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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 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
Was Iraq war
worth it?
C OMBAT troops have
officially left Iraq, but
Americans still wonder if
that war was worth it.
Is there a single rock in Iraq
worth the lives of several thou
sand American soldiers who died
there? Was it worth the billions of
American tax dollars spent there?
A dictator was removed from
power, but what now?
It will be many years before
a final judgment can be given.
Military success in subduing that
country may be short-lived. The
dream of having Iraq as a demo
cratic country in the Middle East
has yet to be realized.
And then there are the unin
tended consequences. In warring
with Iraq, the U.S. took a counter
balance to Iran out of the picture.
Did that contribute to Iran’s current
move toward acquiring a nuclear
arsenal?
It may be that history will judge
the American venture into Iraq as
having been the right move at the
right time.
Or maybe not. More likely, this
costly war will be just a footnote
to history, a short-term conflict that
will, in the long run, make little dif
ference to the security of America.
That over 4,000 American sol
diers gave their lives for that should
give us all pause.
Cutting teen
pregnancy rate
THE Northeast Georgia Health
District has proposed that local
school systems move beyond an
abstinence-only curriculum and
become more aggressive in pro
viding birth control information to
help prevent teen pregnancies.
It appears such a move is needed
in Jackson County where teen preg
nancies are at a Third World rate.
Over the last decade, public
opinion has shifted on this issue.
Once controversial, providing infor
mation on birth control in public
schools is now more accepted.
A recent online poll by this news
paper indicated that 69 percent
of those responding thought more
birth control information should be
presented in local schools.
Of course, education alone won’t
prevent teen pregnancies. Parents
must also be involved and peer
pressure issues also need to be
addressed.
Still, in light of the terribly high
local teen pregnancy rate, a more
aggressive effort to stem that prob
lem should be considered.
It’s better than doing nothing.
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
Ben Muro Sports Editor
Kerri Testement Reporter
Sharon Hogan Reporter
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letters
Concerned about
handicap accessibility
Dear Editor:
The downtown square in Jefferson has one whole
side that is non-handicapped accessible. As for the
sidewalks they do have, you can’t get up on them and
the sidewalk is so bad you can’t drive down them. I’ve
filed police reports and they do nothing from them.
Also, the Shell station is blocking a business with their
ice machine and propane tanks. There’s several other
businesses with no entrance for me.
Sincerely,
Clyde Boutwell
Upset with DOT
not allowing sign
Dear Editor:
How can the Georgia Department of Transportation
take about 10 feet of my property to make a “driveway”
for me that turns out to be an “access road” to the
Nicholson water tower and five other homes? How can
this “driveway” be used for horseback riders and four-
wheelers and a “speed trap” for clocking speeders on
Highway 441?
How can the Georgia Department of Transportation
tell my realtor “NO” to putting up a FOR SALE sign on
top of this mountain I live on since the highway went
four lanes yet they won’t even cut the grass? I bet if I put
the sign up anyway, they’d be too lazy to drive up here
and take it down!!!
My dying father made these deals with the D.O.T.
because he was a nice man who believed in looking
someone in the eye and a handshake. My neighbor
next door has fought tooth and nail and is still fighting.
1 don’t have the money for an attorney. I just want to
sell my property because 1 can’t afford the taxes now
that it’s road frontage and my ex-husband needs a liver
transplant and he can’t make the mortgage payments
required in the divorce.
So, Mr. D.O.T. Man who told my realtor “NO” to put
ting up a FOR SALE sign along this ugly guard rail on my
“driveway,” thank you very much!
By the way, I live at 3284 US Hwy. 441 South,
Commerce.
Sincerely,
Beverly Blalock
Concerned with changes
in medical coverage
Dear Editor:
The exodus from Medicare and the limitation/trans
formation of medical care to patients with all other
types of medical insurance has begun.
I received a letter on August 22, 2010, from my physi
cian of 20 years. He is in a group practice of six doctors
in Athens, Georgia. The letter was signed by all of them.
Follows is a direct quote from the letter.
“With sincere regret we want to inform you that after
December 31, 2010, we will no longer be participating
in the Medicare program. We have been contemplat
ing our group’s ability to continue to provide a high
quality of care in this climate of a struggling economy
and government rules and regulations surrounding the
Medicare program. It is no longer possible to comply
with these increasingly stringent requirements under
the current system.”
Another defection from a group practice in Atlanta,
Georgia:
This group announced that they are closing their
existing practice of 1,500 patients and opening a new
VIP practice limited to a maximum of 600 patients.
To be a patient in the new practice requires a $1,500
per year fee on top of normal medical fees. They will
accept Medicare patients who pay the annual fee. Cost/
inefficiency of the Obama healthcare program and its
impact on quality medical care and proper medical
treatments was given as the reason for restructuring
their medical practice.
Many of their current patients, who cannot afford
the annual fee, are finding that they are being rejected
by other physicians who are no longer accepting new
Medicare patients.
The mantra “change you can count on”...YOU BET!
Sincerely,
Nancy Houston
Maysville, Georgia
I used to look forward to Labor Day.
Now X just look for work."
Here’s one way to raise graduation rates
ONE of the criticisms you’ll often hear of Georgia is
the low percentage of students who stay the course in
high school and graduate with a diploma.
Independent estimates from
such outside organizations as
the Southern Regional Education
Board put the state’s high school
graduation rate at 65 percent or
lower, which should be distress
ing to anyone who’s concerned
about Georgia’s future prosper
ity-
Fortunately, we have some
smart people serving in the
General Assembly who have put
a lot of thought into this question
and come up with a solution:
we can improve the high school
graduation rate by lowering edu
cational standards and making it easier for students to
get a diploma.
Brilliant idea! Why didn’t I think of that?
Rep. Steve Davis (R-McDonough), who’s in the real
estate business in Henry County, introduced legisla
tion last year that would move the state toward this
goal. Davis’ bill, known as HB 215, would require the
Department of Education to provide alternative diplo
mas for students to choose as they enter the ninth
grade: a college preparation diploma with course
requirements similar to what we have now and a
career/vocational/technical diploma that would require
fewer courses than for a college prep diploma.
Davis’ bill would also create a “general diploma” that
students could choose. This would only require you to
pass 18 classroom credits, as opposed to 23 for a col
lege prep diploma. Students would not have to be both
ered with taking so many of those boring courses in
math, science, and English. Best of all, students would
only have to attend high school for three years rather
than four to graduate.
If you make it easier for a teenager to get a diploma
by taking fewer courses and only going to school for
three years, you’re obviously going to have more kids
graduating. Whether they will graduate with a level of
knowledge that enables them to get a job making more
than the minimum wage is another matter entirely.
Davis insisted he is not trying to “dumb down the
system or anything to that effect,” but he acknowledged
that one of his goals is to try to improve the state’s
graduation rate.
In Davis’ opinion, all this talk about the importance of
going to college is really a little bit elitist.
“You cannot have an army with nothing but generals,”
he said. “You have to have cooks, drivers, infantrymen,
people like that. I don’t think you’re less of a person if
you don’t go to college.”
Davis said his bill helps in another problem area: the
low SAT exam scores that consistently rank Georgia in
the bottom 10 percent of the states. He theorized that if
more students chose to pursue a general diploma, you
would not have as many low-performing teenagers tak
ing the SAT exam, which means the average test score
would probably increase.
HB 215 is being seriously considered by a legislative
committee that began holding hearings on it last week.
There was some pushback at that hearing from educa
tion officials, especially those who have been trying to
make the state’s graduation requirements more rigorous
so that students are better prepared for life after getting
out of high school.
“This is not about trying to send every child through a
one-size-fits all college track diploma,” said Brad Bryant,
the interim state school superintendent. “We want to
make sure there’s a baseline knowledge.”
Bryant said the “unified” diploma currently offered to
high school graduates has numerous options besides
college prep that students can choose. “In the current
graduation rule, there is the ability to do what you want
to accomplish,” he told legislators.
Martha Reichrath, an assistant state superintendent,
said representatives of the armed services have often
told the Department of Education “to keep our core
standards rigorous” so that students with a high school
diploma will still be able to qualify for the military.
Who knows? Maybe Davis is right - but maybe he isn’t
going far enough. Let’s go ahead and pass a bill that
would confer a high school diploma on every student
who finishes the eighth grade. That would give Georgia
a graduation rate close to 100 percent and make us the
envy of every other state in the nation.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report. He
can be reached at tcrawford@8areDort. com.
Beck gives voice
to frustrations
I ’M NOT a Glenn Beck fan.
Too weepy. Too creepy. And
yet one has to admire the
Foxcaster’s ability to motivate his
audience, as he did last Saturday
at the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington D.C. where he pulled
over 100,000 people for what some
attendees describe as a religious
revival.
Like him or not, Beck and his
cohorts
have
tapped
into a
deep
vein of
public
discon
tent.
A sig
nificant
number
of
people
believe
the U.S.
is a
nation in
decline. Beck’s ability to frame that
frustration and articulate it makes
him a leading voice on the political
right.
Unlike some of his fellow
Foxcasters, Beck is mostly non
partisan in his discussion of
American politics and culture. He’s
angry with both political parties, a
sentiment shared by many of his
followers.
And yet, Beck isn’t really blaz
ing new trails with his call for the
nation to turn to God for some kind
of social-political-cultural redemp
tion. That has been done over the
centuries by other religious lead
ers, sometimes to the detriment of
society. Once people begin to think
others are wicked, all kinds of nasti
ness can happen.
And yet, it is these small, but
organized protests that often
determine the fate of history. Only
a third of Colonists were rebels,
yet they threw off the British yoke
in what amounted to a civil war
as they also fought their Loyalists
neighbors.
The Obama Administration
would be wise to heed the back
lash of Beck and his kin. Although
they often dismiss conservatives as
either “greedy” or nutty, the Obama
Administration would be foolish
to think Beck is just another nut.
He may be a nut, but he’s a damn
smart one.
With the election of President
Obama, the nation took a giant
stride to the Left. Now, people are
uneasy with that move and sense
that Mr. Obama really doesn’t
know what he’s doing.
He’s doing the opposite of what
should be done, and many citizens
know it. No new jobs can be cre
ated in such an unstable political-
economic environment.
Better than most, Beck articu
lates that. He has no inherent
power; Beck is just a TV broad
caster.
But he does have a soapbox and
he knows how to use it, as last
Saturday proved.
People are frustrated with
America’s leaders. Washington has
always been an “insider’s” town,
but today more than ever before it
is totally disconnected from reality.
If the Obama Administration
doesn’t move back toward the
political center, it will crash and
burn between now and 2012. The
upcoming November elections will
be a watershed test of that.
But Republicans need not cheer
too much. The same forces that
are now slamming the Democratic
Party will soon hit them as well.
America is in revolt, not with
arms, but with the ballot box. And
while many slam the political Right
for its sometimes goofy world view,
it takes a few articulate nuts at the
political extremes to keep the politi
cal pendulum somewhere close to
the center.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached
at mike@mainstreetnews.com.