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PAGE 4A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2008 Editor: Angela Gary Phone: 706-367-2490 E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com Website: www.mainstreetnews.com Opinions “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” — Thomas Jefferson Teach children to be thoughtful C hildren are born thinking “me, me, me.” They are quick to tell you what they want, how much of it they want and when they want it. Unless we start early teaching them that it is better to give than to receive, they will likely con tinue to have this attitude as they leave childhood behind and become adults. My 6-year-old nephew recently went to a friend’s birthday dinner with me. The restaurant also had a gift shop and he asked me if he could get four glass eggs. I know how he likes Easter eggs and they didn’t cost much, so I agreed. I bought them and he quickly handed them out to the four people we were having dinner with. I wasn’t that surprised. I know how he likes to give gifts to people. The four friends we were with were surprised that he had picked out the eggs for them and didn’t even get himself one. On a recent trip to the grocery store with my mother, Jake picked out an Easter basket. He didn’t ask if she would get it for him. He asked if they could get it for his baby brother. He didn’t even pick out a basket for himself. Jake was out of school for a few days recently and we took him to Gatlinburg. He had some money he had been saving. The first thing he said was that he wanted to get me “some jewelry and a purse.” He wouldn’t stop talking about it until he found me a cat pin and pink purse. I don’t know why he had jewelry and purses on his mind as a gift for me. I guess he knows jewelry and purses are two of my favorite things! Since Jake was old enough to help, he has been with me as I shopped for friends, wrapped gifts and handed them out. He has also helped my mother bake goodies and can food to give to her friends on special occasions. He knows you don’t have to go to the store and buy something in order for it to be a gift. Jakes gets such a joy out of giving gifts. It’s something you don’t see a lot of from adults much less from children. Children look at us as role mod els and mock our behavior. If we get joy from being thoughtful and giving, they will too. Fortunately, Jake has been around people such as my mother who love to give to others. Be sure and involve children in taking time to make thoughtful gestures for others. Whether it is getting out the construction paper and crayons and making cards or heading to the store to shop, include them in these gestures. It will pay off in the long run as they grow up into thoughtful, giving adults. angela gary Angela Gary is editor of The Banks County News. E-mail comments about this column to AngieEditor@aol.com. The Banks County News Founded 1968 The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga. Mike Buffington. . Scott Buffington . . Angela Gary Chris Bridges . . . . Sharon Hogan. . . . Anelia Chambers . April Reese Sorrow Co-Publisher Co-Publisher /Ad. Manager Editor Sports Editor Reporter Receptionist Church News Phones (all 706 area code): Angela Gary Phone 367-2490 Angela Gary Fax 367-9355 Homer Office Phone 677-3491 Homer Office Fax 677-3263 Sports Phone 367-2745 Sports Fax 367-9355 www.mainstreetnews.com (SCED 547160) Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc., P.O. Box908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 Subscription in Subscription in state Subscription out o: Military with A $19.75 $38.85 $44.20 $42.20 Senior citizens get a $2 discount Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga. Postmaster, send address changes to: Subscriptions, The Banks County News, P.O. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547 just doing c little surveying State constitution needs a complete makeover G eorgia needs a new constitu tion. We haven’t adopted a new one since 1983. Before that, the Peach State regularly rolled out new constitutions at the rate of one about every 20 years since the Civil War. Now, we have allowed our present state constitution to approach its 25th birthday without a single cry for a com plete makeover. Friends, our state is des perate for a fresh baseline for our laws. Where should we start? How about this? Expand the definition of the three branches of government to four to include executive, legislative, judicial — and lobbying. No group of people has a greater effect on our lives at the federal and state level than lobbyists — people paid to twist arms, buy football tickets and pick up tabs for steaks and booze to affect legislation and policy. Lobbyists are undoubtedly the smart est people in the halls of the Gold Dome. They have the ability to enact legislation, block legislation and write legislation. In this age of passive state government, lobbyists call most of the shots regarding policies on every topic. So their roles should be officially rec ognized — and regulated. (Oh, lordy, don’t use that word “regulated” again, please.) To begin our research on expanding the branches, let’s pick up a copy of “Who Runs Georgia?” a modest tome written by Calvin Kytle and James Mackay after Georgia’s three-governor fiasco of 1946. The Kyle-Mackay answer then: the corporations. The broad response has not changed, but the names of the corporations are different. The influence of corporate lobbyists (and their bosses, of course) is every where. Even when lobbyists step down from their corporate posts, their influ ence lives on and even grows. Take the banks and bankers. Gov. Sonny Perdue created two new six-figure positions to run his New Georgia and turned the posts over to bankers — chief oper- ating officer, a post occupied by former Bank of America exec Jim Lientz, and chief financial officer, filled by Tommy Hills, formerly of Wachovia. Perdue’s first chief of staff was Eric Tanenblatt, who left lobby ing powerhouse McKenna Long & Aldridge to serve Perdue, only to return to his old firm a year later. Tanenblatt was replaced by John Watson, a lobbyist, who was replaced by Ed Holcombe, who had retired after decades as a lobbyist for Georgia Power. And then there’s the legislative branch, including House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s infamous relationship with an AGL lobbyist who just happened to be advocating a massive pipeline requir ing hundreds of millions of dollars in underwriting by taxpayers. One-time Richardson aide Sam Choate left the speaker in October 2007 to become a lobbyist. Today, Choate counts among his lobbying clients a utility, a private prison, a tobacco company and a drug company. To prove his piety and innocence on lobbyist matters, Gov. Perdue stepped off a helicopter one day and loudly pro posed restrictions on legislators becom ing lobbyists. A weakened version of the “revolving door” bill ultimately passed, but not before two of the governor’s floor leaders and sponsors of the lobby ists reform measure, Dan Lee and Bill Stephens, beat the effective date and became lobbyists. Both are lobbying today, with a full stable of high-powered clients. Perdue’s legislation did not apply to staff, maybe to protect Tanenblatt’s future employment. A more likely expla nation is that the legislation was drafted by Perdue’s deputy counsel, Robert Highsmith, who left the governor early in the first term to return to his old law firm — Holland & Knight, a lobbying/ law firm with offices in 22 cities and five countries. Highsmith left as an associate of the firm and returned a full partner — a common practice in Washington. His client list includes utilities, banks and health-care companies. He is an expert in campaign finance law (he was Gov. Roy Barnes’s Republican appointee to the State Ethics Commission), and represents, among others, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Secretary of State Karen Handel, the Senate Republican PAC, and Gov. Perdue’s political action committee, PerduePAC. Yes, he represents the very same people he lobbies. The winners in this morass are the lobbyists, who make millions, the inter ests they represent, who rake in billions, and the politicians who hunt and fish and go to football games and NASCAR races on the lobbyists’ tab. The win ners are bipartisan, though the party in power wins bigger. Under Democrats and Republicans, bankers run the bank ing committees in the House and Senate, and name the Banking Commissioner. And other industries run other com mittees — all under the guise of the value of a citizen legislature. Valuable to whom? The real results of such an arrange ment: The consumer gets the shaft. There are many examples, the most prominent of which is the gutting of predatory lending laws in 2003, lead ing to record foreclosures, and in a nice twist of irony, the failure of a number of sub-prime lenders. We wonder not about the gutting in the first year of the Perdue administration, but how Gov. Barnes was able to pass the anti-predatory lending legislation shortly before he left office. You can reach Bill Shipp at P. O. Box 2520, Kennesaw, GA 30156, e-mail: shipp1@bellsouth.net, or Web address: billshipponline.com. bill shipp Letters to the Editor policy given The Banks County News has estab lished a policy on printing Letters to the Editor. We must have an original copy of all letters that are submitted to us for publication. Members of our staff will not type out or hand-write letters for people who stop by the office and ask them to do so. Letters to the Editor must also be signed with the address and phone number of the person who wrote them. The address and phone number will be for our verification purposes only and will not be printed unless the writer requests it. Mail to, The Banks County News, P.O. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547. E-mailed letters will be accepted, but we must have a contact phone number and address. Letters that are libelous will not be printed. Letters may also be edited to meet space requirements. Anyone with questions on the policy is asked to contact editor Angela Gary at AngieEditor@aol.com or by calling 706-367-2490. News department contact numbers Anyone with general story ideas, complaints or comments about the news department is asked to call edi tor Angela Gary at 706-367-2490. She can also be reached by e-mail at AngieEditor@aol.com. Anyone with comments, ques tions or suggestions relating to the county board of commissioners, county government, county board of education, Maysville City Council and crime and courts is asked to contact staff member Chris Bridges at 706-367-2745 or by e-mail at chris@mainstreetnews.com. Bridges also is sports edi tor of the paper and covers local high school, middle school and recreation sports. Anyone with comments, ques tions or suggestions relating to Alto, Lula, Baldwin and Gillsville, should contact Sharon Hogan at 706-367-5233 or by e-mail at sharon@mainstreetnews.com. Calls for information about the church page should go to April Reese Sorrow at 706-677-3491. Church news may also be e-mailed to asorrow@mainstreetnews.com. The Banks County News web site can also be accessed at www.mainstreet.news.com. Fun long since taken out of radio listening T he news that two big-time coun try music stations in Atlanta fired a majority of their on-air personalities last week really came as no surprise. In radio, these things happen all the time. It seems regardless of how loyal a fan base a DJ has, no one is safe from the suits who run the station (many times these suits are brought in from other mar kets and really don’t have a clue about what the listeners at their new station really want.) Perhaps the only legitimate surprise in the firings at KICKS and the Eagle was the release of Rhubard Jones, who seem ingly had a lifetime contract to be at 106.7 on the dial. However, even Jones, who is known as much for his hon esty and charitable work as his on-air deeds, was led to the executioner’s cham ber on Friday. So much has changed about the Atlanta radio mar ket in the past two decades. There was a time when listening to your favorite station (regardless of the music it played) was like having a friend with you. It seemed you knew the on-air personalities. During this time, DJs still had some freedom to speak for more than a few seconds on the air. You could actu ally call the station, talk with the on air DJ and request a song. The DJ was actually in the studio at the time and was not simply a pre-recorded voice. My, how times — and radio — have changed and all for the worse. I purposely tuned into the Eagle Monday morning during the drive to work forgoing my usual sports talk selection to see if any mention was made of Rhubard’s decades at the frequency. While I did not listen for the entire show there was no mention of him during the time I tuned in. It was as if he never was there. When the Eagle went to a commercial I flipped back to my normal morning station and they were actually talking about Rhubarb and what he meant to Atlanta radio. I don’t know the exact date Rhubarb went on the air in Atlanta but I do remem ber him as far back as 1986. As a teen age then I remember working during the summer and hearing the station (which was called Y106 then) becoming an establishment in the Atlanta market. As I mentioned before, the on-air personalities seemed to be having fun and in return you made a point to listen. Of course, Rhubard’s fellow DJs from that time have all since moved on or been fired. Suits decided to do away with the moniker Y106 and give us the Eagle, which was a mistake in my opinion. The suits who made that decision have long since left the crime scene, however, leav ing destruction in their wake. I should also mention that Steve Mitchell was another casualty during the execution at the Eagle last Friday. Mitchell also has a long history in Atlanta radio as he was part of the original Wake Up Crew on 96 Rock back in the 1980s. Of course, 96 Rock is probably the ultimate example of clueless radio suits killing a product that had a history of loyal listeners dating back decades. As a sidenote, don’t be sur prised to see the Eagle give up its country format as well. A new player in the game debuted recently and since the same com pany owns both the Eagle and KICKS, I doubt they will continue to use both as country signals. Don’t be fooled into thinking those who run radio stations of this size care about what you and I think. They don’t. I remember calling the front office at the old Power 99 (I’m dating myself again) when it was killed in the early 90s as 99X made its debut. I found it ironic when so many people were outraged that 99X was executed in recent months, but I remember another station had to be killed in order to allow 99X to be born. I doubt listening to radio will ever be as much fun as it once was. That’s because the personality has been taken away. To me, you have to have more than a voice speaking at the top and bottom of the hour and playing music and commercials in between. That’s radio for monkeys. The last time I checked, I was not a monkey. 4 .!> chris bridges Chris Bridges is a reporter for The Banks County News. Contact him at 706-367-2745 or e-mail comments to chris@mainstreetnews.com.