GwinnettForum | Number 20.78 | Oct. 27, 2020
WHICH OF THESE TWO MEN will you vote for, or perhaps have already voted for? Today two of GwinnettForum readers tell why they are supporting their candidate. See the twin views below.
TODAY’S FOCUS: He’s Going To Vote for Donald Trump as the Next President
ANOTHER VIEW: His Choice for president is Democrat Joseph Biden
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Gwinnett Republicans come out against local transit referendum
SPOTLIGHT: Peach State Federal Credit Union
FEEDBACK: Wishes that he could hear this comment from the new Justice
UPCOMING: Drive-in job fair coming to Infinite Energy area on Thursday
NOTABLE: Salvation Army’s “Doing the Most Good” luncheon is virtual on Friday
RECOMMENDED: Wicked Pleasures by Penny Vincenzi
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Georgia’s Sea Island developed by founder of Hudson Motor Company
MYSTERY PHOTO: Ship’s model is today’s Mystery Photo to guess
CALENDAR: Snellville Tourism and Trade Association and Commerce Club to meet Election Day
Two readers, two views on the choice for president of USA
(Editor’s note: today two local residents give their views on the presidential election. Both wrote quite lucidly. Note that these are their own views, with slight editing for clarity, which we present in the sense of fairness to both viewpoints.—eeb)
He’s going to vote for Trump as the next president
By Gregg Stopher
PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. | A fairly-common axiom is that “Republicans first make their money and then go into politics; conversely, Democrats first go into politics and then make their money…”
Stopher
The aforementioned postulate is front and center in the past two weeks, as the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” scenario continues to play itself out. But whatever comes of this particular (quadrennial) “October surprise,” I suspect that, win or lose, Mr. Biden is going to have to eventually answer as to how he came to own several homes on a Senator/Vice President salary. But make no mistake: this burgeoning scandal will not be the determining factor in this election.
It is patently clear to even the casual observer that an overwhelming majority of “Biden voters” are actually voting against President Trump. It is equally clear that there is very little enthusiasm for the Democratic standard-bearer this year. The Democratic National Committee knows this all too well, and thus have chosen the “Four Corners” strategy in an attempt to “run out the clock” (on what they profess – publicly – is a significant Biden lead in the polls). In a week or so, we will (hopefully) know whether the “Hidin’ Biden” strategy was a winning one.
I see this as a risky bet on their part, but in many respects, it was essentially their only shot at winning. It is obvious that Mr. Biden possesses very little in the way of charisma, has aged considerably since he left office, and simply cannot draw a large crowd to any of his public events (contrast that with Mr. Trump, whose rallies appear more numerous, more raucous and even larger than those of four years ago). But with an ever-compliant and obsequious media at his side (including the tech giants that are clearly engaged in censorship), Joey B just might pull it off!
If Mr. Biden does become “46,” it will be, in part, due to his ability to obscure his true agenda. The United States of America has (collectively) been a center-right nation for decades, and although admittedly trending leftward, the majority of people in this country still believe in the following principles: hard work; faith in God; love of country; the importance of the family unit; helping others who are less fortunate (via local community-based charities and civic organizations); legal immigration; support for our military; and respect for our first responders, especially our brave policemen and policewomen, who place their lives on the line for us each and every day.
Contrast these beliefs with: open borders, increased taxation and ever-more regulations; consolidating more power at the federal level; achieving through our court system that which cannot be achieved through the legislative process; defunding the police; justification of rioting and looting; critical race theory and “intersectionality” – which defines everyone as being either “oppressed” or “oppressor;” and the Green New Deal, which is a pipe dream that would destroy our entire economy.
So, the question then becomes much larger than the two individuals vying for this, the highest office in the land. Whatever the personal peccadilloes of the two candidates (and there are many), are we going to head down the path of globalism leading to socialism, or are we going to remain the beacon of liberty for the entire world? The choices available could not be more clear.
“That’s why I am voting for Donald Trump.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
His choice for president is Biden, the Democrat
By Jeff Ploussard
LILBURN, Ga. | The men and women who serve in our Armed Forces deserve a president that respects them full-time. Joe Biden, since his election as a U.S. Senator in 1973, has an impeccable track record of supporting our military.
Ploussard
His son, Beau Biden, served honorably in the U.S. Army and Delaware Army National Guard from 2002-2015. In sharp contrast, the evidence of President Donald Trump’s respect for the military is grossly inconsistent. No one in President Trump’s immediate family has ever served in the U.S. military.
Military personnel that have served under Trump and journalists who cover the Pentagon have asserted that Trump’s support of the military hasn’t been unflinching and is usually politically motivated. Trump’s use of the military to create a photo opportunity in Washington last June in the wake of the killing of George Floyd is the single most egregious example of disrespect.
Police and National Guard troops—presumably at the direction of Trump—used tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square to clear a path for the President and his entourage to stage a photo of the president with a Bible in front of St. John’s Church. Former top Pentagon official James Mattis and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop that oversees St. John’s, criticized the political stunt as an affront to the Constitution and religion. America’s most senior military officer, General Mark Milley, publicly apologized for being present in Trump’s entourage that day. The use of the U.S. military to disrupt peaceful demonstrators is a violation of the Constitutional rights of these citizens to free assembly and free speech.
President Trump’s lack of respect for the U.S. military isn’t confined to the infamous photo op. He has shown a pattern of disparaging comments about the Armed Forces over the years. His unforgivable remarks about military personnel who have served our country are documented in the September 3 edition of The Atlantic magazine by Jeffrey Goldberg. The column includes the President’s scandalous assertion that John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he got captured.
The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial is a 42-acre World War I cemetery in Belleau, Northern France. It is located at the foot of the hill where the Battle of Belleau Wood was fought, with many American fatalities (Wikipedia). According to Goldberg, in 2018 Trump cancelled a visit to the cemetery. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed (The Atlantic). Finally, as another slap in the face to our country’s veterans of a war we didn’t win, Trump said in the 1990s that his efforts to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases constituted his “personal Vietnam.” Trump received a questionable medical deferment (Bone spurs?) to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War.
We need a President who shows R-E-S-P-E-C-T for our military full-time, not just when it suits his political needs.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Gwinnett GOP comes out against local transit referendum
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
OCT. 27, 2020 | It was a relatively short news release, just arriving late last week. But it carried a powerful message.
It read: “On Tuesday, September 22, members of the Gwinnett County Republican Party voted for a resolution that ‘… urges all Republicans and Gwinnett County residents to join in the vote against the Transportation Referendum” that will be on the ballot in November.’”
What? The Gwinnett Republican Party, the group that could not even field candidates in all of the Gwinnett races, finally rears its head, coming down against the transit issue in Gwinnett. We would never have thought that they would be so bold to speak out on this issue, when they have been so timid this political season.
We wonder what caused this group to take this step. Word on the street is that Democrats in Gwinnett are going to back passage of the Gwinnett traffic referendum. That party has issued no statement to this effect, but that’s the word on the street that we hear.
If, as many expect, Democrats sweep most of the offices in Gwinnett this year, which we hear from both Democratic and Republican sources, that may help carry the transit vote. This could spell many years of a moribund Republican Party in Gwinnett.
The irony of this is that, since 1984, Gwinnett has been pretty much a Republican county for all these years. Only in the last two elections have the Democrats begun to carry some legislative offices. As Hillary Clinton won the county in 2016 with 52 per cent of the vote, and Stacey Abrams in 2018 took the county with 66 percent of the vote, that brought along quite a few legislative Democrats, to allow them to take control of the delegation at the statehouse.
And now the Democrats feel like they can take most of the offices this year. Along the way, that could mean that some Republican office holders, who are doing an excellent job in their elected offices, may be in deep trouble. Yes, it’s possible that some less-than-stellar Democrats could unseat some superb Republicans. That would be a shame.
You wonder why the Republican Party came out with this pronouncement when it did. After all, so far more than 318,282 local residents have already voted, as of Monday morning. There are 581,484 Gwinnettians registered, so 40 percent have voted. If the GOP was all bothered about this cause, why did they wait until after so many people had taken advantage of Early Voting?
There’s another issue in this election year for the two parties. We’re hearing more consideration from people in both parties, and especially from independents, wondering why both the County Commission and School Board are partisan offices. They want these offices to be free of party politics and open to anyone that wants to qualify for office, without having to run under a partisan umbrella.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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Wishes that he could hear this comment from the new justice
Editor, the Forum:
By the time this letter is published Judge Amy Comey Barrett will probably be confirmed to become Justice Barrett. While her views will still be troublesome to Democrats, I think a statement similar to the following would ease some minds: “Once confirmed and sworn in as a Justice on the Supreme Court I will have no obligation to the president who nominated me nor to the senators who confirmed me, but only to the Constitution of the United States.”
— 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
Drive-in job fair coming to Infinite Energy area on Thursday
Gwinnett job seekers will have a unique opportunity on Thursday, October 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to meet face-to-face, yet socially distanced, with more than 50 employers and recruiters from a multitude of industries that will be actively hiring for 5,000+ positions. There will be full-time, part-time, and temp-to-perm opportunities, as well as hourly and salaried. Pay scales range from $14 per hour to over $100k per year. Many positions offer benefits.
The job fair, powered by Goodwill of North Georgia in partnership with Gwinnett Cares’ Workforce Development COVID Response Team, will be offered in drive-through fashion in a covered parking deck on the Infinite Energy Center campus in Duluth. Job seekers are strongly encouraged to go online and create an account in advance at CareerConnector.org, selecting the Pleasant Hill Career Center as their location.
With this online account, applicants can upload their resume, direct contact information, and other credentials that the employers can easily access post-event. If applicants need personal assistance with account set up, they can call 770-564-2447. Everyone should come dressed for success with a handful of printed resumes. Employers hiring multilingual candidates are encouraged to bring translators, but job seekers may want to consider having translation support in the car with them to ensure clear communication and effective results.
Job seekers should enter onto the Infinite Energy area via the Sugarloaf Parkway entrance closest to Satellite Boulevard. They will be greeted by volunteers and directed to the appropriate parking deck entrance. Organizers ask for patience. The goal is to give everyone a few short minutes of introductory facetime with the employers hiring for positions that match their skill sets.
Employers and candidates will swap names and information and the employers will follow up with candidates directly after the event regarding next steps. Employers will be encouraged to post very visibly the positions they have open so drivers can stop when they see a position that interests them and move on past those that aren’t a fit.
Paige Havens with Gwinnett Cares says: “This is a golden opportunity for those in our community that are unemployed or under-employed. As stimulus relief dollars and separation packages time-out, more and more people are on the open job market. On the flip side, as more and more businesses are gearing back up, employment opportunities abound. There are literally thousands of jobs available in Gwinnett County right now. We are excited to offer this opportunity for employers and job seekers to connect to help everyone in Gwinnett get back to work.”
In January of this year Gwinnett County touted a three percent unemployment rate, but in just 90 days that number jumped to 12 percent. Gwinnett Cares has a dedicated Workforce Development Response Team actively working to help our local economy recover and drive Gwinnett’s unemployment numbers back down as quickly as possible.
Havens wants to reassure everyone that design and flow of this event was intentionally designed to focus on safety and well-being. She explains, “Drivers will not get out of their car. Everything is spaced to allow for ample social distancing. Traffic will flow so the employers will be located on the driver’s side of the car, allowing for personal introductions and easy conversation. The open-air environment in the parking deck allows for a constant flow of fresh air, while also providing protection from the elements in the event of inclement weather. Everyone is strongly encouraged to mask up and the online application system minimizes the need for documents to be passed back and forth.”
A running list of employers and positions available can be found on GwinnettCares.org, as well as a list of other resources available to help unemployed Gwinnettians make ends meet. Employers actively hiring that want to learn more about this and other hiring events, please contact Sean West at Goodwill of North Georgia at swest@ging.org. Goodwill of North Georgia’s Career Center on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth offers free career coaching and a wealth of great resources for job seekers. Once applicants are registered in Career Connector they will be notified of future hiring events offered by Goodwill.
ABOUT GWINNETT CARES: GwinnettCares.org is grassroot community collaborative that’s spun from a large group of community stakeholders (government, business sector, non-profits, schools, churches, etc.) to streamline communication to Gwinnett’s population of a million people about how to get and give help during COVID-19. The Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia, United Way of Greater Atlanta – Gwinnett, and the Gwinnett Coalition began the conversation, but now hundreds of organizations have come together to power it.
Salvation Army’s annual luncheon is virtual on Friday
The Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta 2020 Virtual Doing the Most Good annual fundraising luncheon will be broadcast live on the organization’s website or Facebook page on Friday, October 30, at noon. The virtual event is free to view. Viewers wishing to sponsor the event or donate to The Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta may do so at www.salvationarmyatlanta.org/dtmg.
This is the Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta’s signature annual event, wherein the organization honors the individuals, volunteers, and non-profit and corporate partners who help it fulfill its brand promise of “Doing the Most Good” for the most vulnerable.
This year’s luncheon will highlight the ways The Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta continues to adapt its delivery of vital social services to communities throughout a 13-county metro Atlanta footprint. Since its COVID-19 response began in mid-March, The Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta has provided more than 66,000 nights of safe shelter and distributed more than 500,000 pounds of food.
Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta corporate partners and Doing the Most Good Luncheon are UPS and Genuine Parts Company, which firms will be honored during the event.
Because this year’s luncheon is virtual, nearly 100 percent of all donations and sponsorships will be used to help fund vital, life-saving social service programs in The Salvation Army of Metro Atlanta’s core service areas of homelessness prevention, youth enrichment, and anti-human trafficking.
Wicked Pleasures by Penny Vincenzi
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: Virginia Praeger Caterham has an unusual secret. Each of her three children have different fathers. When she meets her future husband, Alexander, the Earl of Caterham, she is certain that her fairytale life is about to begin. As it turns out Virginia’s marriage is anything but a fairy tale necessitating that she find the fulfillment she needs as a woman outside of her marriage. It shows the complicated politics of an English marriage to an Earl. Moving back and forth in time through the voices of Alexander, Virginia and the three children, Charlotte, Georgina and Max, the impact on the lives of all and the secondary characters plays out in a vast and complex array of events. Author Penny Vincenzi has a unique ability to build a story through tiers of characters each with their own flaws and graces. It’s great for new readers of Penny Vincenzi and fans.
- 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
Georgia’s Sea Island developed by Hudson Motor founder
Sea Island in a 1931 photo
Sea Island is an internationally known resort and cottage colony located off the Georgia coast near St. Simons Island in Glynn County. The centerpiece of the resort is the Cloister, a Spanish-style hotel designed by Addison Mizner, which dates from 1928.
One of a series of barrier islands, Sea Island is approximately five miles long and one and a half miles wide at its widest point. A causeway connects the island with St. Simons Island, its larger neighbor to the west.
Once known as Fifth Creek Island by coastal Native Americans, Sea Island was largely uninhabited until the 1920s. In 1768 James MacKay, one of General James Oglethorpe‘s troop commanders, acquired it as a land grant from King George III of England, but he made no use of it. By the early years of the 19th century, the island, then known as Long Island, had been acquired by John Couper of Cannon’s Point Plantation and his business partner James Hamilton of Hamilton Plantation. In 1814 the island was passed to James Hamilton when the partnership between the two men was dissolved.
Later the island was acquired by William Audley Couper, son of John Couper, who in 1845 sold it to his brother James Hamilton Couper. The Coupers used the island to pasture cattle during the summer months. In 1888 the heirs of James Hamilton Couper sold the island to James F. O’Shaughnessey, a member of the Jekyll Island Club, to use as a hunting preserve. This venture was short-lived, and the island was used for little other than grazing livestock until 1921, when a group of local businessmen formed a company to subdivide the island for vacation cottages. The completion of a causeway between the mainland and St. Simons made Sea Island accessible to the public in 1924.
Two years later the development of the island as a beach resort captured the imagination of Howard Coffin, an Ohio native and a founder of the Hudson Motor Company. Coffin had acquired nearby Sapelo Island as a coastal retreat in 1912, and he began buying large tracts on St. Simons in 1926. As a pioneer in automotive design, Coffin envisioned how the transportation revolution brought about by the automobile could transform the inaccessible Georgia islands into tourist destinations, once the coastal highway, U.S. 17, reached nearby Brunswick. His company, Sea Island Investments, bought Long Island that same year, briefly renaming it Glynn Isle before adopting the name Sea Island.
(To be continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Where is this ship model on display for all to see?
Today’s Mystery Photo is a model ship, but it’s not just any old model ship. Tell us more about it, and where it is located. Send your ideas to elliott@brack.net, and be sure to include your address.
Lynn Naylor, Norcross, was first in with the identification of the recent Mystery Photo: “Looks to me that today’s mystery pix is a different view of Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.” She was right. The photo came from a recent UGA Today online publication with a photograph by Dorothy Kozlowski.
Virginia Smith of Decatur gave us this identification: “Today’s mystery photo has to be Sanford Stadium at UGA, or I clearly have a foggy memory of college. Love it! I’m glad I’m finally recognizing some of these.” Jack Wilson of Lawrenceville added: “The cream puff photo is not ‘The Hedges,’ just some hedges near the Tate Student Center at UGA with Memorial Hall and Sanford Stadium in the background. Attending the UGA/Tennessee game with limited attendance and social distancing felt odd, but surprisingly comforting—no traffic and no waiting.”
Others recognizing it include Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; George Graf, Palmyra, Va., and Allen Peel of San Antonio, Tex., who added a few fun facts:
- “There is a creek running under Sanford Stadium. It is called ‘Tanyard Creek’ and is as wide as eight feet at some spots. Personally, I would have named it ’Tenyard Creek’, but what do I know?
- “The first game in Sanford was against Yale and it was the only game that Yale has ever played this far south. It was played on October 12,1929 with the Dawgs winning 15-0. Every point for Georgia was scored by Vernon “Catfish” Smith.
- “There is a mausoleum with all of the remains of former UGA’s British Bulldog mascots”
For the previous Mystery Photo identification, also recognizing Jekyll Island was Gary Cobb of DeLand, Fla.
In-person joint meeting of Snellville Tourism and Trade Association and Commerce Club, to be November 3 at noon at the Summit Chase Country Club. President Don Britt will report on the state of the organization, have a financial update and give us a glimpse of future plans and activities.
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