Newspaper Page Text
September 7, 2022
Page 5A
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN by Don Daniel
Are BOE staff
double dipping?
F irst a housekeeping chore:
I have had two emails me-
diadr@bellsouth.net and
tullaybear@
bellsouth.net. The
second was for those
of you that answered
The Question and
used for my business
and some personal
emails. The first
was used strictly for
personal use: family
friends, acquain
tances and profes
sional usage. Well
no longer, due to a
hacker that infected
tullaybear and wanted to charge
me $350 to restore the tullaybear
email. Tullaybear was my first
email account for a long time but
is now “deceased”, sentenced to
oblivion.
Thank goodness I have a friend
who is a computer guru and he
immediately gave me temporary
instructions what to do until he
came up to first-hand “cure” my
computer. It was a time consum
ing fix taking him at least five-
minutes to not only de-bug my
computer but to make sure I was
“hacker proof” as he explained
which is practically impossible to
guarantee and he told me “expect
it to happen again”
Computer hackers are as
a-plenty as those “spoof” calls
that my carrier AT &T could stop
but those calls make money for
AT&T and they are not about to
shut off their cash spigot.
REALLY SAD but a story on
bullet proof school back-packs
becoming a necessity for parents
to purchase, becoming a trend out
of fear. A recent story on WSB-
TV featured a segment story on
the vests being tested at the Geor
gia Public Safety Training Center
fire arms range using live fire
ammo testing a bullet proof vest
for school children that would
stop some bullets. The seller of
the vests said they are constantly
improving the vest to stop higher
power bullets.
HERE IT is only two days after
Labor Day and I have already
received, get ready, Christmas
catalogs! No respect for Christ
mas. Also, advertising encourag
ing buyers to “lay-away” Christ
mas gifts that “can be paid for
by Christmas for right under the
Christmas tree”.
CHRISTIANS ARE losing the
battle when it comes to Christmas
cards. I received two catalogs
selling nothing but supposedly
Christmas cards but emphasizing
“Happy Holidays” not a mention
of Christmas front, center or back.
I am old-fashioned. I celebrate
and honor Christmas and the
birth of Jesus. Wonder if he was
born on a holiday?
DURING THE month of June
overnighters or longer guests
in the City of Forsyths fourteen
hotels paid $56,492.86 in hotel/
motel tax according to the June
hotel/motel report by the Forsyth
Convention and Visitors Bureau.
$33,895.72 went into the city’s
coffer and $22,597.14 went to the
CVB to supposedly to promote
tourist, travelers to stop and stay
in Forsyth to enjoy our hospital
ity and take a respite from having
driven south through Atlanta
or having to prepare to travel
through Atlanta headed north.
Of the $54,492.86 collected in
hotel/motel tax, Hampton Inn
collected the largest amount,
$9,225.71. Hobday Inn Ex
press came in second collecting
$8,361.55. LaQuinta Inn and
Suites paid $7,589.49. The lowest
amount collected (hotel) was
Grey Lodging/New Forsyth Inn,
$419.02
I assume internet hotel/motel
reservation companies, Agoda
International US, paid $71.36 and
Hotel Tonight $3.03.
It will be interesting to com
pare the June reports with July,
August and September when they
become available,.
ALTHOUGH NOT a Mon
roe Countian but a Buttonian, I
am gonna cast my vote for Burt
Jones for Georgias Lieutenant
Governor. There is some other
candidate from somewhere up in
North Georgia run
ning but not recog
nizable down here in
Middle Georgia.
Burt has been in the
Georgia Senate for
several terms and is
taking the next step in
his pohtical career. He
assured me he will be
more accessible than
our U.S. Senator who
only shows up when
he needs to stroke
the egos of locals
who have big bank
accounts and fat wallets. Under
stand he has come up every once
in a while to do some hunting and
fraternizing with members of the
local gun club down in Boling-
broke/Smarr area.
Hey, it is simple: find and follow
the money!
THE COMMENT about the
Monroe County Board of Educa
tion assistant superintendent
retiring and then re-hires him
“smacks of the epitome of the
good old boys. after the good
old boy” was the one comment
that has gained and this one: “it’s
called double dipping.
The other comment I often hear
and is still amazing is that the
county zoning officer walking out
of meeting, sending an e-mail to
all county employees praising her
boss after he was chastised by a
county commissioner and then
she getting a new county job and
a tremendous salary boost. As
I often say to Will, “welcome to
Monroe County!”
BETCHA SOME of you didn’t
know this: Monroe County at
one time had three locally owned
banks. So here’s The Question:
name the three banks. Sorry Bank
of Dudley is not going to be a
locally owned bank. There is a
local connection to the latest bank
coming to Monroe County, the
Bank of Dudley. Beth Vaughn is
wife of local attorney and former
county commission chairman
James Vaughn and the mother of
our county attorney Ben Vaughn.
THERE’S STILL a lot of
wondering why the District Four
commissioner candidate decided
to pull his name off the ballot
opposing County Commissioner
George Emami. The only reasons
given were “personal and profes
sional”.
I have come with some “plau
sible” reasons: makes more
money serving on the county
zoning board; would have to give
up zoning board seat and live off a
commissioner’s salary; didn’t want
the wear and tear on his personal
vehicle riding over the district;
doesn’t like to go to county soirees
at the beach or any place other
than the Waffle House; wouldn’t
have a private parking space at the
county office parking lot; would
have to attend two meetings, at
least every month at varying time;
didn’t want to sit next to the com
mission chairman; didn’t want to
attend “called meetings”; would
have to listen to the chairman and
county manager. Okay, enough.
THERE WAS no correct in
time answer to last weeks’ The
Question. Here’s The Question
for this week: In whose home did
Gov. Brian Kemp have lunch on
Tuesday, Sept. 6?
First correct answer after 12
noon Thursday gets the goodie
certificate for Big Peach Carwash,
dozen Dunkin Donuts, slice of
Shoney’s strawberry pie, single
dip at Scoops, fried green tomato
appetizer at Whistle Stop, Dairy
Queen Blizzard and a slice of
Jonah’s pizza,
HERE ARE A couple for the
lighter side from The Illustrated
of Snark: “An apple never falls far
from the tree—-and isn’t it amaz
ing how many bad apples one tree
can produce?” Woody Allen said
“It’s not that I am afraid to die, I
just don’t want to be there when it
happens”.
Don Daniel founded the
Reporter in 1972. Email him at
mediadr@bellsouth. net.
sReporter
MERRY’S MUSINGS by Merry Harris
BACKT0THE
D.C. SWAMP ?
^ Keep LEFT
Walking on Swamp V/ater
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Coalition serves over 1,600 lunches
To the Editor:
Community Improve
ment Coalition of Monroe
County (CICMC) par
ticipated in the Summer
Feeding Program- Happy
Helpings sponsored
through Bright from the
Start again this year. Last
year was a great success!
Due to COVID19, CIC
MC was not able to host
its annual summer camp
but was able to make sure
the youths of Monroe
County received a FREE
nutritious lunch.
CICMC hosted two
sites this year. They were
Union Hill Apartments
and Forsyth Gardens
Apartments. CICMC
served lunch meals begin
ning on June 6th -June
30th (Monday-Thursday)
from 12-12:30 p.m. to an
average of 100 kids daily.
With this grant, CICMC
was able to serve over
1600 meals!
The staff for this pro
gram included Jeanette
Threatt-cook, Betty King-
kitchen aide, Latosha
Proctor-site supervisor for
Forsyth Gardens Apart
ments, Bonnie Russell-site
supervisor for Union
Hill Apartments, Dennis
Swain-volunteer, and Yas-
meen Carruth-Volunteer.
CICMC is very grate
ful to be able to serve the
youths of Monroe County
and we look forward to
serving our community
again next year!
Sincerely,
Annette Lucear
Forsyth
Board Members: John T
Lyons, President; Herbert
Gantt, Vice President;
Georgia Evans, Treasurer;
Mable Smith, Secretary;
Kathy Davis, Asst. Secre
tary
Latosha Proctor gives lunch to a child at Forsyth
Gardens Apartments.
ON THE PORCH
Continued from page 4A
Power, which operates our
biggest taxpayer in coal-fired
Plant Scherer, is planning to get
out of the coal power busi
ness altogether. It appears that
Southern Company, which owns
Georgia Power, has been heavily
influenced by the ESG (Environ
mental Social and Governance)
movement. ESG is that faddish
con by which huge companies
like Blackrock push other public
ly traded companies to embrace
leftist causes in exchange for
investment dollars.
And so, for instance, Southern
Company CEO Tom Fanning
gets huge bonuses the more coal
units he shuts down. So when
someone asks you why Georgia
Power would want to shutdown
Plant Scherer, you know why.
Fanning is expected to retire at
year’s end and perhaps someone
less woke will be placed in charge.
But color me doubtful.
Why? Why are western societ
ies adopting insanely suicidal
policies based on persistently
wrong predictions about the
weather and “climate change”?
Obviously the left has been suc
cessful at (among other things)
brain washing the youth to think
we are destroying the planet. I
was taught the same thing when
I was a kid, that acid rain was
going to murder the earth. But at
root, I think a lot of it has to do
with the decline of religious faith
in the west.
“When men stop believing
in God,” noted British journal
ist G.K. Chesterton, “they don’t
believe in nothing; they believe in
anything.”
They might even believe that if
they make great sacrifices, they
can change the weather. How
many lives will be sacrificed on
the altar of green idols before we
wake up and realise what a silly
charade “climate change” is?
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