Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. MAY 6. 2009
mion
Editorial Views
Make Sign Ordinance
Applicable To City
One who reads Commerce's proposed new
sign ordinance carefully will discover that
certain signs are exempt from regulation.
They include property address signs, politi
cal signs and other small signs.
Also exempt are "official" signs — that is
those placed by the government. This cat
egory would include traffic signs, directional
signs and signs designating special events.
In all likelihood, that exemption would
cover signs meant to promote downtown
activities sponsored by the city, from the
City Lights Festival to the promotions sign
ups for Recreation Department programs.
Basically, that means the Downtown
Development Authority or the recreation
department can put out signs promoting
everything from the virtues of shopping
downtown to the opportunity to sign up
for T-ball in complete disregard of the sign
ordinance.
Similarly, the Georgia Department of
Transportation is exempt from the Georgia
Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act
designed to reduce stormwater runoff into
the state's waterways. Not coincidentally, road
construction projects are among the major
sources of stormwater runoff in Georgia.
Commerce spent a lot of public money
building the planting beds in the Streetscape
program, supposedly to make the downtown
more attractive. Citizens and businesses
are prohibited from putting signs in those
spots, but every Saturday ugly yellow "Shop
Downtown Commerce" signs appear and
detract from the downtown's appearance.
Government at all levels should lead by
example. If the city limits signs by business
es and individuals to "promote and protect
public health, safety and general welfare"
and to "promote signs that are aesthetically
compatible with their surroundings," as the
ordinance states, the city should follow its
own ordinance.
Likewise, law enforcement personnel
should obey the speed limits and traffic
rules that they enforce (except in emergen
cies), city buildings should be subject to
the same building and zoning requirements
and, yes, the DOT should have to abide by
the Georgia Erosion and Sedimentation
Control Act.
In the case of the sign ordinance, if the
city council approves the ordinance, it
should prepare to lead by example and
make sure it puts up no signs or banners
that, if placed by an individual or busi
ness, would violate the ordinance. The city
should enact no rules or regulations it is
not willing to follow.
LETTERS POLICY
The Commerce News reserves space on
its opinion page for readers to express
their views on current issues. The News
welcomes comments in response to events
in the news and to editorials or columns
expressing opinions.
Send letters to: Letters to the Editor,
The Commerce News, 1672 S. Broad
St., Commerce, GA 30529 or email them
at commercenews@mainstreetnews.com.
Letters must be signed and have a phone
number for verification. They should be of
general interest to the public.
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.
There's nothing like the threat of swine flu to take
a person's mind off the economic situation.
Hey, What’s The Buzz?
A Few
Facts t A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
I first heard of
buzz words about 35
years ago, when my
then-husband started
his course work at
Harvard Business
School and came
home laughing about
them. I laughed too,
and tried to look as
though I understood
what he was talk
ing about, so he wouldn't think he'd
dragged some ditzy dame all the way
to Harvard. But I wasn't sure I under
stood what buzz words were, and I'm
not sure I understand about them to
this day. So as my old friend Luke
used to say (and probably still does),
let's have a look.
My reference sources agree that buzz
words are words that sound impor
tant but don't really mean anything
— they're just used to impress people.
"Price point" is a perfect example. The
first time I heard it said, I nodded and
continued listening, but inside my
head I was running around and look
ing in all the drawers, saying, "Price
point. Price point. What the heck is a
price point?" As I eventually came to
find out, it's a price, that's all. It just
sounds a bit more hifalutin when you
stick that extra syllable on there.
Wikipedia (an Internet encyclopedia
of sorts) says that buzz words aren't
always just harmless phrases we use to
sound knowledgeable. Sometimes they
"render sentences opaque, difficult to
understand, and questionable because
the buzzword does not mean what it
denominates, yet does mean things
it ought not mean." A good example
of that is the phrase "pro-life," which
doesn't really mean "in favor of life"
(as who is not?) but "anti-abortion"
— a different thing entirely, as any
death-row inmate can
tell you.
Another example of
a buzz word is "cli
mate change." It's
t0 ° va g ue t° mean
anything, really, but
*“ "global warming" was,
well, too hot a topic.
It provoked distress,
disbelief and disagree
ment. The more neu
tral "climate change" cooled things
off to a point where we could begin to
discuss them without everyone getting
all upset.
However (and I have long suspected
this), the phrase "buzz word" itself gets
co-opted, and doesn't always mean
what it's supposed to mean. Lately it's
been confused with another phenom
enon: the neologism — the hot new
word or phrase that's on the tongues
of the truly cool or connected, but
only for about five minutes. "You go,
girl!" was one of these. Now it's as
old as yesterday's newspaper, which
in some cities doesn't even exist any
more. "My bad" was a neologism once
too. Today only dinosaurs say it.
So what are the really cool people
saying right now? I'm thrilled that
you think I might know. Here's a
neologism: "malus." The opposite of a
bonus, a "malus" is a pay cut — fairly
common these days. It can lead the
best of us to become "frugalistas" as
we try to look great while giving up
"bling."
Here's another that came and went
but left us smiling: "Caribou Barbie."
It's "politspeak" for Sarah Palin, a
woman who is smart enough to know
that looking great never hurt anyone!
Susan Harper is the retired director of
the Commerce Public Library. She lives
in Commerce.
Preservation Is Truly Green
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
You've heard a lot
of talk about "green"
issues recently. Terms
such as sustainabil
ity, energy efficiency,
earth-friendly, post
consumer recycled and
reusable have become
a part of the American
lexicon. While I under
stand the importance
of a comprehensive
"greening" of our everyday lives, his
toric preservation of our built environ
ment is also a true "green" strategy.
Chances are, most of what you've
heard about the "green" movement
relates to new construction, although
existing buildings, preservation and
adaptive reuse all play important
roles in the "green" movement. It is
important to understand that historic
buildings are inherently sustainable.
Preservation maximizes the use of
existing materials and infrastructure
and reduces waste. In other words,
sustainability begins with historic
preservation.
Before sustainability had a name, tra
ditional builders incorporated sustain
able elements into buildings. Working
in sync with the environment was the
norm, utilizing local materials, natural
ventilation, shading, cleaner energy
(e.g. mills), reflective roofing, cisterns,
BY HASCO CRAVER
indigenous plantings
... the list becomes
long and in many
ways mirrors "new"
standards espoused
today. In addition,
older buildings per
form well. How on
earth did we lose this
lesson? Early builders
used common sense
and science, observa
tion and practice.
People often think that historic
buildings are not energy efficient.
The opposite, though, is more likely
to be true: that many historic build
ings are inherently very energy
efficient. Operable windows substan
tially reduce demand for heating and
cooling during temperate months.
Opening the top sash of a double-
hung window will allow warm air
from the top of the room to escape.
Opening the bottom sash on the shad
ed side of a room will pull in cool air
while displacing warm air. Preserving
high ceilings allows air to circulate,
especially when ceiling fans are used,
and allows natural light to enter deep
into the building. Many early build
ings took advantage of a combina
tion of natural light and task lighting
Please Turn to Page 5A
It’s
Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
The Flu Will
Kill More Folks
Than al-Qeada
As a glass-half-empty sort, I fig
ure a pandemic of some deadly
flu strain is inevitable, so I raised
my eyebrows as reports from the
swine flu outbreak started.
Flu, according to the CDC,
kills 36,000 Americans a year.
That carnage is related mostly
to pneumonia following the flu.
The elderly and otherwise infirm
are most at-risk.
But Spanish flu from 1918-19
that killed 50-200 million people
worldwide, preyed on those in
the best of health, because it
turned the body's immune sys
tem against itself. Swine flu does
the same.
This I learned in reading John
Barry's "The Great Influenza,"
about the 1918-1919 outbreak.
It's a must-read for people con
vinced of the inevitability of a
great future calamity.
Prior to reading "The Great
Influenza," I did not get annual
flu shots, and while the shot will
not protect against the avian flu
or swine flu and may or may not
be designed against whatever
strain of flu is circulating in any
given year, I get a flu shot every
fall. Thirty-six thousand people a
year gets your attention.
Today's Great Recession
reminds some of the Great
Depression. Imagine if we had
to revisit the Great Influenza
epidemic as well. Our grandpar
ents, who experienced both, plus
a couple of world wars, would
scoff at our angst over this reces
sion. "You ain't seen nuthin'
yet," they'd advise.
Today we can quickly respond
to an epidemic of any kind, but
our interconnectedness also
gives fast-spreading diseases an
advantage. The Spanish flu incu
bated in troop concentrations
of World War I. Soldiers from
Kansas took the vims to staging
areas for troops, then to Europe.
Today, one sick person in a 747
can start a pandemic.
Not all pandemics are deadly.
The word signifies the spread of
the disease, not its virulence. The
Spanish flu was a particularly
virulent strain of the swine flu
we've got now.
In "The End of Food," another
calamity-predicting book (see
ing a trend yet?), Paul Roberts
talks about the likelihood of an
outbreak of the avian flu. The
bird flu has not adapted well to
spreading from person to per
son, but its mortality rate can hit
90-100 percent. The swine flu
in 1918-19 had a mortality rate
of three percent, but infected
up to 50 percent of exposed
population groups worldwide. If
the bird flu mutates to a deadly
form that passes easily from per
son to person, the world won't
have enough caskets.
The best way to avoid any flu
is to avoid people. Extreme for
sure, but if a truly deadly pan
demic ever hits, extreme mea
sures will be necessary.
We spend a lot of energy
protecting the country against
terrorism, but flu, even the com
mon flu, will kill more people
than al-Qaeda. Now, doesn't that
make you feel better?
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com