NEW for 10/23: On breast cancer, fake news sites, more

GwinnettForum  |  Number 20.77  |   Oct. 23, 2020

HALLOWEEN IS COMING SOON, and many homes now display either this type of seasonal greeting, or perhaps the more ghoul-featured types of ghosts, spider webs and witches. Whatever your pleasure, enjoy the upcoming season. This front door setting is from former Gwinnettian artist Karen Garner at her new home in Pennsylvania. 

IN THIS EDITION

TODAY’S FOCUS: Speaking directly about the problems encountered with breast cancer

EEB PERSPECTIVE: Pay-for-play fake news sites popping up in USA, and in Gwinnett, too

ANOTHER VIEW: When all is said and done, we must keep on keeping on

SPOTLIGHT: United Community Bank

FEEDBACK: Appreciates the encouragement that Jack Britt has had on his life

UPCOMING: Post Office in Snellville to move to former Sun Trust Bank site Nov. 7-8

NOTABLE: Lewis Cooksey is new Gwinnett Department of Transportation director

RECOMMENDED: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

GEORGIA TIDBIT: Shipwreck off Scotland during World War I kills 130 from Georgia

MYSTERY PHOTO: Difficult or a cream puff?  Check out today’s Mystery Photo

CALENDAR: Collaborative community art project in Suwanee Town Center Park October 25

TODAY’S FOCUS

Speaking directly about problems  with breast cancer

A woman waits for surgery. Photo via Unsplash.

By Catherine Brack   

CHARLESTON, S.C.  |  October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and for many, it is pink:  Pink ribbons, walks and fashion shows featuring pink clothing, shoes and cocktails. If there needs to be an awareness month to inspire more women to schedule mammograms and have real talks about their health with their doctors, then great. Keep it up.

Catherine Brack

But if this is about the symbolism of a month or a ribbon or socializing at walks or parties, then that’s nothing but Barbie-fying breast cancer. It desensitizes the public to the reality of breast cancer. It fails to illustrate how difficult this disease is to detect, much less treat. 

Breast cancer is vile. It is soul-destroying. It is physically painful. It is an emotional terrorist. It is my reality, every single day.

I talk openly about cancer because I want people to understand the face of cancer. I never wanted this reality. I never wanted the surgeries or scars. I never thought I could be facing death at my age, 51, and yet, here I am. Cancer sucks, but that’s not even close to sufficient description. 

So let’s have a real discussion about this vile disease.

One reality:  You diligently get your annual mammogram. Over the years, some come back with anomalies, so you go back for another mammogram to confirm or deny the first one, and sometimes you are treated to a sonogram or biopsy, just to be sure. And for many, this is it. This is your big scare and you go on with your life.

But then too many women — and a few men — face this:  Your mammograms may come back “unremarkable,” but then a few months later, you find a lump. Your doctor suggests another mammogram, which leads you down the sonogram/biopsy/MRI path. Long needles in sensitive areas get jammed into you multiple times. It hurts.  Cancer confirmed; treatment begins. For me, this meant chemotherapy, surgery and radiation.

In very basic terms, chemotherapy kills fast-growing cancer cells. I had 16 intravenous rounds of chemo, and during those five months, I experienced every side effect you could have. Hair loss. Hemorrhoids. Dry eyes. Chronic fatigue. Low iron. Grey skin. Poor memory. Weight loss. 

Then comes some kind of surgery, from a lumpectomy to mastectomy.  And this often is followed with radiation to try to kill off anything left. Radiation leaves you burned, blistered, tattooed and tired.

I celebrated the end of my treatment and my 50th birthday within a few days of each other. Unfortunately, I celebrated too soon. Eleven months to the day of the end of my initial treatment, I was re-diagnosed and elected to have my breasts amputated. “Bi-lateral mastectomy” is too clinical of a term for what happened.  My breasts and nipples were cut away and discarded.

No doctor can ever prepare you for the loss of your breasts and the drainage tubes that accompany recovery. Gross is an understatement. And before breast implants can be added, a tissue expander is inserted where your breasts were to help stretch the skin. Then you are injected with saline on a bi-weekly basis for three months, a process that while not painful, is incredibly uncomfortable. 

I was thrilled to have my implants inserted and move beyond cancer, only to be told, a month after implant surgery, that I again had breast cancer, which, to the layman, seems impossible. It’s not. Metastasized breast cancer travels. It can also go into your bones, your lungs and your brain, your soft tissue, and for me, the chest wall. And it does horrible things to each area — bones that look like honeycombs, lungs that struggle to function, brain tumors and skin lesions that look like a bad case of teenage acne.

Right now, I don’t know if the latest treatments will work. I have real, fact-based talks with my oncologist, who I appreciate more than he will ever know. As sick as I am, when you see me, you’d never even notice. I don’t look like a face of cancer. But the awful reality is: cancer has no real look.  It doesn’t discriminate, and it just needs one cell it can invade to destroy a life, wreak havoc with a family and turn long-term plans into short term must-do’s.

So, during Breast Cancer Awareness month, get a mammogram. Donate to research. But don’t dare to think a cute fashion show or cocktails event is going to beat this demon.

Editor’s note: Catherine Brack is the daughter of Barbara and Elliott Brack of Norcross. She is a nonprofit executive. This first appeared in the Charleston City Paper, where her brother is the publisher.–eeb

• Have a comment?  Send to: elliott@brack.net

EEB PERSPECTIVE

Pay-for-play fake news sites popping up in USA, Gwinnett

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

OCT. 23, 2020  |  Fake news websites are now riding on the credibility that standard newspapers have built over the years to get their false messages out. Insidiously, they are creating what looks like everyday newspapers and web sites, making the reader think their sites are from old, established media. These sites are really newly-created propaganda machines, wanting to convince you that their stories are real. 

Not only that, but these “pay-to-play” sites often contain spurious information virtually ordered up by companies or individuals seeking to implant their own agenda into stories. In effect, it is paid propaganda for that individual or company, disguised as news, and either false or tremendously misleading. Yet they put some simple news in to throw you off more.

A firm orders something like this: “Give me a story making our candidate (or company) look strong, and making his opponent (or competitor) look weak.”  And some freelance  and hungry writers, unethical as they may be, create false news with whatever the slant the client wants, and put it out to make it look like real news.

This is not something distant and far away. There are 30 of these sites in Georgia, according to The New York Times. One is in Gwinnett: North Gwinnett News. We had run across this site before, and wondered about it. There is a little news about Gwinnett, but more stories in general, much of no value. Now we suspect and virtually know that this site is purely full of fake news. The site does not have much depth.

There are hundreds of these sites nationwide, many owned by a few players, who  no doubt, are happily cashing in as people hungry to make themselves or their companies or clients appear wonderful, order up the fake news. 

Some of the news items in these fake places are not only bogus, but are not anywhere close to real news at all.  We quote from one recent story: 

“There were 166 businesses in Georgia zip code 30092 that had between 20 and 49 employees in 2017, according to County Business Patterns (CBP) statistics provided by the United States Census Bureau. CBP data indicates that there were 1,659 total businesses in 30092.”

That’s news?  Seems mighty weak.  You wonder will their next story be how many businesses in zip code 30092 have between 10-20 employees.  That’s nothing but useless, trying-to-look-like-news that is meaningless.

What these sites do is to make it look like they are presenting real news. But then they’ll slip in an item promoting some candidate, firm or individual, who no doubt shelled out money to get their story in print for some unsuspecting soul to read.  

You wonder how long readers will put up with such pap. Yet there are enough simple-minded, unsuspecting individuals out there who will eat this up, thinking they have become educated on something, when in reality, they have become duped.

In the long run, the credibility of these sites is questionable. They probably won’t last very long. Yet those putting out this propaganda will be around enough to make some fat dollars, and simply fade away, maybe renewing themselves in another life.

The way standard news sources have built credibility is through solid reporting of facts on significant news stories, verifiable by others. It takes lots of investigation and fact checking, with the stories often going through three-four-five editors before it reaches print. 

For these unfactual sites, all it takes is someone with the dollars to buy a story the way they want it, and put it out as fact. Some won’t suspect. 

• To see these fake news sites nationwide, click here.
• Have a comment?  Send to: elliott@brack.net

ANOTHER VIEW

When all is said and done, we must keep on keeping on

By Ashley Herndon

OCEANSIDE, Calif.  |  Aristotle said: “Once you have Oligarchic Rule, there are only two choices available: Revolution or Tyranny…that is it.” Or as the Looney Tunes closer said, “That’s All Folks!”.

Herndon

Those in power and their followers must accept that after 400+ years of mistreatment and mis-education concerning racism, misogyny, economic injustice, sexism and the other ‘isms are still with us.  Now add the raw horror of a pandemic which is killing us by the thousands.  Something will give.  There is no more room or patience for mistreatment and mis-education.  Truth telling must now prevail!

Ducking, dodging, dissembling, deceiving, et al, just does not get it.  Keep it up and the pressure will only get worse.  Fanning the flames of fear is equal to pulling a trigger.

But there is Good News: Revolution does not require violence. See Gandhi, see Bonhoeffer, see MLK, Jr. They raised no weapons. They used no violent language.  Any violence that took place was foisted upon them.  Ask John Lewis and Rev. Dr. James Lawson.  The first three were assassinated.  The last two started fighting in the ‘40s. Only Lawson is still with us, and continues to fight  today.

I am not naive enough to say that if there is a “non-violent revolution” that it would solve all problems. However, I will maintain it will provide relief, or, due to who is currently in power, there will be a very ugly corporate-controlled tyranny.  Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Exxon, Goldman, et al., will not lose, and believe it or not, some of them are actually willing to change…albeit, because of public pressure.  No time for either the plantation or gangster economy.

It well looks like it is time we all get our act together and move forward.  The current bog is getting smelly.

‘Don’t let up…Keep the Ball Moving’, as my mother used to say.  Or as Vince Lombardi, another insightful winner advised: “It is a game of inches.”   Inches become yards.  Both of those folks knew how to win.

• Have a comment?  Send to: elliott@brack.net

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

United Community Bank

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriting sponsor is United Community Bank, with 30 offices within Metro Atlanta. Headquartered in Blairsville, Ga., it is the third-largest traditional bank holding company in the state with more than 150 locations throughout Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina. Since 1950, United Community Bank has been dedicated to providing platinum-level service to its customers as the foundation of every relationship. Known as The Bank That SERVICE Built℠, it is committed to improving the lives of residents in the communities it serves through this philosophy of delivering exceptional banking service. In Gwinnett, the bank has offices in Lawrenceville, Snellville and Buford. 

• For more information, visit  https://www.ucbi.com or call 770 237 0007.
• For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.

FEEDBACK

Appreciates the encouragement Britt has had on his life

Editor, the Forum:

Thank you for the article on the Britts written by James Cofer. Jack was all the things that James discussed in his article, but he was much more. He not only coached football and many other sports, but he coached life. 

Jack truly loved every young boy or girl that he coached. He encouraged, motivated, guided and pushed (yes, pushed, but it was a gentle push) his team members to be the best that they could be.

I was a young kid off the farm and didn’t know what was out there in the world. Jack motivated me to finish high school and college and to start a career path that would be exciting and rewarding. He taught me that hard work was one of the secrets of success. He convinced me that I had the skills and abilities to accomplish anything I wanted. 

We stayed in contact over the years and he was always proud of any success that I ever had. He was probably the greatest influencer on my life and I will have to give him credit for any success that I have ever realized.

He is a great person and a great “COACH” and I loved him then and still do. I’m sure he had the same influence over many, many other young men and women.

— Gerald Lord, Dahlonega

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.  We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length.  Send feedback and letters to:  elliott@brack.net

UPCOMING

Post Office in Snellville to move to bank site Nov. 7-8

Construction will completed soon at the new Snellville location of the U.S. Post Office on Wisteria Drive, formerly occupied by SunTrust Bank. 

Post Office officials said they expect to move from their current Oak Road location to the new site at 2440 Wisteria Drive the weekend of November 7-8, as the $1.2 million renovation is just days away from completion. 

Regular Post Office operations will not be affected as it will be open for business as usual Monday, November 9 at the Wisteria address. 

This relocation and renovation was made possible only through the cooperative efforts of the City of Snellville and postal officials over the past several years. The old post office will soon be demolished, making way for The Grove at Towne Centre. That will bring 250 luxury apartments, a 750-space public parking garage, a new Gwinnett County library where the current Elizabeth Williams branch will be relocated, several thousand square feet of retail/office space and a distinctive City Market.  All these will form  a new city center and downtown for Snellville.  

NOTABLE

Cooksey is new Gwinnett transportation director

Gwinnett County Administrator Glenn Stephens has promoted Lewis Cooksey from assistant director of the Department of Transportation to director, effective October 31.

Cooksey

Commissioners ratified Cooksey’s employment agreement during this week’s commission meeting. Current DOT Director Alan Chapman is retiring October 30 after 23 years of service to Gwinnett County, including the last five spent leading the department.

Gwinnett County Department of Transportation hired Cooksey as a project manager in 2008, and he subsequently rose through the ranks to engineering coordinator, deputy director and assistant director.

Projects overseen by Cooksey include the diverging diamond interchanges at I-85 at Pleasant Hill Road and Interstate-85 at Jimmy Carter Boulevard, the widening of Georgia Highway 20 in Sugar Hill and the construction of the McGinnis Ferry Road bridge over I-85.

From September 2019 to October 2020, he was assistant director of Engineering, Construction, and Business and Staffing Services at the Department of Water Resources.

Before joining Gwinnett County, Cooksey was president of a local engineering firm and designed numerous projects in and around Gwinnett County.

Cooksey, a registered professional engineer, brings 26 years’ experience in civil engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering Technology from Kennesaw State University and holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Georgia.

Jackson EMC Foundation names Boling as new member

Banks County native Vicki Boling has been appointed to the 11-member Jackson EMC Foundation Board of Directors.

Boling

Along with her father, Boling manages several family businesses in Banks County, including Document Destruction Services, Inc. and Data Survival, Inc.; as well as Books with A’Peal in Cornelia. Her career also includes working in a variety of positions for various software companies, and 13 years serving as a group sales manager for Chateau Elan. 

She is a graduate of Banks County High School and the Women’s College of Brenau University with a degree in Business Administration. Boling is a graduate of Leadership Banks and the Georgia Academy for Economic Development. 

Boling currently is president of the Banks County Rotary Club. She has been appointed to the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission. She currently also serves on the Board of Directors for The Tree House; is a member of the Banks County Republican Party; and the Banks County Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of Charity Baptist Church in Homer and frequently visits The Torch Worship Center in Demorest.

The Jackson EMC Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization established to represent the members of Jackson EMC and distribute money collected from members participating in Operation Round Up.  Since Operation Round Up’s beginning more than 15 years ago, the Foundation has awarded over  $16 million through 1,566 grants to organizations and 389 to individuals.

RECOMMENDED

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: A group of misfit students of the classics under the tutelage of an eccentric professor become embroiled in a tangle of mysteries that result in an accidental death.  Each has their own set of frailties and ethical conundrums that forge them together and overtime cause suspicion, fear and misguided loyalty.  The way that they resolve the issue pertaining to one of their group sets off a chain of events that lead each to their individual psychological precipice.  This book is a masterpiece of suspense, foreboding and spiritual unraveling complete with taught but subdued action and character development. Her writing is stunningly lyrical and is filled with chilling description and cerebral detail.  It is a distinctly suspenseful story that will go deep into the bones of the reader. Highly recommended for Donna Tartt fans and those new to her literature.

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 

[butto n size=”small”]GEORGIA TIDBIT [/button]

Shipwreck off Scotland during WWI kills 130 from Georgia

On the morning of September 25, 1918, about 690 doughboys (infantrymen), mostly Georgians from Fort Screven, near Tybee Island, boarded the old British liner Otranto, which set sail with a large Allied convoy bound for England. The Otranto was a medium-sized, prewar passenger liner that, like so many others, had been pressed into military service by the British Royal Navy. 

As the convoy entered the Irish Sea on October 6, still a day from port, a storm developed with gale-force winds. A tremendous wave struck the Kashmir, a converted troopship within the convoy, causing it to break ranks and veer hard. It rammed at full steam into the unsuspecting Otranto and caused severe damage to the liner. With a gaping hole in her side and a loss of power, the Otranto was helpless against the strong, storm-driven current, and she began to drift toward the nearby Scottish island of Islay and its rocky coast. The Otranto began to sink slowly before a huge wave pushed the ship onto Islay’s rocks. The ship broke apart and quickly sank. Approximately 370 men were killed, an estimated 130 of whom were Georgians.

• To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org

MYSTERY PHOTO

Difficult or a cream puff?  Check out today’s Mystery Photo

Will today’s Mystery Photo turn out to be difficult, or is this a cream puff. Figure out the clues and send your answer to elliott@brack.net along with your hometown.

The last Mystery Photo caught the eye of several, who knew immediately what it depicted.  It was a shot of the south end of Jekyll Island, Georgia.  Among those recognizing it were  Kay Everett, Lawrenceville; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Robert Foreman, Grayson; Joseph Hopkins, Lawrenceville; Harriet Nichols, Trickum; and Lou Camerio, Lilburn. George Graf of Palmyra, Va. supplied these basic details: “Jekyll Island, at 5,700 acres, is the smallest of Georgia’s barrier islands. The western side of Jekyll Island is fronted by Jekyll Creek and salt marsh, and the eastern edge of the island has 10 miles of grand, unspoiled shoreline directly on the Atlantic Ocean.”

Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. added some historical background: “General James Oglethorpe (1696 – 1785),  founded the British Colony of Georgia in 1733, and along with it, Jekyll Island. The island was named for Sir Joseph Jekyll (1663 – 1738), a financial supporter of the colony. The first buildings on the island were built by Major William Horton as an outpost to protect Fort Frederica on nearby St. Simons Island.

“Jekyll Island was purchased in 1886 by a group of wealthy families as a private retreat. By 1900, The Jekyll Island Club membership included the Rockefellers, Morgans, Cranes, and Goulds and represented over one-sixth of the world’s wealth. The Club closed in 1942 and Jekyll Island was purchased by the State of Georgia in 1947 (for $675,000), when it officially became the Jekyll Island State Park. It was operated as part of the state parks system in 1948-49. In order to manage the high costs associated with maintaining the park, it was decided to manage the island more like a business, so the state chartered the Jekyll Island Authority for ninety-nine years (beginning in 1950) to manage the island on behalf of the state.”

(Editor’s note: All too many new Georgians do not know of the quiet splendor and the enjoyment that Jekyll provides, especially of the beach for young children.  If you haven’t been, go enjoy what is one of our favorite locations in Georgia—eeb).

CALENDAR

Art Project: The City of Suwanee invites the community to participate in a collaborative community art project in Town Center Park on Sunday, October 25, from 1-5 p.m. For a $20 donation to Suwanee Public Art, families can spend a fall afternoon painting one of the brand-new bistro tables dotting the park. The tables are part of the city’s effort to create more open air opportunities for digital learning, working, and dining. Social distancing will be practiced at check-in, and all materials will either be disposable or sanitized between use.

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