GwinnettForum | Number 21.27 | April 6 , 2021
HERE’S A CONCEPTION of what The Water Tower center will look like when it is completed. It is located near the F. Wayne Hill Water Resource Center at 2500 Clean Water Court in Buford, between Interstate 85 and Interstate 985. It is in its second year of operation and recently issued its new newsletter, The Elevated Perspective, which you can read here. Phase I of the Water Innovation Center building is expected to be completed by January, 2022.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Pulling into your driveway, and knowing you’re home
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Could the voting limits take down a sitting governor?
ANOTHER VIEW: Provides list of what he sees as national list of reforms
SPOTLIGHT: The 1818 Club
FEEDBACK: Two who want to stay with impeachment the way it is
UPCOMING: Go online to apply for jobs for Stripers at Coolray
NOTABLE: PCOM students help by sped-up training, giving vaccinations
RECOMMENDED: Revolutionary Petunias by Alice Walker
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Georgia Contemporary art museum open three days a week
MYSTERY PHOTO: Feast of clues await you in today’s Mystery Photo
CALENDAR: Clean-Up Day to be Friday, April 10 in Norcross
Pulling into your driveway, and knowing you’re home
By Billy Chism
TOCCOA, Ga. | It’s funny how we get to know a place. There’s a lot involved.
Chism
For me, it was fairly easy getting to know my first place. I was born in Pelham, Ga., in a small hospital less than a mile from our house on Tennyson Street. (Pelham’s 1950 population was 4,362.)
My earliest memories of Pelham didn’t materialize until I was four or five years old. Compare this to my wife, who lived in five different states by the time she was six. She remembers most of these places, including the nuns who taught her kindergarten in New Orleans. They were nice, she says.
My theory is this: I wasn’t dumb. I just saw the same rooms in our house and the same woods every day. I knew every turn of the creek that ran through the woods, I knew every tree. I just didn’t think about it. But those woods in Southwest Georgia seeped into my bones.
By the time I was in the third grade, I had a bike and my world expanded. I could ride downtown to The Hand Trading Company or to the Carnegie Library next to Hand’s.
I also was in the third grade when I met John Bair, who lived up the street. The Bair house was on the corner of Wilder and Tennyson Street, only 150 yards from our house.
But it was a different place all together. Our brick house was built in 1950, the year before I was born. The Bair House was built before the turn of the century and had wide-plank floors, large rooms, high ceilings and an upstairs with hidden spaces.
More remarkable was the Bair family, whose children were all talented and seemed connected to the outside world.
Angela Bair, ten years older than John and me, introduced us to the world of popular music. A stereo in the living room kept the place filled with the sounds of bebop and a whole lot more during the summers. She tried teaching me to dance.
Zane Bair, four years older than John and me, would play the baby grand piano in the Bair living room. He would not just play, he would perform as if he were a maestro leading an orchestra. Sometimes we would sit under the piano for full-volume effect.
For the next few years, I practically lived at the Bair House. I found comfort there, and was invited for supper more times than I could ever remember. The Bair House seemed alive, and was my kind of place.
I’ve lived in other places, including Athens. But dorm rooms and run-down rental houses aren’t that memorable.
It wasn’t until I moved to Toccoa that I found a sense of place.
I remember making a trip back to Pelham one weekend by myself to check on my parents, both in poor health. What I remember most about the trip, though, was driving back to Toccoa, pulling into the driveway of our little house and thinking: “I’m home.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Could the voting limits take down a sitting governor?
Kemp. Photo via Office of the Governor.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 6, 2021 | You wonder if Gov. Brian Kemp sealed his political future last week when he signed the new voter suppression bill almost immediately after it passed the Legislature, a knee-jerk reaction if we have ever seen one.
Actions result in consequences. The action by Major League Baseball to move the annual All-Star game, originally set for the Atlanta Braves stadium, to another city, may be the least of the results of Georgia getting a new voting law with all its limitations. There will be consequences of this vote until Georgians ditch the Republican control over the Legislature, and curtail the measures instituted by this new procedure concerning voting. We doubt the next election will put Democrats in the majority in Georgia, but it certainly moves that day closer. (However, the upcoming reapportionment of the Legislature may give the GOP-drawing majority a little more life in charge of the General Assembly.)
The new voting laws have already been denounced by progressive thinking individuals and organizations, and drawn several seeking remedies in the courts. It smacks of pure discrimination, while it also criminalizes humane actions of kindness, such as handing out water and food to those waiting in line to vote. How can a Legislature be so crass?
For sure this new voting legislation moves Georgia to the Number One position in our 50 states when it comes to curtailing voting. It was passed in the Legislature by today’s controlling far-right Republican Party, whose members cannot see, and probably are not smart enough to understand, how it not only displeases many Georgians, but makes the state seem parked in the good old days of Jim Crow politics.
These new laws have also been harsh enough to draw out captains of corporate America in Georgia to speak out far more than they have in the past about such an injustice. These firms, Delta, Coke, Home Depot and even the Atlanta Chamber, might not cozy up to the Republican majority as they have in the past. These Republicans must now realize that they may have gone a little too far in this year’s new voting legislation. Unfortunately, these leaders of the business world only spoke up once they saw the pressure of their customers coming out so strong about these new voting procedures.
But back to Governor Kemp: he is already in trouble in the minds of some of the Trump element of the Republican Party for not being strong enough in trying to overturn the 2020 election for Donald Trump.
The Trump base in Georgia promises to remain strong and numerous in Georgia. It may not grow, especially since it’s skewed toward older age and white men, two declining demographics. But it makes up a considerable element of the Republican Party, and could be influential when the party nominates candidates in next governor’s election. Can Brian Kemp even survive his own party? That may be difficult.
But even if Governor Brian should be the GOP nominee, no doubt Stacey Abrams will be a formidable opponent in the General Election! Look what she engineered in upsetting two Republicans in the Senate run-off election in 2020, and changing the make-up of the Senate, and politics nationally! Whoever gains the Republican nomination in the next governor’s race could be the odds-on favorite….to lose.
It’s been a refreshing feeling to know that many Georgians are upset over the new elections laws. And yep, this might prove to have substantially more consequences than the Republicans thought, and even take down a sitting governor.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Provides list of what he sees as national list of reforms
By George Wilson, contributing columnist
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. | Jane Mayer at The New Yorker recently broke an interesting story. She wrote while Republicans insist that the For the People Act voting rights act, H.R. 1, is a partisan plan, in fact, a leaked conference call from January 8 between a policy advisor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and leaders of several conservative groups showed the participants’ concern that H.R. 1 is quite popular even with Republicans.
Across the political spectrum, ordinary Americans especially like its provision to limit the dark money that has flowed into our elections since the 2010 Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision, permitting billionaires to buy an election’s outcome.
In the 2020 federal election cycle, dark-money groups spent more than a billion dollars. More than $654 million came from just 15 groups, the top of which is connected to McConnell. In February, a Data for Progress poll showed that 68 percent of likely voters, including 57 percent of Republicans, like the bill that would staunch the flow of this money.
To kill the measure, a research director for an advocacy group run by the Koch brothers said that Senate Republicans would have to use “under-the-dome-type strategies.” That is, they would have to leverage congressional rules, like the filibuster, to ensure the bill doesn’t pass.
Furthermore, we must make some drastic reforms if this experiment in democracy is to work. These reforms are included in H.R.1:
- Streamlining voter registration;
- Commitment to restore the Voting Rights Act;
- Nationwide early voting;
- Citizen-funded elections;
- Other important campaign finance reforms.
H.R. 1 also includes strong measures to close loopholes in federal campaign disclosure rules, curb foreign funds in U.S. elections, and fix the Federal Election Commission, our nation’s dysfunctional campaign finance regulator.
These would include gerrymandering reform, election security and ethics reform. The bill also prevents the purging of voter rolls based on eliminating the voter registrations of voters who have failed to vote in recent elections.
Finally, it should include later statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico; eliminating the filibuster; and reform the Republican-packed Supreme Court by adding two justices. Only then can we achieve our full potential as a nation.
- 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.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Two who want to stay with impeachment the way it is
Editor, the Forum:
I respectfully disagree with Jack Bernard’s idea to lower the margin needed to impeach a sitting president for three reasons. First is that impeachment is by definition an overturn of democracy and while constitutionally provided, the evidence and majority must be overwhelming and bipartisan.
Second, there was a lot to be alarmed about in the last election all centered around the use of mail-in ballots that did not meet the same residential validation checks as absentee or walk-in. They also were not approved by voters or state legislators beforehand and should not have been used in the election cycle that they were introduced.
Lastly, while the president did call on followers to voice their concern to lawmakers, he did not call for violence.
Jack’s idea simply encourages this partisan behavior instead of reaching out to those whose views might not be as enlightened as his.
— Joe Briggs, Suwanee
Editor, the Forum:
Sorry, I totally disagree with Jack Bernard. Our forefathers who drew up the Constitution were much smarter than any of us today. They realized that important decisions like this should not be able to be passed without more bipartisan support, not something that just falls along party lines.
I am sure they are rolling (twirling?) in their graves watching the politics of today, with our lack of compromise, the lines in the sand, the lack of truth and honesty from our politicians. We are in a sad state of affairs these days, and need to follow and support the document that made this country what it used to be, strong, more unified, and a leader in the affairs of the world.
— Debbie Martin, Lawrenceville
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. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
Go online to apply for jobs for Stripers at Coolray
The Gwinnett Stripers, Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, are now hiring gameday staff to work at Coolray Field. To ensure a safe and contactless process, the Stripers will be accepting online applications only. To view and apply for all open positions, visit GoStripers.com/jobs.
Individuals with a passion for delivering exceptional fan experiences can apply for the following part-time, seasonal positions:
- Event Security Staff
- Gameday Grounds Crew (must be 17 or older)
- Gameday Photographer
- Gameday Production Staff
- Guest Relations Representative
- Hype Squad
- Maintenance Crew
- Parking Lot Attendant
- Stats Operator
- Usher
The Stripers will review all online applications and will contact candidates deemed qualified for interviews. If you need assistance or have any questions about the application process, please email StripersInfo@braves.com. In addition to gameday positions, all seasonal Trainee positions and Full-Time positions can also be viewed and applied for at GoStripers.com/jobs. Professional Sports Catering, the official concessions partner of the Stripers, is also hiring part-time, seasonal positions to work at Coolray Field. All of PSC’s open positions can also be viewed at GoStripers.com/jobs.
PCOM students with giving vaccinations
More than 450 PCOM Georgia medical, pharmacy and physician assistant students are working to meet the great need for COVID vaccinators in Georgia.
In a permanent curriculum change, first and second year medical students were trained early to provide this much-needed service. Third and fourth year pharmacy students are also a great resource in the mixing and administering of vaccines, while physician assistant students are trained to administer vaccinations during their first year in the 26-month program.
During a four-day period in March, the PCOM Georgia student vaccinators worked in shifts to administer 1,200 doses of the vaccine to Newton County School System teachers at the Porter Performing Arts Center in Covington. Area pharmacist Jeff Reagan, RPh, called the students “professional” and “a great help” in the effort.
“It felt great to take an active role in helping our communities build immunity,” says Azalech Hinton (DO ‘23). She adds: “Having the opportunity to vaccinate teachers was an amazing experience as it allowed me to practice some of the things we learned in our Primary Care Skills class and was a welcoming and helpful environment for my first time administering vaccines. The teachers were very excited to get vaccinated.”
Drawing on materials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Immunization Action Coalition, the Primary Care Skills curriculum includes topics such as vaccinating various age groups, side effects, contraindications, and vaccinations during pregnancy.
Kim Lucier, administrative services and events manager, has been seeking opportunities for the students to use their newly acquired vaccination skills. These future physicians, pharmacists and physician assistants have recently participated in close to 20 vaccination efforts including at Oxford College, a part of Emory University, and at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta. They’ve even gone door to door in the Tuscany Condominium complex in midtown Atlanta to vaccinate homebound citizens.
According to Pam Marquess, PharmD, the co-owner of three independent pharmacies who has helped facilitate many of PCOM Georgia’s volunteer vaccine opportunities, “The students have been very professional! We are really enjoying having them volunteer.”
Jeff Hines, MD, the medical director for Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity at Wellstar Health System and a member of Providence Missionary Baptist Church, says, “I had the privilege of working with your students today. Their professionalism and dedication to the service of others was clearly evident.”
Jay S. Feldstein, PCOM president, says: “We are at a crucial moment in this crisis where nothing is more important than getting as many people vaccinated as possible. The students of PCOM and other area health professional schools can and should, under direct medical supervision, play a critical role in scaling up our inoculation efforts to provide a vaccine to all who want one.”
GGC professor says vaccinating against Covid virus is safe
More than 95 million Americans have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, and by the time this article is published, Georgia alone will have administered more than 3.7 million vaccine shots. Those are encouraging numbers, but there is still a considerable way to go before most Americans will get the Covid vaccines.
Fouche-Camargo
The key is vaccinating enough people, says Georgia Gwinnett College Professor of Nursing, Dr. Jeffrey Fouche-Camargo. A few weeks ago, he created a presentation for the Louisiana chapter of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) to dispel some of the more common misconceptions about the vaccines. The level of interest in it surprised him.
“I posted on Facebook trying to dispel some of the misinformation about the vaccine, and a former colleague of mine who lives in Baton Rouge, said: ‘This would be a great topic for our nurses.’ So I put a presentation together, and got it approved for continuing education credits. Soon AWHONN opened it up for the entire state of Louisiana for the presentation. We did it over Zoom, The day it opened we had 200 nurses and pharmacists connect.”
“A traditional vaccine is usually made up of pieces of the virus,” Fouche-Camargo explains. “They grow the virus in a lab in cultures and kind of break it into little pieces, then use those pieces in the vaccine so that when injected, the body will sense it as foreign material and build antibodies against it. That takes a long time to do, and it’s expensive to grow and process a virus like that.”
One of the most common fears is that the coronavirus vaccines are bound to be defective because they are rushed, but Fouche-Camargo feels that is not the case. “It wasn’t rushed. They went through all the proper procedures, using trials with tens of thousands of people. It was faster than normal because they didn’t have to grow the viruses in the labs.”
Fear of severe side effects is another issue causing people to hesitate getting vaccinated. While a small number of people do experience severe side effects, most of them are people who have had severe reactions to vaccines before. Minor side effects like a slight fever or feeling tired are good things because that means the vaccine is working, he says.
“Minor side effects are a normal response because that’s the body’s immune system kicking in,” said Fouche-Camargo. “All our immune system does is seek out foreign material and destroy it. That’s where the fever, the aching, and the headache come from. I tell people, if you get those reactions, that’s a good thing.”
Fouche-Camargo graduated cum laude from the Medical College of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 1994, obtained his Master of Science degree in nursing from Georgia State University in 2003, and his Doctor of Nursing Practice from Georgia Regents University in 2014..
Suwanee resident writes about more effective meetings
A Suwanee resident has published a book about how to conduct more effective virtual meetings.
Pitman
He is Dr. Ben Pitman, and the book is entitled How to Deliver “Suck-free” Online Meetings: An Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Planning and Running Effective Online Meetings. It is available in paper ($12.42) or in a digital edition ($9.95) at Amazon.
He says that the vast majority of today’s online meetings with Zoom and other meeting apps leave many people cold. “Meeting goals may be met, but relationships that used to be created and strengthened in meetings are suffering. People are leaving online meetings feeling dissatisfied and dreading the next one. They have a vague feeling that something was missing―something that they can’t quite put their finger on. The book lists over 25 common problems and provides simple solutions. It is perfect for anyone who wants to plan and run highly effective, highly rewarding online meetings.”
Revolutionary Petunias by Alice Walker
From Susan J. Harris, Stone Mountain: Alice Walker’s Revolutionary Petunias is a tribute to those who attempted and sometimes succeeded in breaking the bondage of life situations through memory recorded and cherished. Entries include “Expect Nothing” an ode to living frugally; ” The Older Warrior Terror” depicting the life of one who died in their bed and never smiled; “Uncles” which represents the Northern travelers who come back to their Southern roots for quick visits, hair layered with pomade and good for a nickel or maybe a dime; and other mini portraits from those who break boundaries even within limited circumstances. Resonate, and both lush and sparse, this collection of poems is for Alice Walker aficionados, and those who enjoy poetry that tells a story.
An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Georgia contemporary art museum open three days a week
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, located at 75 Bennett Street in Atlanta, is dedicated to contemporary Georgia art created by artists who were either born in the state or who have made the state their home. The focus of the collection is primarily mid–twentieth century to the present and includes works by nationally renowned artists Benny Andrews, Radcliffe Bailey, Beverly Buchanan, Harry Callahan, Howard Finster, and Nellie Mae Rowe.
The museum was founded in 2002 by David Golden, president of CGR Advisors, a real estate advisory company in Atlanta, and by Annette Cone-Skelton, an artist and art consultant. CGR Advisors donated its art collection, which had been curated by Cone-Skelton, to the fledgling private, nonprofit institution.
The museum houses a permanent collection of more than 250 works by 113 artists in a variety of media, including mixed media, paintings, photographs, prints, and sculptures. From bold color lithographs made by Trena Banks, Joni Mabe, and others for Rolling Stone Press in Atlanta to elegantly composed photographs by John McWilliams, Virginia Warren Smith, and others, the Museum of Contemporary Art embraces diverse media and aesthetics in the works of its permanent collection.
Previous exhibitions include the grand opening exhibition of new sculpture by Martin Emanuel; Artists of the Heath Gallery: 1965-1998, comprising solo exhibitions of works by Herbert Creecy, Cheryl Goldsleger, Kojo Griffin, and Hope Hilton; and special exhibitions from the permanent collection, which is accessible online through the museum’s Website.
In November 2002 the museum mounted Color, Culture, Complexity, an exhibition curated by Ed Spriggs, of the Hammonds House Galleries in Atlanta, and Dan Talley, cofounder of Art Papers magazine and former director of Nexus Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta. The exhibition, an exploration of the history and current conditions of race relations in America, spotlighted the works of artists from around the country and included digital photographs by Amalia Amaki (of Atlanta and Delaware), computer-generated images by Marcia Cohen (of Atlanta), a triptych painting by Harry DeLorme (of Savannah), iris prints by Robert B. Stewart (of Atlanta), and conceptually derived digital prints by Lisa McGaughey Tuttle (of Atlanta).
(Following a 2014 capital campaign, the museum expanded the E/RC to create a permanent collection exhibition space, digital resource bank for scholarly research, expanded art library, video installation room, and increased storage space for the growing collection.
(The space is also available for community meetings of all types, which promotes the museum’s vision that the E/RC continue to expand as a destination for students, scholars, and the community to experience and study the history of art in Georgia. MOCA GA houses a digital historical archive on an online platform, containing over 150,000 items documenting the history of Georgia artists and arts organizations.)
In addition to its exhibitions, the museum also sponsors ShedSpace, a community-oriented program to support local arts, and the Artist Resource Council, which serves as a conduit between artists and museums throughout Georgia.
The museum is open Thursdays through Saturdays from noon until 4 p.m. Its web site is https://mocaga.org.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Feast of clues await you in today’s Mystery Photo
Look at the detail in today’s Mystery Photo: a major chandelier, exquisite carvings, mounted animal heads, a pipe organ, multiple flags, an arched ceiling and good sunlight are the clues staring at you. Now tell us, where is this? Send your answer to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
It’s an American institution, but only three people recognized the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Among those who correctly identified the photo were Ross Lenhart, Stone Mountain; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex.
Peel wrote: “Today’s mystery photo is of the United States Naval Academy, situated on the banks of the Severn River and the Annapolis Harbor in Annapolis, Md. The large green fields that are visible amongst the stadium lights in the foreground of the photo are the soccer fields of the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility. The dome, draped by scaffolding in the center of the photo is the Naval Academy Chapel Dome.
“The United States Naval Academy (USNA) was established in 1845 and is the second oldest of five service academies, second only to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York (which was founded in 1802). The USNA serves to educate officers for commissioning into the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps. Its 338-acre campus, known to insiders as “the Yard”, is a National Historic Landmark and is home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments.”
Norcross neighborhood clean-up and recycling day will be April 10. This is limited to Norcross residents. Shred on site at Norcross City Hall from 9 a.m. until noon. Bring recycling items to the Public Works Department, 345 Lively Avenue, from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Electronics recycling will also be available from 9 a.m. until noon at City Hall.
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