GwinnettForum | Number 21.69 | Sept. 7, 2021
STUDENT DOCS FOR SHOCKS: Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris honored four PCOM Georgia third year medical students, along with their not-for-profit organization, for their commitment to community public safety at a recent city council meeting. Group members are the founders of “Student Docs for Shocks,” an organization that works to increase survival for citizens who experience out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest (OHCA). To date, donations and placements have been made on Main Street in Helen, in the Duluth Festival Center and Town Green in Duluth, in the Treehouse Learning Center in Belle Glade, Fla., and at The Works in the upper Westside of Atlanta. Shown in Helen are PCOM students Tyler Richie, Rex Burch, Chris Griesser and Sara Lezcano. In addition, the group will participate in Suwanee Fest on September 18-19 with an educational booth, CPR demonstrations and instruction, and an AED raffle fundraiser in which the winner could either use the device personally or donate it for use in a public place.
THE MOST ELEGANT EVENT of the year for the Duluth Fall Festival Committee is coming up on Thursday, September 16 at the Payne-Corley House. This is Duluth’s most beautiful historic home, which is now an exquisite catering venue in Downtown Duluth. Taste of Duluth will include almost two dozen of Duluth’s finest restaurants and beverage stores. This event is held in honor of our 160 plus sponsors and other supporters. The Festival itself will take place September 25 and 26. duluthfallfestival.org.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Two former presidents offered us ideas, which we have rejected
EEB PERSPECTIVE: 66th Gwinnett County Fair starts Sept. 16 for 11 days
SPOTLIGHT: Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful
FEEDBACK: Energy plan needed for nuclear, renewables and its distribution
UPCOMING: County wants input on Gwinnett Place Mall on September 10
NOTABLE: PCOM names Ruth Maher head of physical therapy department
RECOMMENDATIONS: The (Other You) by Joyce Carol Oates
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Mystery about origin of statue atop Georgia capitol
MYSTERY PHOTO: History, a flag and nicely-framed photo is today’s mystery
LAGNIAPPE: Labor Day visitor to Gatlinburg, Tenn. was a wandering bear
CALENDAR: Immigrant story coming to Lilburn library on September 19
Two former presidents offered ideas, which we rejected
By Raleigh C. Perry
BUFORD, Ga. | This is nothing more than a gut reaction to some things that happened on the ground in Afghanistan. I do not know that everything that has been going on over there has ended with the Taliban’s victory.
Perry
My idea is that there are too many different colored boots on the ground and each has its own agenda. The war that we just got out of should have never happened. The people who hit the towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. were not Afghans, they were Saudi Arabians. My feeling is that nothing over there is going to end at all. We can consider it a continuing war but we are not in it now.
The problem is that there is Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and those Afghans that still want to keep fighting for what they had. There is going to be a lot of violence, probably worse than we could imagine, but at least we are out of it.
History tells me that there are too many different factions over there, all with a different agenda. I cannot believe that the Taliban, ISIS and Al Qaeda have a lot in common. I think that they will be fighting each other, sometime in concert with one of the other organizations and sometimes alone for years to come. Will Afghanistan be stable soon? No.
A basic element that is not really understood is that virtually every province in Afghanistan is a tribal entity. You might call it a family. Therefore, what fighting they are doing is for their “family” alone. There has really been no unity in the country.
I have never thought that George W. Bush was very wise. But his idea of democratizing all of the Middle Eastern countries was absurd. They have never lived in a democracy and do not understand how they operate. The whole mess in the Middle East was caused by a stupid agreement (Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916), made during World War I and virtually everything that has happened in the Middle East today was (or is) caused by that agreement.
Another questionable and maybe stupid detail that George W. Bush did was to go in and destroy Iraq. It was basically stabilized and Saddam was basically neutralized.
I foresee Afghanistan as becoming a huge battlefield for an eon with not one war, but several, all going on at the same time. They are all religious zealots, each in their own way. In fact, their goals are so different that while the U.S. was in Afghanistan, we were fighting three different wars at same time.
What the United States has to learn, and it will be a difficult lesson for many, is that we were never designed to police the whole world. Two former presidents told us what to do or not to do. First, in his farewell address, George Washington warned about getting into foreign entanglements. A little bit more than a half century ago, Dwight Eisenhower warned us against the military industrial complex and its ability to keep us at war.
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66th Gwinnett County Fair starts Sept. 16 for 11 days
Carnival features giant Ferris wheel
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 7, 2021 | The 66th Gwinnett County Fair will open its gates on September 16 and run for 11 days, closing September 26. The 2020 Fair was cancelled because of the pandemic, but officials are hoping that the 2021 Fair can be held with restrictive policies to improve safety. The fair is held at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds in Lawrenceville, at 2405 Sugarloaf Parkway.
Dale Thurman, director of the Fair, says that “We are doing everything possible to have a safe fair. We recommended masks in all buildings, and we will have hand-cleaning stations throughout the fairgrounds. We’re also spraying disinfectant throughout the area during opening hours, making sure we clean door handles and any other areas that people may touch. At events, we’ll have spread seating, and wider aisles.”
Thurman is also anticipating record crowds. “We feel people want to get out, after being locked up so much last year. The best attendance we have ever had was 245,000 people, and we feel we will be close to the record this year, if we get good weather.”
The Gwinnett County Fair continues a tradition of awarding prizes, in 421 handicraft competitions, for such products as canned vegetables and fruit, sewing apparel, crochets, needlepoint, quilts and knitted items, jewelry, art items including photography and others.
The Fair also is the host of the annual Miss Gwinnett pageant.
Gwinnett’s Fair is one of the few fairs in Georgia that continues to offer livestock showing prizes with shows for goats, sheep, lambs, pigs and cattle. The cattle categories include many breeds: Simmental, Angus, Hereford, Charolais, Reg Angus, Fleckvieh, Shorthorn and heifers. Many of those showing animals come from as far away as Florida, since there are fewer fairs offering competition in animal showmanship.
Arts and crafts winners on display
Again this year, the midway will be staged by Amusements of America, which has provided the shows and rides for the Gwinnett Fair since 1994. Their array of attractions include super spectacular rides such as the Giant Wheel, Wave Swinger, Full Size Crazy Mouse Coaster, Polar Express, and the popular Chaos. This carnival company was founded 71 years ago, with the purchase of the Ferris Wheel from the 1939 World’s Fair.
The five Vivona brothers bring a lifetime of carnival operations knowledge to each engagement. The company has decades of long relationships with many of North America’s largest and oldest events. Their annual route stretches across the eastern seaboard and Midwestern United States from Miami to New York, and Ohio to Georgia.
Altogether, the Gwinnett County Fair will have at least 36 midway attractions, including many local clubs as vendors, who have provided many different foods for fairgoers for years.
A new attraction at the 2021 Fair will be an exhibit of Georgia Grown products. These products are caught, created or cultivated in Georgia to bring fresh products to the people. It is a division of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
Admission to the fair is free on opening day (September 16). Regular admission is $10 for adults, and $5 for kids and seniors. The gates open at 5 p.m. daily, at 11 a.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Parking is free.
Bill Atkinson is president of the Association (officially the Gwinnett County Livestock and Fair Association, a 501c3 organization). Other officers include James Freeman as vice president; Randy Davis as secretary; Pat Cronin as treasurer; and the following directors: Brad Crowe, Johnny Lovin, Michael Nash and Gary Palmer.
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Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful
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Energy plan needed for nuclear, renewables and its distribution
The current infrastructure bill contains a total of $12 billion to potentially go toward nuclear power and research. Given the over $3 trillion total bill, spending what was burnt in a single month during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles on what is viewed today as the existential threat of global warming seems insincere.
Given that wind and solar energy are predicated on rare earth minerals that we don’t have, and producing a massive amount of landfill waste, we need a dependable, green, and safe energy supply. The use of molten salt thorium breeder reactors holds tremendous promise. We need a serious and focused plan that incorporates nuclear, renewable, and distribution technologies that will result in more change than waste.
— Joe Briggs, Suwanee
Might be looking at Afghanistan through rose-colored glasses
Sorry, but I think you must be looking at this through rose-colored glasses. Are you looking at the people left behind, the equipment left behind, the deaths of American military service people and civilians?
Have you read what the rest of the world thinks of us and the handling of this? Or better yet, have you interviewed or read comments from any military person who served in this war?
I have a son who served three tours there, and was lucky enough to return to us. I can assure you, he is not proud of how this withdrawal was handled. There is doing something, then there is doing something well. This was not handled well. This is just one more nail in the coffin of our reputation in the world.
— Debbie Martin, Lawrenceville
Recalls her plea to President Bush not to go to Afghanistan
I actually remember screaming a plea to George Bush NOT to go to Afghanistan. It was a mistake from Day One. The perpetrators of 9/11 were not from Afghanistan. There were no weapons of mass destruction.
Thank you to the brave men and women who did their best to perform this doomed-to- failure task.
Getting out was never going to be easy. It is actually remarkable that they got out as smoothly as they did. I read that on Monday they airlifted more people in that day than in the total airlift from Vietnam.
— G.G. Getz, Duluth
Compares gun laws in the USA with German methods
Yes, I absolutely agree with your earlier comments about leaving vs. staying in Afghanistan.
After living in Germany for 18 years, I felt far safer than here where people walk around with open and concealed carry. How many times are prior criminals caught with guns?
If I recall, in Germany you are permitted to have a weapon, but the weapons are stored and locked up at sports clubs. You can go check them out and go on approved organized hunting expeditions or target shooting, but you must return the gun to the club at the end of the day or the police will pay you a visit.
Yes, there are illegal guns in Europe as just about everywhere, but much rarer than here in the US. As per your comment below, I believe gun owners (that includes everyone in the family that has access to the gun) should have background checks every few years, like vehicle licenses. I think they should be checked for mental imbalances as well, and if someone is sent to anger management therapy, their weapons should be confiscated until they pass and are cleared by a licensed authority.
In this country, there are quite a few people who can’t pass the background checks, so they just have their girl friend or family member buy a gun for them.
Then there is my favorite scenario, where family members who die so their relatives take that person’s guns and never register them. I’ve known quite a few cases of this.
I think if a person dies, that their info should be passed to the authorities who can come and confiscate the weapons or ensure the heirs register the weapon.
No, I do not have a solution to the problem of gun violence in the U.S. since guns are so prevalent.
— George Graf, Palmyra, Va.
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 wants input on Gwinnett Place Mall on Sept. 10
When Gwinnett County bought the old Gwinnett Place Mall, commissioners knew they wanted the community’s input on the future of the redevelopment, known as the Gwinnett Place Mall Equity Plan. Now is your chance to be heard.
Friday, September 10 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. the County will host a Community Open House to hear local thoughts on redeveloping the property, followed by Academy Award winning movie “Minari” at sunset. There will be free food, movie-style snacks and a kids’ corner. Those who would like to attend, should register at GCGA.us/GPMOpenHouse. The event will be at Gwinnett Place Mall.
Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Nicole L. Hendrickson says: “Our hope for Gwinnett Place Mall is to ensure that residents and business owners, particularly those who live and work in the area, are involved in it. An inclusive, community driven redevelopment process ensures that the mall remains the focal point for cultural and economic activity in the area.”
PCOM names Maher head of physical therapy department
Maher
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine has named Ruth M. Maher as the new chair of the Department of Physical Therapy. In this role, Dr. Maher will be responsible for ensuring that program policies, procedures and practices are compliant with accreditation policies and procedures.
Dr. Gregory McDonald, dean of the School of Health Sciences says: “She has a robust clinical background and has dedicated her career to improving the lives of her patients.”
Most recently, Dr. Maher served as the interim chair of the department following the retirement of founding chair, Dr. Phillip Palmer.
A professor, she has over 14 years of teaching experience and has practiced physical therapy for more than 17 years in acute care, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation settings.
She has held positions with the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties, women’s health council and several committees within the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy. She has also owned private practices in Dublin, Ireland, and the United States, which specialized in women’s health and chronic pain conditions.
Dr. Maher earned a PhD from the National University of Ireland, University College, Dublin, Ireland, in 2013. She earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Simmons University, Boston, Mass., in 2004. Dr. Maher earned a Master of Physical Therapy degree from Georgia State University in 2002, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia State University from 1999.
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The (Other You) by Joyce Carol Oates
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: This book tells stories in a moving collection of explorations into what might have been if the road not taken had indeed been taken. Stories that reveal regret, poignancy, and urgency for resolution make this a ruminative and slightly unsettling reading experience. There is also the common thread of a cataclysmic event that seems to loosely link several stories together making the concept of time elusive and vaguely inaccessible. Joyce Carol Oates is gifted at creating characters that are so realistic that the intensity of the portrayals take the reader into the deeper recesses of their own souls. Mystical, resonant, and ultimately satisfying, The (Other) You is a great introduction to the work of this renowned author. It is also a welcome new experience for long-time fans of Oates.
- 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
Mystery abounds of origins of statue atop Georgia capitol
In contrast to the18th-century Georgian-styled Louisville statehouse and the Gothic-inspired capitol at Milledgeville, Georgia’s current capitol in Atlanta is in the classic Renaissance style. Classic Renaissance arose during the 1400s and 1500s in Italy, during a period of renewed interest in the art of ancient Greece and Rome.
At the time of its construction, Georgia’s capitol was the tallest building in Atlanta, rising just over 272 feet from the ground floor. At its greatest length, it is nearly 348 feet. The outer dimensions of the dome are estimated to be approximately 75 feet in diameter. Above this dome is the observation area, which is topped by a smaller cupola, upon which a statue stands.
By contrast, the nation’s capitol in Washington, D.C., is just over 287 feet in total height and 350 feet wide. Among state capitol buildings, Georgia’s structure ranks 12th in height. In the South, only the 34-story, 450-foot-high Louisiana capitol (built as a modern skyscraper) and the 311-foot-high Texas capitol are taller than Georgia’s.
Atop Georgia’s capitol is a statue of a woman with a torch in one hand and a sword in the other. Who she is, what she represents, and how she came to adorn the capitol is something of a mystery. In an Atlanta Constitution newspaper account written during the construction of the capitol, Captain W. H. Harrison, the secretary of the board of capitol commissioners, refers to the statue as the “Goddess of Liberty.” In recent decades, however, she has been referred to as “Miss Freedom.”
There are no records or specifications from the original installation of the statue in late 1888, so her height and weight were unknown until 2004, when the statue was removed and sent to Canada for restoration. Before being shipped north, she was weighed and measured for the first time. Miss Freedom is 22 feet tall from head to foot, with the total height from her torch to her feet being just over 26 feet. The statue, weighing 1,600 pounds, is a hollow frame covered with sheets of copper that have been painted white. At night, the torch in Miss Freedom’s hand is lit. Although it was planned from the first that a light would be placed within the torch, it was not until 1959 that this was achieved. A five-inch tube was placed through her arm and attached to a retractable trolley so that the lightbulb can be changed from the inside.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
History, a flag and nicely-framed photo is today’s mystery
Trees nicely-frame this photograph, highlighted by a gazebo and American flag. There’s also a dash of history associated with this picture. Now go figure this all out and send your answers to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
The last mystery photo drew several answers that were incorrect, with readers thinking the photograph was in either Louisiana or South Carolina. David Earl Tyre of Jesup was first in with the correct answer, showing a view of the road to the Wormsloe Historic Site in Savannah. The photo came from Stewart Woodard of Lawrenceville.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. gave a fascinating account of the photo. “It shows the stunning view of a ‘tunnel’ avenue created and sheltered by live oaks trees and Spanish moss that leads to the ruins of the colonial estate of Noble Jones, at the Wormsloe Historic Site on Skidaway Island, just southeast of Savannah. This is the Wormsloe Historic Site, the colonial estate of Noble Jones (1702–1775) and is located on Georgia’s oldest plantation. Jones was a carpenter who arrived in Georgia in 1733 with James Oglethorpe and was among the first group of settlers from England. Wormsloe’s tabby ruin, originally built in 1736, is the oldest standing structure in Savannah. The name “Wormsloe” came from Jones’ township, Wormslow Hundred, in Herefordshire County, England.
“It is particularly interesting to note that the tree-lined avenue in today’s mystery photo is actually the longest live oak-covered road in the world, spanning a mile and a half long and lined with over 400 live oak trees. Also worth noting is that the live oak trees that line the roadway today are relatively young, as they were not planted until the late 1800s, more than 150 years after Noble Jones’ house was built.”
Others recognizing the site include Robert Foreman, Grayson; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Sara Rawlins, Lawrenceville; and George Graf, Palmyra, Va., who added: “The Spanish moss-lined entry lane is almost synonymous with this city, and photographers around the world travel to Savannah to take a photo of this picturesque property. The variety of trees and plants on this historic site are impressive and even more profound considering it was the home of one of Georgia’s first colonists.”
t’s also interesting that the Internet site The Discover last week listed “10 Views in America You Can’t Miss.” Included was this photo to the right with a caption: “Wormsloe State Historic Site features a beautiful road lined with oak trees and Spanish moss. It’s a magical feeling to drive underneath the greenery. The road leads to Wormsloe, a colonial estate from the 1700s.” (Photo credit: Martina Birnbaum/Shutterstock.)
Downtown Bear: As if acting for the crowd, a bear was wandering around downtown Gatlinburg, Tenn., Labor Day weekend, as captured by Ron Ponder of Duluth. Remember what happened when a bear was in Dahlonega several years ago: the town commemorated the event with the annual “Bear on the Square” festival. Your turn, Gatlinburg!
Immigrant story: Yehimi Cambrón is a DACAmented artist, public speaker and activist. The Mexican-born and Atlanta-raised muralist will share her story and the stories of immigrants who are the central focus of her work at an event hosted by the Lilburn branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library on Sunday, September 19 at 1 p.m. at the library located at 4817 Church Street.
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