GwinnettForum | Number 22.87 | Dec. 8, 2023
CHURCH VISIT: The Loew family of Peachtree Corners was present at one of the last of President Jimmy Carter’s Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains a few years ago. For details, see Feedback below. From left are Eddie and Buzz Loew, Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter, and Olivia, Elyse and Cathy Loew.
TODAY’S FOCUS: The work of American democracy is never ever finished
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Porter Steel Company now operating with second generation
SPOTLIGHT: The 1818 Club
ANOTHER VIEW: U.S. Rep. Mike Collins playing politics with crime
FEEDBACK: Local family had one of last audiences at Maranatha
UPCOMING: Ukraine native chosen for statewide institute
NOTABLE: Ghana native finds life at GGC rewarding
RECOMMENDED: Private Domain by Paul Taylor
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Musical group, the B-52’s, among Athens’ best known bands
MYSTERY PHOTO: Mystery location might make a good place to shop
CALENDAR: Snowman Extravaganza is Dec. 8 at Paul Duke STEM School
The work of American democracy is never ever finished
Via Unsplash.
By Andy Brack
CHARLESTON, S.C. | There’s been a growing, gnawing sense among many Americans that the nation’s fragile democracy is flailing amidst an authoritarian threat from within.
Brack
You see it in a president imploring people to do the right thing to aid Ukraine and Israel. It’s in the courts, as landmark cases are shredded by a 6-3 conservative majority that claims to interpret based on the original intent of the U.S. Constitution but is more activist than many a liberal court.
And front and center, you see it in a Congress that can’t get its act together. One speaker had to go 15 rounds before capturing a narrow majority, only to be turned out by hard right radicals who haven’t been able to elect one of their own. To some, the Grand Old Party of Republicanism is disintegrating before our very eyes.
All of this ghoulish disarray is having a sobering impact on a polarized electorate of American voters, according to a big new study by the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia.
It “reveals a stunning number of Americans on both sides of the aisle endorsing policies that could challenge the U.S. Constitution, even as a majority express a preference for democracy over other forms of governance,” according to an overview.
Among the startling findings:
- Resistance. About seven in 10 voters who prefer Democratic President Joe Biden or former Republican President Donald Trump say they believe electing officials from the other party would hurt the country. And in a show that compromise and collaboration are waning, about half of each said they saw those who supported the other party as threats to the American way of life, the study said.
- Violence. About 40 percent of the 2,008 voters polled said they believed the “other side’ was so extreme that it was acceptable for violence to be used to keep them from succeeding in their goals.
- Authoritarianism. While 69 percent said they thought democracy was the preferable form of government compared to non-democratic forms, “nearly half of the overall sample frequently expressed opinions that veered towards authoritarianism.”
- Secession. Two in five Trump voters and a third of Biden voters said they would favor red or blue states respectively seceding from the union and forming their own countries.
There’s more disturbing stuff in the survey about the partisan split on issues between those who support Biden and Trump. But the bottom line is the nation’s spirit has been sapped since the 2016 election and the debacle of the results in the 2020 election.
As one of the center’s advisers noted, “The breakdown of the democratic norms most Americans have long taken for granted is not a problem just among the right or the left, it is a growing American problem. Politicians and voters can point fingers all they want, but what is needed is action to fix it.”
So is there any hope — that concept that Barack Obama made famous in 2008 and that fueled his presidency and spawned a counter-movement?
Historian Heather Cox Richardson believes the country will recapture its zeal for democracy, just as it has before after small groups of people have tried to take it away. The “Letter from an American” newsletter author, who has more than two million daily subscribers, says in a new book called Democracy Awakening that American democracy will persist.
“The true history of American democracy is that it is never finished,” she concludes. “Reclaiming our history of noble struggle reworks the polarizing language that has done us such a disservice while it undermines the ideology of authoritarianism.”
Let’s hope she’s right.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Porter Steel Company now operating with second generation
Workers erecting steel products. Photos provided.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
DEC. 8, 2023 | A Lilburn firm which began in 1983, now has a second generation guiding its operations. The company is Porter Steel Company, which has expanded greatly and now has 90 employees erecting steel and making steel products for clients across the Southeast.
Lowe Porter began the firm in Atlanta. His son, Coleman (Cole) Porter, 36, is president and CEO of the firm, today. The first person in the family working with steel was Cole’s grandfather on his mother’s side.
Cole’s father got into business by having a truck and welding machine. Cole says: “His first job was a friend needing a driveway pad. Pretty soon he had plenty of work, and incorporated in DeKalb County in 1987. A few years later, my dad hired two employees. The first one was Ferdell James, a Jamaican, who still works with us today as one of the lead men in the field. We now have employees from at least 20 countries.”
Later Porter Steel had a site in Norcross, then moved in the early 90s to Lilburn off Arcado Road. Cole joined the business in 2017, and purchased the business in 2023 from his father, now retired near Tampa.
Cole Porter
The company’s speciality is to fabricate and erect structural steel and miscellaneous metals into construction products. The company often serves as a general contractor for other structural fabricators.
Their largest job ever was working with the film company Assembly Studios in Doraville at the site of the former General Motors assembly plant. “We worked on many, many buildings at that site, in over 20 months, putting in all the stairs and rails on the whole site.”
Nearly all of Porter’s Steel work is won by bids. “While this is important in our work, our real strength is in relationships with other companies. Our history helps us grow.”
The company’s history in Atlanta is extensive. Porter recognizes: “Over the years, our company must have worked on every block in Atlanta, on big projects, and small ones. We’ve done work for military installations, and dozens of headquarters facilities. We’ve got many customers in multiple cities, as we do fabricating work around the Southeast.”
Two major projects are now underway in Nashville, Tenn., at Vanderbilt University. “We’re working on a big project at the Vanderbilt Medical Center, and also are doing work on the football stadium there.”
One of Porter Steel’s many installations
Porter recently learned that one project he worked on, for Atlas Restaurant at the St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta, won recognition recently. “It got a Michelin star as one of the best restaurants in Atlanta. We did the steel glass roof structure over the outdoor area at that restaurant.”
Cole Porter was born in Decatur, and now lives just over the Gwinnett line in Walton County. He and his wife, Kaitlyn, have three children, ages 8, 7 and 4. They attend Calvary Chapel Church in Stone Mountain.
A graduate of the University of Georgia, he majored in liberal arts, with a heavy concentration in Spanish. He also got immersed in Spanish while younger, making 6-7 mission trips to Mexico over several years, and visiting a friend there several times, becoming fluent in Spanish. “This helps me today, as we have lots of our workers speak Spanish.”
Besides his work, Porter is president of the Duluth Rotary Club, and on the board of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.
One of Cole Porter’s goals is to serve firms throughout the Southeast. “While we have served Atlanta historically, now our goal over the next two to five years is to serve the entire Southeast.”
- 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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U.S. Rep. Mike Collins playing politics with crime
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | Crime is a valid concern for most people. We must be safe. But crime should not be politicized.
Per his website: “Representative Mike Collins (R-Ga.) of the 10th District, introduced a resolution condemning Mayor Muriel Bowser, Council Chair Phil Mendelson, Councilman Charles Allen, and the rest of the government of Washington, D.C., for their failure to stop the crime epidemic plaguing the District of Columbia.”
There are numerous cities in Georgia with high crime rates. I do not live very far from College Park which has a violent crime rate of 1,559 per 100,000 people. The District of Columbia has a rate of 812/100k. College Park has a property crime rate of 7,199/100k versus DC at 4,367/100k.
In other words, the College Park violent crime rate is almost double that of Washington; the property crime rate is 165 percent higher. Does Collins think the Georgia state legislature should pass a meaningless resolution condemning College Park’s Mayor and City Council? Why not leave that to their voters?
Collins
Meanwhile, where Collins can make a difference, he has decided not to act. Rep. Collins is indirectly enabling violent crimes by his votes on reasonable gun control, supported by most Americans (including many GOP voters).
In June, Collins voted to prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from regulating “stabilizing braces.” Such pistol braces have been used in numerous mass shootings. Collins cited the Constitution, but that document says nothing about letting civilians using such braces…especially civilians without background checks.
In Georgia, guns can be bought and sold at “gun shows” with no background checks. If Collins is concerned about lowering crime, why hasn’t he supported mandatory national gun background checks? The Constitution clearly does not prohibit reasonable background checks to prevent felons and the mentally ill from owning assault rifles.
Nowhere is Collins’ position stated more clearly than in a 2022 debate at the Atlanta Press Club. He indicated he opposed “red flag” laws, designed to remove guns from the mentally unbalanced and others who are violent. Collins stated that- “we do not have a gun control problem in this country.” Instead, he advocates for more Godliness as the solution to gun violence and even arming our schoolteachers.
However, states which are the most religious also have the biggest problem with firearm deaths. On the second point, only 20 percent of teachers believe that carrying guns would make schools safer and only six per cent strongly favored that policy. Most teachers think that carrying guns would make schools less safe.
In fact, most Americans disagree with Collins’ extremist Second Amendment position. Per polling, 60 percent of Americans believe that controlling gun violence is a more important goal versus protecting gun rights.
The underlying question is: “Why is Rep. Collins playing politics with crime”? The DC Mayor and the City Council are elected, just like Collins. It’s up to those voters to let them know if increased crime is an issue.
On crime, Rep. Collins is either uninformed or a hypocrite. Take your pick.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Local family had one of last audiences at Maranatha
Editor, the Forum:
Our family had one of the last audiences for President Carter teaching Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, (stopped because of Covid). Other people had the same idea. Our hotel instructed us to leave for the church by 4 a.m. We didn’t want to chance it, so we left at 2 a.m.
Cars were already lining up. A volunteer gave us a slip with a number. We parked and slept in the car. After the sun rose, we lined up by number. An African missionary family, in full garb, was allowed to move to the front. The Secret Service and their dogs were thoroughly inspecting the church. We were towards the end of the line and were ushered into the “overflow” room. Many were turned away.
Rosalynn Carter came through a side entrance with a flourish. She greeted us all warmly. It was a 20 second encounter and she exuded Southern charm.
After the service, the Carters were gracious and allowed pictures. (I would have had my son wear pants, if I had known.) Maranatha isa very small church and visitors were graciously welcomed. It was an experience my family will never forget.
– Cathy Loew, Peachtree Corners
Finds group’s mission statement a conflicted one
Editor, the Forum:
The mission statement of Mark Parnell’s Faith and Freedom Coalition is a conflicted one. It includes both victory in (Israel’s) struggle against terrorism and tyranny, and speaking out on behalf of Christianity. The former rejects both Jesus’ “Golden Rule” reduction of the Ten Commandments, and his personal directive to “love
each other” and “make disciples of all nations”.
The October 7 attack of Hamas that murdered 1200 innocent Israelis was abject terrorism. But was it unexpected?
When a country isolates, controls, limits, oppresses, and restricts, a population based on race and routinely beats and imprisons children for months at a time without charges or adjudication, frustration will eventually erupt. But what we don’t expect is harsh collective punishment and the slaughter of almost 20,000 civilians including 6,500 children. Adjusting the population between Gaza and Gwinnett County, that is like a bomb going off at a high school killing every student. I can’t wrap my head around that.
One of the very first songs that many children learn is “Jesus loves the little children.” Does He? All of them? Equally? Even in Israel?
This war is mass slaughter and indifference that we haven’t seen since World War II. Now is the time to rethink Jesus’ challenge to love each other and become peacemakers by looking at both sides and applying our own values. Why should we support there what our Constitution protects us from here? If equality, equal rights, and due process ensure peace here, why support apartheid there?
The murder of 6,500 innocent children, one child every 10 minutes, demands our attention. It doesn’t matter if they are Arab, Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian, yours, or mine.
– Joe Briggs, Senoia
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.
Ukraine native chosen for statewide institute
Anastasiia Pliashko has been chosen to represent Gwinnett Technical College at the statewide EAGLE (Exceptional Adult Georgian in Literacy Education) Leadership Institute in March 2024. The Leadership Institute recognizes and honors students with superior achievement in adult education classes and programs.
Anastasiia’s story certainly exemplifies all that the EAGLE program is about. A resident of Cumming, Anastasiia, first came to the United States in August of 2022 from Ukraine. She enrolled in Gwinnett Tech’s HSE (High School Equivalency) program to earn her GED. After completing her HSE, Anastasiia intends to pursue her associate degree in business management.
Anastasiia chose Gwinnett Tech and the HSE program because “I always wanted to be educated and smart, and this educational journey helped me to start my life again. My relatives here helped me with enrollment, and I chose Gwinnett Tech for several reasons. First, my aunt recommended it; secondly, I read a lot about it and loved it! I could choose between online and in-person classes and make my schedule.”
Ghana native finds life at GGC rewarding
It’s a long way from the coastal savannas and tropical rainforests of West Africa to the manicured lawns of the Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) campus. Still, it’s a journey that Diana Bamfo was determined to take. Bamfo’s family immigrated from Ghana to the United States. when she was 12. Her father, Evans Kwakye, a truck driver, and her adopted mother, Lulu Pearl, a nurse, taught her to be self-sufficient and resilient.
Bamfo
After graduating from Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville, in 2015, Bamfo worked as a grocery store cashier for a year to save enough money to put herself through college. She’d been fascinated with math from an early age, so she always knew she would be doing something in that field.
“I’ve always been a numbers girl,” she says. “I believed I would do really well in accounting, so that’s what I set my sights on.”
When choosing a college, she turned to her best friend, Harsha Vinoy, who had been attending GGC and studying business management. Vinoy introduced Bamfo to other GGC students, and that made the decision easy.
Bamfo enrolled in 2017 and threw herself into getting to know her fellow students and professors, overcoming her usual tendency to be shy and introverted. Two of the things she did were join the International Student Admissions (ISA) group and the School of Business Torch Team Ambassadors Program, which forced her to work with fellow international and business students outside her comfort zone.
“The ISA opened the doors for me to get to know other students from outside the country and open my networking,” says Bamfo. “And from day one, the Torch Team helped me get to know professors, students and local business owners. I would recommend any new student get involved like that. I know professors whom I never thought I would get to know personally. Sometimes, I’ll be walking across campus and hear one of them call my name, ‘Hey, how are you? How is school going? How is life? Is there anything I can do for you?’ It’s very encouraging.”
She said the Torch Team, particularly, helped her get to where she is today, about to walk across the stage to receive a diploma for a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting.
“My most cherished memory at GGC is being part of the SBA Torch Team,” she adds. “We have such great team members. Everybody was so encouraging and welcoming, and whenever I was having a hard time, there was always somebody I could talk to. It’s the best group I’ve ever been a part of in my life.”
Bamfo recalled how her adviser, Dr. Benjamin Akins, associate professor of legal studies and taxation, and Ben Hines, program engagement specialist, would consistently check in with her to see how her studies were going and how she was feeling.
Bamfo will be the first child in her family to earn a college degree. After graduation, she plans to work as an accountant for a few years and save money for graduate school, where she plans to earn a master’s degree in accounting.
Private Domain, by Paul Taylor
From Susan J. Harris, Stone Mountain: The renowned dancer Paul Taylor chronicles his career in dance in this dense but immensely readable autobiography. He takes the reader back to his beginnings which were complex as he tried to find his footing in the world. telling of the development of his passion for dance and how he created his own dance troupe filled with gifted dancers. They traveled the world performing for decades enthralling audiences with steps that looked like gossamer leaps but were in truth steps gained through discipline and sacrifice. Paul Taylor is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Kennedy Center Honors and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Private Domain was nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as the most distinguished biography of 1987. Reading this book is educational because it introduces the reader to the rigors and rewards of the Dance Profession which will increase respect for the gorgeous art form.
- 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
Musical group, the B-52’s, among Athens’ best known bands
Quirky, lively, and original, the B-52’s formed in the late 1970s and remain one of Athens’s best-known bands. Named for the bomb-shaped bouffant hairdos of the two female band members, the group debuted at a Valentine’s Day party in Athens in 1977 and before long were performing in New York City, where they attained a cultlike status.
Initially the members of the group—Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson, and Ricky Wilson—had little or no musical experience, but their campy stage image, walkie talkies, exaggerated wigs, go-go boots, and thrift shop clothing, along with such oddly engaging songs as Private Idaho and Planet Claire, made them the talk of the postpunk scene. After playing shows and gaining a following in New York and signing a record deal with Warner Brothers, the B-52’s moved to the city.
Their first album, The B-52’s (1979), sold more than 500,000 copies, mostly on the strength of the dance party classics Rock Lobster and 52 Girls. Infused with an irrepressible sense of mischief, taut guitar riffs, and an offbeat sensibility, the album was unlike anything on offer at the time. As the New York Times would later observe, the band was demographically distinctive as well: “40 percent female, 60 percent southern, 80 percent queer, 100 percent fun.”
After becoming a commercial and critical success, the B-52’s released their second album, Wild Planet, in 1980, followed by Mesopotamia in 1982 and Whammy! in 1983. However, Ricky Wilson, lead guitarist and the member responsible for much of the band’s unique vision, died of AIDS in 1985, during the recording of Bouncing off the Satellites. The album was released in 1986, but the band, devastated by the loss of Wilson, did little to promote it. Three years passed before the group recorded another album.
In 1989 the remaining members recorded and released Cosmic Thing, their greatest commercial success. On the strength of the hits Love Shack, Roam, and Deadbeat Club, the album eventually went to number three on the Billboard charts and sold over five million copies.
In spite of the group’s success, Cindy Wilson left the band in 1991 to start a family. The B-52’s recorded their next album of the decade, Good Stuff, in 1992. Other projects soon followed. The band recorded the single Meet the Flintstones for the 1994 film The Flintstones and returned to Athens to play to a large and enthusiastic crowd at the University of Georgia homecoming in 1997. Reuniting with Cindy Wilson, the group then recorded two new tracks for a collection of their greatest hits, Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation (1998). The B-52’s were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
In 2008 the band released Funplex, their final, full-length album. Strickland stepped away from touring a few years later, though the band maintained an active schedule, performing with a rotating cast of guest musicians and new members. The 2010s saw the release of various side projects, including solo debuts by both Pierson and Wilson. Though the band launched a farewell tour in 2022, they booked a Las Vegas residency soon thereafter and continue to perform intermittently.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Mystery location might make a good place to shop
Today’s Mystery Photo looks like a great place to shop for Christmas gifts. Your job is to identify where this photograph was taken, and tell us something about the place. Send your ideas to elliott@brack.net, and tell us also where you live.
Rick Hammond of Flowery Branch came through in identifying the last mystery. “I believe the photo is of downtown Norcross from a few years ago. There was once a store there called “Taste of Britain”. I think that’s the business with the guards/nutcrackers out front.This was during the early days of Norcross’ downtown revival.” He’s right.
The photo came from Mike Camp, formerly of Norcross and now of St. Louis, Mo.. who said the photo was taken from in front of the Swan Theatre.
Others recognizing this photo were Lynn Naylor, Maryville, Tenn.; Pat Bruschini, Peachtree Corners; Cathy Loew, Peachtree Corners; Allan Peel, San Antonio, Tex.; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Stewart Woodard, Lawrenceville; Barbara Karnitz, Norcross; and Jenny DeFreitas, Lawrenceville.
Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill added: : “This is downtown Norcross, and includes Taste of Britain, one of my favorite stores. Here’s the picture I took there a few days ago.”
- 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.
Snowman Extravaganza is Dec. 8 at Paul Duke STEM School
Snowman Extravaganza will be Friday, December 8, from 6:30 to 8: 30 p.m. at Paul Duke STEM School, 5850 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Norcross. Come see the campus transformed into a captivating winter wonderland of holiday lights and a gallery of snowmen. Enjoy free hot chocolate and candy canes.
Immigration Legal Screening Clinic will be held on December 8 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Lilburn Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Participants will have the opportunity to consult with a lawyer to see if they are eligible for any immigration relief. Registration required.
Braselton Cookie Crawl will be Sunday, December 10 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Get into the spirit of the season with an afternoon of holiday music and Christmas cookies. The North Georgia Winds will perform its Christmas concert at the Braselton Civic Center at 3:30 p.m. Following the concert, pick up your bags and maps for a sweet adventure that will guide you to four stops for yummy holiday cookies and more holiday music!
Annual meeting of the Gwinnett Historical Society will be Monday, December 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Rhodes Jordan Park Community Center, 100 East Crogan Street in Lawrenceville. The amended bylaws will be discussed, and there will be a First Families recognition ceremony, plus presentation of annual awards.
Poll workers needed: Gwinnett County is seeking residents as poll workers for the 2024 election season. A hiring event will be on Monday, December 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Dacula Park Activity Building. The county is particularly seeking Spanish-English speakers. Poll workers earn up to $390 per election.
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