Newspaper Page Text
October 12, 2022
Page 5A
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN by Don Daniel
Reporter birthday
party coming up
L ooking back through the first issue of
this newspaper, Nov. 8,1972, is bring
ing back a lot of memories and one of
the most interesting is the number of
businesses that don’t
exist anymore. Even
more interesting were
the prices of grocery
store foods. The only
grocery store that
advertised in the first
edition was Colonial
Stores which was locat
ed where the Forsyth
city hall is. Here are
a few of the specials
advertised: fryers 27
cents a pound; may
onnaise quart jar, 49
cents; sirloin tip roasts, 99 cents and bread, 25
cents a loaf.
Bennie Bostick and Forsyth Red and White
soon became a full page advertiser giving readers
another choice for grocery shopping. His store
was where Tractor Supply is now.
If you want to read more about 50 years ago,
come by The Reporter office at 5:30 pm. on
Thursday, Nov. 10 for the birthday party.
According to another first edition, we had drug
problems back in 1972 when a city official report
ed “drug problem sizeable in Monroe County”
reporting “the sale of drugs within sight of the
Monroe County Courthouse” and “organizing a
Monroe County Council on Drugs.” Some things
just don’t change over time.
I DON’T know why I am going to write this
and I am sure there will be consequences. Watch
ing Georgia beat Auburn was ecstatic. Blipping to
other channels during time-outs and advertising,
right next to the game channel was this chan
nel: “Black College Quiz Show” featuring black
individuals representing black colleges.
Got me to thinking what if there was a college
quiz show “White College Quiz Show”? I am sure
the reaction would be immediate by the NAACR
Black Fives Matter and advocating boycotts being
immediate.
LAST WEEK, both the Forsyth City Council
and the Monroe County Commissioners had
meetings. First, here are some council member
unattributed comments: “This can has so many
dents from kicking it down the road”; “We want
to get the most for the city”; “We are a part of the
county”; “At the end of the day we are where we
are”; “We gave up, they gave up”; “I don’t think we
need to rush it”; “It’s not a pleasure trip”; “There’s a
lot of things we kick down the road.”
OVER AT the county commission, two com
missioners were absent, the chairman and com
missioner George Emami. There was still enough
for a quorum with the vice-chairman swinging
the gavel. Here are unattributed commissioner
comments: “Bird dogging’”; “That’s the motion I
just made”; “ You always have good clothes”; “I’ve
got nothing against mobile homes”; “I got my
finger on the wrong button”; “I’m looking forward
to down the road”; “You are screwed”; “I like be
ing fair”; “I pull a Jim Ham and walk out”; “Then
it becomes a slippery slope”; “You are going to
have some problems”; “I hate to do this to you”;
“Be clear on that”; “ Real deep associations”; “1
listen to your complaints”; “Whatever that meant,
I don’t know”; “My statement was”; “Like herding
cats”; “Well done John”; “We try to work for you”;
“Whatever that meant, I don’t know”; “I’m sorry I
don’t agree with you” and finally, “I hate to do this
to you”.
“SKUNKS” WAS the correct answer and there
were many who got the right answer to last week’s
The Question. Laura Hollifield was the first by
seconds with the correct answer; Laura gets a cer
tificate for a dozen Dunkin Donuts, car wash at
Big Peach, fried green tomato appetizer at Whistle
Stop, single dip at Scoops, slice of Shoney’s straw
berry pie and a Dairy Queen Blizzard.
' Here’s this week’s The Question: Who is the
new Forsyth fire chief? First correct answer after
12 noon on Thursday gets the goodie certificate.
NOT ADMITTING they are raising our elec
tric rates, we are and should be aware of the rising
prices on just about everything. Just to make you
aware again, Central Georgia Electric Member
ship Cooperative “is not raising rates” they are
“changing” “residential accounts” from $37 to $40.
Attempting to justify the rate increase, making
this comment in their newsletter: “This change is
part of a continuous effort to align charges with
operational and wholesale power cost.”
SMOKE ON! The president has said he will
pardon all prior offenses of simple possession of
marijuana and will call on federal regulators to
review how the drug is classified as reported by
The Wall Street Journal.
FROM “THE Illustrated Dictionary of Snark”:
Television news bulletins usually contain a story
that affects you personally at the precise moment
you turn the television on.
This Snark by David Frost: Television enables
you to be entertained in your home by people you
wouldn’t have in your home.
Don Daniel founded the Reporter in 1972. Email
him at mediadr@bellsouth.net.
v Reporter
MERRY’S MUSINGS by Merry Harris
ON THE PORCH
Continued from 4A
9-11 powers by spying on Trump and his
associates and intimidating anyone who
dares take on the regime in D.C.
America was founded as a Republic of
states where power was divided because
Americans were deeply distrustful of gov
ernment. But statists over the past century
have manufactured crisis after crisis as a
pretext for expanding that central gov
ernment. Their goal was to create more
power and riches for themselves.
And so the Great Depression, while real,
was the original crisis used to excuse the
vast growth of the federal regime under
Franklin Roosevelt. And Lyndon Johnson
did it again in the 1960s, using a “crisis”
of poverty to ram through Congress a
panoply of large government redistribu
tion schemes that have destroyed the
American work ethic and are sinking us
into bankruptcy even today.
I am not saying there are no crisis. In a
fallen, sinful world, there is never a lack
of tragedies, problems and difficulties.
Viruses and economic downturns are nor
mal parts of the human experience. The
problem is that slick politicians learned to
convert these difficulties into war cries to
support whatever insane programs they
wanted. Questions of costs, or whether the
programs will work, are never impor
tant. This and such is a bad problem, and
therefore we must spend billions on it. We
aren’t allowed to ask if the problem is real
or whether this expenditure will solve it.
So our problem is that panicked people
elect and empower petty tyrants. How do
we calm down our panicked countrymen
to prevent them from turning over more
of their lives to con men like Biden?
The great English preacher Charles
Spurgeon observed the same problem,
and made this astute observation: “There
is not land beneath the sun where there
is an open Bible and a preached gospel,
where a tyrant long can hold his place...
Let the Bible be opened to be read by
all men, and no tyrant can long rule in
peace... The religion of Jesus makes men
think, and to make men think is always
dangerous to a despot’s power’
Christian men are thinking men, and
don’t bend to tyrants. A century earlier,
John Adams observed that the American
experiment in freedom depended upon
having a certain kind of citizen.
“Our constitution was made only for a
moral and religious people,” said Adams.
“It is wholly inadequate to the government
of any other.”
What kind of people are we producing?
What can we do to produce better Ameri
cans? That, friend, is the right question we
should all be asking in the current crisis,
and crisis, and crisis.
Email Will Davis, publisher and editor of
the Reporter, atpublisher@mymcr.net.
BUNN
Continued from 1A
-viewed by city manager Janice
Hall. All candidates were with
the Forsyth fire department.
Bunn acknowledged there
maybe some hurt feelings
that he was hired over four of
his firefighters but said they’ll
move on.
Bunn has been a part-time
volunteer with the Forsyth fire
department since 1995. Hem-
don had made him a part-time
deputy chief in charge of train
ing two years ago.
Bunn has been full-time with
the DeKalb County fire depart
ment for the past 16 years and
is working out his two-week
retirement notice before being
sworn in at city council on
Monday, Oct. 17.
Bunn said his goal will be to
keep the fire department grow
ing and to maintain its ISO fire
protection rating of 2 (1 is the
best). He said he also plans to
develop and build a second city
fire station on the north end of
the city after Fosyth annexed
the giant 1,500-acre H & H
property off Smith Road. He
said he also wants to add staff
ing. He said the city currently
has three shifts with 4,4 and 5
firefighters. He said he would
like to get 5 on each shift.
Bunn said he has a good
relationship with Monroe
County fire chief Matt Jackson
so they will work well together,
and noted that Herndon will
be available if he needs any
help. Bunn will not only take
over Herndon’s fire chief duties
but also those for enforcing soil
and erosion laws.
Prior to being with the
DeKalb County, Bunn spent 10
years with the Fulton County
fire department. He has two
grown daughters the oldest
of which is getting married in
December. Bunn is single.
METH
Continued from 1A
deputy was watching traffic at “the split”
near the weigh station on 1-75 when the
Camaro passed the deputy less than a car
length behind a Chrysler 300. The deputy
activated his emergency equipment near
North Lee Street and the driver, Wille
George Williams of Pelham, switched to
the far-left lane and increased his speed
for a split second as if he was considering
running.
The deputy bumped his siren again and
Williams finally pulled over to the left
shoulder and came to a complete stop.
When Williams rolled down the window
the deputy could smell marijuana and
both occupants of the vehicle seemed
extremely nervous. The deputy told
Williams he needed to leave some room
between him and the vehicle in front of
him because he didn’t want to see him get
into a wreck
Williams’ hands were shaking terribly as
he tried to find his driver’s license and the
passenger, Kerry Tucker, 32, of Camilla,
refused to look at the deputy and was just
staring straight ahead, looking down the
road. The deputy asked Williams what
brought him up this way and he stated,
“Who me? Just driving.” He said it was a
rental car. The deputy asked from where
and he replied with, “Uh Decatur”.
When Williams was asked what took
him to Decatur he stated, “Sir?” The
deputy repeated the question and Williams
answered, “My niece”. He told the deputy
that she attended school up there and
when asked what school he answered, “Uh
Princeton”. The deputy questioned him,
“Princeton?” and he replied “Ya.” When
the deputy asked him where the school
was located, he said, “I mean South.” The
deputy asked him, “South?” Williams then
told him that he had got him all nervous
and sat down on the patrol car’s push
bumper. The deputy told him everything
was okay and that he needed to just calm
down.
The deputy asked him once again what
school his niece attended, and he said, “She
go to, she go to, um I just need my phone
sol can call my mom and let her know:’
He also told the deputy his niece lived in
Dublin and the deputy told him he passed
Dublin long ago. Williams then said that
she just lived in Dublin but went to school
in Atlanta. He then changed his story and
said they were going to the Metro Outlet,
but it was closed and didn’t open until
Tuesday.
The deputy asked Williams who he had
in the vehicle with him, and he answered
that it was his “homeboy’ The deputy then
asked if he had the rental agreement and
Williams said that it was in the glove box.
Before letting him retrieve the paperwork,
the deputy did a pat down and took a
pocketknife from him that he found in his
waistband.
While Williams was getting the pa
perwork, the deputy tried to speak with
Tucker who was ignoring him while
sitting in the passenger seat, continuing
to stare straight ahead. The deputy asked
if he was okay, and he replied that he was.
After being asked three times where he
was coming from, Tucker finally told
the deputy, “At home.” The deputy asked
again and Tucker asked him, “Where am I
coming from? What part of Atlanta are we
in?” He then ignored the deputy’s question
and told him he worked in Atlanta. He
then changed his story and said he went to
school in Atlanta. The deputy asked him
what school he went to and he said that
it was a GED school. Tucker was holding
an empty Chick-Fil-A cup and every time
the deputy would ask him a question, he
would take a sip from the empty cup and
begin to either talk with the cup up to his
mouth or with a mouth full of ice. The
deputy asked him if he used drugs and he
replied “No.” The deputy told him that he
was having a hard time holding a conver
sation with him and he explained that he
had a bad ear. The deputy asked him if he
could hear him okay and he replied, “Yes
• »
sir.
When the deputy asked him again what
he was doing in Atlanta, he said they went
to his school and got something to eat, and
they were headed home.
The deputy told Williams he could smell
marijuana and Williams replied that both
he and Tucker smoke marijuana and that
the smell might be in his hair. When asked
when they had last smoked, Williams
said on the night before. He added that
they couldn’t smoke in the car because the
rental company would charge them $200.
The deputy then asked Williams if he
had any bags in the car and he pointed at
the car and stated “My stuff is in the car”.
When asked if he had anything inside
of the trunk and he said, “ Naw like naw
that’s what I’m saying. We haven’t done
anything wrong.” The deputy told him that
his vehicle smelled like marijuana, and he
became super defensive and stated that
his car didn’t smell like weed. The deputy
reminded him that he had just admitted to
smoking marijuana last night and Wil
liams once again explained that it was his
hair that smelled like marijuana. Williams
said, “You’re acting like I did something,
I didn’t do anything.” The deputy told
him he was just letting him know that he
smelled marijuana.
Help arrived and deputies found a pack
of “blunt wraps” in the driver’s side door.
In the trunk there were 5 large Ziploc bags
containing 5 grams of suspected metham-
phetamine inside a taped brown box. Both
men were arrested and charged with traf
ficking methamphetamine. After running
the Camaro’s Florida tag through the Flock
camera system, the deputy learned the pair
had traveled to Cobb County. The Mitchell
County men are suspected of having gang
ties.