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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. MARCH 26. 2008
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Editorial Views
Let's Keep Perspective
As New CHS Is Built
Already complaints are surfacing about the design
of the new Commerce High School — not about the
design of the finished product so much as the fact that
the school will be without a gym for one to two years.
The school board calls that a trade-off for saving
$1.5 to $2 million on the cost of the new school.
Some parents and others who attended Monday
night's unveiling wondered if that's the best the
school board and its architects could do.
Such issues were bound to arise once the decision
was made to build the new school on the same foot
print as the old. It is inconceivable that such a project
could take place without a major disruption. But let's
try to keep things in perspective. The disruption is
for a limited time and we'll have a new high school,
the need for which is not disputed, and it will be
right where it's always been.
Certainly, parents have the right to expect — and
school officials the obligation to deliver — the best
possible environment under those difficult circum
stances. Can the contractor be encouraged to move
more quickly on the gym without sacrificing time
on the rest of the school? What arrangements can
be made to salvage the basketball seasons for kids
and fans? The school board and its architect and
contractors must become creative in finding ways to
minimize the disruption. The community wants a
quality new school, but it does not wish to sacrifice
the high school experience for its kids as the con
struction takes place.
It might have been helpful to have had more com
munity involvement in the planning of what will be
the most important building in Commerce. Perhaps
the plan is the best under the circumstances, but the
community buy-in would have been greater had
the public been consulted before the design was
finalized. Nonetheless, citizens should also respect
the challenges facing the board of education in
designing a high school to meet all of the needs and
desires of the community on a limited budget. The
consensus seems to be that the building is acceptable
in both design and function, even if sacrificing the
gymnasium for a year or two is a subject of debate.
Let's not get totally distracted by the gym. Surely
officials and parents can work around those issues to
build the school all Commerce wants.
Where’s The Concern
For The Public’s Privacy?
It is interesting that senators from both of
the political parties have urged the Justice
Department to investigate the unauthorized
searches of passport files of presidential candi
dates Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and
Barack Obama.
Their passport files were apparently compromised
by contract workers for the State Department, creat
ing a mini-furor in Washington, DC.
Not that the investigation shouldn't take place.
The breach of privacy is a serious matter, given the
underhanded nature of politics these days.
It's just too bad that both parties can't also agree to
investigate President Bush for the unauthorized wire
taps of American citizens who are neither presiden
tial candidates nor U.S. senators.
No administration has worked as hard as this one
to erode not just the privacy of the American public,
but also its Constitutional rights. Apparently, U.S.
senators of both parties can agree that the privacy
of U.S. Senators should be respected; they just don't
hold the public's right of privacy in the same regard.
What's good for the goose, apparently, is not good
for the gander — at least in the Senate.
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.
:elling you, Frank, the price
of gas is giving me gas!
Who’s Afraid Of Uncle Sam?
Michael Moore's most recent
film was a revelation to me.
Unquestionably the best of his
three films — or so I thought —
it managed to strike a balance
between fervor, self-deprecat
ing irony, and plain old humor,
and this balance kept the
movie from veering off into a
lecture.
But I'm not sure how many
people saw it. Burdened as it
was with the unfortunate title
"Sicko," I think it was widely
avoided. I know the title would
have kept me out of the the
ater, since it sounds like a film
about sexual perversion or
homicidal mania — and heaven
knows, there are enough of
those out there already. My
movie-going buddy and I had
to stay home last weekend,
because we're a bit too old
for spring-break beach mov
ies and neither of us cared to
see "Shutter" or "Ripper" or
"Eyes" (don't ask) or "Jumper."
But I knew that "Sicko" was
about health care in America
and how it compares with
health care in other countries,
and I've been passionately
interested in that issue ever
since I lived for a year in a
country that had universal
health care. In fact, one of
my vivid memories about that
year was the bewilderment I
felt when it ended and I came
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
home and had to re-enter the
maze of primary and secondary
insurance carriers, pre-existing
conditions, co-payments, non-
allowed procedures — a maze
strewn with paperwork in
quadruplicate. When you're
young, and I was, you adapt
quickly. You just jump in and
swim. But I had a moment
of clarity at the water's edge,
so to speak, when I thought,
"Wow. We've been gypped, we
Americans! And here I always
thought we were so smart."
The forty-plus years since
then have done nothing to
change my mind, but a lot
to confirm and expand that
moment of clarity. Health
care isn't the only boat we've
missed. The efforts of lobby
ists from the auto, rubber, oil,
steel, and airline industries
persuaded us to abandon or
even tear up our nationwide
network of rail lines — at what
cost to us, in terms of air qual
ity, health, and energy efficien
cy? Now rumor has it that the
telecommunications industry
would like to gain control of
the Internet, so that they can
charge you for each visit as
they now charge you for each
phone call. Remember free TV?
Remember when cable televi
sion was going to be commer
cial-free because you would
already have paid to watch it?
What do you pay now to watch
all those commercials?
In "Sicko," Michael Moore
sits at one point with a group
of young Americans living in
France, and listens to them
extol the benefits of the health
care and social services. "Why,"
he asks, "can't we have some
thing like this in America?" A
Frenchwoman later answers his
question this way: "Because in
France the government is afraid
of the people, but in America
the people are afraid of the
government."
I've been thinking about that
ever since. It has the ring of
truth, somehow. I'm not sure
I'm afraid of Uncle Sam, but
I'm pretty sure he's not afraid
of me. I always thought he was
really all of us, but I'm not
sure about that, either.
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
The Musings Of An Insomniac
Insomnia can allow one's
mind to wander in strange
directions. During a recent
sleepless night, I began to
think about all the cellars or
basements I had visited in my
lifetime. No doubt this came
to mind because for days I had
been doing rather large hills
of laundry for my temporarily
bedridden daughter and her
active family in their vintage
cottage basement, or cellar if
you prefer (Read: Vintage cot
tage built over a dirt floor and
walls; basement with plumbing
and washer added much later,
but keeping the dirt floor and
walls). It was like being in a
time warp — modern machin
ery in an ancient dungeon. My
mind raced on.
The first cellar I remembered
was the one under the house
I lived in with my parents,
grandparents, great-grand
mother and assorted aunts and
uncles (It was a big house). In
that dirt cellar my father had
built a crystal radio in the early
1920s. Neighbors and friends,
I was told, came from all over
Views
Rotation
BY CLAIRE GAUS
town to go to the cellar to lis
ten to his radio. Later, during
Prohibition, my grandfather
brewed his own beer in that
cellar, which attracted more
friends and relatives. By the
time I was born, Prohibition
had been repealed, but my
grandfather's beer making had
become legendary, and every
visitor was offered a glass of
beer. Even my 4-year-old self
got a shot glass full of the
home brew.
In the garden of the well-pop
ulated house was a grape arbor
which produced grapes in such
profusion, grapes were given to
anyone who could make jelly,
jam, wine or juice. My other
grandmother who lived in a
nearby town was a wonderful
bottler of homemade grape
juice. Every year she would get
baskets of grapes, and labor
to get the fruit juice ready to
bottle and store in her spacious
dirt cellar.
Visits to Grandma were often
exciting because of the fre
quent explosive noises which
came from the cellar. The last
year's juices would have fer
mented, and the bottles were
literally blowing their tops and
juices all over the dirt floors
and walls. A peek from the
top of the stairs was all I was
allowed. To go deeper down
was to take your life in your
hands. Not even the adults ven
tured down until all the mis
siles stopped flying.
As the Depression eased,
my parents moved out to the
country to live in a house
built before the American
Revolution. Now there was a
cellar! It was rather large, as
Please Turn To Page 5A
It’s Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Good Things
Happening At
Commerce High
Few newspapers devote a higher
percentage of their space to schools
than does The Commerce News — and
all of the other MainStreet News pub
lications. We're a community news
paper, and schools remain the most
important institution in the commu
nity, so, go figure.
There are a couple of items related
to Commerce High School that
should excite the CHS base.
The first is the new high school.
Getting it built will be interesting,
since it's on the same plot of ground
as the existing school, and chal
lenging what with the gym out of
commission for a year or two, but
Commerce desperately needs a new
high school. Hopefully, ways will be
found to mitigate the gym situation.
We like to say that bricks and
mortar do not make a school, but at
the same time, having modern and
attractive facilities and state-of-the-
art equipment does convey the idea
that the community prides itself on
the education of its children. East
Jackson Comprehensive High School,
which opened last fall just four miles
away, rightfully became an instant
source of pride for students and
teachers for just that reason.
Face it. CHS looks shabby, not
just in comparison, but no matter
how you look at it. Our students
and teachers deserve better, and we,
as taxpayers, decided to give them
something better. Monday, we got
our first glimpse at the new facility
that will be the city's flagship school,
and if it comes in as the architect
designed it, we'll have done the
teachers and kids justice.
But elsewhere comes the news that
CHS is adding two new advance
placement (AP) courses to be offered
next fall. That AP U.S. History and
AP Studio Art are being offered
is not huge of itself, but since
Superintendent Mac McCoy has been
on the job, the number of AP offer
ings has gone from two, both in lan
guage arts, to seven — at least one in
every core area.
That's five new courses aimed at
motivated college-bound students
added in basically two school years,
five rigorous courses designed to
challenge the best students. With
the new high school and the Bill
Anderson Center for the Performing
Arts, we can also expect new music
and drama offerings to be added to
the curriculum.
New and better courses; greatly
improved facilities: That's good news
and more good news. Neither is emi
nently as entertaining as the "Let's
All Kill Coach Canup" fan club that
made the police report a few weeks
ago, but the new course offerings and
new facilities will benefit thousands
of our kids over the years, and to
me they hold out the promise that
CHS is in resurgence academically.
Time will tell, but good things are
definitely happening at the school,
and what's good for CHS is good for
Commerce.
By the way, with junior Cat Ball
chosen to attend the Governor's
Honors Program this summer, CHS
will have sent kids to Valdosta for
the summer enrichment two years
in a row. Win Blair was last year's
honoree, and before that I can't
remember the last CHS student
who was selected and actually chose
to go.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com.