About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 14, 2008)
PAGE 4, JULY 14, 2008, THE ISLANDER D BILIIC M Letters to the Editor and Opinions Publisher's Statement THE ISLANDER (USPS 002430), A member of the Georgia Press Association and Glynn County’s only weekly news paper is published 51 weeks a year for $17 per year in Glynn County; $19 per year in the United States outside Glynn County; $25 per year outside the US by Permar Publications, Inc., 3596 Darien Hwy. Suite 6, Brunswick, GA 31525. Periodicals postage paid at Brunswick, GA. Contents of The Islander, including advertising, may not he reprinted or reproduced in any form without written permission of the publishers. POSTMAS TER send address change to The Islander, P.O. Box 20539, St. Simons Island, GA 31522. Publication Deadline Publication Date: Every Monday Deadline: Thursdays, 12 PM for ads and news copy for the following Monday’s edition. Holiday Schedule On Monday Post Office holidays, The Islander is printed on the Friday before. 2008 Post Office Holidays Tuesday, January 1 - New Year's Day Monday, January 21 - MLK Birthday Monday, February 18 - Presidents Day Monday, May 26 - Memorial Day Friday, July 4 - Independence Day Monday, September 1 - Labor Day Monday, October 13 - Columbus Day Tuesday, November 11 - Veterans Day Thursday, November 27 - Thanksgiving Day Thursday, December 25 - Christmas Day Holiday Deadline: Wednesdays, 12 PM for ads and news copy for the following Monday’s edition. Mission Statement: to publish the truth without fear or favor. Established 1972 Matthew J. Permar - Publisher Elise J. Permar - Publisher 1972-2003 Gertrude Bradshaw - Co-Editor 1972-1991 Managing Editor & Advertising Manager Pamela P. Shierling 912-265-9654 Staff/Production Assistant Sarah Banks Long Church News Patty Gibson - 912-638-8844 Contributors Dave Barry, Clark Gillespie MD, Sonny Doehring, Roland Willis, Diane Bowen MD Phone Numbers 912-265-9654 • Fax - 912-265-3699 entail: ssislander@bellsouth.net Award Winning Newspaper 1975 1980 1985 1976 1981 1992 1977 1982 1999 1978 1983 2002 1979 1984 2007 Letter to the Editor The Jekyll Island Authority put on a truly brilliant fireworks show on the Fourth of July. In many respects it was the most awesome display that we have seen on the Island. According to the collection station, 4,560 cars entered Jekyll Island on July 4th and paid the $3 parking fee. In addition, uncounted vehicles with Jekyll Island decals also came to wit ness the pyrotechnics that evening. Rockets were launched on the beach behind the Jekyll Convention Cen ter and an overflow crowd approach ing 15,000 surrounded the area and enjoyed the extraordinary show. All parking areas were brim full of cars. Unfortunately this may be one of the last fireworks shows of this kind on Jekyll Island. Unless developer Linger Longer Communities makes major revisions Poor Max Sanders. The 19-year-old University of Minnesota student faces five years in jail and a $10,000 fine; he is accused of putting his vote in the presidential election up for auction on eBay. He started the bidding at $10. The charge is bribery, treating, and soliciting. I'm confused. Aren't all our votes for sale? Each candidate tries to bribe us with future benefits of all sorts. Basi cally, a campaign is an effort to buy votes wholesale. Why do you think Barack Obama is "refining" his positions on so many issues? He's in the process of buying the independent votes he needs to win in November. This creates a problem. If he goes too far in buying indepen dent votes, he may have to return votes he already bought from left-lean ing Democrats during the primaries. His updated positions on the Iraqi occupation, the death penalty, hand gun bans, campaign finance, money for religious groups, and immunity for telecom companies that illegally helped the Bush administration wiretap us without warrants have upset people who thought their vote sales were final. In politics no sales are final. John McCain may have a bigger problem. He's had trouble buying votes from the conservative base of the Republican Party. Those voters don't seem eager to sell their votes to him because they don't like what he's promising to pay in return. While McCain is trying to close the deal with conservatives, he also needs to buy votes from independents. That's one of the dilemmas of politics. If you buy votes from, say, fiscal conservatives, you might have a hard time also buy ing votes from advocates of climate control through cap and trade, which would be a tax on energy production. Keeping most campaign promises costs money. For politicians, money comes from the taxpayers, who are forced to surrender their cash whether they like it or not. As H.L. Mencken in it’s proposed beachfront town cen ter, there will be no parking lots or ready access to that beach two years from now. The Linger Longer plan proposes to divert the eastern end of the Ben Fortson Parkway and cut off Beachview Drive from Days Inn to Blackboard’s Restaurant. Their plan calls for elimination of four ocean front parking lots and destruction of the present Convention Center. In its place they propose to build 277 condo miniums plus 160 time share emits, and 3 hotels totaling 725 rooms. The Linger Longer plan essentially will privatize the entire stretch of beach between Days Inn and Black- beard’s Restaurant. It is highly unlike ly that a fireworks display could be mounted on the remaining beachfront and there would be no public parking anywhere near the beach at the site of the present Convention Center. Several of the candidates in the understood, "Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." So the only difference I see between a politician who buys a vote and an eBay bidder who buys it is that the bidder spends his own money. Since people spend their own money more wisely than they spend other people's, we can conclude that the eBay sale might be preferable. I'm srue many people were appalled that young Mr. Sanders -- eligible to vote in his first presidential election - would even dream of selling his vote. How cynical he is, they must be think ing. I don't think he's cynical. I think he's naive. He thought someone would be will ing to buy his vote for $10 or more. Why would anyone do that? One vote isn't going to change the outcome of the election. The chance that McCain and Obama will tie in any of the 50 state elections is roughly zero. No single vote will be decisive. So we can be certain that for any voter, on election day it won't matter if he stays in bed. Now, if a person's one vote doesn't matter, are two votes — his own and the vote he buys — likely to change the outcome of the election? Of course not. Yes, his vote total would increase 100 percent, but that only shows you how forthcoming elections for the Geor gia Legislature have expressed their strong support of the massive Linger Longer development plan. Represen tatives Jerry Keen and Roger Lane are supporting the Linger Longer redevelopment. Terry Carter has also signed on to the plan and is running for State Senate against Senator Jeff Chapman. If Jekyll Island is to remain a State Park for the benefit of all Georgia resi dents who enjoy visiting Jekyll Island to attend celebrations such as we have just witnessed on the 4th of July, it is important that they express their support of the few legislators, like Senator Chapman, who have opposed the Jekyll Island Authority’s plan to dismantle our State Park. Please keep this in mind when you vote in the primary on July 15th and in the November election. Joseph Iannicelli □ only one more. So why would anyone pay $10 for it? If there is such a person, tell him I have newborn unicorns for sale. Mr. Sanders's entrepreneurship would have run into other problems. How would the buyer know the vote he purchased was cast for his favorite candidate? There'd be no way to prove it. He'd have to rely on Mr. Sanders's honesty. That strikes me as a big risk to take with a stranger. But I guess it's no bigger than the risk you take when you trust the hon esty of a politician when you sell him your vote. Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org) and editor of The Free man magazine. □ College News Furman University Nicholas D. Reynolds, son of Dr. and Mrs. Terry Reynolds, and Ian R. Ros- siter, son of Dr. and Mrs. Jan Rossiter, all of St. Simons Island were named to the Dean's List 2008 Spring term. Samford University Melissa Jean McBride, daughter of Beverly McBride of St. Simons Island was named to the Dean's List for the spring semester. “I real estate auctions 701 Gold Shore Ct, Canton, GA williamsauction.com 800.801.8003 60+ Georgia Homes July 11th - 22nd Nominal Opening Bids from $1,000 !»t=f GA RE LIC 159223 DEAN C. WILLIAMS BROKER, W&W RE LIC H- 16048, AUC LIC AUNR002789 MONTE W. LOWDERMAN AUCTIONEER WILLIAMS & WILLIAMS What's Wrong with Selling Your Vote? By Sheldon Richman misleading percentages can be. It's still
