Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 4, 2009
mion
Editorial Views
America Can’t Afford
More Partisan Politics
During the presidential campaign, Barack
Obama pledged to put an end to the partisan
ship that many think keeps the federal govern
ment from being effective. True to his word,
the president made an unprecedented visit
to the Senate Republican caucus to hear its
members concerns about the then-proposed
$825 billion federal stimulus plan.
The GOP senators appeared genuinely
appreciative of Obama's gesture, but with
it the across-the-aisle outreach ended. The
Democratic majority in the U.S. House of
Representatives crafted the package with vir
tually no input from the Republican minor
ity. So, when the House vote was taken, zero
Republicans voted for the package in spite of
the fact that most economists — including
conservatives — felt it was better than what
the Republicans had offered.
Kudos for Obama for keeping his word, but
leadership of the Democrats and Republicans
entrenched in Congress is yet again failing
the country. It is not just narrow-minded, but
a dereliction of duty that while the American
economy appears to be shuddering to a stall,
the Congress remains divided into parti
san camps, each unwilling to recognize the
other.
Sharp philosophical differences are to be
expected, desired actually, but neither politi
cal party is gifted with sufficient wisdom to
meet every challenge this country faces. We
need input and reasoned debate from liberal
and conservative, Republican and Democrat
on a host of issues from economic policy to
foreign relations.
Given that the Democratic Party controls
the legislative and executive branches of the
government, the burden of bipartisanship
begins with Democrats. Obama must con
tinue to seek input from the GOP; Nancy
Pelosi and Harry Reid must do the same. The
Republicans in Congress, who rallied behind
the "Country First" motto of John McCain
last fall, must show they meant it and quit
voting in lockstep.
We can't afford the limitations and inflexi
bility of partisanship. There's too much work
to be done in this time of crisis.
The Argument For
Balanced Growth
We are reminded in time of recession that
government is most stable that has balanced
growth.
It is commonly recognized that too much
residential development strains the ability
of government to fund itself. With a weak
economy, we see the dangers when govern
ment relies upon a few big industries.
Fortunately, the Jackson County growth
has been fairly diverse. Local industries
have laid off employees, but we've no
General Motors (or Volvo, which once
looked at a Commerce site) whose closure
would be devastating.
It's easy in good times to want large indus
tries with the biggest payrolls and costliest
facilities, but when such businesses close,
the hurt they cause is immeasurable.
Jackson County is in better shape during
this downturn because our industrial com
munity is widely diversified.
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
JUSTIN POOLE 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 Jefferson, Georgia
30549.
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.
Honest Honey, when I said we needed to clean
our dirty house, I was referring to Congress.
Why Not Keep Working?
A Few
Facts, A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
One of my fellow
city employees told
me recently about
his father's several
retirements from the
same job. Every time
the man retires, his
employers are unable
to replace him. One
time they tried put
ting four people in his
place, and even that
didn't work. So they keep persuading
him to come back. He's coming up on
his third attempt to get out of his job
alive.
Now, the universal rule of employ
ment is just about graven in stone:
No one is irreplaceable. So you might
think, 'How flattering to him, to think
that he's an exception,' or, if you're
tired at the end of a long day, 'The
poor man. Can't they let him rest?'
But if you're like me, what you think
is, 'Omigosh! Imagine having to do
this retirement thing three times!' I've
loved my work, but it's not entirely
clear that I'll make it through the retir
ing process in one piece. If I do, it'll
be because I was carried on the backs
of friends.
Right now I have three file folders
on my kitchen table, all full of forms.
Under the table there's a large bag of
mailings from agencies and companies
who want to sell me ways of manag
ing or enhancing my retirement. You
would think, wouldn't you, that I
had an entire staff (personal manager,
accountant, attorney, private insurance
agent, analyst, actuary, manicurist,
stylist, and masseuse) all working full
time on getting me successfully and
wealthily settled at home. It's a lovely
idea, actually. I could eat bonbons
and let my toenail polish dry while I
watched an old Judy Garland movie.
And all the while, my personal staff
would be scurrying around, figuring
and faxing and fixing
my future all up.
Alas, there's just
me, a person who
has never yet mas
tered the difference
between term life and
whole life insurance,
but is now supposed
to choose one of 76
plans for Medicare Part
D — if I can get to D;
I haven't succeeded in signing up for
Part B yet, and I'm afraid there's a Part
C I don't know about. In my dreams,
regretful voices echo down long hall
ways filled with doors. "Too late," they
moan. "You missed the DEADline."
And then they laugh their ghostly
laughs.
I thought the Social Security part
of things was going fairly well until
I called to check on some detail. Of
course I had to give my Social Security
number; that made me feel secure.
But then the person on the other end
of the line said, "Oh yes — you live
in Abbeville, right?" I put the phone
down so quickly you would have
thought it was on fire, and I've been
hesitant to call back. I had the dis
tinct feeling I might be disappearing
entirely.
Meanwhile, my pension future is in
the hands of actuaries — small gnome
like creatures, in my imagination,
living on high mountaintops, distant
and mysterious. They mb their hands
as if over a small fire, and murmur in
tiny, tempting voices, "Did you ever
think it might be easier to just keep
working?"
"Oh no you don't," I say, suddenly
awake. "I'm in the chute — and I could
never do this retiring thing again!"
Susan Harper is the (soon-to-be-retired)
director of the Commerce Public Library.
She lives in Commerce.
A Song For Our Times
Recently, I purchased
a book: "Things Fall
Apart," by Chinua
Achebe. Mr. Achebe is
Nigerian but obviously
received an English
education, since he
wrote in English and
since the title of his
book comes from
a poem by William
Butler Yeats: "The
Second Coming."
I don't know how you feel about
poetry, whether you think it has any
pertinence to our modern society or
not. Perhaps you accord it about as
much attention as "elevator music" —
heard, but not listened to.
But it was not always that way. A
thousand years ago, and a thousand
years before that, poets were the
superheroes of their day. Knights
might win honor on the tournament
ground and warriors might triumph
on the battlefield, but it was the poet
who kept those honors alive by enter
taining the court in the Great Hall
in front of the fire, recounting the
exploits of the knight and warrior, or
whoever else he chose to honor.
No doubt great deeds were per
formed on the field of Troy, but the
warriors didn't write about them. If
it hadn't been for
Homer, we wouldn't
know the history of
Troy, and if it weren't
for Virgil, we wouldn't
know the history of
Rome.
What poets said was
important, and what
Mr. Yeats said was
so important to Mr.
Achebe that he wrote a
novel to expand on Mr.
Yeats' poem:
"Turning and turning in the widen
ing gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot
hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the
world ..."
If we were accustomed nowadays to
sit in a Great Hall and a poet intoned
those lines after the evening meal,
every man present would drink deep
ly, stare into the fire and think that
the gods had truly inspired this bard.
Doesn't it ring true? Paul Krugman,
NY Times’ editorialist and recent
Nobel Laureate in economics, recently
referred to this poem, supposing the
falconer to be Treasury Secretary
Please Turn to Page 5A
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
BY WILLIS COOK
(fj,
*j£v- r ■
It's
Gospel
According
> ) *
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Rep. Benton
Won’t Make
Anyone Happy
Rep. Tommy Benton can take
his job and — keep it. I wouldn't
have it.
Benton and I hold divergent
views on political issues, so
we've had some spirited conver
sations. But I feel sorry for him,
given the choices he'll have to
make in this legislative session.
I don't have empathy for
Republicans, and normally I'd
be the first to argue against
some of Gov. Sonny Perdue's
proposed budget cuts — elimi
nating school nurses, for exam
ple — that Benton may ultimate
ly have to vote for.
It's damned if you do and
damned if you don't not just
for Benton, but the entire
Georgia legislature. It may be
that Democrats will position
themselves to vote against every
budget reduction likely to pass
so they can gain political advan
tage, but you can't cut $2 bil
lion from the Georgia budget
without hurting people.
The legislature just has to fig
ure out which people get hurt.
If you eliminate the school
nurses, you save $30 million.
You lay off dedicated health
professionals, leave a few kids
who desperately need the
nurses' services without and
you send kids home more fre
quently, disrupting their par
ents' work.
Or, you can fund the nurses
and cut some other group of
state employees; or, as the leg
islature will likely do, pass the
buck and force local school sys
tems to make the decision.
That's $30 million. There's
only $1.87 billion more to cut.
You can get a quarter of that
by eliminating the funding
for $428 million in "taxpayer
relief" grants that show up as
a credit on your property tax
bills. That credit was already
calculated into your 2008 bills,
so if the state does not fund
it either local taxing authori
ties will have to absorb the loss
or you'll get a second tax bill.
That's $1 million damage to the
Jackson County schools alone.
So, the General Assembly can
get 25 percent of its reduction
with one stroke of the pen, but
all it's accomplished is to pass
the responsibility back to local
governments — who would face
the wrath of taxpayers.
Benton knows that's not fair,
but he's still got to come up
with $1.9 billion in reductions.
Something has to go. However
the deficit is closed, employees
will be laid off, citizens will lose
vital services and legislators will
catch hell.
Benton, the governor and
other elected officials are on
the hot seat because they've got
to balance their budgets, a task
difficult during good times and
lethal when the economy fails.
We can debate their choices but
none of us could trim Georgia's
budget without inciting the
same kind of angst.
The question isn't how much
to cut, it's what to cut — and
who gets hurt. I'm glad I don't
have to make those decisions.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com