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PAGE 4A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 24. 2009
Opinions
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
Are you smarter
than a politician?
Are you smarter than a politician? The Institute for
American Civil Literacy decided to find the answer
to that question. For the last several years, they
have conducted a survey of Americans to see just
how much they know about civics and history. The
answers ate disturbing.
In 2008, they asked 2,508 Americans a series of 33
questions, then gave the nation a grade from A to F.
Only 21 people received an “A” meaning they scoied
90 percent or above on the test. Another 66 people
received a “B”; 165 managed a “C”; and 445 people
qualified for a “D.” An amazing 1,791 people out of
2,508, or 71.4 percent, failed to achieve a score of 60
or higher.
On most of the questions, elected officials scoied
lower than the general public. For example: 44 per
cent of elected officials were able to identify Rowe vs.
Wade as the primary Supreme Court ruling involving
legal abortions. The public did a bit better with 51
percent knowing the answer.
Less than 46 percent of elected officials knew that
the Constitution gives the power to declare war to
Congress, not the president. The general public did a
bit better with 54 percent answering correctly.
How did President Roosevelt react when the
Supreme Court ruled against some of his programs?
About 25 percent of us knew that he tried to expand
the court so he could appoint judges who would
support his programs while fewer that 20 percent of
elected officials knew that.
But the politicians came out ahead on a couple of
questions, but even then they were not impressive.
Approximately 24 percent of our elected officials
knew that the Lincoln-Douglass debates were about
expanding slavery into the new territories. Only 19
percent of the general public got that right.
If you would like to take the test, go to http://www.
americancivicliteracy.org/
So what are we to make of this? In its sum
mary. the Institute listed among its major findings
that Americans failed the test with an average score
of 49 percent. This failure crosses all political and
regional lines. Liberals earned a 49 percent score:
Conservatives came in at 48 percent. Republicans
averaged 52 percent and Democrats achieved only a
45 percent score.
Nor does higher education help. College graduates
with a bachelor's degree scored 57 percent, which is
only 13 percent higher than those with a high school
diploma.
Our educational system is a failure when it comes
to teaching fundamental history and civics to our
citizens. Or, as one commentator said, Americans are
too dumb to cast an enlightened vote, hi my opinion,
our schools spend far too much time being politically
correct and pushing social changes and far too little
time in basic education. And if we lose track of our
history and heritage, we will lose America.
At the end of the Constitutional Convention, some
one asked Benjamin Franklin, “What have you given
us?” He answered, “A Republic, if you can keep it."
A radical politician once said. “If you would conquer
a people, first take away their heritage.” I am afraid
both of those statements are coming true. Our culture,
our history and our heritage are nearly lost. And so is
our liberty. Time is running short.
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County
Journal. His e-mail address is frank@frankgillispie.
com. His website can be accessed at http://www.
frankgillispie.com/gillispieonline.
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
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
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A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Is the Web making us dumber?
If you speak negatively about the
Internet, many folks will look at
you like you’re wearing Bermuda
shorts and black socks and carrying
a metal detector.
Admittedly, I am a technology
crank. I have a cell phone, but I
don’t want to do anything with it
other than talk. I am suspicious of
people selling gadgets that are sup
posed to make my life easier. I see
people speaking to themselves on
the street and think that they’re off
in some way, then realize they’re
on a Bluetooth headset. The first
time I saw this I vowed never to be
that guy.
Don’t get me wrong, the world-
at-our fingertips kind of life has
real perks. I use the Web every day.
It’s so useful for the quick answer.
I have been a reporter in the pre-
Web days. And it’s far easier to get
information now, such as confirm
ing the spelling of place names.
As a kid, I called the local library
with my school project questions.
The woman on the other end of
the phone was a whiz at finding
information. Our local librarians
were the Internet before there was
the Internet. Yet, they could never
compete with our new powerful
tools.
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach
But over time, my simplistic
wide-eyed wonder about the unbe
lievable scope of information online
has morphed into a new, more cyni
cal view about how our society is
fundamentally changing.
Of course, such pessimism is not
an unusual sentiment for a news
paperman these days, given the
troubles of the industry. But beyond
worries about the bleak media
economy, I can’t help but notice
that the Web presents a strange
paradox. While it is a tool for open
ing the world to us, it is also a
mechanism for greater self cen-
teredness. Many people seem more
interested in letting the world hear
about themselves than in learning
about the world around them — no
matter how little they actually have
to say and how much they need to
learn.
You can also use the Web to
be a voyeur. Want to know how
somebody’s house looks? Well,
look up their address online, then
go to Google Maps, type it in,
and chances are that somebody has
driven down that road with a cam
era and filmed the house and posted
it on Google. You can perhaps even
zoom in on their front door. I find
this disturbing. But it’s part of our
new way of fife.
Of course, the cyber world allows
people to vent without the account
ability of a face or a name attached.
I’m sorry, but that’s never going
to be a benefit to society, because
it pushes debate toward hostile
extremes, rather than toward a
more reasonable center.
Meanwhile, the Web economy is
based on restless fingers. Ad rates
are set on a per-click count. Sites
with advertising don’t want you to
sit still and read anything for too
long. For instance, that’s why an
attractive woman is usually in the
top right comer of the AJC website.
They want your click. Everything is
designed to catch your eye to make
you move to something else. The
more outrageous the material, the
more clicks you’ll get. For instance,
this paper’s one-day click record
is 30,000 and it came off a story
about a man’s homemade pleasure
device. If we were interested in
pure clicks, we’d acknowledge that
the base nature of humanity is what
sells best and we’d tailor content
toward that. Yes, that’s true no mat
ter the medium, but in the sparse ad
revenue world of the Web, it’s even
more the case.
Ultimately, I believe the Web is a
magnificent tool for quick answers,
but it discourages more contempla
tive thinking that comes with sitting
back and reading longer narratives.
The way we jump around is handy
at times, certainly entertaining, but
I think it has a long-term negative
effect, creating a type of societal
attention deficit disorder (ADD).
We’re hooked on the information
equivalent of fast food — some
thing convenient but not necessar
ily healthy.
Yes, the Web is an amazing
accomplishment for mankind. It
is a technological wonder of the
world. But whether it is ultimately
good or bad for American society
depends on what we make of it.
And, yes, too often, it makes us
dumber.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The
Madison County Journal.
Mitcham
Lawmakers should be careful how they vote
When Republicans gained con
trol of the Georgia House after
the 2004 elections, the party lead
ership saw a political issue they
were sure would be a winner: sex
offenders.
At the time, there was not any
particular problem with sex crimes.
Georgia already had laws that
imposed lengthy prison sentences
on persons who molested children,
and district attorneys were eager
to prosecute them. There had not
been any great scandals where
sexual predators were set free to
prey on the innocent.
But in the spring of 2005, there
had been a brutal slaying in Florida
where a nine-year-old girl was
senselessly raped and murdered by
a sex offender. Legislative leaders
seized upon that tragic crime to
proclaim that Georgia really need
ed to get tough with sex offend
ers.
“We need to review our own
laws and make sure they are the
toughest in the nation," House
Majority Leader Jerry Keen said.
“My intent personally is to make
it so onerous on those that are
convicted of these offenses . . .
they will want to move to another
state.”
HouseSpeakerGlennRichardson
agreed: “These are sick people and
I think the public has a right to
know where they are.”
The Legislature overwhelmingly
The Capitol
Report
tcrawford@
capitol
impact.net.
By Tom Crawford
passed a sex crimes bill in the
2006 session that probably is the
toughest law in the nation. It made
prisons sentences even longer,
required lifetime electronic moni
toring of registered sex offend
ers, and prohibited offenders from
living anywhere near schools,
churches or other places where
children might gather.
As with any law passed under
such political pressure, this one had
some unforeseen consequences. A
teenager in Douglas County who
had consensual sex with a young
er classmate was given a 20-year
prison sentence (the state Supreme
Court ruled that was cruel and
unusual punishment and ordered
his release). The residency pro
hibitions were also struck down
by judges who noted that in most
counties, it would be physically
impossible to find a place to live
that wasn’t within 1.000 feet of a
church, school or bus stop.
Rep. Howard Maxwell
(R-Dallas) is one of the many
legislators who voted to pass these
measures to get tough on sexual
offenders, but his vote came back
to haunt him this summer.
One of Maxwell’s friends and
constituents, an 86-year-old vet
eran of World War n, was caught
up in a case involving an 11-year-
old girl he had met at church and
was convicted of child molesta
tion. The man’s attorney called
Maxwell and asked if the legisla
tor would testify as a character
witness before the judge imposed
sentence.
Maxwell quickly agreed and tes
tified during the sentencing hear
ing that his friend was “nothing but
a man of character . . . I’ve never
heard any problems, any word,
any type of discussion, nothing
come out against him.”
After Maxwell testified for
him, the convicted child molester
avoided going to prison. The judge
instead ruled he could remain at
home, under house arrest, so that
he could continue to take care of
his elderly, ailing wife.
The judge who allowed the child
molester to avoid a prison sentence
that normally would have been
required under the “get tough on
sex offenders” law was Paulding
Superior Court Judge James
Osborne - a former law partner of
Glenn Richardson.
Maxwell’s testimony could
cause political problems for him
because at least one local TV sta
tion reported on it. He acknowl
edged that he voted for that sex
crimes bill, but now contends that
it’s one of several state laws that
are perhaps too tough.
‘This is the whole problem with
half the laws we pass, like the two
strikes law and zero tolerance in
the schools,” Maxwell said, refer
ring to a Cobb County school
policy that caused a sixth-grader to
be suspended because the ten-inch
key chain on her Tweety Bird wal
let was considered a weapon.
“I don’t particularly like the laws,
no,” he said. “I think they’re too
stringent. I don’t like it that we’ve
taken the power to sentence away
from the judges, basically. You’ve
got to use common sense.”
Common sense often goes out
the window when our legisla
tors are stampeded into voting
for something that seems to be a
political winner. They need to be
careful how they vote - as this
incident shows, actions have con
sequences.
Tom Crawford is the editor of
Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report,
an Internet news service at www.
gareport.com that covers govern
ment and politics in Georgia. He
can be reached at tcrawford@
capitolirnpact.net.
What about kindness for your fellow man?
I’ve always been taught that
if you can’t say something
nice, don’t say anything at
all. That is why I’m often
quiet. Sometimes, it really is
best to just keep your mouth
shut.
Being kind to your fellow
man and common decency
are becoming a thing of the
past. Heated arguments and
even physical confrontations
are becoming the norm.
Just look around us at some
recent events — most happen
ing at public meetings.
In Hoschton, a councilman
called citizens in the audi
ence at a city council meeting
“sons of b$% A *es.”
In Nicholson, a woman
slapped the mayor’s wife at a
council meeting.
In Braselton, during a heat
ed discussion at a meeting,
one man in the audience told
My
View
By Angela Gary
another that he “didn’t like the
way he was looking at him.”
He told the man to “stop star
ing at him.”
In Barrow County, the sher
iff and BOC chairman got
into a shouting match over the
budget. They could be heard
from behind a closed door.
I’ve been covering govern
ment for more than 25 years
and have never seen so much
anger. Of course, there have
always been incidents where
anger prevailed but never
have there been so many. All
of the situations listed above
occurred during a one-week
period.
These examples are from
counties in our area. What
about the world around us?
Unfortunately, it’s no differ
ent.
A tennis legend lost her cool
and threatened a referee. This
woman has been a role model
for many young athletes. Too
bad these young people saw
her react in such an unaccept
able manner.
A hip hop artist ran to the
stage when a teenage coun
try music artist accepted
an award and declared that
another nominee should have
won. Our young people look
up to people in the music
world. These people should be
showing good sportsmanship
and congratulating winners
instead of slamming them in
this manner.
It’s really disheartening to
see events like this unfolding
around us. It almost becomes
acceptable to be cruel to each
other. It shouldn’t be that way.
We all need to take a deep
breath and calm down before
acting irrationally. It will make
the world a better place.
We need to be serving as an
example to our young people.
If people continue to act and
react with anger and cruelty, it
will only get worse in decades
to come. Angry words and
even violence will become
even more acceptable than it
is today.
Angela Gary is editor of The
Banks County News and asso
ciate editor of The Jackson
Herald. She can be reached at
AngieEditor@aol.com.