GwinnettForum | Number 23.43 | May 31, 2024
FLAG DAY COMING: The 13th annual observance of Flag Day will be held June 15 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 5255, 368 Grayson Highway in Lawrenceville. Collaborating will be the Button Gwinnett Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), the Philadelphia Winn Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Gwinnett Veterans Memorial Museum, and the VFW, to pay homage to the Stars and Stripes that represent our nation’s freedom. At the 2023 ceremony, participating were, facing the ceremony, SAR Color Guard Commander Bill Palmer; and those saluting, Don Bullard, Ralph Galpin, an unidentified person, and John Ziegler. Also taking part in the ceremony were Lou Zayas and Don McCarthy. Themed “Celebrating America and Honoring the Flag,” this year’s event aims to underscore the significance of respecting and honoring the flag, as it flies as a beacon of liberty.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Changing lives and leading by example
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Memorial Day originated in Columbus, Ga.
SPOTLIGHT: Law Office of J. Michael Levengood, LLC
ANOTHER VIEW: America needs controlled, legal immigration
FEEDBACK: Suggests recycling bins for plastics at ballparks
UPCOMING: Norcross OKs 16 townhomes for low income families
NOTABLE: GGC summer enrollment at record high
RECOMMENDED: Demian by Herman Hesse
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Edward Cashin wrote of early state history
MYSTERY PHOTO: High view of a seaside; where is it?
CALENDAR: Oprah Book Club author to speak Saturday in Duluth
Mission: changing lives and leading by example
By Cole Porter
President and CEO, Porter Steel Inc.
LILBURN, Ga. | What’s in a mission for an organization? It can be simply an explanation of your product and service that lets the public know what you strive to do in the market. Or alternatively, it can be an anthem that the members of the organization can get behind – understanding that every finger lifted ultimately points to achieving a higher purpose.
Porter
At Porter Steel, we strive for the latter in our mission “to change lives and to lead by example.” While our service is fabricating and erecting structural steel and miscellaneous metals on commercial construction projects, it is our belief that simply performing these tasks well – along with countless other similar companies across the globe – is not enough to motivate, inspire, and push our employees to reach their highest potential.
We intentionally have a mission that in no way describes our business so that our work will transcend the walls of our shops or the doors of our service trucks. We want our customers, vendors, and the communities in which we work to also feel that they can be a part of our mission and purpose.
At the root of our mission is a desire to connect our human purpose with our work. We believe that if we give individuals purpose, they will be more fulfilled and actually enjoy their role and their life more.
What if every person was able to stay on mission throughout their week, knowing that they can embrace the mission of their job in other aspects of their lives? What if individuals could take the skills and experience they have acquired and match it to a mission that inspires them? What if we could bring our work, our lifestyles, and our ambitions into one space – sharing a mission, but simply changing tactics? At Porter Steel, we view this as an effective and productive vision, and we constantly seek to nurture its impact on our business and all those under its influence.
But it’s more than just words. If we didn’t align our actions with our statements, we would actually move backwards, withering from insincerity and hypocrisy. One of the most challenging tasks we have before us is making sure we stay true to our mission. By no means are we perfect. There’s room for improvement every day, but we constantly seek to do the next right thing that will show our unwavering commitment to our mission. And we believe that the fruit of our labor is coming to bear.
Our top priority to ensure we can indeed change lives and lead by example is to make a profit. We are proud to make money and to perform well, and we know that that success must occur to keep the organization healthy and impactful. However, we always put people and principle over profit. Our mission starts with the employees and families that represent our company to the world and then overflows to others within our influence. And while we have growth goals and seek more success within our industry, we are content that our mission will never be fully complete yet also completed in a small way every single day.
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Memorial Day originated in Columbus, Ga.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MAY 31, 2024 | What’s the origin of the holiday we have just observed, Memorial Day? History tells us that it was women in Columbus, Ga. who were the leaders in Americans today observing Memorial Day.
In Columbus in 1866, just a year after the Civil War was over, ladies of the Soldier’s Aid Society decorated the graves in Linwood Cemetery. Elizabeth “Lizzie” Rutherford Ellis told others of a book she had read, about tending to the graves of fallen soldiers. The women of the Society liked the idea, and transformed their group into the Ladies Memorial Association.
The secretary of this group, Mary Ann Williams, wrote a letter to the press on March 11, 1866, seeking assistance in establishing an annual holiday to honor the dead by decorating the graves of soldiers throughout the South. The letter was printed in numerous newspapers. The idea caught on. The Society suggested the date of April 26 for the celebration, the date General Joseph E. Johnson surrendered the remaining Confederate Army to Union General William T. Sherman in North Carolina.
That year, 1868, the holiday was observed in Columbus, Atlanta, Augusta and Macon in Georgia, but also in Montgomery, Memphis, Louisville (Ky.), New Orleans and Jackson (Miss.). Of course, all of these observances were in the South, basically honoring the Southern dead. In the South, it became known as Confederate Memorial Day.
Up north, Gen. John Logan, the head of the Grand Army of the Republican, basically a veteran’s organization of Union soldiers, heard in 1866 of the Southern proposal to recognize the dead. He issued General Order No. 11 for May 30, 1868 to be marked as a holiday, to be observed annually and nationwide, calling it “Decoration Day.”
Many Northern states quickly began observing this holiday in 1868, when there were 183 cemeteries decorated. By a year later, the number of cemeteries observing this day had grown to 336. (Logan’s wife noted that the date was set because it was an optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the north. Remember, it was not a time when people bought their flowers; most grew their own, so using your own flowers was practical.)
Rutherford died on March 31, 1873, and was buried in Linwood Cemetery, alongside the Confederate soldiers she had sought to memorialize. Her marker, erected by the Lizzie Rutherford Ellis (who came up with decorating cemeteries) Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy calls her “Soldiers’ Friend” and observes that she was the person who first suggested Confederate Memorial Day.
In 1874, the year after her death, the Georgia General Assembly officially added a public holiday, “The 26th day of April in each year—commonly known as Memorial Day.” By the end of the century many southern communities were observing the event, and the formation of the Confederated Southern Memorial Association in Louisville, Ky., in May 1900, led to the widespread adoption of Confederate Memorial Day.
While still occasionally celebrated in parts of the South, the holiday has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as the country reckons with the lasting legacies of slavery and racial inequity. In 2015 Governor Nathan Deal removed Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee’s birthday from the state’s official holiday calendar.
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America needs controlled, legal immigration
“I wrote this bill (Laken Riley Act) to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and state governments more tools in the fight against illegal alien crime. Laken’s murder at the hands of an illegal alien on the campus of the University of Georgia was another wakeup call that the Biden administration’s open border policies are making Americans unsafe in their own country.”
– Rep. Mike Collins of the 10th Congressional District of Georgia.
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | Immigrants commit less crime per capita than U.S. citizens. Rep. Mike Collins is correct that the Riley murder was horrible. But he is incorrect in blaming President Biden. Let’s recognize the record: Immigration policy has been a mess due to inaction by both national parties.
Recently, a bipartisan, strong, conservative Senate immigration bill was proposed. Then ex-President Trump called upon House Speaker Mike Johnson to kill the bill because Trump wanted immigration as a campaign issue. So, the bill died, blocking any realistic Congressional action any time soon.
We have seen this play out before. Former President George W. Bush had a deeper understanding of the immigration issue than other Republicans. But the right wing of the GOP scuttled his comprehensive immigration reform proposal. By repeatedly opposing true bipartisan reform for decades, the right wing of the GOP has accomplished three things-
First, they have alienated legal immigrants and their families. These are first-generation Americans like me, descended from immigrants…who built this nation.
Second, Hispanic voters are being driven to the Democrats for the 2024 election. Trump’s insistence on building a wall and pursuing aggressive deportations alienates them. Expect 2024 GOP losses in key swing states, such as New Mexico and Arizona …and possibly even Texas someday. GOP policy wonks must understand reality and figure out how to woo back Hispanic voters.
Third, with no progress on immigration reform, illegal immigration gets worse. Trump knows that 11 million undocumented, mostly Latino, immigrants cannot be easily deported. And that Mexico will not pay to build a wall. Further, he understands that the GOP will not close government to force funding to build that wall.
Donald Trump is aware that a modern-day Operation Wetback (tried in the 1950s) would cost a tremendous amount of money, paid for by taxpayers (via taxes and tariffs). And deportations would mean ripping families apart, which is unpopular and also cruel. Finally, he knows that if a drastic deportation program were enacted, it would cause independents to run away from both him and the GOP—just like the abortion issue.
Former President Trump, who loves money, and also comprehends the business aspects. Agriculture would take a hit with prices rising substantially for his supporters. He knows that immigrants take the hard manual labor jobs that everyday Americans do not want… like building his Trump Tower in New York City. He takes extreme positions because it riles up his frustrated, alienated MAGA base, bringing them out to the voting booth. He has no intention of seeing his current position on immigration acted upon. Because when he does, it backfires. That was shown when Trump decided to suddenly stop immigration of well-paid highly skilled people needed by high tech companies.
Here’s what Google CEO Sundar Picha says on the subject: “Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success…, making it a global leader.”
America needs controlled, legal immigration for our country to prosper.
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Suggests recycling bins for plastics at ballparks
Editor, the Forum:
Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful does an incredible job with our recyclables. They host different opportunities to get rid of many items that cannot be put in our bins.
As someone who has been at the different softball fields, I am not sure where to address this.
Every time I am at any ballpark, I either buy water or have brought a six pack of water. There is no place in any of the ball fields that I have been to that I can recycle the plastic bottles. There needs to be recycling containers at each of the parks.
Trust me: you see hundreds of bottles put in the normal trash containers! And just think of the many ballparks there are in Gwinnett County!
– Mickey Merkel, Berkeley Lake
Dear Mickey: Good idea from your fertile mind. Perhaps some forward-thinking water company might even sponsor this for the good will it would bring them! –eeb
Suggests addition of re-testing for drivers
Editor, the Forum:
About your 10 rules for safe driving: all well said.
However, I think there is a more important consideration for safe driving. I’d like to see some form of required continuing education and or retest every so many years in order to keep a driver’s license.
Many professions require their members to keep current in their profession through continuing education. We teach 15-year-olds how to drive. They study for the test and pass it. From there on the average person knows little to nothing of future changes to new laws governing driving.
– Tim Sullivan, Buford
Feels incumbents should be identified on ballots
Editor, the Forum:
Thinking about recent comments in GwinnettForum, I feel incumbents should be identified on ballots. If not, how can we know them by their performance (department , leadership duties and so on) ?
What’s race got to do with it ? Most voters these days base their decision on performance. A comment about color may have been appropriate in years past but there’s too much information now; and, for the majority of citizens color is not a factor for voter selection .
Regarding safe driving , in my opinion cell phone usage should be ranked closer to the top. Though illegal to use or even touch your phone while driving, you see many drivers looking at the cell phone, then get a late start at a stop light and weave in and out of their lane, then slamming on brakes to avoid missing a turn , etc etc .
– John Moore Sr., Duluth
Suggests two more safe driving rules
Editor, the Forum:
That was a good start in compiling Ten Rules for Safe Driving. However, I feel you left off a couple of important ideas.
- Be courteous: Don’t cut off someone. Don’t push to always be in front.
- Reasonable spacing: At stop lights, don’t leave 3-4 car lengths between you and the car in front. This makes the lines longer and many times cut off the left or right turn lanes completely for the drivers behind you.
That would be a good even dozen rules.
– Stewart A. Woodard, Lawrenceville
Dear Stewart: That’s good thinking. See new version of the rules. –eeb
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Norcross OKs 16 townhomes for low income families
(From the Saporta Report)
The City of Norcross has approved Gwinnett Housing Corporation’s rezoning request for a 1.33 acre property on Medlock Bridge Road to allow 16 townhomes for students and their families facing housing insecurity staying in extended-stay rooms — typically motels.
The property is owned by Gwinnett County Water and Sewer Authority and is adjacent to Norcross High School. The property to be purchased by Gwinnett Housing Corporation currently sits vacant as “surplus land,” but when complete, it will effectively be using publicly-owned surplus land for affordable housing.
Lejla Prljaca, executive director at Gwinnett Housing Corporation, says the project dates back to 2019, when Gwinnett Housing Corporation co-led the city’s Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH) program — a three-year program that offers technical assistance to municipalities in the areas of housing and community development with the goal being a community-specific plan to bolster housing.
Prljaca recounted going door to door at 12 different extended-stays alongside a group of volunteers while researching for the initiative; she said they were shocked to find many units overcrowded and with school-age children living there.“40 percent of the families who live there report that they had children in their rooms living with them, and we would witness them doing homework on the floor of a 200 square foot extended stay room,” Prljaca says.
“The vast majority of homeless or precariously housed people in the suburbs are not going to be in the streets or shelters like most urban cores,” Prljaca says. “The vast majority of them are using extended-stay housing as a last resort.”
Now exactly five years later, actionable items from the report to aid this class of renters through the approved rezoning are coming to fruition. One of the recommendations out of that report was to develop housing, with another being to create a rapid rehousing program to get families out of extended stays and into permanent housing.
The homes will be available to families making less than 60 percent of the Area Median Income, and will be referral-based to start, with referrals coming from local teachers and counselors.
Georgia Gwinnett baseball team falls in semi-finals
Georgia Gwinnett College’s hopes of winning a second NAIA World Series ended Wednesday.
Hope International University (California) scored 10 runs in the final two innings to rally past the Georgia Gwinnett College baseball team by a score of 15-11 Wednesday afternoon in the Avista NAIA World Series at Lewis-Clark State College’s Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho.
The loss marks the Grizzlies’ third semifinal-round finish in its last six World Series trips. GGC (53-9) matched the program’s second most wins in a season.
The Hope Royals (44-16) rallied from an 11-5 deficit by plating four runs in the eighth inning and using a six-run ninth inning to complete the comeback.
GGC summer enrollment at record high
Summer: it’s a break from studies, a chance to sleep in and enjoy more time with their family and friends. For new and continuing students at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC), it’s also an opportunity to reach their academic goals a little faster.
Poll
Summer enrollment at GGC is at a record high with a 10 percent increase over last summer in the number of students taking classes. As of May 28, the enrollment for summer classes stood at 5,099.
Dr. Michael Poll, vice president of enrollment management and institutional research at GGC recognizes: “Our students are more focused on the finish line. We’ve done a good job promoting the advantages of summer school.
“We take a personalized approach when working with students, whether they’ve expressed interest in our college or those who haven’t yet enrolled. We’ve found they appreciate knowing that we’re here for them throughout their academic journey,” he says.
Poll added that the most popular courses are first year English, biology and other general education courses. “Our summer courses last only five weeks, which makes them more intense,” he said. “Students focus on one class at a time.”
The trend of growing enrollment at GGC continues to exceed national trends. The spring enrollment increased four percent, while the national average was 2.9 percent.
“All indications are that we’ll also be ahead of the curve for summer enrollment compared to national trends,” adds Poll. Summer classes at GGC started May 20 and continue through July 23.
Demian by Herman Hesse
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: This book is a moving tribute to the importance of individuation amidst changing German society. The story begins when Emil Sinclair meets a young man named Max Demian, who challenges his values and takes him on an odyssey of self-discovery. Demian seemingly rescues Emil from the clutches of a bully and continues to appear in his life when he is in the midst of psycho/spiritual change. Demian gradually leads Emil into a world of petty crime and murky decisions that lead him to question his familial beliefs that he soon comes to realize are not really his. The story is filled with images that will cause the reader to reflect on long held beliefs and encourages exploration beyond the familiar. It is challenging, frightening and consciousness expanding at its best. Demian is a coming-of-age story of youthful rebellion and the choices made in life that foster growth and integration.
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Cashin wrote of early state history
Edward J. Cashin was one of the preeminent historians of colonial–and Revolutionary-era Georgia. His academic career was unique in that he spent the vast majority of it in his hometown of Augusta and made that city a focal point for much of his prolific scholarship. Cashin served on the faculty of Augusta State University (ASU) from 1969 until his retirement in 1996. He then founded the Center for the Study of Georgia History on the ASU campus and served as its director for more than a decade.
Cashin was born in Augusta on July 22, 1927, to Margaret O’Leary and Edward Cashin. He earned his B.A. degree from Marist College, also in Poughkeepsie, in 1952 and then attended Fordham University in New York City, where he earned an M.A. degree in history in 1956 and a Ph.D. in history in 1962, with a dissertation entitled “Thomas E. Watson and the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia.”
After further study in Fribourg, Switzerland, Cashin returned to Marist College, first as an assistant professor and then as academic vice president. After six years at Marist, he accepted a position as associate professor with Augusta College. Cashin married Mary Ann Klug on March 30, 1969, and they had two children, Edward Lawrence and Milette.
Much of Cashin’s early published work focused on Augusta. His first book, Augusta and the American Revolution: Events in the Georgia Back Country, 1773-1783 (1975), coauthored with fellow Augustan Heard Robertson, combines subjects that would remain central to Cashin’s subsequent research and writing.
From the late 1980s through the 1990s, Cashin expanded his research to incorporate larger themes in Georgia’s early history, writing a series of well-received biographies on such key figures as Thomas Brown, who led a regiment of Georgia loyalists during the Revolutionary War (1775-83); Lachlan McGillivray, the Scottish-born Indian trader; and Henry Ellis, Georgia’s second royal governor. These studies, all published by the University of Georgia Press, offer far more than the life stories of these men.
Other books that reflect the range of Cashin’s interests include two documentary anthologies on Georgia’s colonial era and its wilderness frontier, both published in the Beehive Foundation’s Library of Georgia series; a history of the Bethesda orphanage in Savannah; a guide to sites associated with James Edward Oglethorpe in London, England, which was coauthored with Danny Amor, a London cab driver who initiated the project; biographies of botanist William Bartram and Confederate sharpshooter Berry Benson; and a history of aviation in the Augusta area. His study of the Chickasaws who helped to lay out Augusta in the mid-1730s was published posthumously in 2009.
Cashin lent his expertise to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, both as editor of the section on eighteenth-century history and as the author of numerous articles. In 1987 his many contributions were recognized when he received the Governor’s Award in the Humanities. Cashin was in Atlanta researching an official history of the Georgia Power Company when he died on September 8, 2007.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
High view of a seaside; where is it?
Today’s mystery is a high view of a seaside area. Can you figure out where this photograph was taken? If so, send your idea to ebrack2@gmail.com and be sure to list your hometown.
The previous mystery was the Miller County courthouse, Colquitt, Ga., taken from Wikipedia. A few regulars recognized it, including Jay Altman of Columbia, S.C.; Stew Ogilvie, Lawrenceville; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex., who wrote: “Today’s mystery photo is of the front of the Miller County Courthouse in Colquitt, Ga., which is located less than 400-feet from the Cotton Hall Theater, the venue which hosts ‘Swamp Gravy,’ the official state folklife play that is performed annually there. Miller County was Georgia’s 117th county, was founded in 1856 and was named after attorney Andrew Jackson Miller (1805 – 1856), who served in the state senate and later became president of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Colquitt was also designated as the county seat in1856 and was named after Walter T. Colquitt (1799 – 1855), a clergyman, attorney, and judge, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1843 to 1848. The county’s first courthouse was built in Colquitt, was replaced once and then burned twice before the current structure was completed in 1977.”
- 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: ebrack2@gmail.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Oprah Book Club author to speak Saturday in Duluth
Author Lara Love Hardin will visit the Duluth Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library on Saturday, June 1 at 7 p.m. She will recount her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot caller and her unlikely comeback as a successful ghostwriter in this harrowing, no-holds-barred memoir, The Many Lives of Mama Love, an Oprah Book Club Pick. Registration is required.
Snellville Commerce Club will meet Tuesday, June 4, at noon at the City Hall. The program will be presented by Battalion Chief Tommy Rutledge, a native of Snellville, of Gwinnett Department of Fire and Emergency Services. Reservations are required and may be made at this link.
Peach Fuzz Zine Fest will take place at the Duluth Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library on June 9 from noon until 6 p.m. The Peach Fuzz Zine Fest is dedicated to showcasing zinesters, artists, writers, and other makers of creative work based in and around the Atlanta Metro area. Artists will sell and trade their zines along with various panels throughout the day.
Author Visit: Bestselling author Omar Tyree will discuss his new psychological thriller, Control. This visit will be on June 11 at 7 p.m. at the Norcross Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. Books will be available for sale and signing.
Attend a Writers’ Workshop given by the Atlanta Writers Club at the Lilburn Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library on June 15 at 1:30 p.m. Learn more about writing, network with other writers, and listen to accomplished authors offer tips to improve your writing.
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