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PAGE 4A 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.