About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 2019)
Page 16, March 11, 2019, The Islander International Women's Day and Wonder Woman Okay, so last Friday (March 8) was International Women’s Day. Fact is, had I not seen it heavily ad vertised on WTBS® I would not have known it even existed. And I still don’t know why it does exist. I found it interesting that WTBS® chose to honor International Women’s Day by airing the Wonder Woman® movie. So... with all the amazing, accom plished women in history like Rosa Parks, Dr. Grace Hopper, Margaret Thatcher, Ella Fitzgerald, Marga ret Sanger, Condoleezza Rice and so many, many more, the best TBS could do is a movie about a cartoon charac ter?!?!?! With “super powers!!!?!?!?” Yikes. Maybe there’s a bunch of video game playing millennials running WTBS®’s programming department. And just for a fun side note on Won der Woman®: I did some quick re search and while her creator, William Moulton Marston, was, according to Wikipedia®, “an outspoken feminist,” he was also a “swinger, S&M practi tioner, and firm believer in the superi ority of women. He described bondage and submission as a “respectable and noble practice.” So there you have it. My mother Elise Permar was one of the strongest, smartest people I ever knew. In 1934 she graduated from Pa- tchogue High School (Long Island, New York, the one time home of Billy Idol and wife killer Jeffrey R. Mac Donald) at 16 and went straight to college at the State University of New York New Paltz. She taught high school, she raised three children, then in 1972 she start ed a weekly newspaper that is still going strong 47 years later, 16 years after her death. As an investigative journalist, one of the big stories she broke was about the City of Brunswick water and sew er department’s plan to convert an old sewer line into a water line. She contacted engineers and offi cials in other cities and found that it had never been done before. She wrote about it every week with headlines like, “They don’t do it in Savannah,” or “They don’t do it in Amarillo,” or “They don’t do it in...” whatever city she had spoken to that week. In the end the plan did not come to fruition. I dislike the word visionary, and my mother would have rejected it and laughed at anyone who used it in ref erence to her. But in the early 1970s she advocat ed for a second causeway to the north of St. Simons Island. She knew back then the traffic issues that are arising today. She also went to the Glynn County Commission in the late 70s advocating Publisher The Islander EDITORIAL for architectural design standards for St. Simons. Her words fell on deaf ears, which makes it that much more ironic that last week the Glynn County Commis sion unanimously voted to oppose a proposed Georgia law that would pro hibit local governments for enacting design standards. The current county commission has authorized a rewrite of our zoning laws and expect there to be some “de sign standards” included in them. I suppose had they listened to Elise 35 years ago... this new ordi nance could have been a little easier to rewrite. My mother would have found Inter national Women’s Day hilarious. Along with her strength of charac ter and brilliance, she was 110% confi dent in herself and her beliefs. The last thing she needed was a socialist created, feel-good “holiday.” She absolutely did not need anyone to validate her as a woman, an educa tor, a businesswoman, a journalist or a wife and mother. While they had their ups and downs like every other married couple on the planet, she and my father had a straight 50 / 50 marriage and even though she outlived him by 16 years, she never took off her wedding and en gagement rings. Pam and I miss you both every day, but we and The Islander are doing just fine. I appreciate you letting us take the helm. I hope everyone a very merry Inter national Women’s Day!!! More weird legislation Since I’ve got a bit of room left here... I already mentioned the county commission’s objection to an odd state law that would prevent local govern ments from enacting design stan dards, but there’s another piece of legislation that’s already passed that I find completely baffling. It’s in Pam’s page 11 Board of Edu cation article. Passed last year, House Bill 763 requires the chief judge of the Superior Court of each county to establish a stu dent attendance protocol and school cli mate committee for the comity. The com mittees even have four subcommittees. HB 763 also requires attendance rates and student discipline be reported to the State Board of Education at the end of each school year. Lord have mercy, I know for a fact our Chief Superior Court Judge has much better tilings to do than this foolishness. And so do the teachers and administrators. I suppose in their infinite wisdom our state legislators decided everyone had way too much free time on their hands while trying to educate the students of Georgia. Independent Living • Assisted Living • Memory Care • Skilled Nursing • Rehab MARSH’S EDGE ON ST. SIMONS ISLAND Georgia's Premier Life Plan Community 136 Marsh’s Edge Lane • St. Simons Island, GA 31522 (912)324-3028 • Marshs-Edge.com MOREOFTHE Ik I GOOD THINGS IIN
