Newspaper Page Text
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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1 3, 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
Letters
Finds story 'insulting'
Dear Editor:
I will not be renewing my subscription
of twelve years effective 11-08-2008 (3675
1 1). My decision was based on your poor
judgment to publish the insulting editorial
on the front page of the newspaper detailing
the opinion of one citizen about the family’s
celebration of Tyler Bush’s life.
I would have had no problem with you
publishing this woman’s opinion on the edi
torial page where it belonged. Instead, you
chose to glorify her opinion, and tarnish the
image of Tyler Bush’s family and friends. In
twelve years of reading this publication, I do
not recall any other editorial being placed on
the front page. Then to add insult to injury,
the following week Mr. Buffington wrote his
own opinion defending the position thereby
insulting the community in which you were to
serve. My Mother taught me there are times it
would be best to keep your opinions to your
self and if you can’t say anything nice, do not
say anything at all. The mere fact that you had
chosen to publish this editorial on the front
page had already declared your newspaper’s
opinion.
Perhaps a nice picture and article of our
brand new Courthouse would have been much
more newsworthy and appropriate on the
front page.
Feel free to publish this as a “Letter to the
Editor” if you desire, but regardless please
make sure to cancel or not renew my sub
scription.
Sincerely,
Jill Brown
Baldwin
Author appreciates
BCES students
Dear Editor,
I would like to thank B anks County Elementary
School for having me perform at their school
yesterday. It was a very exciting and rewarding
experience. The children were so very attentive
and I was extremely impressed with the ques
tions that they asked. There were more children
with questions, in each class, than we had time
to answer. This only happens when children are
exposed to a positive and effective educational
environment on a consistent basis.
I travel the world visiting hundreds of schools
and one thing I know is that not all schools
are created equal. I can tell a good school as
soon as I walk into the door. Banks County
Elementary School is one of the best I have
ever encountered.
Thank you for all that you do in support of
our nation’s most valuable resource, our chil
dren.
Sincerely,
Cal Sims
Author
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga.
Mike Buffington
Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington
Co-Publisher
Angela Gary
Editor
Justin Poole
Sports Editor
Sharon Hogan
Reporter
Anelia Chambers
Receptionist
Suzanne Reed
Church News
Phones tall 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
Subscription in county
$19.75
Subscription in state
$38.85
Subscription out of state
$44.20
Military with APO address
$42.20
Senior citizens get a $2 discount
Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga. 30547
Postmaster, send address changes to:
Subscriptions,
The Banks County News,
PO. Box 920,
Homer, Ga. 30547
Member: Georgia Press Association
Georgia Sports Writers Association
National Newspaper Association
Georgia voters go their own way
You can say this about Georgia
voters: they aren’t about to be
swayed by any of those newfan
gled ideas and trends you might
see having an influence on other
states.
Back in 2006, while a
Democratic wave was sweep
ing dozens of Republicans out
of Congress and state legisla
tures across the country, our state
swam strongly against that tide.
Georgia returned a Republican
to the governor’s office and was the only
state where every GOP incumbent run
ning for another term in Congress and the
General Assembly was reelected.
We saw a similar result last week. Where
states that had been solidly Republican
in past presidential elections - Virginia,
North Carolina, Indiana, and Nevada -
delivered their electoral votes to Democrat
Barack Obama, Georgia remained loyal
to Republican nominee John McCain
and maintained GOP majorities in the
Legislature.
For the moment anyway, Georgia is
still a very conservative state that will
generally vote Republican in the biggest
elections.
But there are signs that even here, long
term electoral changes are underway. That
largely is a product of the demographic
forces reshaping the state: the percent
age of white voters continues to slowly
decline, while the proportion of black and
Hispanic voters continues to go up.
Look at the contrast in vote totals for the
past two presidential elections. George
W. Bush carried Georgia by a margin of
17 percentage points and 548,101 votes
in 2004. The lead for McCain was nearly
two-thirds smaller: only five percentage
points and 206,022 votes separated him
from Obama.
Obama pulled a higher percentage of the
Georgia vote, 47 percent, than did white
candidates Bill Clinton, Albert Gore and
John Kerry.
The U.S. Senate race is another indicator
of fading Republican strength. Incumbent
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who had a huge
lead in the polls until the financial mar
kets collapsed in September, could not
reach the 50 percent vote level and, as a
result, has been forced into a Dec. 2 run
off election with Democrat Jim Martin.
It seemed inconceivable six months ago
that a Republican incumbent would lose a
Senate race, but it’s not such a far-fetched
possibility now.
Democrats are showing more strength in
suburban areas around Atlanta that, until
this year, could be counted upon to deliver
their votes to GOP candidates. That’s a
trend that can be attributed to the move
ment of blacks, Latinos, and
other ethnic groups into these
counties.
Cobb and Gwinnett counties
have been fundamental pillars of
strength for Georgia Republicans
over the past 20 years, but those
pillars are crumbling. Nearly 45
percent of the Cobb County vote
went to Obama while 44 percent
of Gwinnett’s vote came in for
the Democratic nominee.
In Douglas County, which was
previously a strong Republican coun
ty, 50.5 percent of the voters preferred
Obama. Rockdale County, another reli
ably Republican county for the last 15
years, gave 54.4 percent of its vote to
Obama, and GOP-leaning Newton County
delivered 50.3 percent of its vote to
Obama. Obama got 46 percent of the vote
in Henry County, which also had been
strongly GOP in its voting patterns.
Democratic challengers toppled
Republican incumbents to win state House
seats in Cobb and Gwinnett counties; the
Democrats captured another GOP House
seat in Rockdale County after Rep. Bob
Mumford (R-Conyers) decided against
running for another term.
These trends suggest that two years
from now, suburban Republican lawmak
ers like Bill Hembree of Douglas County,
Steve Davis of McDonough, Dan Weber
of Dunwoody and John Douglas of Social
Circle could find themselves in very com
petitive races if they decide to run for
another term.
The next big race in Georgia, of course,
will be the 2010 election for governor,
where incumbent Sonny Perdue is pre
vented by law from running for another
term.
The rumored candidates on the
Republican side are well known in the
political community: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle,
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine,
Secretary of State Karen Handel, House
Majority Leader Jerry Keen, and maybe a
congressman or two.
But what about the Democrats? The big
name floating out there is former governor
Roy Barnes, who so far has dismissed all
talk of running for public office again, at
least in his public statements.
Could the stronger showing of Democrats
in this year’s election cause him to change
his mind? Stay tuned for further develop
ments.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol
Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news
service at www.gareport.com that covers
government and politics in Georgia. He
can be reached at tcrawford@capitolim-
pact.net.
News department contact numbers
Anyone with general story ideas, com
plaints or comments about the news depart
ment 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, county
board of education and crime and courts
is asked to contact staff reporter Sharon
Hogan at 706-367-2350 or by e-mail at
sharon @ mainstreetnews.com.
Anyone with comments, questions or sug
gestions relating to Alto, Lula, Baldwin and
Gillsville, should also contact Hogan.
Justin Poole is sports editor of the paper and
covers local high school, middle school and
recreation sports. Calls concerning the City
of Maysville should also go to 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.
Obama victory
historic for
many reasons
I was bom in the spring of 1971. In
the span of history that was certainly
not a long time
ago.
When you
take into consid
eration it wasn’t
until the 1971
college foot
ball season that
the University
of Alabama
fielded its first
integrated foot
ball team, you
realize just how
far the South, and even our country,
has advanced when it comes to race
relations.
As I attended a high school foot
ball game in the heart of Dixie last
Friday night, I thought to myself how
the only color that mattered to the
players, coaches and fans at the sta
dium was the color of the jersey their
respective team was wealing. I guess
you could throw in the color of the
field is important as well, but no one
thinks about black and white players
competing on the same team for the
same school anymore. They don’t in
Georgia, they don’t in Alabama and
they don’t in Mississippi. At one time
this certainly was not the case and,
not all that long before I arrived on
the scene.
With that in mind, it was a great
thing our country elected its first black
president last week. Regardless of
where you stand on the political fence,
you have to admit it was a big step for
our country which until Nov. 4, 2008
had only elected white men as presi
dent. We lagged far behind other lead
ing countries of the world who have
had leaders of color and also females
in power throughout their history. Last
week's election would have also been
historical, it should be noted, had John
McCain won because it would have
meant our first female vice-president,
something which also would have
been welcomed in its own right.
The fact that Obama is our president
elect defies most political experts. I
may not be considered the “political
expert” some are, but politics is a
passion of mine. I follow it closely.
I’m one of the few who can tell you
about all the candidates running in
both the Democratic and Republican
primaries. I know about the various
third-party candidates. My television
spends a good bit of time on the
CSPAN networks.
Frankly, I never thought Obama
had a chance. I would have put
money on Hillary Clinton winning
the Democratic nomination without
much of a challenge. Obama was
pretty much an unknown United
States Senator with little experience
and his name recognition was not high
nationally. To be frank, the fact he is
African-American was also a major
obstacle he had to overcome.
Even once Obama won the
Democratic nomination the battle
ahead of him was still going to be
long and tough. The conservative
movement has a talk radio network
which blasted him on a daily basis.
National hosts like Rush Limbaugh,
Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz to even
area radio hosts like Martha Zoeller,
Herman Cain and A1 Gainey, distorted
the truth and even told outright false
hoods about Obama day in and day
out right up until the Nov. 4 vote.
Don’t underestimate their power
along with the power of the Republican-
oriented FOX News channel who has
biased talk show hosts, including the
previously mentioned Hannity parad
ing as “journalists.”
In the end, however, Americans saw
through the distortions and decided it
was time to make history. The vot
ers decided it was time for a change.
When all was said and done, it was a
clear-cut victory, not like the ones in
2000 and 2004 where the victory was
decided under the most suspicious of
circumstances.
chris
bridges
Chris Bridges is an editor with
Mainstreet Newspapers. E-mail com
ments about this column to chris @
mainstreetnews.com.