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OPINION
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gainesvilletimes.com
Monday, November 5, 2018
Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com
Submit a letter: letters@gainesvilletimes.com
The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
LITERS
Diversity in
classroom a
boon to area
As a teacher, I watch the news regarding immi
gration (legal and illegal) and I reflect on how it
has affected my classroom.
I have been a teacher in Northeast Georgia for
7 years. When I began teaching, my classroom
demographic was predominantly made up of Cau
casian students. However, over my years in the
classroom that demographic has changed so that
my class now is very diverse with students from a
variety of races and cultures.
I’ve learned many things over the years in a
classroom and have pursued professional devel
opment in order to be a better teacher for my
students. One thing I have noticed though is the
lack of multicultural professional development
provided to teachers and as a result the lack of
multicultural education provided to students. The
curriculum, textbooks, and books assigned for
reading in many classrooms largely reflect the
points of view (historically, politically, religiously,
etc.) of the Caucasian experience. I believe there
needs to be an intentional shift in education
toward multicultural education and the inclusion
of a variety of races and cultures in the classroom
curriculum.
Students are more likely to engage in content
and participate in class when they feel a personal
connection to the topics or understand its value
and importance. By ignoring the multicultural
demographics of our classroom, we essentially
ostracized students who do not see themselves or
their way of life in their classrooms.
Students of all races, cultures, religions, etc.,
should see themselves reflected in the content
taught in their classroom. We are doing a disser
vice to students by ignoring the rich and vibrant
multicultural community that has grown in the
Northeast Georgia area within the last decade.
As educators, our job is to teach all students who
enter our classroom. Every race, culture, and
religion represented has value and importance in
who we are as a community, a state and a country.
We can all learn from each other and I think it
is important for teachers to lead the way in the
classroom.
Ellen Hill
Gainesville
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Your government officials
Georgia state government
Gov. Nathan Deal, 203 State Capitol, Atlanta
30334; 404-656-1776; www.gov.georgia.gov
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, 240 State Capitol, Atlanta
30334, 404-656-5030; www.ltgov.ga.gov
Secretary of State Brian Kemp, 214 State Capitol,
Atlanta 30334, 404-656-2881, fax 404-656-
0513; www.sos.state.ga.us; Elections Division,
2 MLK, Jr. Drive SE, Suite 1104, West Tower,
Atlanta 30334-1530, 404-656-2871, fax, 404-
651-9531
Attorney General Chris Carr, 40 Capitol Square
SW, Atlanta 30303; 404-656-3300; law.ga.gov
School Superintendent Richard Woods, 205 Jesse
Hill Jr. Drive SE, Atlanta 30334; 404-656-2800;
www.doe.k12.ga.us; askdoe@gadoe.org
Hall County government
Board of Commissioners, 2875 Browns Bridge
Road, Gainesville, RO. Drawer 1435, Gainesville
30503, 770-535-8288, www.hallcounty.org.
Chairman Richard Higgins, rhiggins@hallcounty.
org; District 1, Kathy Cooper, kcooper@
hallcounty.org; District 2, Billy Powell, bpowell@
hallcounty.org; District 3, Scott Gibbs, sgibbs@
hallcounty.org; District 4, Jeff Stowe, jstowe@
hallcounty.org.
County Administrator, Jock Connell, jconnell@
hallcounty.org
Planning Commission, 2875 Browns Bridge Road,
Gainesville, 770-531-6809.
Tax Commissioner’s Office, 2875 Browns Bridge
Road, P.O. Box 1579, Gainesville 30503, 770-
531 -6950, taxcommissioner@hallcounty.org
Tax Assessor’s Office, 2875 Browns Bridge Road,
Gainesville 30504, rswatson@hallcounty.org.
Real estate property, P.O. Box 2895, Gainesville
30503, 770-531-6720; personal property, P.O.
Box 1780, Gainesville 30503, 770-531 -6749
Public Works, 2875 Browns Bridge Road,
Gainesville, 770-531-6800, krearden@
hallcounty.org
Extension office, 734 E. Crescent Drive,
Gainesville, 770-535-8293
Marshal’s Office, P.O. Drawer 1435, Gainesville,
770-531-6762
Elections Office, 2875 Browns Bridge Road,
Gainesville, 770-531-6945, elections®
hallcounty.org
A Libertarian bridge to sell
“Libertarians believe that
you should be as conservative
or as liberal as you want to
be as long as you don’t want
to force yourself on others,”
says Larry Sharpe, Libertarian
candidate for governor of New
York.
Sharpe is an unusual Liber
tarian candidate because he’s
doing well in some polls.
One found Sharpe getting
13 percent, and after people
heard his campaign pitch, 25 percent.
That would put him in second place,
ahead of the Republican.
So of course the establishment shuts
him out — he and other third-party can
didates weren’t allowed in the one guber
natorial debate.
Sharpe wins fans by arguing that it
would be good if individuals make their
own decisions without government
spending constantly getting in the way.
“What we understand as libertarians
is at the end of every single law is a guy
or gal with a gun who’s going to put you
in a cage; if you don’t want to go in that
cage, they’re going to shoot you. What
that means is you should only use the law
when there is loss of life, health, limb,
property, or liberty... Not because I don’t
like what you’re doing.”
That’s refreshing to hear from a
politician.
No new government programs under a
Sharpe administration, then?
“No, no, no, no, no, no,” he assures me.
At least one candidate doesn’t want to
make government bigger.
New York faces a $4.4 billion deficit.
Current New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo proposed raising taxes.
Sharpe has other ideas.
“Lease naming rights
on our infrastructure,” he
says in my latest internet
video. “The Triborough
Bridge could be called the
Staples Bridge, or the Apple
Bridge.”
My staff asked some New
Yorkers what they thought
about leasing naming rights
to bridges and tunnels. “Bad
idea!” said one woman. “It’s
commercializing!” Most people were
opposed.
I said that to Sharpe.
You know what she should do?” he
responded. “Start a nonprofit, raise $30
million, she can name it whatever she
wants.”
One man said he didn’t “want to
rename something after some sort of
corporation!”
“Shake your fist and say, ‘This doesn’t
sound good,’” replied Sharpe. “You’re
going to wind up in a place where the tax
burden is insanely high.”
Under our current system, many
bridges and other public structures
advertise anyway — but they promote
politicians. Gov. Cuomo just named a
bridge after his father.
“An imperial bridge named after our
royal family!” said Sharpe with a laugh.
“I’m embarrassed.”
We libertarians don’t think politicians
deserve monuments just because they
got elected.
“Tell you what I’ll do,” said Sharpe.
“(Governor Cuomo’s) got $30 mil
lion a year? He can keep his name
on that bridge and take care of the
maintenance.”
Sharpe applies similar thinking to New
York’s decrepit subway system.
“We have lines on the MTA right now
not being used at night. Home Depot or
Google or Amazon or whomever — they
can use these lines... move their freight...
They’ll pay. Win-win.”
Sharpe’s campaign is attracting new
people. His rallies draw bigger crowds
than minor party candidates normally
get.
“If you’re unhappy with the system,
you’ve got to change it,” he said on Joe
Rogan’s podcast.
For a libertarian, Sharpe surprised me
by saying he wouldn’t dream of propos
ing cuts to existing welfare programs.
“Pull the rug out from somebody, some
body’s going to be afraid,” he explains. If
voters fear you, they don’t vote for you.
I assume he’d shrink those programs
eventually, maybe after other parts of
government were reduced and the econ
omy improves as a result.
He also sounds friendlier to labor
unions than most libertarians. “Collec
tive bargaining is fine. My issue with the
unions has always been: Are you forcing
me?... I have a problem with (union shop
laws). But you’re voluntarily doing it? I
don’t have a problem at all.”
Listening to Sharpe is very different
from hearing most Republicans and
Democrats.
“Because no one has any new ideas,”
he says. “No ideas how to fix anything or
do anything right.... I’m a third party. I
have to have ideas or no one will listen
to me.”
John Stossel is a columnist for Creators
Syndicate.
JOHN STOSSEL
www.johnstossel.com
DAVID HORSEY I Tribune News Service
President shouldn’t mess with birthright
Whenever I talk about
immigration matters, I try not
to let people see that tattoo on
my forehead, the one with the
Statue of Liberty wrapped in a
copy of the 14th Amendment.
It’s a conversation killer.
But there’s no avoiding the
fact that my day job has a
strong influence on the way
I view President Trump’s
announced decision to get rid
of birthright citizenship, some
thing which has been fairly
settled law for over a century.
That is, until the topic of illegal immi
gration became a useful arrow in the
campaign quivers of both parties. The
GOP, which used to have a healthy
appreciation for the contributions of
immigrants to society, has morphed
into the party of “they all killed Kate
Steinle.” And the Democrats have
reacted by doing absolutely nothing,
even when they were in the majority,
to alleviate the problems caused by a
broken border and ineffective laws that
paralyze families and the economy.
It was inevitable that immigrants
would once again become that conve
nient political football, raw meat for the
social media masses.
I’m hip to the games people play, and I
usually ignore the comments about crim
inal aliens, gang members, racist Repub
licans and the like. That’s because I’m an
immigration lawyer and know a lot more
about the inner workings of the laws and
the real world impact on people like my
clients than the Facebook scholars who
keep posting links on my page about
“birth tourism,” which I thought was
what happened when Mary and Joseph
were scouting out a room at the inn.
If that makes me sound
pretentious, so be it. I tend to
hide my law degree under
a bushel until I hear some
thing that twists my lower
intestine into a pretzel.
And my lower intestine is
ready for some mustard this
week, because the drumbeat
of “eliminating birthright
citizenship” has gotten
louder. The useful imagery
of the caravan at our south
ern border was diminished
somewhat by the intervening
tragedies of the pipe bomber and the
murderous anti-semite in Pittsburgh. So
the White House did a masterful pivot,
and raised the specter of scary “anchor
babies” and the harm they pose to good,
decent Americans.
The term “anchor baby” was coined
about 20 years ago, but it really gained
prominence in 2006 when the country
was embroiled in a debate about com
prehensive immigration reform. When
I first heard it, I envisioned Walter
Cronkite with a bib and a rattle, until I
realized that this derogatory term was
being used to denote a child born in the
United States who would be able to con
fer benefits upon an illegal alien parent.
By 2006,1 had been practicing immi
gration law for over a decade, and knew
that there was no such thing as a baby
who could immediately legalize mommy
and daddy. In most cases, that child
needed to reach the age of 21 before he
or she could sponsor a parent for law
ful permanent residence or “the green
card,” so it appeared to me as if that
anchor was about as heavy as a feather.
Then, proponents of the term started
talking about all the government benefits
that baby could get, which are really
just the same benefits any US citizen is
entitled to receive.
And, kaboom!, the whole issue of birth
right citizenship reared its anachronistic
head. Since the time of the Civil War, the
Fourteenth Amendment has held that
any person born in the United States and
“subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a
native born citizen. Now, Trump and his
friends who want to eliminate birthright
citizenship or “ius solis” are saying that
the children of illegal aliens are not
“subject to the jurisdiction” of the US
and therefore not entitled to citizenship.
I’m having a hard time trying to figure
out how an illegal alien who commits
a crime in the US is not “subject to the
jurisdiction” of our laws, and I’m sure
all of those people worried about their
daughters being raped by MS-13 mem
bers are equally interested.
But even if this were a legitimate
argument, there are a lot of problems
with the way that the White House is
approaching it. First, you don’t fix a pol
icy problem by erasing parts of the Con
stitution with that pen you swiped from
Obama. Second, you generally don’t
ignore the clear wording of a statute
unless there is compelling evidence to
the contrary. And most importantly, you
don’t dare change the thing that makes
us exceptional: the fact that prince and
pauper, invalid and healthy, black man
and white woman, are equally entitled to
the great gift of citizenship.
Lay off my Bill of Rights, Mr.
President.
Christine M. Flowers is a columnist for the
Tribune Content Agency.
a
CHRISTINE M.
FLOWERS
cflowers1961@
gmail.com
She Stines
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