A Jackson EMC Foundation grant for $11,463 will enable the Gwinnett County Public Library to purchase a pop-up library that can travel to underserved residents and provide them with activities, tutorials, access to book and digital resources they might otherwise not be able to use. Celebrating the grant award are, from left, Jackson EMC Foundation board member Jim Puckett, Administrative Support Librarian Casey Wallace, Library Executive Director Charles Pace and Jackson EMC District Manager Randy Dellinger. (See story in Notable below.)
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: I’m Not Rapport Presentation at Aurora Reunites Two Actors
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Does Cagle’s Religious Liberty Stand Hurt His 2018 Governor’s Race?
SPOTLIGHT: Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce
FEEDBACK: Two Views of Pedestrian Bridge in Peachtree Corners
UPCOMING: Backyard Garden Festival Coming April 24 to Environmental Center
NOTABLE: Nine Agencies Share $113,463 in Jackson EMC Foundation Grants
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Feature of Progressive Movement Was Greater Role of Woman
TODAY’S QUOTE: A Thought from Neil Armstrong on Earth Day (Today)
MYSTERY PHOTO: Several Readers Spot Eiffel Tower, Taken from Underneath
LAGNIAPPE: Sandy Creek Student Wins Gwinnett Realtor’s Scholarship
TODAY’S FOCUSI’m Not Rapport presentation at Aurora reunites two actors
By Chelsea Bohannon
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. April 22, 2016 – Celebrating the unwavering bond that friendship brings, Aurora Theatre closes the curtain on its 20th anniversary season with a heartwarming presentation of the Tony Award-winning play I’m Not Rappaport, May 5-June 5.
Based on the author’s real-life encounter, the touching tale follows the daily ritual of two elderly men who inhabit a bench in New York City’s bustling Central Park. While both dream of escaping the current realities of life – nursing homes, aging and dangers of urban living– they end up finding solace in each other’s company and forming an irreplaceable friendship.
Revisiting the storyline almost three decades after playing identical roles in 1989 at Theatrical Outfit, Rob Cleveland and Kenny Raskin, along with director David de Vries, reunite in I’m Not Rappaport. Aurora Co-founder and Producing Artistic Director Anthony Rodriguez worked on the set alongside them when the theater was located in Midtown.
Ann-Carol Pence, co-founder and Associate Producer, says: “What is so special about this production is the rarity of having two actors star in the same roles they performed in 27 years ago. Aside from being more age appropriate for the roles now, Rob and Kenny offer audiences a deep-felt connection that can’t be taught or rehearsed. Having David transition from actor to director this time around, and having Anthony serving as artistic director, brings an added layer of historical reference to our production; one that will certainly be an emotional revival.”
Audiences will delight in laughter as the feisty Jewish Nat (Raskin) and Midge (Cleveland), a half-blind and cantankerous African-American, chat away their afternoons in the heart of the Big Apple. Nat’s love of spinning tall tales paired with Midge’s griping of his unruly tenants, offer the two seniors plenty of issues to gab about as the commotion of the concrete jungle surrounds them.
Recommended for teens and adults interested in a taste of the Big Apple, I’m Not Rappaport will be presented May 5 through June 5. There will be a discount matinee on Wednesday, May 25 at 10 a.m. with tickets starting at $16. Regular show tickets range from $20-$55 and can be purchased online at tickets.auroratheatre.com or by calling the box office at 678-226-6222.
Show times are Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Aurora Theatre produces professional live entertainment to suit everyone’s taste. Aurora Theatre is home to over 600 events each year. Two series of theatrical productions, the Peach State Federal Credit Union Signature Series and the Georgia Gwinnett College’s Harvel Lab Series, are comprised of the biggest Broadway plays and musicals alongside exciting contemporary theatre.
Additionally, Aurora produces concerts, stand-up comedy, children’s programs, metro Atlanta’s top haunted attraction Lawrenceville Ghost Tours, as well as Atlanta’s only professional Spanish language theatre, Teatro Aurora. Nestled on the square in historic downtown Lawrenceville, Aurora has free attached covered parking and is surrounded by restaurants and shops.
EEB PERSPECTIVEDoes Cagle’s religious liberty stand hurt his 2018 governor’s chance?
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher
APRIL 22, 2016 | When you anticipate running for political office, you can never tell what may throw any well-planned campaign off the tracks.
Most statewide offices are not up for grabs this year. Only the contest for a seat on the Public Service Commission is on the ballot, statewide, this year. There are three candidates for that six-year term.
But in 2018, most statewide offices will be on the ballot, including the governor’s race. With current Gov. Nathan Deal now in his second term, he is not eligible to succeed himself.
Most Georgia political watchers fully expect Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to be a candidate for governor. He has been in office as the 11th lieutenant governor of Georgia since 2007. By the end of his term, he will have served 12 years in that office.
Yet this year’s “religious liberty” bill may derail the lieutenant governor’s chances.
Here’s why: While some raised a surprised voice when Governor Nathan Deal vetoed the bill, the state of Georgia has come out in good stead by the governor’s action. People across the nation are seeing Georgia as we think it is, relatively moderate and progressive, somewhat in keeping with modern times.
Compared to other Southern states where questionable new has caused quite a stir, Georgia is in good shape. Mississippi and North Carolina are now feeling the brunt of their governments by recently-passed legislation.
Cagle
Already Lt. Gov. Cagle has sided with the “religious liberty” element by wanting the bill brought back up in the next legislature. By aligning himself with this more extreme factor of the Georgia electorate, the lieutenant governor could be setting himself up for failure in the next governor’s race. We think far more Georgians would not want to see him in office if he champions false liberties such as this.
Perhaps in the next two years, Casey Cagle will re-think his position, and put himself on the side of the moderate (and we think majority) element in Georgia, and disavow this contentious and un-needed legislation.
After all, that religious liberty idea is already protected, we feel, in our First Amendment to the Constitution, which succinctly starts out: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
That says it, as far as we are concerned. We need no further interpretation, nor legislation.
THAT MARCH PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY in Georgia? Remember, Secretary of State Bryan Kemp championing this early date so as to put Georgia more in a spotlight in choosing the eventual presidential nominees? There was a good turnout, with high interest.
However, now with both major political parties appearing headed to a contested political convention this year, that early presidential primary is being questioned.
For instance, what if instead of voting for president in early March, Georgia was having the presidential primary on the Georgia primary date, on May 24? Coming toward the end of the presidential hullabaloo, instead near the start, and with May 24 being just a few weeks before the big California primary in June, wow! Georgia would be in the thick of political circles.
Was that March primary smart? Maybe not so much so.
One more thing: with not many local races on the political ballot on May 24, had the presidential primary been held on May 24, it would have brought out many more voters than came out in early March. As it is, there is an expectation that the upcoming primary may see a meager turnout and impact some local races.
NEW SUBJECT: We continue to be amazed at the way the Donald Trump candidacy garners attention. The current issue of The New Yorker magazine has nothing but Trump cartoons in this issue, except for one drawing by their late cartoonist William Hamilton, who died last week. It’s as though each cartoon artist had at least one Trump cartoon idea, so they bunched them together. Amazing!
IN THE SPOTLIGHTGwinnett Chamber of Commerce
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s sponsor is the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. The Gwinnett Chamber is the forum for business, government, education, healthcare, arts/culture/entertainment, and philanthropic and public service communities to come together to advance our region’s economy and enrich Gwinnett’s quality of life. The Gwinnett Chamber strengthens existing businesses, facilitates the growth of quality job opportunities and ensures success continues to live here.
- For more details, go to www.gwinnettchamber.org.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Peachtree Corners leaders have forgotten why voters OKed city
Editor, the Forum:
Thank you, GwinnettForum, for being the only media outlet to even talk about the lunacy of the Peachtree Corners city leaders who have conveniently forgotten why the voters approved our city.
We need them to pay attention to the voices screaming about the real issues of total gridlock on Georgia Highway141, Peachtree Corners Circle, Spaulding Dr, etc, which will be made even worse by adding the high density housing they are approving, and then stop the move to tax and spend more on a landmark bridge.
Not only that, but for goodness sake, this is a pedestrian bridge being proposed. Do you really think that present-day Americans are actually going to WALK the distance from The Forum to the shopping on the other side of the road? Few get that much exercise any more. Now, if it was an AUTO bridge, that might get more use!
Solve the traffic issues. Then we can talk about getting back to city-lite governing. Even drunken sailors know when they run out of money, that have to stop drinking instead of going out and borrowing more.
— Steve Rausch, Peachtree Corners
Another view concerning possible bridge in Peachtree Corners
Editor, the Forum:
I, for one, would be very pleased to see a pedestrian bridge over Georgia Highway 141. The scathing editorial calls it a connector to strip malls over a highway. It neglects the fact that the new Peachtree Corners Town Center, under construction, is across from the Forum, and that the Forum has become a community meeting place in the absence of a true center being there.
Route 141 splits Peachtree Corners in half, and the traffic destroys connectivity, as well as preventing a safe pedestrian crossing. Pedestrians cross anyway at their peril. I would pay a little extra tax to help make PC a true live-work community.
— Christine Indech, Peachtree Corners
Using rest rooms when a child is in tow
Editor, the Forum:
What about when the female, from birth, now dresses like a man and has a child with her? With her now going into the male bathroom, the child could most likely see the male private part. How is that looking out for the child’s best interest? Is it not best to have the transvestite using a bathroom that is marked with men/women, in which there are only stalls and no urinals?
Back in Daytona, Fla., I was in a large woman’s dressing room, which did not have separate dressings rooms, when a transvestite came in and started to undress to try on the dress he was holding. He was in his briefs, which is how I found out he was a man, and the attendants made him leave as it was for women only.
Why is not our historical way of using the designated bathrooms still what is best for all? Especially the children?
— Deborah Willis, Lawrenceville
- Send Feedback and Letters to: elliott@brack.net
Backyard Garden Festival coming April 24 to Environmental Center
If you have a desire to grow your own food or lessen your impact on the environment by purchasing local products, the Environmental and Heritage Center (EHC) invites you to its fifth annual Grow Your Own Gardening Festival on Sunday, April 24, from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.
Anna-Marie Bilella with Bella Vista Farms gets ready to lead a wild edible and medicinal plant hike around the Environmental and Heritage Center.
The festival will include speaker sessions, guided plant hikes and demonstrations conducted by local farmers and community gardeners.
- Pilar Quintero from Rancho Alegre, a Dacula based farm, will share the story of her agricultural enterprise, which includes a small dairy operation, chickens, hogs and sheep.
- The Gwinnett County Extension will provide tips for new gardeners on how to grow herbs in the home garden.
- Victor Gann of Blacksmith Farms in Lawrenceville will give a presentation on the benefits of square foot gardening.
- Anne-Marie Bilella with Bella Vista Farm will take visitors outside on a wild edible and medicinal plant hike around the EHC forest and share information on how to grow these useful plants at home.
- Ned Jung of J&J Culinary Sensations will provide a cooking demonstrations
- using organic, locally grown products.
- Our Daily Bread will give on-site demonstrations of grinding grain into flour
- and will have its flour, breads and fresh preserves for sale.
Other festival participants include Dances with Bees, Ladies Homestead Gathering, Treater Creek and Home Depot. Honey, beeswax products, vegetables, herbs, breads and other items will also be available for purchase.
Know where your food comes from and support your community and the Earth at the same time. Program fees for the event are $8 per person and free for children two and younger and EHC members. Guests can purchase online or at the door on the day of the event. For more information and the schedule of speaker sessions and events, visit www.gwinnettEHC.org.
NOTABLENine agencies share $113,463 in Jackson EMC Foundation grants
The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded a total $147,528 in grants during their March meeting, including $113,463 to organizations serving Gwinnett County residents. Among the recipients:
$15,000 to For Her Glory, a Gainesville agency that provides breast cancer patients in Banks, Barrow, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson and Lumpkin counties with items that are not covered by insurance, such as wigs, bras, compression sleeves and gloves.
$15,000 to Hebron Community Health Center in Lawrenceville, a nonprofit organization providing medical and dental care to low-income, uninsured Gwinnett residents, to provide diagnostic follow-up testing, eye exams and prescription glasses, and prescription medication, glucose monitors and glucose strips.
$15,000 to the Next Stop Foundation, a Lawrenceville grassroots organization that provides social interaction, recreational and life skill learning opportunities to young adults with mild to moderate disabilities in Gwinnett and Hall counties.
$15,000 to the Norcross Cooperative Ministry for its Emergency Food Assistance Program that provides families a four-five day supply of non-perishable items once a month for up to six times a year in order to help those experiencing a household crisis, such as a delay in child support, unexpected bills, unemployment or under-employment.
$15,000 to the North Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry for its Medication Assistance Program, which covers the cost of non-narcotic/controlled substance prescriptions for senior citizens and families that qualify for assistance when the amount of medication is too much or the co-pays are too costly.
$15,000 to Step by Step Recovery, a Lawrenceville community-based grassroots addiction recovery organization which provides a safe and structured environment for both men and women as they complete a 12 step program to deal with drug and alcohol addiction.
$11,463 to the Gwinnett County Public Library to purchase a “pop-up” library featuring a reading room with seating and connectivity that will allow the library to increase library access for underserved residents, who could sign up for library cards, see demonstrations of services, engage in portable children’s activities and technology tutorials, increasing their access to books, digital resources and other services.
$10,000 to Junior Achievement of Georgia for program materials, support materials and supplies, and program development to provide the JA Biztown and JA Finance Park interactive programs at Discovery High School to more than 30,000 Gwinnett County middle school students, teaching them the concepts of financial literacy, business, entrepreneurship and career readiness.
$2,000 to Path Project, a Gwinnett non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk children close the achievement gap and find the right path for their lives, for its Middle/High Leadership Academy that helps students set goals and work with positive role models to obtain the life skills necessary to overcome barriers, succeed academically and graduate high school with a plan for their future.
Jackson EMC Foundation grants are made possible by the more than 182,400 participating cooperative members who have their monthly electric bills rounded to the next dollar amount through the Operation Round Up program.
Have you received a “Notice of Potential Compliance Violation” yet?
Have you received a “Notice of Potential Compliance Violation?” Don’t fall for it!
Atlanta’s Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Scam Tracker is proving to be incredibly useful as consumers began providing information on a company called Business Compliance Division, Compliance Division or similar names. The company gives an address of 300 Colonial Center, Suite 100, Roswell, Georgia 30076. However, this building is one for virtual offices. The BBB cannot verify if this company actually occupies space in the building. The telephone number provided for the firm is 855-864-9420.
This company is distributing deceptive solicitations (primarily post cards) which look official and appear to be coming from the state or another government entity. The common theme is a “Notice of Potential Compliance Violation,” which the recipient is directed to call a number to “Avoid potential fees and penalties.”
Once on the phone. the company solicits monies to clear up the issue and to send you a “Certificate of Good Standing” or similar like document that, if it exists, could be obtained through the real government agency at a much lower fee or at no cost.
Some solicitations include a key indicator contained in the fine print, which will usually says: “This product has not been approved or endorsed by any government agency and this offer is not being made by an agency of the government.” There are subtle variations of this language that seem “official.”
The solicitations also include details about the entity, officers and directors and warnings about penalties and fines and a series of “form” numbers that could lead the recipient to believe they are official.
If you are ever unsure about the legitimacy of a notice you receive, the BBB strongly encourages you to check with the actual government agency referenced or implied in the notice, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office (for business corporate registration), the industry’s licensing agency, and your BBB.
Other BBBs reporting information on this company are located in Missouri and Idaho. For further information on fake government solicitations, please visit our website at bbb.org/atlanta.
Snellville sidewalk to connect Scenic Highway and New Oak Road Park
Funding for a sidewalk leading to Oak Road Park was approved by Mayor and Council last week.
A 0.69 of a mile sidewalk will connect Scenic Highway at the RaceTrac gas station to the five-acre passive park on Oak Road.
The sidewalk will be built by Multiplex, LLC using $738,000 in 2014 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds. Construction is expected to begin mid-May.
This is the first of two sidewalk projects funded with 2014 SPLOST dollars, according to City Manager Butch Sanders. The other sidewalk project, a 0.94 mile project, will be built in front of South Gwinnett High School and travel east to Rockdale Circle.
Construction began on Phase 1 of the park which was purchased in 2003 with Governor’s Green Space Program Funds in December 2013. The park was part of the city’s original master plan completed in 2006.
RECOMMENDEDAn invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (100 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. –eeb
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBITFeature of Progressive movement was greater role of women
One of the more distinguishing features of the Progressive movement in Georgia, as nationwide, was the initiative and increasing leadership taken by women, black and white, on a variety of fronts.
Most of these were urban-based and middle-class women, eager to move beyond the domestic sphere dictated by Victorian America, who organized and became politically active. White Georgians, such as Helen Dortch Longstreet, Nellie Peters Black, and Julia Flisch, and African Americans, such as Lugenia Burns Hope and Selena Sloan Butler, worked through women’s clubs, neighborhood associations (primarily black), and other charitable and civic organizations to raise consciousness and lobby legislators for the reforms they most ardently supported.
A number of women were active on several fronts, even when those causes may have seemed contradictory in ideological terms. Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas of Augusta, for example, held leadership positions in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in Augusta, and was president of the Georgia Woman Suffrage Association. She crusaded for a state industrial school for girls and for more humane treatment of female prisoners in the state’s jails. Yet she was also a leading proponent of more conservative “Lost Cause” efforts to commemorate the Confederacy and Confederate soldiers.
Felton
Rebecca Latimer Felton championed prohibition and woman suffrage and attacked the convict lease system, yet she defended cotton mill owners against charges of child labor abuses and defended not only black disfranchisement but lynching as well.
The culmination of women’s efforts was their campaign to win the right to vote. Georgia’s woman suffrage advocates began organizing as early as 1890. National leaders and prominent Progressive reformers like Susan B. Anthony and Jane Addams made supportive appearances in the state, while Rebecca Latimer Felton, Mary Latimer McLendon, Frances Smith Whiteside (Hoke Smith’s sister), and many of the women mentioned above worked to build support among Georgia’s women and the public.
Yet they faced formidable opposition from other women, such as Mildred Lewis Rutherford and Dolly Blount Lamar, who headed the Georgia Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. Pro-suffrage advocates faced a losing battle in a conservative state that was the first in the nation, in 1919, to reject the Nineteenth Amendment. Yet Georgia women finally gained the right to vote with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
- To access the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Several readers spot Eiffel Tower, taken from underneath
The last mystery photo didn’t fool several people. They recognized it as the unique view of the Eiffel Tower, taken by Donnie Loeber of Norcross.
Ruthy Lachman Paul of Norcross was first in, recognizing it as the “View into the Eiffel tower from below in Paris.”
George Graf, Palmyra, Va. sent along “Two fun facts about the tower. First, Victor Lustig, a con artist, “sold” the tower for scrap metal on two separate occasions; and second, “Gustave Eiffel kept a small apartment on the third floor for entertaining friends. It is now open to the public.”
Others recognizing the photograph were Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Emmett Clower, Snellville; Howard Williams, Snellville; Bob Foreman, Grayson; Michael Varga, Norcross; Becky Panetta, Dacula; and Jim Savadelis, Duluth, who said: “It reminds me of an Erector Set when I was a kid.”
There is no Mystery Photo in this edition. But look for another mystery in the May 3 edition.
LAGNIAPPESandy Creek student wins Gwinnett Realtor’s scholarship
The Gwinnett County Board of Realtors Scholarship Foundation, through the Northeast Atlanta Metro Association of Realtors, has presented a Sandy Creek High student with a $4,000 collage scholarship. This went to Jin Kim, who has achieved a 3.939 GPA in high school. He plans to study Computer Science at either Georgia Tech, Georgia State University or University of Georgia. He is the son of Yong J. and Eun J. Kim of Fayetteville. Jin’s father is a Realtor with Virtual Properties in Duluth. From left are Tom Gillett, 2016 NAMAR President; Jin’s father and mother, Yong J and Eun J Kim and, Jin Kim. This is the 24th year that the Foundation has presented the Scholarship to an outstanding high school senior. Recipients must have a first or second generation family member who is active in the real estate profession and a member of The Northeast Atlanta Metro Association of Realtors.
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