Newspaper Page Text
PACE 4A
THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 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 tnan
able to read, all is safe.”
— Thomas Jefferson
‘Feel-good’ oil
ads are insulting
I f you haven’t noticed, those big oil companies
want you to feel better about the higher prices
you’re paying at the pump.
With oil companies now becoming the punching bag
for the presidential election, some of them are fighting
back — with “feel-good” ads.
The ads typically paint the picture of how those big
oil companies are part of the solution — not the pro
blem — of an emerging worldwide
energy crisis.
They include words and phrases
like “conservation,” “cleaner ener
gy sources” and being “respectful
of the environment.”
Nope. You typically don’t think
about those images when you think
about oil companies.
“Profit” (as in soaring profits),
“drilling” (as in the lack of new
drilling sites) and “increase” (as
in “When will these prices stop
increasing?”) come to my mind.
And that’s why oil companies want you to know
about all of their considerate efforts to save the planet.
Like their research to develop wind energy, geothermal
energy and other energy sources that A1 Gore would
probably dig.
Sorry, guys. I just don’t want to hear it as I pump
yet another $4 gallon of gas into my vehicle.
I don’t want to hear it when I’m paying 20 percent
more for groceries, due to rising fuel costs.
And I don’t want to hear it when our local govern
ments start raising taxes to offset fuel costs.
It’s just plain insulting, folks.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the oil
companies and their associations have spent an addi
tional 18 percent in the first quarter for these feel-good
campaigns.
It seems like every time the oil companies
become the really, really “bad guys,” the feel-good ads
start and prices slowly recede — at least for a while.
Expect that to happen right before November’s presi
dential election — a move taken to get high fuel prices
off the political radar.
I have no doubt that we need to invest in alternative
energy sources — but that’s a venture that’s had plenty
of promises over the decades with few results for con
sumers. I favor Bush’s proposal to allow coastal states
to consider oil drilling off their shores.
Obama may be right: If that proposal becomes a rea
lity, it will take years for us to see lowering fuel costs
at the pump. But that proposal is still the best and
most realistic long-term move for this country.
For those not living in an urban area, we have few
transportation alternatives that would save fuel and not
excessively hinder our schedules.
There are only a couple of choices: Reduce the
demand for oil or increase the supply.
We may still have years of empty promises for alter
native energy sources. Instead of opposing all forms
of expanding traditional energy sources, this country
needs to be open to some compromise.
Without taking action soon, our energy crisis will
only continue. Think about those blackouts every sum
mer in California.
Kerri Testement is news editor of The Braselton
News, a sister publication of The Banks County News.
E-mail comments about this column to kerri@mains-
treetnews.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
Angela Gary Fax
Homer Office Phone
Homer Office Fax
(SCED 547160)
Published weekly by
MainStreetNewspapers, Inc.,
P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
Subscription in county $19.75
Subscription in state $38.85
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Military with APO address $42.20
Senior citizens get a $2 discount
Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga.
Postmaster, send address changes to:
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The Banks County News,
PO. Box 920,
Homer, Ga. 30547
Member: Georgia Press Association
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367-2490
367-9355
677-3491
677-3263
Good morning, Georgia!
T his may be an answer to
Georgia’s woes. The University
of Georgia has decided to
spend a relatively paltry $1.44 million
to buy a full-fledged commercial TV
station and set it up in Athens.
The purpose of acquiring WNEG-
Channel 32 of Toccoa is to train com
munication students in TV and to make
money. The university research founda
tion is underwriting the purchase from
Media General, a TV-and-newspaper
conglomerate headquartered in
Richmond, Va. A professional staff will
oversee the day-to-day operation.
Administrators at UGA have big plans
for their new toy.
“It’s time to stop talking and start
doing.” says E. Culpepper Clark, UGA
journalism dean and manager of the
TV project, “All media are in profound
transformation because the web has
brought new powers to consumers
and citizens. At the Grady College [of
Journalism and Mass Communication]
we aim to assist consumers in creat
ing their own content and citizens in
participating through journalism. In the
end, WNEG gives us a license to do just
that.”
“Hmmm, I thought Georgia already
had a state-owned TV network,” you
may whisper to yourself, and you would
be right. GPTV, sending a signal from
posh studios in the heart of Atlanta, car
ries a full schedule of programs, from
business and government news to docu
mentaries on flora and fauna.
So what does Georgia need with two
grand-scale TV centers?
The answer is not immediately clear.
However, with help from a visionary or
two, the new Bulldog station could be
used as a jumping-off point for all sorts
of cutting-edge digital media.
For many years, Georgia’s public TV
station operated from the UGA campus
as a nearly independent voice.
However, Gov. Joe Frank Harris and
his chief of staff, Tom Perdue (no kin to
the present governor), decided the TV
station and their administration would
be better off under closer surveillance
by the Gold Dome folks. In the 1980s,
they zapped the Bulldog station as an
adjunct to the
university and
transferred it into
a grand tower in
Atlanta.
The technical
quality of the sta
tion’s productions
rose 100 percent.
The bad-news
content dealing
with state govern
ment dropped to
around zero.
The news staff was dedicated and
hard-driving, but they operated under
strict rules. Political criticism of Georgia
government was not on their agenda.
The closing of the TV operation at
UGA set up an awful fuss between the
governor’s office and UGA President
Fred Davison. The controversy eventu
ally forced Davison to resign. He told
friends that he objected to UGA being
run by gubernatorial aide Tom Perdue.
Now we’ve come full circle.
Georgia’s privately-owned media com
panies, already suffering severe finan
cial problems, may not be ecstatic at the
notion of another commercial station.
The Athens Banner-Herald reports
that the Grady College will run the sta
tion “as a commercial operation, com
peting with privately owned companies
for advertising dollars.”
Of course, there’s always room for
one more news outlet to tell us the good
news about Georgia, such as:
Early last year, Georgia government
received a B+ for “best managed state”
from Governance magazine. In the
South, only Louisiana had as good a
rating. Georgia won its high marks for
implementing recommendations of the
Commission for a New Georgia. The
commission, a group of business lead
ers, met in secret to arrive at their rec
ommendations.
The B+ citation emphasized Georgia’s
ability to complete an inventory of its
SUVs, planes, helicopters and sedans.
Wonderful. Georgia gets high marks
for its ability to count the deck chairs
on the Titanic. Think of the spectacular
video the cars and planes might produce
— endless lines and lines of execu
tive aircraft and long black limos and
Cadillac sports wagons.
One story does not a complete news
cast make. There are others:
A pioneer in offering universal pre
kindergarten to small children, Georgia
has now fallen badly behind other states.
Only 55 percent of eligible children
are enrolled in prekindergarten. Talk to
former Gov. Zell Miller. He started the
program.
Georgia is third in the nation in delin
quent home loans and second in per
sonal bankruptcies.
Public care for destitute children is
among the worst in the nation. The
authoritative Annie E. Casey Foundation
reports Georgia is showing a year-over-
year (2005-2006) increase in the follow
ing categories:
High-school dropouts, low birth-
weight babies, teen deaths, teen crime
and children living in families in which
no parent has full-time employment.
That’s hardly enough to fdl a day’s
worth of local newscasts. Surely, Air
Red&Black can find much more pic
ture-worthy stuff, like:
The exploitation of the Golden Isles.
Boundless water pollution.
Conservation tracts bought up for
development.
Endless traffic jams, wrecks, dope
deals, homicides, bank robberies. If it
bleeds, it leads. Might as well teach
them young.
And don’t forget those bears,
squeezed out of their natural wildlife
habitats, going berserk along our inter
state highways.
Stand by, TV staff: Georgia is brim
ming with great story ideas that other
big stations have barely touched. Give
me a ring when you finish this list of
eye-poppers. We’ve got another list
ready. And don’t forget that former TV
star-reporter Dale Cardwell, now a can
didate for the Senate, may be looking
for work after the July 15 primary.
You can reach Bill Shipp at P.O. Box
2520, Kennesaw, GA 30156, e-mail:
shippl@bellsouth.net, or Web address:
billsh ipponl ine. com.
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, RO. 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, 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.
Assuming can
make you look
mighty foolish
I learned a long time ago you should
never assume anything.
Oh, you might get away with it
once in a while, but more often than not,
it’s going to come back to bite you and
many times in an embarrassing place.
That old but wise lesson about assum
ing came into play last Friday although I
am thankful I was not the one who was
reminded of the vital lesson.
I was at the Banks County Parks and
Recreation Department to cover another
political forum. It
seems there has
been a record set
for forums this
year. There have
been so many even
the most die-hard
political junkies
like myself are get
ting a little road
weary.
As I sat in the
gym at the recre
ation department,
an old-timer (whom
I have had political conversations with
before) made his way over to where I
was seated. There was no introduction.
There was no greeting. I knew immedi
ately where the conservation was going.
“I guess you’re happy,” the old-timer
snapped. “I see your man is ahead.”
“My man?” I asked.
“Yeah, your man,” the old-timer
replied, seeming a little puzzled by my
question. “You know, Obama.”
“He’s not my man,” I replied. “Why
would you think that?”
“Of course, he’s your man!” the old-
timer snapped back, a little fire starting
to glare in his eyes.
“I’ve never said I was for him or that I
supported him,” I said.
“Yes, you have,” the old-timer coun
tered.
“No, I haven’t,” I said.
“Who are you for?” the old-timer
asked, becoming more befuddled by the
passing second.
“I’m for Bob Barr,” I told him.
“Bob Barr?” he answered with a ques
tion.
“Yes, Bob Barr,” I informed him.
“You know, the Libertarian candidate
for President. Like me, he’s tired of our
civil liberties being taken away and he’s
tried of having to choose from the lesser
of two evils. I feel the same way. That’s
why I am voting for and supporting Bob
Barr. In fact, we need you on board.”
“I thought your man was Obama!” the
old-timer said, more confused and frus
trated than ever.
“I’ve written several times that I am
supporting Bob Barr,” I said. “Perhaps if
you read what I wrote rather than assum
ing it might help.”
The old-timer did an about face and
marched away, knowing his attempt to
rattle me and shame me in some way
had failed miserably. In fact, I think I
heard him mumbling something about
“Obama” as he returned to his seat.
For the record, I did not vote for
Obama in the presidential primary when
it rolled into Georgia. In fact, I did not
even vote in the Democratic primary. I
requested a Republican ballot to cast my
vote for Texas Congressman Ron Paul. I
don’t regret that decision at all, just like I
don’t regret supporting Bob Barr now.
I know many Republicans are upset
that Barr is supposedly taking votes
away from John McCain, but it should be
noted that Barr is drawing support from
those who tend to vote conservative, lib
eral and those who consider themselves
independent. It’s what makes his cam
paign so unique. So many people, like
myself, are fed up with the politics of a
two-party system which offers nothing
new, just the same old line election after
election.
So don’t assume that your friend or
neighbor who normally votes Republican
in presidential elections will do so this
November. Ditto for those who tend to
cast their votes for Democrats. There’s
a strong alternative this political season
and his name is Bob Barr.
While I doubt we’ll have the support
of the old-timer from the forum, we are
gaining momentum with each passing
week.
chris
bridges
Chris Bridges is a reporter for The
Banks County 1 News. Contact him at
706-367-2745 or e-mail comments to
chris@mainstreetnews.com.