GwinnettForum | Number 22.60 | Aug. 18, 2023
THOUGH THE TEMPERATURES remain hot and steamy, high school football begins this weekend. This is Tom Riden Stadium in Buford, where the Wolves will open their season Friday against national powerhouse St. Frances Academy of Baltimore, Md. All together, 13 high schools in Gwinnett begin their fall football season this weekend. (Photo by Philip Beard)
TODAY’S FOCUS: Vietnam provides locale for working on her bucket list
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Two from Gwinnett among the 19 indicted in Fulton
SPOTLIGHT: PCOM Georgia
ANOTHER VIEW: Democrats will have to fight hard to win 2024 election
FEEDBACK: State stiffs counties on employee pay increase dollars
UPCOMING: Up 9%, Georgia Gwinnett College now tops 12,000
NOTABLE: Rainbow Village adds two veterans to staff
RECOMMENDED: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Georgia poet laureate teaches at Mercer University
MYSTERY PHOTO: Flowers brighten today’s photographic mystery
CALENDAR: Varadarajan speaks Aug. 24 at Suwanee library
Vietnam provides locale for working on her bucket list
Paige Havens (right) stands alongside Rotary Club of Saigon President Kieu Vuong Nguyen (center), and Alliance for Smiles Can Tho Mission Director Tina Fischlin (left) as they serve patients and their families in the recovery ward post-surgery.
(Editor’s Note: the writer has been a member of the Gwinnett community and involved with good causes for years. Now she has undertaken an international effort to make the world better.—eeb)
By Paige Havens
HOSCHTON, Ga. | Recently I had the unique opportunity to join a humanitarian medical mission to repair cleft lips and cleft palates in Vietnam.
In 2013 I learned of Alliance for Smiles’ (AFS) partnership with Rotary International via a passionate personal testimony of Tina Fischlin, a member of the Rotary Club of Greene-Putnam County. Tina’s first-hand accounts of how they were changing the lives of children all around the world prompted me to put an AFS mission trip on my bucket list.
A decade later the stars aligned, and I said “Yes!” to being a part of the first AFS mission team into Vietnam. The mission was made possible thanks to amazing collaboration between AFS, the Rotary Club of Saigon, and the Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital.
I was one of 16 members of an international volunteer mission team with members from the United States, Australia, and Sweden. The clinical roles included two plastic surgeons, a pediatrician, two anesthetists, five nurses, and a dental hygienist. Non-medical personnel included the mission director, ward coordinator, supply coordinator, photographer, and my role – the medical records keeper. We flew into Saigon and traveled south several hours to Can Tho, in the heart of the Mekong Delta.
We were up at 6 a.m. each day, down for breakfast at 6:30, and in route to the hospital at 7 a.m. Day 1 was a clinical assessment day where we evaluated 68 patients and determined who would receive surgery or not. Forty patients, from the ages of three months to 38 years, were accepted and scheduled for 50 different procedures over an eight-day period. The 12-hour surgery days were long but rewarding. Within a matter of a few hours the entire trajectory of each patient’s life was changed.
Every three minutes a child is born into the world with cleft (one in 700 babies). One in ten children born with cleft in underserved areas are killed shortly after birth. Families we served in Vietnam told how they personally struggled with that very decision. Those untreated will face many physical challenges (malnourishment, ear and respiratory infections, hearing loss, speech impediments, dental problems). They will also endure significant social and emotional challenges as many cultures consider cleft a curse or punishment that causes them to be hidden from society. Most never go to school, work, or build a life of their own.
Honestly, before I arrived, I really didn’t know much more about cleft than what I’d seen on television appeals. Now I’m vividly aware of how very treatable this medical condition is and how we can work together to make this treatment available globally.
I am honored to be a Rotarian who could serve the world in this way and now, as a member of the AFS volunteer corps, am proud to help transform the lives of children and communities impacted by cleft lip and palate by providing free comprehensive treatment, while training and equipping local teams to sustainably provide quality, long-term care.
So … what’s on your bucket list?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Two from Gwinnett among the 19 indicted in Fulton
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
AUG. 18, 2023 | Two people with Gwinnett ties are among those listed in the sweeping indictments and racketeering charges released by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and its grand jury this week. The grand jury called it a “criminal enterprise” under the racketeering provision that former President Trump tried to engender to turn the election in his favor.
The two among the 19 charged include David Shafer, a Duluth attorney, and chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, and Republican Sen. Shawn Still of Johns Creek, who represents portions of north Fulton, south Forsyth and northwest Gwinnett in the 48th District. He came to office in 2023. When President Trump visited Georgia, Mr. Still was his driver. He is president of Olympic Pool Plastering and Shotcrete of Norcross.
While it seems like the investigation by the special purpose grand jury was taking forever to complete, when the case went to the regular grand jury on Monday, suddenly, in one day, the indictments came down. Boom! And President Trump experienced the fourth time he was indicted.
Still
Shafer
These are official legal proceedings, as were the other three indictments Mr. Trump is charged with. As such, Donald Trump will have his day in court(s) as our nation tries to get to the bottom of the last three years of shenanigans by Mr. Trump and his GOP cohorts.
Yet Donald Trump promised this week that an announcement that he is preparing that will be delivered next Monday would get to the bottom of the situation.
What is this? Does Mr. Trump believe that he can issue a statement on his own without anyone challenging him, and as such, everything will be hunky-dory? These charges will go away?
We’ve seen before the many ups-and-downs of Donald Trump’s thinking. He can’t seem to think straight. He feels like he can have his own way, no matter what.
But no, we’ll understand it all, says Mr. Trump, when he explains it to us on Monday. Sure we will.
The United States would be in far better shape today if one thing had happened in Donald Trump’s childhood: if his parents had disciplined him. But they did not, and he has always thought that he would bully through and get his own way.
And our nation suffers because of that. That speaks volumes about how parents today should be raising their children, lest we have other Donald Trumps in our future.
One of the more interesting developments this week was the publication of a column in The Washington Post by former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan about his testimony before the grand jury. We don’t know why the lieutenant governor did not seek re-election, but he seemed to be out of step with the support that the Trump wing of the GOP was showing. Read his column from The Post here.
Another nugget: Did you see this?
Yale history professor Timothy Snyder noted: “That Trump will be tried for his coup attempt is not a violation of his rights. It is a fulfillment of his rights. It is the grace of the American republic. In other systems, when your coup attempt fails, what follows is not a trial.
“While Trump has tried to whip up his supporters to fight for him, only a few turned out today to protest the proceedings, likely in part because the prosecutions of January 6 rioters have shown there are serious consequences for such actions.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
PCOM Georgia
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Democrats will have to fight hard to win 2024 election
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | We are a democracy in crisis, because of the views promoted by Donald Trump, Fox News and others. Trump has been indicted, multiple times. These indictments will help him to win the Republican Party nomination for president in 2024.
Anyone who does not believe that Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee does not understand the American political system. He will be the nominee for two reasons:
- The “winner take all” nature of the majority of presidential primaries, and
- His base of support and our outdated Electoral College system.
In the primary system in 40 states, a candidate winning a plurality wins control over the entire state delegation, even if he/she doesn’t get a majority of the votes from members of their party. What does that mean for the 2024 presidential election?
Trump was the desired candidate for a majority of Republicans for the last two elections (2016 and 2020). His popularity was, and still is, driven by the MAGA base for the 2024 election. He will win pluralities in almost all of the above 40 states.
No other candidates are moving to the forefront. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is sinking. None of the other announced candidates on the GOP side even get double digits in current polls. Most are really running to be Trump’s vice-presidential candidate.
As for Trump indictments, that strengthens his “outsider” appeal to his disenchanted base. After all, most are skeptical about our election system and democracy.
So, what happens when Trump wins the Republican primary? The Democrats are in for a tough fight on the issues. Further, the nation’s Electoral College, enshrined in our Constitution because of pressure by the smaller states, gives these conservative red states, where Trump’s power is centered, relatively out-of-ordinary power.
Trump will hit hard on the cultural issues as he always has. But he will also zero in on the economy and immigration, areas of weakness for Democrats.
Inflation is most important to all voters, followed by healthcare and the ability of the parties to work together. Further down the list are drug addiction, guns, crime, the deficit, and moral values in that order. But for GOP voters only, the priority is different. Inflation, the deficit, immigration, moral values, crime, drugs and schools are more important issues for Republicans versus Democrats.
Trump will win many of the smaller, non-minority-based states because of economic and social/cultural issues that will motivate GOP voters, as he did in 2016 and 2020. And the popular vote will be very close in swing states.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, nearly three million more than Trump. Trump won most white voters (58 percent). But he lost everyone else. However, Trump dominated the Electoral College because he won many of the smaller states. The Electoral vote count was 304 for Trump versus 227 for Clinton.
In 2020, Trump again lost the popular vote, by seven million. But he lost the Electoral College vote only 306 to 232.
Yet, he still won the smaller states. If he had a few more votes in key swing states, Trump would have won. Biden won Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Michigan by less than three percent each.
Trump has no morality and will do whatever is necessary to win, ethical or not.
Democrats, forget taking the high road in 2024. You must fight like hell or you can lose the 2024 presidential race.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
State stiffs counties on employee pay increase dollars
Editor, the Forum:
Our governor, Brian Kemp, gave state employees a $2,000 pay increase. The state health director, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, passed along $1,500 and told local Boards of Health that the employees were to receive the $2.000 and the Health Board should take the additional $500 out of the other programs.
What programs should we cut by $500 for all our employees? Should it be the HIV program or the WIC program or the T.B. program? Those services are needed and must be funded.
You probably know that Gwinnett-Newton-Rockdale County forms the largest Health District in the state. As chairman of the Gwinnett County Board of Health along with my fellow board members ,we have a responsibility to meet the needs of our citizens and our employees. The citizens place their trust in their elected or appointed officials. This is not right.
– Louise Radloff, Lawrenceville
He’s among the many waiting for property tax appeal
Editor, the Forum:
I see the tax bills are being mailed out.
How about all of us that have been waiting months for our property appeals? Must be a huge backup with all the people complaining about their new valuations.
I have been waiting over three months so far to have my appeal addressed. Once again, the county is outgrowing the government’s ability to provide timely service. Just another department failing in their duties.
– Dan Mackaben, Lawrenceville
Dear Dan: In talking to the Assessor’s office, your appeal will take considerably longer, since this year there were 18,000 appeals, where in a normal year there are about 10,000. The county has 180 days to complete the process, but there are only 10 people (plus supervisors) on the staff working on the appeals. Anticipate that the process could be completed by mid-October, but it may take longer. If there is an adjustment, you could see it on your 2024 tax bill. So, be patient. –eeb)
Surprised to learn identity of t mystery photographer
Editor, the Forum:
It just dawned on me that the soldier who took the original photo of the Vietnam helicopter displayed at the Atlanta History Center (August 15 mystery photo) might be the husband of a friend of mine — someone from Emory I have lunch with every Tuesday after class.
I just wrote to ask her if the 1st. Lt. Jim Holcombe Jr. who took the photo was her own Jim and she said, “Yes!”
Holcombe had been a photographer on the University of North Carolina yearbook staff and he took his Nikon with him when he enlisted in the Army. He arrived in the country after the Tet Offensive and realized the mud and dust of Southeast Asia would not be kind to his prized Nikon, so he sent it home and asked for his less-expensive Pentax.
Holcombe sent his undeveloped Ektachrome off in bright orange mailers and never even saw his photographs until he came back to the States. Holcombe got two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart for his military service.
– Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill
Recalls another 100th year old church celebration in Pelham
Editor, the Forum:
Hand Trading Company
Enjoyed reading your column of the Sunday School story about the young girl who you advised to look you in the eye and say her name distinctly and be proud of her name. Sometimes, a little advice goes a long way.
I returned to Hand Memorial United Methodist Church in Pelham in 2018 when it celebrated 100 years of the church sanctuary. It was designed by Atlanta Architect Neel Reid and completed in 1918. The Hand Trading Company opened a three-story building in Pelham in 1914, after several years of construction. It was called ““The Largest Rural Department Store in the World.” .
As for the 100-year-celebration of Hand Memorial in Pelham, it was wonderful. The music, the sermon, the people eating fried chicken, potato salad and deviled eggs and talking and reacquainting with each other in the fellowship hall after the service. Just a great day.
– Billy Chism, Toccoa
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.
Up 9%, Georgia Gwinnett College now tops 12,000
Enrollment at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) maintained its upward trajectory as students started classes for the fall semester. Preliminary numbers from the college show enrollment at more than 12,000 students (new and returning) which is nine percent above fall 2022.
Dr. Michael Poll, GGC’s vice president of Enrollment Management and Institutional Research, says: “With more than 4,000 new students, we’re excited to welcome our largest incoming class since 2019.” Poll noted that the college has seen an uptick in retention with returning students up 8.5 percent. New students, he said, are up 10 percent – on top of a 14 percent increase of new students in fall 2022. During the summer, when enrollment typically lags, GGC’s 2023 summer enrollment increased 14 percent.
Rainbow Village adds two veterans to staff
To scale up and better meet the needs of the families it serves, Duluth-based Rainbow Village is welcoming two seasoned veterans of the nonprofit sphere to its staff.
Holmes
Joy Holmes joins the 32-year-old nonprofit in the role of chief development officer. At the same time, Anika Crosby will work closely with the families Rainbow Village serves as a success coach. Holmes brings nearly 20 years of experience as a fundraiser. A graduate of Georgia Southern University, Holmes has lived in Gwinnett County for eight years. She is married with a large extended family. All of her siblings also work in service industries – two in healthcare and one is a pastor. As a military kid, she and her siblings were raised to believe in service to others.
Crosby
Also a Gwinnett County resident, Anika Crosby describes herself as a true boy mom. She became a single mom when her boys were 4 and 6. Her oldest is a 23-year-old veteran who was in the U.S. Navy and hopes to be in the pit crew at NASCAR one day. Her youngest (21) is at Western Carolina University on a full track scholarship. She is originally from New Orleans and received her Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of Mississippi. Crosby became a single mom when her boys were 4 and 6. She has two sons, a 23-year-old Navy veteran and another (21) is at Western Carolina on full track scholarship.
- To learn more about the mission at the heart of Rainbow Village, make a tax-deductible donation, or register as a volunteer, visit www.RainbowVillage.org.
Lamme gets another term on conservation board
Lamme
Ellis Lamme of Gwinnett County has been re-elected vice president of the Georgia Association of Conservation Districts at a recent meeting in Savannah. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, he has lived in Georgia for almost 40 years after his retirement from 22 years in the U.S. Air Force as part of the Red Horse Civil Engineering Squadron. In 2000, he was elected as chairman of the Gwinnett County Soil and Water Conservation District Board and has since been re-elected five consecutive terms. He also currently serves as the president of the Upper Ocmulgee River Resource Conservation and Development Council. He and his wife, Phyllis, live on a 12 acre farm in Dacula.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: Li Yan are of the Akha people. They live in a remote area of China and make their living through farming tea. When Li Yan has a baby out of wedlock, she must give her away because she is a girl and because of the One Child Only in China. Li Yan’s family fortunes become intertwined with those of a stranger who desires to see a famous grove only accessible by women. Li Yan’s fortunes change when she is able to complete her education and build her skills by developing unique blends of tea. Her daughter Haley is adopted by an American couple who give her a good life but cannot fill the missing part of her identity and a free-floating angst equally experienced by her mother. This beautiful and touching story highlights the ends both go to find each other thus completing the circle of life, wholeness, and fulfillment.
- 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 poet laureate teaches at Mercer University
Chelsea Rathburn is the author of three award-winning poetry collections and has served as the poet laureate of Georgia since 2019. Her work is marked by quiet intensity and explores relationships between form and content, and between the self and the world.
Rathburn was born in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1975 and raised in Miami, but her maternal family has lived in Georgia for nearly two centuries. She earned a B.A. in English from Florida State University in 1997 and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arkansas in 2001. After receiving her master’s, she relocated to Decatur, where she taught workshops at Emory University and served as poetry chair for the Decatur Book Festival.
Rathburn’s first full-length collection, The Shifting Line, won the Richard Wilbur Award in 2005. On the strength of this debut, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, which funded a research trip to France and Poland. These travels, the dissolution of her first marriage, and her second marriage to the poet James Davis May, inspired her next manuscript, A Raft of Grief, which won the 2012 Autumn Press Poetry Prize and was published in 2013.
While containing sonnets and other formal poems, A Raft of Grief finds Rathburn largely freed from the constraints of iambics and rhyme. The book was praised for its innovative and nuanced voice, as well as its deft exploration of such themes as alcoholism, marital disfunction, and, in the end, the self-reclaiming power of new love. Shortly after completing A Raft of Grief, Rathburn began teaching at Young Harris College in the mountains of north Georgia, where she designed and directed the undergraduate creative writing program.
Rathburn’s third collection, Still Life with Mother and Knife (2019), was named one of the “Books All Georgians Should Read” by the Georgia Center for the Book and received the 2020 Eric Hoffer Book Award in Poetry
One month after the publication of Still Life with Mother and Knife, Governor Brian Kemp appointed Rathburn poet laureate of Georgia. In this capacity, she serves as an ambassador for the literary arts at events across the state. Since 2019 Rathburn has taught creative writing at Mercer University in Macon, where she lives with her daughter and husband.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Flowers brighten today’s photographic mystery
The clock says 12:30, the flowers are bright and cheerful, and this old stone building seems ages old. Use your brain to determine where this photo was made, and then send your answer to elliott!@brack.net, and include your hometown.
George Graf, Palmyra, Va. was right in recognizing the last mystery (at bottom right) as “Little River Falls, near Fort Payne, Ala. It is located off Alabama Highway 35 next to the bridge in Gaylesville, Ala. Expert level Kayakers love to kayak the river during high water seasons.D uring the summer and early fall, the water level is much lower. This area is closed after dark. No parking is allowed when the park is closed. Camping is not allowed in the park. There is no entrance charge for this area.”
Also spotting the mystery were Jim Mykytyn, Temple, Ga. ; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C. and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. The photo came to GwinnettForum from Rick Krause of Lilburn.
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.
Varadarajan speaks Aug. 24 at Suwanee library
Engage in Aging is the subject of the fourth annual workshop about people 50 years old and older set for Friday, August 18, at George Pierce Park Community Recreation Center in Suwanee. With the theme Living Vibrantly, this free event offers participants an opportunity to connect with local agencies, experience interactive demonstrations and enjoy lunch. Registration is required. To learn more about the Gwinnett County’s Human and Health Services, visit GwinnettHumanServices.com.
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.
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