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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2016
Editorial
Views
Brace for a
bumpy ride
in rest of 2016
It seems that the United States
is not the only Western nation in
turmoil. Great Britain is awash in
uncertainty over its future after last
week’s vote to leave the European
Union. And while worldwide mar
kets dropped precipitously the day
after the vote, the affect on Great
Britain and to the rest of the Euro
pean Union is mostly a matter of
speculation. It seems there is even
a possibility that Great Britain will
not pull out, because Parliament
has the final say and the referen
dum is not binding.
By comparison, the election of a
new President of the United States
seems like a simple, less volatile
process with fewer ramifications
than what our friends across the
pond are experiencing.
Americans will pretty much
resolve our issue — barring hanging
chads again in Florida — on the
second Tuesday in November, but
Great Britain’s turmoil could go
on for years. Prime Minister David
Cameron has announced his resig
nation, leaving it up to his succes
sor to actually initiate the divorce
with the European Union — and
taking the credit or blame for the
ramifications. Activists in Scotland,
which is pro-European Union, are
making noise for another vote on
seeking independence from Great
Britain, and pro Brexit leaders are
quickly backing down on some of
the promises and statements of fact
they made during the run-up to the
vote. In the event that Great Britain
does leave the European Union,
the negotiations between it and the
other nations will be complex, if
not nasty. Then there is the specter
of other countries possibly leaving
the EU and its collapse altogether,
not to mention how the various
outcomes will affect world markets
and the global economy. What hap
pens in Europe doesn’t necessarily
stay in Europe.
2016 is developing as a fascinating
year politically, between the Repub
lican and Democratic presidential
primaries and the Brexit vote and
fallout. With the two political con
ventions coming up this summer,
followed by the Nov. 8 election
and the continued follow-up to the
Brexit vote — including any effect
on the global economy — there will
be sufficient dire predictions, com
peting opinions and breaking news
to keep the 24/7 cable news talking
heads and talk radio pontificators
as happy as hogs in slop.
Meanwhile, the average citizen
can do little but await the outcomes
and deal with the unintended con
sequences as best they can. Per
haps it will all blow over easily, but
we’d best strap ourselves in for a
bumpy ride for at least the next six
months.
Nobody ever said democracy
would be easy.
Unless otherwise noted, all editorials
are written by Mark Beardsley. He can
be reached at mark@mainstreetnews.
com.
The Commerce News
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SCOTT BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
Mark Beardsley. Editor
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Rejecting both political parties
Are you a Democrat or a Republican?
It should come as no surprise that more
people are answering that question, “neither.”
I drifted into that category back when Roy
Barnes ran for re-election as governor. For
once, I was ahead of the curve.
A recent poll by Gallup declared 42 percent
of Americans call themselves Independents,
29 percent Democrats and 26 percent identify
themselves as Republicans.
Which means the intelligent 42 percent of
Americans are embarrassed to be identified
with either party. With the Republicans nomi
nating a soulless demagogue as their standard
bearer and the Democrats nearly selecting a
socialist, my question is, why would anyone
want to be affiliated with either party?
That’s like asking someone to choose
between being identified as stupid or being
identified as incompetent.
In theory, each party stands for some basic
principles that anyone who has to watch the
political conventions this summer will hear
about from speaker after speaker. Those of
us in the 42 percent, however, realize that
principles are the first casualty of the election
process. They are to be broadcast, not lived
by. The only principle that matters is that of
getting elected, of beating the other team, and
when it comes to winning, there are no rules
of engagement, no standards of civility, no
level below which one candidate or his or her
supporters will not sink.
Donald Trump has eliminated what few
standards remained for personal conduct in
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
By Mark Beardsley
a campaign, but he’s just the latest product of
an evolutionary process ongoing for decades
and hastened by the Citizens United ruling that
opened the floodgates of campaign funding.
By winning, however, he’s given Republicans
the choice of selling their Republican souls
and supporting him, gritting their teeth and
voting for the hated Democratic nominee — or
sitting out the election.
Had Bernie Sanders won the Democratic
nomination, and he came very close, Demo
crats would face the choice of rallying behind
a socialist, voting for the GOP psychopath or
staying home in November.
But the issues with the two parties go
beyond their presidential nominees. The
root of the problem is a Congress whose
members feed at the trough of corporate and
special interest money and who represent the
corporations and political action committees
that keep the trough filled. We may still have a
representative form of government, but its con
stituency is the rich and influential.
And that is our fault for being Democrats
and Republicans.
What is the definition of insanity? Doing
the same thing over and over and expecting
a different result? That’s what we do when
we routinely send back to Washington the
same members of Congress who are more
interested in making sure everyone can own
an assault rifle than in preventing gun vio
lence and to Atlanta members of the General
Assembly more vexed about the possibility
of someone having to sell a wedding cake to
a same-sex couple than whether our schools
and transportation systems are functional. We
cannot cause change by re-electing the people
committed to the status quo.
Yet the owners of the status quo — Demo
crats and Republicans — perpetuate the insan
ity unleashed by Citizens United that makes
sure their message is the dominate message
voters hear and aided by congressional dis
tricts shaped to favor one party or the other.
The American two-party system is broken.
The great illusion is that many Americans
believe that electing a new president will
change the system—that installing a Democrat
or a Republican in the Oval Office will produce
a government more responsive to the public.
Hopefully, more Americans will abandon
the parties and declare themselves indepen
dent, because neither political party is ready to
put the people before the moneyed interests.
Mark Beardsley is the editor of The Com
merce News. He lives in Commerce.
When it's an emergency (or not)
We can’t always see trouble coming. But
sometimes it’s not trouble, if we have the right
resources. Lately my “emergencies” have
included unexpected company; an event
that required invitations and programs; an
illness for which I needed help in a hurry;
and a friend’s birthday that I almost missed. I
got through these and other minor crises by
calling on some of the amazing resources I’ve
discovered here in Commerce.
Little Italy tops my list, because I so often
turn to the guys under the red awnings for
problem-solving and delicious food. If I need
a salad with some protein in it, they sell me
the amount of turkey they put in one of their
turkey subs, plus a garden salad. Perfect!
When my sister wanted a chicken parmesan
sub without the bread, they made a chicken
parm pasta so delicious, I asked them to
make a pan of it for my unexpected-company
dinner — and they made the whole meal:
salad, garlic bread, and main course.
Back in April, during the final planning for
the Commerce Library’s memorial garden
dedication, we suddenly realized that we
needed help with the invitations and pro
grams. Happily, Judy Eubanks had started her
own “cottage industry,” Judy’s Print Shop,
after she retired from Commerce Printing.
With her 33 years of experience as an editor
and graphic designer, Judy can grasp some
one’s ideas (like mine), turn them into beau-
A Few
Facts, A
Lot of
Gossip II
By Susan Harper
tiful realities, as she did for us, and deliver a
perfect job.
As for the illness that hit me like a train,
I can testify that we are fortunate to have
Commerce Urgent Care and Family Practice
here. My primary-care physician is in Athens,
and I couldn’t have gotten to him before his
office closed. But I could get to the Urgent
Care office in five minutes, and I only waited
another five to be seen. When I stopped at
the drugstore on my way home, my prescrip
tions had been filled and were waiting for
me — just the kind of urgent care I had hardly
dared to hope for.
We have lots of resources like this, some
new, some not. This newspaper, over 100
years old, is still keeping us up-to-date on
local issues, events, and people. And Sanders
Furniture may be 103 years old, but its decor
styles are up-to-the-minute, and they can get
a new sofa to your house in a flash (and cart
away the old one).
Need a bike for a child’s birthday? Or
a grownup’s? State Street Bicycles, a new
resource, sells mountain bikes, road bikes,
family bikes, cycling apparel and more.
They also offer service (and carry parts and
accessories for) all types of bikes, and owner
Lee Fox provides a warm welcome and lots
of expertise. Fit to a Tee, at the south end of
town, also carries athletic wear, and is ideal
for custom gifts: a personalized t-shirt, for
example, that says World’s Best Dad, or a tote
embroidered with your mom’s initials.
Speaking of gifts, I hated to see Gift
Works close, but now two businesses — The
Enchanted Florist, and Southern Couture
— have moved into that downtown space: a
great gift shop and a boutique. When I woke
up one morning realizing that the birthday of
a lifelong friend had almost slipped by me, I
zipped into The Enchanted Florist and found
ideal presents for my beach-loving friend, and
even a birthday card extolling the virtues of
sand between the toes. Our local post office
carries packing materials, so the gifts were
soon on their way to Long Island. Yet another
happy ending, here in paradise!
Susan Harper is a retired editor, lecturer,
and local library director who currently
serves on the Jackson County and Piedmont
Regional library boards.
Please don't let her drive like me
The summer of 1987 was quite memo
rable. It was the summer I turned 16. The
highlights of my summer included attending
summer school and working at a local gift
shop, but getting my driver’s license topped
all the highlights of a great summer.
Upon returning from an end-of-the school
year beach trip with friends, a 1982 maroon
Honda Accord hatchback was sitting in my
driveway. It was mine, all mine; and I was
so excited. I grew up a lot that summer as
I learned to maneuver my new-found free
dom of being able to drive to any destination
that was allowed (or destinations the paren
tal units did not know about).
My driver education instructor was the
best. Coach Justin Martin was the girls’
basketball coach, but he also taught every
ninth grader at Sylacauga High School how
to drive. Our system used a six-week grading
timeframe and each of us took the driver’s
classroom instruction during an entire six
weeks. Throughout the year, we alternated
our driving instruction with Coach Martin as
there were always three students per rota
tion. Todd Mims, Geron Bodie and I were an
awesome threesome. Geron was the smart
est; Todd was the most daring and I just
wanted to drive through the Burger King to
get an order of large fries and a large Coke
Writers
Wg ^
In
- -tUr «y
Rotation
til
By Tricia Massey
to which Coach Martin obliged.
Fast forward to the summer of 2016.1 am
in the shadows witnessing my oldest daugh
ter experience most of the same rites of
passage I did 29 years ago. It is a bittersweet
time as we recognize the need and impor
tance of sending off our 16-year-old on her
own, but also realizing the challenges new
drivers face every day.
Just one month before she got her
license, she ran a red light and rolled
through a stop sign. I was flabbergasted.
Immediately I threatened her with not being
able to get her license until she responded
to my question of “why did you do that?”
Her answer scared me — “You do it, Mom.”
And just like that, I realized my bad driv
ing habits have been watched by my daugh
ter and I am so mortified that I have not
been a positive example. I have flashbacks
of her witnessing my road rage accounts,
speeding on the interstate, getting pulled
over by the State Trooper and watching him
give me a ticket while on the way to a swim
meet — all experiences I wish I could erase.
Instead I had to try and use them as teach
ing moments. “Please don’t drive like me”
is all I could say.
We feel strongly that she is a safe and
courteous driver. She took a driver’s educa
tion class at the local DUI school with five
of her friends and learned a lot. (As a side
note, one of my co-workers saw me come
out of the DUI school and told another
co-worker...don’t you love how rumors get
started?)
We welcome this chapter in her life and
hope she will cautiously embrace the new
level of responsibility that comes with being
a driver. As I watched her drive off for the
first time on her own, I didn’t cry like some
of my friends. I smiled and said a little
prayer, asking God to “keep her safe and
don’t let her drive like me.”
Tricia Massey is marketing director for
Northridge Medical Center. She lives in Com
merce.