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PAGE 4A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 17. 2009
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
Nothing like
holding a real book
in your hands
Are you rushing around looking for last-
minute Christmas gifts? I have a suggestion
for you. Give them books. I don’t mean one
of those electronic book reader things. I mean
real paper, hard-bound books.
There is just nothing like holding a real book
in your hands and opening it at the bookmark
to the last page you read. You can get quality
books on all subjects. Whatever your loved
one is interested in, there are books about it.
Does she like to cook? There are cookbooks
of all types. Every one of the cooking show
hosts has one or more book on the market.
There are specialist cookbooks for vegetarian
cooks, people with diabetes, dessert books
— there is one that is devoted totally to cup
cakes.
How many of your friends and family are
devoted to their church? Every one of the
major TV preachers has one or more books
on the market and that includes such names as
Bishop T. J. Jakes and Rev Joel Olsten. Bibles
and Bible commentary are always in order for
Christmas giving.
How about politics? You can have your
choice from all areas of the political spectrum,
from Glenn Beck’s “Arguing With Idiots”'
or Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue” to Saul D.
Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”
You can find the books that were made into
blockbuster movies about vampires, magic
worlds, great romances, science fiction. Harry
Potter books are still available along with some
secondary books that relate to the system.
How about some of the older books that
have been in the news recently? Ayn Rands,
“Atlas Shrugged” is still on the shelves. New
and older biographies of great Americans are
out there, and there is no better way to learn
about our nation than to read the life stories of
the men and women who created her.
Books are works of art. Not only are the
words inside the product of creative minds, so
are the bindings, the illustrations and pictures
often found inside. There is nothing more
impressive than to handle one of the “heir
loom” books bound in leather and embossed
with gold leaf.
Books are great for children. I have never
seen a young child who is not thrilled to have
his or her very own book. Learning to read
from their own special books is a major part
of a child’s education.
Books are easy to find, reasonably priced
and always in style. So if you are in a rush,
or have that one person who is impossible
to shop for, consider a book. So what if they
don’t read? A good book will likely get them
into the habit.
Give books for Christmas. It’s easy for you,
good for them.
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/
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.
Social service issues more complicated than ‘get a job’
It’s always encouraging to see
the Christmas spirit of giving that
accompanies efforts to help the
less fortunate.
But a society must also carry
a structural goodness if it really
wants to care about the less for
tunate.
That’s why I’m disturbed to
learn from Madison County’s
Cindy Darden, who heads
Advantage Behavioral Health
Services for our 10-county area,
that Advantage has been cut back
from $16.8 million in state funds
in 2001 to $9.7 million this year,
with more cuts possible in the
coming months.
Advantage serves those in
Madison County and nine other
Athens-area counties who suffer
from developmental disabilities,
mental illnesses and addictive dis
eases.
It’s not like we’re seeing less of
these problems. No, the economic
downturn has hit people hard.
There are those who struggle with
addictions who find themselves
suddenly out of a job. A man hits
the bottle or the pill. His child pays
the price when he comes home in
a rage. The man with schizophre
nia needs to be institutionalized,
but there’s not the money or the
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach Mitcham
space for it. He sticks the knife
in his pocket and heads out the
door. The elderly couple is now
physically unable to take care of
their severely disabled child. They
need help, but there’s a long wait
ing list of other families needing
that help, too.
The notion of a social safety
net is a political taboo for many.
It implies nannyism of the worst
order, a socialist state set on help
ing the freeloaders. Well, that’s
surely a self-satisfying political
cry, but there’s more complex
ity to this world than three-word
“get-a-job” sloganeering.
There’s no denying that some
people seek to mooch off the
government. But that’s true at
both ends of the financial spec
trum. There are lazy folks who
can work but don’t. There are
also rich folks who work politi
cal connections for price-gouging
government contracts that ensure
obscene and ill-gotten profits at
the expense of taxpayers.
But can we in good conscience
lump the children, the elderly,
the developmentally challenged,
the mentally ill together under
the wide umbrella of “lazy”
and be done with social service
issues? Can we shout “get a job”
to developmentally challenged
adults in real need of govern
ment assistance? Can churches
and civic organizations, for all
the good they do, pick up the
cost and responsibility of housing
the schizophrenic man, who may
turn homicidal if he doesn’t get
his medicine? Can we turn off
resources for those with severe
addictions and not expect other
repercussions in our society —
more thefts and violence, more
strain on law enforcement ser
vices and the courts?
The funds for those served by
Advantage in northeast Georgia
started dwindling before the
economic collapse. Early in the
decade as home prices skyrocket
ed and tax collections shot through
the roof, the money squeeze was
already on Advantage and other
social service programs.
The “get-a-job” mentality has
pervaded our political makeup for
too long when it comes to social
services. It’s easy to cut funding if
we can put a big umbrella of “lazy
welfare recipients” on those in
need, even if we knowingly lump
developmentally disabled adults
into the same boat as the freeload
ers. So money for quality services
has gradually evaporated. We end
up with the nightmare scenarios,
the things that make news, the
14-year-old girl dying in a mental
hospital of impaction because an
overworked staff failed to check
on her and get her needed medical
attention.
Ultimately, I believe that empa
thy is the thing that makes a
person good inside. It is not a
political slant, but one of the
heart. We are bom totally inno
cent, but without any understand
ing of empathy either. Such an
attribute is acquired over time
through observation, contempla
tion and a respect for life, not just
your own.
We have to learn this as indi
viduals.
We need to learn this as a soci
ety, too.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The
Madison County Journal.
My (lack of) talent for gift-wrapping
They say there is a certain art
to gift-wrapping. That may well
be true, since I certainly don’t
possess an artistic bent of any
kind - gift wrapping included.
Besides, I just don’t like to
wrap presents. There is a saying
(which I invented) that says: if
it can be bagged, by all means
bag it.
I hate cutting the paper, espe
cially since I couldn’t cut it in a
straight line if my life depended
on it, unless it has those little dot
ted lines on the back. The stuff
never smoothes out and lines up
like I want it to, which leads to
my immediate frustration, and
which may, of course, explain
the whole thing.
And forget about ribbons and
bows - literally. If I get ’em
tagged so I know whom they
belong to, I’m doing good.
Finally, this past Saturday,
Christmas shopping pretty much
done, I faced the fact that at least
some of those gifts stuffed in my
closet must now be wrapped.
Close
to
Home
By Margie Richards
I started by piling them on and
around the dining room table.
Depressed already, I took a deep
breath and bagged anything I
could until I ran out of bags and
then tackled those things that fit
easily (or could be forced to fit)
into standard shirt/coat boxes.
Even I can wrap shirt boxes, at
least sometimes, or if they have
those pretty tops, sometimes they
go under my tree unwrapped.
Finally came the unusually-
shaped gifts that defy me, usu
ally the toys.
After a particularly nasty ses
sion of tug-of-war with wrapping
paper that would not lay down
smoothly, would not fold neatly
and insisted on tearing just as I
was finishing up, and after I had
muttered some particularly “un-
Christmas-like” things to myself,
I decided to take a break. Charles
had brought down the boxes and
wrapping paper from the attic
and I left it where it lay in stacks
all over the living room.
I tried not to give a backward
look at the mess and retired to
the bedroom for an afternoon
nap.
While I was asleep, Charles
evidently wrapped his gifts for
me, as well as a few others.
When I got up, there they were
piled merrily around the tree.
His handiwork had neat straight
comers, matching seams and he
even put little bows on them.
Showoff.
I don’t think I’ve always dis
liked gift wrapping as much as I
do now. As a child, I can remem
ber enjoying helping to wrap
gifts. I also enjoyed it when the
kids were little. Charles and I
would wrap their stuff after they
had gone to bed on Christmas
Eve. But to be truthful I may
have enjoyed it because I bagged
and tore the tape for him while
he actually did the wrapping.
When our daughter Miranda
got older, I could usually finagle
her into wrapping the gifts that
weren’t for her, and like her dad,
she was pretty good at it.
My cousin Teresa (who doesn’t
like to wrap any more than I do)
and I use to tackle the job togeth
er sometimes - we’d go for a day
of shopping and then make an
evening of wrapping presents.
Anyway, except for a very few
things the job is done for another
year, and the finished product is
satisfying to gaze upon - until
it’s time to clean it all up on
Christmas Day.
Margie Richards is a report
er and office manager for The
Madison County Journal.
Georgia’s banks continue to fail
It’s no surprise that the Georgia
media has been consumed with
the recent scandals erupting at the
state capitol over legislators and
their alleged affairs with lobby
ists. Any assignment editor with
a pulse will tell you that sex is
what brings readers and viewers
to a story.
In the rush to explore every
aspect of Glenn Richardson’s res
ignation as House speaker, howev
er, we may be overlooking a story
that is much more important to
the state’s future: the continuing
failures in our banking system.
In the 18 months since the hous
ing bubble popped and the con
struction industry collapsed, there
have been 29 banks in Georgia
shut down by regulators. That’s
an alarming number, as it accounts
for nearly 10 percent of the banks
here and is larger than the number
of bank failures in every other
state.
I know we want Georgia to be
number one, but I don’t think that’s
the category we had in mind.
These bank failures are bad
news because they prolong the
recession that has destroyed busi
nesses and jobs across the state.
With fewer banks to make loans,
and with banks that are still oper
ating more reluctant to extend
credit, people who want to start
or expand a business can’t get the
The Capitol
Report
tcrawford@
capitol
impact.net.
By Tom Crawford
money to do it.
When businesses cannot expand,
then jobs aren’t created - which is
a major reason why the state’s
unemployment rate has exceeded
the national jobless rate for the
past few years.
Georgia’s bank failures have
had a national impact as well.
The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC), which
was created during the Great
Depression to prevent runs on
failing banks, guarantees that you
won’t lose the money you deposit
in a bank. The FDIC has guar
anteed the deposits at each of the
29 banks closed in Georgia at a
combined cost to the agency’s
insurance fund of close to $5.4
billion.
The Georgia losses were a big
factor in the FDIC’s announce
ment in November that its insur
ance fund has now gone into the
red, with a negative balance of
$8.2 billion as of the end of the
third quarter.
That disclosure should scare the
pants off anyone who’s concerned
about the current condition of the
economy. One of the fundamental
protections that the money you
deposit in a bank will still be there
when you want to withdraw it
is the FDIC insurance fund, and
it is slowly sinking into a sea of
red ink.
Oddly enough, Georgia law
makers don’t seem to be con
cerned about the matter at all. At a
budget hearing for the state bank
ing department a few weeks ago,
legislators were told that the num
ber of bank examiner positions at
the department had been reduced
last year because of budget short
falls and would be reduced again
because of more budget cuts that
are planned.
The lawmakers asked a few des
ultory questions and moved on to
discuss other matters. Not one of
them suggested that perhaps the
state should hire more examiners
to review the institutions’ finan
cial records and possibly prevent
future bank failures.
Rob Braswell, commissioner of
the state banking department, said
he isn’t sure that having more bank
examiners on the payroll would
have made much of a difference
anyway. State examiners often
spotted problem areas with banks
that had made too many real estate
or construction loans, but their
advice to the banks’ executives
was frequently ignored, Braswell
said.
“It’s like a police officer telling
drivers the streets are slick and
they should slow down - if they
continue to go 55 miles an hour,
they can still go into the ditch,”
he said. “We don’t manage the
banks. We can make the recom
mendation, but they don’t have to
follow it.”
Back when the housing boom
was in full force and banks were
making money hand over fist, it
was hard to get anyone to pay
attention to the problems that
might lie ahead, Braswell said.
“It seemed to many this market
was going to continue for months
down the road,” he noted.
Every boom comes to an end,
which is what happened to the
construction industry in Georgia.
The crisis in our banking system
has not yet ended - and there’s
no indication that it will anytime
soon.
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@
capitolimpact. net.