GwinnettForum | Number 18.24 | June 22, 2018
PHOTO EXHIBIT: Here is one of the photographs in a big exhibit of the Georgia Native Photographer’s Association on display through July at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center near Buford. This beautifully-framed photograph, of course, is of the Historic Gwinnett Courthouse, and the work of our own Roving Photographer Frank Sharpe. You’ll be missing something if you don’t check out the current exhibit at the GEHC. Schedule yourself to check out this exhibit.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Puerto Rico Lagging from Hurricane Recovery, Especially the Disabled
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Child of the Depression’s Habits Continue Paying Dividends To This Day
ANOTHER VIEW: Another Editor Feels That “No President Should Be Above the Law”
SPOTLIGHT: Howard Brothers
FEEDBACK: Fall and Spring Have “Equinox,” Not Solstice as Said Earlier
UPCOMING: Japanese-English Dual Language School Coming to Peachtree Corners
NOTABLE: Unincorporated Gwinnett Seniors Are Eligible for Solid Waste Discount
RECOMMENDED: Naked in the Market Place: The Lives of George Sand by Benita Eisler
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Thomas Bradbury Distinguished Himself as Key Architect in Georgia
MYSTERY PHOTO: Today’s Mystery Photo may be difficult to pin down
CALENDAR
Puerto Rico lagging from hurricane recovery, especially the disabled
By Lizbeth Dixon
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. | The president of Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) of Stone Mountain recently visited Puerto Rico, and found the island still lagging in recovery efforts, especially for the disabled.
Brand
President and CEO Chris Brand met with partners and residents and toured the island to assess ongoing needs, and assist with distribution of equipment and supplies.
Seven months after hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico with a devastating double punch, he found almost one-third of the island’s 1.5 million electricity customers remain without power or appropriate shelter, most of them in rural or remote areas. For those with disabilities or other medical challenges, recovery from the storms has been even more difficult. Brand spent time on the island after the storms to help coordinate distribution of durable medical equipment (DME), like wheelchairs, crutches and other mobility aids, and helped distribute additional DME and other supplies in remote communities.
Brand found: “Seven months after the storms, so much of the island is still in dire need. Many people are still living from day to day without power, running water, and with little food in homes that are barely habitable. Many people living in rural or remote areas can’t afford gas for their generators, especially problematic when they need to keep oxygen machines operating or vital medicines like insulin refrigerated. I went back to Puerto Rico to see for myself the conditions, and see how we could work with FEMA and local partners to help these residents recover the lives they led before last September.”
Brand returned to Puerto Rico in April, arriving first in San Juan, where he made contact with representatives from FEMA Office of Disability Integration and Coordination (ODIC), the Renance of Condado, Programa de Asistencia Tecnológica de Puerto Rico (PRATP), Movimiento para el Alcance de Vida Independiente (MAVI) Puerto Rico, Lift Non-Profit Logistics, and the Rotary Club of San Juan. Brand had first worked with these organizations, along with FEMA representatives, to send equipment. Now he had reunited with his associates to deliver equipment into the most remote and sometimes most dangerous areas of Puerto Rico.
Each day of the week-long mission, Brand was up before dawn and returning after midnight. “Every day during this trip I met with survivors under the worst conditions yet I was constantly moved by their spirit and faith,” says Brand. “Seeing the areas first-hand and talking to the residents in person helped us understand better how to support our partners in their efforts. We also had the ability to help some of these most desperate patients immediately.”
Brand believes that it will be years before the Puerto Rican infrastructure will be restored. FEMA has already invested $10 billion in the island’s recovery but he is concerned how much can be accomplished before the 2018 hurricanes begin. FODAC has coordinated the delivery of over $175,000 worth of HME to Puerto Rico but the need is still great for manpower and vehicles to distribute it.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Child of the Depression’s habits continue paying dividends to this day
By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 22, 2018 | Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the Depression.
Some folks might even call me “cheap.”
But you see, I like to find ways to save money, or at least reduce expenses. My parsimoniousness is also seen as I’ll stoop over to pick up a stray coin in the parking lot, even if it is a Lincoln copperhead. Do you?
Back in the 1930s and the Depression, the Rural Electric Authority was providing low-cost loans to the Electric Membership Cooperatives to bring electricity to the rural areas.
Some people were wondering if they could afford this new way of providing illumination at night (instead of kerosene lamps), or eventually, providing energy to run a refrigerator or washing machine. People didn’t even imagine home air conditioning in those days.
For the farm household, the electric bill might be as much as a few dollars a month. With money tight during those times, it’s no wonder what children were taught then: “Turn off the light when you leave that room.” (An average monthly Jackson EMC bill in 1939 totaled 124 kilowatts, and cost $5.75. Today an average Jackson EMC monthly bill is $116, as an average home uses 1,200 kilowatts.)
So a common phrase became part of the vocabulary in the late 30s, 40s, 50s, no matter where you lived: “Did you turn off the lights?” Electricity was an extravagance if you weren’t in the room, Many a time I had to return to the room, simply to pull the light chain, or flip a switch, not understanding that each electric light on was money being wasted.
Modern science comes to the rescue these days for some when they exit a room. Detectors can switch off the electric lights as you leave a room. That’s smart, for you are saving electricity, and you also save in another way since electric bulbs, especially of the conventional variety, heat up when you use them. Switching these light off reduces your air conditioning bill. Today’s modern LED bulbs burn cooler, thereby saving energy!
Know what? That habit of switching off lights remains for many of us who came out of that era. I use lamp bulbs (rather than fluorescents) for illumination in my office at GwinnettForum. Whenever I leave the room, even for lunch, I switch off all three lamps. I have also found myself switching off the light in the office restroom on a late Friday, since there’s a big possibility that no one else will be entering that room for a couple of days. Yep, every little bit helps.
At one time I didn’t see any benefit for an automobile having its headlights on in the daytime. It seemed like it was running down the car battery. But now the experts tell us that it’s safer for cars to have their headlights on even during the day, and anyway, your generator is constantly keeping your battery charged. You really are not wasting energy here.
Just this morning, when going for a walk with Hercules (our dog), I wanted to kick myself. I learned I had left the garage light on all the previous night. It was a pure waste of energy!
Switching off lights, or picking up pennies, it’s the way I’ve been taught. Seems like today’s generation never gives such triflings a thought!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Another editor feels That “No President should be above the law”
(Editor’s Note: Two newsmen were thinking similar thoughts arrived at independently recently, unaware of each other’s view. The following was published in the Jesup Press-Sentinel on June 9, the same week your editor had similar thoughts published in GwinnettForum. —eeb)
By Drew Davis
The Press-Sentinel, Jesup, Ga.
JESUP, Ga. | During an interview by David Frost in 1977, former president Richard Nixon made the statement “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
Davis
That statement helps explain why Nixon was threatened with impeachment and forced to resign in 1974. Today Donald Trump is sounding very similar to Richard Nixon.
Some of Trump’s lawyers have been arguing that the president, by definition, can’t be guilty of obstruction of justice. (Interestingly, obstruction of justice was one of the three articles of impeachment approved against Nixon by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.)
This week Trump said that, as president, he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself. (That’s something that even Nixon didn’t try to do.)
And in recent days Trump has been pardoning ultra conservative figures for past crimes, in what even many of Trump’s supporters acknowledge is a signal to figures being investigated for collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
It’s not surprising that Trump should be talking and acting as though he and his favored lieutenants are beyond facing legal consequences for their actions. After all, Trump has made it clear in the past that he considers himself above reproach.
For example, before being elected, he said, “Why do I have to repent, why do I have to ask for forgiveness if [I’m] not making mistakes?” He also said, “I will absolutely apologize sometime in the hopefully distant future if I’m ever wrong.”
And if we lived in a dictatorship, Trump’s actions would be beyond question, and Nixon would have been right: Whatever the head of the government did couldn’t be illegal.
Fortunately for democracy, though, we live not under the rule of men but rather under the rule of law–defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “authority and influence of law in society, especially when viewed as a constraint on individual and institutional behavior; (hence) the principle whereby all members of a society (including those in government) are considered equally subject to publicly disclosed legal codes and processes.”
Thomas Paine wrote, “For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”
In line with this idea, the president–along with all other government officers of the United States–is required to pledge to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
So it should be of concern to us when we hear Trump praise political strongmen, such as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and when Trump compares authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin favorably to Trump’s successor, Barack Obama. It should also be of concern to us when Trump commends authoritarian Chinese President Xi Jinping for doing away with term limits and potentially becoming “president for life.”
“I think it’s great,” Trump said. “Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
Likewise, it should be of concern to us when Trump indiscriminately runs down the press and the judiciary (each of which has an important role to play in providing a check on the president). It should be of concern to us when Trump appears to expect other officials in the executive branch (including the Justice Department) to put loyalty to him above loyalty to the law. And it should even be of concern to us when Trump asserts–over and over again–that he alone can save the nation’s problems.
No one is above the law. Not even the president. Not even Donald Trump.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Howard Brothers
Today’s sponsor is Howard Brothers, which has retail stores in Alpharetta, Doraville, Duluth, Oakwood and Athens.. John and Doug Howard are the “brothers” in Howard Brothers. This family-owned business was started by their dad, and continues to specialize in hardware, outdoor power equipment and parts and service. Howard Brothers are authorized dealers of STIHL, Exmark, Honda, Echo outdoor power equipment and Benjamin Moore paint. Howard Brothers is also an authorized Big Green Egg, Traeger Grill and YETI Cooler dealer.
- Visit their web site www.howardbrothers.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Fall and spring have “equinox,” Not solstice as said earlier
Editor, the Forum:
Liked your EEB perspective on arrival of summertime beams of the sun, straight down your street. But wanted to point out that I was taught that the Spring and the Fall have an “equinox,” while the winter and summer have a “solstice”. The spring and fall equinox name comes from the equal amount of daylight and night.
Just curious…. Is there teaching somewhere that calls all four of them a solstice?
— Robert W. Ponder, Duluth
— Dear Rob: No teaching that I know of. Looks to me that I just misused the term” solstice” for spring and fall, when it should have been “equinox.” My pardons. –EEB
Perspective brings to mind what Whitman said about Nature
Editor, the Forum:
Enjoyed your column. Yes, the natural world does bring comfort.
I loved what Walt Whitman had to say on the subject: “After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on – what remains? Nature remains: to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman in the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons – the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.”
— Billy Chism, Toccoa
Quotation is disturbing in that president won’t admit it when wrong
Editor, the Forum:
Recently I read a transcript of President Trump’s news conference following his meeting with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore. I found an interesting answer given by the president when he was addressing a question about Kim agreeing to the return of the remains of missing Americans from the Korean War and the destruction of a nuclear site, specifically an engine testing site. The president said the following:
“I think, honestly, I think he’s going to do these things. I may be wrong. I mean, I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey, I was wrong.’ I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of excuse.”
Others may draw a different conclusion, but I find it disturbing that this quote indicates that the President is unwilling to admit when he is wrong and will find an excuse. Real leaders accept responsibility.
— John Titus, Peachtree Corners.
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
Japanese-English dual-language school coming to Peachtree Corners
At the ribbon cutting for the new Japanese-English school in Peachtree Corners were, from left, Consul General Takashi Shinozuka; Ryan Ahn, ICAG; Richard Woods, Georgia school superintendent; Pedro Marin, Georgia State representative; Charlotte Nash, chairman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners; Minako Ahearn, ICAG; Carrie Woodcock, Principal of ICAG; Mayor Mike Mason; Robert Steen, ICAG; Rep. Scott Hilton, Representative; Sam Alston, Buckhead Rotary president; Jim Masui, chairman of Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Georgia; Patrick Wallace, Georgia Department of Education; and Junko Jones.
A new charter school is to open in Peachtree Corners. It will be a Japanese-English dual language school offering classes for elementary school students in grades K-5.
City and State leaders, along with the Consulate-General of Japan and other dignitaries, were on hand on Thursday to celebrate its announcement. The International Charter Academy of Georgia (ICAGeorgia) will be located at 3705 Engineering Drive. The dual-language school officially begins on August 8 and is open to all Georgia residents who meet the age requirements.
The school’s curriculum will require kindergarten students spend 80 percent of classroom time each week immersed in Japanese, with the remaining 20 percent spent in English. The percentage gradually shifts to 60 percent Japanese to finally 50/50 percent for students in grades 3-5. Core subjects are taught in both languages. Additionally, Chinese is offered as a third language. Students will study Chinese one or two time a week for 45 minutes. The school’s curriculum is designed to broaden students’ horizons so they may better understand the international community.
Peachtree Corners Mayor Mike Mason welcomed the school during the ribbon cutting ceremony. “Indeed, having a dual-language state charter school in our city refortifies that Peachtree Corners is a diverse community that welcomes people from around the world,” he said.
ICAGeorgia is governed by eight board members including Ms. Minako Ahearn, the former principal at Seigakuin Atlanta International School located on Winters Chapel Road. The new school will be headed by Principal Carrie Woodcock, who formerly headed world languages and global initiatives for Hall County Schools.
The State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia, an independent charter school authority, oversees the state charter schools.
Local ham radio operators plan Field Day this weekend in Harbins
Members of the Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society (GARS) will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise, June 23 – 24 at Harbins Park 2995 Luke Edwards Road. Since 1933, ham radio operators across North America have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of Amateur Radio. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend. The event will last from Saturday June 23 from 2 p.m. though Sunday, June 24, at 2 p.m.
Field Day is a showcase for how Amateur Radio works reliably under any conditions from almost any location to create an independent communications network. “Ham radio functions completely independent of the Internet or cell phone infrastructure, can interface with tablets or smartphones, and can be set up almost anywhere in minutes. That’s the beauty of Amateur Radio during a communications outage,” says David Isgur, communications manager for ARRL The national association for Amateur Radio®, (www.arrl.org), which represents Amateur (or “ham”) Radio operators across the country.
Anyone may become a licensed Amateur Radio operator. There are more than 725,000 licensed hams in the United States, as young as 9 and as old as 100. And with clubs such as Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society, it’s easy for anybody to get involved right here in Gwinnett and surrounding counties.
- For more information about Field Day or Amateur Radio, contact Norm Schklar, WA4ZXV, Norman@schklar.com or 770-313-9410 or visit www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio.
State council seeks nomination in award for arts and humanities
The Georgia Humanities Council is seeking nominations for the 2018 Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities.
The Governor’s Awards honor outstanding individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to Georgia’s civic and cultural vitality through excellence and service to the arts and humanities. Deadline for submission is July 31, 2018.
Presented by the Office of the Governor in partnership with Georgia Humanities and Georgia Council for the Arts, the Governor’s Awards pay tribute to the most distinguished citizens and organizations that have demonstrated a lifetime commitment to work in these fields.
Reps Miller Road in Norcross to be repaved beginning June 25
A popular cut-through road in Norcross will have one lane closed for more than a month beginning Monday, June 25. Local residents and businesses will still be able to use the roadway. The closing is expected to last until the first week in August.
Reps Miller Road will be closed to through traffic starting for re-paving. Using a process called “Full Depth Reclamation,” contractors will be working to rebuild the road foundation to support the current vehicle loads for long-term sustainability. Work will be done on one lane at a time, with the other lane closed.
Unincorporated Gwinnett seniors are eligible for solid waste discount
Good news for Gwinnett seniors who are 62 and older! For persons living in unincorporated Gwinnett, you may be eligible for a discount on trash collection services. The discount, as of July 1, is 25 percent! If a solid waste fee was paid with the 2017 property tax bill, a credit will be issued on the 2018 property tax bill.
If you are receiving the discount already, it will be shown at the bottom of your Notice of Taxes under “Other Assessments.”
Residents may apply for the discount on the Gwinnett County website. Click the image at right to download the form to apply for this discount.
Naked in the Market Place: The Lives of George Sand by Benita Eisler
Reviewed by Karen Harris, Stone Mountain | This book is a larger-than-life portrait of Aurore Dupin, aka George Sand, the author, political activist, wife, mother and lover of many during her life. The intensity of the range of her influence was felt by all who entered her orbit. Relationships with de Musset, Chopin, Balzac, Flaubert and others dotted her life. All benefited from her devotion and were devastated when their relationships ended. Beginning with her unusual and chaotic upbringing, including rejection from her mother, George none-the-less possessed the interior grit of a survivor and thrives. Her dysfunctional relationship with her own daughter, Solange, played a part in her sense of failure as a mother. The fact that she was able to write nearly 90 novels and 20,000 letters and biographical pieces is a testament to her creativity and drive. This reads like both a novel and a history lesson telling of a vibrant and full life.”
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. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Bradbury distinguished himself as key architect in Georgia
Thomas Bradbury‘s credentials as both architect and lawyer influenced the professional circles in which he operated and helped mold his career as perhaps the most prominent architect of government buildings in the mid-20th century in Georgia.
Georgia Archives
Abraham Thomas Bradbury was born on April 4, 1902, in Atlanta to Hannah Marco and Abraham Bradbury, a contractor. Bradbury’s early training in architecture was remarkable for its breadth and for the variety of firms with which he was associated. From 1921 to 1923, while a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Bradbury worked for Robert and Company. He received a certificate from Georgia Tech in 1923. When John Llewellyn Skinner, who had served from 1923 to 1925 as head of architecture at Georgia Tech, left Atlanta for Florida, the young Bradbury followed him, seeking to establish a practice in Miami, but a hurricane in 1926 prevented it.
Bradbury next found work with Warren, Knight, and Davis in Birmingham, Ala., in 1927. He lived in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1930 and returned to Atlanta during the early 1930s to study law. In 1933 Bradbury was admitted to the bar, and three years later he married Janette Lane, who held both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law. The couple had three children, Janette Lane, Lynda Lane, and Thomas Lane. Bradbury later married Wylene Righton.
Bradbury returned to Robert and Company around 1934; worked briefly for Hentz, Adler, and Shutze in 1935; and formed the partnership of Constantine and Bradbury, presumably with Augustine Constantine, which lasted until 1939. That year he set off on his own as A. Thomas Bradbury, Architect.
Bradbury’s 1940s work shows him to be interested in the progressive functional style of modernism, as evidenced in his Seventh Street Candler Professional (Dental) Building (1946). His sometime associate Ralph E. Slay helped to sustain this aesthetic, seen in part in the educational/activities buildings that Bradbury and Associates added to West Hunter Street Baptist Church (where civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy served as minister during the 1960s), Rock Spring Presbyterian Church, and Venetian Hills Elementary School, all in Atlanta, during the 1950s.
(To be Continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Today’s Mystery Photo may be difficult to pin down
Expand your horizons when you consider where this issue’s Mystery Photo might be. And yes, there may be some clues looking out at you. Send your answer to elliott@brack.net, and be sure to include your hometown. Note: this may be a tough photo to determine.
It was a common beach scene, and fairly obviously along a Southern coast. It seemed like it would be an easy photo to recognize. The clues were there, the white sand, the few people camped out on the beach, the high rise condos and hotels. And not a single person, not even George Graf or Allan Peel, were able to come up with an answer.
Oh, people tried. Guesses ranged from Myrtle Beach, to Daytona and the Gulf coast. One even said New Jersey. But no one realized this photograph was from Ormond Beach, Fla., sent in by Chuck Paul of Norcross.
Now get your guessing cap on and identify this week’s photograph!
Author Mathew Betley will speak at Shiloh Baptist Church on Saturday, June 23 at 7 p.m. The church is located at 5988 Spalding Drive, Peachtree Corners. The event is free, and books will be available for purchase and signing. Betley is a 10 year Marine officer, whose latest book is Field of Valor, featuring Logan West. The event is hosted by the Gwinnett County Public Library.
Free concert by the Gwinnett Symphony during the International Conductor’s Exchange, to be at Discovery High School, Sunday, June 24 at 5:30 p.m. Music from Beethoven, Barber, Liszt and Strauss will be on the program.
Disentangling Truth in the Digital Age is the focus of this News Literacy Workshop. It will take place Thursday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Suwanee Branch of the Gwinnett Public Library, 361 Main Street In Suwanee. This program will explore the history of disinformation. Come learn how to disentangle the truth and empower yourself in the information age.
Ink, Paint and Steel is a new art exhibit open through July 13 at The Rectory in Norcross. Explore the works of KatheAssociation for this informal talk and QandA photography workshop. The second will be at the Five Forks Library Branch, 2780 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lawrenceville, on June 30, at 2 p.m. The third will brine Linn and Simone Wilson in this new exhibit . Opening night, June 8, is free and open to the public and will include a reception with music, refreshments and the opportunity to meet these extraordinary artists.
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