Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 10. 2008
mion
Editorial Views
Next President Must
Restore U.S. Principles
It seems like much longer, but it was only
seven years ago tomorrow (Thursday), the
world watched in stunned silence as the
two towers of the World Trade Center col
lapsed in New York and the Pentagon was
attacked in Washington, DC. That infa
mous day bears remembering.
The attack by al Qaeda shook the founda
tions of this nation. It killed approximately
3,000 people, launched the so-called war
on terrorism, stole the national sense of
security and confidence, sent the economy
into the tank and contributed to a short
lived national panic.
It also changed the way we view immigra
tion, resulted in the invasion and occupa
tion of a country not linked to the attack
and led the nation to accept the torture
of prisoners, circumstances that led to the
erosion of American prestige abroad. The
attacks caused a panic-stricken Congress
to seriously abridge our Constitutional
rights and led to hostility against American
Muslims.
Today, more Americans are concerned
about the cost of gasoline than terrorism
or bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.
The inconvenience of boarding a com
mercial airplane is more of an issue to
the public than the loss of privacy and the
Constitutional right of habeas corpus.
While America has captured some of al
Qaeda's leadership, killed thousands of
its members and forced bin Laden into
hiding, to a large degree, we've capitu
lated. Our suspension of parts of the
Constitution, kidnapping and torturing
of suspects and the killing of thousands of
civilians are greater victories for the terror
ists than the deaths and damaged caused
Sept. 11, 2001.
The seventh anniversary of that day falls
just as the 2008 presidential election hits
high gear. Whoever is elected will inherit
an eight-year legacy of failure in respond
ing to international terrorism. Whether
John McCain or Barack Obama wins, one
of the first orders of business must be to
start undoing the damage.
Bin Laden will remain Public Enemy
No. 1, and the next president must make
protection against further attacks a top
priority, but of equal importance is a repu
diation of the Bush administration's might-
makes-right attitude that has alienated our
friends, energized our enemies and reduced
our prestige around the globe. America is
weaker today not because of the terrorist
attack, but as a result of its inept response.
The next president must lead America
to a re-commitment to the principles that
made this nation the envy of the world.
We must restore Constitutional rights
and protections, abide by international
law, respect the treaties we've signed and
restore America's reputation as a nation
of law and principle — even if there are
other terrorist attacks. Both domestic and
foreign policy should be consistent with
traditional American values of freedom,
justice and opportunity. Those are the
qualities that made us strong; they are
also the attributes that will keep America
strong, and they are all the more impor
tant in a post-911 America.
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.
I REALLY HATE YOU!J>
A Man Who Talks To Animals
Last weekend my
cousin Howie came
to visit us — a rare
and special treat, as
he lives in Oregon
and stays pretty busy
there. Howie runs a
national scholarship
program for a large
corporation, providing
educational support
to under-represented
students (a.k.a. minorities), a category
which, he notes, is expected to include
Caucasians like him within the next 10
years. "Fine by me," he adds happily.
"I think it's great. It's what America is
all about. Mix it up!"
That's Howie. He's a terrific enjoyer
of life and people, because everything
that isn't evil is fine by him — which
of course makes him great com
pany. You can't make him unhappy.
Supper's late? Maybe he can catch the
last few minutes of the (your choice)
football game; he has an encyclopedic
knowledge of the teams and is inter
ested in all of them. Not only that,
but he'll share with you some of the
arcane history that makes a particu
lar team unique. The games have all
ended? Hey, what about a board game?
He loves 'em.
Howie helped start a new church a
few years ago, which has now grown
to about 200 members. He serves as
an elder there, and has just returned
from a three-week mission trip to
Mongolia, which he described with
such characteristic enthusiasm that we
didn't glimpse the rugged nature of
the living conditions until he shared
some of his photos from the trip —
and even then, he was focusing on
identifying the people in the pictures
and pointing with pride to the things
they'd built. We were the ones saying
things like, "What? No plumbing?"
and "Where were the beds?"
As you might expect, he has many
friends, but what interested me most
was the way animals
responded to him. We
visited some friends
out in the country
who have a couple of
camels, and the young
one, Humphrey, who
was out in a paddock,
headed straight toward
Howie and placed
his head on Howie's
shoulder as if to say,
"At last you're here." Howie was the
only stranger in the group, but to
Humphrey he was the pied piper, or
perhaps a long-lost relative. The two
were inseparable for as long as we
stayed in the paddock.
Dogs and cats flocked to him wher
ever we went, and he acknowledged
laughingly that in Mongolia even the
fierce wild dogs he had been warned
to avoid would come from a great dis
tance and stand quietly to be petted.
We saw some trained birds while
he was with us (courtesy of the folks
who own the camels), and they, too,
responded to him. The macaws broke
their silence and spoke in eerily
human voices — "Hello. Going to
work? See you later" — and the ravens
moved with him as he walked around
their cages.
As someone who has precisely the
opposite effect on most animals, I
observed all of this with fascination.
They've pegged us accurately — I'm
not much interested in animals as a
category; Howie loves everything that
lives — but how do they know? How
does a Mongolian wild dog recognize
it from 100 yards away? However it
works, we certainly enjoyed having
Howie with us, sharing the sunshine
of his benevolence and warming us all
with his love of life. If it's a gift he's
been given, he is busy and happy giv
ing it back in all directions.
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library. She lives in
Commerce.
A Few
Facts t A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
Fear: Something Else To Fear
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
"There is nothing to
fear but fear itself,"
said F.D. Roosevelt in
his 1933 inaugural
address as president of
the United States. He
was commenting, of
course, on the effects
of the Depression, but
since that time the slo
gan has been used to
cover any fear or fear-
ful situation. As rational
as the slogan may seem, it remains
just that — a slogan — and not a cure
for irrational or real fear.
Each of us has a zone or situation in
which we might feel less than com
fortable without being diagnosed as
phobic (having fear which interferes
with normal living). I call the dealing
with less than comfortable situations
common sense such as fear of fire —
don't play with matches in the closet;
fear of electrical storms — don't stand
in a puddle in your bare feet using an
electric drill in a thunderstorm; fear
of dogs — don't walk up and pet a dog
which is foaming at the mouth.
Real fear, or phobia, is paralyzing. If
you or someone you love has never
had a phobia, you may have trouble
A
>
BY CLAIRE GAUS
understanding the joy
I felt when my 9-year-
old grandson who had
a phobia about swim
ming and putting
his face in the water
did a "cannonball"
in the deep end of
the pool, and kept on
doing them for three
days Labor Day week-
end. My joy was that
he had the courage to
overcome his fear, enrich his life, and
become a stronger person in having
done so. He is no longer chained to
that fear, and will in the future find it
easier to cope with other fears.
I, not being a psychologist, cannot
explain why people have irrational
fears. I know an architect who has
arachnophobia, fear of spiders. She
even finds it impossible to watch mov
ies about spiders. When I was teaching
I must have had some bibliophobics as
students because they never picked up
a book to study. After the recent tor
nado in the area, there surely must be
some lilapsophobics in Commerce.
Any nurse or doctor can tell you
Please Turn to Page 5A
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Councilman
Inconsistent On
Sign Ordinance
It was interesting at the
Commerce City Council's Sept.
2 work session to hear some
thing of a debate over the need
to enforce the city's sign ordi
nance.
Most interesting was to see Bob
Sosebee on the one hand advo
cating awarding yet another sign
variance and on the other argu
ing that it's about time to start
enforcing the ordinance.
"If we're not going to enforce
the ordinance, why have it?"
Sosebee stated.
To which I would reply, "If
you're going to grant every vari
ance, why have an ordinance?"
More than once, consider
ing a proposal for a sign that
violates the ordinance, I've
heard Sosebee (and others) say,
"Personally, this sign doesn't
bother me." The point is not
that a nonconforming sign both
ers or does not bother him, you
or me but that it violates the law
established by the city council
(and, in fact, originally drafted
by Sosebee and former DDA
director Jan Nelson in response
to the proliferation of signs
downtown).
When you establish limits —
whether on the size of signs or
the drinking age — anything
beyond the limit is a violation
whether we find it offensive or
not.
Commerce is spending $8,000
on a new ordinance. Maybe the
size of signs should be allowed
to increase, maybe not. But you
can bet that once the ordinance
is approved, it won't be long
before some business asks for
just a few more square feet.
"Personally, this sign doesn't
bother me" is not the appropri
ate response. Try arguing with a
cop that just because you're only
one percent under age 21 that
you should be allowed to con
sume alcohol.
The purpose of the ordinance
is not just to make new signs less
onerous. One of the major goals
is to clean up the clutter of signs
that, because they pre-date the
ordinance, are "grandfathered"
in as nonconforming. When
they are replaced, as Pinnacle
Bank is doing, they're supposed
to be brought into conformance.
Over years — decades — adher
ence to the ordinance would
clean up the city without hurt
ing anyone's ability to attract
business. If the city allows every
nonconforming sign to be
replaced with a nonconforming
sign, the ordinance is moot.
But Sosebee is correct in
asserting a need to enforce the
ordinance. Hardee's managed
to change out its nonconform
ing sign without bringing the
new one into compliance, and
our convenience stores post a
sign for every brand of cigarettes
or beer they sell. If Commerce
needs a sign ordinance and the
city council creates a sign ordi
nance, the city must enforce it.
Otherwise, what's the point?
We may need a new ordinance,
but for sure we need a new
respect from our city council for
enforcing it.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com