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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 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
Treasure hunt
technology
It’s like hide and seek or, better yet, a treasure hunt
via technology.
I hadn’t heard of it — shows you how up on the
latest technology trends I am — but I got a call the
other day from someone asking me if I had tried out
Geocaching.
Huh?
This person — let’s call him “Skinny Sasquatch,”
since that’s his Geocaching name — was telling me
how much fun he and his young
son have been having using their
Global Positioning System (GPS)
to take part in a great outdoor trea
sure hunt.
“It’s a way to remotely get in
touch with like-minded people,”
Skinny said. “It’s creativity
through the sky.”
So, Geocaching.
From what I understand, those
who have GPS or other simi
lar navigating tools can log on
to Geocaching.com with a call name — “Skinny
Sasquatch,” for example. An online “clue” is left for
locating a cache, or “treasure,” or sometimes another
clue.
“You can rate if it’s hard, say climbing a ladder,
going to the top of a barn, fighting a raging bull,”
Skinny joked. While he and his son recently tracked
down a dud — a note at the end of the rope in a river
that said basically said, “No prize here,” most of the
treasure hunts end happily.
Sometimes the prize is a gift certificate, or some
other smaller find.
Geocaching has apparently been going on since
2000 and is all across the globe. Now it is in this
area, although gas prices these days might curb the
enthusiasm somewhat.
The idea of Geocaching is similar to that of letter
boxing, which dates back to the moors of Southwest
England in 1854.
Letterboxing, similar to orienteering, involves solv
ing clues, walking the outdoors and finding hidden
boxes with a visitors book and rubber stamp.
In 1854, James Perrott left a bottle with his call
ing card in it along the fairly inaccessible banks of
Cranmere Pool so future visitors could contact him.
Off to a very slow start, letterboxing evolved some
what in 1888 with the addition of a tin box and self-
addressed postcards to be mailed. In 1905, a zinc box
was added, along with a logbook. In 1907, a rubber
stamp was added to the box so visitors could stamp
proof of their finding.
After 122 years, 15 letterboxes dotted Dartmoor.
A guidebook was developed in 1976, and the hobby
took off, with letterboxes numbering in the thousands
within just a few years. It was 2001 before letterbox
ing made its way to North America, and there is even
an online log to mark findings.
Although it is unlikely the Geocachers developed
their idea based on that British hobby, the concept
is much the same: Find the cache, take something
from it, leave something in it and write about it in the
logbook. All ages seek them, so participants are, of
course, urged to use common sense.
Letterboxing. Geocaching. Treasure Hunting. So it
seems there is nothing new under the sun in this case,
just the technology to make it happen.
jana a.
mitcham
Jana Adams Mitcham is features editor of The
Jackson Herald, a sister publication of The Banks
County News. E-mail comments about this column to
jana@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher (Editorial)
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher (Advertising)
Angela Gary Editor
Chris Bridges Sports Editor
Sharon Hogan Reporter
Anelia Chambers Receptionist
Suzanne Reed 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
(SCED 547160)
Published weekly by
MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.,
P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
IXimtuxA
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"I know not what
course others may
take, but as for me
give me liberty
or give me death!"
Patrick Henry
March 23,1775
The Four Corners Offense
Raving against the shortcomings of
government is as easy as eating ice
cream. Governing itself is as painful as
walking on hot nails.
Republicans are beginning to feel
the spikes. They realize the meaning
of “what I would do, if I were running
things.”
As the 2008 legislative session dem
onstrated, the Republicans’ big guns are
trained on each other. Urban/suburban
lawmakers are fighting for help from
the Statehouse. Rural Republicans are
fearful that monster Atlanta will use
state aid to continue spreading its pow
erful tentacles.
Sam Olens, the Republican Cobb
County Commission chairman, recently
complained that the state GOP’s lack
of leadership is harming all of Georgia
and particularly metro Atlanta. The
elephants have fallen down on transpor
tation and the quality-of-life issues in
metro Atlanta, declares Olens.
Addressing the Council for Quality
Growth, Olens contended that state gov
ernment even lacks a plan to compete
with other states in the race to attract
and retain high-quality jobs.
Unfortunately, Olens’ strong words
represent the losing side in the
Republicans’ intraparty scrap.
To maintain majority control,
Republican leaders must maintain their
hate-Atlanta facade. Despising Atlanta
kept elected Democrats in power for
generations. Ironically, that same brand
of demagoguery is keeping Republicans
afloat now. The noisemakers in the
Legislature have succeeded in choking
off the state’s money pipeline for health
care and schools, and they are sup
porting some rural Georgians in issues
that fight to keep Sonny & Co. at the
top in popularity polls outside Atlanta.
(See anti-immigration oratory, clamps
on Grady Hospital, perpetuation of
poor-quality public schools and bulging
jailhouses.)
Gov. Perdue and his GOP associates
ran into the oppor
tunity of a politi
cal lifetime when
Georgians elected
Democrat Roy
Barnes governor
in 1998.
It is no coin
cidence that the
Georgia GOP
ended its 130-year
drought in guber
natorial elections
in 2002 when
Republicans nominated a guy named
“Sonny” from Bonaire instead of a
representative of the broader business
community.
Combined with then-Gov. Barnes’
removal of the Confederate battle
emblem from the state flag, and Barnes’
focus on Atlanta-oriented issues, the
election that brought Sonny Perdue
to power was the perfect alignment
of circumstances to chill for years the
historic affinity between the Georgia
Democratic Party and rural white vot
ers. The country precincts were packed
with voters determined to turn out
Barnes and end his go-go agenda.
Perdue displayed political skill in
holding the new GOP together (and
adding to it) for his 2006 re-election
campaign. He avoided doing too much,
or even much of anything.
In his only term, Barnes actually
proposed and implemented programs
to deal with the state’s current press
ing problems. He created the Georgia
Regional Transportation Authority, a
new agency that won nationwide praise
for its mission to help improve metro
Atlanta’s traffic by reducing sprawl and
creating regional transportation plans.
He proposed regional water planning,
and he took on the teachers’ unions and
local school boards to pass a tough-
minded reform bill meant to improve
Georgia’s embarrassingly poor public
schools. While all the measures won
high marks from experts inhabiting the
nation’s universities and think tanks,
they only painted him into a corner as
an increasingly metro-centered candi
date.
After two placid terms by Gov.
Perdue and acrimonious gridlock in
the Republican-controlled General
Assembly, metro Atlanta’s acute
growth-induced pains are becoming too
much to ignore.
The state GOP-run Legislature is
thus faced with a disaster of its own
making. The lawmakers can address
metro Atlanta’s pressing problems —
primarily with transportation projects
likely funded through a statewide tax
increase and a statewide water plan that
angers Georgia voters downstream from
Atlanta — and alienate their new rural
Georgia base. Or they can avoid antago
nizing rural voters by continuing to
ignore metro Atlanta’s needs, but they
risk turning the growing Atlanta region
into a Democratic stronghold powerful
enough to deliver statewide Democratic
electoral victories, similar to New York
City and Chicago in their respective
states. They do not have an obvious
path that makes everyone everywhere
happy (or even not steaming mad).
While Perdue’s political version
of basketball’s four- corners offense,
which slows an attack to a crawl, may
have worked to secure him a second
gubernatorial term, but it has neither
addressed the problems facing the state,
nor has it laid out a roadmap that will
allow his political party to remain in
power for a generation. As illustrated
by the angry remarks of Perdue’s fel
low Republican Olens, the jig is up for
politicians who merrily tread water as a
way to avoid making waves that could
wash them out of 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 call
ing 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, questions
or suggestions relating to the coun
ty board of commissioners, county
government, county board of educa
tion and crime and courts is asked to
contact staff reporter 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 Suzanne
Reed at 706-677-3491. Church
news may also be e-mailed to
churchnews@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News website
is updated each Thursday and
can be accessed on the Internet at
www.mainstreetnews.com.
Follow the
party line
or get lost
Items compiled from my political note
book as the summer months approach:
•I found it interesting to read the
accounts of Georgia’s Republican state
convention this past weekend.
A rather vocal group of Ron Paul
supporters were at the convention in
Columbus and did everything within
their power to get recognized by those
who run the state party. Their efforts
were in vain, however, as the state party
decided on a “united” front for John
McCain.
I didn’t find these actions suprising
given past actions by state Republican
leaders. In 2006, state party officials
refused to even
recognize that Ray
McBerry was run
ning against Sonny
Perdue in the
Republican primary
for governor. They
went as far to not
even list McBerry
on the state party’s
official website
even though every
other statewide can
didate was listed.
I called the state Republican party
headquarters to voice my objection. I
called as an average Georgia voter, not
as a journalist.
The woman who answered the phone
basically said — in a somewhat conde
scending manner — McBerry had no
right to run against Perdue and that since
Perdue was the incumbent that he was
going to receive the support of the state
party.
“But can’t you even list his opponent
on the state party website?” I asked.
“Ignoring a candidate doesn’t mean he
doesn’t exist.”
The woman on the other end of the
line then hung up on me.
The message is clear when it comes to
the Republican Party in Georgia: follow
the party line or get lost.
•The race for governor in our great
state is officially underway for 2010.
State insurance commissioner John
Oxendine has declared his intentions to
seek the office.
Oxendine, a Republican, has received
high marks from many (myself included)
for his work through the years as state
insurance commissioner. Oxendine has
proven to be a thorn in the side of the
big insurance companies, who often
don’t look out for the best interest of
paying consumers.
With no incumbent running in 2010,
the governor’s race will be wide open,
but Oxendine certainly is worthy of con
sideration.
•Speaking of the Governor’s office,
will Sonny Perdue go down as the least
effective one our state has had? I mean
what has he accomplished during his
time in office?
Give up? I give up too. Perdue has
overseen a rising unemployment rate for
Georgia with numerous large companies
closing their doors. I guess he will be
remembered for that if nothing else.
•I must admit I was surprised Saxy
Chambliss did not draw a primary chal
lenger for his U.S Senate seat. If ever
an incumbent was worthy of a primary
challenge, it would be Saxy.
Chambliss has been nothing but a rub
ber stamp for President Bush’s failed
policies, both domestic and foreign.
Like a captain who refuses to give up
the sinking boat, the loyalty Chambliss
has shown to Bush, arguably one of the
worst presidents in our country’s history,
is disgraceful.
Here’s hoping for his ouster in
November.
•Bob Barr’s bid for president as a
member of the Libertarian Party has
gained a great deal of national press. Our
state’s largest newspaper attempted to
drag Barr through the mud with a front
page story Sunday, but the growth of his
support continues to grow.
Barr’s first step will be to secure the
Libertarian Party bid and then set his
sights on John McCain and Barack
Obama. The Libertarian candidate for
President, whoever it may be, will be on
Georgia’s ballot.
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.