NOW ACCREDITED: Gwinnett Technical College’s Early Childhood Care and Education Program has been awarded full accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Commission. The College was one of just three institutions of higher learning in the country to receive a first-time accreditation during the most recent evaluation cycle. Tamara Torres, graduate of Gwinnett Tech’s ECCE program, helps a young student learn to read at the D. Scott Hudgens, Jr. Early Education Center on campus. The NAEYC associate degree standards are based on recent research in early childhood development and learning. The accreditation standards are performance based and describe what well-prepared graduates of early childhood degree programs should know and be able to do.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Anthony Rodriguez Returns In A Christmas Carol Beginning Nov. 25
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Proposed AT&T Merger with Time Warner Should Be Blocked
ANOTHER VIEW: Governments Give Away Much in Subsidies To Firms
SPOTLIGHT: MTI Baths Inc.
UPCOMING: Duluth Snares 100 Employees of Engineering and Innovation Firm
NOTABLE: New Railway Museum Building To Increase Space Almost 50 Percent
RECOMMENDED EXCURSION: Wolf Mountain Vineyard
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Known as the “Bourbon Triumvirate:” Brown, Colquitt and Gordon
TODAY’S QUOTE: Writing a Book Means Some Demon Is Driving You
MYSTERY PHOTO: Where Is the Location of These Two Gunfighters Statues?
LAGNIAPPE: Watching a Soda Straw Rocket Soar at GSMST
CALENDAR: Barbershop Chorale Coming to Peachtree Corners Baptist Church
Rodriguez returns in A Christmas Carol beginning Nov. 25
By Chelsea Bohannon | A holiday classic fit for the entire family, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol returns to Aurora Theatre this holiday season, November 25 –December 23! The timeless tale of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Anthony Rodriguez) and his quest for forgiveness unfolds in an unforgettable journey of transformation through Christmas past, present and future. Deemed one of the greatest Christmas stories of all time, audiences of all ages will delight in the spirit of the season as they revisit the splendor of what makes this production a holiday tradition.
Rodriguez as Scrooge
This is the 10th anniversary of the Aurora presenting this play on its stage, with Mr. Rodriguez appearing in a solo performance. His performance makes it a powerful show.
Tony Brown, the shows adapter and director, says: “Rodriguez’s powerful one-man performance of A Christmas Carol is something that never loses its magic, no matter how many times you’ve seen it over the past decade. It’s his distinctive and personal interpretation, combined with the intimate, charming setting of the theater that stirs emotion in all of us to remember the importance of family, friends and the act of forgiveness.”
Set in the late 1800s on a cold, dark Christmas Eve in London, A Christmas Carol transports audiences into the home of the troubled and resentful Scrooge on Aurora Theatre’s Studio stage. With a heart that’s been hardened throughout the years, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts – Christmas past, present and future – each with a specific story and lesson to share.
As he travels through the spirit world and encounters forgotten memories and foreshadows of the future, he’s forced to make choices about his life, including whether to embrace the joy of Christmas. Through mannerisms and voice alone, Rodriguez’s spirited solo performance once again brings the characters of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley and the remarkable ghosts to life before audience’s eyes! Five-time Suzi Bass Award-winning designers Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay will be creating an all new set for this holiday favorite.
Rodriguez
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is presented November 25-December 23. Tickets range from $20-$30 and can be purchased online at tickets.auroratheatre.com.
Regular show times, in repertory with The 12 Dates of Christmas, are as follows:
- Wednesday- Friday: 8 p.m.
- Saturday: 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- Sunday: 2:30 p.m.
Under the artistic leadership of Co-Founders and Artistic Directors Anthony Rodriguez and Ann-Carol Pence, now in its 21st season, Aurora Theatre produces professional live entertainment to suit everyone’s taste. Aurora Theatre is home to over 650 events each year. Two series of theatrical productions, the Peach State Federal Credit Union Signature Series and the GGC Harvel Lab Series, are comprised of the biggest Broadway plays and musicals alongside exciting contemporary theatre.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Proposed AT&T merger with Time Warner should be blocked
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Can you see any benefit from AT&T taking over (not “merging”) with Time Warner?
Do you really think a bigger AT&T is automatically better?
Why is it that these big conglomerates think that buying more companies will improve the situation, at least for those of us down here in the trenches? We can see that a larger company may make the income of the top brass significantly higher than their present fat-checks. But that surely doesn’t help the Average Joe.
Not only that, but what Fat Cat can tell much difference in making $4.2 million a year and $8.4 million a year? And that is probably underestimating the payment for many of those high-in-the-cloud execs.
We hope AT&T is overreaching in trying to pull off this absorption of Time Warner.
Now understand: we’re not defending Time Warner. It’s big enough as it is.
And from what we hear from a friend who is on Time Warner Cable, trying to get better service, or any service at all, is most difficult from that firm already. They have already grown so and “improved” so much that they are already giving the bad service that will surely continue to come if AT&T and Time Warner get together. They’re already not serving the customers as they should.
Most of big mergers are simply not needed. And many times they don’t work out. Look what happened to AOL when Time-Warner scooped ‘em up!
Bad things come of mergers in many industries, communications, drug companies, banks. Many of these firms are already “too big to fail,” so they say, asking special provisions or even governmental bailouts so that total economies don’t fail.
You may remember that in 1982 AT&T had to relinquish control of the various “Baby Bells” that provided local telephone service. Without a guaranteed customer for its Western Electric and Bells Labs subsidiary, AT&T started faltering. Through several moves, one of the Baby Bells (Bell Southwestern) eventually got control of the AT&T name, and continued to absorb companies and grow.
Today the new AT&T Inc. is headquartered in Dallas. Atlanta is the location of the headquarters for AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular Wireless. There’s a AT&T Global Network Operation Center and is the headquarters of AT&T Corp., the long-distance subsidiary of AT&T Inc.
AT&T is big, really big. And try to do business with the company on the telephone: first you have to talk to a computer, which says it can recognize whole sentences. But it takes you almost five minutes if you have a problem to eventually talk to a real person.
And that’s before this proposed takeover of Time Warner.
As far as we are concerned, we hope that Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, our local Congressmen, and our Senators will all take notice of what AT&T is trying to do, and halt this take-over.
About the only person we can immediately think will really benefit is Ted Turner, who owns a stack of Time Warner stock. We don’t mind Ted getting richer, since he works to improve the world through being a great environmentalist.
Be on notice, AT&T. Lots of us will fight you on this one!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Governments gives away much in subsidies to firms
By George Wilson, contributing columnist | Georgia and local governments are experiencing some fiscal distress in providing good roads, educational, and recreational services to its citizens. It is more important than ever to keep tabs on what is happening with the revenues coming in. That means making sure that taxpayer money is not wasted on extravagant and ineffective giveaways to corporations in the name of economic development.
Today’s headlines in Georgia are replete with stories of state and local governments giving away much needed taxpayer’s money.
Look at Wal-Mart in Georgia, for one example:
- At least eight Wal-Mart locations have received subsidies worth about $19.5 million.
- At least eight Wal-Mart locations have challenged their property tax assessment, recouping about $187,000.
- Wal-Mart has more workers than any other employer in the state relying on publicly-funded health insurance.
- Wal-Mart receives about $2.5 million a year from a state policy that allows retailers to keep a portion of the sales tax they collect from customers.
Georgia has an aggressive subsidy strategy for economic development, using a mixture of tax credits, grants and loans. For example, in 2006 state and local economic development officials together assembled an astounding $410 million subsidy package for a Kia Motors auto assembly plant. In 2009, the state provided more than $100 million in tax credits to NCR, which moved its headquarters from Ohio to the Atlanta area.
Three tax subsidies – the Quality Jobs Tax Credit, Mega Project Tax Credit, and the Job Tax Credit Program – each allow companies to retain personal state income tax payments of their employees. Critics such as the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a tax and budget watchdog group, have raised concerns over the fiscal impact of these giveaways.
Also, state and local governments waste billions of dollars annually on economic development subsidies given to companies for moving existing jobs from one state to another. Even the existence of relocation subsidies emboldens some large companies to demand large job blackmail subsidies to stay put.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
MTI Baths Inc.
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s featured sponsor is MTI Baths Inc. of Sugar Hill. MTI Baths is a manufacturer of high-quality acrylic and engineered solid surface bath products, including whirlpools, air and soaking baths; lavatories; shower bases; and kitchen sinks; the Jentle Jet® laundry sink for delicates; and the Jentle Ped® foot spa. MTI’s patented Fill-Flush® and Simple Touch® whirlpool cleaning systems are the best on the market. Every product is custom-made to order and shipped within seven business days. We are now operating in an additional manufacturing plant of 38,000 square foot. CEO of the firm is Kathy Adams, while Russell Adams is president.
- Visit their web site at http://www.mtibaths.com/.
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Duluth snares 100 employees of engineering and innovation firm
The Duluth area is getting a new engineering and innovation center as Envistacom will bring 100 new jobs to the area.
The location will expand research and development for communications and counterterrorism technologies to support national security requirements. The facility will be located in more than 20,000 square feet of leased office space in Gwinnett Forest office park in Duluth.
Envistacom is a privately held, Hispanic woman-owned technology company that provides counterterrorism, cybersecurity and communications solutions to U.S. and coalition partners in the aerospace, defense and intelligence communities. Customers rely on Envistacom for technology and subject-matter expertise to achieve their missions in identifying and defeating global threats. For more information, visit www.envistacom.com.
Nelson Santini, vice president, sales and business operations, says: “We selected Duluth for several reasons. It provided an excellent real estate value for the amount of space we needed, and provides easy access to the North/South corridor to and from Atlanta and Savannah. Our customers can readily reach the facility and our key suppliers are within close proximity. Finally, access to I-85 means we can easily ship products via Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.”
Italian car show coming to Lillian Webb Park on Nov. 5
Celebrating the 20th year of showcasing Italian automotive style, the upcoming Italian Car Day in downtown Norcross is an exhibition of the exotic Italian cars and motorcycles! The event, held on Saturday, November 5 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. in Lillian Webb Park, includes a car show with awards, a raffle and silent auction, Italian new car dealer demos and vendor merchandise on display.
Catch a glimpse of Italian cars such as the Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Fiat, Lamborghini, Lancia, Maserati, DeTomaso Pantera and more. Event patrons are also invited to enjoy all the amenities of downtown Norcross including its dining merchants.
The Italian Car Day is free to attend. Visitor parking will be available in area parking lots and designated streets. Visitors are invited to enjoy lunch at all downtown historic Norcross restaurants. For more information, visit www.aplacetoimagine.com.
Gwinnett Symphony Wind Orchestra plans concert Nov. 6
The Gwinnett Symphony Wind Orchestra presents “Prevailing Winds” on Sunday, November 6. The concert begins at 7 p.m. in the Discovery High School Theater with free admission.
Listen to the Gwinnett Symphony Wind Orchestra under the baton of music director Dr. Thomas Wubbenhorst with pianists Pam Asberry and Kristi Helfen.
The performance includes works by composers Holst, Rogers, Maslanka and the orchestra’s Thomas Wubbenhorst. For more information about GSMAC and its concerts visit www.GwinnettSymphony.org.
New Railway Museum building to increase space almost 50 percent
The Southeastern Railway Museum held a celebratory groundbreaking for an exhibit building recently. It will contain four tracks in a 48 foot wide central area of 21,000 square feet, to be used for transit and other exhibits, essentially increasing the covered space by almost 50 percent. Eight full size rail cars can be displayed in the new building. At the groundbreaking, from left are Matt Reeves, Duluth Business Association; Vince DeSilva, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce; County Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash; Rudy Bowen, District 7 Department of Transportation board member; Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris; District 1 County Commissioner Jace Brooks; and John Pollock, SRM Board. Photo courtesy of Dustin Grau Photography.
Volunteers enhance, clean-up area of Sweet Water Park
The Gwinnett Parks Foundation held its semi-annual Park’nership event on October 22 to cleanup and enhance areas of Sweet Water Park in Lawrenceville. There were 52 volunteers completing 182 hours of service moving 18 pallets of rocks to shore up drainage throughout the park, and five tons of mulch to beautify the front entrance. The event was in partnership with Gwinnett Great Days of Service. Through their dedication, energy, and commitment, these volunteers are both invaluable and inspirational.
- To find out more information on the Gwinnett Parks Foundation and the programs and volunteer opportunities it offers, visit www.gwinnettparksfoundation.org.
Wolf Mountain Vineyard
Wolf Mountain Vineyard has a stunning venue and is great for a day jaunt, being a little over an hour from Gwinnett. The site is five miles north of Dahlonega, off Georgia Highway 60. It’s more than a working vineyard, with a beautifully-designed dining and tasting room, with a spectacular mountain-top view looking eye-to-eye southwest toward the continuous peaks of the North Georgia mountains. Wolf Mountain Vineyard won Georgia’s first-ever winery Gold Medals, and produces 5,000 cases of high-quality wine each year. It’s a great place to dine, with a tempting menu, and a popular Sunday brunch. It also has an event facility, perfect for weddings. Yet the view itself is worth a visit. Also come for a winery tour, for a wine tasting, or for a lunch or Sunday buffet. Fall hours through the end of November are Tuesdays-Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., or Sundays 12:30 to 5 p.m. Call for reservations.—eeb
- An 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
Known as the “Bourbon Triumvirate:” Brown, Colquitt and Gordon
The term Bourbon Triumvirate refers to Georgia’s three most powerful and prominent politicians of the post-Reconstruction era: Joseph E. Brown, Alfred H. Colquitt, and John B. Gordon. This trio practically held a lock on the state’s U.S. Senate seats and governor‘s office from 1872 to 1890: Brown as senator from 1880 until 1890; Colquitt as governor from 1876 through 1882, and as senator from 1883 until 1894; and Gordon as senator from 1872 until 1880, governor from 1886 until 1890, and senator again from 1891 until 1897.
The political careers of all three men benefited from their service during the Civil War (1861-65); Brown had served as the governor of Confederate Georgia, and Colquitt and Gordon had both risen to the rank of major general in the Confederate army by the war’s end.
Colquitt, one of the state’s leading planters, cast himself as a representative of the interests of the old planter class, while Brown, an industrialist who became one of Georgia’s first millionaires, represented the New South businessmen. Gordon had a mixed record as a businessman and a worse record as a planter, but Gordon excelled at espousing the New South rhetoric of commercial and industrial development by shrewdly exploiting the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
All three men had extensive interests in the railroad and coal-mining industries, among other commercial pursuits. All three championed white supremacy; a frugal state government that demanded little of taxpayers, and accordingly provided few services; and the maintenance of subservient labor forces on farms and in factories. Gordon and especially Brown both made use of convict labor in their industrial enterprises.
While Brown, Colquitt, and Gordon shared many economic and political interests and beliefs, they also differed on many points, and historians have since questioned the validity of the epithet “Bourbon Triumvirate.”
(To be continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Where is the location of these statues of two gunfighters?
These two gunfighters may be easy to identify, but specifically finding where these statues are located may be the hard part. Send in your thoughts to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your hometown.
Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill, was one of just two people who recognized the last Mystery Photo, sent in by Ross Lenhart of Pawley’s Island, S.C. She says: “The mystery photo is the Borghese Gallery (Galleria Borghese) in the Villa Borghese in Rome. Brings back such good memories! I stayed right outside the Villa Borghese gate (the Porta Pinciana) the last time I was there.”
Of course, George Graf of Palmyra, Va. also recognized the mystery. He writes: “It is the Galleria Borghese art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. I visited Rome, but sadly didn’t get time to visit the Galleria Borghese in the free time allotted on our guided tour.
“The museum’s collection was formed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1579–1633), the most knowledgeable and ruthless art collector of his day. It was originally housed in the cardinal’s residence near St Peter’s but in the 1620s he had it transferred to his new villa just outside Porta Pinciana. Titian’s early masterpiece, Sacred and Profane Love, was painted in 1514. (In 1899, the Rothschilds’ offer to buy the work from the gallery for 4 million lira – more than the value of the whole Galleria Borghese building and collections, then valued at 3.6 million lira – but was refused).”
Watching a soda straw rocket soar at GSMST
Rotary Club of Stone Mountain member Gene Fleeman has worked in aerospace engineering for over 50 years, including 20 years with the U.S. Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory and 14 years with Rockwell. Now with the help of his fellow Rotarians, Fleeman is seeking to inspire a new generation of rocket engineers. As part of the schools’ STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program, Gene and his Rotarian team are visiting local schools, where they teach the students how to build and launch soda straw rockets. The students learn basic skills in physics and math as they compete with each other in a rocket race. Here students from The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology watch as their soda straw rockets soar.
Senior Fundraiser: at American Tavern, 630 Athens Highway, in Loganville on November 3 starting at 6:30 p.m. This is a Fire Up4Friends and Football. Join Friends of Gwinnett County Senior Services for a game day charity party. Put on your favorite team gear and enjoy an evening of fun, football, gaming, tailgate food, and sports silent auction. Proceeds go to the purchase of fire safety devices for senior homes and living facilities. Cost: $50. For tickets, call 770-822-8775 or email Jennifer.orton@gwinnettcounty.com
Writing Your Life Story: a program aimed at teens, will be Saturday, November 5, at 1 p.m. at the new Lilburn Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. Georgia Gwinnett College Associate Professors Dr. Linda Hughes and Dr. Kathryn Gray-White will host and focus on the differences between private, personal, and public writing. This is a memoir writing workshop for teens that will guide them through the process of crafting a compelling memoir in six easy steps. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
Electronics Recycling, Saturday, November 5, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the First Christian Church of Atlanta, 4532 LaVista Road, Tucker. Sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Tucker and Stone Mountain, proceeds will benefit the Friends of Disabled Adults and Children. Working and non-working electronics (with the exception of CRT monitors) will be accepted for recycling at no charge, however, participants are encouraged to make a donation to FODAC. The clubs will also accept durable medical equipment (DME), such as wheelchairs, power chairs, walkers, crutches and bedside commodes, which FODAC will clean and recycle to help those with mobility impairments.
Veterans’ Day: November 11, at 11 a.m. will be observed at the Fallen Heroes Memorial near the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center in Lawrenceville.
(NEW) Fall Program of the Stone Mountain Barbershop Chorus will be Saturday, November 12 at both 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Peachtree Corners Baptist Church, 4480 Peachtree Corners Circle. This program presents the best in four-part harmony, featuring songs from The Music Man, and other Broadway and movie productions. Save with advanced purchase of tickets at www.stonemountainchorus.org or by calling 770-978-853.
(NEW) “The Origin and Evolution of Birds” will be the topic at the November 14 meeting of the Southern Wings Bird Club at 7 p.m. at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center in Lawrenceville, in Room A. Chris Showalter will speak on the evidence that birds evolved from a group of small dinosaurs and other alternative perspectives. For more information, visit www.southernwingsbc.com.
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