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Column
By Frank
Gillespie
The Madison County Journal
April 5, 2000
 Frankly Speaking
We
the people must stop the Left Wing Conspiracy
Is this a great country or what? No matter
how hard the Left Wing Conspiracy of big government and their
allies in the liberal media try, they cannot keep we the people
marching in line with their ideas. Here are some recent examples:
The Left Wing Conspiracy is trying hard to bypass the U.S. Constitution
and impose limits on our right to keep and use firearms. Recently,
they pressured a major manufacturer of firearms to agree to a
set of absurd conditions that would not only interfere with the
possession of guns, but also make the guns they allow us to keep
be practically worthless in an emergency situation. The response
from the public was dramatic.
Many distributors and marketers of guns have announced that they
will no longer carry Smith & Wesson models. Owners and managers
of competing companies have spoken out against Smith & Wesson.
One competitor sent a letter of thanks to them, saying that he
expects his company to pick up many former Smith & Wesson
customers.
The Left Wing Conspiracy is engaged in an effort to wipe out
all evidence of Southern Culture. (We traditional Southerners
are the prime opponent of Leftist propaganda). As a part of this
effort the NAACP (National Association of Always Complaining
People) has organized a boycott of South Carolina, trying to
force them to remove a Confederate flag from the state house
in Columbia. The liberal media is not reporting it, but tourism
is setting records in South Carolina. Currently, the state's
tax revenues are at record high levels. A recent visitor to Charleston
reported the streets so crowded he had trouble moving from place
to place.
The politically correct element of the Lift Wing Conspiracy raised
hell over comments by Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker about
people he did not like. They forced the team to send him to a
shrink and threatened a boycott unless he is traded. The people
of this country have made their opinions known about this issue
by giving Rocker a standing ovation every time he takes the field.
Finally, the Left Wing Conspiracy has again ignored the Constitution
by using the census as a way of gathering detailed information
about us. They want to use this information in their efforts
to limit and control our freedoms. We the people responded by
the millions to this intrusion into our privacy by answering
only the questions allowed by the Constitution, or not returning
the questionnaire. Nationally, almost half the homes have not
returned the census forms. Here in Madison County, the latest
figures show only 32 percent have complied. Now, a Southern-based
legal foundation has taken legal action to force the Census Bureau
to comply with constitutional limits.
Big government is being heavily criticized on a daily basis on
talk shows and in newer, less well known media. Both categories
are growing in popularity. At the same time, national media,
especially the network news programs, are losing circulation
rapidly. Third party political movements are growing as well.
The Libertarian Party alone has increased its membership by 400
percent in recent years. More and more local elections are going
to third party or independent candidates.
In many ways, we the people are making our objections to the
Left Wing Conspiracy known. It might be wise for the politicians,
bureaucrats and media types to stop telling us what they want
us to do, and asking what we want them to do. The answer is simple:
just leave us alone!
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal.
Letter
The
Madison County Journal
April 5, 2000
Says teacher is wrong about who is to blame
for educational problems
Dear editor:
This letter is written in response to one recently written by
a teacher. (By Martha Duncan, The Madison County Journal, March
15)
She deplores a general immorality in society, and notes that
the students are aware of such. May I point out that the students
are also aware that in some classes, they may know more about
the subject than the teacher knows. They are further cognizant
that cheating is allowed in some classes, that some teachers
will accept plagiarized work, that some teachers will give higher
grades than are deserved and that some teachers will give tests
and assignments that are ridiculously simple and easy. They know
this and they talk and laugh about it. So, as she seems to imply,
it is not some general immorality in society which has caused
the sorriness in the schools, but, conversely, when schools indicate
to students that they can be rewarded for poor or inefficient
performance, this is an attitude which the student takes into
society, to the detriment of society.
She regrets that students are overstimulated by "mind candy."
I take her meaning as being that students are so bombarded by
representations that are facile and fallacious, they have difficulty
concentrating upon or comprehending anything that is thought-provoking.
But what of schools who bestow fallacious honors upon graduates,
in order to give them a facile sense of self-esteem, thereby
issuing "mind candy" diplomas to students who have
a problem with reading competently, who have trouble writing
correctly, a farce designed to give administrators and teachers
the appearance of having been competent and correct in their
instruction of these summa cum laudes, who, if they go on to
college, will probably have to take remedial courses?
She bemoans a lack of Christian values in the schools, saying
that Christianity has become "like those weird, drugged-up
hippies of the 70s." She does not explain this analogy,
and, indeed, in a letter which uses cliché, which resorts
to vague generalities, which employs questionable diction, which
rambles over a catalog of societal ills, the gist of her contention
can be construed as saying that teachers should not be faulted
for the poor quality of the schools, but the onus of that guilt
should be placed upon everybody else.
In effect, she ascribes the poor performance of the schools to
mind-benumbed students, to indifferent parents, to unconcerned
citizens. But why should the students not be mind-benumbed when
teachers decline or fail to challenge them to use their minds?
Why should parents not be indifferent when they know you're going
to pass the students whether they learn an adequate amount or
not? Why should citizens be concerned when often if the school
is traditionally inept in its educational procedure, it is often
run by persons who came through such a system, and either deliberately,
because they are comfortable with the status quo, they are not
going to bring about any improvement in the school, or inadvertently,
because they lack the capacity to know any better, they are not
going to effect any measures of reform?
Georgia schools rank nationally next to last in the quality of
students' academic achievement. The reason for this lies not
with underachieving students, nor with uncaring parents, nor
with venal citizens, as the letter writer seems wont to claim,
but the reason for Georgia's poor showing, especially in those
schools where students score below a national average, is directly
attributable to superintendents and principals who, in order
to please and placate parents, put pressure on teachers to mollycoddle
and baby the students along, some schools even resorting to placing
emphasis on athletics and extracurricular activities to divert
attention away from their deficiency in academics, while school
personnel refuse to accept any responsibility, and in unison
chorus the tired old mantra, "We only give the community
the school it wants."
If you need an example of a school which fits what I have said,
such is all too evident in Morgan County. However, if you travel
to or through Morgan County, let me advise you that you might
want to do the driving, or sit in the back, as opposed to riding
shotgun. If you ride shotgun, someone may accuse you of being
threatening to them.
Sincerely,
Donald Harris
Athens
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Column
By Margie
Richards
The Madison County Journal
April 5, 2000
 The 'real' court of public
opinion
Where can you learn what everybody thinks
about just about everything, get a good idea of who is going
to win the elections (both locally and nationally) and receive
marriage and parent counseling all for the price of a cut, style,
color and maybe a perm?
Why the local beauty shop, of course.
Politicians may think they run the world, but that's just a myth
- everything really important is decided in beauty parlors.
I visit my cousin's shop on a regular basis, not only to have
my hair cut, but to receive inspiration and instruction on how
to conduct my life (and get the latest scoop).
It's amazing what will come out of someone's mouth when they
sit in that chair. You may not know the woman's name, but by
the time she gets a new hairdo you may know intimate details
about her that her husband doesn't even know.
But my cousin is a real pro; she just takes it all in stride.
No matter what shocking thing she might hear, her scissors keep
up a steady "snip, snip, snip."
Good beauticians have to be so much more than just someone who
"does hair." They have to be counselors, psychotherapists
and confidantes.
I have left a beauty shop amazed at the things I have said in
the presence of total strangers - and of the things they have
said in front of me. And don't get me wrong - the guys who come
in are just as bad, or worse, than the women.
It's also easy to see how things sometimes get distorted because,
women especially, can maintain several conversations at once
and between sticking your head under the sink for a wash and
then under the dryer, vital information can be missed or misconstrued.
For example, I once heard a woman's name mentioned just as I
went under the hood of the hair dryer. I couldn't really hear
anything about what was being said, but the talk appeared interesting.
(I've never been good at reading lips.)
Less than five minutes later I emerged right in the middle of
a conversation about lesbians.
Shocked, I remarked that I could not believe the woman whose
name I had heard was a lesbian. I was met with stunned silence,
shocked looks and then laughter. Turns out the woman was married
and they had been discussing the fact that she was pregnant,
while another conversation somehow started up about lesbians.
That should make us all wonder just what people might have heard
or "thought they heard" about us. Had I made no comment
that day, I would have left with an unintentional, but very mistaken
idea about someone.
A beauty parlor is where folks apparently feel they can really
let their hair down, making it a true "court of public opinion."
Margie Richards is a reporter and office manager for the Madison
County Journal.
Letter
The
Madison County Journal
April 5, 2000
Disagrees with Linder's proposal on sales
tax
Dear Editor:
Your readers share their U.S. Representative, John Linder, with
us here in Athens. He is pressing for a national sales tax and
the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is meeting April 11 on
just that one single topic. It is time for us to let the committee
know how we feel about it, specifically that we oppose:
·taxing current tax-free death benefits between beloved
baby boomers.
·taxing Roth IRA benefits (government promised these to
be tax-free: a sales tax would be double-taxation).
·everyone being in a 30 percent (including Georgia's sales
tax) tax bracket, even those making as little as $10,000 per
year.
·people's already low tax-free benefits being tightened
by 30 percent or more.
·a crippled economy, with people buying used (not new)
goods to save that 30 percent sales tax. And on it goes.
Rep. John Lewis and Rep. Mae Collins are on the April 11 committee.
Let them know how you feel. Better, on the Internet, go to www.congress.gov/linder_survey.htm
and complete his survey addressing this and many other issues.
A 30 percent sales tax in Georgia is a horrible idea.
Sincerely,
Rick Waters
Athens
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