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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. TULY 30. 2008
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Editorial Views
Sikes’ Tactics Prove She’s
Not Worthy To Be DA
Voters who had not made up their minds about
whether to vote for Donna Sikes or Brad Smith for
district attorney should have gotten a little help in
last week's mail.
It was a flyer sent by Sikes to voters in Jackson,
Barrow and Banks counties claiming that Smith
is somehow responsible for the fact that a former
Barrow County man raped and killed a little girl in
Panama City, FL.
The connection is groundless and the attempted
character assassination should make voters angry
Anyone utilizing such unethical tactics deserves the
rejection of voters, particularly in an office where
a previous district attorney proved to have serious
ethical shortcomings.
Sikes has run a negative campaign from the begin
ning. She's tried to convince voters that Smith and
fellow candidate Rick Bridgeman were part of the
Tim Madison corruption. Now she uses Smith's
signature on a court accusation form to link him in
voters' minds to a case in which he had no part. In
fact, the case she cited had nothing to do with child
abuse.
Her tactics should cast grave doubts upon her char
acter and her judgment at a time when the Piedmont
Judicial Circuit needs someone with strong ethics
and a high moral character. In addition to having
zero experience as a prosecutor, Sikes would bring to
the district attorney's office a track record of char
acter assassination and strong evidence that she'll
distort with the facts to get her way. That may work
well in her legal practice, but those are not attributes
that should be accepted in a district attorney.
Vote Bicknell Again For
Chair Of Jackson BOC
Over the next four years, Jackson County will face
innumerable challenges as its government struggles
to cope with growth, debt, taxes and infrastructure,
as it tries to stretch limited revenue over needs that
sometimes appear to be unlimited. It will not be a
time of simple solutions.
The most important decision voters will make
next Tuesday is who will preside over the county
board of commissioners as these matters are dis
cussed and ultimately decided. Whoever is elected
must be prone to building relationships and work
ing toward a consensus not just among the county
commissioners, but also among the various interests
in government, from the school systems to the fire
departments, from the municipalities to the various
authorities. The next commission chairman must
be someone patient enough to work with people of
widely differing interests, perspectives and positions
to find solutions that are best for the government
and the governed.
As chairman of the county water and sewerage
authority, Bicknell has done that. He's worked closely
with the board of commissioners and with the munic
ipalities to create excellent working relationships. He's
a consensus builder capable of bringing people and
organizations together for a common cause.
Jackson County has nine municipalities, three
school systems, multiple law enforcement agen
cies, fire departments and authorities. It is the 10th
fastest growing county in America, and the chal
lenges are enormous. The chairman of the Board of
Commissioners cannot solve all of those problems,
but he must be someone who can bring together the
people, institutions and resources needed to address
them. Bicknell won't have all the answers, but he'll
work to be sure all points of view are heard.
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.
George is busy getting ready for football season
He’s drinking more and exercising less.
Let’s All Take A Money Bath
As I tiptoe toward my 65th
birthday, I'm getting an awful
lot of mail about the vital deci
sions I'll have to make, sooner
or later — some of them sooner
— regarding Medicare. "There
are so many choices!" the bro
chures exclaim. "How will you
compare plans?" And, more
ominously, "What should you
be doing now?" Do I know?
Honestly, it's almost enough to
interfere with my sleep.
"Your time to enroll is quick
ly approaching!" trumpets
one mailing, in bold capital
letters. "Call me about mak
ing this important decision in
your health care coverage." It
is signed by some dude named
Steve who works for an insur
ance company, doesn't know
me from Eve, and wants, not
my good health, not my com
fort and security, but, ah yes,
my money.
Well, corporations are sup
posed to want my money. It is
the government's job — isn't
it? — to be concerned, to some
extent, about my welfare. In
fact, you could argue that this
is the government's only job:
to attend to the welfare of its
citizens; to work toward the
common good. You could also
argue that we citizens are the
government.
So why are we doing such a
lousy job? Why don't we have
high-speed rail service between
our major cities? Why is our
health care the most expen
sive and least effective of any
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
developed nation? (And some
not-so-developed nations.)
Why are our oil companies
sitting on 68 million acres
of untapped oil fields and
demanding the right to drill
in our national parks and to
destroy our beaches as well?
Why, on top of everything
else, are our banks now col
lapsing?
Most puzzling of all, why do
we seem not to care? Or as
economic editor and analyst
James Grant asks in an extraor
dinary piece on the front page
of the Wall Street Journal's
weekend section, "Why no
outrage?" Grant goes on to say
that unlike citizens of earlier
eras, "America's 21st-century
financial victims make no pro
test," even though the Federal
Reserve is about to start "show
ering dollars on the people
who would seem to need them
least." He wonders why Barack
Obama and John McCain have
also been strangely silent on
the subject of our current
financial crisis. Is the whole
thing so complicated that they
think we won't understand
it? Do they not understand it
themselves? Are they afraid
there'll be hell to pay when we
figure out that we — not those
glamorous financiers currently
preparing for their money
shower, but you and I — will be
footing the bill once again for
Wall Street's "recurrent chain
of blunders" and its "reckless
love affair with heavy borrow
ing."
I can only guess, based on
my own experience, that we
ordinary Americans are silent
because we are so totally and
completely flamboozled by all
of the greed, corruption and
mendacity that has gone on,
and the massive amount of
disaster it has wrought, that we
hardly know where to begin.
I personally think we should
start by making lobbying ille
gal, and paying our senators
and representatives enough
so that they can maintain two
comfortable residences (one
in Washington and one in the
place they were elected from),
which is what we expect them
to do. Thus relieved of their
financial burdens, perhaps
they could focus on ours for a
change. Somebody had better;
I myself am going to have to
focus on this Medicare thing.
Did you know it had four
parts? Now where did that slide
rule get to?
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library.
‘Last Lecture’ An Inspiration
How does an individual han
dle the news of a way-too-early
and unwanted death?
What does he or she do to let
their children know that they
love them unconditionally and
worked as hard as possible to
make a difference in the world
they're living in?
How do you convey the
amount of love and respect
you have for your spouse while
your time with them continues
to diminish?
How do you thank all of the
mentors, coaches, teachers and
colleagues that have helped
you along your way?
How do find the strength to
do all of this while fighting a
terminal case of cancer?
Randy Pausch's "Last
Lecture," a truly inspirational
story of a highly accomplished
academician, husband and
father who faces the reality that
he only has a short time left
on this earth, takes the reader
on an amazing ride from child
hood dreamlands to the pin
nacle of personal and profes
sional life.
As the story begins, Pausch, a
tenured professor at Carnegie
Mellon University, is given
the very grim news that he
has pancreatic cancer and, in
all likelihood, will live less
than one year from the day he
received his diagnosis. A ter
rible stomach ache and overall
loss of energy brought him
to the hospital for what he
thought was jaundice or worse
yet, possibly hepatitis.
What he and his wife Jai (pro
nounced "Jay") didn't know
then was that Pausch's pancreas
was covered with tumors. Most
people, faced with tumors of
this size and frequency, would
be scared into seclusion and
depression. Not Randy Pausch.
His life continued. Actually,
continued is an understate
ment; prospered would be a
greater description of Pausch's
life after the grim diagnosis.
What began as an Internet
phenomenon has now grown
into the most inspirational
story of the year, supported
by a best-selling book and an
ABC News interview (re-airing
sometime this week). If this is
the first time you've heard of
Randy Pausch, it's definitely
not going to be the last.
Stop by the library or local
Please Turn To Page 5A
It’s Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Proof Positive:
Higher Speed =
Better Mileage
An update on driving like an old
dude:
Some weeks ago, I conducted an
experiment in my Toyota Tacoma
pickup truck to see if moderate driv
ing (at or near the speed limit) pro
duced a significant improvement in
gas mileage.
The finding was that it gave me an
extra 2.5 miles per gallon, which,
measured against the aggravation
of being the slowest person on the
road, may not be a positive.
Nonetheless, on a mini-vacation
trip to Tybee Island last week,
Barbara and I did the same thing
with our Toyota Camry. We never
went over 62 miles per hour, run
ning most of the time right at 60 on
cruise control.
The only car we passed (going
our direction, anyway) on the open
highway was a Volvo on Hwy. 15
near Sparta that roared back and
passed us five minutes later as if the
driver was ashamed that we'd taken
him.
We got 28-plus miles to the gallon.
The problem is, on a couple of pre
vious trips during which I pushed
along the interstates at 75-78 miles
per hour, we got 32 miles per gallon.
Go figure.
Accepting the current politi
cal rationale that complex matters
require simple solutions, I offer a
simple conclusion: Driving faster
saves gasoline.
No, the study was not funded by
the Bush Administration, unless
you figure that I used my economic
incentive tax rebate to fill the tank.
But I do like the results. Driving 60
miles per hour back from Clayton is
one thing, but doing it all the way
home from Tybee Island is another.
There's a limit to my patience, and
I very much appreciate results of a
quasi-scientific experiment to justify
a return to impatience.
Scientific types will recognize
that one fill-up and one calculation
leave a lot of room for error, but in
a state where creationism passes for
science I think my due diligence is
sufficient.
The two experiments provided
more than enough data to substan
tiate the downside of slow driving.
First, while one is much less likely
to lose control of a vehicle while
doing 60 mph rather than 78, those
gains are offset by the increased
probability that the slow driver will
cause other drivers to have wrecks.
Traffic on 1-16 is about a tenth of
that upon 1-85, but driving at 60
(maybe 62), nonetheless created
mini-bouts of congestion imme
diately behind (like four feet) my
rear bumper, which the motorists
solved by roaring around me at
80 mph at their first opportunity.
Sportsmanship stayed intact, how
ever. No one gave me the finger.
Second, if God did not mean us
to drive at 80 mph, he'd have never
given us V-8 engines and speed
ometers that go up to 120 mph.
Driving moderately goes against
human nature and against engineer
ing design. 1-20 was built for speed;
dawdling is an insult to Dwight
Eisenhower, for whom the highway
system is named.
The math showed that Barbara's
car got better gas mileage at higher
speeds.
I'm going to quit while I'm ahead.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com.