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PAGE 4A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. JUNE 25. 2009
Jk
Opinions
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
You cannot defend
your rights unless you
know what they are
You often hear the claim that ours is a govern
ment of law. The idea is that government draws its
rights to govern from a series of legal principles,
and not from the will of some dictator or king.
Those principles are established by three important
documents, the Declaration of Independence, the
U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And they
base their authority on the will of the governed.
Anything any government does, whether nation
al, state or local must be authorized by these docu
ments to be legitimate. The Constitution assigns to
the federal government specific powers and duties
and prohibits if it from engaging in any activity not
specifically authorized by it. Many people, includ
ing myself, are convinced that the major part of our
present federal government violates this principle.
If we were to force the federal government back
into the limits set forth by the founding documents,
80 percent of it, along with the associated taxes,
would be eliminated.
On Saturday, luly 4 th we will celebrate the sign
ing of the first of these documents, the Declaration
of Independence. That is what the day is about.
All the parades, speeches, festivals barbecue and
fireworks are supposed to remind us of the free
doms we declared were ours by natural rights. Yet,
I doubt if most of you will even hear the document
discussed. Most of you have never read it, or if you
did read it in school, you have forgotten what it
says. The same holds true of the Constitution and
the Bill of Rights.
There exists an organization dedicated to the
preservation of these governing principles. It is
called the Heritage Foundation. It has assembled
these key documents into a shirt-pocket-size pam
phlet that everyone ought to have. It fits easily in a
pocket, a purse, or a brief case. You can order one
from the Heritage Foundation web page, heritage,
org, for a dollar.
Or, stop by the Madison County Greys, Sons
of Confederate Veterans booth at the Colbert
Independence Day festival for a free copy. That’s
right. I said free! We have secured 150 of the
pamphlets and will give one to each of the first 150
people who stop by and ask for it.
Every person should have two documents at their
fingertips at all times: the Bible and our nation’s
founding documents. Several churches will prob
ably have copies of the New Testament of the Bible
available for free at the festival. They had them at
the Hull Spring Festival and I assume they will also
have them at Colbert. Each of you should make
sure you have these critical documents available for
instant reference. They explain our individual rights
and responsibilities as granted by “our creator.”
You cannot defend your individual rights and
freedoms unless you know what they are and
where they come from. Our goal is to put these
documents in your hands so you can see for
yourself the nature of your personal freedoms
and responsibilities. So make sure you get a copy
of these important documents, read them, then
demand that our elected and appointed govern
ments officials follow the rules they contain. That
is how you ensure your freedom and that of your
children and grandchildren.
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County
Journal. His e-mail address is frankgillispie671 @
msn.com. His website can be accessed at http://
frankgillispie. tripod, com/
The Madison
County Journal
(Merged with The Danielsville Monitor
and The Comer News, January 2006)
P.O. Box 658
Hwy. 29 South
Danielsville, Georgia 30633
Phone: 706-795-2567
Fax: 706-795-2765
Email: zach@mainstreetnews.com
ZACH MITCHAM, Editor
MARGIE RICHARDS, Reporter/Office Manager
BEN MUNRO, Reporter/Sports Editor
MIKE BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
FRANK GILLISPIE, Founder of The Journal.
Jere Ayers (deceased) former owner
of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News
Periodical postage paid at Danielsville, Georgia 30633
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Madison & surrounding counties $19.75/year
State of Georgia $38.85/year
Out-of-state $44.50/year
Military personnel with APO address $42.50/year
Senior rate $2 off all above rates
College student discount rate $2 off all above
rates
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
P.O. Box 658, Danielsville, GA 30633
A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
When I’m driving down the road
When I’m troubled, a good
drive alone can help. It combines
seclusion and roaming free. The
road is a comfort at times, even
though it holds dangers.
I have no desire for a motor
cycle. There are too many bad
things that can happen. I’ve hit
three deer in my life, with one
slamming into my windshield.
And I shudder to think of that
collision on a two-wheeler. But
I can understand the attraction of
cruising the countryside, lost in
thought with just the wind and
asphalt.
As the pastures pass, I think of
what I should have said, or reflect
on things long gone, like actually
sliding into a base. I can drive for
many miles not really noticing
the details of the land around me.
I’m too wrapped up in 1986 to
count how many chicken houses
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach
I just passed.
But other times I make a point
of looking at the world. And it’s
sort of a mental exercise to me,
riding the road, considering all
the ways different people view
the same things.
I know the golfer sees that bend
in the trees as a dogleg suited for
his slice. He imagines the pond as
a formidable par-3 water hazard.
The fisherman sees that same
pond and can feel that familiar
tug on the line, while performing
a mental checklist of what’s in his
tackle box. He thinks of his own
spots to cast the line.
The real estate man passes that
empty house, thinking of the
market, what it is and what it was.
The utility men look at the power
lines, noticing where the trees
need to be cut back, remembering
the aches of the snowstorm. The
engineer thinks of how the road
wasn’t properly graded, leaving a
dangerous blind spot. The lawn-
mower man looks for that shaggy
yard. The vandal looks for the
sign he can shoot. His eyes dart
for the law.
The new parents ride with their
baby through the intersection on
their way home from the hospital,
believing they should be allowed
a personal siren to clear everyone
out of the way, just this once.
The good-hearted sort notices
a pained expression on a strang
er by the road. The eye contact
sparks that need to do something
for someone. The person who
lacks something inside sees that
same pained face and laughs, the
inner voice repeating, “better you
than me, buddy.”
Some consider the land before
their time, how they occupy just
a brief sneeze in its long history.
They consider how it looked when
there were no roads, how long it
might take to turn to rabble after
people quit driving them.
But we do keep driving them.
We’re in our own little bubbles,
our own little universes, passing
each other along the way, maybe
throwing up a finger wave if we
feel it.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The
Madison County Journal.
Final soundcheck for the Georgia Theatre
A gallery of bystanders gath
ered behind the yellow police
tape on Lumpkin Street Friday
in Athens, either paying their
respects to the burning Georgia
Theatre or watching firefighters
smolder the flames.
In case you missed it — and
I doubt you did — fire gutted
the well-known Athens music
venue last week.
I spent much of my early-to-
mid 20s at the Georgia Theatre,
so seeing it ablaze saddened the
part of me that still yearns for
the good times.
I’ll miss the place.
The sentiment of the other
onlookers was surely the same.
There goes another part of our
past, we thought.
All the Athens musical land
marks seem destined for destruc
tion.
Tyrone’s O.C. (where several
noted 1980s bands from Athens
played their first shows) burned
in 1982. The abandoned church
in which R.E.M. played its debut
was razed in 1990. Now this.
When I think back on the
Georgia Theatre, I flash back
to late nights, cover bands and
a sticky floor varnished with a
spilt-beer finish.
That’s not to say I liked every
sound resonating from the old
stage. The Georgia Theatre
By Ben Munro
offered up as much bad music
as it did good.
That’s especially true if you
don’t like jazz-rock jam bands,
many of which filled the Georgia
Theatre marquee. A friend and I
joked that you could walk by on
any night at 1 a.m. and hear the
same endless guitar solo drifting
into the Athens evening ethos.
But the old building was more
about memories than the music,
anyway.
Many a summer night was
wasted away there. Many cou
ples either met or broke up
there. Many guys settled dis
putes with fists on the Georgia
Theatre floor.
I remember one guy getting
decked right in front of me while
waiting in line for the bathroom
- just laid-out on that disgusting
floor tile.
But they did manage to play
a lot of music in between the
blood, the mud and the beer.
The theatre drew struggling
local acts and big pop names
alike. My girlfriend is a huge
Jason Mraz fan, and she still
proudly displays a photo of her
and Mraz taken at the Georgia
Theatre.
Personally, I caught an eclec
tic mix of acts — everything
from Mel and the Party Hats
(an 80s cover band) to country
music outlaw David Allen Coe
to rappers Rob Base and DJ E-Z
Rock (remember, “It takes two
to make a thing go right?”).
The Georgia Theatre was
also a popular place to view a
Georgia football game if you
didn’t have tickets, although I
compiled a less than spectacu
lar record (5-4) at the venue.
My biggest Georgia Theatre-
witnessed Bulldog win was
Georgia’s 31-24 triumph over
Florida in 2004, a victory which
prompted me to go ring the cha
pel bell.
But at the end of the day, I was
all about the rock show.
The zenith of my Georgia
Theatre experience came in
February of 2004, when Athens’
own Drive-By Truckers played a
homecoming concert.
The Truckers were in rare
form, and people were hanging
from the rafters that night.
A banner draped over the bal
cony read, “The boys are back
in town.”
Certainly, this was home to
many.
A lot of memories burned with
the Georgia Theatre Friday.
Ben Munro is a reporter for
The Madison County Journal.
DOT looks for the right turn
The State Transportation Board
has elected yet another commis
sioner for that troubled agency:
state Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine
Mountain), a person who has
some expertise in highway con
struction because his family-
owned business did a lot of road
grading back in Harris County.
Smith will be the fourth person
in two years to serve as DOT
commissioner, which typically
budgets more than $2 billion a
year to build our highways. If
you think the continuing turnover
in the top job is an indication of
turmoil at DOT, you’re right.
Smith will take over a crippled
department that is out of money,
losing much of its authority to the
governor’s office, and unable to
handle most highway construction
projects unless they have federal
stimulus funds to pay for them.
That point was vividly illustrated
last week when the Transportation
Board signed off on 35 highway
projects to be started in July. Of
those 35 projects, 34 are being
undertaken only because of the
availability of stimulus funds.
The department has been
squeezed by declining motor fuel
tax revenues and the inability to
get the legislature to adopt a new
funding source for transportation
improvements. There are also
internal accounting issues that
prompted a special audit of the
DOT last year.
The Capitol
Report
tcrawford@
capitol
impact.net.
By Tom Crawford
“We are broke,” said Gerald
Ross, the interim DOT commis
sioner who will now return to his
old job as chief engineer.
Many of DOT’S financial prob
lems were caused by Perdue in the
early years of his administration.
Anxious to get highways built
more quickly. Perdue launched a
“Fast Forward” program in which
he urged DOT to speed up con
struction projects that were still on
the drawing board.
Under pressure from the gov
ernor’s office, DOT started com
mitting itself to highway contracts
before the money to pay for them
had even been received.
“I think we’re looking at the
effects of Fast Forward,” state
auditor John Thornton said last
year after a review of DOT’s books
revealed a deficit approaching $1
billion. “Advanced construction
contracts being accelerated, when
you get down to it, really caused
this shortfall.”
“When you try to do in six
years what normally takes 18, you
change the dynamics,” Thornton
said. “It can cause stress.”
All throughout the financial
mess that he was partly respon
sible for causing. Perdue has
been a persistent critic of DOT
management for its inability to
get the budget straightened out -
which makes him comparable to
the arsonist who sets a house on
fire and then complains that the
fire department doesn’t get there
quickly enough.
Because of the department’s
ongoing problems, Perdue pushed
for passage this year of SB 200,
legislation that gives him more
control over the DOT. The gov
ernor now appoints a planning
director - Perdue’s choice was
highway planner Todd Long, who
worked at DOT for 18 years -
who determines which highway
projects will be funded by the
state.
SB 200 has been criticized for
being sloppily drafted, hastily
passed, and overly vague as to
how DOT will be restructured. It
appears to be a law that is beg
ging for a lawsuit to challenge
its constitutionality. It could end
up making the situation at DOT
worse instead of better.
At this point, two things need
to happen for Georgia’s trans
portation agency to get out of the
ditch.
Perdue needs to stop med
dling in DOT’s affairs and give
the agency’s new commissioner
a realistic chance to get them
straightened out. That, of course,
is not likely to happen. Now that
Perdue has the power to appoint
the planning director who decides
which projects will get funded,
he and every future governor will
have a powerful motivation to
continue interfering with DOT
management.
Legislators also need to stop
posturing and agree on something
- a statewide sales tax, an increase
in the gasoline tax, whatever -
that will generate funds to pay for
badly needed highways and transit
facilities. Yes, that’s a tax increase,
but you can’t sit around and pre
tend that free market forces are
someday going to magically solve
the state’s transportation woes.
Even with all of these problems
hanging over him, Vance Smith
somehow remains confident that
he can find a way to deal with
them.
“We can certainly take a state
that’s great and continue to move
it forward,” he said. “We’re going
to move forward in the 21st cen
tury.”
Tom Crawford is the editor of
Capitol Impact's Georgia Report,
an Internet news sendee at www.
gareport.com that covers govern
ment and politics in Georgia. He
can be reached at tcrawford@
capitolimpact.net.