About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2011)
SATURDAY/OCTOBER 1, 2011 10am-4pm at Downtown Union Point * UNION juNcm JAMBORE Fun for the whole family* NEW THIS YEAR Pumpkin Bake-Off • Civil War Living History 'Wayside Home Ladies Speak in Wisteria Cemetery" • Classic Tractors • Fun Zone for the Kids • Live Music All Day • Arts & Crafts Market • Food! Food! Food! • Model Trains • Kids' Bike Ride ^ • Union Point Museum Brought to you In: Union Point Better Hometown (706) 486-4128 www.unionjunctioniainbof.ee.org Krazy Horner Congressman Broun, Jr. recently took to the Athens Banner- Herald's editorial page to offer yet another bizarre rendering of trickle-down economics. Railing against "central planning," Broun offered a radicalized trickle-down economic program as an alterna tive. His idea is to lower taxes even more, down to nothing in some cases for the rich, and to further lessen regulations on corporations. Exactly what Ronald Reagan tried 30 years ago. It’s getting sort of embarrassing to trot this stuff out. The trickle-down economic ideal Broun presents is a failed theory, as the experiment of the decades since Reagan’s inauguration have shown. The upper marginal tax rate in 1980 was 70 percent; it is now 35 percent. The banking industry during the last 30 years was deregulated so that profits trumped stability. Labor regulations were weak ened and unions destroyed. Regulations on trade were decimated, opening up the spigot of profits for corporations moving factories to Mexico, China and elsewhere. And look around: the results are in. It’s failed. It’s a failed experiment. None of the promises of Reagan-era conservatives have materialized. The deregulated banks col lapsed. The good jobs are gone. Incomes for middle-class and working-class earners are stagnant or declining. Families now need two incomes instead of one. More than one in five American children is in poverty. Infant mortality rates approach third-world levels. Meanwhile, the rich are doing better than they’ve done since the 1920s, and the disparity between the superwealthy and the rest of us is widening daily. Broun is asking us to continue and intensify these trends by redoubling our adherence to a thoroughly debunked ideology. Thirty years ago, Reagan and conservatives like Broun promised “morning in America.” How come it feels like dusk? [Matthew Pulver] THenaca HALF MARATHON REGISTER ONLINE TODAY AthensGaHalf.com (S^7(itep3 ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS Day of Reckoning: Quickly, try to think of a musical group or artist and a city more pow erfully and prominently linked than R.E.M. and Athens. The Beatles' relationship with Liverpool is about as close as it gets: for a lot of people, and in a lot of ways, R.E.M. is Athens, and vice-versa. That's the way it's been for most of the past 31 years, like it or not, and to some extent, it will continue to be so for the foresee able future, despite the band's "calling it a day" last week. These kinds of associations don't fade away overnight (see above examples). But what about R.E.M.'s direct, tangible, more- or-less quantifiable impacts on this city— namely, the band's con tributions to the wide variety of local charities it has so actively and generously supported over the years? Few cit ies Athens' size have been able to claim such a benefactor; now that R.E.M. is no longer a band, will it stop being a philanthropic force here, as well? The short answer is "no." While the band has never established a foundation to man age (or perpetuate) its charitable enterprises, neither has that work been done solely in the name of some remote, corporate entity that will now cease to exist. It's the band's mem bers themselves (and associates like Bertis Downs) who have always made the decisions to give their support to local causes, and it's likely they'll continue to do so, at least to a significant extent. Of course, without new albums or tours, the band's income streams are going to be considerably more modest, and its outlays will necessarily Students gathered at the Arch late Wednesday, Sept. 21 to light candles in remembrance of Troy Davis, who was executed that night de spite doubts about his guilt in the 1989 mur der of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail. reflect that. But R.E.M. is still a going con cern, and it's pretty tough to imagine Stipe, Mills, et al., turning their backs on Whatever It Takes and the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation just because they're not writing songs together anymore. Tough Week: Last week's local development news wasn't exactly inspiring to those (like the afore mentioned) who sup port the cultivation and preservation of Athens' unique historic and economic character. Monday saw the opening of the new downtown parking deck, which will dominate the area's skyline and contribute a Waffle House and two more chain restaurants to the local mix of culi nary options. Tuesday, UGA President Michael Adams announced his decision to raze and rebuild Rutherford Hall, rather than renovate it. And Wednesday, Flagpole's Kevan Williams reported that rumors about Wal-mart's interest in being the "anchor tenant" in a very hush- hush—at least as far as our elected officials are concerned—development project on the Armstrong 8. Dobbs property, once touted as the potential centerpiece of a vibrant new river district, appear well founded. Next week, we expect confirmation of the sale of the 40 Watt to the Walt Disney Company, which will improve the venue into a spotlessly clean, family-friendly, Athens music-themed "amusement center," generating perhaps a dozen new minimum-wage jobs. You heard it here first! Dave Marr news@flagpole.com PRESENTED BY: SPONSORED BY: QNS JL THE ADSMITH *3iwrtmr-j 4*1411 ( flagpole •*- Athens Regional Half-mcoU OUTMrTNK. aauint *.n» «vn *mic rr*n«r Food Kids tit REGISTER NOW AND SAVE! EARLY REGISTRATION ENOS SEPTEMBER 30TH: $60 4 FLAGPOLE.COM • SEPTEMBER 28, 2011
