IT MUST BE “between class” time at Georgia Gwinnett University, as some students stream away from the main building, headed toward the library. Meanwhile, two others lounge in the shade. Big news this week is that the college has been re-accredited. See story below in Upcoming.
TODAY’S FOCUS: This group knows how to hold trustworthy elections
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Mark Twain, the nation’s first major travel writer
SPOTLIGHT: NDIMaxim Real Estate LLC
ANOTHER VIEW: Outlines four ways to improve our democracy
FEEDBACK: High down payment not feasible for many people
UPCOMING: Georgia Gwinnett College once again is accredited!
NOTABLE: Behavior health organization expands to Gwinnett
RECOMMENDED: The Great Ideas of Philosophy by Daniel N. Robinson
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Bitsy Grant was top international circuit tennis player
MYSTERY PHOTO: Where is this old stone church positioned?
LAGNIAPPE: New Discovery Park opens on Old Norcross Road
CALENDAR: Vidalia Theatre Company at Lionheart Theatre June 21-23
This group knows how to hold trustworthy elections
By Stell Simonton
Braver Angels Georgia
Simonton
LILBURN, Ga. | Surprise! Conservatives and liberals can agree on something. They agree on how to hold a trustworthy election. If this seems counter-intuitive, read on.
In 26 workshops held across the nation over three years, liberals and conservatives were asked to come up with the ingredients that would make U.S. elections fair and trustworthy. Each workshop consisted of four to eight people — an equal number of liberals and conservatives — and one was held in Georgia in 2023.
Here are a few of the policies agreed on in the workshops:
- Make Election Day a national holiday.
- Require voters to show identification. States could provide free voter ID to every eligible voter.
- Have states join a shared database such as ERIC (the Electronic Registration Information Center), to improve the accuracy of voter rolls.
Participants also agreed that all states should offer no-excuse-needed absentee ballots. And they agreed that no state legislature or nonjudicial official should be allowed to overturn election results.
The workshops were led by Braver Angels , a national nonprofit begun in 2016 with the goal of reducing political polarization. The workshops, which drew people from 27 states, followed a structure that was partly the brainchild of Minnesota family therapist Bill Doherty, based on his work with divorcing couples. The process allowed people from different political parties to find and focus on shared ideas rather than areas of disagreement.
Dowd
Brown
The Georgia workshop was moderated by Barbara Brown, a special ed teacher at Berkmar Middle School in Lilburn, who leans red, and John Schwenkler of Decatur, who leans blue. Brown is co-coordinator of Braver Angels Georgia along with retired Baptist minister Sharyn Dowd.
Braver Angels Georgia will present the results of the workshops — the Trustworthy Elections Report — to the Georgia State Elections Board on July 9.
The workshop structure is what enables people to find common ground. First, the participants divided along party lines and came up with a list of values. Then they traded their lists and each group scrutinized the other’s. They kept any value statements they agreed with. Then the whole group examined the common values they held and struck off any that seemed problematic.
For example, one agreed-upon value was: Every citizen should be assured the opportunity to cast a legal vote with “relative ease.” Another was: Democracy only works if all parties to an election abide by the rules and accept the final results.
Then the participants divided along party lines again and listed their concerns about problems implementing the value statements. Conservatives tended to be concerned about election fraud, while liberals tended to be concerned about access to voting, Dowd says.
Finally they drafted policies that addressed each concern. Reds and blues traded their lists and then together examined solutions that the whole group could get behind.
In the current political climate, there are not enough venues for finding agreement with our political opponents, Dowd says. “I think the biggest problem is that we have become so siloed and are in our own echo chambers that we see people who vote differently from us in stereotypical ways,” Dowd adds. “Instead of seeing people who vote differently as mistaken, we see them as evil.”
Braver Angels, on the other hand, has developed a way to bring to light the common values people have and the solutions they might jointly find.
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Mark Twain, the nation’s first major travel writer
Twain. Library of Congress photo.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 18, 2024 | Here’s something different today. Let’s go back in time with Mark Twain, and one of our all-time favorite books.
What’s Mark Twain’s bestselling book? You might be surprised.
It’s not Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.
It’s The Innocents Abroad, published in 1869, firmly establishing Mark Twain as a serious writer. This was Twain’s second book, and an outgrowth of an assignment from the Daily Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper, to pay him $1,250 to file letters from abroad for publication. He sent 51 letters, and those, along with a few others written for newspapers in New York, comprise Innocents Abroad. The dispatches, followed by lectures in later years that Twain delivered based on his travels, helped establish Twain’s voice as an American original. During Twain’s lifetime, Innocents was his most popular book, and today it remains perhaps the most celebrated travel book by an American writer. It reads as if the trip was most recent. It’s fun to read as Twain takes a distinctly curious eye at others, and tells you what he’s thinking.
The book is an account of a five-month voyage to Morocco, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, southern Russia, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Many Christians may have particularly enjoyed his description of the Holy Land, one of the first Americans to provide vivid eye pictures to Biblical scholars of how people in that land lived at that time, and what the land looked like.
As the bestselling book of Twain’s lifetime (and one of the most popular travelogues ever published), The Innocents Abroad documents Twain’s voyages in Europe and the Middle East in hilarious fashion. (A large party chartered a steamer to take them to the Old World.)
The trip was one of the first all-inclusive tours, something unusual at that time. The ship stopped at numerous Mediterranean Sea ports, allowing the passengers to take extended excursions on land. Among them:
- A train excursion from Marseille to Paris for the 1867 Paris Exhibition during the reign of Napoleon III and the Second French Empire;
- Travel through the Papal States to Rome;
- A side trip through the Black Sea to Odessa;
- The highlight of the trip, an excursion through the Holy Land;
- Arriving in Egypt and seeing the Great Pyramids.
Twain reports the voyage covered over 20,000 miles of land and sea. One reason the book is so popular is that it reads so well in the modern day. Twain explains matters through problems he and his group encounter, as if they just stepped off the boat yesterday. This group of travelers over 150 years ago experienced the same problems tourists do today. Some critics credit its longevity to its fresh approach: It was written from a different angle than most travel books of its time.
From traveling, Twain maintained that it changed people. He wrote: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
But The Innocents Abroad was not Twain’s personal best favorite. That would be his fictional account of a saga of France, his Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896). Who has read and can write us a recommendation on the Joan of Arc book ?
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NDIMaxim Real Estate LLC
Today GwinnettForum welcomes a new underwriting supporter. It is NDIMaxim Real Estate LLC, a phoenix rising from the collaboration of Atlanta Maxim Realty International, NDI Development LLC, and GA ATL Property Management LLC in 2019, has evolved into a dynamic force in the local real estate scene since its official merger in 2020. Atlanta Maxim Realty International excels in residential sales and acquisition, while GA ATL Property Management oversees around 400 residential and commercial properties.
NDI Development manages its shopping centers in the Gwinnett and Metro Region. Prompted by Tim Le in 2019, Tina Dang orchestrated the merger, aiming to pool resources for enhanced competitiveness. NDIMaxim Real Estate LLC now encompasses four divisions: NDIMaxim Commercial, Residential, Property Management, and Access Development LLC.
The latter is embarking on its inaugural project, Boardwalk Duluth, a retail and office building adjacent to the Beaver Ruin Wetland Reserve, promising an ideal location with restaurant amenities and access to the 68-acre park, has just been completed, with full enjoyment anticipated in 2025. For retail or office needs, contact Tim Le at 770-912-9684.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Outlines four ways to improve our democracy
By George Wilson, contributing columnist
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. | In my view, we the people are frustrated, discouraged and worn out with all three branches of the United States government. These failures have led to attacks on our judicial system and the rule of law by unsavory, power hungry and disgusting people.
But the support of these demagogues and authoritarians is not the answer. Moreover, and ironically, this may be the major reason for the convicted felon’s popularity as he runs for president. The real solutions are that we need true major reforms to get this nation back on the path of forming a more perfect union.
Another big issue is the media’s horserace election coverage and the obsession with reporting the latest outrageous statements by members of Congress and other politicians. Instead, we need stories that aim at providing a deeper level of political meaning and context. So far Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is the only media outlet that attempts to do this consistently.
What should we do as a nation?
First, we should pass a law that establishes a federally controlled election fund then outlaws all campaign donations of every kind from individuals, pac’s, corporations, special interest groups, and lobbyists. Any presidential candidate who qualifies to be on the ballot would receive an equal amount of money from the federal election fund to mount their campaign. Unless we take money out of politics, those who win elections will continue to be owned by those who financed them.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has already ruled that political campaign donations are protected freedom of speech, and those individuals, corporations and labor unions can express themselves during elections by spending enormously on candidates or campaigns.
The current SCOTUS rulings protect the rulers from the ruled. In reality, money is not speech, nor corporations’ people. Corporations don’t come home in body bags. So, it will be difficult to simply declaring election campaign donations and spending by 501(C) groups illegal. That may mean a constitutional change may be in order.
Second, reform is to start with mandatory federal guidelines on how state’s create voting districts. This is to limit how aggressively states can gerrymander districts to make elections less competitive. This will give us more moderate candidates. To pass legal muster, there should remain some ability for states to manage redistricting.
Third: we need to pass a federal law requiring states to require voter referendums under basic guidelines. Currently, states vary in the way they allow registration, causing disadvantages for many voters.
When state legislators go against the will of a majority of voters, those voters should have the right to override the legislature on individual issues through some fair set of guidelines. We have seen examples of conservative states like Kansas overturning the attack on women’s rights.
Finally, something must be done to improve the civic knowledge of our population. This can only be done through the educational system and perhaps with help from the media. The Annenberg public policy center reports that “many U.S. adults don’t know the rights protected under the First Amendment”, and the only one with wide recognition is freedom of speech, which 77 percent knew.
The other rights were known by under half of respondents: freedom of religion was known by 40 percent and freedom of the press by 28 percent. While 66 percent in our survey could name all three branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial), 17 percent could not name any.”
Any hope of change requires all starts with you voting for candidates and parties that push and foster these ideas.
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High down payment not feasible for many people
Editor, the Forum:
Let me comment on Randy Brunson’s article of 15 Considerations Before Buying Your First Home. I purchased a home with my husband two years ago, so my memories of buying a home are still relatively recent. While a lot of this is good advice, other parts of it seem impractical these days – especially when considering your budget. According to Zillow, the average cost of a house in Gwinnett County is now $418,722.
That means to put 20 percent down, you’d have to be prepared to pay up front $83,744.40 to avoid principal mortgage insurance (PMI.)
Yes, this is a good idea if you can. No, it’s not practical advice for most people trying to buy their first house.
Still, let’s assume someone has that kind of money to put down. Great! Their loan is still $334,977.60 for the average cost of a home. If you did a 15-year mortgage, interest rates are currently at 6.499 percent. So, for a loan of $334,978, your monthly payment is estimated to be $2,918 according to one mortgage calculator I consulted. A 30-year loan is slightly more doable each month, with a monthly payment of $2,343.
The housing market is out of control. I’ve read articles saying that buying a first home is no longer possible for many people. High payments are not feasible for many, and is probably why many can’t afford their first home.
– Meghan Wegendt, Lawrenceville
Fears for the country in the future with less media
Editor, the Forum:
Let me say that I fear for how our country is going to look in times to come. I hope I’m gone before it gets too bad, particularly concerning the media. Many folks I know are saying a similar thing.
Of the Gwinnett Daily Post, I still take it too. It amazes me how much Curt Yeomans writes to get those two issues out every week. The awards that he gets are well deserved.
I had hoped when Marietta Daily Journal acquired the Post, that changes were coming, even if they raised rates. But the only change I’ve seen is postal delivery—not an improvement.
It’s a sad day for print newspaper lovers: both the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and the Macon Telegraph, now virtually two editions of the same newspaper, announced reductions to two-day-per-week printing to begin in August. And one of those days is not Sunday.
I grew up with the Columbus Ledger and the Sunday Ledger-Enquirer. I still read, need, a daily AJC with my coffee and Cheerios, though I disagree with its in-your-face politics. I’ve often thought about moving back to Columbus, now that I’m retired, but this gives me another reason not to.
– Tom Fort, Snellville
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 by to: ebrack2@gmail.com.
Georgia Gwinnett College once again is accredited
Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) earned its 10-year reaffirmation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Joseph
GGC President Jann L. Joseph says: “We are pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees of the SACSCOC has voted and approved Georgia Gwinnett College’s accreditation reaffirmation as we embark on the 20th year of our young history. Our enrollment numbers have rebounded strongly from the pandemic and continue to grow with record enrollments this summer and anticipated growth this fall. Retention rates are at an all-time high, and we are celebrating record graduation rates.”
The Association grants accreditation status to degree-granting higher education institutions in 11 southern states, Latin America and 68 other countries worldwide. The process for reaffirmation includes rigorous internal and external peer review processes, which help ensure that an institution like GGC adheres to standards that include academic excellence, policy and fiscal responsibility. An institution that fails to meet accreditation standards can face the loss of federal funding, which greatly impacts its ability to award financial aid to students.
GGC has been accredited since 2009 and seeks accreditation every 10 years.
Behavioral health organization expands to Gwinnett
A trauma-informed behavioral health organization has opened a new office in Lawrenceville to provide trauma-informed care for youth and adults. It includes mental health and substance abuse support. CHRIS 180 is expanding its services in Gwinnett with an office at 220 West Crogan Street in Lawrenceville.
The new facility provides children, adults and families who have experienced trauma an opportunity to change their lives and become more productive, self-sufficient members of the community.
The new Gwinnett location will provide the full range of CHRIS 180 services for children, youth and families (therapy, psychiatric services, play therapy techniques, child-parent psychotherapy), and juvenile justice support programs (multisystemic therapy, Thinking for a Change Group sessions). These services are intended to help people change the direction in their lives.
The firm was founded in 1981 and provides behavioral health services and wraparound support to children, adults, families and communities that empowers them to change the direction of their lives. Over more than 40 years, the organization has worked with more than 200,000 clients to build resilience and heal from trauma.
CHRIS is an acronym that stands for our core values: Creativity, Honor, Respect, Integrity, Safety. 180 represents change, as the organization is changing directions and changing lives.
The Great Ideas of Philosophy (second edition), by Daniel N. Robinson
From Susan J. Harris, Stone Mountain: Explore the world of ideas from the greatest thinkers of the past on a CD. The series consists of 60 lectures on ‘topics of thought’ from such thinkers as Rene’ Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean Jacques Rousseau, William James, J.S Mill, Emmanuel Kant, Karl Marx, George William Friedrich Hegel, Charles Darwin, John Locke and others. Lecture topics include What is Enlightenment? Hobbes and the Social Machine, David Hume and the Pursuit of Happiness, Descartes and the Authority of Reason, The Renaissance-Was there One? and Let us Burn the Witches to Save Them. This series will take time to listen; some topics might require a listen or two, but overall it is a richly rewarding journey through the world of thought. Choose the book on CD if you drive your car a lot, as Professor Robinson is a delightful companion!
- 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. Click here to send an email.
Grant was top international circuit tennis player
Bitsy Grant was a champion tennis player from Georgia and the first Georgian to make it to the semifinals of the U.S. Open tournament. He was ranked in the top ten in the United States nine times between 1930 and 1941, achieving a rank of third in 1935 and 1936. He was ranked eighth in the world in 1936 and sixth in the world in 1937. Standing 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds, Grant was the smallest American male ever to reach champion status on the international tennis circuit.
Bryan Morel Grant was born in Atlanta on December 25, 1910, into a tennis-playing family. His father, Bryan M. Grant Sr., was the southern doubles champion for many years. His older brother, Berry, became captain of the tennis team at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. When Grant’s mother, Hattie, took up tennis, she began playing with Bitsy as a child, although his father believed that he was too small to become a good player. Grant himself had hoped to play professional baseball, but when he realized that he was too small for the sport, he concentrated on tennis.
Grant’s desire to compete was evident from an early age; in 1927 he won the Southern championship at age 16. With little power and limited reach, Grant adopted a retriever style (running down every ball and keeping it in play as long as possible), which, combined with phenomenal ball control and excellent conditioning, made him difficult to defeat. He learned to play tennis on red Georgia clay and was almost unbeatable on this surface.
He won the U.S. Championships (later known as the U.S. Open) on clay three times, in 1930, 1934, and 1935, but he also achieved success on the grass courts of Forest Hills, N.Y., where the tournament is played. He beat Don Budge there in 1935 to reach the semifinals but lost to the eventual champion, Fred Perry. Some tennis analysts believe that Grant’s retriever style of play was so draining that after a demanding match he had little energy for the next round.
Grant played in Davis Cup matches in 1935, 1936, and 1937 and helped the United States win the tournament in 1937, for the first time in ten years. Grant continued to compete as a senior player and won 19 U.S. singles titles on the four competition surfaces: grass, indoor, clay, and hard. He was named to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1972 and is an inductee in the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
In the 1950s the city of Atlanta built the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center, a public complex with 13 courts in the country.
Grant died of cancer in Atlanta in 1986. He and his wife, Marie Cleveland, had two children, Mary and Bryan III.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Where is this old stone church positioned?
Today’s mystery is obviously an older church. Your job is to figure out where it is located. Send your thoughts to ebrack2@gmail.com, and list your hometown.
First to identify last edition’s mystery near a flagpole flying our nation’s flag was Molly Titus of Peachtree Corners. “Isn’t that Brookgreen Gardens, in Murrells Inlet, S.C. It was sent in by Ross Lenhart of Stone Mountain.
Others recognizing it included Virginia Klaer, Duluth; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; George Graf, Palmyra,Va.; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex., who wrote: “It’s a life-sized, four piece collection of bronze sculptures that depict a group of seven multicultural children pledging allegiance to our flag. Called Pledge Allegiance, it is the work of an American sculptor, Glenna Maxey Goodacre (1939 – 2020). There are actually a number of bronze castings of this artwork located mostly in the United States, but with some as far away as Japan and Brazil. Brookgreen Gardens is a 9,127-acre property preserve located north of Charleston and south of Myrtle Beach. The Brookgreen Gardens combines a botanical garden with more than 2,000 outdoor sculptures and exhibits of wild animals as well as a zoo that is a ‘safe home’ to a variety of Lowcountry native animals.
“The first rendition of the Goodacre’s Pledge Allegiance was created in 1990 as a 24″ maquette (or small miniature model) for the Denver Children’s Museum to give as an award to First Lady Barbara Bush in recognition of her work with literacy. Its popularity with the public eventually inspired Goodacre to create a number of life-size versions of the sculpture in which the children are approximately 5-feet high and the flagpole is 14-feet high.”
- 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.
New Discovery Park opens on Old Norcross Road
Gwinnett County officials on Thursday broke ground on Discovery Park, the newest addition to the County’s award-winning parks system, off Old Norcross Road near Discovery High School. When complete, the 45-acre park will feature an inclusive playground suitable for children of all ages and abilities, open greenspaces, a Ride Gwinnett bus stop, shaded picnic pavilions and more. Other amenities include an interactive fountain, a multipurpose sports field and two 3-on-3 soccer pitches. A lighted, 12-foot-wide multi-use trail will encircle the entire park. The $28.5 million project is funded by the County’s SPLOST program. The park is expected to open to the public in 2026.
Vidalia Theatre Company at Lionheart Theatre June 21-23
Hear Author Rhonda McKnight in conversation with Vanessa Riley on June 20 at 7 p.m. at the Snellville Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. They will discuss McKnight’s new novel, Bitter and Sweet, a dual-timeline tale of family, grief, secrets, and the sweet redemption that lies within the bonds of sisterhood. Books will be available for sale and signing.
The Gwinnett County Soil and Water Conservation Committee will hold their monthly meeting on June 20, at 9:30 a.m. at the Gwinnett Senior Services Center, 57 Swanson Drive, Lawrenceville.
The Vidalia Theatre Company will present Summer Harvest 2024, a collection of 10 minute plays that explore the theme of “unexpected goodbyes.” This will be presented on the Lionheart Theatre stage in Norcross on June 21-23. Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m. while the Sunday performance is at 3 p.m. For tickets, visit www.vidaliatheatre.com.
Women in Sports Panel Discussion will be held Saturday, June 22 at 2 p.m., at the Norcross Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Calling all sports enthusiasts, aspiring athletes, and supporters of women in sports! Join Atlanta Women in Sports for an inspirational discussion featuring game-changing women.
Helping Kids Manage Big Emotions will be at the Collins Hills Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library on Tuesday, June 25, at 6:30 p.m. Gain a greater understanding of the challenges facing your child and practical steps you can take to ensure your child’s needs are met.
Public Art Unveiling Ceremony will be in Braselton at the library at 15 Brassie Lane on June 25 at 5:30 p.m. This features the sculpture by J. Doyle Rogers and Logan Berry. It is sponsored by the Braselton Public Arts Council.
Taste of Peachtree Corners will be Thursday, June 26, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Community Room of City Hall, presented by the Peachtree Corners Business Association. Enjoy an evening of bites and drinks as you get to sample foods from local businesses.
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