About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2023)
6A OPINION Sttnes gainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition-June 23-24, 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. \j(Xji&£$(cr2\ Counterpoint Media TUtSlSOOMS To UUOT ME MORE TUAM IT HURT'S YOU. Dept, of JUSTICE LISA BENSON I Washington Post Writers Group Many think life was better 50 years ago. That’s ridiculous “Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were. ” — Marcel Proust Nostalgia, a term that originated as a medical diagnosis for Swiss mer cenaries suffering from homesickness, is the sorrow ful longing for a lost past. An April Pew survey found that nearly 6 out of 10 (58%) Americans think the country was better off for people like them 50 years ago. For Republican and Republican leaning respondents, nos talgia for the early 1970s reached 72%. This is bad — but not for the reasons you might think. First, some context. In 1939, Gallup found that 62% of Americans thought people were better off in the horse- and-buggy era (though only 25% said they’d actually want to live then). Indeed, Americans have always had a thing for the “good old days.” The prob lem is that what — or when — constitutes the “good old days” is a constantly moving target. It often seems to be about five decades earlier from right now. Karlyn Bowman studies public opinion at the Ameri can Enterprise Institute. She found that in recent surveys, the 1980s and 1990s are starting to supplant the 1950s as the new “good old days.” You can see evidence for this all over the place in popular culture, from the remakes of old sitcoms to JONAH GOLDBERG goldbergcolumn@gmail.com original offerings such as “Stranger Things” that cast those years as a lost time of innocence. But take it from someone who was there, Americans were pining for the good old days back then too. I grew up on “Happy Days” and, later, “Back to the Future.” In the early 1990s, it was “The Wonder Years,” which was set in the 1960s. The 2021 reboot of “The Won der Years” is also set in the 1960s, which is now nearly 60 years ago. Indeed, in the ’80s and ’90s, popular culture was shot through with baby boomer and Gen X angst about contemporary society. “The Big Chill,” “Grand Can yon,” “Thirtysomething,” “Reality Bites,” “American Beauty,” “Singles” and “Fight Club” were pre mised on the idea that life was unsatisfying because it lacked purpose — or some thing. And don’t even get me started on such themes in music. The simple fact is that nostalgia is a constant in American history. Indeed, it started being a potent force in American politics right when the founding genera tion died out. Andrew Jack son’s populism played to it. When he vetoed the effort to recharter the Second Bank of the United States, he declared he was doing so to “revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of com promise which distinguished the sages of the Revolu tion and the fathers of our Union.” Not quite as pithy as “Make America Great Again,” but you get the point. Politicians play on nostal gia because it is one of the most powerful human emo tions. My hunch is that many people confuse their own gauzy memories of their per sonal life with a narcissistic and ideological indictment of today. I look fondly at my 1970s childhood, but it would be ludicrous for me to think such fondness was proof the country was doing better. When Americans say things were better 50 years ago, do they mean the runaway “stagflation” — high infla tion plus low growth? The lines to buy gas? The Viet nam War? Watergate? We hear a lot about ris ing crime these days. It’s a legitimate issue, but perhaps we’re nostalgic for the 1970s and 1980s not just because crime gets so much cover age but also because we’ve memory-holed the fact that crime was so much worse (maybe the lead poisoning from those days caused amnesia?). Violent crime exploded in those decades and has been trending mostly downward since 1993. In an 18-month period from 1971-1972, according to the FBI, there was an aver age of five terrorist bomb ings per day. In 1976, an FBI spokesman described San Francisco as the “Belfast of North America.” Americans are richer today than decades ago. Adjusted for purchasing power, Mississippians — who live in our poorest state — have higher incomes than the French. We live longer, have more free time, and travel more affordably. Infant mortality has been cut in half; our air and water quality is vastly improved. Our cars are much better and much safer. Our homes are bigger and more com fortable. The number of peo ple injured or killed on the jobs has plummeted. We’ve made real progress against racism in the last several decades. None of this is to say today is perfect. Nor is it to say that everything has gotten better. Rather, it’s just to note that nostalgia is a ter rible guide, because it tends to take progress for granted and replaces feelings for memory. Any politician who actually delivered the real ity of the “good old days” would be pelted from office. Which is why it’s a good thing they can’t deliver on such promises. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in- chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. ‘Indeed, Americans have always had a thing for the “good old days.” The problem is that what — or when — constitutes the “good old days” is a constantly moving target. It often seems to be about five decades earlier from right now.’ Your government officials U.S. government President Joseph Biden, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500, comments 202- 456-1111, switchboard 202-456-1414, fax 202-456-2461; www.whitehouse. gov Sen. Jon Ossoff, Hart Senate Office Building, Suite 825 B&C, Washington, DC 20510, 202-224-3521, fax, 202-224- 2575; 3280 Peachtree Rd. NE, Suite 2640, Atlanta 30305, 470-786-7800, fax 404-949-0912; www.ossoff.senate.gov. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Suite B40D, Washington, DC 20510, 202-224-3643; One Overton Park, 3625 Cumberland Boulevard, Suite 970, Atlanta 30339, 770-694-7828, fax 770-612-2471; www. warnock.senate.gov. U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, 521 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-225-9893, fax 202-226- 1224; 210 Washington St. NW, Suite 202, Gainesville 30501,470-768-6520; www.clyde.house.gov. Georgia state government Gov. Brian Kemp, 206 Washington Street, Suite 203, State Capitol, Atlanta 30334; 404 656-1776; www.gov.georgia.gov. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, 240 State Capitol, Atlanta 30334, 404-656-5030; www. ltgov.ga.gov Secretary of State Brett Raffensperger, 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 802, Floyd West Tower, Atlanta 30334, 404-656-2871, fax, 404-463-5231 Attorney General Chris Carr, 40 Capitol Square SW, Atlanta 30334; 404-458- 3600; www.law.ga.gov. School Superintendent Richard Woods, 205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE, Atlanta 30334; 404-656-2800; askdoe@gadoe. org; www.gadoe.org. Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, 148 Andrew Young International Blvd. NE, Atlanta 30303-1751; 404-232-3000; commissioner@gdol.ga.gov; www.dol. georgia.gov. Insurance Commissioner John King, 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, West Tower, Suite 702, Atlanta 30334; 404-656- 2070; www.oci.georgia.gov. Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, 19 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta 30334; 404-656-3600, 800-282-5852; gary.black@agr.georgia.gov; www.agr. georgia.gov Public Service Commission, 244 Washington St. SW, Atlanta 30334- 9052, 800-282-5813, fax 404-656-2341; gapsc@psc.ga.gov; www.psc.ga.gov; Chairman Chuck Eaton, District 3; Vice Chairman Tim Echols, District 2; Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, District 4; Tricia Pridemore, District 5; Jason Shaw, District 1. LITERS Writer’s carbon claims don’t line up with evidence The claim (per Jimmy Echols, The Times, June 16-17) of a pre-industrial atmospheric concentra tion of carbon dioxide as being 180 ppm is at odds with NASA’s approximately 280 ppm (ref. online NASA, “Global Climate Change, Vital Signs of the Planet”). This difference (280 ppm vs. 180 ppm) is very substantial, as the rapid changes in Earth’s environment are due to only a 50% (approxi mately) increase in carbon dioxide (emitted by human activity) rather than what would be a 133% increase, based on Mr. Echols’ 180 ppm pre industrial. For many thousands of years, the car bon dioxide concentration has been very adequate for vast quantities of plant life all over the planet. Regarding Mr. Echols’ point of computer model ing, his reference to “fudge factors” is not clear to me, but scientists that create and employ the mod els claim that models are run with many different parameterizations and varying considerations of forcing influences, for the purpose of establishing levels of confidence in the predictions that the models make (ref. online “Forcings in GISS Cli mate Models”, Goddard Institute for Space Stud ies). And generally, climate modeling has been shown to be highly skillful (per IPCC, pp 821-822, WG1AR5. of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report). As to Mr. Echols’ point about AR5, he cites confi dence in the report’s consensus regarding human influence in climate change as being “low”. This claim had no specific reference in his letter, but on page 5 of the Summary for Policymakers from that AR5 (2014), we see this: The evidence for human influence on the cli mate system has grown since the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). It is extremely likely that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010 was caused by the anthropogenic increase in GHG concentrations and other anthropogenic forcings together. The more recent study (i.e., AR6) was released earlier this year, and in its ARS Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers regarding the confi dence in human influences in the present chang ing climates, the discussion may be found on page 5 (PDF page 9) of this document. Nicholas Schardl Gainesville A reader’s perception is their reality I was surprised reading the recent guest column by Dr. Douglas Young, listed as a political science professor emeritus at the University of North Georgia in Gainesville. His column endorsed one of the GOP candidates for president. First of all, “political science” is an oxymoron. There is nothing scientific about poli tics. I couldn’t care less who he endorses. I prefer to do my homework and make my own choices. My problem with this column is perception. One of my journalism mentors was Merv Block. He wasn’t a professor. He was one of the three main writers of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Real world experience. Not academic. Merv taught me a viewer’s perception is their reality. My perception of this is if the endorsement was printed in The Times, it’s an endorsement by the paper itself. As Dr. Young’s bio includes the University of North Georgia, my perception is this is an endorsement by the school as well. My perception. My reality. My local opinion. Honestly. Brian Olson Gainesville Voters need to realize Trump is a con man The recent indictment of Donald Trump for numerous egregious violations of the Espionage Act should come as no surprise; in fact, it almost seems inevitable. Trump, dating back to 2016, has continually shown a predisposition to disregard the laws of the land and standards of behavior expected of any president of the U.S. Never has a president operated with such narcissism, arro gance, and foolishness. Discovering his blatant indifference to the security of the U.S. is hardly different than his collusion with Russia and Ukraine and his orchestration of the violent intru sion into the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6. However, perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the entire Trump phenomenon is the extent to which he has managed to dupe a huge number of American voters. It’s always been taken as a given that Americans are extremely patriotic, law-abid ing, moralistic, honest, etc. Donald Trump couldn’t care less about any of that. It is beyond amazing that the public does not seem to grasp that he is not one of them. The first thing to understand about Trump is that he is basically a con man with utter contempt for others. He has no problem stiffing contractors or deceiving students at his “pretend” university. His ignoring laws and societal rules follow directly from his pathological personality. Trump likes to complain that he is a victim of a so-called deep state. In all actuality it is Trump who has constantly victimized the American pub lic. He literally did nothing positive for America during his term unless one counts the $2 trillion he funneled toward the rich. Of course, his handling of the COVID-19 crisis was reprehensible. It cannot be stated too strongly: Trump has been a disaster for America. His nonstop denigration of our democratic processes and the rule of law could not be more un-American. He needs to be sent packing, regardless of where that might be. The American public needs to stand up to a man who really has no problem eroding all that Amer ica stands for. One can look forward to the day when the Trump vote total in an election is zero. Jim Grattan Gainesville (the (Times Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com EDITORIAL BOARD Publisher Stephanie Woody Group Editor Nate McCullough To submit letters: Send emails to letters@gainesvilletimes.com or thecontactformatgainesvilletimes. com. Include name, hometown and phone number. Letters are limited to one per writer in a month’s time on topics of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit 350 words). Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters, columns and cartoons express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times.
