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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. OCTOBER 1, 2009 — PAGE 5A
Opinions
Numbers game
continues in Washington
Excited to offer new programs
through sheriff s dept.
Politicians on both sides of
the aisle are generally very
astute when it comes to num
bers.
Approval ratings, tracking
polls and political contribu
tions are all numerical mea
sures of a politician’s suc
cess.
Good numbers are great
news for a politician and
even bad numbers can be
made to look good if spun
properly.
Numbers manipulation is
nothing new in Washington
or in any other political
arena. For as long as political
polls have been in use, each
side has worked to present
the data gathered in the best
possible light.
Even when both sides dis
agree on the interpretation of
the data, there generally has
been some level of consen
sus regarding the data itself.
Campaign contributions are
easily quantifiable and most
political polls are conducted
with at least some pretext of
scientific accuracy.
What happens though when
no one knows the real num
bers? What happens when
data is deliberately distorted
or suppressed?
Two weeks have passed
since the Sept. 12 protests in
Washington. Still no consen
sus has been reached regard
ing how many people actu
ally attended the event.
Estimates range from the
tens of thousands to well
over a million. In a day of
24-hour news coverage, live
video feeds, a digital cam
era in every cell phone and
constantly updated satellite
imagery, you would think
someone could figure out
how many people showed
up to voice their opposition
to the policies of the current
administration.
It should come as no sur
prise that the current adminis
tration is downplaying atten
dance at the protest. After
all, it was White House press
secretary Robert Gibbs who
disingenuously questioned
the press about the widely
kreed@barrowjournal.com.
By Kristi Reed
publicized protests.
“I don’t know who the
group is,” he said.
Really? This protest has
only been in the works for
months. Surely the Secret
Service or some other agen
cy would have at least men
tioned in passing the fact that
thousands of people upset
with the current administra
tion were planning to con
verge on Washington.
It is one thing to downplay
the event; it is quite another
if the administration is delib
erately trying to manipulate
the public through false or
misleading statements.
For Gibbs to deny knowl
edge of what may be one
of the largest protests in
Washington history is
implausible at best.
Appearing to take their cue
from Gibbs, the mainstream
media largely ignored the
protests. Those that covered
it claimed only a few thou
sand right-wing fringe pro
testors were in attendance.
The District of Columbia
Fire Departments estimated
the crowd was in the 60,000
to 70,000 range. Calculations
based on D.C. metro rider-
ship place the numbers
anywhere from 100,000 to
350,000. A newspaper in the
United Kingdom, The Daily
Mail, put the figure at two
million.
It seems inconceivable that
crowd estimates could vary
by upwards of 1.5 million,
yet they do.
The American people are
in the unenviable position of
not being able to trust main
stream media coverage. Lies
and omissions once reserved
for state-controlled media in
communist and third-world
countries are now becoming
commonplace on the evening
news.
The same media outlets
that ignored Van Jones and
ACORN are the same ones
quick to label protestors as
fringe elements of American
society. The President’s top
adviser, David Axelrod,
encouraged the slanted cov
erage by claiming the dem
onstrators were not represen
tative of the nation as a whole
and were, in fact, “wrong.”
With Gibbs and Axelrod
playing spin doctors and
with the President making
the rounds on the Sunday
news shows, it appears more
and more that the main
stream media is taking its
cues directly from the admin
istration.
By downplaying the pro
testors, the media enables the
administration to delude itself
and its supporters with the
idea that Obama is supported
by the “silent majority.” This
allows the White House to
continue its partisan push of
health care reform, cap and
trade and any other policy it
chooses to pursue.
The press is a powerful
entity. When that power can
be channeled by a politician
or a party, it is truly frighten
ing.
We may never know exact
ly how many people marched
in Washington on Sept. 12.
The numbers really do not
even matter. Whether 50,000
or 500,000, the administra
tion and the mainstream
media have shown an ability
and willingness to interpret
events not as they are, but as
they want them to be seen.
The numbers game contin
ues in Washington and truth
and the American public are
losing.
Kristi Reed is a reporter
for the Barrow Journal, a
sister paper of The Madison
County Journal. You can
reach her at kreed@barrow-
joumal.com.
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Well it’s the beginning of
another school year for all
the children of Madison
County. This also means
that it’s another year for
Lt David Patton to teach
the elementary school
children about drugs and
other harmful issues that
they will be confronted
with during their adoles
cent and teenage years.
The Madison County
Sheriff’s Office switched
this past summer from
the DARE program to the
CHAMPS program. Lt.
Patton has been hard at
work attending trainings
and learning the new pro
gram. He will continue to
provide a fun and interest
ing learning environment
as he has always done in
the past.
The CHAMPS program
was started by the Georgia
Sheriff’s Association as an
alternative to the DARE
program. This program
offers more than 20 vari
ous courses for elementary
school children instead
of just a couple which is
offered by the DARE pro
gram. Don’t get me wrong,
DARE is a good program
but CHAMPS gives the
schools more class choic
es for the children and I
feel it brings a fresh, new
approach to this field of
education.
With this program,
each school will be able
to choose the curriculum
areas that they feel are
best suited for their student
population. CHAMPS has
been well received in the
schools so far this year
and the program is only
going to get better as time
goes on. CHAMPS is a
Georgia initiated program
and it is also cheaper than
By Kip Thomas
the DARE program, which
happens to be a perk dur
ing these economic times.
If you would like to read
more information about
CHAMPS, you can go
to the Georgia Sheriff’s
Association website and
click on the fink (www.
georgiasheriffs.org).
CHAMPS is just one of
the new things that I am
excited about bringing to
our county to help aid in
the prevention and aware
ness of crime. We are cur
rently working on getting
the S.T.O.P.P.E.D. program
up and going. In a nutshell,
this will allow parents or
guardians of teenagers to
register their vehicle with
the Sheriff’s Office. If this
vehicle is pulled over, noti
fication will be given to the
parent. Several other ini
tiatives like a sex offend
er site that will map out
where offenders are locat
ed and notify you when an
offender moves into your
neighborhood and a fire
arms class for women are
in the planning phases and
I look forward to giving
you more information in
the future months.
Over the past couple
of months, a lot of atten
tion has been given to my
request for cars and person
nel. This attention is right
ly given. As your Sheriff, I
feel that it is my duty to let
our commissioners know
the areas that are not up to
par when it comes to safety
and liability. I know that in
hard economic times, extra
spending is a difficult sub
ject and every dollar has to
be looked at carefully.
I do not believe that my
department is an excep
tion to the budget cuts. As
other departments made
cuts, I did as well. By care
fully looking at our day-
to-day operations, I was
able to trim 26 percent
off of the sheriff’s office
operating budget. While
this was overshadowed by
the requests for cars and
personnel, I feel that it is
something that the citizens
need to be aware of.
My staff and I scruti
nized over the previous
year’s budget in order to
find ways to save the tax
payers money, while also
keeping in mind that we
still need to be able to pro
vide the safety and secu
rity that the citizens expect
and deserve. I feel that the
operations budget that I
submitted to the BOC is
a good balance between
the two. In the coming
weeks, I know more will
be discussed concerning
budgets. As your sheriff,
I vow to provide the best
service and protection pos
sible. As always, my door
is open and I would be
glad to discuss my budget
and answer questions that
you may have. Please do
not hesitate to call or stop
by my office if you would
like to talk about any of the
programs that my depart
ment offers, the budget, or
public safety issues.
Kip Thomas is sheriff of
Madison County.
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