About The Banks County news. (Homer, Banks County, Ga.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 2011)
PACE 4A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2011 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 Christmas will be here before you know it It’s true. Christmas will be here before you know it. By the time you finish getting organized with this round of kids’ presents, summer will be here and when you turn around again, it will be time to put up the tree for Christmas 2012. It’s funny how time shifts into high gear the older you get. It used to seem that my birthday would never get here. Christmas would never get here. And now, if you are like me, you kind of hope no one will know you’ve added yet another digit to the age tally. (You’re how old? Oh, wow, ma’am. Sorry.) Someone recently told me that once you have children, time kicks into warp speed, and I’ve found that to be true. They get older in a flash, and it is interest ing to relive some of my childhood memories through my children. On Christmas Eve morning, my son and daughter and I were up early at my in-laws’ house in Macon. No one else was awake, since my sister-in-law and her baby had gotten up even earlier and then gone back to bed. At 2, Noah is too little to understand and his excite ment simply fed from his sister’s, but Addie, 6, was beside herself. “When — when! — will we open presents?’’ she asked for the 20th time. I was transported back to Grandmother O’Kelley’s house. The Christmas Eve tradition for my mother’s side of the family was always to gather for supper and gifts at Grandmother and Granddaddy O’Kelley’s home. We still get together, but now at a cousin’s house. Grandmother would find a small cedar tree down in the field and cut it, bringing it in to decorate with a few ornaments and tinsel. And then she would cook. I remember (finally!) getting in the car with my parents and sister and looking up at the sky to find the Christmas star as we rode to Grandmother’s. Our many aunts, uncles and cousins would be there and we’d gather around the long table with benches or in the warm kitchen and enjoy the good cooking. Now that I am one of the contributors to the holiday meals, I have a vast appreciation for Grandmother and her daughters, who prepared masses of food with what seemed (at the time) great ease. And then it began. “When — when! — will we open presents?’’ we cousins would clamor, beside ourselves with excitement as we eyed the gifts under the little tree. “After the dishes are done,’’ the aunts replied for the 20th time. But the wait was interminable. The adults lingered over their plates, going for seconds and thirds, getting coffee, sampling desserts. Would they never finish? And then the dishes. Grandmother’s kitchen was alive with the clinking of silverware, the dishes being dipped into the basin of hot, soapy water then rinsed. Everything was washed hand and then spread out to dry. It seemed that the talk circled the kitchen with the dishes — some funny anecdote or problem to be solved was passed along with this plate or that bowl. “When — when! — will we open presents?’’ we tried again. “Soon as the dishes are done.’’ Back to the conversation and dishes at hand. We decided to try our luck in the living room. Oh, forget it. The uncles and Granddaddy were in a post-supper haze, legs stretched out toward the fire. Maybe they had conversations and problems to solve, too, but I don’t remember that. Compared to the kitchen, the living room was quiet except for the crackling of the logs. In later years, the television would be turned on, extra loud, to a show Granddaddy liked. Finally, the dishes were done. The aunts brought chairs in from the kitchen. Everyone settled down. Someone got up to get a cup of tea. Someone shifted around to the other side of the table. Granddaddy rocked forward in his chair. The fire crackled. We sat on our hands and wriggled with excitement. Then in a flurry and ripping and tearing of paper, we opened presents. I’ve seen the photos from those years, the cousins spread out in the floor, the impossibly young adults admiring each other’s gifts. It was a good time. “When — when! — will we open presents?’’ my daughter asked again after two hours and, finally, every one was up, everyone had a cup of coffee and we moved into the living room to the Christmas tree. Then in a flurry and ripping and tearing of paper, we opened presents. One day she will see the photos from these years, the cousins with their presents, the impos sibly young adults admiring each other’s gifts. It was a good time. Jana Adams Mitcham is features editor of The Jackson Herald, sister publication of The Banks County News. jana a. mitcham The Banks County News Founded 1968 The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga. Mike Buffington Scott Buffington Angela Gary Randy Crump Sharon Hogan Erin Rossiter Anelia Chambers Co-Publisher Co-Publisher Editor Sports Reporter Reporter Receptionist (SCED 547160) Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc., P. 0. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 It was a pretty good year for the governor He had to fight his way through a massive winter storm just to be sworn into office and he was immediately confronted with an economy that just refused to get better. Somehow, Nathan Deal survived and made it through his first year as Georgia’s governor. How would you sum up his initial run at being the state’s top elected official? For a politician who was trapped inside the Washington Beltway for 17 years - and far removed from the rough-and-tumble of state politics under the Golden Dome - it turned out to be a fairly good rookie year for the governor. He did stumble a time or two on some of the thornier issues like immigration. He certainly can be criticized for restructuring the HOPE scholarship program in a way that could give high school graduates from suburban schools an advantage over students from rural systems. Like his predecessor, Deal did not come into office with any bold, sweeping vision for Georgia’s future. But really, given the unyielding nature of the economic down turn, it is obvious that the money just isn’t there right now for big ideas and probably won’t be for a while. Even with all of these shortcomings, Deal had some noteworthy accomplishments he can point to during that first year in office. Although he’s not a drinker, he did not get in the way of the General Assembly’s passage of legislation that paved the way for Sunday package sales of alcoholic beverages in grocery and convenience stores. Georgia has finally moved into the modern era on this issue and Sunday sales will also gener ate some modest growth in tax revenues for local governments. Deal played a key role, behind the scenes, in killing a proposal for the Department of Transportation to team up with private developers and contractors on spending $1 billion for a series of managed toll lanes along 1-75 and 1-575 in Cobb County. I think it’s obvious by now that these public-private ventures are never going to get off the ground. This can be illustrated by the fact that nine years after the Legislature passed bills legalizing these types of proj ects, not a single shovel of dirt has been turned on any public-private highway initia tive. Through the questions he raised about the wisdom of these arrangements. Deal pulled Georgia out of something that, over the long run, was probably not going to work very well for the state’s taxpayers or commut ers. The governor can take full cred it for his efforts to restore some reasonableness and sanity to the way we sentence criminal offend ers. People who commit serious crimes should be put in prison, but Georgia has been locking up too many people for too long a period of time, which is one of the unfor tunate legacies of the Zell Miller era. As the prisons have filled up, the cost of operating our corrections system has grown to nearly $1 billion a year. Deal was per ceptive enough to realize that this hard-line approach to punishment had become too expensive for taxpayers to bear. The governor showed refreshing political courage in trying to turn the state in a dif ferent direction on this issue. He appointed a top-notch commission of judges, legisla tors and prosecutors who recommended some significant changes in how our courts sentence persons convicted of crimes. We would all benefit if the General Assembly can follow through on putting some of these recommended changes into law. While he deserves credit for all of those accomplishments, Deal probably generated the most good will this year from one simple thing: he was not Sonny Perdue. Perdue alienated many people, both Democrats and Republicans, during his eight years in office because he was a bit of a pompous blowhard. One of his least- endearing traits was to turn red-faced and start bellowing angrily at people who dis agreed with him. Deal has a much more accommodating, low-key personality. Even Democrats who disagree with his political philosophy com pliment him for his willingness to at least listen to another side of the issue without throwing a temper tantrum.a I lost count a long time ago of the number of people I’ve heard describe the gover nor with these words: “At least he’s not Perdue.” If nothing else, Deal proved that some times nice guys can finish first. Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an internet news service at gareport. com that reports on government and politics in Georgia. He can be reached at tcraw- ford@ gareport. com. Offers thanks for Christmas kids program Dear Editor: On behalf of Sheriff Charles Chapman, Sheriff Stan Evans, and the employees of both the Jackson County and Banks County Sheriffs Offices, we would like to thank several people for making this year’s Sheriff’s Office Christmas Kids program a success. We would like to thank all the employees and management at Wal-Mart for working with us, as they are always more than willing to help pull this event off every year. They always have the attitude of doing whatever it takes to make this program a success. We would like to thank the Wal-Mart employ ees for raising money to feed everyone break fast. In addition, we would like to thank Clay and Andrea Dorsey, Donnie and Calli Shirley, Donna Bohannon, Kim Savage, the Banks County Jr. ROTC and FCCLA for donating their time to help with this event. Last but not least, we would like to thank all the individuals and businesses that have donated money to this event. Without your donations, it would not have been possible to make a difference in these kids’ lives. It is always a blessing for all of us to see how happy and excited each one of these kids is every year. Thank You, Jeff Bohannon and Mark Savage Organizers of the Sheriff’s Office Christmas Kids Program Policy on letters to the editor The policy for letters to the editor submitted to The Banks County News is as follows: •an original copy of all letters must be submitted 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 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. •e-mailed letters will be accepted but we must have a phone number and address. •letters that are libelous will also not be printed. Letters may also be edited to meet space requirements. Anyone with questions may contact editor Angela Gary at AngieEditor@aol.com or 706- 367-2490. erm rossiter Early voters, not viewers, show us the power of a first-person citizenry It’s not something you see every day, or every four years for that matter. Monday Night Football and the Republican presidential debate ranked one and two in the cable TV ratings the week ending Dec. 18. The game aver aged 9.9 million view ers, while the roundup of candidates on Fox gathered another 6.7 million, according to Nielsen Ratings data. Let’s put it in per spective. The Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams were playing that week, teams that are a com bined 9-21. And other shows to crack the top 10 include Pawn Stars, Gold Rush and Storage Wars. Even so, the 15 or so debates held thus far have garnered unusually high audiences, consistently scoring well into the millions. Media critics offer several theories as to why debates are the TV rage this season. They point to the quirky roundup of person alities, their unscripted and downright stupid moments. They say the debates’ multitude of hosts have served up diverse lines of questioning, which cater to a public that is alarmed with the economy, dissatisfied with the president and disgusted with Washington. That Republican voters refuse to settle on a frontrunner is another ratings ingredient. Other critics argue how this is the new political reality. A possible gaffe on TV wields more power in our social media world than a positive personal handshake at a pancake breakfast. Specific examples include Texas Gov. Rick Perry of Texas los ing his train of thought mid-argument; Newt Gingrich explaining everything from policy to personal plunder in a way that sounds reasonable; and the former frontrunner, now suspended candidate Herman Cain being, um, Herman Cain. “On-the-ground retail campaigning, it just doesn’t pay,” explained Fergus Cullen, former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, in a Christian Science Monitor article headlined ‘In GOP race, Iowa and New Hampshire aren’t what they used to be.’ “That’s a disappointing realization. The idea of Jimmy Carter building support one by one is not nearly as effective as having a good debate moment that goes viral on YouTube.” Seems we as TV and Internet consum ers have become surrogate Iowa and New Hampshire voters, the ones who are, in fact, responsible for the first official tallies on Jan. 3 and Jan. 10. We, too, influence poll numbers and for that matter media coverage, which can result in the rise and fall of candidates who tank or triumph. Viewers can cast their vote in the ultimate “Survivor”-like episode, with the most pow erful job in the world possibly going to the winner. On this trend, Rolling Stone dubbed the Republican debates as “Reality Show of the Year” in a feature relating the 20 best TV moments of 2011. Perhaps a good development in some ways, the debate focus nationally is sad for those folks waiting for candidates to show up at their breakfast counters. People in New Hampshire, for instance, still talk issues on a personal basis and care to dig uncomfortably into the nitty-gritty details polished over in well-crafted stump speeches. They show us how we all should be, really, whether it is a presidential or local race we’re evaluating. That is, reasonable, well informed and very demanding of politicians. One of Barack Obama’s former campaign aides and White House spokesmen chroni cled his New Hampshire primary experience in a recent GQ article. He described the pro cess as a trial in extreme frustration, to put it mildly. The citizens could be “monsters,” their demands for personal appearances out rageous. But there’s a certain reason in the mad ness, Reid Cherlin theorized near the article’s conclusion. “It’s that right—that ability and entitle ment to walk straight up to a candidate, look in his eyes, and see whether you like him— that is the source of the primary’s power here ... there is something vital about it that you just don’t see anywhere else: politics here happens in first-person,” he wrote. “And in a country that seems ever more disenchanted and cut off from the people who govern it, that just might be worth preserving.” Erin Rossiter is a reporter with MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
