Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
Congressman Day Trader?
O ur congressman Austin Scott will certainly shrug off
his primary challenge next Tuesday and be re-elected
in November because, well, Middle and South Georgia
voters know that Democrats destroy everything.
But one day I hope some conservative will challenge Scott. He
deserves it. And he needs it.
I was a big Scott supporter when he first ran against Jim Marshall
in 2010. He came to Forsyth with his Powerpoint presentations
showing the alarming rise in spending and the debt. And after
12 years in office, he has nearly doubled the first and more than
doubled the second.
But it turns out the federal government is not the only thing
Scott is good at growing. Unusual Whales, a website that claims
it watches congressional investments and catches insider trading,
named Austin Scott the No. 1 stock trader in Congress in 2021.
Unusual Whales claims that Scott beat the S & P 500 by more than
any other of the 535 members of Congress. Not bad for a boy from
Ashbum!
Unusual Whales said a company called FuelCell
spent $120,000 lobbying Congress to get tax credits in 2020.
Rep. Austin Scott bought shares in October 2020 at $2 and sold
them in 2021 for $17.60 for a 780 percent return.
Well, golly! Knock me over with a feather.
And it’s not Scott’s first big hit in the market.
According to Unusual Whales, in 2013 he
started buying shares in Plug Power when it
traded for 25 cents per share. Austin contin-
1 ^ ued to trade around his position, buying and
! selling Plug Power all the way until Jan. 4,
y- i. 2014, where his last registered trade occurred.
At that time Plug Power was trading for
over $3-50 P er share. On Tuesday, it closed
at $16.35 a share. Not bad! I emailed Scott’s
. V v k public information flack for a response to
these reports. I never got one.
Meanwhile, Scott just voted to send
another $40 billion of our money to the
Ukraine. Nevermind that that U.S. military admits it doesn’t know
what happens to the equipment once it’s sent to Ukraine, one of the
most corrupt governments in Europe. He’s violated his campaign
promise not to raise the debt limit time and again. While the
federal government continues to walk over the American people
in COVID insanity, allows an invasion of our southern border,
spied upon and tried to entrap Donald Trump and spends us into
oblivion, has Austin Scott made any sounds that he’s the least bit
unhappy about the direction of the country? Has he held a public
meeting in Forsyth to let constituents tell him what they think?
There are congressmen like Chip Roy of Texas and Jim Jordan
of Ohio who continually are in the public eye trying to represent
conservatives. Jordan works with Forsyth native Russell Dye on the
House Judiciary Committee, and they sat in my office and talked to
me during the campaign of2020. I’ve had the congressman from
the 4th district of Ohio in my office in Forsyth, but I don’t know if
I have seen my congressman in Forsyth in 10 years. Surely the 8th
district of Georgia deserves better.
Closer to home, Monroe County commissioners, unlike our
congressman, did show some conservative bona fines by rejecting
on Tuesday county manager Jim Hedges’ plan for an across-the-
board 6-percent pay raise for county employees. The plan would
not have included the sheriff’s office and EMS, who have already
recieved raises. The county has lost a number of employees this
year and Hedges thinks more money (of course) will solve the
problem. Commissioner George Emami made the point that it
might just spend more money and still not the solve the problem.
He urged commissioners to focus on what positions they’re having
the hardest time filling and focus more funding there. But Hedges
and county finance director Lorri Robinson complained that doing
it piece meal would blow up the salary schedules they use for all
employees. Emami responded that some of the people who did the
county’s salary plan from UGA a few years ago were overpaid too.
Commissioner John Ambrose went further. “Take those idiots and
throw them out,” sighed Ambrose. “Tear up and throw away the
schedule.” I am glad that commissioners are figuring out that salary
“studies” are simply clever, smart-sounding ways to force taxpay
ers to pay higher government salaries. Robinson complained that
a county employee with a Masters degree is only making $ 15 per
hour, less than guys in the field on a tractor. Emami said as a busi
ness owner, he knows government and its salary studies are very
inefficient. The county should pay, said Emami, what the market
demands to keep employees, not what some academics think they
should make. Commissioners agreed to have Robinson run some
more salary numbers and revisit the pay issue with a more targeted
approach than Hedges wanted. Also Tuesday, commissioners lifted
their moratorium on new subdivisions after approving new rules
on them. We’ll soon see how much bottleneck there is after nearly a
year with the ban.
www.MyMCR.net
is published every week by The Monroe County Reporter Inc.
Will Davis, President • Robert M. Williams Jr., Vice President
Cheryl S. Williams, Secretary-T reasurer
OUR STAFF
Will Davis
Publisher/Editor
publisher@mymcr.net
Tammy Rafferzeder
Business Manager
business@mymcr.net
Steve Reece
Reporter
stevereece@g ma i I .co m
Donna Wilson
Advertising Manager
ads@mymcr.net
Diane Glidewell
Community Editor
news@mymcr.net
Amy Haisten
Creative Director
mymcrgraphics@gmail.com
Official Organ of Monroe
County and the City of Forsyth
50 N. Jackson St., PO Box 795 • Forsyth,
GA 31029 • Periodicals Postage Paid at
Forsyth, GA 31029- 994-2358
SUBSCRIPTION RATE: In County: $50 • Out of County: $60 • Single Copy: $2
Deadlines noon on Friday prior to issue. Comments featured on opinion pages are the creation of
the writers, the do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Reporter management.
Publication No. USPS 997-840
Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not.’ - Jeremiah 50:2
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 winner: Editorial Page excellen
2019, 2018 winner: Best Headline Writing
2019 winner: Best Community Service
2019 winner: Best Layout and Design
2019 winner: Best Serious Column - Don Daniel
EDITORIALS
DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
4A
REECE’S PIECES by Steve Reece
Behold the power of electricity
W e have British scien
tist Michael Faraday
to thank for many
things we take for
granted in today’s world. He was the
first to discover the basic principles
of electricity generation during the
early 1830s and invented the first
electric motor. His accomplishments
were so numerous he was offered
a knighthood in recognition of his
services, but he turned it down say
ing it was better for him to remain
“plain Mr. Faraday to the end”. He
also invented the rubber balloon we
use as party decorations and twisted
balloon art. He created the balloon
to hold gases for his experiments
and creative entrepreneurs took
it from there. Mr. Faraday never
became rich from his work. He was
a religious man and believed that
it was against the word of the Bible
to accumulate riches. He died in
England at the age of 75.
The earliest practical uses of
electricity were for the telegraph and
electric lighting. Most of us believe
the electric light was invented in
1879 by Thomas Edison. Although
he created the first commercially vi
able incandescent light bulb, as early
as 1802 Humphry Davy, a British
chemist invented a lighting device for
coal miners.
Edison was born in 1847 and
although he had a few early years of
formal school, he received most of
his education through homeschool
ing. He got a job as a telegrapher and
began experimenting and soon came
up with the automatic telegraph,
the duplex telegraph, and a mes
sage printer. After that, he decided
to go full-time as an inventor and
went crazy with it, receiving 1,093
patents during his career. Just a few
of his notable inventions include the
phonograph, the durable light bulb,
the stock ticker, and an early motion
picture camera. Of course, many of
his inventions have been outdated
Thomas Edison.
for decades. For example, most kids
today have no idea what a vinyl
record is.
In 1882 the Edison Electric Illumi
nating Company of New York began
supplying electric light to small
sections of Manhattan, but it took
quite a while for Americans to get on
board with the innovation. They pre
ferred the old tried and true method
of using candles and gaslighting.
In 1925 only half the homes in the
United States had electric power but
by 1945 that figure jumped to 85%
thanks to FDR’s Rural Electrifica
tion Act of 1936. By 1960, most of
America was considered electrified.
But not all.
When I was a boy, one summer my
dad loaded up the family into his old
Plymouth for a 1000-mile trip back
to see all the folks in Georgia during
one of his leaves from the Air Force.
I know it’s nothing to y’all, but I had
never seen pine trees so tall, and it
was the first time I ever put fried
trout in my mouth.
After a week of fishing and camp
ing, we headed down to Douglas
County to spend some time with the
aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpa,
and a whole slew of cousins. Fortu
nately, everyone liked to fish, and we
hit all the lucky spots, keeping my
Aunt Shirley busy at her stove, feed
ing a houseful with fried catfish that
was so delicious it would bring tears
to your eyes.
One evening, my dad and four
of my uncles sat on Aunt Shirley’s
front porch, smoking cigars with full
bellies, and came up with the idea to
leave my brothers, John and David,
and myself in Georgia for the rest of
the summer until the start of school.
I will never forget that summer.
On their way back home the next
morning, my mom and dad said
quick goodbyes and rid themselves
of us at my grandmother’s house
who lived in deep (real deep) rural
Paulding County. She was my moth
er’s mother and still living like it was
1879. Her home was an old wooden
structure with no plumbing or elec
tricity. There was an outhouse in the
backyard and a well in the front yard
where the chickens took shade. The
house was up on blocks so her old
dogs had a nice place to sleep.
She cooked on a wood-burning
stove and somehow came up with
biscuits that even Burger King would
be proud of. On Sundays, when my
Aunt Sybil loaded us up and took us
to church, my grandmother would
be kicking up dust snatching a
chicken for dinner. Her husband was
a man who became my step-grandpa
Otis when she remarried after her
first husband died when I was a baby.
Old Otis was a moonshine runner,
so I got to witness a little bit of that.
I even once kept a secret from my
grandmother for him about his busi
ness. I regret that now that they are
gone.
After a couple of weeks of that
primitive life, my Uncle Dean Reece
showed up and took us three un
bathed boys to the town of Doug-
lasville to spend some time with the
Reece side of the family. But with all
their fancy appliances, plumbing and
gadgets in their homes, I found my
self missing the simple life I just left.
Steve Reece is a writer for the Report
er and a known crime fighter. Email
him atstevereece@gmail.com.
CAROLYN’S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
Lessons learned from my dog Jake
1 ’ake, our sweet Lab has
a basket full of stuffed
toys. But there is one
toy that is his favorite,
e loves “Mr.
Bear!” Yesterday,
he could not
find his cher
ished toy. He
searched all over
the house for it.
When I figured
out what
Jake was
searching
for, I joined
in on the
hunt. You could see the
joy in Jake’s eyes, when he
finally found his beloved
toy.
WHEN IT’S
bedtime, it’s a
delight to see the
visible comfort
Jake experiences
by resting his head
on “Mr. Bear.” Last
night as I
watched
Jake resting,
I began to
think about
people who are finding it
difficult to sleep and rest
at night. They are stressed
out due to the high cost
of living, the price of gas,
food shortages (including
baby formula), crime, vio
lence and the incompetent
leadership of governmen
tal officials in our nation.
HOW DO we find rest
for our souls in these
troubling times? Jesus
said, “Come to me, all
who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you
rest” (Matt. 11:28 ESV).
Finding comfort and rest
for the weary soul is not
something that is out of
reach. They can be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Place your confident trust
and faith in Him today.
You are one heartfelt
prayer away from receiv
ing what what you need.
Carolyn Martel is the
retired advertising man
ager of the Reporter. Email
her at carolynmartell @
bellsouth.net.