About The Coastal courier. (Hinesville, Ga.) 1980-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 2018)
Opinion WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2018 WWW.COASTALCOURIER.COM PAGE 4 The Georgia report Is Amazon worth it? The push to attract Amazon’s second corporate headquarters contin ues, with no letup. The latest devel opment is that At lanta made Amazon’s Tom Crawford Syndicated columnist LETTERS TO EDITOR Fill out the form and send in Editor: Part II. In my previous comments about the sad state of wages for our deputy sheriffs I suggested everyone send a fax to Gov. Nathan Deal sup porting parity for deputy pay. That was a mistake as the governor is a lame duck who couldn’t give a hoot about equal treatment for our Liberty County deputies who protect and serve us 24/7. In fact Sen. Michael Williams is a strong advocate for deputy equal ity. Last year, he submitted legislation to resolve this injustice, but it was quashed and never got a hearing. Sen. Williams is not only resubmitting the same legislation this year, but is in the running for governor with this issue as one of his main campaign issues. I urge all to complete and fax the form printed on page 5 to Sen. Wil liams in a show of support of our law enforcement folks. No fax or need a form? They are currently available in the sheriff’s office in the justice center, or at Mr. Cash in Midway where you can complete one and they will fax for you. Bruce A. McCartney Trade Hill Community first cut as part of a list of 20 locations under consideration for that headquarters, which will supposedly create up to 50,000 jobs. “Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough — all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity” Amazon executive Holly Sullivan said. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.” Amazon executives have said they will spend $5 billion to develop this second headquarters, an amount that has drawn Georgia into the bid ding frenzy. State officials have indicated they would offer financial incentives worth more than $1 billion to lure Amazon here. If Georgia should make Amazon’s final short list of two or three sites, Gov. Nathan Deal has promised to call a special session of the General Assembly to pile on even more enticements. “Let me assure you that if Georgia makes the list of final three contenders for HQ2, I will call a special session so that we can make whatever statutory changes are required to accommodate a business opportunity of this magnitude,” Deal said. Even with its willingness to shell out that huge sum of money, Georgia is way down the list. Chicago reportedly is preparing a $2.25 billion package of incentives, Philadelphia will go to $3 billion, and Newark/New Jersey is offering the largest combined incentive package: $7 billion in tax breaks over 20 years. Could any business project, no matter how many jobs it allegedly creates, be worth all those wads of taxpayers’ money? There are some dissenting voices who wonder about that. State Sen. Michael Williams, R-Cumming, questioned the wisdom of a huge Amazon pay- out in a speech on the Senate floor. “What do we get for this billions of dollars?” Williams asked. “Jobs. We hear about jobs, jobs, jobs, 50,000 jobs.” “You think the people that currently live in Georgia are going to fulfill and staff all 50,000 jobs? I highly doubt it. They’re (Amazon) going to take their executives and their employees that are currently in offsite locations across the west ern seaboard and relocate them here to Georgia. “Now, who’s going to pay for these new people that are moving to Georgia? Who’s going to pay for the roads that they’re going to drive on? Who’s going to pay for the schools where their kids go to? It’s not going to be Amazon and it’s not going to be the employees that work for Amazon, because they’re getting all of these tax breaks. It’s going to be us, the citizens of Georgia. “I like to ask people that are talking to me about Amazon, do you really want Amazon to come if you knew there’s a possibility that your property tax would go up 50 to 75 percent in the next two, three, five years? Is it worth it to you then? “I would like to encourage the leaders of our state that are currently negotiating with Amazon to remember the people of Georgia. To remem ber those whose money you are spending. It is our tax money and it’s us, the citizens of Georgia now, that are going to have to pay whatever price Amazon is basically bribed with to come to our state.” Williams makes some valid points, but they will undoubtedly be ignored in the ongoing rush to try to attract Amazon at any price. Prior to the legislative session, people like House Speaker David Ralston vowed they will try to revive the fortunes of rural Georgia, where people and businesses have been steadily leaving for years. Instead of spending $1 billion that will go straight into Amazon’s corporate coffers, why not spend $200 million to expand Medicaid cov erage? That would draw down billions of federal dollars that could keep financially struggling rural hospitals in operation. Instead of stuffing $1 billion into the pock ets of Amazon executives, why not spend $200 million to help bring Internet access to the badly under-served areas of rural Georgia that are cut off from the information highway? If legislators are serious about helping the rural part of the state, they can prove it here. Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@gareport.com. What do you think? Say it in a letter to the editor or as a local columnist. The Coastal Courier welcomes and encour ages readers to express their opinions on our opinion page, either through a letter to the editor or as a local political columnist. Send letters or questions to editor@coastalc- ourier.com or call 912-8767-0156. ext. 1023. Marijuana instead of opioids? Editor: There is an opioid epidemic! At least, that is what the government is telling us. But, the question remains, “Why is there an epidemic?” The CDC estimates that there are 175 drug overdose deaths a day. Yet, the CDC does not say why there are so many — just that they exist. Almost every one of these deaths can be contributed to one cause — pain. A person takes one opioid, such as OxyContin, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine or fentanyl, to counter the pain. When that pill doesn’t stop the pain, a person might take a second or third, until they overdose. Or in some cases, a person with chronic pain might take an overdose to com mit suicide in order to stop the pain. Although opioids are often prescribed to treat chronic pain, research has not shown them to be very effective and there are many pitfalls to long-term use. In order to avoid the dangers of opioids, some people take aspirin, thinking aspirin is a safe alternative; but taking a large quantity of aspirin could cause internal bleeding, which could be very serious. Instead of pushing opioids, which produce high profits, pharmaceuti cal companies should be developing pain medicine that does not become addictive or cause death if taken in quantity. The government is working on this, but at the rate the government moves, we will not see a solution in our lifetime. Opioids control pain by attaching to receptors in the central nervous system to decrease pain signals. Tragically for some people, they even suppress respiration. When people are addicted and take large amounts of the opioids, respiratory depression is the major cause of death. I personally believe that we are see ing more deaths due to opioids because the baby boomers are getting older and reaching the age when they have more chronic pain. Add to that, the number of military personnel returning from combat with severe wounds, and we have a serious problem. Remember, our troops have been in combat since 1991 in the Middle East. A Canadian medical team has found that three puffs a day of can nabis — better known as marijuana — helps people with chronic nerve pain due to injury or surgery feel less pain and sleep better. The concentration used is lower than that found in mari juana on the street. They have shown that cannabis is an analgesic and has medicinal value. Georgia’s medical marijuana law only provides protection from pros ecution if a qualified patient possesses a legal amount of oil, there is no provi sion in Georgia law that suggests how a patient might actually obtain medi cal marijuana. In addition, medical marijuana can be used only for certain ailments. It’s time for medical marijuana to be readily available in Georgia to all of those who are taking opioids for pain. Len Calderone Midway nominations ACTUALLY, THERE ARE ONLY TWO FRANCES OF GOVERNMENT, JUFICIAL • ANVVYFUNCTIONAL. WHITE LOUSE .CNEIRLSSI $ CHAOS $ ACADEM AWARD Who's up for Best Political Speech? ARGUS Hamilton Fire, fury and a Wayne Newton clone HOLLYWOOD — God bless America, and how’s everybody? President Trump gave his State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress last night in the Capitol. His staff is relieved he stuck to the script. I lost $10 betting that Trump would ad-lib a reminder to Ameri cans that Valentine’s Day this year falls on Wednesday which is Hump Day. The Grammy Awards in New York provided a memorable moment on Sunday by awarding the Grammy for best spoken word to the late Carrie Fisher. When Carrie died last year while seated during an airline flight, she was on cocaine, heroin, mor phine and ecstasy. I can’t even get peanuts. Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance on the Grammy Awards and read excerpts from Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury.” It describes the president as a fried chicken and Big Mac devouring womanizer. Hillary had to look twice to make sure which president she was reading about. Hillary Clinton covered up a sex harassment complaint by a campaign staffer against her faith based voter outreach coordinator. The woman is just the latest female accuser Hillary has had to silence over the last quar ter century. Hillary is the founder of the ChloroformHerToo movement. Melania Trump visited the Holo caust Museum in Washington while Trump was in Davos last weekend. The tabloid headlines were driving her crazy. How much pressure is on a first lady when Makishe has to go the Holocaust Museum to relax and for get about the problems of the world for a few hours. Gallup released a poll saying 86 percent of Americans think it’s Argus Hamilton Syndicated columnist important a presi dent stay faithful to his wife. In another recent poll, 70 percent of Ameri ¬ cans said their favorite president is John F. Kennedy. And you wonder if people in other countries tell jokes about Americans. The Rev. Franklin Graham told an interviewer with the BBC that Don ald Trump was behind in all the polls just before Election Day but that God intervened to help Trump defeat Hillary and become president. The evidence is finally in for all to real ize. God prefers comedy over crime dramas. President Trump’s job approval rating shot up to 45 percent in the latest Fox News poll on Friday. His base will do anything for him with the economy rolling now. Trump’s Southern voters don’t understand what’s the big scandal about him hav ing fun 12 years ago on Pawn Stars. Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn resigned as RNC treasurer after two female employees accused him of past sexual misconduct. It’s a bit disconcerting to look at him. Steve Wynn looks like he told his Las Vegas plastic surgeon to make him look exactly like he made Wayne Newton look. GOP House members voted Monday to release the secret FISA memo detailing FBI partisan med dling on behalf of Hillary in the presidential election. So the Demo crats said if the Republicans release the secret memo, they will release the double-secret memo. No one wants to say the Republic is about to crash but the queen just ordered James Bond to make it look like an accident. Hamilton is the host comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood. E- mail him at Argus@ArgusHamilton. com.
