Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
April 16.2008
^Reporter
Opinion
Declare among the nations,
and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not;
Jeremiah 50:2
OUR VIEW
Won’t ever be the
same? That’s a given
N ews reached this office on Monday
that those who’ve been fighting a
Wal-Mart Supercenter on Indian
Springs Drive for two years have
given up the ghost.
Yes, after two years of lawsuits in federal and
state courts, it seems the protracted Battle of
Wal-Mart is over. Perhaps even opponents are
feeling a little bit relieved.
According to a recent on-line poll on our Web
site, www.mymcr.met, a large majority of resi
dents want a Supercenter in Forsyth. With gas
prices hovering around $3.25 per gallon, we sup
pose we need all the shopping outlets here at
home we can get.
But popular support is not the best reason to
allow this transaction. Freedom is. The United
States has become the richest nation in the histo
ry of nations because of the values of our people,
and because we guard the freedoms of businesses
and individuals to engage in commerce. We are a
free society guarded by the rule of law. We take
this blessing for granted. But a trip to a Third
World or socialist country can quickly help us
appreciate the freedom of businesses to set up
shop without undue hindrances. In some parts of
the world, governments must be bribed and boots
licked before a business can even dream of start
ing to operate. As a result there is widespread
corruption among government officials trying to
extort businesses for more revenue. And further,
people are discouraged from entering the free
market to launch innovative and needed business
ventures that provide jobs and growth.
In this case, it may be that the city could have
handled the Supercenter’s effort to enter town
better. Any government official who has a private
business interest should do everything possible to
avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
City and county officials should take a hands off
approach to any action that would specifically
affect their private business or home.
On the other hand, in a small town it is expect
ed that government will have to make decisions
that directly affect those elected to the govern
ment. It cannot be avoided.
The Wal-Mart case has been argued back and
forth for two years and it’s time to put it behind
us. It would hurt our community if these two
groups insisted on clinging to the memories of
hurtful words and actions during this disagree
ment. It’s best for all of us to make up and move
on.
Supercenter opponents have sighed that
Forsyth will never be the same again. But we
would remind them that very few things stay the
way they have always has been. People die, peo
ple are born. Businesses come and go. Clinging to
an air-brushed past is no way to live. And that
dreaded change may not be all bad. Yes, a
Forsyth Supercenter may hurt some of our busi
nesses. But this city survived the entry of the
current Wal-Mart decades ago. Because of a good
and benevolent Providence, we remain confident
and hopeful that while tomorrow’s Forsyth won’t
look just like yesterday’s Forsyth, it can still be a
better Forsyth.
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
publisher@mymcr.net
Gina Herring -
Reporter
news@mymcr.net
Trellis Grant
Business Manager
business@mymcr.net
Carolyn Martel -
Advertising
Manager
ads@mymcr.net
Wendell Ramage
Contributing Writer
wendellram4@
bellsouth.net
at 30 E. Johnston St., Forsyth, GA31029
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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«BLAlN T K! Waldrop vs Bittick in celebrity showdown...
The real Boss Hogg
Since 1979
I'm Roscoe P. Bittick and
Tm gonna cuff ya and stuff ya." 4 '
I'm Barney P. Waldrop and I may
only have one bullet but "I'm gonna
nip it in the bud"
Wilhelm Neal, E*Q.
/
N/5.
Hazzard vs Mayberry: you decide!!!
On the Porch
Obama: Vote for me, dumb hicks
W hat image
comes to
most peo
ple’s minds
when they
think of small-town folks
like you and me?
Surely, it
depends on that
person.
Those who know
small towns, and
like them, think of
small towns as the
backbone of
America,
places where
neighbors
still help
neighbors,
where men
(and many women) can
still change their own oil,
where boys learn to hunt
deer and catch catfish at
an early age. Others, those
who rarely leave the con
fines of the big city or sub
urbs, probably tend to look
down on small towns as
pockets of impoverished
rednecks who rarely brush
their tooth, can’t read and
write and are basically
backward looking and
thinking.
A person’s view of small
town folks usually tells us
more about that person
than it does about us. Are
you with me so far?
If someone looks down at
small town people, it tells
me they’re a bit of a snob. I
know, because I was one. I
grew up in the city.
Raleigh, N.C. We made fun
of people from small towns
around us - places like
Garner, Zebulon, Wake
Forest and Fuqua-Varina.
We always teased these
hamlets by sounding out
their names as we imag
ined their residents would:
“I’m goin’ to the Wall-
Maarrt in Fyu-
Kwa-Vareeenaah!”
we’d say, and laugh,
laugh, laugh. We
were so much
smarter and more
sophisticated than
they were. So we
thought.
But my
perceptions
eventually
changed.
For one, my
grandparents were from a
small town in north
Georgia, Hartwell, that I
enjoyed visiting. They
knew everybody there and
had room to fish and hunt.
Small towns were starting
to grow on me. Then at the
University of Georgia I got
to meet people from all
over the state. And I
almost always preferred to
hang out with ones from
small towns. They were
funnier, took themselves
less seriously, could shoot a
gun and were more likely
to invite folks down to
their parents’ house where
mama would scare up a
giant meal for everyone,
and the next day we’d all
get up to go to church.
On the other hand, you
could always tell the ones
from the Atlanta area.
They had that non-descript
accent, like a canned radio
deejay, and seemed to have
grown up watching lots of
TV that sapped their per
sonalities.
Later, when I started to
think about raising a fami
ly and the importance of
faith, I decided it’s definite
ly better for me to live in a
small town.
But a man who wants to
be our next president does
n’t seem to hold such a
high view of small towners
like you and me. In fact, he
seems downright snooty.
Here’s what he said:
"You go into some of
these small towns in
Pennsylvania, and like a
lot of small towns in the
Midwest, the jobs have
been gone now for 25 years
and nothing's replaced
them. And they fell
through the Clinton
administration, and the
Bush administration, and
each successive adminis
tration has said that some
how these communities are
gonna regenerate and they
have not. And it's not sur
prising then they get bit
ter, they cling to guns or
religion or antipathy to
people who aren't like
them or anti-immigrant
sentiment or anti-trade
sentiment as a way to
explain their frustrations."
The man who said that is
named Barack Obama.
He’s the front-runner for
the Democratic nomination
for president. He spoke
those words to a group of
very rich, very liberal San
Francisco Democrats who
probably didn’t need to be
told that small-town people
are bitter little religious
gun nuts. But I am glad
Mr. Obama felt the need to
tell them, because, as I
said earlier, it tells us
something about Mr.
Obama.
You probably won’t be
surprised if I tell you he
graduated from Harvard
and is from Chicago. When
he looks out at the great
unwashed of this country,
the ones who work hard,
struggle to make ends
meet, fight our wars and
raise our families, it
appears he looks upon
them with contempt. I
doubt Obama has ever lost
a job. He made $300,000 as
a “community organizer” in
Chicago. But he, too, clings
to his religion. At church,
he finds his mentor and
pastor of 20 years, the Rev.
Jeremiah Wright, expound
ing their shared beliefs.
Wright has announced
from the pulpit that
America is at heart a
wicked nation that
deserved the 9-11 attacks.
He’s the one who re-wrote
“God bless America,” to be
“God d—- America.”
I have a strong feeling
that Mr. Obama is about to
find out that the American
people can no longer feel
an “audacity of hope”
about a man who seems to
hold them in such con
tempt. Small-town hospi
tality only goes so far.
E-mail Will Davis at pub-
lisher@mymcr.net.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Owens: We remember sheriff candidate
To the editor:
ohn Waldrop,
whom we used to
know as “207,” oh
how soon we for
get the past. What
we do when the dark
comes to light. Do you
remember back in the 70s
when you traveled the
roads of Union Hill Drive
and Blount Street? Do you
remember the night you
came to a party on Blount
Street and locked up two
people? Do you remember
sitting on Hwy. 83 waiting
on people to leave the
American Legion post 569
so that you could arrest
them? If that doesn’t get
your attention, do you
remember threatening to
shoot a guy who was in the
woods hunting? The only
job you are qualified for is
the road department,
because you wore out the
roads in black neighbor
hoods.
Jimmy Owens
Forsyth
Will support Sheriff Bittick
To the editor:
n regards to Sheriff
Bittick facing
a challenger
this year, I
must submit
that Sheriff Bittick
is safe and will not
even be challenged
by Waldrop. I have
worked for, with
and around law
enforcement all my
life and got a real laugh
reading where Waldrop
thinks the Monroe County
Sheriffs Department is in
need of a change and that
it operates at its own
leisure rather than
serving the public!
Monroe County is
blessed to have one of
the best sheriffs
departments, if not
THE best, in Georgia
and it didn't get this
way by itself. Sheriff
Bittick is responsible
for what we have today
and to suggest that our
department needs a change
shows that Mr. Waldrop
should just continue his
retirement and leave the
sheriffs job to John Cary
Bittick! The Monroe County
Sheriffs Department is
blessed with highly quali
fied, dedicated officers and
employees thanks to Sheriff
Bittick's leadership and I
for one will be supporting
and voting for our current
sheriff and hope all voters
will do the same.
John Ambrose
Forsyth
AMBROSE
Thanks,
Forsyth, for
sidewalk
projects
To the editor:
In walking about
Forsyth, I have
observed the city is
repairing sections of
our town's side
walks.
As a pedestrian I
want to say I appre
ciate what the city is
doing to give us even
walkways.
Ralph Bass