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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
The real problems are in our backyard
Forget Kim Jong Un and his missiles.
Forget Russian meddling in elections and foment
ing unrest around the
world.
Forget James
Comey’s firing and the
chaos that has gripped
Washington D.C. over
the last five months.
Those aren’t our
problems.
Well, they may
become our problems,
but there’s nothing
we can do to have an
impact on any of those
things.
If Kim Jong Un wants
to drop a nuke on our
heads, we can’t stop
him.
If President Tmmp wants to tweet out nonsense every
morning, nothing we can do about it.
If you want to know what our real problems are, prob
lems that we have some control over, look at the crime
reports in this newspaper.
Meth is taking over the area. We are being flooded
with this nasty drug in all corners of the community.
The abuse of prescription dmgs is growing. Is every
one hooked on something? Seems like it.
Domestic disputes and violence are epidemic in the
area, often fueled by dmgs and alcohol abuse that make
minor incidents into violent
blowups. Stranger on stranger
crime is rare here; in this com
munity, you better worry about
your friends, neighbors and
family members.
Mental illness is a huge
problem here. A lot of people
apparently aren’t getting the
kind of psychological medical
help they need. Suicides are
more common than we know.
Scammers are stealing thou
sands of dollars from people
in ways that make you wonder
how people are able to func
tion in the real world. Why
do people fall for what are
obviously fake phone calls
demanding money?
And just plain stupidity is rampant in the community.
Reading some of these local crime reports is like reading
the script to a bad episode of Dukes of Hazzard.
Here’s a few recent examples of the kinds of crazy
things that have become all too common:
• a man tried to run over a woman in the parking lot
of a grocery store after she told the driver to slow down.
The driver told the woman’s boyfriend he needed to
“control his girl,” then put the car in reverse and tried to
run her down.
• a woman gave scammers access to her bank
accounts via computer, then gave the scammers $1,000
in iTunes gift cards. All of that came after the scammers
said they were a business that owed her $200.
• a group of knuckleheads put a door on an old
recliner in their backyard and used it as target practice.
But they put the target in line with a neighbor’s house
and shot up her car. Another man at a different loca
tion, who is apparently mentally ill, was found shooting
randomly at houses in his neighborhood. Morons.
• a woman got dmnk on Cinco de Mayo, left her step
children in the middle of the road, then puked all over
a cop when he took her to the hospital. She wanted the
cop to sit in her lap, too.
• a man high on drugs who was hallucinating thought
a group of people were holding his wife hostage in the
crawlspace beneath his house.
• a mother and daughter got into a physical alterca
tion after the mom said the girl couldn’t take a trip to
Disney World after winning a Girl Scout cooking-selling
contest. The girl hadn’t done her homework.
• a woman stole a dress off a shelf at a store, put it on,
then squatted in the aisle and peed on the floor.
Have we become a community of idiots?
It seems so. One of the biggest complaints from area
employers is how undisciplined many employees have
become. Despite a very low unemployment rate, there
are jobs available locally.
But employers say that a lot of applicants can’t pass
a drug test, or they apply for jobs looking like they just
came off a 6-week drunk.
And once hired, too many employees show up for
work late, have high absenteeism, or can’t get along with
their co-workers.
To its credit, the Jackson County School System is
attempting to address some of these problems with
a new initiative that would function like a European
apprenticeship program with a combination of class
room instmction and real-world work.
As a part of that program, school officials want to
teach the “soft skills” that employers demand — show
ing up for work on time, doing basic personal grooming,
staying off drugs and learning to play nice with co
workers and customers.
But what does it say about the state of our culture
when schools have to teach the basic life skills that in
past generations were taught in the home?
People complain about the state of public education,
but public schools are often better than the idiotic home
conditions many kids have to
live in. All too often, a child’s
most stable time is when he or
she is in a classroom because
their home lives are filled with
turmoil fueled by addiction, low
education skills and a variety of
other dysfunctions.
Of course, unstable homes
aren’t something new. But years
ago, extended family members
would step in to provide some
sense of stability for kids caught
in a bad home environment.
That’s becoming rare today.
Too many extended families
either live distantly, or are also
screwed up.
What should we do about all
of this?
The proposed JCSS program is a step in the right
direction. Teach young people that work is more than
just about a specific skill, it’s about showing up.
The county dmg court is also a good effort, although it
is only scratching the surface of the booming drug addic
tion problem in the area.
We need a major expansion of social service pro
grams in the community.
More mental health services are needed, especially to
focus on suicide prevention.
More DFCS services and investigations are needed.
Current DFCS caseloads are crazy.
More social intervention programs are needed
through the schools to help guide kids who have ter
rible home lives. Mentoring programs help, but are not
enough to meet all the needs.
And unfortunately, we’re also going to need more law
enforcement and court services to deal with this growth
of dmg abuse and the resulting dysfunction it creates for
families.
None of this will be cheap. It will take a lot of money to
deal with addiction and the lack of social/cultural skills
that have become a plague in the area.
But whatever that cost, it will be cheaper in the long
mn than allowing another generation to sink into a
quicksand of destmctive behavior.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet
Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreet-
news.com.
state report
The contestants for
governor are lining up
BY TOM CRAWFORD
The dance card is filling up quickly for next year’s race for gover
nor.
If that seems a little early, it’s because it is. But that’s how the
political process rolls these days. We are in the era of the eternal
campaign.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has been planning this for the past 12 years —
that moment when he would finally launch his Republican campaign
for governor.
Cagle is pushing the kind of economic development issues you’d
expect: he wants to add 500,000 new jobs during his first term while
promoting a $100 million tax cut and developing a strategic plan for
Georgia’s transportation infrastructure.
In other words, he’s basically promising a third term of Nathan
Deal, but with some inflated promises about new jobs.
Katy Foody of the Associated Press did some digging into that
jobs pledge and reported: “State Department of Labor data shows
Georgia has added a net total of 267,100 jobs in the last decade,
accounting for the enormous job losses that followed the recession
that began in 2008. In the last six years, employers added nearly
518,000 jobs to help the state dig out from a deep hole.”
In short, it is not realistic to expect Cagle or any governor to add
500,000 jobs in four years.
Cagle is taking the Zell Miller approach to mnning for governor.
Miller served four terms as lieutenant governor while he awaited
his chance to mn for the state’s highest office, an opportunity that
finally came in 1990. Cagle has been lieutenant governor for three
terms as he piled up pledges and put the pieces together for a state
wide mn.
At this point, Cagle would be considered the front mnner in the
Republican primary, but he will definitely not have a cleared field.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp and state Sen. Hunter Hill (R-Atlanta)
are mnning, while state Sen. Michael Williams (R-Cumming) is mak
ing moves in that direction.
You may also see a couple of retired congressmen get into the GOP
primary race: Jack Kingston or Lynn Westmoreland.
On the Democratic side, House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams
(D-Atlanta) has already filed the paperwork to register a campaign
organization for the governor’s race next year.
Another potential Democratic candidate is state Rep. Stacey Evans
(D-Smyrna). Like Abrams, she is a talented young lawyer who has
shown some impressive potential in her four terms as a lawmaker.
Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, a Democratic officeholder
with a lot of upside, has taken herself out of the governor’s race but
says she is looking at a mn for the U.S. Senate in 2020.
Democrats will need to avoid a repeat of the debacle they suffered
in 2006, when their leading candidates in the governor’s primary
were Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox.
Taylor and Cox got tangled up in one of the most bitter primary
races ever, with Taylor eventually winning the nomination over Cox.
It was a pyrrhic victory, however. Taylor suffered a lot of political
damage and was subsequently destroyed by incumbent Gov. Sonny
Perdue in the general election.
One of the most intriguing possibilities out there involves Republican
strategist Nick Ayers, who has never mn for office himself but is said
to be considering the governor’s race.
Ayers got his start working for Sonny Perdue in the 2002 governor’s
race as a kid barely out of high school, and later made a name
for himself inside the Beltway through his work at the Republican
Governors Association.
He’s had some stumbles along the way, including a DUI arrest
and a stint with a presidential campaign for Tim Pawlenty that went
nowhere.
If Ayers does decide to mn, it would stir memories of another race
more than a decade ago when another political activist with no elec
tive experience decided to mn for statewide office.
That was Ralph Reed, the guy who put together the Christian
Coalition. Reed jumped into the 2006 race for lieutenant governor,
hoping to use his name recognition to win that office and then mn
for governor.
Reed got spanked in the Republican primary and never ran for
public office again. The person who beat him was a fellow named
... Casey Cagle.
And thus does our politics come full circle.
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an internet news
service at gareport.com that reports on state government and poli
tics. He can be reached at tcrawford@gareport.com.
Reading some of
these local crime
reports is like
reading the
script to a bad
episode of Dukes
of Hazzard.
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875
Merged with The Commerce News 2017
The Official Legal Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Herman Buffington, Publisher 1965-2005
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager
Angela Gary Associate Editor Features
Alex Pace Braselton News Editor
Ron Bridgeman Reporter
Ben Munro Sports Editor
Charles Phelps Sports Reporter
Wesleigh Sagon Photographer/Features
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