue, however. Two months
ago, Perdue tried to reduce pension benefits
for teachers by proposing that the Teacher
Retirement System (TRS) eliminate their
annual three percent increase in cost-of-living
adjustments to pension benefits.
This increase has been granted automati
cally to retired teachers for nearly 40 years,
but Perdue suggested giving the TRS board
of trustees the flexibility to grant smaller
increases because he said he wanted to
protect the fiscal soundness of the $41 billion
pension fund.
Just as they did six years ago with Barnes,
teachers went ballistic over the Perdue pro
posal. They flooded the governor’s office and
the office of the TRS board with an estimated
20,000 letters and emails protesting the policy
change.
Teachers felt, not unreasonably, that they
and their local school boards have been mak
ing hefty contributions to the pension fund for
decades to make sure there would be enough
money to pay for those of cost-of-living adjust
ments. If the governor would not listen to
them, they made sure that the legislative
leadership got the message about the perils of
reducing pension benefits.
That message was received. By the time
the TRS board met last week to vote on
Perdue’s pension proposal, teachers had
such key officials as Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle,
House Speaker Pro Tern Mark Burkhalter and
House Minority Leader DuBose Porter on
their side. Perdue may have been tone-deaf
to the feelings of teachers, but lawmakers
were not going to make that same mistake.
Realizing too late that he did not have the
votes on the TRS board, Perdue attempted
to have the proposal withdrawn. The board
refused to allow the withdrawal and every
member voted to reject Perdue’s proposal -
even though more than half of the trustees are
appointed by the governor.
Perdue’s political mistake probably won’t
cost him the way it cost Barnes in 2002. He
can’t run for governor again because he’s
term-limited and he can’t step up to run for
higher office because Johnny Isakson isn’t
going to vacate his U.S. Senate seat in 2010.
One politician who does plan to run for
something in 2010, Cagle, made sure that the
teachers knew who had been in their corner.
He issued a statement soon after the TRS
vote saying he supported the decision and
followed that up with a letter to each teacher
who had written to him about the issue.
“I know many of you have waited weeks for
this decision, and I want you to know that I
reached out to the TRS Board to express my
concern in taking the proposed actions to
change this rule,” Cagle wrote. “I am happy
that they listened to my advice, as well as the
voice of many teachers across our state.”
Any politicians who want to keep getting
elected to public office will make very sure
that they listen to the voice of Georgia’s teach
ers. The events of last week made that crystal
clear.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol
Impact’s Georgia Report. He can be reached
at tcrawford@caDitolimDact. net.
This, too, shall pass
I T’S DIFFICULT to be thankful this Thanksgiving.
Not since shots were fired onto Dealey Plaza in
1963 has an American November been this bleak,
the public so emotionally drained.
First it was the housing crisis, rising foreclosures, fall
ing home values and the rapid decline of the construc
tion industry.
Then it was the decline
— and bailout — of the big
banks that had bought so
many of those bad mort
gages.
Then Wall Street fell and
became a funnel for bleed
ing equity — Americans’
401 Ks have taken a huge hit
in the stock market in 2008.
Retirement? What the hell
is that?
Now the logical economic
extension of these problems
is happening — rising unem
ployment and the decline of
the retail sector as stores feel the pinch of closed wal
lets. Commercial centers struggle as retail tenants disap
pear. The auto industry is reeling. People are defaulting
on their credit card payments.
It’s enough to make even the most ardent non-drink
ers reach for a couple shots of sherry along with the
turkey and pumpkin pie this week.
Could it be that the nation is waking from a 40-year
debt-induced dream? What if the American economy of
the last three decades really wasn’t “real?” What if it was
all just a mirage, a dream, a pseudo economy that we all
just collectively imagined?
On one level — as crazy as it sounds — that’s exactly
what happened.
The money in our economy really hasn’t gone any
where. What changed so dramatically is that all the
“play money” is gone.
That play money was all the excess debt that existed
in the financial system. All those “toxic” mortgages you
hear so much about were really just play dollars, kinda
like when you buy property when playing Monopoly. In
the American economy, individuals took on too much
debt to buy houses they couldn’t afford and used credit
cards to buy stuff they would otherwise never be able
to own. A host of financial and government officials
cheered this irresponsibility onward.
This debt bulge fueled a massive amount of economic
growth. More stores opened. More people got into the
housing business. It worked because everyone was play
ing the same game. Reality became suspended at all
levels.
But that debt wasn’t real money; it was the projection
of future money that we all thought we’d earn someday.
Even worse, the debt was packaged by large banks and
additional debt created by those financial firms based
on the initial loans. It created a house of cards, a shell
game.
As all of this was happening, the American economy
shifted from one where wealth had been created from
manufacturing — that is taking raw materials and pro
ducing finished products — to one where the “idea” of
wealth was created mainly from service jobs. When
manufacturing went offshore, the nation’s economy
began to run on construction and consumerism, both
fueled by debt.
As long as everyone pretended to be rich by using
easy credit, the system worked. The nation’s economy
grew because so many jobs were created from the piling
on of debt for homes and goods. And psychologically,
we all felt “richer” because of this upward trend and
because of the “false” wealth being created.
That’s why when it all came crashing down, the
impact rippled so fast through the economy. Once
the bubble burst and the true picture became clear,
Americans could no longer suspend reality. Bankers cut
off the play money. Jobs went away. Spending slowed.
The American economy of recent years was just an
illusion. We deluded ourselves into thinking it would last
forever. It didn’t. It couldn’t. Too much debt was prop
ping it all up.
Now we enter a winter of discontent. Times are tough.
The pain is spreading. The first six months of 2009
may be the most difficult this nation has faced in many
decades.
For the last seven years we’ve been worried about
terrorism and someone from the Middle East blowing
up something in the U.S. How ironic that an even larger
explosion was created by our own careless financial
system.
But for all the pain we see today, we know that eventu
ally the system will correct itself. Cars will wear out and
we’ll have to buy new ones. Consumer goods will break,
clothes will fade and pent-up demand will motivate us
and we’ll start shopping again. Slowly, jobs will return.
Eventually, the glut of homes now being dumped onto
the market from foreclosures and overbuilding will fall
in price and people will start buying again. The housing
market won’t stay dead forever.
The economy may not return to the levels of hyper
activity we saw during the Great Bubble, but it will come
back to a more normal and stable level of activity.
That’s difficult to see today. But just as it was wrong to
believe the illusion of a boom created with play money,
it’s also wrong to believe in the illusion of an economic
Armageddon.
This, too, shall pass.
Perhaps to our prayer of Thanksgiving this week we
should add the words, “quickly, please.”
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He
can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
mike
buffington