Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A — THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. JULY 2, 2009
A
£1XaJT!
mar
fii
*
Jl
$
'is
i
a:
■fi
$
|
;'B\
Opinions
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
Painful reminders of
past racism still remain
An Athens landmark went up in flames last week.
The old Georgia Theatre on Lumpkin Street in down
town Athens was heavily damaged by fire of an
unknown origin. There was an immediate call for
efforts to rebuild the old theatre. People were quick to
point out the building’s historic value.
It is hue that it is a historic building. It has been
witness to dramatic changes in Athens and northeast
Georgia over the past century. Some of the area's
history was admirable. But there were other parts of
the area’s history that many people would prefer to
forget.
There are quite a few of us old enough to remember
the era of racial segregation. Within our memory, law
and custom kept the black and white races strictly
separate. Public water fountains and restrooms were
clearly labeled, which were for whites and which were
for “colored.” The schools were segregated. Athens
had two high schools, Athens High was the white
school. Bumey-Hanis was the colored school.
Athens even had separate business districts. The
colored business district was centered on the recently
restored Morton Theatre. A second theatre, just for
movies, was located at the foot of Broad Street near
Bumey-Harris High School.
The Georgia Theatre contains an architectural
reminder of that age. Around the comer, out of site
of the main entry and ticket office, is a small set of
circular steps. At the top of the steps is a secondary
entrance and a small ticket window. Inside that door is
a stair well leading to the balcony. This side door was
the "colored entrance.” Colored seating was limited to
the balcony.
It was not just Athens of course. When Madison
County consolidated its schools in 1955, they built
two high schools. Madison County High School in
Danielsville, and Southside High School on Hwy 72
between Comer and Colbert. Madison County High
School was for white students and Southside High
for blacks. That was in the transitional “separate but
equal” period. The schools were still segregated, but
facilities from building to class books were suppos
edly made equal at each school. As a 1958 graduate
of Madison County High School, I was a product of
the separate but equal system.
Two years after the schools were opened, the Board
of Education decided that modem gyms were needed.
So they designed an new gym and built two of them:
one at each high school. The two buildings were iden
tical. Subsequent supreme court rulings put an end to
the separate but equal plan, and the two school were
eventually merged.
Southside High's campus is still there. It was sold to
a private company and is now used as a manufactur
ing facility. The gym there is now a warehouse and
shipping center.
We have come a long way in Georgia in the past half
century. Georgians of all colors now work side by side
in a friendly manner. It is not unusual to see colored
supervisors with whites working under their direc
tion. No one is surprised to see mixed race couples
shopping together in local stores. The "white” and
“colored” signs are gone. But here and there, signs of
that age remain. If you look closely, you can still find
them. Georgia Theatre’s side entrance is one of them.
Perhaps it is good that a few clues of that age remain.
Those occasional reminders will help us remember
the shame of racism and help us to complete the task
of ending racism for good.
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County
Journal. His e-mail address isfi-ankgillispie671 @msn.
com. His website can be accessed at http://frankgil-
lispie. 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 it comes to healthcare, give me an aspirin, please
When you go to a movie
theater or pro baseball game,
a $1.50 Coke suddenly sky
rockets to $5. Maybe you can
sneak a Coke or popcorn into
a theater. But that’s frowned
upon. No, you are expected to
play by the theater’s rules. It's
their market and they have the
power. And if you don't like
the prices, well, just wait for the
movie on Netflix.
But if your appendix is about to
burst, you can’t exactly treat the
situation like an optional Braves’
game outing. You’re in a fix. And
you enter a tilted market without
a choice. You know the cheap
aspirin suddenly takes on a new,
inflated value in a hospital. The
pricing structure is outrageous.
But what are you going to do?
I broke my arm 10 years ago
and I remember the Velcro and
plastic brace I wore cost $200,
though the material wasn't worth
a Happy Meal. But I couldn't
exactly give up on my arm.
No, few things get me wound
up like healthcare. This issue cuts
to the heart of my feelings about
being a provider for my family.
And I'm worried. I've watched
my healthcare premiums soar
over the past decade. And I fear
that my family will be priced out
of coverage over the next decade,
unless something changes.
Plenty of other people share
that concern.
According to the National
Coalition on Healthcare, “Since
1999, employment-based health
insurance premiums have
increased 120 percent, com-
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach Mitcham
pared to cumulative inflation of
44 percent and cumulative wage
growth of 29 percent during the
same period.”
The coalition also notes that in
2008 an “annual premium for an
employer health plan covering a
family of four averaged nearly
$12,700.”
Of course, talk of healthcare
solutions generates tremendous
fear, too. A lot of people worry
that a single payer government
option makes them vulnerable to
a government bureaucrat getting
between them and their doctor.
That's understandable. That is
a very valid fear. I worry about
rationing, too. I don't want to
feel like I couldn't get in to see
a doctor.
But you can't ignore the fact
that right now insurance bureau
crats review your records and
get between patients and doctors,
determining health decisions
from a faraway desk, something
we fear of a government pro
gram.
Ultimately, our nation seems
too angry to get beyond all
this partisan bickering. And I
worry that it's getting worse.
Sometimes I feel like we'd all
rather limp along like wounded
dogs than watch our red or blue
team lose on any issue. Frankly,
I really don’t give a rip. I'm
too frustrated for that. Let who
ever take credit, so long as we
move toward mature solutions on
healthcare.
I think it’s worth noting that
a market is only healthy if it is
growing. A stock that is stagnant
or going down is not healthy.
So, if we consider healthcare as
nothing more than a free market
issue, then we have to acknowl
edge what's good and bad in
that.
If you have a healthcare sys
tem that is funded by investors,
you have the benefit of more
financing for innovation. That
is a huge plus. I think that's one
reason why America is near the
top when it comes to healthcare
technology. But investors expect
growth. And growth needs more
fuel, more patients. So we see so
many people getting high-tech,
expensive procedures that may or
may not be warranted. Of course,
this is a great benefit to many
patients. But some see an under
lying incentive in the industry to
push patients to these expensive
options whether they’re needed
or not. And I think this is a valid
point, given the constant need for
investor returns. Investors won’t
support your business unless
you’re growing. That goes for
healthcare, too, even if skyrock
eting healthcare costs ultimately
hurt our society.
In other countries, government
sets prices for procedures. That
would certainly never fly here.
But what about having a collec
tion of respectable medical pro
fessionals determine appropriate
pricing? The free market may
have determined that my cheap
Velcro and plastic arm brace was
worth $200, though I don’t think
any adult with two eyes would.
But any reasonable medical pro
fessional, I believe, would have
balanced the cost somewhere
between my Happy Meal pric
ing, which negates the real work
that went into design, and the
jacked up cost that simply cheats
us all in the end.
It would be good, too, if we
could find a way to encourage
more people into primary care
jobs.
The tremendous money in
healthcare specialties creates the
incentive for doctors to pursue
specialty careers rather than the
lower pay of primary care physi
cians, who are now in short sup
ply. Yet, good primary care doc
tors can help keep people healthy
and avoid the expensive specialty
procedures. We shouldn't under
estimate their importance.
I’m not saying government has
a fix all. But I do want to see
some government involvement
in shaping healthy incentives in a
healthcare system that currently
has some unhealthy forces at
work.
Meanwhile, I'll take an aspi
rin — and hope I can avoid the
hospital.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The
Madison County Journal.
Less fireworks, more thoughts about July 4
I’ll take my hamburger well-
done July 4, but I think the cel
ebration of Independence Day
should involve less of fireworks,
parades and flag-waving and
more thought about what we're
celebrating and of our obligations
as citizens.
We should give equal weight to
marking the 233rd anniversary of
the signing of the Declaration of
Independence and to recommit
ting ourselves to the principles
established in that document and
in the Constitution. It’s a day to
Guest
column
By Mark Beardsley
recall what the founding fathers
stood for and what we stand for
today.
The signers of the Declaration
of Independence set the stage
for war with the most powerful
nation in the world over fun
damental principles. They put
everything at risk. The patriots
who took on the British Empire
fought for freedom; today, the
principles are less noble.
Today’s “patriot” is more con
cerned about his tax bill than the
Bill of Rights, about his “right”
to federal benefits or to carry a
pistol into a bar than his right to
free speech. What we call “patrio
tism” is often an expression of
nationalistic fervor, a kick-ass
mentality that sees America as
morally, culturally and politically
superior to the rest of the world.
When America went to war in
Iraq, a nationalistic fervor over
whelmed the reasonable voices
of caution that should have been
heard and heeded. We used to
sneer as the Ayatollah Khomeini
invoked the “Great Satan” (the
— See “Beardsley” on 5A
State pinches pennies — local governments suffer
Georgia's recession has put state gov
ernment in the same position as a penny-
pinching old geezer, the kind who searches
under the sofa cushions for lost dimes and
quarters or cashes in that jar of pennies he's
been hoarding.
The state’s search for loose change has
intensified in recent weeks
because the end of the fis
cal year is approaching
and Gov. Sonny Perdue is
constitutionally required to
make sure that the books
balance on June 30.
Perdue can use the $500
million or so that remains
in reserves. He also ordered
state agencies to spend only
75 percent of the money
available to them for the
month of June.
Those are the actions you would expect
from a chief executive who's trying to cope
with hard times. Perdue may have to cut
spending even more or call a special session
of the Legislature to make deeper reductions
in the budget.
The state, however, is also resorting to
financial actions that appear to be downright
mean-spirited towards cities, counties, and
local school systems. Local government offi
cials charge that the state is holding back or
delaying the payment of funds that belongs
to their jurisdictions.
“I understand they’re grabbing at every last
straw they can, but it’s our money,” said Jerry
Griffin, executive director of the Association
County Commissioners of Georgia.
The state revenue department collects sales
tax proceeds from retailers and distributes
the funds back to local governments on
a monthly basis. There is a lot of money
involved here - during fiscal year 2008, the
revenue department collected and sent back
to local governments $4.83 billion.
The revenue department formerly distrib
uted these revenues to local governments
by the 20th of each month. This meant the
department would have
sent out by June 20 the
$367.9 million it collected
for them during April.
Several weeks ago, how
ever, local government
officials were informed
that the checks they nor
mally would have received
in June would not be sent
to them until sometime
in July.
That delay would have
allowed the state to keep
the $367.9 million on its books through
the end of the fiscal year on June 30 - thus
making it easier for Georgia to meet its con
stitutional obligation of not running a budget
deficit.
The delay would have wreaked havoc with
the accounts of local governments, who also
have to balance their books at the end of the
fiscal year.
After local governments protested, the rev
enue department told cities and counties they
would receive their June payment by the end
of the month, in time for fiscal year 2009.
Reg Lansberry, a revenue spokesman, said
there was a misunderstanding caused by a
letter the department sent to local govern
ments three weeks ago.
“The letter on June 8 was poorly written
... inelegantly phrased,” Lansberry said.
“There was never any intention to give them
their money in July. They’re going to have
it in June.”
Cities and counties are also tangled up in a
dispute with Perdue over a separate aspect of
local sales tax collections.
Of the more than $4 billion in local sales
taxes collected by the state each year, tech
nical glitches and processing errors make it
impossible to identify which local govern
ment should receive a portion of the rev
enues. For 2008, these “unidentifiable” sales
tax funds totaled about $18 million.
That portion of the sales tax proceeds would
normally be distributed to local governments
under a formula that all parties had agreed
to. But this year, local officials said the state
decided to keep that $18 million rather than
distribute it to local governments.
“That's money that local voters approved
for local projects like building schools, pav
ing roads, and building water and sewer
lines,” said Amy Henderson, a spokesperson
for the Georgia Municipal Association.
Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said the
problem was caused by a temporary gap in
the state law, but added, “From here forward,
the unidentifiable sales taxes will be distrib
uted based on the law that was passed this
year and signed by the governor.”
Things haven't gotten as bad here as in
California, where the state is on the edge of
bankruptcy, but you know times are tough
when the state government is chiseling its
local governments. It is not an encouraging
sign for Georgia.
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 t_crawford@capitolimpact.
net.
The Capitol
Report
tcrawford@
capitol
impact.net.
ct .
By Tom Crawford