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PAGE 4A • THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007
mion
Editorial Views
Time Now To Plan To
Deal With Next Drought
While various groups try to determine exactly who
should be held accountable for the current drought,
it really is time to start planning for how we will deal
with future dry spells. This drought is reaching his
toric proportions, but the next drought won't have
to be this severe to be damaging.
Without a doubt, the General Assembly and the
Environmental Protection Division will mandate
certain changes regarding future water usage. Local
governments should start figuring out steps they can
take that are not limited to but could include discus
sion of the following steps:
• conservation rates. These are already in effect in
many localities. Basically, the rates accelerate as usage
increases to encourage less usage.
• the elimination of irrigation meters. Encouraging
people to water lawns and landscapes has been a
marketing tool in the past. Today, the emphasis
should be on conserving water rather than usage.
•the requirement of water-efficient commodes,
faucets and showerheads, not just in new buildings,
but retrofitted into every building that has water
service.
•regulation of private wells or ponds.
•year-round limitations on non-essential usage of
water, from watering landscapes to washing cars.
•more careful consideration of potential busi
nesses and industries that use significant amounts
of water.
•limitations on pools and fountains.
•limiting new developments to conserve water.
These may seem like reasonable steps during a time
of drought, but they will not be politically advisable
once the current crisis is past, when the reservoirs are
full and no drought is imminent. The challenge will
be to devise rules that are not draconian but which
will enable Georgians to better manage water usage.
One of the criticisms of the Metro Atlanta area, for
example, is that rules requiring high-efficiency fau
cets, showerheads and commodes were beaten back
by developers and real estate companies who saw
them as detrimental to their businesses.
Yet those are exactly the kinds of steps that should
be taken. Local governments must get creative. Are
there tax incentives to entice people to retrofit their
houses or their rental properties? Cannot a public
relations campaign be devised to encourage citizens
to adapt practices that require less water? Is there an
incentive program similar to what Commerce has
done to promote the purchase of gas water heaters
that could encourage the conversion to more effi
cient water usage? Can a program be developed to
help residents determine when a line or appliance
has developed a leak, to educate people about plants
and grasses that use less water or to demonstrate gar
dening and landscape practices that conserve water?
At the same time, officials and citizens must under
stand that water conservation has a cost. It might
be reflected in new rates, in the cost of retrofitting
homes and offices with the latest commodes and
faucets, or in reduced growth, but it will reach every
one. So too, will the benefits as measured in lower
per capita usage and greater security in the face of
subsequent droughts. The current drought has dem
onstrated our water resource weaknesses.
Now is the time to begin these discussions. If
officials wait until the drought has eased, citizens
will lose interest, and the opportunity for dramatic
improvements in water usage will be lost. It's time
for water companies to quit looking at water only
as a revenue source and start viewing it as a critical
natural resource. Finding new sources of water and
building new storage (reservoirs) are important, but
our best defense against the next drought is to cut
per capita water usage permanently. We can't get
started soon enough.
Editorials, unless otherwise noted, are written by Mark
Beardsley. He can be reached by e-mail at mark@main-
streetnews.com.
The Commerce News
ESTABLISHED IN 1875
USPS 125-320
1672 South Broad Street
Commerce, Georgia 30529
MIKE BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
MARK BEARDSFEY Editor/General Manager
BRANDON REED Sports Editor
TERESA MARSHAFF Office Manager
MERRIFF BAGWEFF Cartoonist
THE COMMERCE NEWS is the legal organ of the city
of Commerce and is published every Wednesday by
MainStreet Newspapers Inc. Periodical postage paid at
Commerce, Georgia 30529.
Subscription Rates Per Year: Jackson, Banks
and Madison Counties $19.75; State of Georgia
$38.85; out-of-state $44.50. Most rates discounted
$2 for senior citizens.
POSTMASTER send address changes to THE COMMERCE
NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA 30549.
Is it possible Sir, that just
this ONE TIME, you made a mistake and
ended the wrong drought?
Are You Sure We’re Alone?
I've never been much for
costumes. Actually, that's an
understatement; the truth is,
I'd pay good money to get
out of wearing one. I'm that
woman whose wig keeps slip
ping, and whose feet keep
tripping over the hem of a
costume that fit perfectly just
a week earlier. I'm the one
who ends up looking so piti
ful that people aren't sure
whether I'm in costume, or
just weird enough to have
come to the grocery store in
my bathrobe.
So to say that I dread
Halloween would be another
understatement. I start worry
ing about it in late July — to
no avail, of course. It arrives
anyway. And the funny thing
is, I'm half glad, because I've
always loved the basic idea of
it: All Hallow's Eve, when the
spirits of the dear departed
(and perhaps — who knows? —
the not-so-dear departed) walk
abroad for a few hours before
slipping back to their final rest
ing place just as All Saints' Day
dawns.
A superstition, of course
— echoed in many cultures.
Perhaps it's one of the many
ways we humans twist and
turn in our efforts to make
friends with what we per
sonify sometimes as the
Grim Reaper, whom the poet
E.E. Cummings addressed as
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
"Mister Death." ("Ah, here it is
at last," Henry James is said to
have said on his deathbed: "the
Distinguished Thing.") Maybe
some of us have the urge
to tweak that distinguished
nose a bit, like naughty chil
dren, and then run away.
Halloween's the perfect night
for that.
I love all the traditions: the
witch on her broomstick, the
ghosts on the fence posts, the
carved pumpkins lighting
people's porches (a connection
to the harvest and the cycle of
death and rebirth even in the
vegetable kingdom). It takes
centuries of history to impart
this kind of resonance.
It also takes Mister Death, so
of course my favorite part of
the observance is All Saints'
Day itself. That, for me, is
when those we've loved and
lost rise up — in memory,
anyway. I seem to feel them
all around me like the "great
cloud of witnesses" referred to
in the book of Hebrews: Miss
Fannie Henry, a tiny woman
but a great lover of life, and
the maker of the world's best
rum cake; Gerald Jordan, our
"Voice of the Tigers" for so
many years, and also a quietly
tireless worker for civic bet
terment; Annie Mae Cochran,
whose steady presence, funny
stories, and profound wisdom
were just part of her legacy
to the library and the com
munity. My Aunt Mera. Her
husband, Horace, gone these
many years. My diminutive
and clever Great Aunt Emily
Jane, who rescued her Middle
Georgia town from the specter
of bankruptcy after the Great
Depression by driving around
in a horse-drawn carriage and
collecting taxes, "just whatever
you can pay" — and who is
best remembered now for her
hats! And of course, my grand
mother.
I weep my way through the
All Saints' Day service at the
church every year, mopping at
my face, furtively stuffing the
wet Kleenexes into my purse,
aware that the tears are tears of
gratitude for the gift of having
known these souls, these saints,
and for the great heart (and
humor) of their creator.
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
So Much For ‘Honor System’
On Halloween night, I con
ducted a small experiment at
my home. Discovery is usually
the consequence of experimen
tation, with the results being
positive, negative or at least
hopeful. Since I am a person
who thinks of a glass as being
half full, I view the results of
the experiment as being hope
ful, if not completely positive.
Knowing that I was not going
to be home Halloween night,
but not wanting to disappoint
the children who regularly
have come trick or treating
from the time they were car
ried to the door and are now
escorting younger siblings,
I decided to test the "Honor
System" of treating the trick
sters. Historically, an average of
40 kids has come to the door,
so I filled a large, sturdy box
with 48 bags of chips, nachos
and cheese doodles. I placed
the box on a small table inside
the railing of the front porch,
turned on the porch light, and
attached a sign on the box with
read: "Honor System. Take one
Views
In
Rotation
BY CLAIRE GAUS
bag per person, please, Happy
Halloween."
The result of my experiment
was made evident with the
simultaneous arrival of a car
load of kiddies, myself, and my
discovery that not only were
the 48 bags of goodies gone,
but the box and sign were gone
also. The carload of kiddies was
sympathetic, and promised to
return for their treats next year.
Do I feel foolish for having
conducted this experiment?
Not at all. I was hopeful that
honesty would prevail that
night as I do any night or day,
but I am not so naive as to
think that I, nor anyone else,
am exempt from another per
son's avarice. I learned the next
day that several families had
come to the box while it was
still stocked, so the culprits
were later arrivals. What was in
the box I had intended to give
away in the first place, so the
theft was not against me, but
from the culprits' own con
temporaries, and in some way,
themselves. The incident was
one which might discourage
some people from providing
treats in coming years, thus
depriving innocent children
and the malefactors from the
traditional begging for treats,
but the tradition of the holiday
will continue with the usual
brigades of goblins and ghouls
being welcome at my door to
be rewarded for no trickery. I
pray the culprit tricksters of
this year were unaccompanied
"tweens" and not children
escorted by parents exhibiting
negative behavior models.
Please Turn To Page 5A
It's Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Screenwriters’
Strike? Will We
Be Able To Tell?
I'm crushed, as are you no doubt,
that the nation's screenwriters are
on strike, although I'd have never
noticed by watching TV. When you
have 54 channels of cable and there's
nothing to watch, you're sort of sur
prised to find out that the screenwrit
ers haven't always been on strike.
Granted, I am totally out of the
loop on TV. Aside from a little sports,
a few old movies and reports of
breaking news of worldwide import,
I don't see a lot of TV. I'm the only
person in North America who's never
watched an episode of "Survivor."
(My only other claim to fame is I'm
the only male in North America who
does not have a cell phone, but that's
a different topic.)
I learned of this development, sec
ond only to reports of more terrorist
attacks and Hillary's latest presiden
tial statements in importance, on
National Public Radio. The first thing
to go, said NPR, will be late-night
shows like the Letterman Show.
Well, I never lost sleep over that
one either. That's kind of like being
a cactus and finding out there's a
drought at hand. So what?
But, I realize some people actually
watch a lot of TV, and you people are
going to have to put up with re-runs
of CSI Miami and Hannah Montana
or learn to converse once again with
other souls who share your abode.
I'm not sure if this will be a blessing
to the American family, or whether
we'll see a sharp uptick in domestic
violence should viewers, with no
fresh nonsense to watch, attempt to
wean themselves from the tube dur
ing Prime Time.
It's frustrating enough when you
can barely see Channel 2 or 5 on
your cable. Shoot, I could get those
better back in the last Ice Age when
we had an antenna than I do now. If
there was something good to watch
on TV, I'd be very unhappy about
not being able to see it on those two
Atlanta channels. Now, there is not
even a concern that I might miss
something.
TV is a powerful medium, but it's
evolved into a source of mostly-
mindless entertainment. There are
good shows out there, important and
inspiring stories being broadcast, but
most writers write for the market,
and, sadly, the market prefers low
brow comedy, mindless violence and
"reality" shows that bear no relation
to reality. Today, even the news is
being scripted to match the prefer
ences of the audience. Maybe the
news writers will go on strike next.
++++
On the serious side, I owe Bob
Williams, candidate for the city
council seat from Ward 4, an apol
ogy. When I wrote the biographical
data on each candidate, I completely
left his out. His photo was there, but
not a word about him.
It was an awful oversight; I was
sure that I'd written his biography,
but when I finally found my origi
nal story, I'd never even typed it.
Williams deserved better than that,
and I apologize for the screw-up. All
candidates deserve equal coverage,
and he didn't get it, thanks to my
error. No excuses: I blew it.
Next time there's an election, I'll
run the biographical material in an
earlier edition — so if there are errors
or omissions there will be time to
correct them before the vote.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The Commerce
News. He can be reached at mark@main-
streetnews.com.