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PAGE 4A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. APRIL 12, 2012
Opinions
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
Extra effort can
solve problems
Every so often, our county and state
undergoes a severe drought. The summer
of 1954 was one of those years. Dozens
of wells in the Dogsboro area went dry,
including all of those around the wheat field
my father had purchased as the site of our
planned new home.
So, one mid summer weekend our family
along with several relatives arrived at the site
with a heavy two-man windlass, a strong
rope, big bucket and short handled pick and
shovel. Dad picked a site far enough from the
road to allow the house to be built in front of
it, and we started digging.
I was 14 at the time. My brothers were
12 and 10. So father ruled that we were too
young to go down in the well. I was strong
enough to help turn the two-man windlass to
pull the buckets of dirt up out of the well.
When we reached the 30-foot level, we
found the sand layer that had provided water
to the neighboring wells, it was dry. But
below the sand we found more clay and
continued to dig. Finally, 45 feet below the
surface we found a second layer of sand
that contained water. We dug as deep into
the water as we could reach, lined the bot
tom with field stones and started lowering
the concrete liners into the hole. We packed
stone behind the pipes up to the level of the
first sand layer, then used clay from the well
to fill in the rest of the way to the top.
That winter, the drought broke, heavy rains
came and soaked the area. The upper sand
layer filled with water, and when we mea
sured the well again, we had 18 feet of water
in a hand dug well.
We have now been pumping water out of
that well for 54 years and it has never failed.
The water is clean and sweet and has never
required filtering or any kind of treatment.
It makes great coffee, it washes our clothes
clean with no residual stains. It never leaves
lime deposits on our bathtub or sinks. I
would put it up against the most expensive
bottled water, and all it cost is the electricity
to run the pump.
Sometimes, the best time to start a project
is when it appears most likely to fail. If
you make the extra effort to overcome the
problems, the outcome will be well above
expectations. There is a 45-foot hole in my
back yard that proves the point.
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison
County Journal. His e-mail address is
frank@frankgillispie.com. His website can
be accessed at http.V/www.frankgillispie.
com/gillispieonline.
Want to submit a letter?
Email us at zach@mainstreetnews.com,
fax us at 706-795-2765 or mail us at P.O.
Box 658, Danielsville, Ga. 30633. Please
include your first and last name, town of
residence and phone number for verifi
cation purposes.
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
E-mail: zach@mainstreetnews.com
ZACH MITCHAM, Editor
MARGIE RICHARDS, Reporter/Office Manager
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
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THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
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A publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc.
Time to cap legislative gifts from lobbyists
Imagine local politicians being treat
ed to steak dinners, alcohol, Georgia
football tickets and other trinkets and
favors from zoning applicants on a
controversial issue.
People love to allege such stuff
— often minus evidence. But there's a
climate to dissuade such bribery at the
county level. The person wouldn’t last
long politically, not after such informa
tion hit the public realm.
We appropriately have little toler
ance for such bribery when it’s shoved
in our face at tire county and municipal
level. Local leaders know that exposure
of gifts from applicants at the commis
sioners" table would be a stick of dyna
mite under their political hopes.
So. why is it so different in Atlanta
and Washington?
Have you ever thought about this
strange fact: what is considered a bribe
at the county level is, in fact, tire status
quo at the state and federal levels?
This past legislative session, a state
wide coalition called the Georgia
Alliance for Ethics Reform, which
includes folks from left and right,
pushed lawmakers to limit lobbyists’
gifts to $100 per event. But they failed
to get anywhere. In fact, bills in the
House and Senate failed to get out of
committee.
Meanwhile, The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution’s analysis of lobbyist dis
closures for tire legislative session that
just ended showed that lobbyists spent
$866,747 — the equivalent of $9,525
per day—on gifts for lawmakers from
Jan. 1 through March 31.
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach Mitcham
This is troubling for a group that
establishes our laws. What if our judi
cial branch of government — which
interprets our laws — took money
from those seeking influence in their
courtrooms? What would we say about
a judge on the take? Could we believe
in their impartiality?
Obviously, legislators need to hear
from Arose pushing and opposing spe
cific legislation. Tire day of a legislator
in a three-month session can stretch
far beyond regular business hours. So,
there will be considerable discussion
beyond 5 p.m. That means dinner
enters the equation. And if legislators
have to foot the bill for night after night
at restaurants and other get-togethers,
that could really add up.
Consequently, legislators won't be
overly eager to hurt their peers' financ
es by imposing strict rules on the gifts
that come with regular contact with
those seeking their influence. I expect
it's a pretty severe peer pressure tiling
among legislators. “Buddy, don’t mess
with something that makes all of our
lives easier, because we can certainly
make your life harder.”
That’s why legislators rarely pass
anything that is detrimental to their
own pockets. Even if they feel it's the
right tiling to do. they know it makes
them very unpopular among their leg
islative peers.
The AJC reported that Senate
Majority Leader Chip Rogers,
R-Woodstock, quietly decided not to
accept anything from lobbyists this
year after getting attention for taking
$10,771 in gifts the previous year.
"I'm not trying to show up anybody.
I’m not even trying to make this an
issue.” he said.
Maybe my interpretation is off. but
such a statement seems influenced by
peer pressure not to go "all holier than
thou” with other legislators when it
comes to getting gifts.
Of course, there’s the argument that
if you outlawed gifts, you’d just drive
the practice under the table. At least
now, legislators are required to dis
close what they receive. Perhaps that’s
hue, but do you avoid a rule against
something bad just because people
are bound to break it? That seems like
shaky logic. Should we legalize other
forms of bribery just because they're
bound to happen anyway under the
table?
While it’s good that we have dis
closure. there’s not much of a chill
ing effect on receiving gifts. The AJC
repotted a $236.96 Valentines dinner
for House Ways and Means Chainnan
Mickey Channell and his wife, which
was paid for by the Georgia Hospital
Association and Georgia Power. Do
regular citizens get such nice, private
dinners paid for by companies with no
strings attached?
As I mentioned, individual legis
lators who try to buck the system
and impose restrictions on their fellow
legislators" gifts face being the black
sheep and being stripped of power
positions. Meanwhile, Arose who turn
a blind eye to the influence peddling
can rise in the ranks.
In the end. the public is left utterly
cynical. We see elected officials get
ting perks that make us cringe and
we grow more and more bifter toward
them. We see the grotesque self interest
on display and we spout rage toward
"politicians.” Or, we go the opposite
way and shut them off completely,
feeling a certain righteousness in our
indifference for public officials, with
our “They’re-all-the-same-anyway”
aftitudes. They're actuafiy not. but the
current arrangement makes it hard to
see that. All we see is a legislative body
that can't stop itself from getting gifts
from Arose who want a gift in return.
That won’t stop until we shake our
cynicism and apaftry and declare in a
united and focused way that we want it
to stop—for Are sake of public service
and moral consistency.
And we shouldn't have to offer
Georgia Ackets, steak and booze to get
our way — should we?
Zach Mitcham is editor of The
Madison County Journal.
Back to the ‘marshes of Glynn
“OI% what is abroad in the marsh
and the terminal sea? Somehow my
soul seems suddenly free, from the
weighing of fate and the sad discus
sion of sin, by the length and the
breadth and the sweep of the marshes
of Glynn.”
I love that passage from Sidney
Lanier’s poem, penned in the late
1800s. I think of it every time we head
down the causeway, rimmed by those
very marshes, to visit my favorite place
-Jekyll Island.
Charles and I have been going there
for the past 20 years - we used to take
our kids and their friends there for days
on the beach, long rides on tire bike
tiails and history lessons in tire historic
district We’ve walked or biked most
every inch of it and yet I discover
something new every time we go.
The beach is not the clear blue-green
of the Gulf, I admit but that roughly
natural shoreline combined with the
magic and tianquility of the island
itself satisfies something in me that I
can’t explain - except to say, it’s like
coming home, though I’ve never lived
there, except in dreams.
This past week Charles and I, along
Close
to
Home
By Margie Richards
with our daughter Miranda, who is
expecting our first grandchild next
month, went to Jekyll for a few days
of relaxation and some family time.
Miranda and I sat on the beach
together with our dogs, talking about
the coining baby and about the past.
I told her how when I come these
days I watch children playing in the
surf or riding their bikes and think of
her and her brother, doing those same
things just a few years ago. I think of
them building sand cashes with their
dad and of spending the day at the
water park. I think of nighttime beach
walks and their happy squeals as they
ran from ghost crabs and picked up a
pocketful of shells, many of which still
decorate our home.
I tiiink of bringing her best friend
Jami here to see the ocean for the first
time.
Charles and I and our tittle dog Joe
went for bike rides, Joe in his wicker
basket on the front of my bike. We
visited the fishing pier to look across
the sound at the magnificent Sidney
Lanier Bridge. We ducked under moss
draped live oaks and pedaled our way
through marshes; we sailed past the
remains of Horton House, the first
residence on Jekyll, and the tiny grave
yard, bearing the remains of two men
who drowned off the coast centuries
ago. There are the millionaire win
ter “cottages” of the historic district,
and the magnificent Jekyll Island Club
hotel. There is the maritime forest with
its creeks and lakes where alligators
can be spotted sunning themselves.
There’s the sea turtle center that reha
bilitates sea turtles and other injured
creatures. There are so many other
things, hidden in the island's interior,
just waiting to be found.
Three years ago, Charles asked me
to marry him again there, and we
renewed our vows at the end of Glory
boardwalk at the south end of the
island, just the two of us, a preacher,
and a couple of fishermen (one of
which agreed to snap a few photos). I
will never forget that day.
And it has almost become a “tradi
tion” for the two of us to spend Easter
at Jekyll. Being there on Easter morn
ing gives me a measure of peace and
hope I haven’t been able to find in any
church sunrise service.
I have many wonderful memories
of Jekyll, and I made a few more
this past week. I hope there are many
more memories to be made there.
As we were leaving the beach to go
home Sunday morning, Miranda and
I watched a tittle girl with a blonde
ponytail make her way along the
boardwalk. She wore silver earrings in
her ears and had a saucy step. She took
off her pink jelly sandals and laid them
carefitily, side by side, next to the steps
before bouncing off to join another
tittle girl on the beach. We just looked
at each otiter and smiled - we both
felt as if we’d been given a glimpse of
the future.
It was good to be renewed in spirit
one more time by Jekyll Island and the
marshes of Glynn.
Margie Richards is a reporter and
office manager for The Madison
County Journal.
A bad session? It could have been worse
Whenever I am asked to sum
up tire achievements of a General
Assembly session. I usually offer
the same assessment: it could have
been worse.
That was certainly the case this
year.
Our lawmakers approved a budget
that didn't wreak great havoc on
current programs and passed at least
a few bits and pieces of a tax revi
sion plan.
The yearly property tax that you
pay when you renew your car tags
will be gradually eliminated. On
the other hand, you will also have to
start paying sales tax on much of that
merchandise you purchase online.
More significantly, Gov. Nathan
Deal was able to secure legislative
passage of his proposal to overhaul
Georgia's criminal sentencing laws,
a policy objective that was both
humane and sensible.
The governor’s criminal justice
revision will eliminate some of the
draconian measures adopted during
Zell Miller’s “two strikes” era. Those
laws have jam-packed Georgia's cor
rectional system at a cost to taxpay
ers of more than $1 billion a year.
The new system for sentencing
should save money because many
non-violent offenders and drug users
can be diverted into treatment pro
grams and drug courts instead of
The Capitol
Report
tcrawford@
capitol
impact.net.
By Tom Crawford
being sent to an expensive prison
bed. If recidivism is also reduced a
little, that's an added bonus.
Lawmakers said their main priority
for this session was to create jobs,
and some of the bills they passed will
do just that - for attorneys.
If Deal signs the bill that requires
drug tests for all applicants for TANF
(temporary assistance for need fami
lies) payments, a lawsuit is already
being drafted that would challenge
the law in federal court. A similar
law in Florida was blocked by a fed
eral judge there.
The bill making it a criminal
offense to perform an abortion after
20 weeks of a pregnancy - the doc
tor involved could go to prison for as
long as 10 years - will likely trigger
a court challenge if Deal signs it. It
may even lead to a Supreme Court
review of the "Roe v. Wade” decision
that legalized abortion, a long-sought
goal of right to life organizations.
When you add those measures to
last year's immigration control law.
which is still being litigated in tire
federal courts, you can see that the
General Assembly continues to be
a fulltime employment service for
attorneys.
Our lawmakers once again showed
an inability to stand up and say “no”
to the Georgia Power Co., an entity
that seems to have more political
clout in this state titan any mere gov
ernor or legislator.
WhenSen.BuddyCarter(R-Pooler)
tried to get a bill passed that would
have made it easier for homeowners
and businesses to generate cheaper
electricity by using their own solar
panels, Georgia Power swooped in
and essentially told the Legislature
they weren’t going to allow it.
Carter’s bill never made it out of
committee and electricity users will
continue to be charged upwards of
$1.6 billion in higher rates to pay early
financing costs for Georgia Power to
build those two nuclear reactors at
Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro.
On the other hand, as I said a few
paragraphs ago, it could have been
worse.
Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville)
tried to push through legislation
that would have made it illegal for
unions to picket, a blatant violation
of “the right of the people peaceably
to assemble" contained in the First
Amendment. This bill was so mis
guided that it managed to unite labor
organizations and tea party groups in
opposition.
Another bill would have enabled
developers to walk away from bank
loans that they personally guaranteed
they would pay off if a real estate
project happened to go bad. Tire
measure was written, of course, so
that ordinary Georgians would not be
allowed to escape their obligations to
pay off credit card debt or a student
loan. But if you were a wealthy,
politically connected developer, it
would have been a sweet deal for
you.
That bill, no surprise, was also
introduced by Balfour, the best friend
a plutocrat ever had. Tire House lead
ership sat on Balfour’s bills without
bringing them up for a floor vote.
It was, in the end, a normal legisla
tive session. Although some bad bills
made it through, a few of the really
horrific ones were prevented from
passing.
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an Internet news ser
vice at gareport.com that reports on
government and politics in Georgia.
He can be reached at tcrawford@
garepod.com.