GwinnettForum | Number 22.61 | Aug. 22, 2023
THE TWO FOUNDERS OF SNELLVILLE, Tom Snell and James Sawyer, are shown in this sculpture, which was unveiled Saturday during the 100th anniversary of the founding of Snellville. The pair are seated on granite quarried from Baker Rock off Lenora Church Road, which was originally part of the 15 steps of Snellville’s old rock school, which opened in 1922. The firm of Bronzeman of Thousand Oaks, Calif. produced the statues. The sculpture, which cost $75,000, was paid for by the Snell Family Foundation. The concept for the creation of the statues came from David Emanuel, vice mayor of Snellville. Jim Clower of Braselton and Mickey Clower of Snellville are the oldest living grandchildren of James Sawyer.
TODAY’S FOCUS: 14th Amendment already bans Trump from being president
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Should the United States consider mandatory voting?
SPOTLIGHT: The 1818 Club
FEEDBACK: Didn’t want to hear Trump at the GOP debate
UPCOMING: GGC seeks volunteers for exercise program
NOTABLE: Gwinnett Place CID funds new Axis cameras for police
OBITUARY: Dr. William B. Martin
RECOMMENDED: The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Georgia’s college campuses reflect historic tradition
MYSTERY PHOTO: Low-lying lighthouse may be a clue for you
CALENDAR: Author speaking on Thursday at Suwanee branch library
14th Amendment already bans Trump from being president
By Raleigh Perry
BUFORD, Ga. | A headline in the Aug. 17, 2023, in The Hill reads “The Constitution bars Trump from holding public office ever again.” This refers to an argument put forth in the previous week by William Baude, a professor of law at the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St. Thomas School of Law. The argument refers to Section 3 of Amendment 14 in the Constitution.
Perry
Section 3 of Amendment 14 reads as follows:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Quoting from The Hill, these two men “argued in a law review (The Election Law Blog) “…that Trump is already constitutionally forbidden from serving in public office because of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.” Section 3 is also called “The Disqualification Clause.” The only way it can be set aside is by a two thirds vote of both Houses of Congress. At this point, that will never happen with the current Congress.
They professors say that “all three houses have identified the attack on the Capitol as an insurrection, with Federal; Judges, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate, as well as the Jan.6 House select Committee,” citing Trump as its central cause.
Section 3 does not require prior criminal conviction. That means that the multiple indictments are not necessary in adjudicating Trump’s holding a further office.
This might come as a surprise to a lot of Trump’s supporters and even those in the House and Senate, many of whom actually have a copy of the Constitution in their pockets.
The argument meets the requirements of two esteemed lawyers, Micael Luttig, a former appellate judge and law professor at Harvard, and Laurence Tribe, a retired constitutional law specialist at Harvard.
My sources are The Hill and the Election Law Blog.
I have other references from CNN and MSNBC as well as other sources, but too much on this would be confusing to readers.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Should the United States consider mandatory voting?
A polling place in New South Wales, Australia, in 2010. Via Wikipedia.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
AUG. 22, 2023 | At first blush, the Australian way of voting in local, state and national elections seems unusual to most Americans. In Australia, voting is mandatory, and in general, about 90 percent of its people vote.
Those who do not vote are issued a fine for not voting, which varies from state to state.
The American choice to vote the way we want, and for whom we want, and even an individual’s right not to vote, seems central to our freedom. The 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century, with 67 percent of citizens 18 years and older voting in the election, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
A total of 21 countries had compulsory voting laws as of January 2023, having much higher turnout (high 80’s vs. mid 60’s). That would include Argentina, Belgium, the Congo, Ecuador, Panama, the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey.
Back to Australia: if you don’t vote, your fine varies from state to state. It’s $55 in the state of New South Wales; $104 in South Australia, but only $20 in Western Australia.
If you do not vote in the state of Victoria, you will be issued with an “apparent failure to vote’” notice which must be responded to within 28 days with details explaining that you did actually vote, or that you had a valid and sufficient excuse for not doing so.
After this period, if you do not respond, or your reason is not deemed valid and sufficient, you will have 28 days to pay the fine of $92.
You may appeal your failure to vote with adequate reason, such as being out of the country.
Failure to pay a voting fine can result in the suspension or cancellation of your driver license, cancellation of the registration of your vehicle, or enforcement through the court by way of a property seizure order.
Whew! Australians take voting seriously!
What are the results of mandatory voting in Australia? By and large, it means that the outcome of voting by most everyone is a centrist approach. The extremists never win.
The minorities, which control much of the issues in American politics, never win in Australia. You end up with center-left, or center-right, government. There is little chance that minorities control the direction of the country.
Australia also has a ministerial governmental form, with the head of the majority party in the House of Representatives becoming prime minister. That excludes any extremist politician taking control of government.
What if Americans had compulsory, mandatory voting at all levels of government. Would our elections be any different?
- Would more people vote?
- Would we see less influence of our many minorities?
- Would issues like gun control, civil rights, medical care and abortions play less of a role?
- Would defense spending be more controlled?
- Would our political parties be more centrist?
- Would we get better candidates?
- (You can ask your own questions).
But the main question would be: would our American system of government be better if we required everyone over age 18 to register to vote, and to penalize those who did not vote?
Would Congress ever make such a move? We doubt it. But it might be worth a try.
How about that name? Since we have been writing about Australia, did you catch the name of the Aussie women’s soccer team? It’s “The Matildas!” How fitting!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
The 1818 Club
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriter is The 1818 Club, named for the year that Gwinnett County received its charter. The 1818 Club is a member-owned, private dining experience providing the best in food, service and meeting accommodations for its members. Whatever your business or social dining needs, the 1818 Club has the proper facilities, recently renovated, to gracefully host your gatherings.
- 100-seat formal dining room open for breakfast and lunch.
- Capital Room open for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as cocktails.
- Three private rooms which can be used for dining or meeting space. AV is offered in each room.
- 220 seat Virgil Williams Grand Ballroom, divides into three sections, all with AV.
- Gwinnett Room for upscale dining, with Frankie’s menu available.
Our top-notch service team enhances your experience by providing a sophisticated social atmosphere, engaging events and a full serving of dining and entertainment opportunities. If you want an urbane and central site to entertain people, consider joining the 1818 Club. For more details, visit https://www.the1818club.org/Home.
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Didn’t want to hear Trump at the GOP debate
Editor, the Forum:
In the last two presidential election, I voted for Donald Trump twice, and am furious with Democrats for effectively overturning the 2016 presidential election with all of
their debunked Russia hoax conspiracies, investigations, and impeachments that neutered his presidency and the will of the people with it.
However, I pray that Trump does not show up at the August 23 Republican candidate’s debate. Even without Trump at the forum, we already know that the majority of questions will be related to January 6 or some investigation to which Democrats are immune.
If Trump does show up, then the only questions to the other candidates will be “Do you defend Trump against Biden’s weaponization of the justice system?”
We have some very interesting candidates that I would love to hear their positions on about the border, Ukraine, Taiwan, inflation, healthcare costs, the corporate hijacking of our regulatory agencies, the corruption of the FBI and CIA, major financial firms using our own retirement savings to push social agendas and control the rental housing market.
We will never hear this discussion with Trump in the room next week. We are not likely to hear much of it without him. But if he participates, we will all know that if you can’t get the votes, then get the conviction.
– Joe Briggs, Senoia
Big “Attagirl!” for Paige Havens for Vietnam work
Editor, the Forum:
What a journey Paige Havens made to Vietnam to bring a huge difference in children’s lives. I’m sure the reward is great, but so is the sacrifice. Well done Paige, as all you do is! Thanks so much.
– Jim Savedelis, Duluth
Feels entitled to interest payback if appeal is OKed
Editor, the Forum:
Your comment on the tax appeals proves my point exactly. There are not enough resources to do the job of completing the appeals in a timely manner. With all the additional development, how much more will Gwinnett County be behind in future years?
Giving me a credit next year is highly unfair unless they are willing to pay me interest on the refund. They charge a penalty if we pay late. Sounds like a class action lawsuit to me.
– Dan Mackaben, Lawrenceville
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.
GGC seeks volunteers for exercise program
GGC Exercise Science student Ariel Mack works with volunteer Yawen Ludden during an Exercise Science Practicum involving a health screening lab on the GGC campus. Photo provided.
The Department of Exercise Science and Physical Education at Georgia Gwinnett College is seeking volunteers from the wider community for participation in a 10-week exercise program. The program will help people sharpen hands-on skills, while gaining experience in a practical fitness setting.
Volunteers will have a pre-training and post-training fitness assessment performed, which will include:
- Blood pressure
- Body composition
- Cardiovascular fitness
- Muscular strength
- Balance
- Flexibility
Following the pre-training assessment, participants will undergo a 10-week personalized fitness training program two days per week. Each session will last approximately one hour. To participate, volunteers must be apparently healthy adults with no major health conditions and be available 5 – 6 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays beginning September 6 through November 16.
- For more information, or to see if you meet the requirements, contact GGC’s Department of Exercise Science and Physical Education at exscpracticum@ggc.edu before August 30.
Gwinnett Place CID funds new Axis cameras for police
Gwinnett Police will receive 30 new cameras, thanks to the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District. The Axis security cameras are valued at $2,550 each and will be placed at every traffic signal within the 14-square mile district which includes the Interstate 85 corridor and a portion of I-285.
The cameras will also support Gwinnett Transportation by providing better video coverage of traffic in the area while helping provide an extra layer of security for Gateway 85 business parking lots and fronts. The cameras will be vital to help develop, identify and locate offenders who commit various crimes against Gwinnett County residents and visitors. The Axis cameras are different from flock cameras. Flock cameras are license plate readers. The Azis cameras can look at the front of businesses, and even track down suspects from a bird’s eye view.
Dr. William B. Martin
Dr. William B. Martin, M.D. (Dr. Bill), 82 of Lawrenceville, passed away on Saturday, August 12, 2023.
Martin
He was born in Anderson, S.C., on July 1, 1941. He was a graduate of Boys High in Anderson, and attended the Citadel in Charleston, S..C. He was a graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Martin was a flight surgeon in Vietnam, as a captain in the U.S. Army. Upon returning home, Dr. Martin completed his residency and internship in the Emory-VA-Grady Health System. He practiced medicine in Gwinnett County for 52 years. In 2002, he founded his life’s work, Hope Clinic.
When not dedicating his time to serving others, he could be found enjoying the company of his wife and two dogs, Sierra and Marlie, watching college football or the Atlanta Braves, pursuing his education in medicine, and working out. He dedicated the early hours of every morning to studying the teaching and becoming closer to Christ.
A Memorial Service was held August 19, 2023, in the Lawrenceville Chapel of Tim Stewart Funeral Home.
Dr. Martin was preceded in death by his parents, Sloan and Aldene Martin; and brother, Dr. Sloan Martin, M.D. He is survived by his wife, Pamela Martin of Lawrenceville; daughters and sons-in-law, Stephanie and Jim Brennan of Morris, Conn. and Jessica and Jesse Geller of Dacula; son and daughter-in-law, Brian and Karen Thompson of Atlanta; son, William B. Martin, Jr. of Richmond, Va.; son and daughter-in-law, Michael and Melania Martin of Costa Rica; grandchildren, Jay Mooney, Ansley Wingate, Nicholas Brennan, Savannah Thompson, Kylie Geller, Aiden Thompson, Alaina Geller, and Teagan Thompson; great-grandson, Owen Williams (Bo); sister-in-law, Ola Martin of Easley, SC; nephews, Sloan Martin, III of Duluth, and Kevin Martin of Washington, D.C.
The Angel of Darkness, by Caleb Carr
From Susan J. Harris, Stone Mountain: Baby Ana Linares is suddenly abducted by a strange woman who spirits her away so quickly her mother cannot prevent it. In desperation she contacts Dr. Laszlo Kreizler and his team of sleuths, Stevie Taggart, Cyrus Montrose, Sara Howard, March and Lucius Isaacson, and John Schuyler Moore, a newspaper reporter, to help her locate her child. These able compatriots helped Kreizler solve the dark and dangerous John Beecham case years before. What unfolds is a tangled web of malice, treachery and evil so perilous it is in some spots difficult to read but impossible to put down! Narrated by Stevie Taggart, who participated in the Beecham case and is older and somewhat wiser, it is a mesmerizing tale that will take the reader into the mind, or labyrinth of a darkly dangerous woman who is in her own way coping with demons. Not to be missed by Caleb Carr fans.
- Deadline note: We are short on recommendations. Submit something soon. Think about 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 college campuses reflect historic tradition
Georgia’s college and university campuses, like others across the country, reflect historic traditions of institutional design and are characterized by the architecture of their buildings. Campus planning is also linked to landscape architecture, a discipline that explores the cultural landscape created through the interplay of human and natural forces. A growing interest in campus heritage preservation is bringing recognition to these landscapes and their buildings.
While European models of formal campus design influenced campus planning in the United States, many American campuses evolved into cultural landscapes that more closely reflect U.S. educational philosophy and social diversity. Early campus design at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens reveals a close affinity with the nation’s first colleges, especially Yale University in New Haven, Conn., which provided UGA’s first two presidents. Old College at UGA is patterned after Yale’s Connecticut Hall, and UGA’s development of an open-quadrangle campus design mirrors those at other American colleges. The construction of faculty housing facilities at UGA in the 1840s was influenced in part by Jefferson’s inclusion of them in his design for the University of Virginia.
The similarity in design among the agricultural and mechanical schools can be traced to UGA education professor Joseph S. Stewart. Stewart’s rough sketches of campus layout and building floor plans became the basis for the formal plans of the Atlanta architectural firm Haralson Bleckley and Company, which built several of the agricultural and mechanical campuses. The University of West Georgia in Carrollton and Georgia Southern University in Statesboro began as agricultural and mining schools, with the quadrangles of their original campuses lined on three sides with buildings and open to the surrounding landscape on the fourth. The undeveloped portions of campus were reserved for agricultural experimentation and expansion.
Other colleges adapted existing landscapes to fit their needs but still employed the quadrangle design. Founded in 1889, Georgia Normal and Industrial College (later Georgia College and State University) in Milledgeville laid out a portion of its campus on 16 acres in Penitentiary Square, formerly the location of a state prison that was destroyed during the Civil War. The college also acquired the adjacent Old Governor’s Mansion and surrounding property.
Georgia’s private colleges employ several different models of campus design. The campus and buildings of Spelman College in Atlanta were originally built as army barracks during the Civil War. Spelman took over the site in 1883 and adopted the same campus design as many other public schools in Georgia, with a rectangular-shaped quadrangle surrounded by structures on three sides. Other colleges, such as Brenau College (later Brenau University) in Gainesville, employed less formality in their campus designs. Founded in 1878 and consisting of 28 acres and more than 30 buildings by the 1950s, Brenau College placed its main buildings around an expansive front lawn.
Campus planners are beginning to take a school’s heritage into account as they restore both buildings and landscapes. Some campuses also strive to cut maintenance costs through ecological approaches to storm water management and more sustainable approaches to manicured lawns. Traveling full circle, the medieval lawn at Mob Quad may prove to be the prototype for future campuses, both in Georgia and around the country.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Low-lying lighthouse may be a clue for you
This low-lying lighthouse may give you some indication of where it’s located. Work on this photograph, and see if you can locate where it is. Send your idea to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
Allan Peel was among three people who recognized the recent mystery. He says: “Today’s mystery photo is of the historic Holy Trinity Church, in the center of the ancient town of St Andrews in the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland. Based on a Wikipedia article, this church could have been a featured house on the show ‘This Old House’ for the number of times it has been renovated! The church was initially built in 1144 and then relocated a few hundred feet to its present location between 1410 and 1412. It was changed architecturally when it was rebuilt between 1798 and 1800, and then later restored to look like it did in medieval times between 1907 and 1909. Today it remains an active place of worship for its Church of Scotland Presbyterian parish members.”
The photo came from Vicki Tariton Held of Brevard, N.C., via Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill.
Also recognizing the photo were Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; and George Graf, Palmyra, Va.
SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: elliott@brack.net and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Author speaking Thursday at Suwanee branch library
Author Talk on Thursday, August 24, at 7 p.m. at the Suwanee Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Speaking will be Deepa Varadarajan, in conversation with Falguni A. Sheth. They will discuss Late Bloomers, a debut book about an Indian American family that is turned upside down when the parents split up 36 years into their arranged marriage. Books will be available for sale and signing.
Writing Workshop: Creating Character Through Culture will be Saturday, August 26 at 11 a.m. at the Centerville Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. Local author Brynn Barineau will lead this workshop and teach how to write believable societies filled with unique individuals.
Toddler Time at the Peachtree Corners Branch of Gwinnett Public Library allows toddlers to learn to be attentive and follow directions, develop a love of stories and books, and acquire reading readiness skills. This is a free event and will be held August 29 from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m.
Watch local art come alive in Downtown Braselton! ArtRageous in a juried art festival and live paint project on September 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Braselton Town Green. This indoor-outdoor festival will feature artists showcasing their best works, available for purchase. During the festival, 12 commissioned artists will paint eight-foot cubes on the Town Green, which will be displayed for at least one year at various locations downtown.
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