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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 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
Dr. Obama
putting on
the glove
T HE problems surround
ing President Obama’s
bid to reform health care
are so numerous that the entire
effort should be put on ice until
more sensible leaders emerge.
It’s not an easy or simplistic
issue. There are a number of
problems with the current health
care system, not the least of which
is rising costs that outpace the
general inflation rate.
In reality that is everybody’s
fault.
Some hospitals and medical
institutions advocate far too many
procedures, in part due to fear of
malpractice lawsuits and in part to
generate income to pay for high-
priced equipment.
Some insurance companies
play far too many games with their
customers, selecting the “healthy”
to cover while denying coverage
to those who are actually sick.
Government bureaucrats often
meddle too much in the health
care system, blocking the way for
reasonable testing of promising
new products and adding a layer
of regulatory costs to all health
care providers.
And finally the American peo
ple are to blame. Smoking, drug
abuse, obesity and other self-
inflicted actions cause a large per
centage of the nation’s healthcare
problems. And some people are
addicted to doctors, going to the
ER every time they get a runny
nose.
But as bad as the current system
may be, the ObamaCare propos
als would only make it worse. The
two main problems are quality of
care and the costs of his grandi
ose plans.
Whatever the final version of
ObamaCare, it will include the
rationing of healthcare. To an
extent, that’s being done now by
some insurance firms that refuse
to pay for needed treatments.
But under ObamaCare, those
decisions would be made by
government, not patients and
their doctors. Some government
committee would decide if you
“deserve” to get the care your doc
tor recommends, thus injecting a
large dose of politics and potential
corruption into the health care
system.
As for the costs, Mr. Obama
seems not to care very much how
his grand plans are paid for. But
the truth is, paying for govern
ment rationed health care would
fall mainly on the backs of small
businesses who can least afford
it. (That’s why Wal-Mart endorses
Mr. Obama’s plans; it’s a back
door way for the mega retailer to
force out smaller competitors so
it can dominate the market even
more.)
Small businesses provide most
of the jobs in this nation, but under
ObamaCare, many will have to
close their doors. The resulting
economic turmoil of ObamaCare
will make the current recession
look like a walk in the park.
Everyone wants better and
cheaper healthcare, but they want
it to be paid for by someone else.
There’s no free system; some
body has to pay in the end.
So bend over; that snapping
sound you heard was Dr. Obama
and Congress putting on their
gloves to solve your health care
problems.
letters
Superintendent explains AYP results
Dear Editor:
The latest Adequate Yearly Progress designations
have been announced and all of us in the school sys
tem are disappointed that we have a couple of blem
ishes on our record this year. I felt that it was impor
tant to communicate the details of our accountability
situation so that the community will understand the
exact nature of our status.
The first problem stems from the fact that one
of the subgroups (economically disadvantaged) at
Jackson County Comprehensive High School did
not achieve the necessary level of performance on
the English/Language Arts portion of the graduation
test. Therefore, JCCHS did not make AYP. Dr. Todd
McGhee and his administrative staff and teachers are
working diligently to put a plan in place to alleviate
that particular shortcoming.
The second problem is related to the graduation
rate for the school system. Because the Regional
Evening School, which served students from a num
ber of different school systems, did not have enough
students to be considered as a separate and distinct
school site, their graduation rate results were thrown
in with those from the entire school system. The
students enrolled in the RES are consistently harder
to track than students in a traditional high school set
ting, and when the figures were combined, the system
graduation rate dropped to 70.8 percent, which is
below the established target of 75 percent. Since this
is the second consecutive year that we have had an
issue with the high school graduation rate, we will be
categorized as a “Needs Improvement” system. East
Jackson Comprehensive High School does not enter
into the mix at all since they will not have an official
graduation rate for two more years.
1 know the rules, and 1 accept and acknowledge the
fact that we came up a little short on the graduation
rate. However, I also think it is important to recognize
the efforts of the faculty and staff at JCCHS in bring
ing about a significant improvement over previous
graduation rate results. Last year’s final number was
67.4 percent and the JCCHS number considered sepa
rately this year was 78.2 percent. That’s an unheard
of increase, and obviously would have met the 75
percent target.
1 don’t want to come across as a “whiner and com-
plainer,” but I truly believe that for our system to be
on the “NI list” is in no way indicative of the things
that are happening in our schools, all of our schools,
on a daily basis. Nevertheless, we are where we are,
and we will all work even harder to assure that we are
doing the best possible job for our students.
The “No Child Left Behind” legislation along with
AYP and related requirements are complicated at
best. I would encourage anyone who has questions
or concerns to contact me directly, and I will be glad
to discuss the topic further.
Sincerely,
Dr. Shannon Adams
Superintendent
Jackson County Schools
Says quick response in
emergency saves lives
Dear Editor:
On May 28, our father experienced sudden cardiac
arrest in the Walmart in Commerce. Thanks to the
attention and quick response of so many people, he
is alive today.
Many individuals who thought they entered the store
as shoppers suddenly became emergency caregivers.
A young boy first spotted our dad and alerted his
mom. The mom directed someone to call 911 and
assembled individuals skilled in CPR. The Banks
County EMS technicians arrived within minutes and
started defibrillation. No time was wasted. All acted
quickly to save a life.
Our father, Fred Loggins Jr., and our entire family,
want to thank the boy, six-year-old Jacob Poole, and
his mom, Robin Poole, of Gillsville, for recognizing
the severity of the situation and who acted quickly to
get help. We want to thank the individuals who per
formed CPR. Early CPR is critical with cardiac arrest
and these individuals were the lifeline until emergency
care arrived.
We want to thank the following Banks County EMTs:
Terry Dailey, Scotty Mathis and Stan Wooten. They
worked diligently to resuscitate him and did not give
up on bringing him back.
This experience has opened our eyes to the impor
tance of CPR training and the need for automated
external defibrillators (AEDs). Cardiac arrest can be
reversed if it’s treated within a few minutes with an
electric shock to the heart to restore a normal heart
beat. This process is called defibrillation. A victim’s
chances of survival are reduced by seven to 10 per
cent with every minute that passes without CPR and
defibrillation.
We hope that this event helps others see the impor
tance of CPR training and the need for automated
external defibrillators (AEDs). Our story had a happy
ending because people were willing to get involved.
Sincerely,
Larry Loggins, Scherry L. Lewis and Pam L. McGee
Lake ruling could swamp North Georgia
tom
crawford
THAT GURGLING sound you hear is the sound of
metro Atlanta’s economic prospects going down the
drain.
That prospect is more likely now with the mling from
federal Judge Paul Magnuson
that the Army Corps of Engineers
never had the legal authority to
allow Atlanta to withdraw water
from Lake Lanier.
This was not a surprise to those
who’ve been paying attention.
Georgia has been squabbling
with Alabama and Florida for
years over the Lanier issue and it
was inevitable that at some point
the courts were going to step in
and turn off the faucet.
Our elected leadership has had
years to do something about this
possibility. Environmentalists
have been urging the governor and Legislature to get
serious about requiring water conservation and stop
ping their developer friends from building subdivisions
and shopping malls wherever they pleased.
The leadership didn’t heed that advice, convinced
that they would always be able to rely on the Lanier res
ervoir to provide water for those developments growing
like a cancer around the metro area.
Judge Magnuson was aware of this cozy relation
ship between politicians and developers, noting in his
decision, “Too often, state, local and even national
government actors do not consider the long-term con
sequences of their decisions. Local governments allow
unchecked growth because it increases tax revenue,
but these same governments do not sufficiently plan for
the resources such unchecked growth will require.”
“The big money development boomers have been
paying big bucks for the fantasy that they would
never have to face this reality,” House Minority Leader
DuBose Porter said. “The federal court has said, in
effect, time to close the story book - Humpty Dumpty
has had a great fall.”
Gov. Sonny Perdue, as he sometimes does in these
situations, got angry at the judge rather than acknowl
edge his own shortcomings.
“I am deeply disappointed by Judge Magnuson’s deci
sion,” Perdue said. “I will use this opportunity not only
to appeal the judge’s decision but, most importantly,
to urge Congress to address the realities of modern
reservoir usage,”
Somebody needs to tell Perdue that his good friend
George W. Bush is no longer president and his political
party is no longer the majority party in Congress.
The state’s ability to draw water from Lanier hinges
on its success in persuading Congress to pass legisla
tion within three years authorizing those withdrawals.
Unfortunately for Georgia, nine of its 15 congressional
members are Republicans at a time when Democrats
have the majority. Two of its Democratic House mem
bers, Jim Marshall and John Barrow, might as well be
Republicans because they’re more likely to vote with
the GOP than with their own caucus.
The Republicans in the state’s congressional delega
tion are in an especially weak position when it comes to
asking for help from the majority Democrats.
Rep. Paul Broun is a loudmouth who makes crazy
statements comparing Barack Obama to Hitler.
Reps. Tom Price, Lynn Westmoreland and Jack
Kingston don’t accomplish much legislatively because
they devote their energies to mocking and taunting the
Democratic leadership. That may give them a lot of
personal satisfaction, but it also means they won’t get
any sympathy when they ask Democrats to help them
on the water issue.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss would rather spend his time
securing farm subsidy payments and pork-barrel
defense contracts for his lobbyist buddies than work
on something as boring as water policy.
Rep. Nathan Deal is one of the more rational voices
on his side of the aisle, but he’s leaving Congress to run
for governor. Sen. Johnny Isakson will at least listen
to reason, but his party is now down to 40 seats in the
Senate and that number seems to keep shrinking.
Georgia’s prospects for getting congressional permis
sion to use Lanier can be boiled down to this: We’re
sunk.
Perdue is either unwilling or incapable of doing any
thing - outside of complaining in press releases - that
will address the issue that becomes more urgent by
the day.
We should all hope that whoever is elected governor
next year will sit down with the legislative leadership
and start making those hard decisions on conserving
water and limiting development that might enable the
state to continue using Lanier.
The hour is getting very late, however, and they are
running out of time.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s
Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@
caDitolimDact.net.
Moonwalk 1969
[ ALWAYS wanted to be an astro
naut. As a child of the 1960s, I was
imbued with the culture of space-
flight, which was the dominant scientific
effort of that era.
And not just scientific; it was a great
political, cultural, military and educa
tional awakening, driven in large part by
Cold War fears of Soviet conquest.
But there was another dimension, one
that is difficult to understand if you didn’t
live through the space era. There was a
pride, a can-
do spirit that
was in part
captured in
Tom Wolfe’s
“Right Stuff”
book.
Looking
back this
week at
the 40th
anniversary
of the first
time man
stood on
the moon,
the current
era seems so
remote from 1969. Gone is the frontier
spirit that led a bunch of 20 and 30-year-
olds to, in a eight brief years, go from
nothing to having men walk on the
moon.
Can you imagine that now? Eight
years? Government today can’t even
pave a road in eight years, much less put
a man on the moon.
And those bright young engineers
did it with virtually nothing. The entire
Houston space center’s computing
power was less than one of today’s lap
tops. The spaceship’s computer had less
power than our cell phones.
Yet from from such meager technol
ogy came mankind’s greatest achieve
ment. Little of our era will be remem
bered in 500 or 1,000 years, but man
going to the moon will be remembered
forever.
My own memory of that amazing
era goes back to the early 1960s when
spaceflight was brand new and our
kindergarten teacher had us watch John
Glenn and other astronaut pioneers
make those first tentative launches into
space.
And then there was the flight of
Apollo 8, the first manned spaceship to
circle the moon. It was Christmas Eve,
December 24, 1968, and everyone in the
nation was at home watching the events
on television.
As the spacecraft re-emerged from
the backside of the moon, it broadcast
the now famous “earthrise” of the green
and blue earth rising above the desolate
lunar surface.
As the image appeared on the televi
sion screens, the astronauts read from
the “creation,” the first 10 verses of
Genesis. It was a profoundly moving
moment.
Seven months later came Apollo 11,
the first moon landing. Just about every
one in the world was watching as Neil
Armstrong stepped out of the space
craft and set foot on another world.
Unforgettable.
In time, interest in science and space
waned. Our culture changed from
heroes seeking accomplishment to jerks
seeking celebrity.
But for those of us of a certain age,
the events of July 1969 are indelible.
And for those who weren’t around
for that momentous time and who have
been raised under a different culture,
remember this: Michael Jackson did not
do the first moonwalk.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached at
mike@mainstreetnews. com.
mike
buffington
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