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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! I Matthew Pulver]
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NOVEMBER 2, 2011 • FLAGPOLE.COM 5
