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OPINION
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gainesvilletimes.com
Midweek Edition-April 3-4, 2024
Nate McCullough Group Editor I 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.
Paying tribute
to Bob Shaw
My boss and mentor at Southern Bell, Jasper
Dorsey, taught me a lot about the business world.
He also taught me a lot about the world beyond
business. One of his precepts was that we have
an obligation to leave this a better world than we
found it. Otherwise, we have just taken up time
and space and wasted a life.
Those wise words came to mind last week at
the going-home service for my friend, Bob Shaw.
His was a life well-lived over his 95 years on this
planet and he certainly made
this a better world by his
presence in it. How so? Let
me count the ways.
Bob Shaw was first
and foremost a family
man. He married his
sweetheart, Elaine Smith,
ran a prosperous insurance
business and raised four
daughters, one of whom
predeceased him. His wife died
in 2016. Along with his daughters, he is survived
by 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
The love and respect of his family was evident
at his service. His grandchildren related their
experiences with “Big Daddy” that were both
poignant and humorous. Undergirding it all was a
sense of great respect that a very important person
was never too important to be their grandfather
and their friend.
Bob Shaw was the godfather of the Republican
Party in Georgia. He was chairman of the state
GOP when they could have held their convention
in a phone booth. He encouraged folks like Johnny
Isakson, Paul Coverdell and Newt Gingrich to
get into the political arena. He also served as vice
chairman of the Republican National Committee
alongside George H.W. Bush.
Walking into Bob Shaw's home in suburban
Atlanta was like walking into a piece of
Republican Party history. On the wall of his study
were pictures of him with the Who's Who of the
GOP: Barry Goldwater. Richard Nixon. James
Baker. Gerald Ford. Newt Gingrich. George H.W.
Bush. Ronald Reagan.
On his 90th birthday, local Republicans held a
long-overdue tribute for Shaw. “There were over
250 people in attendance, including a lot of our
elected officials,” he told me at the time. “In the
presentation, they talked about the history of what
I did to get the Republican Party going in Georgia
and a lot of them sat there their mouths open. They
didn't know all that.” They should have. They
know it now.
Bob Shaw was a gospel singer. That is putting it
mildly. Robert J. Shaw is a member of the Georgia
Music Hall of Fame and the Atlanta Country
Music Hall of Fame. After having served during
the Korean War, he became the lead singer with
the gospel group, the Revelaires. He was later
invited to join the Jordanaires, who would become
the backup group for Elvis Presley. He declined.
And for good reason. Too much travel. “My
family came first,” he once told me. That didn't
mean Bob Shaw abandoned his love of music. He
was director of music at First Baptist Church of
Chattahoochee in Atlanta for over 60 years.
Bob Shaw was a mentor. There were numerous
examples cited where someone asked for just
a few minutes of his time seeking advice and
counsel, only to spend an hour or more with him.
Two men who were influenced early in their
careers by his mentorship were Rusty Paul, the
mayor of Sandy Springs and longtime Fulton
County Superior Court Judge Craig L. Schwall,
both of whom delivered moving eulogies.
Paul, a former chair of the state Republican
Party himself, not only learned the ABC's of
politics from his mentor, he also had the privilege
of singing gospel music with him, as well.
To Judge Schwall, Bob Shaw was not only a
counselor and political advisor, he was a father
figure who treated him as a son. Their mutual
respect and affection for each other transcended
politics.
So, why am I telling you this? It is because
I saw firsthand in Bob Shaw's going-home
celebration what Jasper Dorsey had been trying to
get me to understand. Yes, there were a few tears
shed, but mainly it was a celebration of a life well-
lived and one that has made this a better world as a
result. He has set the bar high for the rest of us.
Bob Shaw was not only a devoted family man,
a historically-significant political figure, a Hall
of Fame gospel singer and a valued mentor to
countless numbers of people, he was also my
friend. I will miss him. We all will.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough.com or
at P.0. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139.
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and not of The Times.
DICK YARBROUGH
Columnist
Election laws fraught with
unintended consequences
As much as they have to do with each
other, elections and legislative sessions
seldom align in an intended way.
Issues that flare up in a session can
fade by election day, and things can
happen after sine die that put legislative
votes in a much different light. When it
comes to election laws passed in election
years, many unintended consequences
can arise.
It’s clear that the provision of the
new voting law passed by the General
Assembly in its closing hours, which
allows presidential candidates on the
Georgia ballot if they have qualified in
at least 20 other states, is meant to boost
Robert Kennedy Jr. and thus help former
President Donald Trump.
It should be just as clear that in some
future elections, getting a third-party
candidate on the ballot could hurt the
Republican presidential candidate. Of
course the law could be undone, but that
would be politically costlier than putting
it in place. For a long time Georgia has
had a reputation as a state with stringent
ballot access laws. Whether intended
or not, this law represents a crack in the
wall for all third parties.
The new law expands — or clarifies,
depending on which way you come on
it — the grounds on which mass voter
challenges can be filed. Voting rights
groups and Democrats are going to
condemn this and warn of chaos next
November if this goes into effect.
But here’s a question. Since the Gen
eral Assembly opened the door to these
voter challenges in the 2021 voting law,
more than 100,000 voters have already
been challenged.
We can assume
that nearly all
these voters, and
all the local elec
tion officials who
have had the addi
tional burden of
responding to the
challenges, were
in Democratic
majority counties.
So how long is
it going to take before Democrats real
ize that if blue counties can be swamped
with spurious challenges, so can red
counties ? After all, more of their voters
have already been vetted. Republicans
have argued in so many words that vot
ers should not feel inconvenienced by
being required to prove they are voting
legally. It would be interesting to see
how their own voters feel about that.
Which raises another question. What
percentage of those 100,000 voters who
were challenged over the past couple of
years have actually been discovered to
be voting illegally and removed from the
rolls?
In much the same way as computer
programs and games have periodic
upgrades, and for much the same rea
sons, this year's law is upgraded from
the 2021 law. But if this is Election 2.0,
it’s hard to envision what developers will
come up with for Election 3.0.
The crowning provision of this year's
law doesn't go into effect for the upcom
ing election, but it reflects just how far
into the weeds its authors have traveled
to assure election deniers that they mean
business. In a slap at 21st-century tech
nology, the QR code currently on ballots
will be replaced by something that looks
like those little circles you filled in on
standardized tests back in the ‘60s.
The new law also mandates that there
be a watermark on ballots, which will
require the secretary of state's office to
buy a $100,000 machine. House Gov
ernmental Affairs Committee Chairman
John LaHood called this a “low-cost,
high-value measure.”
It's tempting to challenge LaHood's
assessment since a watermark's value
is mostly cosmetic. But he's probably
right. If that new machine in the sec
retary of state's office reassures voters
who think that elections are being stolen
from them, it's worth the money.
The 2021 election law inspired a story
line in the new season of “Curb Your
Enthusiasm,” in which Larry David gets
arrested for passing out bottles of water
to voters in Atlanta. It outraged U.S.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. There's
not as much comedy material in Election
2.0, but it will inevitably draw some kind
of court challenge.
And like the 2021 law, it will have
very tittle to do with the outcome of
this year's election, and only a marginal
impact on whether those on the losing
end believe the results.
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
NICK ANDERSON I Tribune News Service
THE DOJIS T BUT DOESN'T
SUING APPLE
OVER CERTAIN
ALLEGATIONS
OF VIOLATING
ANTITRUST
LAW,
GOOGLE USE
YOUR OPERATING
SYSTEM IN AIL
ITS TOUCHSCREEN
DEV1CES,TABLETS,
.AMD CELLPHONES?
THIS IS NOT
ABOUT ME OR
MY BUSINESS
RIGHT NOW/
WE NEED TO
FOCUS ON
APPLE
o o
JOEY WEATHERFORD I Tribune News Service
(The STtnes
Founded Jan. 26,1947
345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501
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Stephanie Woody
EDITORIAL BOARD
Group Editor
Nate McCullough
