Newspaper Page Text
March 23, 2022
Page 5A
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN by Don Daniel
Hard to let go
once in office
F orsyth and Monroe County are renown for a couple
of unsavory characters. I am not talking about
our local elected officials. Well maybe one or two.
As last weeks edition reported, I thought it very a
propos to put the pictures of 37 charged and arrested in
a drug “sting” and also on the
front page pictures of nine locals
seeking election or re-election to
the Board of Education and one
county commissioner.
The surprises were that
Commissioner John Ambrose
threatening a couple of years ago
that he was not going to rim for
re-election. Well, hello, he’s go
ing to rim again. Then there was
Commissioner George Emami
very publicly announcing he
was not going to seek re-election
and well, hello, he is going to
seek re-election.
Having tasted the nectar of being a politician, the addic
tive nectar and nature of being a politician is not easy to
recover from. Politicians and elected whomevers find that
the power they assume they have is hard to give up. But the
power of an “aye” or “nay” vote is power at a basic political
level.
I think it is great that newbies are going to test whether or
not they can do a better job than their opponent(s).
Monroe County has attained a reputation for a very low
tolerance for crime. With our location being in the middle
of Georgia, two big cities north and south, and the money
maker for both the City of Forsyth and Monroe County,
1-75, our law enforcement officers are to be commended
for their continuous “harassing” of criminals.
HERE’S SOME things I just don’t understand: for ex
ample a man gets only 16 years of prison time for, get this,
killing a Forsyth man. What happened to the death penalty
or life in prison without parole for killing someone?
And what about this one: Former CNN Anchor Chris
Cuomo is seeking $125 million from his former employer
as well at least $15 million in salary and bonuses because
of the network’s decision to fire him. Cuomo was fired be
cause of violating his contract. He was fired by CNN after
his efforts to help his brother who was under investigation
respond to allegations of sexual harassment.
If you get fired, would you ask for salary compensation
and bonuses? Hire an attorney. Come on! Clearly an ex
ample of committing a crime and getting paid for it!
THE NAME of the prize winning Hog owned by Emma
Kimball is “Peanut”. Sorry no winners to “the question” so
here’s the question for this week: Mary Persons has hired a
new softball coach. What is her name? First correct answer
after 12 noon on Thursday gets the goodie certificate for
a Big Peach Car Wash, Dairy Queen Blizzard, single dip
at Scoops, Whistle Stop fried green tomato appetizer, slice
of Shoney’s strawberry pie, slice of Jonah’s pizza, dozen
Dunkin Donuts, Reporter and Main Street t-shirt.
MONROE COUNTY has no more dairy farms. The
Peters’ Dairy has closed and according to Jim Peters, they
have sold all the cows.
HERE ARE a few unattributed county commissioner
comments from the meeting last week: “We appreciate
what you do”. “How much did he pay you to say that?” “I’m
gonna be honest with you”; “This is my two cents”; “There’s
a smell of poop”; “That’s what I am talking about”; “I can
spend money”; “quite honestly”; “Yep”; “I tried to be honest
with him”; ”I’m just not coming up with that”; “We can
handle it without you”; “Just make sure it is clear”; “Early,
like Sunday morning”; “That is something to be looked at”.
AS YOU are aware, or at least should be, the “They Think
They Are The Fabulous Five” with the chairman hiding
behind his little superman statue, voted to limit comments
on the county’s Facebookpage. And the county attorney
presented a “resolution” that is to provide guidelines as to
the use of social media to “protect” the county. Here’s the
we don’t want you to know part of the resolution “appro
priately control the dissemination of official information
through social media”.
Long story short: comments are limited on the county’s
Facebook page to those people who are already your Face-
book friends. All five commissioners approved the resolu
tion. Guess you’ll have to attend the commission meetings
or better yet read The Reporter!
BECOMING MORE and more aware of what you can
and can’t do in the City of Forsyth you better get aware.
For example, the Forsyth Planning and Zoning office in
conjunction with the council can make a decision whether
you “can” or “cannot”. For example, the council approved a
restaurant with the restriction that the proposed restaurant
be take out only. The primary rejection for “sit down” eat
in? The restaurant didn’t have enough parking spaces.
What about enough parking for the dine-in restaurants
in downtown Forsyth? Here was the P&Z chairman Steve
Coleman’s comment: “It’s still a restaurant whether it is sit-
down or take-out”.
KUDOS TO Monroe County Hospital CEO Lorraine
Smith named to a list of top rural hospital CEOs.
HERE’S ONE of my favorite putdowns by John Bright:
“He is a self-made man and worships his creator” That
reminds me of many politicians.
Contact Don Daniel, the founder of this newspaper, at tul-
laybear@bellsouth. net.
^Reporter
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Love the Reporter, makes me laugh
To the Editor:
just wanted to reach out to you
and tell you how much I love
your paper. My kids make fun of
me because Wednesday
is my favorite day of the week
because the paper comes!
(I guess I am really getting
older lol)
As someone who moved
from Henry County, I can’t
tell you how refreshing it
is to see actual logic in a
newspaper. I love how you
include the community -
the businesses, the schools, and my
absolute favorite is the Cops & Rob
bers section. I have spit tea out of my
mouth with some of those headlines.
I cannot get enough of it! But I love
the small town feel your newspaper
gives.
I am a Realtor and I have
experienced first hand at what
having a Democratic run
county can do. The ONLY
thing I can ever thank Biden
for is the amount of business
I have had recently due to
those fleeing Henry County!
We moved to Riata back in
June and I told the builder at
closing that he might as well
take down the Riata sign and replace
it with “Welcome Henry County
Refugees” Whenever someone from
Forsyth asks where you’re from you
get one of two answers-1. We are
from there also! or 2. Ohhhhh...yea,
I’ve heard about how bad it’s getting.
Anyways, this email really has no
point other than I just thought I
would tell you all that you make my
Wednesday’s. Your articles are right
on point and it’s so good to be living
in a place where my views are the
same as everyone else’s. I realized
quickly that I couldn’t change what
was going on in Henry County, the
schools being a huge factor. So I, like
many others, just removed my family
from the equation.
Elizabeth Head
Forsyth
HEAD
Warnock lying, Dems cause gas hikes
To the Editor:
enator Warnock has been
running a TV ad criticizing
the oil companies of making
excessive profits on gasoline.
He fails to mention the millions of
dollars in windfall taxes due to price
increases extorted from the Ameri
can people by the Democrats.
This is a very simple way for the
Democrats to quietly enact a tax
increase on America while blaming
the oil companies. President Obama
and the Democrats drove the price of
gasoline to the $4 per gallon range.
President Biden when elected im
mediately shut down the Keystone
pipeline and cut subsidies to domes
tic oil production.
Currently Congress is hand wring
ing on whether to cut the Federal
gas tax. President Biden is having
conversation with Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela to import oil. He and the
Democrats apparently are totally
against domestic oil independence
for America.
Senator Warnock apparently has
missed the two Commandants -
Thou shall not lie and Thou shall not
steal- Is he the person we want to
represent Georgia in Washington?
Edd Hart
Forsyth
Has to be better way
To the Editor:
I ’m new to country life, having moved to Monroe
County from Chicago. I’m getting used to it, but came
across 3 hogs dumped at the side of the road earlier on
Blue Ridge School Road around Freeman and County
Line roads. Why would anybody do that? They are clearly
dumped there. I understand dealing with feral and culling
is necessary too. But there has to be a better way than just
dumping at the side of the road.
Michael Walton
Monroe County
than dumping hogs
ON THE PORCH
Continued from page 4A
have big faith in my 4 wheel
drive, and I was beginning to
imagine a front-page story
about the editor getting stuck
and stranded in the Monroe
County Landfill. Alas, we
forged ahead and found the
other dozer driver. He told us
to drive deeper into the pit.
With sweaty palms and shal
low breaths, I drove ahead until
he gave us the thumbs up. So
Steve and I got out and began
slinging 14 years of records,
lamps and broken cameras
into the pit. Steve was getting
sentimental, talking about how
when he was growing up his
family always returned from
the dump with more stuff than
it took. He began taking photos
in every direction. But I just
wanted to go.
“Steve, get in the truck!” I
insisted.
Back in town we drove
through the Big Peach Car
Wash to try to clean off the
trash and the odor.
Journalists have a reputation
as muckrakers, being willing
to sift through the garbage for
a scandalous story. If I ever do
that at the landfill, it will be the
first place that I won’t complain
about wearing a mask.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
A Report from The General Assembly
By Rep. Dale Washburn
dale.washburn@house.ga.gov
Last week, we spent a very long day in session
on Day 28 of the forty day session. Day 28 is
known as Crossover Day and is the last day of the
session on which a bill can be passed out of either
the House or the Senate in order to be
considered by the other chamber.
There were sixty bills passed from
the House that Day. Those bills will
now go to the Senate to go through
the committee process. Some of them
will get out of committee and some of
those will get through the Senate Rules
Committee and will get to the floor of
the Senate for a vote.
If a bill is passed without an amendment, it will
go to the Governor for his signature and it will
become law. If there is any amendment, it will
come back to the house for a vote. If the House
and Senate come to agreement, the bill then goes
to the Governor for consideration.
It is not easy to pass legislation and it should
not be easy. The process of bills that are intro
duced working through the committee process is a
good process. Georgians are represented by a
group of Representatives and Senators from
different areas of the state who have different
backgrounds and life experiences.
The interests of big cities and small cities, the
interests of suburban and rural communities and
the interests of the business community, the educa
tion community, the law enforcement community
and the faith community all are represented at the
Georgia Capitol and all of those have influence in
the legislative process.
When I was a college student, my favorite
professor was Dr. Ben Tate, who taught Political
Science at what is now Middle Georgia State
College. On a final exam, he posed a single
statement and instruction: It has been said that the
genius behind the American form of government is
that no one person or small group of people can
have too much power. We were then instructed to
discuss that statement.
That statement regarding the genius behind the
American form of government is illustrated very
well in the legislative process. After a bill is intro
duced, there are many tests along the
way in order for a bill to become law.
Many, many bills are introduced
during every session but relatively few
make it through the process in order to
become law.
During the legislative process,
there is a lot of activity to influence the
process by registered lobbyists, as well
as business associations, private citizens
and private citizens groups.
This activity to influence legislation is done in
person by testimony to committees, in personal
conversation with members , by written communica
tion directly to members and through social media.
Unfortunately, in that process there is misinfor
mation conveyed. Sometimes it is unintentional
through misunderstanding the facts and intention
of legislation. Other times, it is deliberate misinfor
mation to create controversy and to inspire
objection to legislation.
Members of the Georgia legislature must sort
through all the information received and make the
best decisions possible when casting votes in
committee meetings and on the floor of each
chamber. If we do a good job, we will cast votes to
establish public policy that is good for Georgia.
I am honored to serve in The Georgia House.
Please call or email if I can be of service.
Rep. Dale Washburn 404-656-0152
401 -D Coverdell Legislative Office Bldg.
Atlanta, GA 30334
dale.washburn@house.ga.gov
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++