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PAGE 4A
THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009
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
No free lunch
G ET out the bibs. State
and local officials are
salivating over the
prospect of getting some of the
“free” stimulus money from
Washington to fund a slew of pet
projects.
But anytime Washington
throws out large amounts of
money in response to a crisis,
graft, theft and corruption fol
low. Think Katrina, or Iraq — mil
lions wasted because too much
money was flowing with too little
oversight.
The same thing will happen
with the stimulus money unless
there is some clear oversight.
Governments, like California, that
have wasted tax dollars and got
ten into a financial hole will use
those dollars from Washington
to prop up their own failed sys
tems. The result will be no real
stimulus to the economy and
the rewarding of bad behavior.
In addition, some of this new
federal money may seed new
programs that local govern
ments can’t sustain. That’s what
happened after 9-11 when small
towns used Homeland Security
funds to start police depart
ments. Now, many of those
towns have expensive police
agencies they can’t afford to
keep.
It’s imperative that citizens in
local towns and counties care
fully watch how their govern
ments plan to use any federal
tax dollars they receive.
There’s no such thing as a
free lunch. Those dollars from
Washington are not free, either.
Taxpayers, one way or another,
will have to pay the bill.
Kudos to
emergency
workers
SUNDAY’S SNOW storm
dumped a wet blanket on
Jackson County downing trees
onto power lines and making
roads hazardous.
But a slew of local emergency
workers — police, sheriff, fire,
EMS, 911, rescue, road crews,
power crews — turned out to
deal with the difficult situation.
Their hard work, often in dif
ficult and dangerous conditions,
helped ease the problems of this
natural disaster.
To those men and women, this
community owes a big “Thank
You” for a job well done.
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
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letters
Majority now working
for government
Dear Editor:
Careful, Mr. Mike... after seeing the list of all the
city and county workers, a list which does not
include any state or federal workers living here,
I’ve come to a conclusion. It appears the major
ity of families living in Jackson County either
have a member who works for the government
or they receive an “entitlement” check. The rest
of us, a small minority and getting smaller every
day, receive nothing but a bill for all the others.
Regardless of whether they “earn” or are given
taxpayer money, the majority fear the minority
will balk at paying and demand accountability,
real accountability.
My response to the teacher: A good teacher
deserves respect and to be well-paid. A good
teacher reaches and teaches every student in
her charge. A mediocre or bad teacher is noth
ing more than a glorified babysitter or, just as
bad, focuses only on the “gifted.” And judging
from the number of high school graduates and
“after 7th grade” drop-outs in this county who
struggle to read this newspaper; who can’t figure
!A of 20; who stock up at the grocery when a
$1.50 item has a “special” price of 2 for $3.00;
most third grade teachers in Jackson County
must either be babysitters, or focusing only on
the gifted.
The number of degrees, the hours spent in a
classroom, and the amount of volunteerism are
not qualifiers. Some people, no matter how edu
cated, how well liked, or how good intentioned,
just can’t teach. And some should never have
children in their charge — ever. Yet, they do...for
years. Unfortunately for the students, good teach
ers are few and far in-between.
So, kudos to you Mr. Mike on your response
to the “teacher” who posted her comments on
your website. While your response was to the
teacher, all government workers need to take
heed. Although, you do realize that when so
many in the county rely on the government for
their money, you are treading on thin ice?
But, hey, let’s look at the bright side; we are
Number One in teen pregnancy. Yahoo, par-tay!
Can Number One in STD’s be far behind?
Sincerely,
Carol Jones
Maysville
Didn’t like column
Dear Editor:
Your remarks to the third grade schoolteacher
in your editorial of 25Feb09 were so condescend
ing and snide that I found them out of character
for your usual columns. Up until now my wife
and I found your columns to be level-headed
and fair. When you brought an out-of-control
District Attorney to justice, we thought you were
one of the best small town editors we had ever
read.
Now, unfortunately, we have detected more
than a hint of the anti-education, hate all teachers
attitude that has plagued this region for decades.
It is this very thought process that has kept
Georgia at the bottom of national education.
We were so surprised by the vitriolic tone of
your column. Neither my wife nor I nor our
children are in education, but we do realize
that good teachers are underpaid for the hours
they have to work. This teacher is concerned
about a job in uncertain times and we detected
no “patting on the back.” Whoa there yourself,
your bias is showing.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Johnson
Hoschton
(.Editor Responds: Thank you for writing, but
there was no anti-education bias in that column,
nor was there a “hate all teachers attitude. ”
Rather, we have chosen to raise questions that
some people would rather not have asked. We
do that because both at the state and local level,
some serious financial issues loom as govern
ments, including school systems, attempt to
adjust to the economic downturn. A major part
of that issue will revolve around compensation
because the vast majority of government spend
ing is for employee compensation. As recent
data shows, in the fourth quarter of last year,
every sector of the economy EXCEPT govern
ment spending shrank. As taxpayers, we have to
wonder how long the private sector can contract
while at the same time continuing to pay for the
public sector to expand. While we understand
that some in government, including education,
don’t want that to be discussed, it is a legitimate
topic for public discourse. The column you refer
to was a response to a teacher’s remarks that
condescended to the working class, the very
people who pay her salary. That’s fair game for
debate and deserved a pointed response.)
It was a bad week for Georgians
tom
crawford
THERE ARE times when it just doesn’t pay to
get out of bed in the morning. Last week was
such a time for Georgia’s citizens and the people
they elect to make their political decisions.
The most depressing development of the
week was the announcement from the state
Department of Labor that
Georgia’s unemployment
rate hit a whopping 8.6
percent. That’s the high
est jobless rate since 1976,
when the federal Bureau
of Labor Statistics stan
dardized unemployment
rates among all the states.
There now are more
than 412,000 unemployed
Georgians looking for
work, an increase of 62.9
percent over the same
month a year ago. Of that
number, 183,829 of them are receiving unemploy
ment insurance benefits.
“We are officially sailing in uncharted eco
nomic waters,” Labor Commissioner Michael
Thurmond observed.
Thurmond, not unreasonably, was looking to
the federal government for help in cushioning
the blows to Georgia’s unemployed workers. The
economic stimulus package signed by President
Barack Obama would mean the infusion of $220
million into Georgia’s unemployment trust fund,
which would help keep it from running out of
money and would pay jobless benefits for a lot of
laid off workers.
Gov. Sonny Perdue, however, was balking at
that. Like several of his Republican cohorts
among the nation’s governors, Perdue said he
might refuse the unemployment money because
it could, at some point two or three years from
now, force him to raise taxes on business. If laid
off workers can’t get unemployment benefits in
the meantime, well, that’s just too bad.
On the same day that the news broke of
Georgia’s record unemployment level, the
General Assembly added its own financial bur
den to the state’s citizens. House members voted
for final passage of SB 31, legislation that will allow
the Georgia Power Co. to start charging ratepayers
early for the construction of nuclear power units
at Plant Vogtle over in the eastern part of the state
(Perdue is expected to sign the bill quickly).
Georgia Power will be able to start collecting
$1.6 billion in project financing charges in 2011,
at least six years before the nuclear plants are
scheduled to be completed. The money will
be assessed by Georgia Power in the form of a
surcharge on your monthly power bill.
Let’s call this what it really is: the Legislature
has granted Georgia Power the authority to col
lect what amounts to a $1.6 billion tax increase,
one of the largest tax increases in the state’s his
tory. No other business or corporate entity has
been given this huge grant of authority to reach
into your pockets and extract your money - but
Georgia Power will be able to do it.
It is questionable whether this would be advis
able when the economy was prosperous, but it
really seems like a bad idea at a time when we’re
facing the worst recession in 70 years and state
unemployment has just hit an all-time high.
One point we’ve heard over and over from
conservatives is that taxes should be as low as
possible so that citizens can make the best per
sonal decisions about how they will spend their
own money.
The conservative Republicans running the
Legislature, however, voted overwhelmingly to
allow Georgia Power to take your money and use
a large portion of it to guarantee profits for their
shareholders. Whose interests are being served
here?
As the week came to a close, one other name
was added to Georgia’s list of unemployed: DOT
Commissioner Gena Evans was dumped by the
members of the State Transportation Board, who
voted to fire her from the job she has held for 17
months.
Evans was the personal choice of Perdue to
run the sprawling DOT agency, which has had its
share of financial problems. She was constantly
in the news for embarrassing disclosures about
her personal life, a series of controversies that
eventually caught up with her.
Perdue is now supporting the passage of legis
lation that will deemphasize the role of the State
Transportation Board and replace it with a new
State Transportation Authority largely run by the
governor.
If the General Assembly can pass that bill
quickly enough, Evans may be able to return as
the head of the new transportation agency. If so,
she'll be one of the few who came out of that bad
week as a winner.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s
Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcraw-
ford@capitolimpact. net.
Sikes’ case a circus
W HAT a fiasco. Prosecutors said last week
that they intend to retry former Arcade
Mayor Joe Sikes on terroristic threat charg
es after his trial ended in a hung jury last week.
If our judicial system has time for this kind of case,
then there’s obviously something wrong with the system.
The matter is now nearly four-years-old and should have
never been brought in the
first place.
I say that as someone
who has been a critic of
Sikes on a number of occa
sions. But even people we
disagree with politically
deserve fair treatment in the
judicial system. Sikes has
not gotten that.
In a nutshell, here’s the
backstory: While serv
ing as Arcade’s mayor in
the 1990s, Sikes made a
controversial move to have
Arcade’s city hall hook-up
with a private landfill as a
way to generate money for the
town. There was a very loud and strong backlash and
Sikes and his council were ousted.
The new council searched for several years to find a
way to force Sikes’ own business—waste hauling and
a waste oil service — out of town. They simply didn’t
like those businesses or Sikes. The bad blood between
Sikes and the council was no secret to anyone in Arcade
(in 2004, for example, the council blocked Sikes’ bid to
put a garbage transfer station in place and the two sides
wrangled over his business’ zoning.)
In 2005, one of Sikes’ employees died in an explosion
at Sikes’ waste oil business. The council saw an open
ing and subsequently revoked Sikes’ business license,
including his garbage pickup business which had noth
ing to do with the explosion. It was a “gotcha” move.
Police chief Dennis Bell called Sikes, whereupon
the livid former mayor spouted off a string of obsceni
ties about the Arcade town council. Bell then called
District Attorney Tim Madison, who was no fan of Sikes.
Madison told Bell to get a tape recorder and call Sikes
back for a do-over.
Sikes, never one to use normal language when a col
orful obscenity would work, obliged, ranting again about
the council for Bell’s tape recorder. That resulted in the
charges of terroristic threats. Madison indicted Sikes
on the threats — twice — the first time had “technical
errors.”
Now here’s the rest of the story.
Between 2005 and last week, Madison was arrested
and sent to prison on theft charges and Bell was forced
out, under a cloud, as Arcade’s police chief by the same
council Sikes had allegedly threatened. Sikes’ wife, a
local lawyer, ran for DA last year and was defeated.
Testifying on Sikes’ behalf was Jackson County Sheriff
Stan Evans, one of Bell’s long-time critics and a key
player who pushed to have Madison prosecuted in 2007.
No wonder the jury was confused — when the sheriff
is taking up for the defendant, something must be amiss.
The truth is everyone involved in this case — except
the prosecutor and judge, both of whom are from out-
of-town and don’t know the history — understands that
Sikes having a tirade about someone is nothing unusual
and that the roots of this matter are deep and entangled.
Sikes has a long history of withering outbursts when
he’s upset. We’ve felt the wrath of his anger over vari
ous things this newspaper has written, especially when
he was Arcade’s mayor and we opposed his landfill
scheme. I’m sure he mentioned several times over the
years that he was going to whip my a**.
But we never took it personally nor did we ever think
Sikes really intended to do any harm. He was blowing
off steam and we knew it.
Should Sikes have ranted to the police chief about the
Arcade council? Maybe not. But there’s no doubt that
Sikes was set-up after his first phone call and goaded
into another tirade for the tape recording.
Ultimately, the key issue here is whether or not Sikes
acted with the intent to harm or intimidate anyone.
Consider three questions: Would someone who really
planned to harm members of a city council tell the
town’s police chief before he does the deed? Does Sikes
have a violent history of doing bodily harm to other
people? Did Sikes call the council members individually
in an attempt to intimidate or threaten them?
The answer is “No” to all three questions.
Let’s put this entire mess into its proper context — it’s
nothing more than a squabble between a tribe of color
ful small-town characters, a squabble that was manipu
lated by political players who had their own personal
axes to grind.
Sikes is no choirboy, but the only thing criminal here
is that we’ve wasted taxpayer dollars dragging this undig
nified case into our court system. It mocks any pretense
of a serious judicial matter — and for what, a small fine if
he’s convicted?
The entire situation makes for a “theater of the
absurd.”
The testimony that Arcade council members were
cowering at home with loaded shotguns and peeking
under their cars for bombs after Sikes’ tirade is ludi
crous; a jailbird former district attorney testifying about
his role in the events is bizarre; the judge lecturing the
defense attorney about how to wear his tie is a hoot; and
the visiting prosecutor bringing a bodyguard with her
to court out of a fear that she’d ventured into the back-
woods where she’d be in danger from violent rednecks
is a scene straight out of “Deliverance.”
Where is Ringling Bros, when you need them?
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He
can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
r a
mike
buffington