Newspaper Page Text
July 6, 2016
PAGE 5A
Outside Looking In...
A mail
order
pastor?
By DON DANIEL
tullaybear@bellsouth. net
S ometimes I think I have seen it all. Then
something pops up that I have to put in my
“Now I’ve seen It All” file. Here’s the latest:
Mail order ordained ministers! According to
a Facebook post by a friend, her nephew got
his ordination as a minister and is now a card-carrying
minister. He can preach, marry, bury or anything else
legal ministers can do and I assume, learn how to pass
the collection plate. Wonder if they have to pass a how-to-
baptize test?
I am not surprised that you can mail order a bride, a
college degree and even get a PHD by mail. Of course if
you get on the internet, you can get a college degree or
just about any other education or anything you desire.
HERE’S more information about Forsyth’s Downtown
Development Authority from Loraine Khoury the execu
tive director: Mission: It is the mission of the Forsyth
Main Street and Downtown Development Authority to
create a prosperous, vibrant, energetic and clean town
center by marketing downtown opportunities, preserving
downtown charm and enhancing physical appearance
and amenities through partnerships with community and
stakeholders. (I put the enhancing physical appearance
for emphasis)
Ms. Khoury also explained- Vision: Forsyth Main
Street and Downtown Development Authority will assure
a high quality of life for its residents, businesses and visi
tors both today and in the future. The city and these two
organizations can’t accomplish the mission and vision
without involvement by citizens and taking pride in what
have and can have.
A COUPLE of stories from the Wall Street Journal
caught my attention and that just might interest you:
Bras are a major seller at Victoria’s Secret. Selling bras
accounts for about 35 percent of sales at the stores.
Again, according to the WSJ, earthquakes in Oklahoma
have declined by 25 percent compared to a year ago after
state regulators starting policing the oil and gas indus
try’s practice of pumping wastewater from its operations
deep underground. Guess it proves Mother Nature has
nothing to do with causing earthquakes in Oklahoma.
I WAS taught there are certain things that are not
discussed publicly or even with a friend. But these three,
sex, politics and religion, are the staple of news reporting,
particularly on TV. The media has discovered that S, P
and R “sell” because we watch and listen.
KUDOS to our former state representative, hometown
boy, and now Mercer’s athletic director, Jim Cole, being
named to the Georgia Department of Driver Services.
The DDS is responsible for overseeing all the places
where we can get or renew drivers’ licenses. He was
appointed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
No worry, Jim is not leaving Mercer nor Monroe
County to assume his latest political duties.
THE PEACHTREE Road Race is an Atlanta annual
Fourth of July event with thousands of runners racing
down Peachtree Street to get a t-shirt. You see Diane
Glidewell’s by-lined stories each week in this newspa
per. Here’s a tidbit about Diane: This year was her 38th
running of the race. She didn’t come in first but ran the
whole 6 kilometer race along with her husband, daughter
and son and a couple of more friends.
A DIFFERENT type of fireworks occurred over the
Fourth of July in Chicago and they obviously celebrate
Independence Day in a different way. There were 64
shootings in the Windy City over the Independence Day
weekend. Over the Memorial Day weekend 69 were
shot! Guess Memorial Day is more of “celebration” than
Independence Day.
A CHUCKLE occurred when I read this: “When I was
a boy, my momma would send me down to a comer store
with $1 and I’d come back with five potatoes, two loaves
of bread, three bottles of milk, a hunk of cheese, a box of
tea and six eggs. You can’t do that now....too many secu
rity cameras”.
I CAN REMEMBER when we celebrated only spe
cial days such as Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day,
Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
Well, last week, Monday through Friday, “we”, or some
body, celebrated Independence Day along with National
Barbecue Sparerib Day, National Caesar Salad Day,
National Apple Turnover Day, National Graham Cracker
Day, National Bikini Day, National Fried Chicken Day,
National Father-Daughter Take A Walk Day, National
Strawberry Day, National Macaroni Day, National
Chocolate with Almonds and Collector Car Appreciation.
All these “national” days are in just one week in July
and didn’t include the previous days of the month or rest
of the month or year or the ones we have “missed” and
not “celebrated”.
NO correct answers to last week’s The Question, so no
answer. Suspending The Question for a couple of weeks.
Being revised and updated.
WORKING on a couple of future columns. As men
tioned last week, my involvement in responding to the
Tri-State Crematory crisis and the other column District
4 Commissioner’s response to questions I raised in
regards to the audacious paving on Westbrooks Road.
He still hasn’t answered a couple of questions about his
involvement. Guess I will have to file an Open Records
request to get the information you all have asked about
the waste of taxpayer money. Hang on. We will get there,
eventually.
LISTEN to The Reporter On The Radio on Majic 100
on Sunday mornings at 7 or anytime by clicking on the
radio tab at mymcr.net. Contact me at tullaybear@bell-
south.net or by phone, 994-1312.
Reporter
From Your Sheriff
Learn to live as brothers
My dream is of a place and a
time where America, will once
a,gain be seen as the last best
hope of earth.
-Abraham Lincoln
BY JOHN CARY BITTICK
nsapresident@aol. com
F acts, as presented in
our technology-fueled
world, are often mere
opinions of the unin
formed. We have
become a mass of people so con
sumed with a drive for instant
gratification that we often do not
take the time to doubt what is
being presented to us as news.
With a flick of our fingers we
have local, state, and world-wide
news at our literal fin
gertips, but how often
do we question what is
being scrolled across our
smart-phone screens?
How often do we examine
what the talking heads
on the television spout as
the exclusive truth?
THINGS are
often far more com
plicated than what
the elected officials,
news media, or the
armchair experts on Facebook
portray them to be. It matters
not whether it is the local edi
tor of the newspaper who irre
sponsibly tweets an insensitive
image or a paid so-called expert
on CNN who speaks out of turn
and purports to represent cer
tain factions of our country, as
both contribute to the divisive
ness hurting America today.
Those who have been elected to
represent ALL citizens of the
United States have chosen sides
without first evaluating right or
wrong, fact or opinion, and have
then mobilized their forces to
point fingers at the other side.
Our leaders have failed those
that they promised to serve by
jumping to conclusions and bas
ing decisions on emotions rather
than fact. As President John
F. Kennedy stated, “Let us not
seek the Republican answer or
the Democratic answer, but the
right answer. Let us not seek to
fix the blame for the past. Let us
accept our own responsibility for
the future.” The ability to speak
without being accountable for the
effect of those words is irrespon
sible. There is a fire burning in
America and politicians, news
and social media on all levels are
stoking the embers with every
publication and broadcast.
HERE is one fact about crime,
law enforcement, and race:
According to a recent study pub
lished on July 11, 2016 in the
New York Times surveying use
of force by police across 10 U.S.
cities, the study found no racial
bias regarding police shootings.
Additionally, the study revealed
that in “officer-involved
shootings in these 10 cities,
officers were more likely to
fire their weapons without
having first been attacked
when the suspects were
white. Black and white
civilians involved in police
shootings were equally
likely to have been
carrying a weapon.
Both of these results
undercut the idea that
the police wield lethal
force with racial bias.”
IT IS true that, in the past, all
law enforcement in America did
not always serve and protect all
citizens equally. Acknowledging
that history, however, does not
mean that we should act as if we
live perpetually in the past. It
does NOT mean that any use of
force by police against people of
color is motivated by racial bias.
IT DOES mean, however,
that each case of a law enforce
ment shooting must be analyzed
individually. Law enforcement
officers, by law, have the right
to defend themselves if they
reasonably believe that there is
a threat of serious bodily injury
or death to themselves or others.
Conversely, those law enforce
ment officers that abuse their
power in discriminatory and
unjustified ways should be held
accountable. There is no conspir
acy by law enforcement to shoot
and kill young, black males.
In fact, many of our finest law
enforcement officers are young,
black and male. There is unfortu
nately, however, a collective rush
to judgment based on videos in
the news and social media that
do not depict the entire story.
Before judgment is passed, every
one should be informed of what
happened before the video began
and after the video ended so that
all decisions and opinions are
based on all the facts.
IT IS true that a racist named
Dylan Roof murdered nine black
men and women at their church
in South Carolina on June 17,
2015. It is also true that 12 law
enforcement officers were shot,
five fatally, by a racist named
Micah Johnson, in Dallas, Texas
on July 7, 2016. Roof is no guilt
ier than Johnson, nor is Johnson
guiltier than Roof for the lives
each man took because of his
own twisted hatred. One man
was black. One man was white.
Both were filled with racially
motivated hatred. Both men
were wrong.
I AM proud to be from Monroe
County, and I sincerely believe
that most of the people in Middle
Georgia are dedicated to our
community and are supportive
of law enforcement. I am also
proud that our deputies experi
ence that support first-hand and
are deeply engaged in bettering
our community. It might sound
simple, but perhaps simplicity
is exactly what we need in this
world right now: right is right
and wrong is wrong. It’s not a
black/white issue; it is a human
race issue. We all need to cease
being Republican, Democrat,
black, white, liberal, conserva
tive, Southern or Northern,
Eastern or Western and simply
become Americans seeking the
truth. Martin Luther King, Jr.
said it best, “We must learn to
live together as brothers or per
ish together as fools.”
The sheriff of Monroe County,
John Cary Bittick has served
as president of the Georgia and
National sheriff associations.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
They’re
To the editor:
W hen the Atlanta
Constitution or
Atlanta TV news
reports
some
thing about Forsyth
County but only says
“Forsyth,” citizens of
the city of Forsyth get
upset—especially your
writer Don Daniel.
Rightfully so.
Well, the citizens
of the community of
Juliette get upset when
they see headlines from
the Reporter that state: (1)
“Juliette gets water”—yeah,
seven miles away on Taylor
Road; (2) “Juliette man kills
not from
Monroe County deputy”—
further down the road; (3)
“Juliette man threatens to blow
up Monroe County Sheriffs
Department”—even farther
down the road.
We know they get
their mail delivered
from the Juliette Post
Office, and you’ve got to
say they are from some
where, but they are not
from Juliette. A year
ago they were talking
about possibly closing
the Juliette Post Office.
If we had to get our mail
delivered from Forsyth, would
we be Forsyth residents?
The mug shots that are put
in the paper will also say
“Juliette,” but we know only a
Juliette
small percent of them.
We just wish you could clear
this up somehow. People who
are new or not familiar with
county roads will surely think
Juliette is full of rough char
acters. We have a few just like
every other community, but
please don’t make it sound
worse.
Between your headlines and
Georgia Power’s coal burning
plant, no one would want to
live in our area.
Robert Williams
Juliette
(Editor’s Note: You make a
good point. We will try to be
more judicious when identify
ing someone’s hometown.)
WILLIAMS
Hello From High Falls
High Falls sets visitor record
BY MARGARET SIGRETTO
mjpegss@att. net
F irst let me thank you
for the wonderful
response I have had
this past week. I enjoy
writing the column for
the Reporter and I will
do my best to keep you
informed about what is
happening in our com
munity.
I want to thank Josh
Purdy, Manager of High
Falls State Park, for his
much appreciated help in
giving me facts and statis
tics about the park that I
want to tell you about this
week. I found his informa
tion to be not only interest
ing but a little amazing!
We know our park has been
very busy but here is the amaz
ing part: We have already
exceeded the total number of visi
tors we had last year by an esti
mated 13,365. Estimated visitors
last year were 579,264, this year
we have had already 592,629.
Without a doubt, this has been
the busiest summer to date.
All of the campsites are
reserved for every weekend and
all of the Yurts are also
booked for the next 3-4
months.
Josh expressed to me
how grateful he is to
have such a talented
and dedicated staff to
help make the Park
experience an enjoyable
and memorable one.
The retail operation
inside the Visitors
Center has grown
immensely in this past
year. So many new things have
been made available to visitors
to the park as well as to our resi
dents. If you have not been there
for awhile, I encourage you to go
and check it out. A large selection
SIGRETTO
of fishing gear, tackle and live
bait has been added as well as an
assortment of floats, lines, poles
and weights, they have it all.
The water park continues to be
having record-breaking crowds
everyday even in this heat!
We have a produce stand
parked in the Dollar General
parking lot with fresh produce
now. You might want to check
that out also.
To all of us locals, let’s remem
ber to support our businesses
and appreciate those who work
hard to make it convenient for us
to get so much of what we need
right here without leaving our
community.
I look forward to next time—-in
the meantime remember: “Build
your own dreams or someone else
will hire you to build theirs.”
Margaret Sigretto writes about
High Falls for the Reporter.
Email her your story ideas at
mjpegss@att. net.