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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. APRIL 9. 2008
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Editorial Views
School Board Must
Answer Citizen Concerns
The Commerce Board of Education would be wise
to pay heed to growing concern over its plans to
begin building a new high school beginning this
summer and do everything it can to listen to and
respond to those concerns.
While the initial issue drawing attention was the
problem of how to handle the demolition of the old
gym and the construction of the new gym, parents,
alumni and others are bringing up other valid points
they'd like to see addressed before it is too late.
The root of the problem is the lack of public
involvement in the design of the facility. Aside from
asking a select group of citizens what they'd like to
see in a school, the Commerce Board of Education
has steadfastly kept the public from being involved.
It has not discussed design at any public meetings —
except in Savannah, where the public could hardly
be expected to attend — and when it finally unveiled
its plan, the representative of the architectural firm
seemed ill prepared to handle questions.
The current indications are that the board of edu
cation considers the plans final — with the possible
exception of building a second gymnasium on the
back of the campus to alleviate the gym concern. That
may mollify a few people whose only concern is the
gymnasium, but if the school board wants to avoid a
public relations fiasco — and risk losing community
support — it should both listen to and respond to the
other questions and concerns being expressed.
It is true that the high school is already behind
the schedule envisioned when the decision was first
made to build a new CHS, but there is no deadline
by which it must be completed. Construction costs,
which have already pushed the estimated cost of the
facility up 33 percent, will likely continue to rise,
but it would be far wiser to have to spend more for a
school to get it done the way the community wants it
done than to rush forward and build something that
has no support.
Some of the issues being raised by local residents
may already have been considered by the school
board. If so, all the board needs to do is explain its
reasoning. If compromises had to be made because
of financial limitations, perhaps the community is
willing to spend more money than is currently avail
able. Paramount in thinking should be that the new
Commerce High School will be the most important
building in Commerce. It is not only the lead school
in the community, but it is also the major commu
nity center and sports venue. It will house the most
important educational effort being made in this
community, will to many dictate how Commerce is
viewed locally and will signal to newcomers the com
mitment the city has to children and to education. It
must be done right; it must have the support of the
community.
The group raising these issues will hold a public
meeting Sunday at 3:00 in the Family Life Center of
the First Baptist Church of Commerce. The Commerce
Board of Education should be there to not just listen,
but to consider what is said, and to understand just
how important the new school is to the city.
What is important is not where the gym is located
or when it is built, but whether when all is said and
done Commerce gets the best possible new high
school it can get. The citizens will pay for the school
and will send their children and grandchildren there
to be educated. They have a right to be involved,
to ask questions and to expect polite and reasoned
responses.
The board of education can't build a new high
school without public support, and it won't have that
support without listening to and communicating
with the citizens and taxpayers. The board can either
start that process Sunday or it can ignore the public
and totally lose its confidence.
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,
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counted $2 for senior citizens.
POSTMASTER send address changes to THE COMMERCE
NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA, 30549.
Several of the articles in this
week's police report make a strong
case for reverse evolution.
Lost In Translation, Perhaps?
One of the many delights
of my recent visit to San
Francisco was the chance to
visit with a friend, Jonathan
Schwartz, who runs the Jewish
Community Library there. We
library types are inveterate
prowlers, peerers, and peek-
ers into other libraries, and I
wanted to see all I could of
Jonathan's, with its glassed-in
offices and exhibits from other
countries.
When we got to the meeting
area, I asked what the Hebrew
letters over the podium said,
and Jonathan gave me the liter
al translation: "Educate a child
in accordance with his pro
clivities, and when he grows up
this will sustain him." I stood
there with my head cocked for
a second, hearing an echo, and
he added, "It's from Proverbs."
"Isn't it the verse I know as
'Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old
he will not depart from it?'" I
asked, and Jonathan said yes,
and then added something
about the translation I knew
being less specific, and about
Hebrew, as a language, allow
ing for multiple meanings, and
then we went on to something
else. But I've pondered it ever
since. Educating children in
the direction of their natural
talents and interests seems fun
damentally different to me —
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
less rigid, less moralistic — than
training them in the way they
should go. It makes me wonder
what else I've missed in my
Bible reading.
In a similar vein, I was
intrigued to discover that the
Reverend Jeremiah Wright's
allegedly inflammatory ser
mons were not available in
transcript anywhere on the
Internet. I found hundreds of
transcripts of Barack Obama's
now-famous speech in
response to those sermons — or
rather, the teensy and terrifying
fragments of them that were
broadcast on every radio and
TV channel in the country —
but I wanted to hear the entire
sermons. The best I could do,
finally, was listen to longer
fragments of them on a web
site called AlterNet.
The mini-fragments we were
bombarded with ad nauseam
came from two separate ser
mons given in 2001 and 2003.
Both, it's true, were critical
of our government, and were
offered as wake-up calls — as
pleas to Christians, particu
larly, to consider carefully (1)
their own individual relation
ship to God, and (2) how
they feel, in the light of that
relationship, about what their
nation is doing, both at home
and abroad.
The sermon about America's
chickens coming home to
roost was inspired in part by
Ambassador Edward Peck, who
served as deputy director of
the White House Task Force
on Terrorism in the Reagan
Administration and as chief of
mission in Baghdad (Iraq) dur
ing the Carter Administration.
Peck was outspoken in oppos
ing our invasion of Iraq after
9/11, and on Fox News in July
2006 he pointed out (not
for the first time) that the
American definition of terror
ism implicates America itself.
It was important to me to
know these things, and not
let myself be bludgeoned by
sound bytes. We Americans
have important decisions to
make. How can we know what
we think if we can't hear what
people are really saying?
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
What Would MLK Think Now?
Birthdays come and go, and
after the cards and presents
arrive, your friends call, your
family goes out to dinner and
you blow out the candles,
you're left falling asleep nearly
identical to the person you saw
in the mirror that morning
when you woke. My birthday
is slightly different — an annu
al reminder of the crippling
legacy of bigotry and injustice
that left Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. dead on the balcony of the
Lorraine Motel in Memphis,
TN.
It is rumored that Dr. King
and his colleagues had just
finished a cheerful pillow fight
and a light-hearted discussion
concerning gospel music, neck
ties and soul food before leav
ing Room 306 the afternoon
of April 4, 1968. We've all
seen the photos of Dr. King's
confidants pointing from that
balcony towards the assassin,
we've all heard the "I Have a
Dream" speech, and we've all
seen footage of the bus boy
cotts, the hostile fire hoses and
the aggressive police dogs.
This year marks the 40th
anniversary of Dr. King's assas
sination. Dr. King has now
been dead longer than he lived
— he was 39 on that tragic day.
What would an older, time-
tempered Dr. King think if he
had lived to see today's world,
with its black mayors and gov
ernors, black CEOs and Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton
running for president of the
United States of America?
I would like to think that Dr.
King would be delighted with
the progress of our country,
but something inside of me
remains concerned that Dr.
King would still find a lot of
work undone. At the time of
his death, Dr. King was work
ing on several issues that are
eerily similar to those we are
facing today — poverty and
war. No, you're not going to
hear me rant about my ideas
for a better way to repair our
position at home and abroad.
The more I study Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., the more I
marvel at his academic prow
ess and unwillingness to stray
from his principal beliefs.
Dr. King's "Letter From a
Birmingham Jail" was written
in the margins of old news
papers he found while sitting
in solitary confinement. It is
also important to note that he
did not have a single reference
book when he accurately and
eloquently quoted the Bible,
Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.
A few years later, Dr. King
moved to Chicago to combat
urban poverty, but faced a
growing unrest in factions of
his movement who were now
calling for a more violent style
of protest. Dr. King, instead of
cowering to the current trends
of that time, remained married
Please Turn To Page 5A
It's Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Don’t Laugh:
It Could
Happen Here
December 2008:
The Commerce Police Department
announced the arrests of nine kin
dergarten students they say planned
a dangerous classroom mutiny at
Commerce Elementary School.
The children, most of whom are 5,
have posted bond and released. They
are required to wear ankle bracelets
so their whereabouts can be tracked.
"We are treating this very seriously,"
said Police Chief John Gaissert. "We
don't know their full intentions, but
someone definitely could have been
hurt."
Officers confiscated two pairs of
children's scissors that, police said,
could have been turned into weapons
if the blades had been metal instead
of plastic and filed to a point; a water
pistol, that could have been used in
deadly fashion if loaded with acid
instead of Kool-Aid; eight string guns
that looked like real toy guns; a bag
of miniature Tootsie Rolls, and a
walkman.
Gaissert said the mutineers planned
to use the candy to make an edible
jail as part of the unit on rebellion.
Classmates say the suspects, six boys
and three girls, were upset because,
unlike the other five kindergarten
classes, theirs did not make snacks as
part of their Christmas study unit.
"All the other kids got to make
and eat a Christmas tree made of a
sugar cone, cake icing and M&Ms,"
noted Sara Andrews, a petite blonde.
"It isn't fair." Ms. Andrews was not
among the suspects, but police say
there could be other arrests.
Details remain sketchy, but the
Georgia Department of Homeland
Security, which assisted the
Commerce Police Department,
the GBI, Jackson County Sheriff's
Department and the Nicholson mar
shal in the raid, presented the follow
ing scenario:
Instead of going down for a nap
after lunch, the students intended to
surprise their teacher, swarming her
en masse as if to hug her. The plan
was to immobilize her in a chair with
the string guns like Gulliver among
Liliputans, put the walkman on her
head and force her to listen to "Enya
Celebrates Christmas" at high volume
until school was out.
Among the evidence gathered at
the scene was a list of co-conspirators
and the tasks they were to accom
plish, including tying the teacher up
with string, distributing the teacher's
hoard of hard candy treats, forging
students' names on bathroom passes,
leading a classroom discussion on
the inadequacies of sight words as a
teaching tool, and teaching non-Eng
lish speaking students to say "I want
my mommy."
The plot was uncovered when one
of the conspirators smiled and told
the school nurse: "We're going to tor
ture our teacher," when she asked the
child what she wanted for Christmas.
District Attorney Rick Bridgeman
said he will ask the court to try the
gang as adults. Principal Kim Savage
wants them tried as babies.
As police removed the offenders in
handcuffs, the administration issued
free ice cream to keep the rest of the
student body calm.
"We were lucky," said a shaken
Superintendent James E. "Mac"
McCoy. "It's a different world out
there than when we went to school."
Indeed.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com.