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Opinions 4A
X: & EDITORIALS
among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not; Jeremiah 50:2
2016 and 2017 winner: Editorial Page excellence X&tAjN
2016 winner: Sports Photography excellence
2016 winner: News Photography excellence
2016 winner: Front Page excellence
2017 winner: Best Humor Column - On the Porch
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
PEACH STATE POLITICS by Kyle Wingfield
The suicide epidemic
T he hustle of May has given way to the slumber of
June, when the kids are out of school, things are
slower at work and Georgia newspaper publishers
convene at Jekyll Island to reflect and scramble for
inspiration.
June is my thinking month.
A neighbor and I the other day were sharing ideas at a
kids’ birthday party about the meaning - and sometimes
futility - of success. The suicides of two very successful and
famous people, Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade, have a
lot of people wondering whether there may be some deep-
rooted darkness in our culture. When the most celebrated
people in society would rather kill themselves than go on,
something seems amiss.
We’ve had our own sad spate of suicides here in Monroe
County in recent years — a physician and school board
chairman, a successful banker and lawyer, and a former
hospital administrator. The incidents leave me asking the
same question: What in the world is the matter?
All of these local suicides, and the famous ones last week,
were people nearing their golden years. Perhaps they feel
like life, and the many successes they had enjoyed, were
slipping away, or worse, that those successes didn’t mean
that much anyway. Money and trophies cannot solve the
problem of our own emptiness and mortality. This is all
speculation of course, but we have it on pretty good author
ity that depression and despair are not new problems.
Three thousand years ago, King Solomon tried doing a
lot of things to be happy. First he tried wisdom, seeking to
study and understand the human condition.
“I observed everything going
on under the sun, and really, it
is all meaningless—like chasing
the wind,” sighed Solomon in
the Book of Ecclesiastes. “The
greater my wisdom, the greater
my grief. To increase knowledge
only increases sorrow!’
Next he tried pleasure — big
homes and gardens with singers
and women to entertain him.
“But as I looked at everything
I had worked so hard to accom
plish, it was all so meaningless—
like chasing the wind. There
was nothing really worthwhile
anywhere.”
And then Solomon proves that, despite the evolutionist’s
claims, human nature hasn’t changed in thousands of years.
“Then I observed that most people are motivated to
success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is
meaningless—like chasing the wind.”
Being Americans, where the pursuit of happiness is
enshrined in our founding document, it’s kind of a downer
when Solomon ends his Book of Ecclesiastes without
providing any real answers to his depression. Where’s the
happy ending?!?
I suffered my own bout of depression in college, floun
dering about for my purpose in life and not feeling very
confident about my prospects for success. I read every book
on depression, tried Prozak and counseling. My biggest
problem, I think, in retrospect, was that in college I didn’t
have much faith in God, and I had too much free time to
think about unhappy I was.
Looking back, I think I made my biggest mistake by
making happiness my goal. We all get old and die, if we’re
fortunate, and those don’t exactly fit our modern definition
of happiness. We’re setting ourselves up for failure. Whether
we like it or not, God’s goal for Christians is not happiness,
but holiness. He wants us to enjoy life, but He created us to
find Him as our greatest enjoyment.
Solomon may have ended in despair, but his son David
mopped up his father’s mess when he writes in Psalm 37:
“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires
of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him
and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward
shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”
Depression is normal. Life is hard. My comfort is found
in Jesus, and the friends and family He has given me as
company for the journey.
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/Editor
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50 N. Jackson St. • Forsyth, GA 31029
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the writers, the do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Reporter management.
Publication No. USPS 997-840
Teacher retirement in trouble
D on’t fall for the sweet
sounds suddenly being
cooed about Georgia’s
teacher pension fund.
Over the past two years, lawmak
ers had to add about $589 million
to shore up the Teachers Retire
ment System, or TRS. But next year,
when lawmakers set the fiscal 2020
budget, officials say taxpayers will
get a break: an increase of “only” $25
million.
To consider that much of an
improvement is wrong-headed in at
least two ways.
first, it’s not as if those previous in
creases disappeared. They have been
baked into the TRS cake: Taxpayers
will still pay that $589 million, plus
the $25 million being added.
Or as The Atlanta Journal-Con
stitution noted this week, “The state
and school systems will put about
$2 billion into the pension system in
fiscal 2019. State and local contri
butions were closer to $1 billion in
2012.”
So the proper way to think about
what taxpayers spend on pensions
isn’t that it will rise by “only” $25
million in the budget lawmakers
pass next year. It’s that this spend
ing will be about $400 million more
than it was two years prior, about
$600 million more than three years
prior, about $700 million more than
five years prior, and about $900 mil
lion more than eight years prior.
The cumulative total of all those
extra payments since 2012: more
than $2.5 billion.
When Georgians wonder why
there hasn’t been more money for
health care or roads or tax cuts - or,
for that matter, teacher salaries -
that’s the answer.
But that’s only half of the reason
the rosy scenario is wrong. The
second reason is found in this other
nugget from the AJC story:
“The system has about 74 percent
of its pension liability
covered, down from
about 84 percent in
2014. Pension experts
typically prefer to see
the ratio above 80
percent, and (officials
expect) the TRS to get
back up to 81 percent in
five years.”
This is an appalling
level of performance
given that we have been
enjoying a long eco
nomic expansion and
bull market for equities.
While a funding ratio
of 80 percent is acceptable, the figure
should be well above that when the
economy and markets are rising.
TRS’s funding ratio was nearly 107
percent in 2001, according to a
recent analysis the Georgia Public
Policy foundation published in
conjunction with the Reason foun
dation. Even after the tech bubble
burst, TRS’s funding ratio remained
above 90 percent through 2007.
The Great Recession took a big
bite out of TRS, as it did to many
investors. But for TRS’s funding ratio
not only to remain below 80 percent
but to have fallen during the rela
tively strong years of late should be a
bright-red warning light.
A big part of the problem is the
system’s flawed assumption about
the rate of return it will earn on
its assets. Since 2003, the assumed
rate of return has been 7.5 percent;
the actual rate has been less than
7 percent. And that’s not likely to
improve: The founda
tion’s analysis found the
long-range forecasts
by firms such as BNY
Mellon and JP Morgan
show a more likely rate
of return over the next
10-15 years is 6 percent
for the type of assets in
which TRS invests.
If those forecasts
prove correct, and if
TRS makes no changes,
taxpayers would need
to inject an additional
$12.3 billion into the
system between now
and 2036.
And you thought the $2.5 billion
added since 2012 was bad.
So, no, all is not well with teacher
pensions just because taxpayers’ cost
is temporarily rising less quickly.
Georgia’s ability to continue keeping
the promises it has made to current
and retired teachers requires action
now.
Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO
of the Georgia Public Policy Founda
tion, writes a column that runs in
newspapers across Georgia.
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
Let's support teachers who care
W hen you think back on
non-family members
who influenced your
life, who comes to
mind? for most of us there are some
coaches, a few ministers, several boss
es, your drill sergeant (for those who
were in the military), and a couple of
teachers. Teachers have a huge impact
on our lives largely because we’re
young and spend an entire year with
them. It’s evident that a good teacher
loves their profession and loves their
children. They realize the huge impact
they have on children and only want
what’s best for their kids. All of us had
teachers whom we fondly remember.
They encouraged us, they pushed us
to be better, they showed us a good
work ethic, they gave us love and dis
cipline, but they didn’t coddle us.
YEARS AGO, teachers were pillars
in a community. They were well re
spected - by the children, by the par
ents, and by the community. Teachers
were in charge and everyone knew it.
If you misbehaved, the teacher imme
diately disciplined you and sent you
to the principal for more discipline.
And the school discipline almost
always consisted of a paddling and
after school detention. Then, you’d be
sent home with a note that insured
your parents would discipline you as
well. You dared not talk back to your
teacher because he/she was an adult,
and the adult “mafia” stuck together.
Regardless of the issue, you could
count on every parent to side with the
teacher. Parents didn’t want to hear
your sniveling. “The teacher said that
you misbehaved; so, you misbehaved.
Get ready for your spanking and if
you act up again, it’ll be worse next
time.” That was the attitude of every
parent for everyone who is 50 years or
older. That’s not the case today.
I OFTEN wonder, given today’s
leftist “group think” education
environment, who in their right
mind would go into teaching. In far
too many classrooms, the children
are in charge and they know it. The
kids know that the teacher has very
little authority and can do very little
to discipline them. Often times, the
children bully the teacher by threaten
ing the teacher, constantly challenging
the teacher, cussing the teacher, and
siccing their parent on the teacher.
Children will cuss and bully a teacher
and the teacher can do little except
take it because the kids know that
most parents will side with them over
their teacher. Children know that if a
teacher so much as touches them, the
teacher can be brought up on charges
- and often is.
CONSIDER THE case of Jessica
Stevens, a former teacher at Heritage
Elementary School in Bibb County.
Stevens is a former teacher because
she was arrested for disciplining one
of her children. She is accused of grab
bing a 10-year-old student, dragging
him from his desk, and yelling at
him. When the child got home, he
told his parents who called police.
The boy’s mother took pictures of the
“small bruises in lines on his wrist that
appeared to have been
caused by a tight grip.”
The mother told the
police that she was “dis
gusted” by the teacher’s
alleged actions. The
police then viewed the
school’s security camera
and wrote, “Mrs. Stevens
walks over to where (the
boy) is sitting and stoops
over him appearing to
lecture him... As she
walks away (the boy)
purposefully knocks a
lunch bag off of the table
he had been sitting at
that happened to contain some glass
objects.. .that broke on the ground.
Mrs. Stevens then aggressively walks
back over to (the boy), grabs his arm,
and pulls him out of his chair onto the
floor and begins dragging him with
his chair attached to his foot....” For
her actions, Stevens was arrested and
charged with simple battery. As I read
the report, a bratty little kid was acting
up, the teacher disciplined him, at
which point the kid threw a tantrum
causing the teacher to grab him to talk
him to the principal.
EDUCATORS (teachers and
principals) tell us that, by age 10, they
can pick out the children who will
have discipline problems for the rest
of their lives. At a young age, these
disruptive children have indicators
of acting up, talking back, having
a complete disregard for author
ity, cussing out others, being overly
aggressive, constantly fighting, and
generally misbehaving. So, how does a
child become such a brat by the fourth
grade? Certainly not by themselves, at
home they’re taught how to misbe
have and how to disrespect authority
by bratty parents who are exactly
like the tiny tyrants they raise. Will
anyone be surprised if this disruptive
10-year-old becomes a gang banger
by age 14, a school drop out by age 15,
and arrested as an adult by age 17? I
certainly won’t.
STUDIES SHOW that children
who are raised in homes with conflict,
with little discipline, with families not
functioning “properly” and with in
adequate supervision are likely to be
come delinquent. A proper function
ing family is defined as both parents
at home with little conflict and free of
violence. So, at home, the
child is a tyrant and the
parents then expect the
school system and teach
ers to do what they have
refused to do - which is
discipline the little brat.
Georgia is one of 19
states that allow corporal
punishment. Why isn’t it
used more often? I don’t
understand why school
systems allow little brats
to rule the classroom.
GETTING BACK to
Mrs. Stevens, I give her
(and all teachers) credit for choosing a
profession in which she has a positive
impact on future generations. Mrs.
Stevens was doing her best to keep
discipline in her classroom, good for
her. Unfortunately, she resigned her
teaching position at Heritage Elemen
tary and with her resignation, Bibb
County losses a caring teacher with
10 years’ experience thus signaling to
future teachers that the children are in
charge and leftist school districts (like
Bibb County) do not have your back.
Perhaps a Monroe County school has
a place for a caring teacher, like Jessica
Stevens, who doesn’t take guff from
snotty little kids.
Weekly Quote: “It’s easier to build
strong children than to repair broken
men.” - Frederick Douglass
Sloan Oliver is a retired Army officer
He lives in Bolingbroke with his wife
Sandra. Email him at sloanoliver@
earthiink.net.
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