GwinnettForum | Number 20.64 | Sept. 1, 2020
PICKING THE NAME of a new Peachtree Corners trail, the “Corners Connector,” was Randy Gilbert, on the left. The masked contingent with him one wet day at the start of the trail on Technology Parkway South are, from second at left, Councilmembers Eric Christ, Lorri Christopher, Mayor Mike Mason, and Councilmembers Jeanne Aulbach and Phil Sadd. Mr. Gilbert had to pick from 150 entries for the trail name. See more details about the trail at Upcoming below.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Concerning the Democrats, Bernie Sanders and Climate Control
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Like Before, President Trump Introduces the Fear Card
ANOTHER VIEW: Find Pleasure Watching Birds in Your Own Backyard
SPOTLIGHT: Centurion Advisory Group
FEEDBACK: Defunding Police Departments Is Living in Never-Never Land
UPCOMING: Peachtree Corners Names 11.5 Mile Trail “Corners Connector”
NOTABLE: Gwinnett Chamber Presents Third Annual Moxie Awards
RECOMMENDED: Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Shakers Establish Colony in Georgia, Which Was Short Lived
MYSTERY PHOTO: Laid Back Scene Is This Edition’s Mystery Photo
LAGNIAPPE: Morgan No Longer Heading Georgia Activities for Renasant Bank
Concerning Democrats, Bernie Sanders and climate control
By Debra Houston, contributing columnist
LILBURN, Ga. | “Many of the ideas we fought for, that just a few years ago were considered radical, are now mainstream.” Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic Convention, August 17, 2020.
Bernie, being Bernie, avoided calling his ideas socialist. A Democratic Socialist, he initially threatened Old Guard Democrats, but now his eyes smile because Dems accept him. I’ll demonstrate how presidential candidate Joe Biden is running on Mr. Sanders’s far-left climate control ideas and how they are anything but moderate.
The September issue of Rolling Stone magazine beckoned me inside its pages where I found an article written by Jeff Goodell: “Joe Biden is Thinking Big on Climate Change.” I felt like an eavesdropper reading conversations between lefties. I learned that, if elected, Biden’s climate control proposal will cost $2 trillion. According to Goodell, climate control will “re-imagine every aspect of the world …”
Let those words sink in.
Sure, Mr. Biden wants a carbon free electricity grid, but the emphasis is on “racial and environmental justice issues.” Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the architects of the Green New Deal, says, “The key to mitigating environmental racism – and the climate crisis more broadly – is redistributing power to communities of color… Fossil-fuel pollution is a racial-justice issue.”
Who knew?
Biden’s administration will ban fracking, but he can’t mention it now because he could lose voters in Texas and Pennsylvania. Do frackers read Rolling Stone, I wondered?
It reads: “Biden’s plan is carefully crafted to play well during hard times … It’s being pitched as much as a jobs plan as a climate plan.” Goodell reports that Biden’s 15-page written plan mentions jobs 53 times but climate only 28.
Let me project: If Biden wins, Democrats will deliver their climate change legislation to Congress. A Republican fiscal conservative will balk at the price tag and acknowledge that much of the money isn’t earmarked for climate control. Democrats will call him a climate denier.
If Republicans try to scrap the legislation, Democrats will say they’re depriving Americans of employment. The fiscal conservative will say it’s a scheme; there are no jobs. Dems will call him anti-worker and anti-union.
If Republicans vote against the legislation, Dems will accuse them of refusing justice for black people. The fiscal conservative will shut up.
Goodell: “The Trump nightmare and COVID-driven economic collapse present a rare opportunity to rebuild our world in an entirely new way. And that means not just replacing gas guzzlers … but rethinking how cities are built, how political power is distributed, and rebalancing the relationship between labor and capital through unions.”
Climate control is only one issue and it’s anything but moderate. Now you know why Mr. Sanders left out the word socialist to describe his ideas.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Like before, President Trump introduces the fear card
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 1, 2020 | You could almost see it coming. Desperate to retain the presidency, now Donald Trump has introduced the Fear Card in the 2020 race. Shades of Richard Nixon!
One also wonders if he is influencing enough of the many terrorist groups for them to start agitating so that they can deliberately clash with protesters, to then allow President Trump to “send in the troops,” making him appear as the law-and-order candidate.
Have you noticed that when the president threatens federal troops, both governors and mayors tell him they don’t want them, that their local officers or National Guard can maintain order? But President Trump ignores them. After all, he has an agenda.
Coupled with a new generation of black protestors who have not been trained in the peaceful protests of the Martin Luther King Jr. era….it makes it easy for these opposing groups to be at odds with each other…and often clash. Somehow, the Black Lives Matter people must get the peaceful demonstration training that they sorely lack, and not react.
Yes, protestors seem to be baited by the right-wing groups, and unfortunately, they have taken the bait. Just look at the continual problems in the mostly white metro area in the country, in Portland, Oregon. And do you think it is just happenstance that the Kenosha riots are taking place in a state that is anticipated to be a toss-up at election time? Nailing down his position as the law-and-order candidate in Wisconsin could tip the scale for Mr. Trump in that state.
You can deplore this. Yet it is happening almost daily.
Here in Georgia, with something new for us, are “boat parades” for the president, both at Lake Alatoona and on Clarks Hill Lake near Augusta. So far, local leftist groups and protestors have not challenged these boaters. Yet the sheer existence of the new angle, a boat parade, seems to be a little more than just creative, and more like an opportunity to spark a clash, inviting the need for more law-and-order from the president.
Yes, this is cynical of me in the worst order.
Have you also noticed that the campaign of the Republicans has painted the Democrats as, in the president’s words, “weak” and a “destroyer of American jobs.” Is it any wonder that Americans of all stripes take what politicians (on both sides) say at less than face value?
Using the president’s own words, why would Joe Biden want to “destroy the suburbs?”
Or “wipe away your Second Amendment” rights?
Is Joe Biden’s winning nomination for the presidency based on a centrist government platform on health care, taxes and defense spending….something that America should fear? It’s what Democrats have used for years, and certainly worth proclaiming .
You can expect to hear from the Republicans their continued position that the president should be re-elected because the Democrats would change things. Should that be something most Americans should fear? Certainly, the Democrats would change the direction of the government, to less Trump-directional, and more normal. That’s a great expectation, not something we should shy away from.
In reality, the direction that the national government has gone through in the last four years…..now that might be something more worthy of fearing.
The fear card has arrived. Many Americans might be more fearful of another four years of Donald Trump.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Find pleasure watching birds in your own backyard
By Raleigh Perry
BUFORD, Ga. | Several times a day, I step out on my back patio just to sit in a chair and watch the birds and butterflies. There might be a few early in the morning, but when the day heats up, they come out in droves. Most of the time I am alone, still in a self imposed quarantine, but on occasion a neighbor will come to see me and the first thing that they ask is “How do you attract all of those birds and butterflies?”
Perry
So far (as I know) I have fledged two nests of bluebirds and one nest that I simply do not know what type of bird is living there. I know that I have many cardinals, brown thrashers, different types of finches, titmouse, chickadees, robins, woodpeckers and small birds called nuthatches. I have more doves than I want and when they come in, they come as a pair. Doves mate for life. (The brown thrasher is the state bird of Georgia.)
I have two bird feeders with four ports each. Part of birds’ social behavior is that most of the time if there is a bird feeding, a second bird, sitting nearby, will not feed until that one has left. I would not even try to count the numbers of the aforementioned birds but there are many.
The way that you get both birds and butterflies is to provide an environment in which they are safe. I have many large bushes which provide nesting for a lot of them and bird houses, basically made for bluebirds. As for the butterflies, I have flowers and bushes that flower at different times after it warms up a bit. So, the yard is full of butterflies – many different species. There is always a lot of aviary action to keep me occupied in watching them.
One thing I do not have is squirrels. That’s because of what I feed the birds. My bird feeders are filled with sunflower seeds that have been “washed” with the juices of two of the hottest pepper varieties. Squirrels do not like them and thus there is little here to attract squirrels. That bird feed comes from Kennesaw, Ga. and is called Coles Hot Meats. The food is expensive, but it serves my purposes.
Along my back fence are Elaeagnus bushes and those things are huge. One is 10 feet across and 12 feet high. The thrashers seem to like that one. Of the flowering bushes that I have are butterfly bushes and a large Miss (or Mrs.) Huff’s Lantana. I also like zinnias and have them in several places. These bloom all summer and provide a lot of color. Elaeagnus has a very small flower that smells something like a Ligustrum, though you cannot see the flowers easily and the bush has thorns on the inside. Birds feed on the unseen seeds.
The secret to this enjoyable back yard is nothing more than having plants that protect the birds, provide nesting sites for those that do not use bird boxes, and a lot of colorful flowers for the butterflies.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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Defunding police departments is living in Never-Never Land
Editor, the Forum:
I believe that all Americans have a right to protest actions by government agencies. The right to “speak your piece” is guaranteed in our Constitution. Those who resort to violence and destruction of property, no matter whose property, are thugs. They should be arrested and jailed. A person whose livelihood is supported by his or her business is not the one against whom they are protesting. They would be the first to complain if it were their property or livelihood being destroyed.
Those who advocate reducing or defunding Police Departments are living in never-never land. Who will protect their children as they grow and go to school and out into society? Who will stop looters and arsonists who decide to burn your house down?
— Prescott P Lawrence Sr., Grayson
Let people decide moral equivalence issues for themselves
Editor, the Forum:
Remember the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. two years ago this August? Fights and violence broke out in the streets, the Right and the Left brought and used weapons, the Right carried lighted torches (Tiki Torches, if you can believe it!), and a demented neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd killing one woman and injuring another 19 people. What I hear over and over since then is that Donald Trump asserted moral equivalence between the white nationalists and the people who protested against them. What I almost never hear are comments about the Left’s attempts to restrict the Right’s freedom of speech.
The people who protested against the white nationalists sought to stop their speaking negatively about Jews and about those who wanted to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from the Lee Park. I found the Right’s racist speech reprehensible. Yet, I firmly believe the First Amendment allows Americans the freedom to use speech that others may find reprehensible.
What if the protestors against the Unite the Right had allowed them their say and then made their own statements in opposition, rather than initiating the violence? I can imagine little or no violence and certainly no deaths. Honoring our Constitutional freedoms, particularly the one enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution, leads to civility and provides the most fertile ground for the best ideas and arguments to take root and grow. I say to my friends on the left, where I also stand, to allow and even promote freedom of speech and let people decide the moral equivalence issue for themselves.
— Michael Wood, Peachtree Corners
Getting tested for virus is easy at Gwinnett public health site
Editor, the Forum:
The process for free COVID-19 testing is easy. One goes to the Gwinnett Public Health website and clicks on the Lawrenceville location. Set an appointment and print out the conformation. Bring that printout with you to the appointment.
Staying in one’s vehicle, one moves quickly through the line. Finally, one swabs each nostril as instructed and insert the swab in the test tube held by the person in total protective gear. Instructions are explained and a sheet is provided with explanation. Off you go. It takes just a few minutes. At least, that was my experience. Most specialists require a negative test to see you. Lab Corp does the testing.
— Byron Gilbert, Duluth
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
Peachtree Corners names trail as “Corners Connector”
Peachtree Corners has marked the opening of a new section of its 11.5-mile multi-use trail system. In the city’s name-the-trail contest, “Corners Connector” was chosen for the name of the city-wide trail, which will wind throughout the community connecting neighborhoods to parks, shops, restaurants and offices. Randy Gilbert, a long-time resident, selected the winning name chosen from over 150 entries.
Mr. Gilbert was on hand to help cut the ribbon on the new 1/3-mile section of the trail which runs around a portion of the seven-acre Technology Park Lake. This newest section has a plaque dedicated to Mr. Lee Tucker in recognition of his efforts in ensuring the city had the land needed for the trail expansion. Eventual plans will include the trail to encircle the entire lake.
In several in-person and online surveys, citizens ranked multi-use trails among the most desirable and valued community recreational assets. The city envisions that the Corners Connector will not only serve as an alternate means of travel but will also be a linear park offering unique amenities and programs for its residents. The city is also conducting a feasibility study now to add a 3 ½- mile walking trail along Crooked Creek.
Button sculpture in Peachtree Corners
A new form of art is being added throughout the city. These are button-shaped sculptures, one of which is located at the entrance to the lake-side trail section, which are part of a Gwinnett-wide effort by a nonprofit organization, Button Art, to be showcased throughout the county. The city plans to install a total of six of the round shaped Button Art sculptures, each depicting a theme based on the area of town where it is located. Button Art, Inc. is a nonprofit created to further the love of art in Gwinnett County. The project gets its name from Button Gwinnett, the county’s namesake.
Peachtree Corners’ first sculpture features a friendly looking robot walking a robotic dog, a nod to the many high-tech businesses located within Technology Park. Local artist, Lance Campbell has designed the artwork for the city’s six sculptures which are among 200 that will be sprinkled throughout the county. Visit www.buttonart.org for more information on the Button Art project.
Briscoe Field runways are getting repaved through October
Gwinnett County Airport is phasing in closure of the runways at Briscoe Field for rehabilitation work now underway. The work began August 31 and may last through mid-October, weather permitting.
Alan Chapman, director of the Department of Transportation says: “While we are pleased to get this much-needed resurfacing underway, we do recognize the impact this has on the flying public. We are working closely with the contractor to get the work done as quickly as possible and to get the runway fully reopened. Airport staff also has communicated with airport tenants, so pilots are aware and able to move their aircraft as needed.”
Pilots are advised to check notice to airmen (NOTAM) prior to planning any flights. Please contact the airport administration office with questions or concerns.
Gwinnett Chamber presents 3rd annual Moxie Awards
Gwinnett’s Chamber of Commerce honored more than 80 finalists and seven winners at the 2020third annual Moxie Awards on Friday.
The Moxie Awards recognizes both individuals and organizations that support the advancement of women, as well as those that are women-led. Individual awards honored those who are trailblazers in a male-dominated field, Gwinnett County champions, emerging leaders, professionals who are at the peak of their career and those who are generous with their time, talent, or resources.
Conner
Designations were given for the following awards:
- Enlightened Employer Award – Joy Mitchell, CEO, Office Creations;
- Greater Good Award – Linnea Miller, founder and owner, Long Table, LLC;
- Influence Award – Assistant Chief Gale Higginbotham, Gwinnett County Police Department;
- On the Rise Award – Claire Gordon, Commercial Banker, BB&T;
- Outstanding Organization Award – Amanda Sutt, Creative Director and CEO, Rock, Paper, Scissors;
- Pay It Forward Award – Melanie Conner, CEO, Rainbow Village; and
- Moxie Award – Dr. Jann L. Joseph, president of Georgia Gwinnett College.
City of Sugar Hill, Quantum Bank seek dollars for ducks
The City of Sugar Hill is participating in a fundraising partnership with Quantum Bank, benefitting the Gwinnett Tech Foundation. To raise funds, the city will be selling white, rubber ducks at $3 each in homage to the ducks that have recently taken residency in downtown pond located behind the E Center. The Quantum Bank will be matching each dollar per duck sold in the fundraising, with a goal of $1,500
All of each duck purchase will go to the Gwinnett Tech Foundation and designated to the Parker Killian Gives Moore Scholarship. It will then be awarded to Veterinary Technician students in the Spring of 2021. This scholarship can be used towards tuition, fees and program supplies.
The late Parker Killian Moore, who is the honoree of this scholarship, was a former student at Gwinnett Technical College. Parker’s family wanted to honor his name and love for animals by creating a foundation and scholarship program to help students with his same affinity for animals. Go to http://parkerkillianmoore.com/ to learn more.
Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff
From John Titus, Peachtree Corners: At the wedding reception of a friend, Jenni Clark is asked her occupation. She explains that she is a ghostwriter and most enjoys working on the memoirs of non-famous persons. Within a day she is contacted by another guest who asks her to write his mother’s memoirs for her 80th birthday. Jenni accepts the job before learning that the woman lives in a small town on the Cornwall coast, a place which holds a dark secret from Jenni’s past. Klara, the subject of the memoir, was interned as a child by the Japanese during World War II in Dutch East Indies, and has a dark secret which she has not revealed to her family. The book follows the stories of Klara and Jenni and both secrets are revealed. Also resolved at the end is a seemingly intractable problem in the relationship between Jenni and her boyfriend.
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Shakers establish short-lived colony in Georgia
The Shakers, whose official name is the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, were called Shakers or “Shaking Quakers” because they would sing, dance, shout, and shake in an attempt to “shake off evil” during their religious meetings. Founded in England in the 1750s, the group first arrived in the United States in 1774, and in the late nineteenth century a short-lived colony was established in coastal Georgia.
During the 19th century the American Shaker population, which was located primarily in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, and the New England area, was diminishing. To increase their numbers, they started two southern colonies—one in Florida and one in Georgia. The colonies were also founded with the intention of providing a more pleasant climate, particularly for the group’s elderly members. Their chief purpose, however, was to expand membership and increase the financial base of the society. By taking advantage of the warmer climate, they hoped to grow a more diverse group of crops to help their failing economic resources. Not all of the Shakers supported the move, arguing that since they already owned houses and land that had been abandoned by members who had converted away from the group, they should not purchase new houses and property.
Despite some members’ disapproval, the group went forward with plans for the Georgia colony. In 1898 a group of Shakers from the colony in Union Village, Ohio, bought a plantation house in Glynn County, Georgia, which they renovated for their use. They began to grow corn, pumpkins, rice, and sweet potatoes on the farm as a means of generating income.
Also in 1898 the Shakers purchased an estate in White Oak, in Camden County, and during that year they built an additional house on the same land, which became the headquarters for the Georgia Shakers. The Glynn County plantation became a branch of the White Oak colony, but eventually financial troubles forced the Shakers to sell it, and the White Oak land became their only Georgia location.
Though the Georgia Shakers were well received by their neighbors and even welcomed visitors and tourists to view their plantation, their colony did not grow. Because of their strict policies on purity, Shakers do not marry and therefore had no children. They increase their numbers by gaining converts and through adoption. In spite of their friendliness with the Shakers, most Georgians were not very receptive to these ideas. Unable to achieve the goal of increasing their numbers, the Shakers left Georgia and returned to Ohio in 1902. Of all the Shaker communities in the United States, the White Oak colony was the shortest lasting. There are no remnants of the Shaker presence in Georgia today.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Laid-back scene is this edition’s Mystery Photo
Here’s a scene somewhere in this country, and it’s up to you to identify this edition’s Mystery Photo. Put on your thinking cap, think creatively, and see if you have the answer to what we’ll call a much more difficult mystery than the last time. Send your idea to elliott@brack.net, including your hometown.
With little evidence, lots of people recognized the last Mystery Photo. Paul Larson of Lawrenceville wrote: “This issue’s mystery photo is of the Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver, Colo. I know it fairly well because I attended two of my grandsons’ high school graduation ceremonies here in 2015 and 2019. It’s used for that purpose by many schools in the area, which makes for terrible traffic jams with one ceremony after another. But, it’s a beautiful setting in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and probably seats several thousand people.”
The mystery photo came from Mark Barlow of Peachtree Corners.
Ed Hurley, Peachtree Corners: “That photo is from Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison Colorado. I grew up in Denver and saw several concerts and also, several Easter Sunrise services there.”
Lynn Naylor, Norcross: “The Red Rocks Amphitheatre is located about 10 miles outside of Denver, Colo. Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a massive rock structure surrounded by Red Rocks Park. The theater opened in 1906 and has a capacity of 9,525. Red Rocks Amphitheatre hosts a wide range of shows throughout the year. They feature music across all genres and have hosted acts like The Beatles, Mumford & Sons, A Perfect Circle, John Denver, U2, Depeche Mode, Rush, Kenny Chesney, Odesza, Atmosphere, and so many others. Aside from just concerts the venue has also provided the backdrop for multiple live records, yoga classes, television shows, and movies.”
Allan Peel, San Antonio, Tex.: added: “The amphitheatre was completed in June 1941 when it held its opening dedication ceremony. The large rock structure in the background of the mystery photo is angled outwards from stage right, and is actually higher than Niagara Falls! Staircases line each side of the 69 rows of seats, and requires climbing 380 vertical steps from the stage to the outermost bleacher seats. Whew!”
George Graf, Palmyra, Va.: “Red Rocks is considered sacred by 32 American Indian tribes. The theater was designed by architect Burnham Hoyt, who modeled it after the Theatre of Dionysus at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The backstage area at Red Rocks served as a shelter for nonperishable food during the Cold War. Some locals swear the venue is haunted by a ghost called the Headless Hatchet Lady, a wraith who preys on amorous teenagers.”
Other recognizing the Mystery Photo on little evidence included Harriet Nichols, Trickum; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Rick Krause, Lilburn; Virginia Klaer, Duluth; Donald Lee, Suwanee; Ann Serrie, Lawrenceville; Doug Cozart, Peachtree Corners; and Jayne Bane, Lawrenceville.
Morgan no longer heads Ga. activities for Renasant Bank
Bartow Morgan Jr.
Near deadline time, GwinnettForum learned that Bartow Morgan’s last day with Renasant Bank was Monday, August 31. He told GwinnettForum: “My contract was up and I decided not to renew it. As of Tuesday, that will be my first day unemployed.”
Morgan was chief commercial officer and Georgia chair of Renasant Bank. Morgan for years headed the family-owned Brand Bank of Lawrenceville, which dates back to founding by his forebearers in 1905. He joined the bank in 1994 and became CEO and chairman of the board in 2002.
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