About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2018)
6A OPINION ®he £ntics gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, November 22, 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 Maybe readers can help keep The Times at 7 days a week I read your article about a five-day only print edition of our paper. I didn’t like it then, and I like it less now. I understand I can read it online, but that’s not the same. I have stood in the dark, freezing rain, wait ing for my paper when the carrier was late. The paper is a big part of my morning. With paper and coffee I start my day, I’m not looking for ward to Monday and Tuesday without my paper, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Why not survey other readers and see how they feel? I understand why you are doing this, I just don’t understand why you haven’t asked us what we want and what we could do to help. I would be willing to pay more to keep Monday and Tuesday in print. Lets ask all the readers and advertisers what they think and see if we can keep Monday and Tuesday in print. If readers agree with me, please contact The Times and let them know. Terry Gabriel Dawson vi lie Different perspective on 10 issues of disagreement In his latest letter to the editor, Dick Biggs laments the ability of our government to com promise in a bipartisan manner. I appreciate his frankness in pointing out issues of disagreement, but Mr. Biggs immediately strikes a belligerent tone. He speaks of each issue as if it is a black- and-white affair. Surely Mr. Biggs is aware that nothing in life is that simple. I hope that I can, in the spirit of compromise, sound more concilia tory. While I will not have time to address all of his issues, I will try to at least give the reader something to think about. Instead of trying to defend legal abortion, and thereby be framed as “pro-death” by Mr. Biggs, I would like to offer an area on which I am sure that we can agree. Everyone would like to see less abortions. Research has shown that the best way to achieve this is through better sexual edu cation and birth control. Let’s all put our money where our mouths are and make this happen. Same-sex marriage: As a liberal, and a decent human being, I’m for love and equality. Sue me. It does bother me that the will of God is continu ously brought up by the opponents of marriage equality, when it seems like the Old Testament God had as much to say about the fabric we use in our clothing. The argument against open borders is often based on “law and order.” In 1951 some 145 countries ratified the Refugee Convention. Asy lum seekers are breaking no law. States rights: Is this still a thing? We in the South have many reminders of a lost war and many lessons of how each individual state should not be able to do whatever it wishes. Despite Mr. Biggs giving great praise to Trump for slashing our tax burden, tax cuts have been the norm since 1953. Cutting taxes is one of the few areas on which both parties can agree. Patriotism has been the rallying cry of the GOP since the early ’90s. Sadly, Trump has taken it to a whole new level. A leader who proudly proclaims that he is a nationalist while leading chants that his opponent should be locked up and that the media is the enemy of the people is not without precedent. If patriotism means never questioning the supreme leader, count me out. Gun control: No matter how much Fox News ranted, I never had a representative of Obama’s administration come to my door and demand my guns. With gun sales skyrocketing over the last decade, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. I would echo Mr. Biggs’s wish that this country have the wisdom to choose the right path, but we should remember that wisdom is not innate. It is not a gift from heaven. Wisdom must be earned through study. We must educate ourselves and learn the facts of each area of disagreement. Only then can we come together for the good of all. Jeff Casper Gainesville Your government officials Gainesville city government City Council, 300 Henry Ward Way, Suite 303 P.O. Box 2496, Gainesville 30501, 770-535-6860, www.gainesville.org, citycouncil@gainesville.org. Mayor Danny Dunagan, 770-718-7877. Council members Barbara B. Brooks, 678-858-0305; Ruth Bruner,770-532-7207; Sam Couvillon, 678- SI 6-9711; Zack Thompson, 770-534-0041; George Wangemann, 770-534-5861 City Manager, Bryan Lackey, 770-535-6865 Police Department, Chief Carol Martin, 701 Queen City Parkway, Gainesville, 770- 534-5252, police@gainesville.org, www. gainesville.org/police-department Fire Department, Chief Jerome Yarbrough, 725 Pine St., Gainesville, 770-534-3612, www. gainesville.org/fire-department Public Utilities, Director Kelly Randall, 770- 538-2400, krandall@gainesville.org Public Works, Director Chris Rotalsky, P.O. Box 2496, Gainesville, 770-535-6882, crotalsky@ gainesville.org Lesson in racial politics from Florida Now that, finally, the elections in Florida have reached a conclusion, there are lessons worth learn ing. One is on the subject of race. There was a fateful anomaly in racial voting in the governor’s race between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Rick DeSantis, now Flori da’s governor-elect. Given that Gillum, formerly mayor of Tallahassee, was running to become the first black governor of Florida, we might have expected black enthusiasm for his candidacy on the order of the waves of black enthusiasm for the presi dential candidacy of Barak Obama. But it didn’t happen. Gillum received a lower percentage of the black vote than did Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson, who lost to Rick Scott in the senate race. White Democrat Nelson got 90 per cent of the black vote and Republican Scott got 10 percent. In the governor’s race, black Demo crat Gillum got 86 percent of the black vote, four percentage points less than Nelson, against Republican DeSantis’ 14 percent. Given the razor-thin margins, that dif ference in black support meant a lot. When Gillum finally conceded the election, he was behind by 33,683 votes. Each 1 percent of the black vote equated to about 10,000 votes. So if Gillum had received 90 percent of the black vote, as did Bill Nelson, rather than 86 percent, he could well have had another 40,000 votes, which would have been his margin of victory. Forty thousand votes is about 35 per cent of the 112,911 votes by which Donald Trump won Florida in 2016. It’s 55 per cent of the 73,189 votes by which Barack Obama won Florida in 2012. So understanding why Gillum received 4 percent age points less of the black vote than Nelson, and why DeSantis received 4 per centage points more of the black vote than Scott could make all the difference in what presi dential candidate wins Florida in 2020. Adding to the puzzle is the fact that racial politics played a high profile and nasty role in the Gillum- DeSantis contest. Gillum was aggres sive in his allegations of racism against DeSantis. “Now, I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a rac ist, I’m simply saying the racists believe he is racist,” he said. He accused DeSantis of get ting financial support from white supremacist groups and speaking at their events. DeSantis, a conserva tive former Republican congressman, made his support of Trump a center- piece of his campaign, and President Trump campaigned for him in Florida. So how does this all compute? One convincing line of speculation is that DeSantis campaigned aggres sively on parental choice in education and keeping in place and expanding the tax-credit scholarship program enacted under Gov. Jeb Bush. Gillum cam paigned on closing down the program, which empowers parents to use these funds to send their children to charter and private schools. Polls consistently show that blacks support parental choice in education. And for good reason. Black children are disproportionately trapped in fail ing, violent public schools. Black par ents want alternatives for their kids. Gillum took the left-wing party line on education choice, against the senti ments of black constituents. This could have made all the difference. The lesson here is that blacks care about issues more than they care about skin color. It’s an important les son for Republicans going forward. They need to tune in to black concerns, which often are not the same as those of whites, and explain how the best solutions for those con cerns are the conserva tive solutions. In addition to edu cation, this means addressing issues such as housing, urban violence and prison reform. The governor’s race in Florida gives us good reason to believe that a more aggressive, targeted effort by Republi cans in reaching out to minority com munities could make all the difference in the outcome of the presidential elec tion in 2020. Star Parker is an author and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and a columnist for Creators. STAR PARKER www.urbancure.org Republicans need to tune in to black concerns ... and explain how the best solutions for those concerns are the conservative solutions. "I don't recall inviting "Some peddler. Calls that guy. Who is he?" himself Black Friday." JIM POWELL I For The Times ANDY MARLETTE I Creators Syndicate 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
