STAS INSTALLED: Dignitaries at the installation of Col. Stanley (Stas) Preczewski as president of Riverside Military Academy (RMA) included, from left, Rutledge A. Griffin, chairman of the RMA Board of Trustee; Lt. Col. James G. Spivey, interim president; Preczewski; Jorge F. Sosa, Sgt. Maj. USMC (Ret), Academy Sergeant Major; Britt Daniel, executive vice president of Riverside; and his wife, Robyn Daniel. Preczewski retired as the second president of Georgia Gwinnett College. For more on the installation ceremony, read Elliott Brack’s perspective below.
This issue marks beginning of the 19th year of publication
With today’s issue, GwinnettForum begins its 19th year of publication. We thank our readers for being faithful and for submitting stimulating comment. We thank our underwriters for their constant support in keeping this medium alive. We look forward to continue to serve the stimulating and diverse Gwinnett community. — eeb
TODAY’S FOCUS: Simplistic Comments on Robocalls, But Here’s Best Advice on Them
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Riverside Military Academy Installs Dr. Stas as Its New President
SPOTLIGHT: J. Michael Levengood, LLC
FEEDBACK: Cost of Healthcare Puts a Stake in the Heart of Entrepreneurship
UPCOMING: Emory Morsberger To Become New Director of Gateway85 CID
NOTABLE: Seventh Annual Duluth Rotary Car Show Will Be on April 13
RECOMMENDED: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Folklorist Stetson Kennedy Infiltrates the Klan, Writes About It
MYSTERY PHOTO: Here’s a Landscape Asking Where This Mystery Photo was Taken
LAGNIAPPE: BAPS Mandir in Lilburn Showing Off Its Colors This Time of Year
CALENDAR: Attending April 11 Hazardous Waste Workshop Might Cut Your Stormwater Fee
Simplistic comments on robocalls, but here’s best advice on them
By Raleigh Perry
BUFORD, Ga. — These comments about Robocalls may sound simplistic, but believe me, they are true. The overall best advice if you are getting Robocalls is to……..simply hang up!
Perry
Fully 85 percent of the telephone calls that I receive at home are nothing more than Robo Calls. Virtually all of the Robocalls are scams. By that I mean that the calls have the singular purpose of taking money out of your pocket and putting it into theirs with no gain on your part. The best thing that you can do if you answer one is simply hang up.
There are a plethora of different types of phones on the market today. Some of them have a screen telling you who is calling. Almost all of the Robocalls will say that the caller is “unavailable,” “anonymous,” or in some cases they will say “invalid number.”
The calls will often come in with numbers that show the call to be local. Do not take that for granted. Robocallers are spoofing numbers, using numbers in your area code and exchange to make the call look like it is coming from a person you might know. If you do not recognize the number, simply hang up, if you have answered the phone.
My phone actually tells me who is calling, “unavailable,” for instance, which means that the caller is not identified. With a phone like mine, therefore, I do not even have to answer the phone and I just let it ring its little heart out. However some of your friends might not have their name show on the phone and those will appear as “unavailable.”
My phone also lets me know the calling number and then, if I recognize it, I will call that number back.
There are two types of callers where the voice is not recorded, but live. These calls can be expensive if you do not watch out. One is a call supposedly from the Internal Revenue Service, that will tell you that they have audited a tax return from a few years back and you owe money. If you listen to the caller, they will tell you that you need to pay that past due money that very day.
It is important to remember that the Internal Revenue Service will not call you – ever. The best thing to do is not even listen, just hang up. If you listen to the entire spiel, you will find out that they want you to pay in iTunes cards. You have must ask yourself “Why does the IRS need iTune cards?”
Another caller, also a live voice, will call you and say that they are from either Microsoft or Apple technical support and they have found a problem. They will stay on the phone forever to get you to go to their website and let them “fix” the problem. What they are actually going to do, however, is load your computer up with viruses. Again, just hang up. Microsoft and Apple will not call you!
There are probably a thousand different scams that they will try to pull on you to separate you from your money. Either do not answer your phone or, if you do, hang up!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Riverside Military Academy installs Dr. Stas as its new president
The Riverside Military Academy Band passes in review.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
I love a parade;
The tramping of feet,
I love ever beat
I hear of a drum.
I love a parade;
When I hear a band
I just wanna stand
And cheer as they come!
APRIL 2, 2019 | The place was Gainesville, at Riverside Military Academy (RMA) on Friday, as Col. (and Dr.) Stanley Preczewski was installed as that school’s new president. A delegation of people from Gwinnett were on hand for this new chapter in “Stas” life. He was the second president of Georgia Gwinnett College, and has been a member of the RMA trustees for three years.
Riverside, you’re luck to get this guy as your 10th president. The school dates back to 1907, preparing ethical young men of character for success in college and in life on its 200 acre campus.
Friday’s ceremony was the first military parade that I have seen in quite some time. The 530 member corps of cadets marched smartly around the field to the beat of their band, and to the applause of parents, townspeople, and alumni amid congratulations from Stas’ friends.
It’s a tradition of the military to march, dating back to a more formal warfare that saw troops deployed by marching orders, swinging whole regiments and battalions into place by the movement of feet.
Today parades are more ceremonial, but still thrilling to see.
For me, perhaps it’s because of my early involvement in the military. Growing up in Macon, I became a member of the Lanier High School Junior ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) for three years, first with a M-1 on my shoulder as we marched, and later heading a platoon during my senior year. Then it was four years in college at Mercer in ROTC, but this time not shouldering a rifle during parades.
Col. Preczewski speaking on Friday (photo by Scott Rogers, The Times.)
It happened this way.
“What’s your name?” a gruff military voice asked. I told him, and then he said: “That’s all,” dismissing me.
A few days later, I was told to report to a certain campus location, and was immediately asked by the same guy: “What instrument do you play?”
“I don’t play an instrument.”
“You do now. You play the drums,” I was told in no uncertain terms.
So, without my even volunteering, suddenly even without any musical ability or training, I was playing the bass drum in the Mercer ROTC band. “Just bang the drum each time the drum major’s baton comes down,” I was first told, thus setting the pace for the rest of the cadet corps to twirl around the parade grounds. Depending on how fast I boomed the drum, we might speed or snail-crawl during each Monday’s parade.
The only way I got out of hitting the drum, after three years, was to get promoted to lead a company my senior year. That ended my musical career.
This all came to mind watching the Riverside cadets in their traditional gray uniforms on a nice spring day. The Riverside job opened unexpectedly for Dr. Stas, as he was retiring. The job came to him; he did not even know a vacancy existed.
Stas is now leading the top military boarding high school in the United States. Today Riverside, at its hilly campus in Gainesville, has students from 28 states and 25 foreign countries. It had graduates at our three military colleges (Colorado Springs, West Point and Annapolis), and its grads are military leaders across our country.
Thanks, Dr. Stas, for the invitation. We know you will do well at Riverside! They are lucky to get you.
I love a parade;
A handful of vets,
A line of cadets,
Or any brigade,
For I love a parade!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
J. Michael Levengood, LLC
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Cost of health care puts a stake in the heart of entrepreneurship
Editor, the Forum:
I agree with Jack Bernard that it’s time for Medicare-For-All; though I think the need is driven from a different angle.
During my first few jobs as an engineer in 1987, we were routinely giving good-bye/good-luck lunches to some engineer who had quit to start his own business. That engineer was usually between 35-45 years old and had a wife and a few kids, and he would reliably tell the story about talking with his wife about his idea, and her response of “We’ve got enough money in the bank to last maybe a year or so.” A family insurance plan was about $400/month then.
I haven’t seen anyone quit their job to start a business in 20 years because that same health insurance policy now cost over $1,800/month. No young family can afford that burn rate. The cost of healthcare has put a stake in the heart of entrepreneurship and innovation in this country, and that is affecting the very essence of who we are and our place in the world.
Secondly, competition between health payers has inhibited competition between health providers and dramatically elevated the consumer costs. Today both consumer and provider are slaves to payers and it has become debilitating. Each payer has its own rates, rules, deductibles, and pay schedules and provider costs increase with each additional payer.
Shifting to single payer means leveling the playing field for doctors, families, and businesses. We have had single-payer defense since the War Of 1812 and it has created intense competition between suppliers. It is time we did the same for healthcare. A single set of rules means easy policing for medical fraud – something that is possible only with Medicare/Medicaid today.
Nobody wants ‘government run healthcare’. But that is not what single-payer is. Today we have insurance-run healthcare and nobody – providers, employers, and families, is happy. It is time we stopped banging our heads against the wall and tried something new.
— Joe Briggs, Suwanee
Dear Joe: Your letter today is exactly what we at GwinnettForum are seeking to do: to stimulate conversation and encourage exchange of ideas and thoughts from our readers. Your insight into this health field is beneficial to our readers, and hopefully, to a wider audience. —eeb
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
Morsberger to become new director of Gateway85 CID
Morsberger
New director of the Gateway85 Community Improvement District (CID) is Emory Morsberger, set to lead the organization as Executive Director effective April 15. Morsberger comes with a long history of involvement in the development, management and growth of community improvement districts in Georgia. Morsberger was instrumental in forming the Gateway85 CID (formerly Gwinnett Village CID) in 2005, where he also served on the Gateway85 board of directors. He has a strong vision for the area and will continue to gain momentum with his plan for the future of the largest CID in Georgia.
Gateway85’s Executive Director Marsha Anderson Bomar resigned her position with that CID to accept a senior leadership position with a regional organization. Details will be announced later this month. In her time with Gateway85, Bomar has led the organization through a successful rebrand, numerous infrastructure as well as development projects and multiple other advancements that have positioned Gateway85 for a prosperous future.
Morsberger says: “I look forward to continuing the great work that Marsha and the organization have accomplished over the past 13 years. I will strive to make Gateway85 an incredible corridor where businesses and the community will prosper.”
Morsberger, who recently resigned as president of the Lilburn CID, currently heads two other local CIDs as president: Tucker Summit CID and Metro South CID, which he will continue to head. He will transition his Lilburn CID position by June 30.
Morsberger adds: “The Lilburn CID is located along U.S. Highway 29 (Lawrenceville Highway) mostly within the city of Lilburn. While Gateway85 is five times the size of LCID, their proximity will create synergy.”
Time to submit applications for 2019 Braselton Citizens Academy
Applications are now being accepted for the 2019 class of the Braselton Citizens Academy. The classes are held from May to October on the third Thursday of each month from 6-8 p.m. There are also optional other days for special tours and law enforcement ride-alongs. There are attendance requirements for graduation!
Classes cover all aspects of Braselton’s government structure and responsibilities. Members get a true behind the scenes look at how Braselton performs its daily tasks and special events.
- Applications will be accepted through May 1, 2019. For an application, email Jennifer Scott at jscott@braselton.net.
Eighth annual Art on Chattahoochee event will take place April 20
Since 2012, Art on the Chattahoochee has brought together outstanding artists and crafters from North Georgia to highlight their talents to the community. This free event will be held on April 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Jones Bridge Park in Peachtree Corners. The event will feature artwork from more than 40 artists selling unique works such as paintings, pottery, handcrafted jewelry, body products and much more.
Attendees will enjoy live entertainment, food trucks, artist demonstrations and a special budding artists Kids’ Zone. Children can try their hand at the chalk art contest and may even get a glimpse of the Easter Bunny and participate in egg hunts. There will be free Inflatables and games for the little ones to enjoy while their parents enjoy the artists and crafters. Artists interested in becoming a vendor can secure a booth by completing a vendor agreement found at www.gwinnettparks.com.
- For more information or to receive a vendor agreement, call Melissa Day at 678-277-0920 or visit www.gwinnettparks.com. Jones Bridge Park is located at 4901 East Jones Bridge Road in Peachtree Corners.
Sugar Hill offers Easter Egg Hunt for 14th Year on April 13
The 14th Annual Easter Egg Hunt will be held in Sugar Hill Saturday, April 13 at E.E. Robinson Park. Children ages 1 to 9 and parents are invited to join in the fun from noon to 3 p.m.
Each age group will have 15 minutes to hunt for Easter eggs. Children ages 1 to 3 will hunt from 12:25—12:40 p.m. while 4 to 6 year-olds will search for eggs from 1:10 —1:25 p.m. The upper age group (7 to 9 years old) will join in the hunt from 1:50 —2:05 p.m.
Participants must bring their own Easter baskets. Prizes will be awarded during the break between each round of Easter egg hunting. Plenty of other fun activities including inflatable rides, refreshments, and photos with the Easter Bunny will make for an afternoon of sun, fun, and egg hunting with neighbors and friends.
For more information and rules, visit www.cityofsugarhill.com/easteregghunt or call the City of Sugar Hill Recreation Department at 770-831-7413.
Seventh annual Duluth Rotary Car Show will be April 13
The Rotary Club of Duluth will host its seventh annual Car Show in Downtown Duluth on Saturday, April 13, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Open to the public and free to spectators, the family-friendly event attracts over 100 entrants.
In addition to past years’ classifications—Antique Classics, Foreign Sports, Hotrods, 1972 and Older Muscles, Post 1972 Muscles, Pickups, and Jeeps/Off-road Vehicles, this year includes Super Exotic Sports Cars. Professional judges will evaluate all cars for first-to-third prizes in each category. One people’s choice winner will be chosen by popular vote among attendees. All prizes will be awarded during a closing ceremony.
Also hosting a 50:50 raffle, Duluth Rotary will sell tickets for $1 each. To better their odds, people may purchase a strip of tickets that measure a car’s length for a flat rate of $20. Duluth Rotary will split the money collected with the winner, who will be announced and must be present around 2 p.m. at the closing ceremony. The club will also sell collectable car show tee shirts and refreshments, and the many restaurants and shops within walking distance will be open for business.
Proceeds will benefit charitable causes, primarily Duluth-based Operation One Voice—a 501(c) (3) nonprofit that assists wounded and fallen Special Operations Forces and their families.
As Duluth Rotary’s Car Show Chair, Mark Tyrrell says: “If you’re interested in showing a car, I encourage you to preregister to secure your spot. Also, if you haven’t been to downtown Duluth lately, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. There’s so much to do!”
For more information about Car Show participation or sponsorship, or to learn more about Duluth Rotary, contact Mark Tyrrell at 678-468-7841.
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
From Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill: On becoming an orphan at age 17, Scottish Lowlander David Balfour sets forth to claim his familial inheritance only to have his dastardly uncle betray him and have him kidnapped. This sets the stage for a lively adventure to follow so, if swashbuckling sets your blood racing, this may be the book for you. I admit it’s a bit too macho for my taste, but it does have its redeeming qualities. The great thing about reading a classic is that it gives you the opportunity to learn history. Based on a true story set during a time when many Scottish Highlanders wanted to put the young Stuart pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie, on the throne, it describes what it might have been like to live in those dangerous times and be constantly afraid of the English and the Lowland Scots. This adventure tale has been made into at least six movies.
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
Folklorist Stetson Kennedy infiltrates the Klan, writes about it
Folklorist, investigative reporter, author, and labor activist Stetson Kennedy occupies a unique position in Georgia’s literary history. In the 1940s Kennedy infiltrated an Atlanta chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, an experience he recounted in two books, The Klan Unmasked and Southern Exposure.
Kennedy
During his time undercover, he worked with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Anti-Defamation League. Kennedy’s writing, as well as his work as an undercover agent, helped shed light on the Klan’s “Invisible Empire,” exposing the organization’s penchant for extralegal violence and contributing to its decline in the 1950s and 1960s.
William Stetson Kennedy was born in Jacksonville, Fla., on October 5, 1916, to Willye Stetson and George Wallace Kennedy. His father was from Statesboro, and his mother’s family was from Macon and Milledgeville. The Stetson Sanford House in Milledgeville, which serves as headquarters for the Old Capital Museum Society, is a family home on his mother’s side. He was educated in Jacksonville’s public schools and in 1935 enrolled briefly at the University of Florida.
In 1937 Kennedy joined the Federal Writers Project in Florida and spent the next five years collecting oral histories alongside fiction writer Zora Neale Hurston and folklorist Alan Lomax, among others. Kennedy had a large hand in editing several volumes generated by the Florida project, including The WPA Guide to Florida, A Guide to Key West, and The Florida Negro.
A great deal of unused material from these projects was collected in Kennedy’s Palmetto Country (1942), a book commissioned by Georgia writer Erskine Caldwell for his American Folkways Series. Embracing as it does southern Georgia and Alabama as well as Florida, Palmetto Country was celebrated on its 50th anniversary by a gathering of the historical societies of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida in St. Augustine on Kennedy’s 85th birthday. The book was brought back into print by the Florida Historical Society in 2009.
The Florida project ended when the United States entered World War II (1941-45). In 1942 Kennedy accepted a position as southeastern editorial director of the Congress of Industrial Organization’s political action committee in Atlanta. In this capacity he authored a series of monographs dealing with the poll tax, white primary, and other restrictions on voting that delimited democracy not only in Georgia but throughout the South. Because a bad back prevented him from serving overseas during the war, Kennedy resolved to perform his patriotic duties in Georgia, infiltrating both the Klan and the Columbians, an Atlanta-based neo-Nazi organization.
Posing as an encyclopedia salesman and adopting the alias John S. Perkins, Kennedy ingratiated himself into the Klan’s company in 1946, donning a hood and joining the order in a ritualistic nighttime initiation atop Stone Mountain. As soon as he learned the group’s secrets, Kennedy shared them with interested parties—journalists, law enforcement officials, and even the producers of the popular radio program The Adventures of Superman, who worked the secrets into the show’s script and broadcast them before a national audience. Kennedy also provided national radio journalist Drew Pearson with Klan signs and countersigns, which Pearson described each week on his Washington Merry-Go-Round radio program.
(To be continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Here’s a landscape asking where this Mystery Photo was taken
Many of the recent mystery photos have been statues. Let’s look at something mighty real, a landscape, for today’s test of your photographic sleuthing. All we ask this time is to tell us something about this picture, where it is, what it symbolizes, etc. Send your idea to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. was the only reader recognizing the last Mystery Photo, which was submitted quite some time ago by Tom Merkel of Berkeley Lake. Allan identified the photo as the statue ‘Joventud’ (which means ‘youth’) by Josep Manuel Benedicto and is located in the Plaça de Francesc Macià, Barcelona. Spain.
Plaça de Francesc Macià is a square with a large traffic circle in one of the main business districts in Barcelona. The traffic circle is fed by 11 artery streets and, as such, is one of the most transited points in Barcelona.
In the center of the square is a small pond modeled after the shape of Menorca, a small island about 130-miles southeast of Barcelona and the birthplace of Nicolau Rubió i Tudurí, the architect who designed Plaça de Francesc Macià. At the edge of the pond is the subject of today’s mystery photo, the marble nude sculpture “Joventud” which was added to the park in 1952.
Since there is no access to the garden in the center of the square, except by crossing the very busy traffic circle (without crosswalks!), my hat goes off to the photographer for risking his/her life to get this particular shot. To see just how risky this crossing would be, I have attached a Google Maps street view of the square, with the statue’s location marked with an arrow (Google Maps Street View of Joventud Statue.
BAPS Mandir in Lilburn showing off its colors this time of year
Always photographic, the BAPS mandir in Lilburn is surrounded these days with flowering trees and plants. Roving Photographer Frank Sharp took this scene recently. If you haven’t visited the mandir, it is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 29 and Rockbridge Road in Lilburn, and one of the most visited attractions in Gwinnett County.
Season Opener for the Gwinnett Stripers baseball team is Thursday, April 11 at 7:05 p.m. at Coolray Field. The local Class AAA Stripers will play the Norfolk Tide as the beginning of the Gwinnett team’s 11th season. The two teams continue on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Coolray Field.
Hazardous Waste Workshop will be April 11 from 1-2:30 p.m. at the Lilburn City Hall. Put on by the Gwinnett Department of Water Resources, this free workshop will allow attendees to learn how to identify, manager and dispose of household hazardous materials in their home. Attendees may also qualify for a five percent credit on their Stormwater Utility Fee.
Bird Walk of the Southern Wings Bird Club on Saturday, April 13, meeting at 8:45 a.m. at McDaniel Farm Park in Duluth. Led by Master Birder Chris O’Neal, who enjoys wildlife photography and exploring new parks and rails to watch birds. Bring your binoculars, camera, water, snacks and sunscreen. More details: 770 845 3631 or 678 334 1173.
Easter Egg Hunt at Lilburn City Park will be Saturday, April 13, starting at 10 a.m. Children, up to age 12, will be divided into age groups to take turns collecting eggs in the park. The event includes a petting zoo, inflatable and an Easter Bunny photo opportunity.
Earth Day: Volunteer at Gwinnett County’s annual Earth Day event on Saturday, April 13 at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, located at 2405 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville from 9 a.m. until noon. Residents are invited to recycle paper, paint, electronics and tires. Volunteers ages 14 and up are needed to unload vehicles, direct traffic, break down boxes, distribute recycling information and support other Earth Day activities. The event is rain or shine. Interested volunteers should register at www.VolunteerGwinnett.net. For more information, contact Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful at 770-822-5187 or email gwinnettcb@gwinnettcb.org.
Snellville Historical Society will meet Sunday, April 14 at 2:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the City Hall. Speakers will be Ron Davis and Jimmy Clower, descendants of the James Sawyer family, one of the founders of Snellville.
Photo Exhibit of Australia and New Zealand by Roving Photographer Frank Sharp is now on display through April 30 at the Tucker Library, 5234 LaVista Road. Hours of operation are 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This library is closed on Sunday.
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