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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 27. 2008
mion
Editorial Views
Closure Of Detention
Center Will Be Felt
When the I.W. Davis Probation Detention
Center opened in Jackson County, it was consid
ered a tremendous asset. The facility provided
jobs in an industry not affected by recession and
offered a low-cost labor force for local govern
ments.
Now, the facility is scheduled for closure, the
jobs and detainee labor are gone and local gov
ernments that utilized the detainee labor must
replace it with paid workers. It turns out the pris
on industry can be affected by the economy.
Of the cost-cutting measures announced so
far by the state — mostly by Gov. Sonny Perdue
— this is one of the most reasonable. If Georgia
can house the detainees elsewhere and produce
a savings, more power to it. But like other cost
cutting measures, such as repeal of the $428 mil
lion Homeowners Tax Relief Grant and slashes
in state money for schools, this one has an eco
nomic impact on local government.
It’s another reminder that when the state moves
to balance its budget, there is an inevitable
and often corresponding hit at the local level.
The effect of closing the I.W. Davis Probation
Detention Center will be minimal in the scheme
of things, but both the elimination of local jobs
and the loss of inexpensive maintenance labor in
local governments will be felt.
Tropical Storm Fay
Buys Us A Little Time
Tropical storm Fay couldn’t have come along
at a better time for North Georgia. Officials have
long said that it would take a tropical storm or
hurricane to recharge Lake Lanier, and while
Fay didn’t quite accomplish that, she certainly
helped, and she managed that while wreaking
relatively little havoc.
Heavy rains locally replenished the Commerce
reservoir, boosted the Jefferson water supply lake
and stopped, for now at least, the fall in the level
of the Bear Creek Reservoir. At the very least,
Fay bought us some time, hopefully enough to
get our part of Georgia through the dry fall and
into the winter before water supplies reach the
critical level. If we’re lucky, maybe the drought
will come to an end before that happens.
We can’t always count on a timely hurricane or
tropical storm to keep our reservoirs full. That’s
why local governments and water providers are
enacting plans to increase their reservoir capac
ity. Jackson County is trying to identify a site for
a new reservoir, Commerce and Jefferson are
working on adding more capacity to their lakes
and the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority,
which provides water for Jackson and three other
counties, is thinking about its next reservoir.
Some of those actions, like the projects by
Commerce and Jefferson, are relatively inex
pensive, while the construction of reservoirs by
Jackson County and the regional group will be
extremely costly. If the drought has done one
thing, it has forced all water suppliers and most
consumers to consider any means possible of
utilizing more of the rain that falls in this state.
As Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle observed in a talk in
Jefferson earlier this month: “If we can capture
that rainfall and manage it responsibly, we can
provide enough water for our citizens.’’
We just need enough water in the meantime to
get us to that point. Fay bought us some time.
Editorials, unless otherwise noted, are written
by Mark Beardsley. He can be reached at mark@
mainstreetnews. 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 BEARDSLEY..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 discounted $2 for senior citizens.
POSTMASTER send address changes to THE
COMMERCE NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA,
30549.
It’s either Jerry Springer or the Democratic Convention.
I’m not sure which.
Politics As A Spectator Sport
A Few
Facts t A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
USELESS
I have friends — and
I don't just mean guy
friends — who are
fanatic about football.
I know not to call them
Saturday or Sunday
afternoons during the
football season. If I do,
and if they even hear
the phone and answer
it, I'll hear the roar of
the fans in the back
ground, like a heavy surf, and the
announcer's voice in the foreground,
and our conversation will be punctu
ated with interruptions while the friend
I have called turns away from the
phone and talks, via TV screen, to the
men on the football field, telling them
what to do.
This behavior has always been as
exotic to me as belly dancing, or snake
handling. True, I rooted for the home
team until I was hoarse, back when I
was in high school. But that was it. I
was pleased when the San Francisco
Forty-Niners won the Super Bowl, how
ever long ago (20 years, maybe?), and
I loved watching Joe Montana because
he was so graceful, but why were peo
ple getting drunk, hanging from street
lamps, and turning a bus over?
Give me a good election season,
though, and I can be as lunatic as a
European soccer fan. When my favor
ite candidate secured his party's nomi
nation for president this summer, I
leapt around the house like a kanga
roo until I finally leapt into a piece
of furniture and broke a toe. When
his running mate was about to be
announced last weekend, I waited up
with the journalists until the arrival of
Secret Service agents settled the ques
tion and we could all go to bed (at
3 a.m.). The advent now of the back-
to-back conventions, Republican and
Democratic, is way more exciting to
me than Christmas.
This morning I gave
New York's former
mayor, Rudy Giuliani,
a piece of my mind
via the TV screen. You
would've thought that
I didn't like him, had
you heard me, but
actually I'm grateful
that anyone wants to
do the hard, hard work
of politics. It's aston
ishing, really, that they're willing to put
themselves out there to be hounded by
the media, derided by the public, clob
bered in the polls, yelled at by people
on buses, and then ignored and even
unrecognized once their particular sun
has set. These brave and foolhardy
dreamers are a lot like the football play
ers except that the latter get literally
beaten up.
And among both politicians and foot
ball players, I think we occasionally
glimpse a kind of immortality — some
thing ineffable but unforgettable. John
Kennedy's seagoing smile, as if even on
land he was turning his face into the
sun and the wind; Joe Montana soaring
effortlessly over the backs of opponents
sent to block him. It's as though heav
en sends down a quick ray of light, like
a flashbulb: "Here. Remember this."
We don't see them often, these special
ones, but we recognize them when we
do.
And I guess I'd rather see them in
politics, where so much is at stake. I
give them a lot of credit for being will
ing to risk everything, knowing that it
may be all for naught.
But if they don't share my priorities,
they'd better watch out, because I'll
be shouting at them from the couch,
making trenchant remarks and point
ing out their frailties for none but me
to hear.
Susan Harper is director of the Commerce
Public Library. She lives in Commerce.
Some Music To Run On
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
The Beatles’ “Every
body’s Got Something
To Hide Except Me And
My Money’’ into Phish’s
“Birds of a Feather’’
into The String Cheese
Incident’s “Best Feeling’’
into Widespread Panic’s
“Jack’’ into The Talking
Heads’ “Slippery People.’’
That was the company
I had last Saturday on
my 60-minute run through
Commerce. The sounds that randomly
pump through my headphones oftentimes
dictate the type of run I have. To say the
least, last Saturday’s run was a good one.
I got off to an energized start behind
Lennon and McCartney’s purely rock and
roll gem from 1968’s White Album. Trey
Anastasio and company’s well-practiced
space-jam forced me into high gear as I
pushed through the first and second miles.
The two songs that followed gave me the
grove-grass and southern style jam-rock
I needed to pass the four-mile mark and
head for the home stretch. David Byrne’s
vocals and Bernie Worrell’s drum solo
picked up the tempo as I finished my run
with the most daunting hill I’ve been able
to find in Commerce.
I usually take several deep breaths and
let out a loud “whoa” when complete, but
this time I was yearning for more. More
BY HASCO CRAVER
sweat, more burn, more
music, more something.
After returning home
for a bottle of water and
a quick workout, I sat
down and found what I
was truly yearning for —
ESPN’s NCAA Football
Preview Show: two hours
of uninterrupted analy
sis, arguing, statistics
and predictions. Who
were the experts going to
pick to win the national championship?
Who was going to win the SEC and the
other major conferences? I’m sure you’ve
all seen and heard this year’s predictions
— UGA at No. 1. A Sports Illustrated cover
and a top seed in the Associated Press,
ESPN and USA Today polls have cata
pulted UGA to the preseason pinnacle of
college football.
It’s also no secret that UGA has the
toughest schedule of any major contender
this year. Our first two games against
Georgia Southern and Central Michigan
should be easy enough on the field that
the only thing we have to worry about
is solidifying our tailgate plans for the
rest of the season. After that, we travel to
South Carolina for a time-tested rivalry
that is always a lot closer than neces-
Please Turn to Page 5A
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Photos Convey
True Sense Of
Tragic Event
The call came in at about 4:00
last Monday. Usually, my first
reaction in heading to a wreck
is to pray selfishly that no one
I know is involved, then that
no children are involved and
that no one is killed or seriously
hurt.
None of the MainStreet
Newspaper reporters enjoy
wreck calls, especially when the
injuries are severe or children
are involved.
Last Monday, from the begin
ning, I knew a child had been
hit and, given the nature of the
accident, figured it was bad.
It was.
As a parent, I've imagined
going to a wreck and finding one
of my children badly hurt. It's
among a parent's greatest fears.
As a reporter, I also know that
I'm the one on the scene whose
presence is considered superflu
ous. I'm neither needed by the
injured, nor appreciated by the
victims and their families, so I
keep my distance as I take pho
tos and gather information from
witnesses or police, keeping out
of the way so the paramedics,
fire and rescue personnel and
law enforcement officials can
do their jobs. The photos help
tell the story of a wreck or other
disaster, but they also chronicle
the sometimes heroic or life
saving efforts of fire and EMS
personnel.
There is a sense among some-
people that we should not pub
lish photographs showing the
anguish, pain or violence of such
events. "Tacky" was the descrip
tion from a couple of people
who posted comments to the
story on CommerceNewsTODAY.
com. "Insensitive" is probably
the more common sentiment,
and I understand that view.
But the reporter's first job is to
get the story, and while it often
offends some who empathize
with the victims, the photo bet
ter than the words enables the
reader to feel some of the shock
and grief and compassion for
the victim. A photo brings home
the suddenness and senseless
ness of tragedy and reminds us
of the consequences of — as in
this case, chance — not to men
tion carelessness, recklessness or
criminal activity. It captures the
essence of a horrific moment for
all of us.
A lot of online readers were
moved enough to make com
ments in support of the family.
A few found publishing a photo
of Colton Standridge on a gur
ney offensive, but the image of
a seriously injured young boy
generated empathy and compas
sion in the hearts of the moms
and dads across the county,
many of whom felt compelled
to pray and are continuing to
pray for Colton, his family and
the driver of the vehicle that hit
the 4-wheeler.
That is a good thing, the best
use yet of the comment provi
sion on our web page.
The photos help tell an uncom
fortable story, but one that needs
to be told. It's not easy for us
either.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com