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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. MAY 7. 2008
mion
Editorial Views
Water Providers Need
Flexibility During Drought
The Commerce, Jefferson and Bear Creek reservoirs
are full. Lake Allatoona is full and Lake Lanier has
partially recovered. Local water suppliers have peti
tioned the Environmental Protection Division to get
out of the 61-county level four drought restrictions.
Everyone has water to sell.
But state climatologist David Stooksbury, never
deviating from what he's been saying for six months,
warns that the drought is still severe, and the proof
that he's right is at every stream or river crossing in
Jackson County.
From the neighborhood creek to the stream through
the pasture to the two branches of the Oconee River,
stream flow is at record low levels for the end of the
rainy season. It's obvious to each of us as we drive
around the county that while our lakes may be full,
the streams that fill them are very weak. It takes very
little stretch of imagination to see a high probability
of a severe drought this summer, accompanied by
declining reservoirs.
At least we've got a year's worth of experience in
dealing with drought. Water conservation measures
will slow the decline of local reservoirs; we'll stretch
whatever water is available further than we would
have a year ago. Still, we can't be totally confident in
our water supply, even in Commerce, where last year
our reservoir helped Jackson County and Jefferson
through the worst of times.
Nor can we see evidence that the state government
has learned anything from the 2007 drought. The
EPD continues to be silent, emasculated by the gov
ernor's mandates and the General Assembly's med
dling. Local governments can't get clear definitions
of state rulings and policies and remain frustrated
that their EPD-approved drought contingency plans
— many of which are better than the state's plan —
are constantly rendered moot by declarations of the
EPD or the governor that treat all river basins as if
their problems are of equal severity.
Entering the dry months, local water providers
need the flexibility to respond to individual system
situations, but the state shows no sign of breaking
from its two-headed, often contradictory, autocratic
rule from Atlanta. The state climatologist warns that
summer is likely to be very dry. Local governments
appear to have a better grasp on the situation than
the governor and the EPD, who should abandon the
one-size-fits-all drought management practice and
trust the local governments and water suppliers who
best know their system needs and capabilities.
Strong Support For
County’s First War Victim
Thanks to all who turned out last week to line the
highways of Jackson County in support of the fam
ily of Sgt. Shaun Whitehead as his body was brought
back from Iraq. It was a moving display of respect
for one killed doing his duty.
Hopefully, there will be no more funerals for local
soldiers, but with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's
just a matter of time. A half a world away, most of
us experience the war only as a note in a newspaper
or a sound bite on TV. Our young soldiers risk life
and limb in America's name while we go about our
daily business scarcely inconvenienced, but Shaun
Whitehead's death reminds us that for the soldiers
and their loved ones, these wars are real, are impor
tant, and are sometimes devastating.
The war in Iraq is divisive, but we are united in
love and support for those who fight it. Sgt. Shaun
Whitehead brought us together, reminding us of the
risk every soldier takes for his or her country. We are
grateful for his service and humbled by his death.
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.
Life is much more enjoyable
since I outsourced all my
stress to some guy in China.
Language: The Greatest Gift
Straightening up the shelves
in the children's library
recently, I came across a little
book called "Fire Snake" that
I'd never seen before, although
it had been there for about 28
years. Fire snake! I was capti
vated by the vividness of the
phrase, and thought immedi
ately of another such phrase,
"wizard's breath," an English
translation of the Swahili word
for lightning bugs.
It was no surprise, then, to
open the book and find out
that "fire snake" also comes
from Africa: from the proph
ecy of a Kikuyu medicine man
named Mogo, who said that
God had shown him the future
in a dream, and it was not
good. "A famine will come to
this land," Mogo told his tribal
elders, "and afterward strange
people will appear. They will
come from the big water in the
east, and they will have skin
as white as the bellies of frogs
and will dress in colors of the
wings of butterflies.
"The strangers will carry
magic sticks that spout fire.
They will bring a great iron
snake with as many legs as a
centipede, and it too will spit
fire. The iron monster will
stretch a great distance," he
said, "from the big water in the
east to another big water in the
west."
The magic sticks, of course,
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
were guns. And the fire snake?
It was the trans-African railway
from Mombasa, Kenya, to Lake
Victoria, in Uganda. Mogo had
no way to understand what he
had seen in his dream, though.
Where he lived, there were no
roads, no carts or wagons, no
pack animals; if you wanted
to move something from one
place to another, you carried it
on your head. Still, he found
a way to bring this unknown
thing into language, which
was the beginning of knowing
it. Even better, he found the
perfect, resonant metaphor,
and it has come ringing down
through the decades for more
than a century and is with us
still.
Of all the heart-wrenching
things I have heard about the
Austrian children who were
imprisoned in a basement
from birth, the very worst is
the possibility that some of
them will never have language.
Language is our ticket to the
wide world, but we have to
get it punched before we hit
puberty. After that, the ability
to grasp the whole concept of
language leaves us, never to
return. Children thus deprived
are trapped in the narrow cor
ridor of a dog's world, with
about the same size vocabulary.
No wizard's breath for them.
They may hear the sound those
words make; they may even
learn to associate that sound
with the phenomenon of little
flashing lights in the dark.
But the metaphor, the lovely
notion that lightning bugs
are really the exhalations of
a Great Magician whose very
breath has the fire of creation
— this will be forever beyond
them.
Language itself is limited.
Annie Dillard says in "Living
by Fiction" that our eyes can
distinguish 20,000 differ
ent colors, but we only have
names for a few. "I cannot tell
you," she says, "because I do
not know, what my language
prevents my knowing." Still,
blessed with the tools of lan
guage, we resort to metaphor
and the world colors up: lime
green, barn red, ivory, sky
blue, cerise, chartreuse, magen
ta, and white as the bellies of
frogs.
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
Buildings Describe Our Heritage
Every community has a
personality that distinguishes
itself from all others. There are
many reasons for these differ
ences, some subtle and others
quite obvious. Downtown
buildings, for example, describe
a community's heritage, evo
lution, history and diversity.
Their age, materials, orienta
tion, architectural details and
occupancy reflect aesthetic val
ues, business development and
social characteristics of a com
munity throughout its growth.
May is "Historic Preservation
Month" and in an effort to
raise awareness of the built
environment in historic down
town Commerce, I invite you
to enjoy the following very
short and in no way thorough
history of our local architec
ture:
The community grew around
the crossroads of several wagon
routes that connected trad
ers in northern Georgia and
North Carolina with southern
markets in Athens and points
farther south. One major road,
the Athens-Clarkesville Road,
eventually became State and
Cherry streets.
Because of its rapid growth
as a major distribution center,
the town was never surveyed
and laid out; instead, the com
munity evolved around trade
routes and later, the railroad.
As a result, the layout appears
to be haphazard in its depar
ture from the traditional
grid plan that was so com
mon in Georgia towns. The
completion, in 1876, of the
Northeastern Railroad through
the town was a further influ
ence on development. An
extensive business district grew
up on both sides of the rail
road tracks that ran through
the middle of town.
By 1889 the town was
described as a "great trading
center" and many new one-
and-two-story brick buildings
were constructed. Between
the late 1890s and early 1900s,
businesses such as dry goods
stores, hardware stores, banks
and cotton warehouses were
opened. Also during this time,
the town's population doubled
from 611 to 1,454. After the
Northeastern Railroad line
became part of the Southern
Railway System, rail traffic
increased greatly and the city
fathers voted in 1904 to change
the name to Commerce.
Commerce's historic com
mercial area reflects its build
ing boom of the late 19th and
early 20th century. The major-
Please Turn To Page 5A
It’s Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Economic Plan:
We Spend Our
Way Out Of Debt
If Americans learn to live within
their incomes, will the economy
tank?
Just shy of a recession now, many
Americans are feeling the pinch of
reduced wages, higher prices and the
credit and mortgage crises. According
to a New York Times article on the
economy, during the last quarter
"Americans cut back on a wide
variety of discretionary purchases,"
conserving their cash for "necessary
spending" last quarter.
The story notes that as housing
prices fall, so does the ability of
homeowners to borrow against those
houses. Americans are reaching their
credit limits, "forcing many to live
within their incomes."
That used to be considered a vir
tue — like a balanced budget, but the
acceptable paradigm has become to
buy now and pay later personally,
while America pawns its future assets
to the Chinese and other debt hold
ers to stay afloat today.
The mortgage crisis, in part, came
about because too many people
bought houses they could not afford
or, through home equity loans, bor
rowed more against their houses than
they could repay. A credit crunch
looms because millions lived off
of their credit limits to maintain
lifestyles not supportable by their
income, and now it's time to pay the
piper.
We truly are a government of the
people, so it is no surprise that the
United States, even now, shows no
propensity to live within its means.
In fact, Congress approved President
Bush's "stimulus" plan, which, in
essence, borrows $150 billion from
the Chinese (and other debt holders)
to grease the skids of Americans who
were finally cutting their spending.
The checks are expected starting this
week.
So addicted to we to this spending
rationale that — to protect the econ
omy — Congress is bailing out some
of the financial institutions whose
greed and carelessness contributed to
the mortgage crisis.
The only difference between a
government that borrows money to
stimulate spending and a consumer
who uses a home equity loan to pay
off a VISA bill is the scale. American
personal spending is a mirror image
of its government's spending — or is
it the other way around?
When your tax rebate comes,
President Bush doesn't want you to
use it to pay down your credit cards.
He needs you to spend it on a plasma
TV, to put down on a new Suburban,
or at least to visit Disney World. He
wants a spending frenzy.
The late and colorful Commerce
councilman Billy Bolton once noted
two truths: "You can't spend your
self out of debt and you can't drink
yourself sober." Bolton, who had
tried both, founded the Alcoholics
Anonymous chapter in Commerce.
He understood the solution to both
is a fundamental change in lifestyle.
America is addicted to excessive
spending, both personally and as a
nation. Beating that addiction is criti
cal to our national well-being, and if
that means a recession, better to face
it now than to force it on our chil
dren and grandchildren.
If that means a recession, even a
depression, so be it. We can't spend
our way out of debt.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com.