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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. TANUARY 9. 2008
mion
Editorial Views
BJC Auxiliary Valuable
To Hospital, Community
Elsewhere in this newspaper, you'll find a picture
of two members of the BJC Medical Center Auxiliary
noting the donation by the auxiliary of $2,000
worth of exercise equipment to the medical center's
Wellness Center. Over the years, the auxiliary has
donated tens of thousands of dollars worth of equip
ment and materials to benefit the hospital and nurs
ing facility.
The money comes from the hard work of a rela
tively small number of dedicated volunteers. The
Wishing Well, the gift shop at the hospital, is a
full-time volunteer project of the auxiliary. Every
bit of profit goes back into the medical center. The
auxiliary also conducts an annual jewelry sale, sells
flowers at Valentine's Day and has other promotions
that raise funds — all of which are donated to BJC
Medical Center.
The BJC Auxiliary's mission is to support the medi
cal center, but its assistance is not limited to the good
that comes from its donations of equipment and
materials. Patients and the loved ones who visit them
also find The Wishing Well a source of gifts, snacks,
flowers, reading material and other amenities that
help make the hospital or nursing home experience
less stressful.
With its single-minded dedication, the BJC Medical
Center Auxiliary provides a continuing support to
hospital patients, nursing home residents, the medi
cal center staff and those whose loved ones receive
care at BJC Medical Center. They deserve recognition
and appreciation for all that they do.
Important Election
Coming Up This Year
Brace yourselves; 2008 is full of elections. In addi
tion to selecting presidential candidates for both
major parties and eventually choosing among them
the successor to George Bush, you'll get the chance
to elect state and local officials.
The presidential primaries are now in full swing,
but just this week the first candidate announced his
intentions of running for chairman of the Jackson
County Board of Commissioners. Many more will
follow very quickly.
Between now and July 15, when the general prima
ry election pretty much settles things locally, a lot
of people are going to offer themselves for some of
the most important local offices. We'll elect county
commissioners, a sheriff, tax commissioner, clerk
of court, probate judge, coroner, magistrate, district
attorney and all the usual state legislators. None of
those positions will be more important locally than
the position of county commission chair, which is
now held by Pat Bell, who reportedly will not seek
re-election.
District 1 Commissioner Tom Crow also report
edly plans to seek the office of chairman, and
there may be others. There will be candidates for
the District 2 (Commerce) seat and District 1 seat.
While the other races are due attention, the elec
tion of county commissioners, at a time when the
board of commissioners seems divided and listless,
is of paramount importance. Hopefully, voters will
take time out from trying to figure who to elect as
Democratic and Republican nominees for president
to give some serious attention to the 2008 board of
commissioners' election in Jackson County.
Pay attention, look at the candidates resumes and
records, talk to them and read their political ads.
Take them seriously, because a lot is going to hap
pen during the four years the winners will serve, and
we need the best commissioners we can get.
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 MARSHALL Office Manager
MERRILL BAGWELL 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 dis
counted $2 for senior citizens.
POSTMASTER send address changes to THE COMMERCE
NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA 30549.
I’m trying to decide if I’ll vote for a Democrat, a Republican,
or select an at-large candidate from the Cartoon Network.
So, We See By Our Outfits
In the aftermath of the Iowa
caucuses last week, I was
interested to hear one news
analyst remark to another that
"Hillary" would now have to
tweak her message. "Obama's
been touting change," the talk
ing head said, "and Hillary's
been running on experience.
Obviously change is more
popular."
Gliding with gritted teeth
past the fact that to this
analyst, Obama is Obama,
Huckabee is Huckabee, and
Clinton is, well, um, Hillary,
we can see that the whole idea
here is not "stick to your guns"
or "say what you believe," but
"say what you believe will be
popular."
Yet this approach is exactly
what got Mitt Romney in trou
ble, isn't it? Romney was look
ing good — literally — before he
started second-guessing himself
on major issues. I kept hearing
the news commentators say
that he "looks presidential" or
"looks like a president," or, as
one broadcaster put it, "carries
himself like a president." Oh,
please. Did Harry Truman look
presidential? What has become
of us, that our newscasters can
offer up this sort of drivel, and
serve it to us with such abso
lute gravity? I kept remember
ing the Smothers Brothers,
singing in soulful deadpan,
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
"I see by my outfit that I am
a cowboy. I see by your outfit
that you are one, too. We see
by our outfits that we are both
cowboys. If you get an outfit
you can be a cowboy too."
Beset by politicians with
"spin doctors" at their sides,
don't we yearn for someone
real? Even Ron Paul is a relief,
I find, just because he's con
sistent. I happen to think
he's consistently wrong, in
the same way I think author
Ayn Rand was wrong, but at
least I know enough about his
positions to be able to form
one myself. For many of the
rest of them — fined up nine
across for each party's so-
called debates (which were not
debates at all) — I've had to go
to Google and call up summa
ries of their principal positions.
Actually, first I had to find
out who they were. My parents
and I would squint at the TV
screen and then at each other,
asking, "Who's that?" Were we
the only ones who couldn't
recognize Duncan Hunter, Tom
Tancredo, Tom Vilsack or Mike
Gravel? — not to mention Alan
Keyes, who seemed to think
that the media had pre-selected
the "real" candidates and he
had not made the cut. I had to
agree with him, since I'd never
even heard his name until he
managed to get a word in edge
wise in one of the "debates."
Joe Biden wasn't on the short
fist, either. Thirty-four years
in the U.S. Senate, chairman
of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations, running for
president for the second time,
and as of September, 36 per
cent of Americans had never
heard of him. How's that for
scary? Guess he didn't have the
right outfit.
Ah, well. The caucus is an
American invention, which the
British both adopted and made
fun of — most famously in
"Alice in Wonderland," where
the "caucus race" consists of a
motley group of animals run
ning around in no particular
order or direction until the
Dodo calls a halt and gives
them all prizes. Does it sound
a bit familiar? Keep an eye out
for that Dodo.
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
English, It Was Nice Knowing You
The English language and
I have parted company and
gone our separate ways. It's a
shame, because I used to enjoy
understanding what others had
to say — but no more. What
passes for English nowadays is
beyond me — and I'm not talk
ing about the teenagers' goofy
speech.
For instance, this week my
wife bought a pack of com
puter paper. I was idly looking
at the fancy cellophane wrap
ping and noticed the words:
"GUARANTEED for all inkjet
printers*." To me, guarantee
means it will work or the seller
will make it work. I looked on
the back of the package to see
what the asterisk signified. This
is what it meant: "This product
will be replaced if defective
in manufacture or packag
ing." So, if the paper doesn't
work in your inkjet printer,
the manufacturer will give you
some additional non-working
paper. Does that sounds like a
guarantee?
A well-known home-improve
ment store (nameless, but they
favor orange) recently adver
tised a "water amplifying show-
erhead." Well, that sounds like
the end of our water problems
to me. Why doesn't the county
go out and buy a bunch of the
things, pump water from the
Bear Creek Reservoir through
them and back into the same
reservoir? In a little while we
will have more water than we
know what to do with,
We all know there's no such
thing as a "water amplifying
showerhead" so why did they
call it that?
Here's my favorite. The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ran an article about the high
mortgage delinquency rates in
Atlanta. Atlanta's rates are high
er than those of Georgia, and
Georgia's rates are higher than
the nation's. A reporter asked
an economist to comment on
the situation.
Q: "Measured against past
down cycles, how does [the
present situation] compare?"
A: "The current situation is
not in the same universe as the
Great Depression, but it's as
bad as it's been."
Well, I realize that economists
are famous for obfuscation
(remember Alan Greenspan?),
but this takes the cake. To
say that the current payment
delinquency problem is not
in the same universe as the
Great Depression is saying it's
nowhere near that bad, isn't it?
But then to say it's as bad as
it's been says it is. The guy said
in effect: "It's not as bad as the
Great Depression but it's as
bad as the Great Depression." I
need a drink.
Humpty Dumpty, in
Please Turn To Page 5A
It’s Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
East Jackson
Kids Deserving
Of Coverage Too
Back during the summer, one of the
questions regarding the opening of
the new East Jackson Comprehensive
High School was how it would affect
Commerce High School, which is
about four miles away.
When all was said and done, the
new school seemed to have a negli
gible effect, if any, on CHS academic
or athletic programs or enrollment.
On the other hand, coverage of
EJCHS sports by this newspaper is
a sore point with some Commerce
Tiger fans.
They don't want to see EJCHS
sports coverage in the News at all, but
if they must, under no circumstance
should it reach parity with coverage
of CHS sports.
Here's what I've heard from
Commerce fans.
"There's more East Jackson sports
than Commerce sports."
"All I see is East Jackson stories."
"Why do you write more about
East Jackson than Commerce?"
"A lot of people are upset about the
East Jackson coverage."
"You should be boosting
Commerce kids."
None of this is a surprise. Ever since
JCCHS opened, staff at The Jackson
Herald have heard from Jefferson fans
that there is too much JCCHS cover
age and from Jackson County boost
ers that the newspaper favors JHS.
One parent sent a note with a
renewal notice complaining about
how much "more" coverage the
News provided of East Jackson than
Commerce sports. I went back and
measured space allocated to each
— there was substantially more
Commerce coverage. Another noti
fied me by e-mail that she was con
sidering not renewing her subscrip
tion because our coverage of the
sports involving her children did not
meet her approval. As if there was
some other newspaper providing any
coverage of those activities.
The irony is that the bulk of the
complaining is not about our cov
erage of CHS, but that coverage of
EJCHS is now part of the paper. Just
to be clear, The Commerce News is not
the house organ of the Commerce
School System.
Few newspapers provide the school
and school sports coverage readers
of MainStreet Newspapers publica
tions get. High schools in Gwinnett
County, for example, are lucky to get
a mention, let alone a picture, when
their tennis teams play, just because
of the number of schools in the
county. Don't even ask about pho
tos of kindergarten students visiting
the pumpkin patch. Likewise, it gets
more difficult for us to cover schools
every time a new one opens. We
only have so much space to allocate
— and it is dependent upon advertis
ing revenue.
Up to this point, providing space
for school news and photos has been
relatively easy because of ample
advertising during a robust economy.
That may not be the case if the
economy slows and space for school
news is limited, but we'll continue to
provide coverage of Commerce and
East Jackson schools to a degree not
matched by any other newspaper.
So, Tiger moms and dads, get used
to it. We love publishing photos and
news items about your kids, but
the kids of East Jackson are equally
deserving.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com.