About The Monroe County reporter. (Forsyth, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 2008)
PAGE 4A February 27. 2008 ^Reporter Opinion Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not; Jeremiah 50:2 OUR VIEW Call Sen. Staton Stop the waste of taxpayer money and protect your ability to follow government actions Beware. The Georgia General Assembly is in session again. If you want to protect your home’s value and your quality of life, it’s time — again — to pay attention. In recent years a few secrecy-in-govemment legislators would have made it possible to spoil your neighborhood with unwant ed development and you could not know until it was too late to stop it. Some wanted to allow government to take your property through eminent domain and turn it over to developers. Public outcry sent them backing away from such harmful leg islation like roaches scrambling from the light. This year, unfortunately, it’s our own Sen. Cecil Staton (R- Macon) pushing Senate Bill 391. Staton mistakenly believes he is enhancing public notice when, perhaps unwittingly, he is tak ing the first step toward making it even harder for residents to follow what local governments are doing. Sen. Staton wants cities, counties and school boards to pay a private company based in Beverly Hills, California to carry public notices on the company’s for-profit Internet website. Each time a town council changes meeting times, or a school board holds a called session, this Beverly Hills company would have to be paid. As the law now stands, officials merely post a notice in a conspicuous place and notify their legal organ newspaper in advance. The Georgia Municipal Association says Staton’s bill will cost taxpayers more money. It will accomplish nothing in improving public notice. How will residents know where to find these notices of impor tant issues in the vastness of cyberspace? Sen. Staton ignores the fact many public notices are already available to you on the Internet — for free (go to www.georgia pub lic notice .com). Never mind that many public notices are already posted — for free — in courthouses and city halls. Never mind that many are published in this newspaper. Staton, inexplicably, believes this compa ny should be paid to, essentially, duplicate what newspapers and local officials are already doing in hundreds of Georgia towns and cities. Why does Staton think a California company deserves tax payer dollars to duplicate service already available? We wish we could tell you, but Sen. Staton either ignores, or takes umbrage at, those who dare question his intent. (Disappointing behavior from someone who asked to represent us.) But then, most of us didn’t give Sen. Staton $1,000 dona tions in the last few weeks. The Beverly Hills executives hoping to get this guaranteed windfall did. Coincidence? Perhaps. Truth is, this isn’t about public notice. It’s about getting into the taxpayers’ pockets. This Beverly Hills crowd has pushed similar legislation in several other states. Their plan is to move public notices from courthouses, city halls and your local news paper to their website as a state-mandated monopoly. They’ve been turned away in every other state, so far. No one, it appears, has fallen for their scheme like Sen. Staton. You can put a stop to this. Your home’s value depends on knowing when critical zoning changes may occur. Your quality of life can be ruined forever by undesirable development. That’s part of why following local government action is important. Sen. Staton is, apparently, lis tening only to private interests from Beverly Hills who don’t have protection of your Georgia home or community as a priori ty- Call Sen. Staton today (404) 656-5039 or email him (cecil@cecilstaton.com). Remind the senator he works for the people of District 18 — not Beverly Hills. Tell him to drop S.B. 391. The value of your home or the quality of your neighbor hood could depend on it. STATON Why do you suppose a Beverly Hills company has so much interest in Georgia government that they’d give our senator $1,000? is published every week by The Monroe County Reporter Inc. Will Davis, president Robert M. Williams Jr., vice president Cheryl S. Williams, secretary-treasurer OUR STAFF Will Davis Publisher/E ditor wpdavis@ bellsouth.net Gina Herring - Reporter ginaherring@ bellsouth.net Trellis Grant - Business Manager trellisgrant@ bellsouth.net Carolyn Martel - Advertising Manager carolynmartel@ bellsouth.net Wendell Ramage Contributing Writer wendellram4@ bellsouth.net Carole Dixon - Graphics/Advertisng forsythgraphics@ bellsouth.net at 30 E. Johnston St., Forsyth, GA 31029 Periodicals Postage Paid at Forsyth, Ga 31029 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: THE MONROE COUNTY REPORTER P.O.Box795, Forsyth,GA31029 Official Organ of Monroe County and the City of Forsyth Phone: 478-994-2358 • FAX 478-994-2359 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Monroe County - $25 Out of County - $38 Single copy - 750 Tax and Postage Included Deadlines are noon on Friday prior to issue. The comments featured on the opinion pages are the sole creations of the writers, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Reporter management. Publication No. USPS 997-840) Point Blank: Cartoons best understood via last week’s Reporter ■ ■ POINT-BLANK Banned in schools since '63 tflLHELM ESO. A moment of silence heard in Monroe County. Background cheek? Ho# boot divine intervention with Mick Ashmore in Robert Griej what background check did ycu use for selecting Afveno Ross as the new thief tax appraiser ? the Himalayas On the Porch Now about that police page... B efore I get to my main point this week, let me pass on something. It appears our dis trict attorney, Richard Milam, will face opposition if he seeks re-election this year. An attorney from Bolingbroke tells the Reporter he is 90 percent certain he will run for DA in the Towaliga circuit, which includes Monroe, Butts and Lamar counties. The maybe-candi- date is cur rently an assistant district attorney in Houston County. And so the election year is starting to heat up. There’s another way you can tell it’s an election year: some politicians are start ing to go to church again. Well, whatever it takes to get ‘em in earshot of the truth. Anyway, qualifying is in April. Monroe County needs good leaders. If there’s a position where you think there can be an improvement, why not give it a shot? Now, back to regu lar programming... • • • In my travels around Monroe County, it’s been encouraging to hear a lot of good feedback about what we’re doing at Reporter. People seem to enjoy the thorough coverage of local government, our sports pages, the opinion columns and the positive features on Monroe County people. One thing people seem to be very interested in is the Public Record page. Tucked right before the back page of our front section, this page includes public records available at the sher iff’s office and courthouse. It covers things like arrests and incidents, plus property transfers recorded and building permits issued. The incidents seem to the most popular. We take these directly from actual police reports written by deputies and officers. It’s kind of like a written version of the TV show, “Cops.” Somebody told me the other day they want to mail some of them off to Jay Leno for use on “The Tonight Show.” Magistrate Judge Jeff Davis said people he knows try to play the match game, connecting the incident to the person who was arrest ed for the problem on the page below. But as you’d expect, not everyone likes change. One reader told me last week she doesn’t think it is fair to publish the names of people who are “unlucky.” Well, for what it’s worth, here’s what I think: I think a newspaper’s job is to be a mirror to the community. We should reflect the good and the bad about Monroe County. Our readers have a right to expect that after reading the Reporter each week, they’ll have a full and accurate view of what’s going on. That means knowing who’s getting married. But it also means knowing whether there’s crime on your street. Or knowing whether the sheriff’s department is responding to a known crime problem in your neighborhood. It means knowing what sher iff’s deputies and police offi cers have to put up with every day while serving and protecting the rest of us. And it means knowing who has been arrested and for what. Every week, we include the disclaimer that those arrested are considered by the law to be innocent until proven guilty. We do not publish minor traffic viola tions. An arrest is a fact. Someone is arrested every week. Here’s the question: Are there certain facts peo ple should not know? Do people benefit by not having all the facts? In general, I believe more knowledge is a good thing. Besides, some people are more afraid of being in the Reporter than they are of the justice system. If we can help deter crime, then I’m all for it. I’ve been in the newspaper business long enough to know that you can’t make everyone happy. And I’ve learned that if everyone is happy, you’re probably not doing your job. My goal is that whether readers agree or disagree with something in the paper, they know we are at least fair and factual about it. We treat everyone the same. If, God forbid, anyone in my family is ever arrest ed, you can bet they’ll be on the Public Record page. My old boss, Dink NeSmith, likes to say that when he passes to the other side of the Great Deadline, he hopes his friends and foes alike will merely say, “At least the old sonofagun was fair.” That’s a good goal for a newspaperman, and it’s mine as well. Email Will Davis at wpdavis@bellsouth. net. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ‘God ... has a way of healing wounds* To the editor: A bout a year ago we at New Providence Baptist Church lost our pastor. Andy Brock died of a massive heart attack. It was a very difficult loss for us, but God always has a way of healing wounds. Brother Andy always said, “God has a special man out there to lead this church.” Well, in my mind I thought it was him. He said this all the time and I thought, “OK, Brother Andy, you are that man. But God had another plan. About seven months ago we found our special man. He is a hometown boy who most everyone knows. His name is Brian Moore. When I heard the news that Brian was going to be our pastor, I have to say I was kind of shocked. I thought: “Brian?!? I’ve known him all my life and MOORE now h e ig going to be my pastor?” I could not believe it, but again Brother Andy knew what he was talking about. The special man who would lead our church was right in front of us the whole time. Wow. When you tell God your plan, He sits you down and shows you His. I have to say Brian and his family have been a great blessing to our church. When he preaches, he knows what he is talk ing about and it comes straight from the Word of God. Our membership grows almost weekly, and people who visit come back for more. Who would have thought our “special man” would be right here in town? This just proves how God has His own plans and how He answers prayers. I just want to say thank you Brian for helping our wounds heal a little easier. You are a great leader and friend and we are certainly blessed to have you at New Providence. I know Brother Andy is very proud of our church and you for all we have accomplished. Please continue to pray for Andy’s widow, Mrs. Nona Brock, and her boys. It has been a tough year. But with their faith, they have gotten through it. Yes, we still miss Brother Andy, and will never forget him, but I know without a doubt he is in heaven smiling down on us saying “good job.” Jessica Starr Forsyth Marshall makes America less safe To the editor: or the last six years, the United States has been at war with an unconvention al enemy who has proven they will use extra ordi nary warfare in order to kill innocent Americans and destroy our way of life. Following the attacks on Sept. 11, the President and Congress enacted many reforms at home and abroad to hunt down suspected terrorists and thwart their ability to attack us. One such reform was an update for the 30 year old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Unfortunately, it was only temporary. Last week, the U.S. Senate in a bi partisan manner voted to perma nently update the FISA law in order to protect America, but Jim Marshall and the Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to block the Senate’s bi-partisan bill, then left town and let the act expire. With this expiration, America is now less safe and our intelligence officials have to jump through addi tional hoops just to listen-in on the conversations of plotting terrorists and possibly missing terrorists plans to attack our country. There are men and women risking their lives in order to defend our way of life, but Jim Marshall failed to join a bi-partisan group and support a bill that would protect the homeland. It’s time for Georgians to contact Jim Marshall and other vacationing leaders and tell them to get back to work and pass the bi-partisan bill to make America safe again. Michael Lane Bonaire
