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PAGE 4A
June 22, 2016
2016 winner: Editorial Page excellence
2016 winner: Sports Photography excellence
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2016 winner: Front Page excellence
^Reporter
Opinion
Declare among the nations,
and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not;
Jeremiah 50:2
On the Porch
Til death do us part?
BY WILL DAVIS
publisher@mymcr.net
e reported something amazing in last
week’s edition. You may have missed
it.
The gem was tucked away on page
7A in the “jump” of the story about
those thugs who robbed Al’s Market on Lee Street. To
refresh your memory, two armed
punks went into the store, jumped
over the counter and breathed
foul-mouthed threats while point
ing guns at the clerk, Melodie
Erikson.
“Give us the money!” they
demanded.
Understandably, Erikson gave
them money from the cash reg
ister.
“Give us the cigarettes!” they
said next, apparently shoving
smokes and/or rolling papers
into their pockets.
And then, they went for one last “get” before they
headed out.
“Give us your cell phone!” they demanded.
Remember, they are still pointing loaded guns at her
head.
I don’t whether there was a pause or not. I just know
from the police report that Erikson gave these little
turds a simple answer: “No.”
No. They could have the cash. They could take the
loot. But they would have to kill her to take her per
sonal cell phone. I’m assuming it was a smartphone.
Good for her. She’s a tough lady. And thankfully, they
left, just in time to be captured by police.
The incident highlights many things, including how
valuable our cell phones have become. For Erikson, and
indeed for most of us, our phones have become some
thing for which we are willing to die.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of smartphones
and how they’ve changed life and culture.
The Pew Research Center estimated last year that 68
percent of U.S. adults now own a smartphone, up from
just 35 percent four short years ago. If you don’t believe
Pew, do your own research. Drive down 1-75 and note
the number of people in vehicles (drivers included)
who are looking at their phone. Go to a restaurant, a
ball game or even church, and count the people in the
seats looking at that little screen. Or check yourself.
Have you ever kept track of how many times you check
your smartphone? I’m scared to. A recent survey said
that the average American checks their smartphone 46
times per day. I may do that an hour (I have ADD, you
know).
Lest you think I’m building to a rant about the dan
gers of smartphones (spoiler alert: I am), I am also the
first to acknowledge these devices have our attention
for good reason. Bret Swanson of TechPolicyDaily.com
crunched the numbers and found that an iPhone would
have cost $3.6 million in 1996. Just think of all the
technology — the maps, the photo and recording abili
ties, the music libraries, the texting, the locator apps,
the weather apps, not to mention the old-fashioned
telephone — found inside that 3X5 inch miracle. It’s
no wonder that the average American is plugging away
on our screens for 4.7 hours a day.
But now, it’s time for our Dr. Phil moment: How’s
that working out for you? Oh I enjoy my phone
immensely. It SEEMS to be working fine. I can check
my bank account, listen to my favorite music, text my
wife and kids and check the news without getting out
of bed. That’s great. But if we’re honest, we have to
ask if our smartphone addictions are not interfering
with our ability to really be present with those we love.
Facebook may allow us to interact with hundreds of
former and current “acquaintances”. But how well is it
helping us to relate to and love the family and friends
with whom we only have a few short years?
As a parent, I have to ask myself whether my Twitter
feed has cost me some key moments with my children
face to face in the few, short years they live under my
roof. And I think about how my childrens’ iPhones may
be short-circuiting them relationally and spiritually.
As a husband, I wonder if it’s made me more atten
tive to business emails than to my wife’s needs?
As a Christian, I wonder if it’s left me spiritually stale
and dry, and rendered my prayer life a gaping hole.
Of course, all these things were challenges before
smartphones. The distractions vary by generation and
by individual. In the past it may have been TV or books
or even (gasp) newspapers. Distractions have always
competed with our main purpose: To love God and oth
ers. So while it’s OK to have a smartphone, I need be
sure the smartphone doesn’t have me.
Will Davis is publisher and editor of the Reporter.
is published every week by
The Monroe County Reporter Inc.
Will Davis, president
Robert M. Williams Jr., vice president
Cheryl S. Williams, secretary-treasurer
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News Editor
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Advertising
Manager
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Community Editor
news@mymcr.net
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Publication No. USPS 997-840)
On Georgia Politics
Ga. school spending is...
BY KYLE WINGFIELD
Kyle. Wingfield @ajc. com
very year about this
time, hand-wringers
from Powder Springs to
Pooler start, warming up
their paws. They know
the latest national stats about
education spending are soon to be
released, and they want to be good
and ready to lament Georgia’s place
on the list.
Well, break out the sack cloth: We
placed a mere 38th in the nation
for school spending in 2014, about
$1,800 per child below the national
average, in the latest batch of data
reported by the Census Bureau. Let
the weeping and wailing begin.
Of course, it’s also time for the
annual reality check about whether
these figures mean anything.
The same report produces indica
tors that are more positive. Georgia
ranked a bit higher (33rd) in terms
of money spent on instruction —
and a lofty 13th when education
spending is measured against
personal income, a proxy for cost-of-
living differences.
But none of these rankings tells
us whether more
money leads to better
results.
For that, I looked
to the gold standard
of state-to-state com
parisons: the National
Assessment of
Educational Progress,
or NAEP.
The NAEP’s
handy online
tool tells us
whether dif
ferences in
scores among
states are statistically significant.
I cross-referenced the spending
rankings with the scores for four
common tests: reading and math
for the fourth and eighth grades.
It became clear
that the 37 bigger
spenders (includ
ing the District of
Columbia) were
about as likely to
over-perform — or
under-perform —
Georgia as were the
13 more miserly
states.
The best the big-
spenders can say
about themselves
is they were a little
more likely to get
higher scores when
all students were
measured: half of
the higher-spending
states did so, vs.
just 38 percent of
the lower-spending
states.
But again, we
have to account
for the relatively
wealthier popu
lations in some
states, knowing
what we know
about the
tie between
household
income and
school success. Besides, isn’t
one of the main arguments
for higher school spending
that it’s needed to help close
the gap between white stu
dents and minorities, and
between poor kids and
the non-poor?
Funny, that. Because
on those counts, the
higher-spending states
look rather ordinary.
The states that spent more than
Georgia were just as likely as the
lower-spending states to produce
better test scores among black
students, or to have narrower gaps
than Georgia
between white
students’ scores
and black stu
dents’ scores.
(Actually, it’s
more precise to
say hardly any
states out-did
Georgia in those
regards.)
The same was
true for poor
kids (defined as
those qualify
ing for free or
reduced lunch),
and for the gap
between them
and their better-
off classmates.
If anything, the
lower-spending
states actually
performed a bit
better on those
counts.
Rather than
pounding the
table about how
much we spend
on our schools,
it would be far
more useful to
ask what similar,
but higher-performing, states are
doing that we aren’t, whether they
spend more than us (e.g., Virginia)
or less (such as Florida and North
Carolina).
That would be harder, and it
would require using our hands for
something other than wringing.
But it’d be a lot more useful.
Kyle Wingfield writes for The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the
Monroe County Reporter and other
newspapers. Reach him and read
more at www.bit.ly/KyleWingfield.
As I See It...
Vote Hillary so it’ll get worse
H
BY CLAUDE CURLEE
cbcurl4 7gmail. com
as Trump forced Hillary and Obama to
say “radical Islam”? I
heard both
say it, but
they did
not say it was what
caused the killings in
Orlando. Obama did
use hate and terror in
an earlier speech about
Orlando. Obama said
that saying “radical
Islam” had no effect on
solving the terrorist prob
lem. He said the U.S. has
a history of persecuting
groups and we shouldn’t
be targeting Muslims.
Obama please explain
to this simple mill-village-
raised old man: Who are
we fighting? Are we at war
with all Muslims or just
a segment of Muslims? If
we are not at war with all
Muslims, who are we bat
tling?
Obama, could it be we are battling
radical Muslims, a segment of Muslims who believe
in total domination and elimination of any who do not
believe as they do? A segment which believes in killing
homosexuals, believes women are property, believes
unbelievers must be killed, believes it is OK to do
honor killings of women, which says a woman’s word
is only half as good as a man’s and which believes in
stoning women to death? The list of things
they believe justify the death penalty is almost
endless.
So Obama, by identifying the segment which
promote the terror and killing of people, you
will then be able to focus on the root cause
of the problem. Obama, I see at least two
causes of the terror: 1. the Islamists who sup
port. Sharia law. 2. You and Hillary. You and
Hillary have caused the problems we are see
ing in the Middle East which led to the
growth of Muslim terrorists worldwide.
Instead of addressing the root cause of
the problems which led to the killings
in Orlando, you choose to blame us and
guns once again. You did not blame the worthless car
cass and his beliefs. The carcass had sworn allegiance
to ISIS, and ISIS took credit for the killings. Yet you
denied any connection to ISIS. You and Hillary both
have gone after Trump and guns as the problem and
cause. You and Hillary continue to blame the wrong
thing. Only in the mind of a liberal/democrat/socialist
would it be logical to blame guns for killings which
were committed by a registered Democrat and not
blame the worthless dead carcass lying on the floor
thanks to the police.
Only a liberal/democrat/socialist would sup
port bringing into this country a segment of
people who believe that women, LBGT com
munity and unbelievers are sub
human.
The stance taken by
Obama, Hillary and many
others in the Democrat
Party proves to me their
professed concern for women’s
rights, LBGT and others is a farce.
Their only concern is how to use them
as they have used blacks to get elected.
The gun control issue reminds me
of one of the first movies I saw in
a theater. The movie was “The
Blob” and it consumed every
thing in its path. That is
how a lot of us see how
the government operates
and what will happen
with the call for a ban on
assault weapons. Contrary
to what Democrats say, they
want a total ban on firearms except the ones used to
protect them. There is already a ban on automatic
assault weapons. So when they say ban assault weap
ons, they are using inflammatory words to stir the pot.
Obama, Hillary and the Democrats believe we can
investigate a Muslim in a foreign country and declare
them safe to come here. However, a person living in
this country who had multiple indicators of possible
terrorist leanings, a person who had contact with a
terrorist bomber, a person whose imam said
killing homosexuals is justified, a person who
made multiple trips to Saudi Arabia, a person
who was on the watch list, a person who was
investigated by FBI two times is permitted to
buy a gun.
If you support Hillary, are you prepared for
at least a 500 percent increase in what was
seen in Orlando? Hillary has said she wants
a minimum 550 percent increase in refugees.
Remember 74 percent of the ones
already here are on welfare of which 64
percent receive cash. So we can look for
ward to more killings supported by our
tax dollars. Voting Hillary will keep us
on Obama’s path to Hades and a third-world hell-hole.
That sounds like where the Muslims are already com
ing from, so vote for Trump and keep them there.
Claude Curlee of Forsyth is a Vietnam veteran and a
member of the Monroe County GOP.