About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 2018)
5A OPINION Sttnes gainesvilletimes.com Saturday, November 10, 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. Nothing divine in waiting for election results With all due respect, the poem could use a bit of an update. We’ve got a whole new crowd that deserves consideration for a miserable forever after. Let’s start with robocallers who manage to disrupt our supper and the bad people who try to trick us on the internet into giving them our bank account information. Because of a finite deadline, I won’t be commenting on the election results in Georgia until next week since some of you will see this before ihe election and some afterward. But not to worry. As I have noted pre viously, American humorist Will Rogers used to say, “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” Me, too. There will plenty of jokes going forward after the results are in. No matter the outcome or the party, the gov ernment is the government and a politician is a politician. In the meantime, I have been analyzing Dante Alighieri’s clas sic poem, the “Divine Comedy.” (How is that for a nifty segue. Jokes? Comedy? Is this guy good or what?) Actually, I have discovered that the “Divine Comedy” isn’t funny at all. It would be appropriate to compare it to Bill Maher and Kathy Griffith, who call them selves comedians but who aren’t funny, either. The “Divine Comedy” is a poem that describes Dante’s dream of traveling through the three realms of the dead: hell, purgatory and heaven. It was written between 1308 and 1320. If Signore Alighieri were to write it today, he might describe hell as Detroit City after dark, and purgatory as waiting to hear a live voice when you call for service while a robot tells you your call is very important. Heaven could be no place but the University of Georgia, the oldest state-chartered university in the nation, located in Athens, Georgia, the Classic City of the South. (That one is a no-brainer.) When Dante made his imagi nary trip to hell, he discovered nine circles or levels there and where you were located depended on how serious your sin was. For example, there is limbo, where a lot of virtuous pagans reside. I know a couple of atheists who are nicer to deal with than some stiff-necked, know-it-all Bible- thumpers. Limbo sounds like just the spot for them. Of course, some of the pagans could wind up in the Heresy sec tion of hell if they push God too far. That’s not my call. I think some of the stiff-necks are liable to get put in the Sullen and Wrath circle. Maybe they can bring their guns and tell whoever runs that department, it is a “sanctity of life” issue. Down toward the bottom of Hell is the Violence Circle. I’m not sure how big a deal that was in Dante’s day but we could fill the place up today with all the violence going on. To know a bunch of white supremacists, street gang thugs and ISIS terrorists were sharing the same circle and getting their collective fannies burned would be heavenly. There are a bunch of other circles like Lust (Look out, Jimmy Carter. God may forgive you for your racist campaign for gover nor — I don’t — but He probably remembers you talking to Playboy Magazine about having lust in your heart. You might want to alert your apologists.) And then there is Gluttony where a lot of people end up when their arteries explode after their second and third trips waddling through the line at the All-You-Can-Eat buffet. A lot has happened since Dante wrote his “Divine Comedy” some 700 years ago describing who goes to what circle in Hell and why. With all due respect, the poem could use a bit of an update. We’ve got a whole new crowd that deserves consideration for a miserable forever after. Let’s start with robocallers who manage to disrupt our supper and the bad people who try to trick us on the internet into giving them our bank account information. Anybody who abuses a child or an animal needs to go to hell, where a Rottweiler can chew on their nose into eternity while cher ubs slap them upside the head. And let’s leave room for the professional football players who make millions of dollars playing a kid’s game while siring multiple children with multiple mommas, slapping around their girlfriends, snorting drugs, getting in nightclub brawls but still finding the time to kneel on Sunday and disrespect their country, alleging police bru tality. Wait! Did I just generalize? My bad. They would never do that. Please don’t tell Dante I said this, but I find the “Divine Com edy” a divine bore. Will Rogers is a lot funnier. If it wasn’t for this infernal deadline, I would already be jerking the chains of a bunch of pompous politicians. Having to wait a week is just pure — well, you know. Dick Yarbrough is a North Georgia resident whose column regularly appears Saturdays. Contact him at P.0. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online at dickyarbrough.com; or on Facebook. DICK YARBROUGH dick@ dickyarbrough.com Congress needs to pursue shared prosperity BY KY-NAM KWON MILLER Tribune News Service The Democrats have taken back the House of Representatives in what feels like a clear rejection of the false promises and bigotry of the Trump administration. But now, they must go beyond anti-Trump rhetoric and push bold ideas to advance opportunity and prosperity for the vast majority of Americans being left behind by the policies of Washington, D.C., and Wall Street. In our $19 trillion economy, a well-connected few have done spectacularly well, while more and more working Americans struggle to make ends meet. Democrats must chart a real path to prosperity that can replace failed, trickle-down economics — one that invests in and uplifts Americans on the margins and breaks down barriers to opportunities. House leaders should announce a bold agenda for their first 100 days. They can start by aggressively pushing for two bills introduced in the Senate earlier this year that have gone nowhere under Republican leadership: the “LIFT the Middle Class Act” from Sen. Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, and the “Ameri can Housing and Economic Mobility Act” from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachu setts. Both would help ordinary Americans who got little or nothing from the GOP’s massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Harris’ bill would provide a refundable tax credit of up to $6,000 for low-income and mid dle-class Americans, bringing some balance into a tax system that has become grotesquely skewed toward the wealthy. Warren’s deficit- neutral measure would address our growing housing crisis by building or rehabilitating 3.2 million housing units; assisting first-time home- buyers living in low-income, formerly redlined neighborhoods; and investing $2 billion in long- overdue support for buyers whose home equity was obliterated in the 2008 crash. Warren’s bill also takes initial steps toward strengthening the Community Reinvestment Act, a little-known but important law that dates from the late 1970s. The law, written to fight redlining — the practice whereby the federal government joined with banks and other institu tions to deny mortgage loans to people of color — needs an update to deal with changes in the financial industry. Redlining, though techni cally illegal, never completely went away. These proposals represent a good start, but Congress could and should go even farther. We need a Community Reinvestment Act for the 21st century that harnesses the tech economy to invest in opportunity in every American community. By giving a fair shake to all and opening door ways to opportunity for those who have the least, we can build prosperity for all of us — not just the 400 billionaires who now own more wealth than the bottom 64 percent of Americans. It’s true that none of these proposals will become law quickly, so long as the GOP controls the Senate and the White House. But no impor tant change comes quickly. We can start build ing a better, fairer America, and Democrats now have a chance to lead the way. To submit letters: Send submissions by email to letters@gainesvilletimes.com or from the form at www.gainesvilletimes.com. Please include your full name, hometown and phone number. JIM POWELL I For The Times 1 HAVE Nr? PfSbEtEM WITH EARLY V<7T1N(£’. / lToRIPA ^OlVARP G^umty / DANA SUMMERS I Tribune News Service She (Times EDITORIAL BOARD Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com General Manager Norman Baggs Editor in Chief Shannon Casas Community member Brent Hoffman
