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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 21, 2011
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Editorial Views
Planning Panel Needs
A Strong Appointee
In choosing not to reappoint Greg Perry
to the Commerce Planning Commission,
the Commerce City Council is at a critical
juncture. The fact that the council had no
idea who to appoint after deciding to not
reappoint Perry is not comforting.
Few jobs are as thankless as serving on a
planning commission where all too often
citizens come to convince the city that their
particular need is grounds to set aside a
portion or portions of the zoning ordinance.
A planning commissioner must be able to
uphold the ordinance, often against very
real needs of constituents. Every exception
creates a precedent for the next citizen whose
need may not be compelling but who can
demand the same treatment.
As chairman, Perry often took the lead in
handling requests for zoning changes and
variances. For the most part, he has held fast
to the ordinance, but he's not always been a
paragon of diplomacy, and his penchant for
"calling them as he sees them" is not always
well received — by petitioners or by city
council members. The council's decision to
not reappoint him likely stems from that lack
of diplomacy as much as from any votes on
planning commission recommendations.
So be it, but now what? The planning
commission needs members who can stand
firm, who can say "no" when the request
of a citizen or a developer is detrimental
to the ordinance or the city, when a special
"hardship" sets a bad precedent. The planner
must be prepared to adhere to the ordinance
and be reluctant to change it for the sake of a
single applicant.
The council's job now is to find someone
who can be strong, fair and consistent and
who can see the big picture beyond the
snapshot provided by the applicant. It must
find someone who can make the tough
decision in the face of strong emotion and
sometimes-desperate need and then take the
criticism that follows the decision. It must
find someone who can replace the experience
and leadership Perry has provided.
The city council has removed the planning
commission member with the most
experience, knowledge and strength. Unless
it finds an unusually qualified replacement,
that action will seriously weaken a very
important city function.
Recycling Made Easier
Commerce residents dedicated to recycling
can now dispose of glass, plastic, food cans,
all kinds of paper, etc., by dropping it off at
the new recycling bin on Waterworks Road.
Now we'll see whether there is a serious
interest.
Let's hope so, because requiring citizens
to bring their trash to a central location is
not much in the way of encouragement,
requiring citizens to store their materials, lod
them in their vehicles and make special trips
to the bin.
Still, it is a start. Now we need the follow-
through to demonstrate to city officials that
Commerce residents believe in protecting
the environment, believe in reducing the
amount of trash thrown into the landfill and
believe that it's better for the planet to reuse
anything that can be reused.
The bin is not the best solution, but it does
make recycling a little bit easier.
Editorials, unless otherwise noted, are written
by Mark Beardsley. He can be reached at mark@
mainstreetnews. com
The Commerce News
ESTABLISHED IN 1875
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SCOU BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
MARK BEARDSLEY. Editor
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
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POSTMASTER send address changes to THE
COMMERCE NEWS. P.O. Box 908, Tefferson, GA
30549.
It looks like Commerce
will have the lowest tax
rates again.
And the lowest SAT
scores too.
Meeting The Enemy
A Few
Facts t A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
I paid my quarterly
taxes last week -
having remembered
the deadline (by a
miracle) one day
ahead - and thought
about how ironic it is
that before I retired,
back when I still had
a decent memory, I
only had to worry
about taxes once a
year, on April 15th, and there were
glaring reminders all around me
that it was Tax Day! But now, when I
could reasonably be expected to have
a few memory problems here and
there, now and then, or even more
often - now I have to pay "Estimated
Taxes" every three months - with
no glaring reminders, no front-page
news stories, no libraries full of tax
forms, no conversations everywhere
about taxes. It's awful. It's scary, too.
I think the government should send
me reminder notices.
But then, I'm one of those people
who think the government should
do a lot of things: control pollution,
build infrastructure the way we
did back in the Eisenhower years,
inspect the pharmaceuticals that
are coming into the U.S. from
China, India, Bangladesh, etc. I
think Social Security is a wonderful
and important thing. Like many of
you, I've paid into it all of my adult
life, so I don't appreciate the way
it's being called an "entitlement
program," as if I were some bratty
kid who'd been spoiled into
thinking the world owed her a
living. And I love pointing out that
Social Security is perfectly solvent,
NOT broke, and would be awash
with cash if it hadn't been raided
to pay for (among other things)
two "unfunded wars" - which
were funded, all right, and by us
taxpayers, but not within the budget.
I can't figure out where all these
fiscally responsible Republicans
were back then. Why weren't they
worrying about the skyrocketing
deficit in those days? Why weren't
they minding the
money when it was
flying out of the
treasury at a fantastic
rate, and much of it
was ending up in the
coffers of the vice
president's company,
Haliburton? And
why - when the
first President Bush
left us with a $290
billion deficit, and President Clinton
not only cleared up that deficit but
left us with a $236 billion surplus,
and the second President Bush not
only ran through that surplus during
his first two years in office, but left
us with a $412.7 billion deficit - why
does anyone think that Republican
administrations are better at
managing federal funds?
These questions are not academic if
you're a taxpayer. I've always thought
that paying taxes was a privilege - a
way of supporting my country, and,
yes, a way of making sure that the
least fortunate among us could count
on some assistance in their time of
need. I still basically feel that way.
But I have learned, and I have seen,
that you can't necessarily trust what
people say.
I believe history will say that
America was governed by an
oiligarchy from 2000 to 2008, and
was stripped of its wealth in a way
that was both reckless and, at some
levels, quietly methodical - and
not just by Republicans, but by
unprincipled people in positions
of power. Some of them are still
in power! And now they want to
finish the job. There's still money
lurking around. They want to close
the post offices and cut services and
end Medicare and 'privatize' Social
Security and help the rich get richer
and the rest of us grow poorer. Don't
let 'em!
Susan Harper is retired, lives in
Commerce and volunteers with the
Commerce Public Library and the
Jackson County Literacy Program.
Kindergartners & The iPad
The old chalkboards
had plenty of
disadvantages.
If you saw the In
original "Jaws," you
remember when the
brash and disheveled
shark hunter,
who eventually
gets eaten by that
temperamental fish,
got the attention of
shark-scared parents
in the classroom by running his
fingernails over the chalkboard. That
awful screech shut everyone up.
And I don't know what gives me
the willies more — the thought of
a shark's teeth on my leg or the
remembrance of that terrible sound
that gave me goose bumps in a bad
way. Every now and then someone
would run their nails on the board in
the classroom and I would react with
harsh words and
an icy stare, which
simply encouraged
more scratching
from one particular
kid who itched for
conflict.
We alternated the
duty of getting a
water bucket and
rinsing those green
boards clean at the
end of the day. I
hated that. My finger nail scratched
that board every now and then. And
I recall being called up on numerous
occasions and handed this little nub
of chalk that was too small to get
a good grip. I remember how that
chalk dust was a primary odor of
school. I fought for years to keep
my name off the board. Getting
See “Kindergarten” on 5A
The
Meantime
By Zach Mitcham
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Summer Ends
With Last
Garden Tomato
With all due respect to the
calendar, which says fall begins
this Friday, and to those who
view Labor Day as the last day of
summer, summer actually ended
on Friday, Sept. 16.
That was the day I picked
the last tomato (not counting
cherry varieties) from the garden.
Summer is all about homegrown
tomatoes, and when the plants
are spent, summer is over.
This was a good summer. I got
my first tomato in early June
(anything before July 4 is a
victory) and picked my last on
Sept. 16. While I can recall one
year when there were still viable
plants as the first frost arrived,
there were many more where the
plants succumbed to heat, disease
and/or pests by early August.
Sept. 16 is very good.
I can't say the harvest set
records for number or size of the
fruit, but I had a steady supply of
Better Boys to go on sandwiches,
in salads and to be served alone
with a little olive oil or salad
dressing, plus a few to give
away. And, I had a couple dozen
Brandywine — among the best
tasting tomatoes in the world.
If the Georgia General
Assembly can proclaim a state
shell (the knobbed whelk) and
a state mineral (staurolite),
the declaration of the tomato
sandwich as the official state
sandwich is not only appropriate,
but also less goofy and less costly
than most Georgia legislation.
After all, while a slice or two of
fresh tomato makes a sandwich,
a sandwich comprising entirely
tomatoes is far better than any
sandwich lacking any tomatoes.
For a week or two I will still
have cherry tomatoes, two
plants of which are dying but
have ripening fruit (yes, I've
sliced cherry tomatoes to make
the next-best-thing to a tomato
sandwich — adequate, but not
a real tomato sandwich). We've
cooked with them and put them
in salads, but cherry tomatoes are
mostly snacks to be enjoyed on
the patio while looking after the
cats or the container plants.
I like fall, but I love good
tomatoes. The start of fall means
living through at least eight
months without a grown-as-God-
intended-in-real-dirt tomato, as
if cold weather and declining
sunlight were not sufficiently
depressing. Don't talk to me
about grocery store tomatoes.
A magazine article somewhere
declared that tomatoes are
considered a miracle fruit for all
their health benefits. That's good,
but the primary benefit is the
joy of biting into a homegrown,
juicy tomato in a sandwich
or salad — the very essence of
summer.
There may be some solace
during fall and winter in
preparing the garden for a more
bountiful harvest next year.
Maybe there's room to squeeze
in a couple more Brandywine
plants, but one thing is certain:
summer will begin on the day I
harvest my first Better Boy. May
summer 2012 begin early and last
a long, long time.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com