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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2010
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
Time to stem
frat party
attitude
F OR a number of years, the
Jefferson Booster Club has
held an annual fund raising
event — Lucky Night Out — to raise
money for the school system’s ath
letic programs.
And it works. This year, the orga
nization raised some $27,000. That’s
a lot of money in this era of tight
school finances.
But there is an issue the JBC needs
to address in its fund raiser — the
“party” atmosphere of the event.
Everyone likes to have a good time.
Having the “Swingin’ Medallions”
play music and some notable ath
letes in attendance are all worthy of
the organization.
But the rather liberal attitude
toward alcohol consumption at LNO
could undermine the real focus of
the event.
That’s not a puritanical view.
Although this community is in the
Bible Belt, it has a rather relaxed
attitude toward alcohol use.
But like a lot of auction fund rais
ers, the subtle (sometimes not so
subtle) encouraging of alcohol con
sumption is just part of the game. A
well-lubricated crowd is one that will
bid higher and spend more money.
That’s the nature of these kinds of
events.
Still, there have to be limits. As
was evident at the recent LNO, it
only takes a few people to imbibe
too much to create problems and
in the process, detract from the real
focus of the fund raiser.
For one thing, this event is held
in a public facility and is open to
anyone who buys a ticket. It’s not a
closed party of just a few people; the
entire community is invited.
But even more important, the
event is connected to a school and
its functions. Although it’s a pri
vate organization, the JBC is mar
ried to the Jefferson City School
System. What the JBC does reflects
on the system. With the problems
of teenage alcohol abuse pervasive
in society the JBC has to be very
careful about what kind of message
it sends.
For the future, leaders of the JBC
should find a way to moderate the
frat party atmosphere of its fund rais
ing. While the event is BYOB, some
effort at reasonable control over
alcohol consumption should be
taken by JBC leaders. The organiza
tion cannot claim it has no respon
sibility in that matter; it provides the
forum and atmosphere at which this
takes place.
The JBC is a good organization
that has its heart in the right place.
For its own image in the commu
nity leaders should ensure that in
the future, a small number of people
don’t undermine its core mission.
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
Agrees with commissioner Smith
Dear Editor:
I totally agree with Commissioner Dwain Smith in his position about the drug policy issue
and the hiring of a consultant to update the drug policy.
Since the county has a Human Resources Director, there is no reason that this project
could not be handled by her and her department unless she is not qualified to have the posi
tion of Human Resources Director. I do not believe that she would have this position unless
she was qualified to be in it.
According to the article, a drug policy from the Association of County Commissioners of
Georgia could be used as a guide. I believe that this guide should be used by the Director
and then it could be reviewed by the County Attorney thereby saving the county most if not
all of the $6,500 price tag for the consultant. Why spend that kind of money when it is NOT
NECESSARY.
Hats off to Commissioner Smith for looking out for the taxpayer’s money.
Sincerely,
Cecil VanDyke
Talmo
Hours shouldn’t be cut for Maysville Police
Dear Editor:
The recent news concerning possible reduction of hours for the Maysville Police
Department should be a cause of concern for all citizens.
For the safety of citizens who reside in Maysville, the Maysville City Council should not con
sider cutting any hours — or even one minute — from our police department. Citizen safety
should be the No. 1 priority for city officials and cutting police department hours would in no
way help in keeping citizens and their property safe.
Crime can happen at any hour of the day or night. Just because it doesn’t typically happen
at a certain time doesn’t mean it won’t in the future.
While it may be true we are facing a budget crunch and some areas may need to be cut, to
even consider eliminating patrol hours for the police department — regardless of the time — is
not a solution. It is not one that even needs to be considered.
City officials are supposed to look out for the well being and safety of the citizens they rep
resent and this would not be doing so.
I hate to think what might happen if a Maysville citizen needed police assistance and
the response time was delayed, even by a couple of minutes, because the Maysville Police
Department operating hours had been cut. It would be the City Council who would be
responsible in that event.
Sincerely,
Pam Yarbrough
Maysville
Candidates try ‘do it yourself fund raising
WHEN Eric Johnson, a Republican candi
date for governor, filed his latest disclosure
report last week, he was proud of the fact
that his campaign had brought in more than
$685,000 during the months of January,
February and March.
“Generous supporters from across the
state continue to provide our campaign the
resources we need to share our plans to put
Georgia back to work
directly with voters,”
Johnson said. “With
this strong report and
our first television ad
airing in markets across
the state, we’ve got the
wind in our sails and
the path to victory in
front of us.”
There was a similar
sense of pride displayed
by Doug MacGinnitie, a
Republican candidate
for secretary of state,
when he reported the
amount of money his campaign raised.
“We currently have almost $700,000 cash
on hand,” MacGinnitie said in an email. “Just
looking at primary funds, we have almost
a 4-to-l cash-on-hand advantage over our
opponent.”
What neither candidate mentioned was
that the totals they were reporting did not all
come from outside contributors. A large part
of their campaign money came right out of
their own pockets.
Johnson’s first quarter total included a
$250,000 loan he took out. When you sub
tract that loan, his contributions actually
totaled $435,313.
MacGinnitie has made two loans to his
campaign treasury so far: a $50,000 loan
disclosed in his last June and a $430,000
loan disclosed in the year-end report for
2009. The $480,000 in loans comprises
more than 60 percent of the $793,098 that
MacGinnitie claims to have raised for his
primary campaign against Secretary of State
Brian Kemp.
The fundraising statements of Johnson and
MacGinnitie drew some pointed responses
from their opponents.
Tim Fleming, Kemp’s campaign manager,
said of MacGinnitie: “The reality is that his
suspect loans and overhyped emails can’t
buy him love from Republican voters across
Georgia. He has no grassroots network state
wide or any measurable support from local
leaders.”
Dan McLagan, the media spokesman
for Republican candidate Karen Handel,
complained about the Johnson report to
Savannah Morning News reporter Larry
Peterson: “Eric played you and everybody
else. He posted his report so late because
he didn’t want you to know that he took a
$250,000 loan ... He raised basically the
same as us.”
McLagan’s charges prompted this response
from Johnson campaign spokesman Ben
Fry: “To be lectured on transparency by a
candidate who has yet to release her income
tax returns, as Eric has done, is ridiculous.”
McLagan’s statement that Handel raised
“basically the same” amount of money as
Johnson isn’t completely accurate. Handel
reported $380,633 in outside contributions
during the first quarter, which was still about
$55,000 less than what Johnson raised.
Johnson and MacGinnitie are hardly alone
in providing their own money for their elec
tion efforts. Other candidates are also self
financing their campaigns.
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine
and former congressman Nathan Deal, two
Republicans in the governor’s race, arranged
lines of credit with Georgia banks in January
that provided $250,000 in financial resources
to each campaign.
The campaign of Republican contender
Austin Scott has taken on $119,225 in debt,
while Democratic candidate David Poythress
took on $223,000 in campaign debt.
The ultimate example of self-financing
comes from Ray Boyd, a Morgan County
real estate businessman who announced
last week he will run in the GOP primary for
governor and promptly contributed $2 mil
lion of his own money to the campaign.
Candidates are more willing to self-finance
this year for the simple reason that they have
to. The recession has dried up the pool of
political dollars that have normally come
from such sources as lobbyists and business
executives. The political fat cats are a lot
skinnier this year.
A comparison with earlier campaign cycles
shows a dramatic reduction in what candi
dates can raise from their contributors.
At this point in the 2002 governor’s race,
Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes had
raised nearly $10 million. At this point in the
2006 governor’s race, Republican incumbent
Sonny Perdue had raised more than $8.6
million.
By contrast, this year’s leading fundraiser,
Barnes, has only pulled in a shade more
than $3.6 million.
It’s obvious that the money just isn’t there
for many of the candidates. That’s why
they’re reaching into their own pockets.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia
Report. He can be reached at tcrawford®
capitolimpact. net.
Who to fear:
Tea Partiers or
extreme Left?
S O WHY is it that Tea Party members who
loudly protest the decisions of the Obama
Administration are portrayed as a bunch of
neo-Klan-Nazi-Nuts and those who rioted and killed
53 people in the aftermath of the Rodney King ver
dict were excused as just being angry?
There’s a real social/cultural/political imbal
ance here in the wake of opposition to President
Obama’s policies. Those who disagree with him,
especially members of the Tea Party movement, get
painted as nutty by members of the Left.
Yet for all its rhetoric, the Tea Party movement
has fomented little real
violence. Some are on
the political fringe, but
overall that movement
is made up of average,
middle-class people
who are tired of paying
high taxes to support
government elites.
How soon we forget.
It was just a generation
ago that members of
the political Left were
rioting in the streets,
burning cars, taking
over university build
ings with sit-ins, and
spitting on returning
soldiers. Opposition to the Vietnam War was their
cause celebre and anything they did was justified
as being acceptable because it was to stop the war.
(Remember the Weather Underground and other
left-wing terrorists?)
Can you imagine what would happen today
if members of the Tea Party movement rioted,
burned cars and held sit-ins? They’d all be arrested
as domestic terrorists and thrown under the jail.
As it is, if they shout at a Congressman for his
support of Obama, they’re portrayed as thugs.
There’s a clear double standard here and it
has dangerous overtones for our nation. Political
speech and opposition is a two-way street; if the
Left can hurl insults at the Tea Party people, why
can’t the Tea Partiers hurl insults back to the
Lefties?
There are two levels at play here. First, the Left is
an elitist movement made up of those who believe
themselves to be superior to the rabble of average
citizens. Nowhere is that more apparent than on
college campuses where political correctness is
viral. On many campuses, free speech is being
killed by the Left; they simply won’t tolerate any
view that is different from their own elite liberal
opinions.
To a large extent, the Left’s elitism comes from
the two coasts and large cities where liberalism is
fashionable. Middle America, both geographically
and politically, simply doesn’t exist in their minds,
and if it does, it’s always looked down on. The aver
age farmer in Iowa is far more foreign to a liberal
New Yorker than all the foreign immigrants that city
absorbs.
But the election of President Obama has
also brought another, uglier level to this debate.
Although few dare talk about it, the racial divide
plays a large role in today’s caustic political environ
ment.
On the political Right, many see ObamaCare as
just another scheme to redistribute wealth in the
country by taking from achievers and distributing
to the poor, many of whom are non-white. True or
not, President Obama tends to cater to that mental
ity by attacking the wealthy and taxing them more
as a means to fund his health care plans for the
poor. Today, 10 percent of top taxpayers pay 70 per
cent of federal taxes; nearly 50 percent of citizens
pay no taxes at all.
On the political Left, too many politicians play the
race card on every issue. Among the Left, the Tea
Party movement is characterized again and again
as an “all-white” movement, as if it were the Klan in
Bermuda shorts carrying signs rather than burning
crosses.
In effect, the Left is attempting to discredit and
marginalize the right-of-center Tea Party movement
by portraying it as a group of people to be feared.
But the scary thing here isn’t loud Tea Party pro
testers; the really scary thing is the political Left,
which would like to squelch speech it doesn’t agree
with.
Although the Left was very critical of President
Bush and his wiretaps, the Left also abuses free
speech through the use of intimidation to silence
political speech it doesn’t like. That’s how the term
“hate speech” got started. Lefties think people who
disagree with them foment hate speech.
This is dangerous for the nation. It isn’t a large
step from attacking “hate speech” to a government
attacking and regulating any speech it doesn’t like.
Some of the Tea Party folks may be a little on the
fringe. But they aren’t the real extremists in today’s
political culture: That designation belongs to the
Left and to Obamanites who seek to intimidate and
regulate anyone who dares challenge their demi
god and his policies.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald.
He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
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mike
buffington