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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 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
Court should
have tossed
Voting
Rights Act
T HE U.S. Supreme Court
failed this week to undo
a law that has long out
lived its usefulness.
The court declined Monday to
throw out the 1960s era Voting
Rights Act which gives the fed
eral government the power to
oversee and control elections in
16 states, mostly in the South.
At the time it was first passed,
the law was needed to thwart
actions by some local govern
ment officials that prevented
black citizens from voting.
Today there is no need for the
federal government to control
the details of local elections. In
fact, the law was set to expire
several times over the years,
but has been reauthorized by
Congress each time.
While the law certainly hasn’t
done away with all racial dis
crimination, it long ago accom
plished its purpose. As many
have pointed out, one only
needs to reference last year’s
presidential election to see how
far this nation has come since
the 1960s.
The Supreme Court had the
chance to correct this situation,
but didn’t. Instead, the court cre
ated an opening where local
jurisdictions can apply to “bail
out” of being covered by the
law.
But that’s just a judicial cop-out
by the court which clearly didn’t
want to tackle such a politically-
charged issue this year.
Hopefully more challenges to
this law will follow and it will
eventually be tossed.
The discrimination today isn’t
at the polling booth; it comes
from the federal government,
which has not moved past its
antiquated 1960s view of the
South.
BJC saved?
BEFORE we get too excited
about a proposal for an out-
of-state firm to purchase BJC
Medical Center, let’s see if this is
the “real deal.” Proposed deals
such as this often turn to vapor
during the due diligence pro
cess.
Maybe, however, this deal will
happen and local taxpayers will
be off the hook for trying to save
the facility.
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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"Every time the government Talks about
health care reform, I feel sickl' r
DOT looks for the right turn
THE State Transportation Board has elected yet
another commissioner for that troubled agency: state
Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain), a person who
has some expertise in highway construction because
his family-owned business did a lot of road grading
back in Harris County.
Smith will be the fourth person in two years to serve
as DOT commissioner, which typically budgets more
than $2 billion a year to build our highways. If you
think the continuing turnover in the top job is an indi
cation of turmoil at DOT, you’re right.
Smith will take over a crippled department that is
out of money, losing much of its authority to the gover
nor’s office, and unable to handle most highway con
struction projects unless they have federal stimulus
funds to pay for them.
That point was vividly illus
trated last week when the
Transportation Board signed
off on 35 highway projects to
be started in July. Of those 35
projects, 34 are being under
taken only because of the avail
ability of stimulus funds.
The department has been
squeezed by declining motor
fuel tax revenues and the
inability to get the Legislature
to adopt a new funding source
for transportation improve
ments. There are also internal
accounting issues that prompted a special audit of the
DOT last year.
“We are broke,” said Gerald Ross, the interim DOT
commissioner who will now return to his old job as
chief engineer.
Many of DOT’s financial problems were caused
by Perdue in the early years of his administration.
Anxious to get highways built more quickly, Perdue
launched a “Fast Forward” program in which he
urged DOT to speed up construction projects that
were still on the drawing board.
Under pressure from the governor’s office, DOT
started committing itself to highway contracts before
the money to pay for them had even been received.
“I think we’re looking at the effects of Fast Forward,”
state auditor John Thornton said last year after a
review of DOT’s books revealed a deficit approaching
$1 billion. “Advanced construction contracts being
accelerated, when you get down to it, really caused
tom
crawford
this shortfall.”
“When you try to do in six years what normally takes
18, you change the dynamics,” Thornton said. “It can
cause stress.”
All throughout the financial mess that he was partly
responsible for causing, Perdue has been a persistent
critic of DOT management for their inability to get the
budget straightened out - which makes him compa
rable to the arsonist who sets a house on fire and then
complains that the fire department doesn’t get there
quickly enough.
Because of the department’s ongoing problems,
Perdue pushed for passage this year of SB 200, legisla
tion that gives him more control over the DOT. The
governor now appoints a planning director - Perdue’s
choice was highway planner Todd Long, who worked
at DOT for 18 years - who determines which highway
projects will be funded by the state.
SB 200 has been criticized for being sloppily drafted,
hastily passed, and overly vague as to how DOT will
be restructured. It appears to be a law that is begging
for a lawsuit to challenge its constitutionality. It could
end up making the situation at DOT worse instead of
better.
At this point, two things need to happen for Georgia’s
transportation agency to get out of the ditch.
Perdue needs to stop meddling in DOT’s affairs
and give the agency’s new commissioner a realistic
chance to get them straightened out. That, of course,
is not likely to happen. Now that Perdue has the
power to appoint the planning director who decides
which projects will get funded, he and every future
governor will have a powerful motivation to continue
interfering with DOT management.
Legislators also need to stop posturing and agree
on something - a statewide sales tax, an increase in
the gasoline tax, whatever - that will generate funds to
pay for badly needed highways and transit facilities.
Yes, that’s a tax increase, but you can’t sit around and
pretend that free market forces are someday going to
magically solve the state’s transportation woes.
Even with all of these problems hanging over him,
Vance Smith somehow remains confident that he can
find a way to deal with them.
“We can certainly take a state that’s great and con
tinue to move it forward,” he said. “We’re going to
move forward in the 21st century.”
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s
Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@
caDitolimDact.net.
A legend passes,
but lives on in the
lives of others
T HERE’S a void in Jefferson
tonight. The death of Frank
Gilbert after a decade-long
battle with cancer marks the passing of
one of the community’s most unique
and special individuals.
I got to know Frank many years ago
at the now-defunct Bruce’s Fine Foods
restaurant
where each
morning, the
local “coffee
klatch” met
to solve all
the world’s
problems.
Frank
wasn’t retired
at that time
and traveled
around the
country for
Carhatt. But
when he
was in town,
he frequented
the coffee hounds at Bruce’s. His stories
about his sales adventures and the peo
ple who worked under him were some
of the funniest I’d ever heard. As with
many salesmen, he was a keen observer
of human nature and could zero-in on
the folly and foibles of life. And he was a
natural storyteller.
Later, when my two boys got involved
in Scouting, I learned that Frank has a
long and distinguished history both as a
Boy Scout and as a Scout leader.
Although long retired from official
Scouting, on a number of occasions,
Frank did programs for our local Scouts.
Sometimes, he would dress up in Civil
War attire and do a program about his
tory. Over the last few years, he would
periodically come to a Boy Scout meet
ing and tell our guys about his days in
Scouts in the 1950s in Jefferson and how
things had changed.
In 2003, when we were building the
Scout Hut out on Old Swimming Pool
Road, Frank was a huge help in gath
ering history about the troop and in
allowing us to borrow old troop photos
to copy and frame in the Scout Hut.
(Ironically, his old troop met just a few
feet from the current Scout Hut location.)
Frank was always willing to help our
Scouts and sometimes participated in
our programs. I know my oldest son
was very proud to have “Mr. Frank” —
Jefferson’s first Eagle Scout — participate
in his own Eagle Scout ceremony last
year.
Over the years, Frank became a living
legend within our Scout troop. In addi
tion to being the troop’s first Eagle Scout,
he helped build Rainey Mountain Scout
Camp in Clayton that our boys attend
and had traveled to Philmont, N.M. for
the ultimate Scout adventure in back
packing.
What many didn’t know, however, was
that as an adult, Frank was a Scout lead
er in Winder and was highly honored for
his leadership skills.
Last week, while our boys were up at
the Scout camp Frank had helped build
in Clayton, I thought that it’d be nice to
bring him up to see the camp and the
changes that had taken place in recent
years. I’d planned to call him to see
when he might be available, but before I
got around to doing that, I received a text
message that he had been rushed to the
hospital in serious condition.
I’d waited too late.
Several years ago, I asked Frank to
write something for one of our Scout pro
grams. He closed with these words:
“Most of all, it was a time when we
built lifetime friendships and learned
that it is the little things that make life so
precious and rewarding. Scouting gave
me more in those early years than I
could put back in many years of service
as an adult Scouter. It was in Troop 158
that I began to learn that service to God,
country and other people is not only a
Scout’s duty, but a lifelong endeavor. ”
Mr. Frank’s “lifelong endeavor”
became an inspiration to many, many
others.
May he now find peace swimming in
the rivers and hiking among the moun-
taintops far, far above the clouds.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached at
mike@mainstreetnews. com.