GwinnettForum | Number 21.60 | Aug. 6, 2021
TASSEL-CHANGING TIME: Getting their advanced degrees at the Suwanee campus of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine are 77 new masked graduates. For more details on activities at the local medical school campus, see Notable below.
The Duluth Fall Festival is still over two months away, but our plans have been underway for months. The 400 volunteers are getting geared up, and sponsors are coming on board daily. On August 10 the Festival Committee will host the Duluth Business Association and Festival Sponsors at the historic Payne Corley House. There will be a large assortment of hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer, and homemade desserts will be made by Festival volunteers. If you are interested in becoming a Festival Sponsor, we would love for you to come to this event and learn more about us. Don’t forget to look for the Festival tent at Food Truck Fridays for more information! For more information, go to duluthfallfestival.org
TODAY’S FOCUS: Dan Miller riding cross country to benefit Rainbow Village
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Ex-Senator Don Balfour’s new gig: now he’s a soccer referee
SPOTLIGHT: Gas South District
FEEDBACK: Eviction moratoriums ending, as market full of cash
UPCOMING: County renews contract to film Gwinnett police homicide investigation
NOTABLE: PCOM awards diplomas to 77 graduate students in commencement
RECOMMENDED: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Poet Kathryn Stripling Byer was native of Camilla, Ga.
MYSTERY PHOTO: Mountainous scene of Mystery Photo is not from North Georgia
LAGNIAPPE: Now someone has created a Little Free Dog Library
CALENDAR: Library presents race and guns in America program upcoming on Zoom
Miller riding cross country to benefit Rainbow Village
By Kasie Bolling
DULUTH, Ga. | It’s been 33 years since Dan Miller first donned a cycling helmet and turned a pastime into a passion. Having tackled his longest trek during the Six Gap Century Bike Ride out of Dahlonega, which features 104 miles up and down six of the steepest climbs in the North Georgia Mountains, Miller is on the road (literally) for one of the biggest challenges of his life.
On August 1, this Duluth, Ga. resident set out from north of Seattle, Wash. for a cross-country ride that ends in Bar Harbor, Maine. Expected to take two months to complete, the ride holds far more meaning than an opportunity to check a box off his bucket list. Miller hopes this ride will help raise awareness and funds for a nonprofit near and dear to his heart, Rainbow Village. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the nonprofit dedicated to providing safe housing, education, and community support systems to families experiencing homelessness, Miller hopes to raise $30,000 to help Rainbow Village move the needle to ending homelessness in Metro Atlanta. Donations can be made at www.DanMillerRides.com.
A resident of Gwinnett County since 1985, Miller first became familiar with Rainbow Village as a member of the congregation at Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church. His journey with the nonprofit began as yardwork at the – then – Rainbow House before evolving to financial contributions and volunteer work in the nonprofit’s afterschool program when it was hosted at his church during construction of Rainbow Village’s current campus in the heart of Duluth. He watched Rainbow Village grow in size and scope over the course of three decades, from serving one family at a time at its start, to 30 families for a period of two years so they can confidently embark on the journey to self-sufficiency and thrive beyond the village upon graduation from the program.
Miller says: “As much as crisis management is needed, rotating from one homeless shelter to the next isn’t the way for families to get back on track. The mission at Rainbow Village and their four pillars of providing Help, Hope, Housing, and Healing to families in need really resonated with me. Instead of a cookie cutter program, Rainbow Village takes a customized multigenerational approach to restore families to wholeness.”
An engineer for 28 years and physics teacher at Brookwood High School for the last 12, Miller is kicking off his recent retirement by pairing a lifelong dream with his church’s mission of “Connecting Faith with Everyday Life.” As a retirement gift to himself, he bought a brand-new Trek Domane bike and began making plans for a cross country ride to benefit Rainbow Village and the families it serves.
Following a route created by Adventure Cycling, the biggest challenges Miller believes he will face during the trek are his own adaptability, getting up the energy to blog daily on DanMillerRides.com and finding a place to rest his head each night. (He’s already had to adjust his route by 200 miles because of road closures from a forest fire.)
Miller plans to be back in time to attend Rainbow Village’s annual “We Are Family” Benefit Gala on October 16, 2021 at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Anyone who is inspired by Miller’s example and wishes to have an impact on Rainbow Village and the families it serves are encouraged to visit www.RainbowVillage.org. There they can learn about volunteer opportunities, which include mentoring, providing meals, property beautification, assisting with fundraising events and much more.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Ex-Sen. Don Balfour’s new gig: now he’s a soccer referee
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
AUG. 6, 2021 | When Don Balfour of Snellville left his state Senate seat after 24 years in office, his wife, Ginny, asked him: “How are you going to fill that third of your time?” By then he was the longest-serving Republican senator, and chaired the powerful Rules Committee. Ginny realized that he was dividing his time between family, work and politics. Now he was out of politics. He told her: “I’m going to referee soccer.”
Soon after, Don became a referee for the Georgia High School Association, traveling as far as the Tennessee and South Carolina borders to run up and down the field with high school soccer teams, boys and girls, three nights a week, January to May.
When in high school in Greenville, S.C., Balfour played soccer and refereed kid games on Saturday. “They paid me $10 or $15 a game, and I would referee 4-5-6 games on Saturdays. It put money in my pocket.”
Balfour
That’s why the return to being a referee was a natural for Balfour’s newly-found extra time. Early on at a soccer workshop, the leader told about 500 newcomer referees: “There will be pressure on you. The fans and parents, and even the players, will not think you made the correct call all year long. So if you can’t take the pressures, you can quit now and save all this pressure.”
Among other things, it’s kept Balfour physically-fit, carrying 240 pounds on his six foot three inch frame. Balfour, who is 64, also has another way to keep fit: he runs marathons. For the last four to five years before Covid, he was running three marathons and six to eight half-marathons a year. His timing, he says, comes from the Bible: “Run the race, finish the course,” not necessarily quickly. He completes the marathons in five to six hours.
Referee Balfour
After growing up in Greenville, Balfour graduated from Bob Jones University with a major in accounting, then earned his master’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J. “I had a lot of southern friends, and Atlanta was a good sized town, and among my offers was a job in Atlanta with Arthur Anderson, one of the Big 8 accounting firms.” He and his wife bought a house in Stone Mountain.
Among Balfour’s clients was Waffle House. “They were looking for a tax accountant, and I joined the business in 1985.” In the Waffle House tradition, Balfour says he is a “third shift cook,” and can man the grill when a Waffle House he is visiting has a cook out for the day. Over the years, he began doing government relations work for Waffle House. He served as the Gwinnett Republican Party chairman in 1982, and when a new seat came open after reapportionment, he was elected to the senate in 1992.
Balfour faced problems at the end of his career in politics. He was indicted by the State Attorney General on 18 counts of falsifying his expense report, all small amounts such as $11 or $22. “They were all true,” he says. “I filled out the reports incorrectly.” After three days of trial, the jury came back within 30 minutes with a “Not Guilty” verdict. “And that was in Fulton County.”
Today Ginny and Don Balfour have sold their Snellville home this year, and moved into an apartment in Norcross, near the Waffle House headquarters. They are to build a home in Jasper, Ga., where they plan to retire, though they haven’t broken ground yet.
And he’s still refereeing soccer. That’s the one way he filled his empty time.
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Gas South District
The public spiritedness of our sponsors, including Gas South District allows us to bring GwinnettForum to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriter is Gas South District, home to four distinct facilities in Duluth: Gas South Arena, Gas South Theater, Gas South Convention Center, and The Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center For Art and Learning. Gas South Arena has had 18 years of tremendous success hosting countless concerts, family shows and sporting events, and is home to the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators and the NLL’s Georgia Swarm. Some past concerts include George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Beyoncé, Foo Fighters, Eric Clapton, Katy Perry, Kid Rock, James Taylor and Michael Bublé. Gas South Arena also hosts many family shows including Cirque du Soleil, Disney On Ice and the Harlem Globetrotters. Gas South Convention Center offers patrons the opportunity to host or attend a wide variety of events, from corporate meetings to trade shows to social occasions. Gas South Theater has an intimate capacity of 708-seats and is home to many local events, family shows and even some comedians. The Hudgens Center For Art and Learning showcases a range of artwork throughout the year along with offering a wide range of fine art classes.
- For further information, please visit www.InfiniteEnergyCenter.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Eviction moratoriums ending, as market full of cash
Editor, the Forum:
The eviction moratoriums have definitely hurt smaller landlords, yet rents have been increasing. As with other government attempts to manipulate a market, those who can pay, pay (and more) and those that can’t get a free ride. The eviction moratoriums are ending, so the next few months will be interesting.
There is a lot of cash in the market, especially in the ‘”starter home” price range. That is helping to drive up prices in a market already being driven up by low mortgage rates and excess demand.
Some of the cash is corporate and/or investors. Much of it is people relocating from high tax states. Californians are flooding into Arizona, Texas and Colorado and folks in the northeast (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, etc.) are moving south.
A three bedroom, two bath house with a two car garage in San Jose goes for $1.5 million plus. And it’s only about 1,400 sq ft and on a fifth acre lot. A person can sell the San Jose house, pay off the mortgage, move to Georgia and pay $500k cash for a house, and get twice as much house!
— Robert Martell, Peachtree Corners
Time to send more governmental functions to states?
Editor, the Forum:
It’s always dangerous to attempt to pull on details of what we learned before we were 20 when we’re now over 70! However, I remember the first philosophy course I took. Social contract of the Enlightenment was central. Locke’s Second Treatise included the “End of Civil Government.” It said that once the central government became inefficient, unable to provide for the needs of people, it would evolve into a coordinating body returning most power to the city state or local government.
There are functions that are best handled on a national level like commerce, defense, food and drug regulation and transportation. Yet, as we watch the stalemate wrestling match that has gone on for 40 years, we must wonder, if we are there.
Is it time to send the money and the responsibility for most of the domestic government functions to the states. As far as that goes, efficiency could be considered by consolidation of some states. I’m sure California and New York would like to go their own direction with their tax money. As well, Florida and Texas would feel the same. Maybe Georgia would join with South Carolina and Alabama to be more efficient. State legislatures would become full-time positions, while federal government positions could be biennial. The federal government could advise the states sharing information and expertise. The federal government would probably accomplish about the same, but the states could accomplish so much more that would be tailored to each state’s needs or wants.
— 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, and include your hometown. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
County renews contract to film Gwinnett police homicide investigation
You may soon be able to see the Gwinnett County Police Department on national television.
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners have approved the contract renewal of Kirkstall Road Enterprises to film and produce The First 48 and its new spinoff series, After the First 48.
Gwinnett Police Chief Brett West says of the contract: “We serve a large, metro community and what I think people should know about our agency is how professional and thorough our investigative units.”
This isn’t the first time Gwinnett County has appeared on the show; camera crews have followed detectives around since 2017. The First 48 gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at homicide investigations within two days after the crime happened. After the First 48 revisits cases and goes beyond the initial investigation, interviewing victim’s families, detectives, prosecutors and defense attorneys. Episodes for both shows will air later this year and early next year.
PCOM awards diplomas to 77 graduate students
Seventy-seven graduate students received their diplomas from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine President Jay S. Feldstein at PCOM Georgia’s commencement ceremony held July 27, 2021. The event, attended by family, friends and faculty members took place at the Gas South Convention Center in Duluth.
The graduate class of 2021 included 49 Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences students and 28 Master of Science in Health Sciences – Physician Assistant Studies students.
Dr. Gregory McDonald, dean of the School of Health Sciences, noted, “The advances in the behavioral, social and health science fields that will occur in the career span of these graduates will eclipse that of previous generations.”
Dr. Feldstein addressed the graduates saying, “Your class is different in ways that I cannot fathom. You had to navigate your graduate studies amid a global pandemic, amid uncommon political unrest, amid sweeping movements against racism and for equity and justice; yet, you did so with grace, determination, dignity and courage.”
Lori Redmond, director of the biomedical sciences program and a professor of anatomy, said she knew there were big smiles under the graduates’ masked faces as they sat in socially distanced chairs.
The theme of hope and sacrifice permeated keynote speaker John Fleischmann remarks. The retired founding chief executive officer of PCOM Georgia also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the college for his “demonstrated commitment to quality performance and leadership in education” through his 30-year career, not only with PCOM Georgia, but also with Georgia State University and the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
After answering their final roll call, the class of 2021 turned their tassels from right to the left as the audience erupted in applause.
— Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
From Raleigh Perry, Buford: In 1884, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in Thus Spake Zaranthustra that ‘God is dead.’ In the early 20th century, an evangelist came to the conclusion that the picture of Jesus that hangs somewhere in every church was too feminine and that a new concept of the savior needed to be more masculine. Christianity is not what it used to be. Over the years, the concept of a true cowboy, John Wayne, came up. Christ (who is not dead to most Christians) and John Wayne are dead, so evangelicals are looking for a strong, take-control sort of man. This book is a well-researched history of modern Evangelism and some parts will alarm you. The author is a professor at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich., and has written for many of the major Christian magazines as well as two other books. This is an intense book.
- 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
Poet Kathryn Stripling Byer was native of Camilla, Ga.
Poet and essayist Kathryn Stripling Byer was a native of Georgia but set most of her poems in the mountains of North Carolina. Creating an identity that was both distinct and in line with the concerns of southern culture, Byer reclaimed in her poetry the traditions, customs, and voices of past Appalachian women. In doing so, she defined herself as an artist and, at the same time, addressed the concerns of women in today’s South.
Byer
Byer was born in Camilla, in Mitchell County, in 1944 to C. M. Stripling, a farmer, and Bernice Campbell Stripling, a homemaker. She attended Wesleyan College in Macon and attained an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. There Byer studied with Allen Tate, Fred Chappell, and Robert Watson and won the Academy of American Poets Student Prize.
While at UNC-G, Byer decided to make the North Carolina mountains her home, in large part, she says, because the mountains were “the place my grandmother had wanted to be when she died.”Byer served as poet-in-residence at Western Carolina University (1988-98), UNC-G (1995), and Lenoir-Rhyne College (1999). Her work appeared in prestigious poetry and scholarly journals, including Poetry, Georgia Review, Southern Review, and Hudson Review.
Byer focused on the power and liabilities of the solitude she finds in the mountains. In her essay “Deep Water,” she addressed that solitude and what it has meant, historically, to women:”To the women living in these mountains years ago, singing must have seemed the only way they could travel…. [T]hey remained. They knew their place. They knew its jump-offs, its laurel hells, its little graves grown over with honeysuckle and blackberry briars. They knew the lay of cloud shadows rolling down one ridge and up another. And their place knew them. Out of that reciprocal knowing, they were able to sing their way through their solitude and into a larger web of voices.”
It is this “larger web of voices” that Byer worked to recover. Girl in the Midst of the Harvest (1986), her first volume of poetry and her only collection set in rural Georgia, describes the difficult, often ambivalent relationship of a modern woman to the culture of the past.
Byer intensifies and extends the theme of identification and reclamation in Black Shawl, her third.
The strengths of these volumes are progressive, and each bespeaks the growth and vision of the poet.
Byer’s fourth volume of poetry, Catching Light (2002), deals with the experience of aging from a woman’s perspective. In 2003 she published Wake, a chapbook reflecting on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. Coming to Rest (2006), her fifth volume of poetry, investigates the experience of homecoming.
Byer lived in Cullowhee, North Carolina, and was married to Jim Byer, a professor of nineteenth-century literature at Western Carolina University. They had one daughter, Corinna Lynette.
Byer died on June 5, 2017, after a lymphoma diagnosis. She was 72.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Mountainous scene is not from North Georgia
Here’s a hint for today’s Mystery Photo: it’s not from around here. Figure out where this scene was taken and send your answer to elliott@brack.net, including your hometown.
We’re always amazed at the scope of GwinnettForum readers. They are intelligent, alert, and widely-traveled. It’s hard to get a Mystery Photo by all of them. The photo of the last edition we thought would be particularly hard. It was from international free-lance photographer J.D. Tyre of Acworth (son of David Earl Tyre of Jesup.) Lois Solomon of Dacula spotted it immediately, saying: “This is a picture of the Jantar Mantar (‘calculating instrument’) in Jaipur, India. ‘Jantar Mantar’ literally means ‘instruments for measuring the harmony of the heavens.’ The essential purpose of the Jantar Mantar was to accumulate astronomical tables to help predict the time and movement of the celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and other planets. There are, I believe, five Jantar Mantars in India. This one is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage site and is said to be the largest, accurate within two seconds! The top left shows the observation deck. It is about 400 miles from the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.”
Several other readers identified it, including Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Lou Camerio of Lilburn; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex.; and George Graf of Palmyra, Va.
Dog Library of sorts: In recent years, the success of the Little Free Libraries has mushroomed all around the world. So wouldn’t you know it: someone was thinking about the dogs that walk with people who use Little Free Libraries, and created a Dog Library with sticks. We don’t know who did this Instagram image, but we got it from Billy Chism of Toccoa.
Race and Guns in America: Bestselling author Carol Anderson in conversation with NPR Host Rose Scott will be Thursday, August 12 at 7 p.m. EST, virtually. Free and open to all. Registration is required to access this program. Register online at GCPL.org. Anderson powerfully illuminates the history and impact of the Second Amendment, how it was designed, and how it has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable.
ATLReads Virtual Book Club Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, Tuesday, August 17 at 7:00 p.m. EST, virtually. Outlander is the first book in the Outlander series, the basis for the Starz original series. Free and open to all. Read the book and chat with us! Invite friends to join. Guests do not have to be library cardholders. Those who are cardholders may download a free copy of this book by clicking here. To join us, click here.
Climate Change Prevention: Andreas Karelas – Renewable Energy Advocate, will be on Thursday, August 26 at 7 p.m. EST, virtually. Join Andreas Karelas to discuss his solutions to climate change and his new book, Climate Courage. Karelas is the founder and executive director of RE-volv, a Audubon TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Fellow and an OpenIDEO Climate Innovator Fellow. Free and open to the public. Registration is required to access this program. Register online at GCPL.org.
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