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THE COMMERCE NEWS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
Editorial
Views
Let's really
give veterans
our respect
Various groups will attempt to
express gratitude to the nation’s veter
ans on Friday, which is Veterans Day.
Particularly in local schools, there
is an emphasis on recognizing and
honoring the men and women who
have served in the U.S. Armed Forces,
in part to remind each of us that this
country exists in large part due to
those who, whether in time of peace
or during active wars, chose to serve
their country.
Such gatherings serve emotional
and educational needs of the general
public. The first is a need to acknowl
edge the services and sacrifice of
veterans; the second is to remind
the rest of us that we enjoy freedom,
prosperity and security because men
and women volunteer to stand guard
— and too frequently to fight — for us.
It’s a cliche, but true: Freedom is not
free. Veterans and their families pay
the highest price for that freedom and
are due our respect and thanks.
That said, as this space has noted
before, the best thing we can do
for today’s veterans is to allocate
adequate resources for their medi
cal care, particularly for those who
were injured in wars and conflicts
and in training. Flying the flag, say
ing “thanks” and voicing support for
troops and veterans are fine, but until
the Veterans Administration hospitals
and medical services are the best in
the world, we’re giving veterans the
short shift. Voters ought to demand
that Congress and the president either
correct the VA’s shortcomings or fund
veterans’ care in the private market.
Continuing to have a second-class
health care system for the people
who defend America is shameful and
reeks of hypocrisy for a nation that
purports to honor its warriors.
Secondly, a nation that truly
respects those who defend it will
be extremely conservative about
engaging in armed conflict. Going
to war should occur only in defense
of ourselves and our allies, never to
further foreign policy or to promote a
domestic political agenda. The blood
of the men and women who wear the
uniforms of the Armed Services is
far too precious to spend lightly and
without considering the cost to those
to whom we entrust our defense —
and their families.
The veterans we honor Friday are
men and women who accepted the
risk of service. Not all fought; not
all served during conflict. But each
served knowing that war or battle
might require their bodies, even their
lives, and for that alone they deserve
our respect, thanks and admiration —
and the best health care and mental
health services in the world. From the
remaining veterans of World War II to
veterans of future conflicts, those who
defend America deserve our lifelong
thanks, admiration and support as
measured in large part by our con
cern and care for them after their time
of service ends and their time of need
begins.
Unless otherwise noted, all editorials
are written by Mark Beardsley. He can
be reached at mark@mainstreetnews.
com.
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Conversations among old men
As I write, it is 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 and I’m
wearing shorts and wondering what kind of
curveball nature is throwing at us, and what,
if anything, it portends for winter, spring and
summer.
This is something old men do. We take an
extraordinary interest in the weather, both
the forecast for the day and the outlook for
upcoming weeks. Throw in a half-cup of
research on climate change and two table
spoons of data over the effect of human activ
ity on the melting of the polar ice caps and
there’s a recipe for conversation guaranteed to
repel grandchildren, children and all but the
most tolerant (or deaf) spouses.
Talking about climate and weather is like
conversation about politics. Everyone has
something to contribute, nothing is certain,
and opinions vary wildly. Unlike politics, how
ever, none of the participants are apt to be
offended, particularly since so much of the
anecdotal data comes from conflated memo
ries. No one gets steamed, no families ripped
asunder.
It is also a sign for onlookers of younger
generations that it’s time to turn on the football
game or to take a nap, as no information of
value or interest will be forthcoming.
“Ah, the drought of ’54, now that was a big’
un” may or may not relate to an actual event,
but neither will it attract contradiction other
than, “Well, the dry spell in ’07 was pretty bad
too, the reservoir durn near dried up.”
“Sure could use some rain,” is this month’s
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
By Mark Beardsley
conversation starter. Most of us utilizing that
imaginative line are thinking of the blue-brown
grass in our yards with little regard for the
area’s cattle producers for whom the drought
is a matter of grave concern.
“It was worse in ’86. We were getting hay
from Nebraska,” might be the rejoinder.
At my age, everything new is weighed
against something older. It was hotter back
then, the snow was deeper when we were
kids, we made guns from sticks, we didn’t
throw things away like folks do today...
I remember my father commenting, “The
world is going to hell,” probably as we were
watching the Beatles perform on the Ed Sulli
van show. (He also predicted, “They’ll never
last,” so perhaps I should not give him the
credibility that I do.)
“That, I recall thinking,” is what Old People
say.
Now I hear the words of my father coming
out of my mouth on subjects ranging from the
rise of social media to the Trump-Clinton cam
paigns, and it reminds me of the fact that, it is
what Old People say, and I am now one of the
Old People.
Early in my career, I covered the Jackson
County Board of Education at a time when
three of its members were over 75, and a typ
ical meeting would begin with a recitation of
what ailments they had and the medications
with which they treated them.
“I’ll know I’m old when I start doing that,” I
thought.
It’s surprising how those things frequently
come up in my generation’s conversation,
with the ailments, conditions and body part
replacements that are part of the aging process
being a common denominator. It gives us
something to talk about besides the weather
as we stand in the visitation lines at the funeral
home.
Aging has taught us to carry on conversa
tions that do not offend and will not become
heated with people with whom we have little in
common.
“Hot (or cold) enough for you?” is a safe
conversation-starter. But any younger person
using it on my generation should have a con-
versation-ender ready.
“Ah, the world’s going to hell,” and a rueful
shake of the head as you beat a hasty treat
usually suffice.
Mark Beardsley is the editor of The Com
merce News. He lives in Commerce.
About those bagels and grits
In the most recent of Willis Cook’s unfailingly
witty and evocative columns, I was surprised
to find some rather bland fare: the foods he
was describing. In fact, I’d say he gave bagels
and grits pretty short shrift, describing bagels
as “tasteless and heavy” and grits as so lacking
in “pungent flavor” that Yankees, on first tasting
them, exclaim, “This stuff has no taste at all!”
It’s a pity my grandmother’s not still alive. If
she were, I could plunk Willis down at her kitch
en table and bring him some of her grits, prefer
ably with a puddle of her red-eye gravy floating
on top. The first time I tasted that gravy my eyes
probably rolled back in my head. I know I said,
“What IS this?” And I was not surprised to hear
that one of the ingredients was coffee.
This nectar of the gods had always been
forbidden to me, but Mother had evidently
decided that the amount of coffee in a little red
eye gravy was not enough to stunt my growth.
And I already knew it was delicious; my cousins
all got to have coffee with their breakfast, and
they loved it. It was only we weird little Yankee
chillun, apparently whose growth could be
arrested by it.
I also already knew that grits were delicious.
Our Southern mom made them for us even
when we were up north, with a pool of butter
on top, and yes, as Willis says, probably a
heart-stopping amount of salt in them - to
A Few
Facts, A
Lot of
Gossip II
By Susan Harper
which I would have added more.
Grits like that can still be had - lump-free
and flavorful, piping hot - right here in town,
at Parham’s. I take all my Yankee visitors there,
so their first taste of grits will be a revelation,
and if they’re repeat visitors, they ask to go
back, because everything at Parham’s is good.
The pancakes practically float off the plate, the
bacon is crisp but never burned, and the eggs
are however you want them to be. There’s cof
fee while you wait, but you don’t wait long — it’s
all put before you about three minutes after you
order it. Sometimes I’m tempted to slip back
into the kitchen and see how they manage it.
Getting back to those tasteless and heavy
bagels, though, I’d have to take Willis Cook a lot
farther than Parham’s to be sure he got a fair
shot at a really great bagel. All the way to San
Francisco, perhaps, to the House of Bagels, on
Geary Boulevard, out in the Richmond District,
where I used to live.
Ah, those bagels. Picture what the Dunkin’
Donuts display cases look like, and then swap
all those imaginary donuts for bagels of every
possible flavor and description. They’re Brook-
lyn-style bagels, boiled and then baked. And
then - if you’re like me - split in half and toast
ed. Try a plain bagel with cream cheese and lox
(smoked salmon). Have a cinnamon bagel for
dessert, and take home a raisin-pumpernickel
one for a snack later, plus a couple of blueberry
bagels for your favorite neighbors. You will have
barely scratched the surface!
But I agree with Willis about everything else.
I think it’s true that the foods of our childhood
become links to a long-ago time, and are
beloved for that reason. Look at the Koreans
and their kimchi, the Norwegians and their lute-
fisk, the Scots and their haggis. And I’m sure it’s
true that Kim Jung-Un would be a lot easier to
get along with if he could just spend a little time
at Parham’s now and then, over a lovely bowl
of grits.
Susan Harpe■ is a retired editor, lecturer, and
local library director who currently serves on
the Jackson County and Piedmont Regional
library boards.
Why give money to billionaires?
John Malone is a very wealthy man. His net
worth is estimated at $6.9 billion and he is one
of this country’s largest private landowners.
Arthur Blank is also a very wealthy man. His
net worth is estimated at $3.1 billion, largely
from money he made as one of the founders of
Home Depot.
Tony Ressler isn’t quite as wealthy as Malone
and Blank, but he’s close. His net worth is esti
mated at $1.4 billion.
These three billionaires have two things in
common. For one, they own major league
sports franchises (Malone’s company owns the
Atlanta Braves, Blank the Atlanta Falcons, and
Ressler the Atlanta Hawks).
For another, they are being showered with
tax money from state and local governments - a
combined total of nearly one billion dollars.
Cobb County agreed three years ago to put
up $400 million to build a new stadium for the
Braves, which persuaded Malone’s company to
move the team out of downtown Atlanta
The City of Atlanta is using hotel-motel tax
revenues to put up $200 million to help build a
new stadium for the Falcons. That tax source
will also provide funds to pay the operation and
maintenance costs of Blank’s stadium, which
will amount $200$250 million. The state kicked
in $40 million to build a new parking deck.
Ressler is not being ignored. Atlanta Mayor
Kasim Reed announced last week that the city
will spend $142.5 million to renovate Philips
Arena, a basketball venue that was built just 17
years ago for the Hawks.
A rational person would ask why so much
Writers
In
Rotation
By Tom Crawford
tax money is being showered upon billionaires
at a time when the state’s middle-income and
low-income families have so many unmet
needs.
There are 127 public schools that are so bad,
Gov. Nathan Deal says the state should take
them over. Rural hospitals are shutting down
because they don’t have enough funds to stay in
operation. Georgia has one of the highest per
centages of people without health insurance.
Why isn’t Reed spending Atlanta’s tax funds
on these very fundamental needs instead of
diverting the money to build sports palaces for
billionaires?
Reed has the misguided idea that these
sports venues will be the key to all sorts of
economic development. He called the Philips
project “another stake in the ground” that will
“transform” downtown Atlanta and supposedly
bring in $1.5 billion in new development.
History tells us that he is wrong. “Most
evidence suggests that sports subsidies cannot
be justified on the grounds of local economic
development, income growth, or job creation,”
said Alex Gold and Ted Gayer of the Brookings
Institution. “In fact, after 20 years of academic
research on the topic, peer reviewed eco
nomics journals contain almost no evidence
that sports stadiums or franchises measurably
improve local economies.”
If you want proof, look no farther north than
Gwinnett County where the county commis
sioners agreed a decade ago to build a minor
league baseball stadium for the Atlanta Braves
organization.
They said the stadium would draw large
crowds and be the spark for new commercial
development in the adjoining areas. Instead,
the attendance declined over the years and
the promises of new development were never
fulfilled.
Tim Lee, the county commission chairman
who engineered the Cobb County deal with the
Braves, was thrown out of office by irate voters.
Reed won’t have to worry about that because he
can’t run for another term.
But it really doesn’t matter. When Lee and
Reed have departed from the political scene,
there will still be politicians who will insist that
we give millions of tax dollars to billionaires who
already have plenty of money so that they can
build stadiums that aren’t needed.
It’s the American way.
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia
Report, an internet news service at gareport.
com that reports on state government and
politics. He can be reached at tcrawford@
gareport.com.
