Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A
& EDITORIALS
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
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
Why does county want
government secrets?
M onroe County commissioners have declared
it unethical for them to tell their constitu
ents what they are saying and doing behind
closed doors. But that policy backfired
last month. It hopefully showed commissioners and the
county manager why they should strike their stupid “rule”,
one that aims at muzzling them from telling people what
they’re doing in secret in their Code of Ethics.
It was 2019 that commissioners approved a Code of Eth
ics that says they should not tell anyone what they discuss
in “executive” session. “Executive session” is fancy gov
ernment lingo for “behind closed doors” without anyone
watching or listening. Why should county commission
ers, or any local elected officials, keep secrets from those
they’re elected to represent? Well you’ll have to ask them
that.
To be fair, Georgia’s open meetings laws do allow lo
cal government boards to shut out the public to discuss
just three kinds of things. The three kinds of things they
can legally discuss without you knowing about it are 1)
litigation, or attorney-client privilege, to plot strategy for
a lawsuit or legitimately-threatened lawsuit, 2) real estate
acquisition, to avoid showing their cards when they’re ne
gotiating to buy or sell property and 3) personnel, to allow
a frank discussion of a specific employee’s performance.
Of course, government officials everywhere abuse these
very specific and limited exemptions
to the open meetings laws. We’ve
seen local elected officials close
meetings to the public around the
state just because they don’t want the
public to know what they’re doing.
They’ll want to hide something from
the public and so they randomly
pick an exception and proclaim
“litigation” as they chase report
ers and taxpayers out a meeting.
How do we know they’re talking
about one of three specifically
enumerated exceptions to the
open meetings law? We don’t. We have to take their word
for it. We’ll let you decide if that’s good enough.
Anyway, last month this newspaper reported that zoning
official Kelsey Fortner got a promotion and a raise just a
few weeks after she sent an email to more than 60 county
employees rallying them to support county manager Jim
Hedges. Fortner’s email was in response to commissioner
George Emami (her boss!) confronting Hedges publicly
about him proposing too much spending and manipulat
ing county employees to support his agenda against the
commissioners. Emami rightly pointed out that Hedges
works for commissioners, not the other way around, and
thus he should end his practice of outlining potential
raises to county employees before commissioners can vote
upon his proposals. He has been fomenting a mutiny to
force commissioners to sign off on his runaway spending.
By sending her email, Fortner unwittingly proved Ema-
mi’s point that Hedges has turned county employees into
political activists. Emami noted that elected commission
ers are supposed to be running county government for the
taxpayers, not for the sole benefit of county employees.
After the paper came out, Hedges fired off an email to
commissioners that the story in the Reporter was a “total
lie”!
Hedges noted that he had planned to propose Fortner’s
raise and promotion to commissioners behind closed
doors in May, long before she became his in-house cheer
leader. So it was tat for tit and not tit for tat. I’m not sure it
changes anything. Alas commissioners realized if they re
ally wanted to follow their own ridiculous Code of Ethics,
they could not reveal any of these “game changing” facts
to the Reporter. They were trapped in a code of silence of
their own making. They couldn’t tell the newspaper about
See ON THE PORCH . Page 5A
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@gmail.com
Donna Wilson
Advertising Manager
ads@mymcr.net
Diane Glidewell
Community Editor
news@mymcr.net
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Creative Director
mymcrgraphics@gmail.com
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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
REECE’S PIECES by Steve Reece
Crazy happens while
O ver 70% of the American
adult population report
that they don’t get enough
sleep at least one night a
month, and 11% say they are sleep
deprived every night. Americans of
all ages from all walks of life suffer
from sleep-related problems includ
ing insomnia, restless legs syndrome,
narcolepsy, and sleep apnea. A lack
of sleep can affect every aspect of our
lives such as our work performance,
our relationships, mental health, and
our ability to maintain lanes while
driving.
For a motivated person with goals
and deadlines, sleep can seem like a
great waste of time, taking up
a third of our already short
lives. Considering this, I did
a search in the App Store for
sleep learning aids. For $22.99
I found I can achieve self-
made success while enjoying
a good snooze. Not only that,
but there are also apps for
learning to build my self-
confidence, manifest love,
boost my mental power,
and of course learn
another language with all the work
done by my sleeping, unconscious, yet
tired brain. I got excited and started
imagining the things I could achieve
all within the comfort of my own bed
sound asleep with Muchacho curled
up at my feet.
Fortunately, before plopping down
that kind of money, I had the good
sense to do a little online research and
discovered that while learning during
sleep is undoubtedly possible, what
we learn while we sleep is inaccessible
while we are awake. I was so disap
pointed because it seemed like such a
bargain.
But the human brain is never at
rest, not even while sleeping. Now
you might think that’s an exhausting
thought. Maybe you’re a person who
turns problems over and over in your
mind while waiting for sleep but then
you hear, “Sleep on it. Things will look
better in the morning.” You roll your
eyes when you receive this advice and
while you certainly don’t want to wait
until tomorrow, your brain does solve
problems while you sleep. This is much
better than getting up in the middle of
the night to resolve an issue. You’ll end
up exhausted the next morning and
still no closer to a solution. If
you must get up in the middle
of the night, there are better
reasons.
More proof that our brains
never stop are people who talk
in their sleep. Sleep talking can
involve complicated
monologues, total gib
berish, or mumbling.
This is a common
phenomenon, formally
known as somniloquy, and is report
edly more frequent among young
folks. But an old man rambling on
while asleep is not unheard of. Sleep
talking can come on at any time. It
usually doesn’t last long, and the one
sided conversations can range from a
single unintelligible mutter to a long
hostile angry speech peppered with
cuss words. Research has shown that
people who talk while sleeping often
shock their sleep partners with speech
they would never consider using dur
ing waking hours. Scientists say swear
words occur 800 times more often
during sleep conversation than they
would normally in a person’s daytime
discourse. A recent study found that in
10 percent of cases, sleep speech is rich
in swear words and negative content.
This maybe because the outburst
you sleep
probably happened in response to a
bad dream where anything goes.
If you ever wake in the morning and
are shocked to find cracker crumbs,
food containers, or candy bar wrappers
in your bed, you may be experiencing
a sleep disorder known as sleep-related
eating. This is where sleepers get out
of bed, make their way to the kitchen,
and fix a little something to eat, all
without waking up. That may be okay
for skinny people but for most of the
population, not so much.
While sleep eating may be annoying,
more perilous than overeating is sleep
driving, when a person will slip out of
the sack, grab the keys to the car, and
go for a cruise while on autopilot, com
pletely unconscious of driving down
the road, oblivious to any danger.
Probably the best-known parasom-
nia (doing weird things while asleep)
is sleepwalking, or somnambulism.
People who suffer from this disorder
sometimes engage in very complex
and dangerous actions. They may even
look wide awake to witnesses, sud
denly sitting up in bed and looking
around in a confused state of mind be
fore slowly starting to walk around the
room. I’ve always heard to let them be,
that it’s not a good idea to wake them.
Sometimes people do other crazy
things while sleeping. I include myself
in this group and must take credit for
inventing what I call “leaping while
sleeping”. I once took a leap from a top
bunk in the middle of the night for no
reason at all during the middle of some
crazy dream. I landed face first on the
hard wooden floor and went to school
the next morning with two blackened
eyes, a crooked nose, and a busted lip.
Of course, I caught up with my lost
sleep during class.
Steve Reece is a writer for the Report
er and a known crime fighter. Email
him at stevereece@gmaU.com.
CAROLYN S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
Why does God repeat
A s I was reading the “On the
Porch” column by
Will Davis in the
Aug. 3 Reporter, I
couldn’t help but nod my head
in agreement and laugh. Davis
mentioned that he has had a
life-long problem with losing
things. His column was filled
with honest introspec
tion and humor. I en- /? A
courage you to read it,
if you haven’t already.
I THINK losing things is a common
problem for a lot of men. Also, I’ve no
ticed that men seem to have a problem
finding things as well. For example,
my husband opened a kitchen cabinet
recently and said,
“Honey, where is the peanut butter?”
I moved a few canned goods around
and there it was in plain sight.
I pointed at the jar of
peanut butter and walked
away praying, “Lord, bless
me with patience today’
ALSO, WOMEN have
you noticed that we often
need to call or speak a man’s
name at least twice
to get their attention?
Apparently, God has
the same problem
when speaking to men.
I can prove this biblically. Have you
ever noticed that when God spoke to
men, that He would call their name
at least twice? In the Bible you read
God saying, “Abraham, Abraham” or
“Moses, Moses” or “Samuel, Samuel”
and “Simon, Simon.”
' 7r l‘VC£<jl_
our name?
I THINK I know the reason why
God has to speak to men at least twice
to get their attention. In Genesis, we
read where God put Adam to sleep
to remove a rib from his side to make
woman. It’s interesting to me, that I
don’t read where Adam ever came out
of that sleep or fully woke up! Hence,
the explanation for man’s state of mind
and behavior. Ha!
HEY, JUST sharing a little laugh
ter with you as you read this week’s
Reporter. Proverbs 17:22 tells us, “A
merry heart doeth good like a medi
cine.” Have a great week!
Carolyn Martel of Forsyth is the
retired long-time advertising manager
for the Reporter. Email her at car-
olynmartell@bellsouth.net.