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PAGE 4A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 Editor: Angela Gary Phone: 706-367-2490 E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com Website: www.banksnewsTODAY.com Opinion “Where the press is free and every tnan able to read, all is safe.” — Thomas Jefferson Our View: Drag racing did not honor Bush People manage grief in a variety of ways. But last week’s ill-concieved “tribute” to a dead Banks County teen was not the way to honor the young boy’s memory. High school student Tyler Bush was killed last week after he apparently attempted to run along side a jeep while the vehicle was moving 30-35 mph. It was a tragic, senseless death that stabbed at the heart of the Banks County community. On Friday afternoon following Bush’s funeral, a large number of students and some adults gathered along Sims Bridge Road near his house to cheer on several cars drag racing and doing “spin-outs.” The event was said to be a tribute to Bush. Had it not been for one brave woman who stopped and confronted the crowd, another trag edy could have happened. Drag racing on a pub lic road was not the appropriate place to honor a boy who had just died because of carelessness in a vehicle. One could dismiss the incident as simply an emotional response of grieving friends. But that would be too easy and dismissive of a warped cultural environment that led a group of teens to endanger themselves, and others, along a public road. Something larger, deeper and more disturbing is going on here. If the death of a friend isn’t enough to send a message about the danger of vehicles and carelessness, then what is? What does it take for a community to impress on its young the seriousness of auto accidents and the deaths that result from a lack of good judgment? How many more teens in Banks County have to die? Tyler Bush’s death will have been in vain if the community doesn’t begin to alter its automo tive culture, a culture that last Friday, celebrated horsepower over a human life. Letter to the Editor: Water is real emergency Dear Editor: First, I would like to commend the Banks County Commissioners for the progress made on the water system. Great job! Water plays a very important part in leading to progress in all counties in our state. We still need to extend the system out into the areas of county without water. The entire population of tax payers have contributed to this system, they should also benefit from it. In regards to the “economic development profes sional” (Sept. 4, 2008, The Banks County News), I would like to make a comment. Angela Sheppard said, “You can’t do anything in Banks County until you have your water and sewer in.” She should know, this is one of the areas she has been working in. Hiring an economic development professional at this point would be like hiring a truck driver and not having a truck. It would be difficult for the truck driver to produce benefits for the county without a truck. Businesses build in counties that can supply water, sewer in land. One of the speakers in the article said “this is an emergency.” If there is an emergency, it is to get the water and sewer system completed. We will then have what businesses are looking for in Banks County. At the present time, spend the salary money on the real emergency, completing the water and sewer system. We will then be able to compete with those other Georgia counties for those new businesses. A lack of jobs in Banks County didn’t just happen overnight and it won’t be solved overnight. Water is a very important project for our commissioners and has been handled well in the past. Keep up the good work! Build more lakes in our county for an increased supply of water. Water and continued good management will bring progress to banks County. Sincerely, Ed Barrett Lula 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 Suzanne Reed Co-Publisher Co-Publisher Editor Sports Editor Reporter Receptionist Church News (SCED 547160) Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc., P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 The battle of vet vs. non-vet T oo bad about Jim Martin. The Democrat may have had a slim chance of unseating incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss in this year’s election. Sarah Palin and Barack Obama may have punctured his last hopes of victory in the Nov. 4 election. Palin’s surprise candidacy for vice president has changed the dynamics of the presidential race and forced Obama’s brain trust to rethink its strategy. Forget about winning Georgia; that was one of the Obama team’s first reorganization deci sions. Turning Georgia from red to blue just wasn’t worth the gazillion dollars it would have cost. Besides, there was no guarantee that it could be done, no matter how much was spent. Georgia looks like a Republican state from here to eternity, or as long as it main tains a white majority. The quality of the candidates doesn’t mat ter much. The GOP tag is what counts. If you don’t believe it, just take a look at the Republican-controlled Georgia House. The GOP House leadership looks and acts like a bunch of reform-school fugitives. But back to Martin vs. Chambliss. Bless his heart, Martin is trying to make this a race between a military veteran and a non-vet. Martin served with distinction in the Vietnam War. Chambliss didn’t go. He had a hurt knee and a fistful of student deferments. Once upon a time, a clever campaign direc tor could have used the candidates’ vet/non- vet status to carve out victory for the military man. That time may have passed. The veterans’ from World War II are dying out fast. And the Korean and Vietnam vets are mostly aging warriors now. Look at McCain at 72. In any event, Martin is running a veterans' campaign, seizing on Ms. Palin’s declaration: “There’s only one candidate who has fought for America, and that’s John McCain.” Martin is counting on help from a group of Georgians who will never vote for Chambliss because of smear advertising he used six years ago against incumbent Max Cleland, a triple-amputee Vietnam veteran. In addition, despite the Obama campaign running out on him, Martin is running a sur prisingly energetic race, though Chambliss remains the heavy favorite. If Chambliss had faced a substantial prima ry opponent, he might have had a tough fight. Georgia’s senior sen ator is still dogged for his support of a contro versial immigration bill that would have opened the door to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens. And who doesn’t remember him posing for photos with liberal icon Ted Kennedy to show his support for the bill? Of course, he later backed away from the measure, but the damage was done. His credibility would never be the same among the anti-immigration crowd. Then there’s Chambliss’ son, who has been a lobbyist for the commodities trading indus try at a time when Dad happened to be chairman or ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee — the committee with jurisdiction over commodities trading. Chambliss is one of the few statewide elected officials in America who is still will ingly joined at the hip to President Bush. Even in Georgia Bush has now hit bottom in his approval rating. Despite his unfailingly loyal service to the Bush administration, Chambliss has little bacon to show for his efforts. Georgia lost multiple military installations during the last round of closings, which occurred on his watch. We appear likely to fail in efforts to land several major federal projects, including the national biodefense facility that the University of Georgia has doggedly pursued. Nevertheless, Saxby looks like a winner on Election Day. He has too many advantages. He is a Republican; he looks the part of a sen ator; and at the end of the day, not many folks give a damn whether he’s a veteran or not. Correction; In last Sunday’s column, we erroneously reported that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had sold a state-owned plane on eBay. She did not. You can reach award-winning political col umnist Bill Shipp at P. 0. Box 2520, Kennesaw, GA 30156, e-mail: shippl@bellsouth.net, or through his Web address at: billshipponline. com. Letters to the editor policy given The Banks County News has established a policy on printing Letters to the editor. We must have an original copy of all letters that are submitted to us for publi cation. 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, com plaints or comments about the news department is asked to call editor 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 county board of commissioners, county government, coun ty board of education 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 alsois sports editorofthepaper and covers local high school, middle school and recreation sports. Anyone with comments, questions 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 concerning the City of Maysville should go to staff reporter Justin Poole at 706-367-2348 or e-mail him at justin@ 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 throughout the week and may be accessed on the Internet at www.banksnewsTODAY.com. Hello: No, the celebrity you are calling isn't in T he first call happened a few years ago in the dead of night. “Hello,” I managed to say, hoping bad news wasn’t about to be deliv ered. “Is this Chris Bridges?” “Yes, I said,” realizing I didn’t recognize the voice, even though I was only half awake at best. “Why haven’t you called me?” “What?” I responded. “You said you would call,” the female voice said. “Huh?!” I said looking at watch which read 2:30 on a late Saturday night/early Sunday morn ing. “When we met in the bar you said you chris bridges would call later,” the caller said, beginning to become irritated. “I’ve never met you in a bar,” I said. “Yes, you did,” the woman responded, becoming more deter mined to get an answer as to why I had stood her up by not calling. “Why haven’t you called?” she continued. “I’ve never met you in a bar,” I said, becoming somewhat irritated myself. “I don’t even go to bars. Who is this?” Finally the woman ended the con versation by yelling, “LIAR!” and hung up the phone. As the days, weeks and months went on I began getting more calls for someone named “Ludacris.” I must admit I had no idea who or what Ludacris was. I am out of touch with today’s pop culture and admit to having been at a loss. However, curiosity finally got the better of me after many more middle of the night phone calls. It seems Ludacris is from the Atlanta area and believe it or not — I actually found it funny — his real name was Chris Bridges. Now my knowledge of rap music is limited to 1980s groups such as Run DMC so I was definite ly out of my league on this one. Well, the phone calls for Ludacris to my residence continued, almost on a daily basis. I can only assume people were calling information and asking for any phone number with the name Chris Bridges associ ated with it. One again, I can only assume I was the lone one within a 100-mile radius of Atlanta so the operator gave my number out. At times, I had a little fun with the people calling. One time a young fan called and I pretended to be Ludacris’ manager and said he “stepped out to go the store and would be back in a few minutes.” The caller could hardly contain his excitement and asked if I would please ask his idol to call back. “Sure I will tell him,” I told the young fan who began yelling to his friends who were obviously gathered around the phone. “It’s him! It's him!” the caller yelled. “OK,” I said, “He’ll be back in a about 15 or so.” I also received a letter once from a woman in Seattle who felt it was her “destiny” to be with Chris “Ludacris” Bridges. She talked of how she wanted to marry him and how she had given it serious thought. She eagerly awaited a response from him and was ready to get married if he felt the same. Eventually though the calls got to be too much, especially the ones in the middle of the night. I had to change the way my name was listed in the phone directory to stop the calls. I haven’t gotten one in some time now. If nothing else, I got a small taste of what it would mean to be a celeb rity. Personally, being small time does have it advantages. Chris “Not The Singer” Bridges is a reporter for The Banks County News. E-mail comments to him at chris @ mainstreetnews. com.