About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2023)
6A OPINION ®he £ntics gainesvilletimes.com Midweek Edition-April 19-20, 2023 Nate McCullough Group Editor | 770-718-3431 | nmccullough@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. Deciphering what public servants say The following is a Public Service announce ment: Congress is in recess and members are back home. Kiwanians and Rotarians, Cham bers of Commerce and other assorted groups can likely expect a visit from their intrepid public servants. If you are tied up and unable to make it to one of their fly-bys because you have more important things to do like scrubbing the bath tub or learning to yodel, I hereby submit an expert analysis of what they will be saying and what they actually mean. Pay close attention. “My friends.” (Actu ally, you aren’t my friends. I am only saying that because I want you to like me enough to vote for me in the next election so I can stay in Washington where everybody kisses my ring and I don’t have to find a real job.) “It is good to be back home.” (Not really. I prefer Washington because lobbyists take me to all the best restaurants in town and laugh at all my jokes. Here, I have to open my own doors.) “I want you to know that I am working hard for you every day.” (In truth, the hard work is done by my staff who gets paid peanuts, works incredibly long hours and then has to watch me get all the credit.) “Things in Washington are a mess these days. (As if I am not a part of the problem myself.) “Congress doesn’t function well because of the (name opposing party.)” (What this crowd doesn’t know is that there are 534 other mem bers of Congress out in the hustings at this moment making the same speech I am and all of us blaming the other party and each other. No wonder we don’t function well.) “You have given me the privilege of repre senting you in Washington and I want to assure you that I am working hard for you.” (This is where I dazzle them with my fancy footwork and talk about stuff that has about as much chance of passing as I do of being elected Pope.) “During the last session, I introduced bills in Congress to cut wasteful government spend ing as well as to give you hard-working folks back home a much needed tax break. I am also working on legislation to increase Social Security payments for our senior citizens, try ing to reign in campaign financing and curb the undue influence of special interest groups and their lobbyists in Washington.” (Wow! Listen to the applause! They actually think I am serious! What they don’t know is I couldn’t do any of this stuff, even if I wanted to. I don’t have that kind of influence. I do what the leadership tells me to do. The rest of it is smoke and mirrors.) “I will also be a part of several Congressio nal fact-finding missions that will be traveling abroad to assure that the interests of the United States are aligned with our friends and allies in other parts of the world.” (Actually, we call these taxpayer-funded junkets. It’s a perk of being in Congress. I’m not sure where I am going but I hope it is someplace warm and that there is a golf course nearby.) “You have been a gracious audience today and before we adjourn, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.” (They are so impressed to have a real live member of Congress as their speaker, there won’t be a question I haven’t heard before and I will give them a long-winded answer they won’t under stand. It’s like lobbing softballs.) “Folks, it has been a distinct honor to be with you today, but duty calls and I must get back to Washington and back to the job you sent me there to do.” (And, you can be sure I will be hitting you up for money as soon as I get back. There is always another election coming.) “Remember, my door is always open if you happen to be in Washington.” (It’ll be open but I’ll have you in and out of the office before you can be seated and then foist you off on one of my staff members and claim I am late to some committee hearing. It works every time.) “Again, it has been an honor and a privilege to be with you today. Thank you for your time and attention and God Bless America!” (Whew! Glad that’s over. Hopefully, I won’t have to do this again for another year. The meat loaf was terrible.) You can reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@ dickyarbrough.com; at P.0. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online at dickyarbrough.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb. To submit a letter Send by email to letters@gainesvilletimes. com or use the contact form at gainesvilletimes.com. Include name and city of residence; letters never appear anonymously. Letters are limited to 350 words on topics of public interest and may be edited for content and length. Writers are limited to one letter per month. Letters may be rejected from readers with no ties to Northeast Georgia or that address personal, business or legal disputes. Letters not the work of the author listed, with material not properly attributed or with inaccurate material will be rejected. Letters and other commentary express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times. DICK YARBROUGH dick@ dickyarbrough.com Thomas under the microscope For the past two years, the effort to have a statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas erected on the Capitol grounds has been one of those late-session dramas the General Assem bly is known for. Both last year and this year, the bill authorizing the monument passed the Senate and disappeared in the House, as many bills do. It was a great “argu ment” bill, a favorite of orators on both sides. The only consequence of the fail ure of such a bill is that you get to argue about it again the next year. As a sweetener this year, supporters of the bill included the provision that the statue would be paid for with private money, which has a much different ring to it now than it had during the legislative session. Then you might have thought of a few score conservatives getting out their checkbooks to honor a hero. Now, inevitably, you wonder whether Harlan Crow was involved in that offer. Georgia isn’t the only state, inciden tally, where privately funded, politically conservative monuments have been pro posed. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has already signed a bill for the construction on the state capital grounds of a “monument to the unborn,” mark ing the number of abortions performed in that state before the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We may be seeing the beginning of a wave of reaction to the removal of statues of figures out of fash ion with the left. As things stand today, it’s not certain that the statue bill will be back next year, but don’t bet against it. The wave of stories about Thomas’ cozy relationship with Crow may dam age his legacy, but they probably won’t force him off the court. Nor will many opin ions change on whether he should be remembered in marble. A Supreme Court justice makes $285,400 a year, which is substantially more than the vice president or any member of Congress, and guaranteed for a lifetime. That sug gests at least the intention to remove the justices from any temptation to be influenced by bribes or emoluments. But Crow’s generosity — the $500,000 he gave to launch Ginni Thomas’ online project, the cruise around Indonesia on Crow’s yacht, the bronze statue of Thomas’ eighth grade teacher, the reno vated house for his mother — make that guardrail look pretty flimsy. An important part of this story is the hostility both Crow and Thomas have demonstrated toward the very prin ciple of transparency. Crow has said that he wouldn’t disclose an expense unless required to do so. And the Los Angeles Times has reported that after the newspaper published a story about Crow’s gifts to Thomas in 2004, Thomas simply stopped disclosing any of the trips or gifts he received from the Texas billionaire. There were reports Monday that Thomas is going to amend his financial reports to include the real estate trans actions involving his mother, which is a step in the direction of sunshine. But the spotlight on his financial activities has grown more intense. A Washington Post story which revealed that he and his wife had been reporting income from a com pany that is no longer in business seemed a little picky: this discrepancy presum ably would have cost the couple money. But after what increasingly seems like a willful effort to avoid disclosure, it’s the sort of microscopic scrutiny the Thoma ses can expect in the future. From 2006 to 2016, Thomas did not ask a single question in oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The pain fully public confirmation hearings in which Anita Hill’s charges of sexual harassment were aired appeared to have driven Thomas into an embittered silence, even though he gained a seat on the high court. Then, after the death of Justice Anto nin Scalia, he broke his silence, and since has become much more vocal during the court’s public proceedings. We’re not likely to see any similar transformation with regard to his finances, but circum stances may force more openness. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Hank Johnson are calling for an ethics investigation and sponsoring a bill that would enact stricter disclosure rules for the Supreme Court. An odd legacy, for such a reclusive justice. Tom Baxter is a veteran Georgia journalist who writes for The Saporta Report, saportareport.com. TOM BAXTER tom@saporta report.com f JUSTlCETHOMAS FiNALLY SPEAKS ^ BILL BRAMHALL I Tribune News Service LITERS The cost of fossil fuels Responding to the posts “Oil compa nies not as profitable as you think” and “What will they call it next?,” the costs of fossil fuel consumption are greater than portrayed, whatever words are used to describe climate change. First, while state and federal taxes do charge almost 50 cents to the gallon in excise taxes, most of this goes directly to transportation infrastructure. Without roads on which to drive, most of that gallon of gas would be useless for the consumer and the profit of gasoline com panies alike. While the 50 cents/gallon is still more than base sales tax on other goods, it is still a vast underestimate of the costs to society of that gasoline. For every gal lon of gasoline the consumer purchases, others may be directly harmed in health impacts from air pollution, natural disasters and other health hazards from climate change, or car accidents and other road hazards. Estimates put the economic value of these costs at about $3 per gallon, far greater than the 50-cent tax. Admitting that global warming, cli mate change and climate crisis all refer to roughly the same scientific phenom enon, the notion of “climate crisis” is a useful way to describe the actions taken to address climate change as a policy priority. Two thousand three hundred twenty governmental entities have declared a climate emergency. Regard less of the words chosen, evidence from 928 studies have supported humanity’s impact on the climate, with over 99% of surveyed scientists agreeing that human activity is causing climate change. Amy Borton Gainesville Goodbye pandemic! Let’s check the scorecard How deadly was COVID19 com pared to other coronaviruses? The fatality rate for SARS was 9.5%; MERS 34.4%. Though vastly more contagious, COVID 19 hardly registered. Including unreported cases, CDC claims over 200 million Americans contracted the virus and 1.128 million died. Of course, 94% had co-morbidities. That’s a max fatal ity rate of 0.6%. Since 240 million were vaccinated and 200 million got sick any way, the mRNA vaccines proved a huge disappointment. How about that great hero, Dr. Fauci, who is still peddling shots? Did anyone check his royalties? According to the New York Post, while we sacrificed, his net worth skyrocketed by $5 million. What about those who demanded we keep liquor stores open but padlock churches? The liquor business is thriv ing, but churches aren’t. Membership dropped below 50% for the first time since 1937, with young adults leaving in droves. But we saved thousands! Really? And at what cost? An entire generation of lost souls? We despised, alienated and fired any one who dared question the jab. Now, the media has moved on. No one noticed the VAERS report of 20,000 “unconfirmed” deaths from the vaccine. Children? Myo carditis? No problem, it’s rare, only a few thousand suffered. Of all the nerve, Dr. Fauci just published a new paper (Jan. 2023, Cell Press) that clears up the issue for good: “Viruses like Covid have never been well contained by vaccines.” What? Here’s the worst part: Children were never at serious risk, but we injured them in many other ways. Besides two long years of summer vacation hiding behind masks and afraid to go outside, what exactly did we teach our children? In times of great peril, who can you trust? ■ God: NO ■ Government: YES ■ School: NO ■ Internet: YES ■ Parents: NO ■ Administrators: YES ■ Churches: NO ■ WalMart: YES ■ Hugs: NO ■ Masks: YES ■ Tolerance: NO ■ Tyranny: YES ■ Love: NO ■ Hate: YES No wonder they seem so confused about gender and everything else. Virtu ally every university is patiently waiting to finish off the indoctrination. Godless. Uneducated. Socialistic. Dependent. Petrified of climate change. What’s to worry? God help us when they grow up. Steve Ward Gainesville (The (Times Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com Publisher Stephanie Woody EDITORIAL BOARD Group Editor Nate McCullough
