About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2011)
ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS Location, Location, Location: By the time you read this, the mayor and commission will in all likelihood have voted to remove the statutory requirement of a 100-foot distance between establishments selling package beer and wine and residential dwellings, along with a 200-foot buffer from churches. It’s a move intended to make it easier for grocery stores to come to certain in-town corridors where prime potential locations have long been foiled by the buffer—like the available St. Joseph's Catholic Church property on Prince Avenue, which is right across the street from First Baptist Church. If ycu're looking for low-hanging economic development fruit, this is it. Let's find more. Jordan Jumping In?: Commissioner Ed Robinson has been on a roll lately, mak ing the most of his evenings behind the rail to offer pronounce ments that have ranged from the informative (his demonstration of an impressively detailed knowledge of tree species during a planning discussion) to the unfortunate (a well-intentioned but perhaps too impromptu lesson in African-American history on the occasion of last month's redistricting vote). If Robinson is flying his flag a little higher these days (let's not forget his colorful obser vation that watching the "dysfunctional" com mission's meetings on cable is "better than reality TV!"), it may have something to do with his recent announcement that he won't be seeking re-election next year. And who better to fill Robinson's seat than the man who warmed it before him, Carl Jordan? The erst while District 6 commish has told Flagpole's John Huie that he'll consider running for his old post in 2012. Since this Dope missed out on covering the original Jordan era, he'd wel come a new one. ACC made the switch to single-stream recycling last week, and started accepting a wider range of materials, too. Rollcarts are available from the county Solid Waste Department, if you want ‘em. Resistance Isn't Futile: More than twice as many people as expected turned out for a Tate Center forum last week at which undocu mented students from Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals high schools gave accounts of how their lives have been affected by HB 87 and Board of Regents policies on immigrants. These are people who, by no decision of their own, were brought to this country as children and who have since done exactly what our society expects from those who intend to become responsible and productive Americans. That they have been labeled as "illegal" and marked for exclu sion from participation in the society whose tenets they have so eagerly embraced is a grim measure of how successfully our cynical politicians have shifted the blame for our state's and our nation's economic woes from the super powerful interests that buy policy with their ever-growing capital to the poor and marginal ized, whose practically non-existent voices in government continue to be shouted down. As that agenda grows ever more bla tant, it's no wonder we appear to be witnessing the dawn of a new season of activism. Whether you're an immigrant being overtly targeted, or one of the rest of the "99 percent" whose interests are simply being ignored, there's a growing probability that you're losing your faith in the current system's ability to guard your freedom and ability to prosper. Those who are actually in power aren't going to stop trying to turn us against one another any time soon, so it's going to be up to us to figure out that we need to stand together to stand a chance. The class war isn't being fomented by anyone; it's well underway, and one side's winning big. Dave Marr news@flagpole.com SfeEiOIlMQIbSfe’s Krazy Korner It’s existential crisis time here in the Krazy Korner. Congressman Paul Broun, Jr. will face a primary challenger for next year's election, Macon veteran and businessman Stephen Simpson. Considering that Broun shrugs off Democratic opponents in the gen eral election by 20 to 30 points, a primary challenge is the only real threat to the congressman’s seat. A threat to Broun is a threat to the Korner. Broun hasn't done much to solve the jobs crisis, but he's cre ated and sustained one: mine. The Korner has been lucky. Guys like Broun don't come around very often. He’s like Halley’s Comet: super-rare and always about a million miles from the needs of Northeast Georgians. Remember when he went to bat for “crush videos,” sexual fetish films that feature women grinding small animals to death with their feet? Something tells me Mr. Simpson won’t be so adamant about permitting the bloody stomping of small animals for sexual pleasure—which will make a “Stephen Simpson’s Relative Sanity Square” column difficult. But Broun is the rare political thinker who will vote pro-kitten death on “constitutional grounds and the First Amendment,” then, faced with a real First Amendment issue—that of Occupy Wall Street protesters exercising their right to assemble peaceably to bring forth grievances—call that exercise “an attack upon freedom.” A smart campaign by Simpson could spell the end of Broun. And the end of the Korner! 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