About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2024)
6A OPINION Zbt Stmcs gainesvillelimes.com Midweek Edition-February 7-8, 2024 Nate McCullough Group Editor 770-718-34311 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. Saluting our fallen heroes from Georgia To: Sgt. Breonna Moffet. Sgt. William Jerome Rivers. Sgt. Kennedy Sanders: I did not know you personally and the likelihood is that our paths might never have crossed. That does not matter. Today, like your family, your friends and your fellow Americans, I am grieving at the news of your senseless deaths from a terrorist drone attack in Jordan. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time and as a result, three lives have been lost and three futures lost as well. Individually, you had coached youth sports, worked with the disabled and had even had a previous tour of duty in Iraq. Collectively, you gave your lives for us. The ultimate sacrifice. You were returned to the country this past week and greeted by your families, the president of the United States, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others. That is as it should be. You deserved that. You came from all parts of Georgia—Waycross in south Georgia, Carrollton in west Georgia and Savannah on the coast — as members of the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion of the U.S. Army Reserve Command. That's a mouthful to say but, in short, you were serving your country in our military. I spent a very short time in Iraq covering the men and women of Georgia's 48th Brigade Combat Team and learned that while the military can delineate the difference between regular Army, Army Reserves and National Guard, it is all the same uniform to those seeking to do harm to us. I'm not sure of your reasons for joining the military but one thing I do know — you were not forced to do so. You volunteered because you chose to, unlike a lot of countries where military service is mandatory. Your passing should make us rethink the term “hero.” Heroes are not athletes who get paid obscene amounts of money, some making more in a single day than your annual pay and then publicly denigrating our country and our flag, not appreciating that those who came before them fought and died for them to have the right to do so. They are not heroes. They play a child's game. You weren't playing. Yours was no game. And then there is the rabble who wrapped themselves in the same flag the overpaid athletes have disrespected and with clubs and poles and zip-ties stormed the U.S. Capitol because they didn't like the results of the presidential election. Even worse, they and their supporters proudly refer to them as patriots. They were not and are not patriots in any sense of the word. They were and are rightwing zealots attempting to overturn the results of an election with which they disagreed. They should be ashamed for even uttering that word. You and your colleagues who serve your country and put you life on the line are the real patriots. Not them. For one moment your sacrifice did bring us together as Americans. Black and White. Male and female. Old and young. Liberal and conservative. There has been nothing but prayers and praise for you. We can do that when we want to. But, sadly, it seems to always take a tragedy to unite us, however briefly. And we are mad. And frustrated. Why were you in some outpost in Jordan near the Syrian border, anyway? And with all the sophisticated technology at our disposal how did we let a drone get through our defenses, costing you your lives and injuring 40 others? And what are we going to do about it? And will it make a difference? We have been in that cesspool part of the world for the past 30-plus years and nothing seems to have changed. It's like trying to stamp out cockroaches. The more you eradicate, the more they seem to multiply. ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida, on and on. All terrorists. All intent on destroying us and our way of life. We are dealing with immoral and uncivilized cretins who place no value on human life — theirs or ours or yours. In closing, as the three of you were returned to Dover Air Force base in Delaware in a fittingly silent and moving ceremony, the chaplain asked that the “stories of their lives be honored by others.” That is what I have been trying to do today along with those who are reading these words. We honor you. We salute you. And may we never forget you. You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.0. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139. 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 Columnist DANA SUMMERS I Tribune News Service Gambling in Georgia? Place bets carefully On the same day last week, the Georgia Senate and Mis sissippi House passed sports gambling bills. Betting can now begin on whether either becomes law. You wouldn't be likely to scare up many people willing to put their money on the Georgia bill. The bill, which sets up a complicated mecha nism to run sports gambling under the wing of the Georgia Lottery Corpora tion, passed the Senate Thursday with the last-minute addition of an amend ment by Sen. Bill Cowsert, which requires passage of a constitutional amendment by voters for the plan to move forward. Since an official amendment does not yet exist at this point, this adds a new degree of difficulty to the legisla tion as it moves to the House. The bill has a variety of critics in the House, with time to plot its demise. It's not dead, but its prospects look a lot more complicated. The bill that the Mississippi House passed a little later that day offers us what could be a valuable lesson in the way gambling legislation evolves. They've had sports betting since 2018, but only in the state's casinos. This foretold the compromise that was reached in the bill that passed in Jackson on Thursday. The casinos feared competition from “mobile sports betting,” another way of say ing gambling by phone. So, under the provisions of the bill, Mississippi- based online gambling operations have to partner with individual casi nos to do business. It's not at all uncommon, by the way, for one type of gambling opera tion to emerge as the biggest obstacle to the establishment of another. That’s become commonplace in legislatures across the country. If you think Mississippi's plan sounds kind of gimcrack, consider Georgia's. Under this plan, Georgia Lottery would issue 16 licenses, with seven to go to sports betting compa nies and the remainder distributed to the five major Atlanta sports fran chises, NASCAR, Georgia Lottery, PGA, and Augusta National. Is the Georgia Lottery going to hold a license in a consortium run by the Georgia Lottery? For that matter, are the Braves or the Hawks going to hold a license that lets people bet on their games? The bill states, by the way, that having the Lottery in charge “ensures that sports betting is operated in this state with integ rity and dignity and free of political influence.” Another question: Do people bet on soccer? It would be interesting to know if the authors of the bill had any contact with the soccer officials plan ning to make Atlanta a hot spot in the 2026 World Cup. The sponsor of the Mississippi predicted before last week's vote that online gambling would bring an addi tional $25 million to $35 million in tax money to the state in its first year of operations. When you think about it, Mega Millions and Powerball give away jackpots that large on virtually a weekly basis. Negotiators in the Mis sissippi House seem to have come to a similar realization in the way they divvied up the expected proceeds. At first, they were going to divide the money between state and local gov ernments, but then they decided just to put all the money in a state fund to repair highways and roads. Sen. Clint Dixon, the sponsor of the Georgia legislation, predicted the state will bring in $100 million annu ally, but some supporters of the bill say that figure is too low. A compari son with Mississippi doesn't suggest this. Mississippi, a state that has some experience with gambling revenues, plans to tax online gambling at 12 percent. Under the Georgia bill, online gambling in this state would be taxed at 20 percent. In addition, there would be a $100,000 fee just to apply for a license and a $1 million a year fee for licensees. Given the difference in the size of the two states' populations and the difference in how much they plan to tax, $100 million for Georgia sounds about right and, in fact, might be a little high. So many states are moving to legal ize sports betting, but they are getting hard to keep up with. When Alabama takes up a measure next week, the number will be approaching 40. This, unfortunately, does not guarantee that it's a good idea. Tom Baxter is a veteran Georgia journalist who writes for The Saporta Report, saportareport.com. His columns appear Wednesdays. TOM BAXTER tom@saporta report.com (The STtnes Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com Publisher Stephanie Woody EDITORIAL BOARD Group Editor Nate McCullough
