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Che Summeruille News
The Official Legal Organ of Chattooga County, Georgia
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Our Opinion
Libraries Blind-Sided
It is more than unfortunate that state
Department of Technical and Adult Educa
tion (DTAE) decided to cut the maintenance
and operation (M&O) budget for all libraries
in Georgia by one-third instead of reducing
the department’s overall expenditures by five
percent as requested by the governor.
That act by DTAE officials indicates
they either have a vendetta against Georgia’s
public libraries or are ignorant beyond belief
about the needs of local libraries.
It might not seem that much is being
cut from the Chattooga County Library’s bud
get. Some $4,000 is proposed to be removed
from the fiscal year 2000-2001 local M&O
budget, giving librarians only SB,OOO with
which to pay the Summerville and Trion
buildings’ electric bills.
But that $4,000 will have to be taken
from local tax monies. In turn, that means
the two local libraries likely will have to re
duce their hours of operation and perhaps
even some of their staff. .. .. ... ~
| It will work a hardship on the system,
which is operating on a shoestring budget as
it is.
The DTAE cut will be even more deadly
when considered on a statewide basis.
Georgia’s smaller libraries, which have little
or no “cushion,” will be hit the hardest. Larger
library systems will also be squeezed tightly
in that category of funding.
Libraries have been stepchildren in the
state for many years. Literally every promise
for more state funding “next year” has turned
out to be smoke and mirrors. '
Susan Stewart, former Chattooga li
brary director, concisely summarized the is
sue when she told Governor Roy Barnes in a
letter that the proposed library budget “is the
worst year of funding I have seen in over 20
years.”
She noted that in so-called “lean” years,
state government has told libraries that
Gore: Compulsive Liar
Vice President Al Gore is a compulsive
liar, but he’s not as slick as President Rodham
Clinton. Gore hasn’t been able to get away
with as many of his blatant falsehoods as has
Clinton.
Here are a few examples of Gore’s lies:
Lie: He and his wife “Tipper” were the
models and inspiration for “Love Story.”
Truth: The author said that’s false.
Lie: He has always been for abortion.
Truth: His record in the U.S. House
shows he was once somewhat pro-life.
Lie: He invented the Internet.
Truth: The Internet was invented
when Gore was a mere child.
Lie: George Bush was a racist because
he first brought up the Willie Horton case
when running for President.
Truth: Gore brought up and used the
Horton issue first, which was later picked up
by an independent group, not Bush’s cam
paign. ' :
- Lie: Gore came under hostile fire in
Vietnam.
Truth: He was a “Remington Ranger”
most of the time, was a crossing guard for
awhile and never came under hostile fire.
Lie: He didn’t make any political fund
raising phone calls from the White House.
Truth: Phone records show he made
numerous such calls.
Lie: He was a master reporter and “put
people in prison” when he worked for a Ten
nessee newspaper. o o
Truth: His editor and colleagues said
Gore put no one in prison and was a poor
writer. ,
Lie: He has never supported the grow
ing or use of tobacco and despises it because
his sister died of smoking-related cancer.
Truth: His late father and Gore both
grew tobacco and continued to do so after his
sister died. He has also accepted huge cam
paign contributions from Big Tobacco.
- Lie; He didn’t know a visit to a Bud
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Opinions Expressed By Editorial Columnists Are
Not Necessarily Those of This Newspaper
money was not available for more funding and
during “fat years” they were told the state had
higher priorities.
“When will libraries have ‘a year’ of pro
gressive funding?” she asked in her letter.
The M&O cuts and other reductions es
pecially hurt the Hall County system, where
Ms. Stewart is now director. One can easily
understand her anger.
The Chattooga libraries, meanwhile,
need to have enough staff to stay open until 8
p.m. all five weeknights and to be open on
Sunday afternoon. It is important for local
students that the weeknight hours not be fur
ther reduced or that the staff be slashed.
We strongly encourage Rep. Barbara
Massey Reece, D-Menlo, and Sen. Waymond
“Sonny” Huggins, D-LaFayette, to contact the
governor on behalf of the libraries. Further we
ask them to talk to Ken Breeden, commis
sioner of the DTAE, and find out why the five
percent cut in his department was taken solely
from thestate libraries’ M&O fund, resulting
in a 33 percent cut in that category.
Project Impact
The ice storm of Jan.ls-Jan. 16 is a per
fect example of why Chattooga County is for
tunate to be named a “Project Impact” com
munity.
Funded through the Georgia Emergency
Management Agency (GEMA), the project is
designed to help the county make plans to re
duce the results of natural disasters.
Gary McConnell, GEMA director and
former longtime Chattooga sheriff, remem
bers the numerous disasters that have already
struck the county, ranging from ice storms
and 100-year floods to a blizzard. It is no won
der that he is a strong encouragement to
county officials to get moving with the project.
Let’s get going.
dhist temple in California was a political
JSund-raiser.
Truth: A memo from his staff to Gore
told him in advance it would be a fund-raiser,
a fact which Gore later confirmed.
Lie: Opponent Bill Bradley, who is even
more liberal than Gore, wants to destroy
Medicare and Medicaid.
Truth: Bradley has an alternative plan
he claims will provide better health care to the
disabled and elderly.
Lie: Gore came close to being a
hardscrabble farmer as a mere child while
he plowed fields (tobacco, undoubtedly) with
a mule, cut and baled hay and hoed crops.
Truth: Gore lived in a fancy hotel in
Washington, D.C. with his parents most of his
youth and rarely made it back to his father’s
Tennessee plantation except during summer
Congressional vacations.
We could continue but you get the pic
ture.
When Gore is confronted with his docu
mented lies, he claims he is being smeared by
the news media or that his opponent is run-
Fing a “dirty” campaign. Those are two more
ies.
Americans don’t want another compul
sive liar living in the White House for another
four years, or more.
I’s Only Money
Most homeowners get the leaky faucets
in their houses repaired within a relatively
short period of time. Even a small drip can
waste thousands of gallons and result in a sky
rocketing water bill or a dry well. :
Amazing, isn'’t it, that the City of Sum
merville apparently doesn’t particularly mind
the year-after-year loss of 1.75-million gallons
of water annually from just one fire hydrant?
That doesn’t even include the leaking
hydrant on First Street. 2
Oh well, it’s only money ...
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Joseph Perkins ¥4
v
What Is Really In
Elian’s Best Interest?
BEDRICH G. FLEDhis native Czecho
slovakia, along with his two small children, in
August 1968, shortly after Soviet troops oc
cupied his country. The political refugee
settled in the Southern California town of
Yucaipa, where his mother and stepfather al
ready resided. e
Four months after Bedrich’s arrival in
this land of the free, home of the brave, he died
of terminal cancer. His ex-wife, still living in
Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, petitioned
for return of the children. The international
custody battle ended up in San Bernardino
County Superior Court. | -
The trial judge concluded that the
mother was a “fit” parent. “There has been no
evidence presented to this court whatsoever
that would indicate that (the mother) is abad
person or an evil person, or that she has ever
done anything other than provide adequate
food, clothing, shelter, attention for her chil
dren while she had them and the child she has
now.
“It is obvious to the court that she is an
intelligent woman; she is neat, clean and
dresses well. According to the testimony, she
has a good job. She owns and maintains an
adequate home... Her personal morals appear
to be adequate by modern standards.”
Yet the court did not restore the children
to their biological mother, did not return them
to repression in the land of their birth. For
doing so, the court held, would be detrimen
tal to their “welfare and best interests.”
Which brings us to the international cus
tody battle over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez.
His mother forfeited her life last November,
fleeing repression in Castro’s Cuba, so that her
little boy could enjoy the fruits of freedom and
opportunity that the United States offers.
BUT THIS ACT of motherly love, of
supreme sacrifice, is of little consequence to
Bill Clinton, to Attorney General Janet Reno
or to Doris Meissner, commissioner of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. They
aim to return the boy to Communist Cuba
despite his late mother’s wishes.
Young Elian’s biological father, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez, says he wants his son re
stored to him. And even those of us who be
lieve the Cuban lad’s life chances are infinitely
better in the United States than in Castro’s
Cuba are inclined to support the father’s right.
But there’s just one nagging question:
Whey hasn’t Elian’s dad hopped a plane or
boat to Miami to state his case in person? Is
he afraid of flying? Do boats give him motion
sickness?
Or could it be that Castro won’t let him
go to Miami for fear that Juan won’t come
back — that he’ll join little Elian and the mil
lion or so Cuban ex-patriots who have escaped
7 -
\\ . 2
7 CANTS FAN @ R
Fidel's despotic regime?
* % %
THE CLINTON administration, its
congressional allies and its friends in the me
dia say that none of this matters. The cam
paign to keep young Elian in the United States
is nothing more, they say, than a “politically
motivated” assault on “the rule of law.”
This is just so much sophistry. There are
politics on both sides of the Gonzalez custody
battle. Indeed, the Castro regime could have
quietly negotiated the boy’s return to the is
land. Butinstead, the Communists have been
orchestrating public demonstrations in Ha
vana.
As to the presumption that family law is
clearly on the side of the Cuban’s boy biologi
cal father in this custody battle, well, that’s
hardly unequivocal.
Indeed, were the dispute heard in a Cali
fornia family court, the judge might render his
or her decision based on the case involving
the Czech refugee Bedrich G. more than a
quarter-century ago.
The ruling by the San Bernardino Supe
rior Court was actually consistent with
California’s Family Law Act, under which the
state’s Supreme Court affirmed in 1974 that
“itis no longer essential that a court, to award
custody to a non-parent, find the parent unfit
to care for the child.”
There is absolutely no reason to believe
that Juan Gonzalez is anything other than a
“fit” parent — a loving dad who desperately
desires to be reunited with his little boy. How
ever, because he is a virtual prisoner in his
homeland, like the rest of his 11 million fel
low countrymen and women, returning young
Elian to him would be detrimental to the boy’s
welfare and best interests.
* * *
IF JUAN were free to speak his mind,
without fear of reprisal from Castro’s thugs,
he just might say that, much as it pains him
to be separated from his beloved son, Elian is
better off living with relatives in Miami than
living with him - his biological father - in
Havana.
Clinton, Reno and Meissner, their allies
in Congress, and their friends in the media
know this. Yet, they continue to insist that
family law is unequivocal. That no matter
what the circumstances were that brought
young Elian to United States, no matter how
poor, nasty, brutish and short the life to which
he would be consigned would be if returned
to Communist Cuba, his relatives in Miami
must surrender him to the Castro regime.
©2OOO NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE,
ASSN.
Joseph Perkins is a columnist for The
San Diego Union-Tribune.
Something To
Offend Everyone
NOBODY SAID it would be easy. Georgia Gov. Roy
Barnes is trying to deliver on a promise to “reform” educa
tion. His “A Plus Education Reform” bill, (HB-1187), is being
squeezed through the colander of committee hearings and
refinements as you read this.
Some folks are pretty hot about some of the bill’s provi
sions. Nearly everyone can find something to dislike about it.
That fact alone suggests the legislation is a good overall pack
age - if everyone thought it was great, there never would have
been anything that needed reforming in the first place.
While opposition to various facets of the measure line
up to whine, the students of Georgia remain huddled at the
bottom of any statistical pile by any accepted measure. Re
form isn’t a frivolous political ploy, it’s an economic neces
sity. '
Barnes proposes eliminating teacher tenure, the system
that makes it extremely difficult to remove a teacher regard
less of performance. It also calls for accountability — even a
separate office of agcountability — rating our school perfor
mance and providing remedies for failure and reward for
achievement. There are other provisions such as more nurses
and counselors and such things as parents’ cuncils. In short,
there is something to offend nearly everyone in the educa
tion establishment for each and every ox is gored to some
extent. Thus, it is called “reform.”
* * *
CRITICS ABOUND who complain about what is not
in the bill, specifically, an experiment with vouchers.
Is there anyone who would not argue that education
must be improved in Georgia? Important steps have been
taken. The HOPE scholarships and Pre-K programs are gen
erally good. But, the ugly head of truth reveals the state re
mains at the lowest end of the spectrum on standardized
measures.
Don'’t be deceived by the current low employment fig
ures. This is a wound up economy and practically anyone can
get some kind of job. But the jobs we all want for our children
and grandchildren are going to require more than taking the
French fries out of the grease when the bell rings. We are all
raving about the internet and the access to so much informa
tion. This is real. Our kids are all over the internet or soon
will be. But what good is having all this information available
in your own home or workplace if you can’t read with com
prehension? Our value as workers is quickly coming to how
we gather, process, and use information. They call this the
“Information Age.”
INDIVIDUALS and businesses have finally said
something’s wrong. We're not getting what we are paying for
out of the education system. We should expect and get better
results. The time has come. It won’t be easy but it must be
done. Education excellence is key to improvement in job qual
ity, average income, and overall quality of life. Everyone agrees
with that premise.
At the same time, everyone wants to “improve” some
thing that doesn’t gore their own favorite ox. The teachers
unions (GEA) and professional association (PAGE) are not
happy about removal of tenure. School Superintendent Linda
Schrenko opposes an independent office accountability. The
Christian Coalition is against putting more nurses and coun
selors in the schools for fear they might try to teach sex edu
cation. Local boards aren’t happy about parents’ councils
having any say on what happens in the school system. Re
publicans aren’t happy because vouchers aren’t written in to
this package.
~ Allin all, thereis something for everyone to hate. Sounds
like “reform” doesn’t it?
The governor’s Education Reform Commission was a
hard working, enormously talented group of individuals who
recognized, admitted in some cases, our problems. They
crafted bold, decisive recommendations to the governor to
begin the process of getting education on a better track.
* % »
IT’S TIME to see which politicians are willing to do
the right thing even though it may be unpopular with certain
special interest groups. It’s time to serve the quietest but most
important special interest group - our children.
(Mike Steed writes a syndicated column. His e-mail
address is msteed@steedco.com)