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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 2023)
PAGE 4A THE JACKSON HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2023 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”- Henry W a i d Beeche r Over the last 20 years, I’ve written this kind of column sev eral times. Time to do it again. Most of the population growth in this area comes from new residents moving in. That influx of “newcomers” creates an interesting dynamic for the commu nity, especially as it sometimes chal lenges long-held local views and ways of doing business. I should preface this by saying that to some, I’m still a “newcomer.” Although I moved to the area as a child 59 years ago, that’s piddling compared to some local family roots. By comparison, my wife, Alex, is the sixth generation of her family to live in the area. There are oth er families I know whose local roots go back to the late 1700s. That kind of deep roots isn’t all good. Sometimes, commu nities get set in their ways and refuse to change. A “this is the way we’ve always done it” mentality often blinds community leaders to new opportunities. Community “elites” resist any thing that might challenge their privileged position. So, I’ve always appreciated the energy and ideas that new residents bring to the community. By challenging the status quo, they often force local leaders to rethink old assumptions and they often bring a more diverse plate of ideas to the table. • •• But sometimes, new citizens bring more hot air than light to an issue. I say that because our reporters cover a lot of government meetings each month, from county governments and city gov ernments, to school boards and other government agencies. From that vantage point of sitting through so many meet ings, we get to see a parade of local leaders and local citizens as they interact with each other. It ain’t always pretty. Increasingly, local government meetings have become fo rums where new residents display an appalling lack of knowl edge about an issue, or make self-serving declarations. And the level of citizen arrogance has increased, too, as some new residents seem to think they’re the smartest person in the room. • •• Typically, I use this space to comment, often critically, about how local governments are acting. This week, I’m going to switch that up and give some very candid advice to newcom ers who show up to comment at a public meeting. If you’re easily offended, don’t read the rest of this column: Advice to newcomers 1. Don’t tell a local government board that you moved to the area from Gwinnett County to get away from growth. What you really did is move to one of the fastest-growing sub urban regions in the nation. If you wanted to get away from growth, you should have moved much further away from the sprawling Metro Atlanta area. And let’s be clear, you are part of the problem—your moving to the area added to the growth; don’t expect to move here and then slam the door behind you. Nobody asked you to move here, either. 2. Don’t complain about local taxes and say they’re higher than where you came from. I’ve seen this a lot over the last few years and most of the time, that isn’t really tme. Before you moved here, you should have researched the local tax rates for your new home; that’s easy to do online these days and is often part of the various real estate websites that list homes for sale. If you’d done your homework before you bought a home here, you shouldn’t be surprised at the local tax rates. To complain after the fact says more about you than it does local governments. 3. As an adjunct to the previous comment, senior citizens who move here from Gwinnett County shouldn’t expect the same kind of tax breaks. While the local senior citizen homestead exemption amount should be raised, those who want the local schools to give a 100% exemption from school taxes for seniors, like Gwinnett County does, are comparing apples to oranges. Gwinnett is a huge county with a massive tax digest. Gwinnett can afford to give large senior tax breaks because it has so much industry and commercial development to help carry their tax burden. The local school systems have much, much smaller tax digests and don’t have the broad base of industrial or commercial like Gwinnett has. That’s one of the trade-offs of moving from an urban community to a sub urban or exurban area — you should have known that before you moved. 4. Don’t be condescending to local government officials by saying, “this is how we did it where I came from.” No body really cares how “they” did it. If you liked “how they did it,” then why did you move? As one local official recently noted to me, a lot of people want to say how things are done elsewhere, but nobody ever takes the time to ask why things are done the way they are here. Before you spout off at a gov ernment meeting, ask questions and leam a little about the local government history and institutional structures. Maybe some things do need to be changed and new ideas are good, but often there are reasons for how things are done that may be different. 5. Don’t assume all local government officials are cor rupt. I’ve seen this a lot this year during the heated debates over higher property assessments. There’s a populist strain of thought among the public today that all public officials are on the take. Maybe some are and over the last four decades, I’ve written about local officials who I believed were doing unethi cal or illegal activities. But for the most part, local government officials aren’t corrupt; sometimes they may make bad deci sions, but that doesn’t make them corrupt. 6. Don’t go to a government meeting and demand to know how that government is spending your money. There’s no way in a few minutes any local government can tell you how it spends all its funds. If you want to know how local governments are spending tax dollars, read this newspaper’s reporting—we cover it. If you want to know the nitty-gritty, get a copy of their budgets and read the line-item details. Get a copy of their annual audits and knock yourself out. All local governments have financial reporting laws they have to fol low and I seldom have any problem in getting financial details from any of our local governments. Don’t expect anyone to spoon-feed you several hundred pages of data during a meet ing. If you want to know, invest some time and energy in read ing those details, they’re readily available. 7. Don’t move here and then complain the local com munity doesn’t have the amenities you’re accustomed to. That’s especially tme for all you fonner Gwinnecians who move here; this ain’t Gwinnett County with all the same stores, restaurants, cultural and recreational activities found there. Gwinnett has nearly 1 million people, the local com munity has less than 100,000. It’s different and you shouldn’t go to a local government meeting and complain that there’s “nothing to do here.” 8. Finally, take time to learn how government works. I’m increasingly appalled at the lack of knowledge citizens have about how governments work. It wasn’t always this way. Years ago, people seemed to have a basic understanding of how governments function and interact; today, there appears to be a group of people who never attended a civics class. The level of ignorance I’ve seen from some citizens over the past few years is troubling. I suspect some of that is due to social media where people spend vast amounts of time-consuming misinformation rather than taking time to read reliable sources of information. Still, if you’re going to comment at a public meeting about an issue, actually understand the issue first and how local governments operate. Don’t embarrass yourself by putting your ignorance on public display. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com. Concerned about Jefferson zoning issue Dear Editor: Regarding Mike Buffington’s article enti tled “Jefferson council facing controversial zoning isuue,” I attended the Sept. 11 Jef ferson City Council’s work session. I was concerned about the proposed zoning mod ification requests made by Mr. Rob Alexan der. What I observed at the meeting caused additional concern. In his opening comments, Mr. Alexan der offered lengthy personal family his tory regarding ownership of the land, a long-standing and unwavering family com mitment of service to the Jefferson Board of Education, and an honest review of his own outstanding professional credentials. But this begs the question: Why re-state what was already well-known to all of the City Council members? In 2009, the city council approved rezon ing requests allowing for the development of a 55+ multi-family housing communi ty. An undisturbed buffer zone was clearly designated to protect neighboring home- owners from encroachment. Family homes on Storey Lane were purchased, and an ac cumulation of life savings invested, based upon these written representations. If these conditions are removed, the nat ural tree canopy would be destroyed rath er than preserved. Family right to privacy and safety would be compromised. The value of the homes on Storey Lane would probably be greatly diminished. (During the entire meeting, no one even suggested that existing home property values would be preserved.) With these conditions removed, owner ship of the proposed condominium-style townhouses does not guarantee owner-oc cupancy, does not prohibit private conver sion to rental properties, cannot effectively monitor or limit occupancy to one family per unit, and will not discourage the capi tal interests of real estate investment funds. The decisions of the city council could serve to protect against or accelerate de terioration of this community and the sur rounding homes. During the council meeting, it was re vealed that a letter was sent on Sept. 8 from the Jefferson City School System stating its opposition to the proposed rezoning request. It was interesting to observe that some city council members seemed pathet ically more concerned about how the letter was received (unsolicited or solicited) rath er than meaningfully consider its content. I was surprised when one city council member commented that Mr. Alexander had never submitted a formal plan of de velopment to the Council for review and consideration. So much discussion about the construction of 55 beautiful town-home condominiums, requests for exemptions to prior rezoning requests, comments about the possible impact upon the school sys tem—so much talking and speculation in endless cycles without even a specific plan for development or defining accountability. It was difficult for me to hear the testimo nies of homeowners on Storey Lane. One person spoke of his discomfort knowing that strangers residing in two-story condos would have an unobstructed view of his daughter swimming in their swimming pool in his back yard. Other residents expressed feelings of regret that they had purchased their homes. For a moment, please consider what it would be like to have exterior flood lights from a two-story building lighting up your home and back yard from sunset to sunrise. Concerns regarding privacy and safety, strong feelings of opposition to the proposed rezoning, were all respectfully expressed. The personal testimonies of homeown ers stand in sharp contrast to the geometric shape outlining the proposed land develop ment that appeared on-screen to all persons attending the Council meeting. It was as if the affected, adjoining homes and families were non-existent. Regarding the proposed rezoning re quests, I hold strongly to very tradition al values and beliefs. I believe that words are covenantal. Every person should hold themselves accountable for honoring their word, their commitments to others. When that falters, then responsibility rests with other responsible citizens. With out such accountability, there are no pro tective boundaries against personal ambi tion. Without such accountability, a healthy community cannot survive. Sincerely, Michael Miller Pendergrass Classic Georgia accent fading fast Young Georgians are los ing their distinctive South ern accents according to a study from the University of Georgia and Georgia TechA collaborative study between the two schools has found the classic Southern accent is undergoing rapid change in the state. The instigator? Genera tion X. “We found that, here in Georgia, white English speakers’ accents have been shifting away from the traditional Southern pro nunciation for the last few generations,” said Margaret Renwick, associate profes sor in UGA’s Franklin Col lege of Arts and Sciences department of linguistics and lead on the study. “To day’s college students don’t sound like their parents, who didn’t sound like their own parents.” The researchers observed the most notable change be tween the baby boomer gen eration (bom 1943 to 1964) and Generation X (bom 1965 to 1982), when the ac cent fell off a cliff. “We had been listening to hundreds of hours of speech recorded in Georgia and we noticed that older speakers often had a thick South ern drawl, while current college students didn’t,” Renwick said. “We started asking, which generation of Georgians sounds the most Southern of all? We surmised that it was baby boomers, bom around the mid-20th century. We were surprised to see how rapidly the Southern accent drops away starting with Gen X.” The UGA/Georgia Tech team is the first to identify the accent shift in Georgia. “The demographics of the South have changed a lot with people moving into the area, especially post World War II,” said co-author Jon Forrest, UGA assistant pro fessor in the department of linguistics. Forrest noted that what the researchers see in Geor gia is part of a shift noted by others across the entire South, and furthermore, other areas of the U.S. now have similar vowel patterns. “We are seeing similar shifts across many regions, and we might find people in California, Atlanta, Boston and Detroit that have simi lar speech characteristics,” Forrest said. The analysis was carried out with recordings of white individuals native to Geor gia, bom from the late 19th century to the early 2000s. The researchers focused on the way the recorded speak ers pronounced vowels. The team found that older Georgians pronounced the word “prize” as prahz and “face” as fuh-eece, but the youngest speakers use prah- eez and fayce. Former UGA graduate student and co-au thor Joseph A. Stanley, now an assistant professor at Brigham Young University, implemented the statistical modeling. “Using transcribed audio, we can use a computer to estimate where you put your tongue in your mouth when you pronounce each vow el, which gives us a quan titative metric of accent,” said Lelia Glass, assistant professor in the School of Modem Languages at Geor gia Tech. Marcus Ma, a Georgia Tech undergraduate student working with Glass, devised a tool to streamline the tran scription process. “Changes to the diph thong in ‘prize’ are the old est characteristic pronuncia tion in Southern speech, that can be traced back well over 100 years,” Renwick said. “The Southern pronunci ation of words like ‘face’ emerged in the early 20th century. These are distinc tive features of the tradition al Southern drawl.” While this study used ar chived as well as new re cordings of white speakers from Georgia, as linguis tic patterns differ for other ethnic groups, the team is now pursuing the study of cross-generational accents among the Black popula tion. The study, “Boomer Peak or Gen X Cliff? From SVS to LBMS in Georgia En glish”, is published in the current issue of the journal Language Variation and Change. The Jackson Herald Jefferson, Ga. 30549 Founded 1875 Merged with The Commerce News 2017 The Official Legal Organ of Jackson County, Ga. Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Alex Buffington News Editor Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. PO Box 908 Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908 Web Site: www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com Email: mike@mainstreetnews.com Voice: 706.367.5233 Periodical Postage paid at Jefferson, GA 30549 (SCED 271980) Yearly Subscriptions: $45 / $40 for seniors
