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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 13. 2008
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Editorial Views
1-Size-Fits-All Approach
To Drought Doesn’t Work
Commerce is having a tough time managing its
water during the drought, but it's not so much
the water itself as the way the Environmental
Protection Division and the governor are micro-
managing the state's water systems.
Even at the worst (so far) part of a historic
drought, Commerce's water supply withstood
the test. There was sufficient water in its reservoir
to meet the needs of the city and to supplement
those of Jackson County, Jefferson, Maysville
and Banks County. Nonetheless, Commerce
was lumped among the 61 counties who were
declared to be at level four for water restrictions
and later ordered to trim sales by 10 percent
over last year. Basically, it was required to take
emergency measures for an emergency to which
it was not directly related. Prudence at the
time dictated caution, but circumstances since
have verified that the city's water system was
and is secure. They also suggest that handling
Commerce as though it were party to the harder
hit areas is not appropriate.
For the first two months, the city has been
unable to meet the 10 percent reduction required
by the governor, falling an insignificant 20,000
gallons per day short. There is no word yet as to
what, if any, penalty will be assessed, but that
possibility looms. Now, the governor may have
offered a reduction in the water restrictions, but
if the city is forced to meet the 10 percent cut,
it can't follow suit locally. What is the proper
response?
Commerce officials plan to petition the EPD
to have the 21-county Savannah River Basin
removed from the areas to which level four
restrictions have been imposed from on high.
Until that happens, the city must humor the
governor as if its basin and its water supply were
severely affected by the drought or suffer the
consequences.
Ironically, the governor signed the new water
management plan under which water manage
ment decisions would be made basin by basin.
In this drought, the governor, EPD and even
the General Assembly have succumbed to the
temptation to manage the crisis from Atlanta
with very little input from the water suppliers
who have to deal with the problems. It may be
safe to assume that in the next drought those
groups will again be quick to adopt a one-size-
fits-all response to the drought once the shores
of lakes Allatoona and Lanier begin to recede.
Local governments realize that there are times
when the state must step in and act decisively.
The governor, General Assembly and EPD should
recognize that one size seldom fits all and be
prepared to make adjustments when that is the
case. While it makes sense for the city to imple
ment water-saving policies as a general principle,
it is counterproductive to make Commerce
implement emergency measures where there is
no emergency — just because there really is an
emergency in nearby jurisdictions.
Central to the problem is the attitude in
Atlanta that the state government knows what's
best for everyone. While giving lip service to
"smaller government" and "local control," the
power of the state offers too tempting a tool
to politicians and bureaucrats who seek simple
solutions where there are none. The drought is
widespread, to be sure, but it is worse in some
places than others, and the arbitrary declaration
that North Georgia requires its own set of rules
and regulations to cope is an overly simplistic
view of the drought and has damaging conse
quences.
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.
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POSTMASTER send address changes to THE COMMERCE
NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA 30549.
Honest, Frank, there are NO monsters in your
closet. It’s just noise from the next room where Mommy and
I are watching the latest presidential debate..
Going Down The Up Escalator
When I lived in Charleston,
back in a previous lifetime,
I was fascinated to notice
that each of the prominent
homes had a cast-iron symbol
attached to its foundation and
clearly visible — but the sym
bols weren't all alike. I was
even more fascinated to learn
that each symbol represented a
fire company.
Back in Charleston's early
days, if your house caught on
fire, you didn't call the Fire
Department. There wasn't one.
You sent word to your fire
company, to which you had
been making monthly or year
ly payments. And if you hadn't
been with them long enough,
you paid the difference to
cover their costs in putting out
your fire, plus something for
their general overhead.
Of course, none of the fire
companies could manage to be
really well equipped, because
none of them had enough
money coming in to stay up
with the latest developments
in early 19th-century firefight
ing equipment. So fire was
a real source of terror in old
Charleston.
Now, in "modern-day
America," illness is a source of
abject fear, because it can strike
in an instant, its costs can
mount rapidly, and insurance
companies into which you
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
have been paying for years can
— unlike the old Charleston
fire companies — decide to
drop you from their rolls. You
may be too ill to work, but you
are not too ill to be foreclosed
upon, bankrupted, and even
forced out onto the street. If
you can find me another indus
trialized nation that does this
to its citizens, I will buy your
lunch at Longhorn's.
What's so crazy about all this
is that it's unnecessary. All we
have to do is pool our resourc
es. That's how we put out fires.
It's how we maintain librar
ies, build roads, get water and
battle crime. In fact, it's how
we do lots of things. So why do
we not take care of our health
this way?
I hear people say that they
don't want the government
making decisions about their
health care. Evidently they're
happier when an insur
ance company makes them.
Whereas in Britain, for exam
ple, you choose your own doc
tor and he or she works with
you to make the decisions that
are best for your health. British
doctors feel sorry for their
American colleagues, who have
to tell patients things like, "I'm
sorry, but your insurance won't
cover the MRI you need."
The British GDP (gross
domestic product) is poised
to overtake Germany's as
Britain becomes the strongest
economy in Europe. Could this
be at least partly because the
British have money to spend?
Here in modern America,
where we pay twice as much as
they do for health care, we're
so strapped that the govern
ment has to send us money in
the mail just to pump up the
economy. I think they're about
to vote to send me $600. Am
I the only one who thinks this
sounds a bit peculiar? And I'm
not supposed to use it to pay
off that hospital bill I put on
MasterCard. I'm supposed to
run out and buy stuff.
Who knows? I may have to
spend it all at Longhorn's,
buying y'all lunch! But hey,
it would be quite a party,
wouldn't it? And so good for
the country, too.
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
A Candy Bar And A Legacy
Buttery, sweet and musky, the
taste of good chocolate is at
once soothing and exciting. It
is earthy and refined, substan
tial and fleeting.
But the experience of choco
late is not just about taste. It
is also about feel. First there's
the soft snap as it yields to the
teeth. Then the solid pieces dis
solve into satisfying syrup. The
thick liquid clings gently to the
tongue, melting over the taste
buds to deliver intense and
then fading shades of flavor.
Few sensual experiences can
compare with eating chocolate.
Yes, Saint Valentine's hysteri
cal joke on all men and their
wallets is tomorrow. Personally,
I believe it is more honored
in the breach than the obser
vance, and there are a number
of reasons for this. Firstly, if
there's a day in the calendar
when I'm supposed to tell my
wife that I love her, surely my
words mean less, not more, on
that day than any other. Real
sentiments are unprompted,
and more meaningful for
being unexpected. Research
shows many gifts are moti
vated by a confused mixture of
obligation and self-interest.
I resent the commodification
of affection that Valentine's
Day represents, the expectation
of spending large amounts of
money to prove your love. It's
not only unnecessary to buy
my wife a teddy bear clutch
ing a heart to prove my affec
tion; it would also trivialize
my feelings. If my feelings are
genuine, no amount of roses
and cards will make them more
real than they already are. And
if they're not real, no amount
of chocolate will disguise it.
Ironically, consumerism has
turned a day that's meant to
celebrate love into a day that
has cheapened love. So be hon
est, and say what you feel in
words, not in scarlet plush.
Now that I've gotten that off
my chest, I have to call Gift
Works at the Joy Shoppe and
make certain that the present I
ordered last week will be ready
for pick up tomorrow after
noon.
Anyway, the real reason I
began writing about chocolate
is because my grandmother
recently gave me a book by
Pulitzer prize-winning author,
Michael D'Antonio, entitled
"Hershey." It is a story not just
about chocolate, but a young
man growing of age during
the rapid expansion of the
American industrial complex.
Milton Hershey's experi
ences as the son of a well-to-
do and devoutly conservative
Mennonite mother and a
wildly irresponsible father pro
vide an exciting and absorbing
account of one of America's
Please Turn To Page 5A
It’s Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Fine Dining: A
Bowl Of Eels,
Or Fried Rats?
The waiter brought my entree, a
bowl of what appeared to be some
thing the contestants of "Survivor"
might be required to eat. At least it
was cooked.
We were at a Chinese restaurant
in New York City's Chinatown that
Steven had recommended. I chose
sauteed eel, though what possessed
me is unknown. The Chinese will
cook, eat and sell any creature they
can catch, but I figured an eel is just
another fish, so what the hey.
What I got was a bowl of maybe
30 3-inch whole eels. Someone else
ordered sauteed squid, but the rest
of the main dishes were from food
groups I recognized.
I'd could say I enjoyed the eels,
but I'd be lying. Still, when in Rome,
do as the Romans, and Chinatown
is as close to China as I'll ever get.
Let's just say, I was looking for a new
experience. The others ate their share,
but when the meal was over, not all
of the eels had been consumed.
The other Chinatown experience
was a tour of a small park so Steven
could demonstrate the huge rat prob
lem in the area. He'd written a story
for a reporting class at Columbia
University on the infestation of
rats, which is citywide, but in three
days in New York I'd seen none.
Sure enough, the park was riddled
with rat burrows and as we walked,
we saw eight or 10 scurrying about.
(Two weeks after we left, The Wall
Street Journal published a story about
the growth of rat as a food among
Asians. Rat: the other other white
meat.)
Barbara and I joined my sister,
Laurel, and her husband, Larry, who
grew up in New York, for the trip —
which also allowed us to see Steven.
Larry provided guide service and
local history. We hit the usual tour
ist spots, took in a Broadway show
("Mama Mia" — third row, no less.
Impressed?) and walked endlessly
in weather that never got above 36
degrees.
The good thing about a big city
is that you can eat what you want
because you walk it all off. The first
thing you notice on a crowded street
is that there are no obese people.
OK, that's the second thing; the first
is that everybody's dressed in black,
like a tribute to Johnny Cash. To
wear a dark blue jacket — as I did — is
to mark yourself as a tourist and a
potential easy touch for street ven
dors selling everything from pirated
DVDs to scarves.
Everywhere you went you saw
scores of 20-something and 30-some-
thing professionals drinking, dining
and shopping, drawn by the jobs,
social opportunities and the excite
ment of being at the financial and
business center of the world. Today
immigrants don't come through
Ellis Island. They arrive via the Rio
Grande, occupy the lower rungs of
the workforce, serving meals to afflu
ent young Americans and working
toward the American Dream.
New York City is a fascinating melt
ing pot of class and culture. As the
cliche goes, it's a nice place to visit,
but I wouldn't want to live there.
On the other hand, I wouldn't mind
going back for another visit. There
must be 100,000 restaurants I didn't
get to try. I'll pass on the eels, but
maybe I'll be ready to sample fried
rat. Then again, maybe not.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com.