GwinnettForum | Number 22.40 | June 2, 2023
SUMMER POOLS OPEN: The four Gwinnett summer seasonal swimming pool facilities have opened for the year. Here is a scene from Rhodes Jordan Park. Other seasonal pools are at Best Friend Park in Norcross, Dacula Park, and Lenora Park. Gwinnett has five aquatic centers opened the entire year, which are at Bogan Park in Buford, Bethesda Park and Collins Hill Park in Lawrenceville; at Mountain Park, and at Berkeley Lake. (Photo by Frank Sharp of Lawrenceville, who we are sad to report, broke his ankle while working in his yard recently. Get well quickly, Frank!)
TODAY’S FOCUS: Entitlements issue is key to reducing the long-term deficit
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Ocmulgee-Flint Canal idea would have been a loser
SPOTLIGHT: Georgia Banking Company
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
UPCOMING: Duluth plans sixth annual Clean-Up Day on June 10
NOTABLE: Norcross to hold two important plan updates
RECOMMENDED: Wedding of the Waters by Peter L. Bernstein
GEORGIA TIDBIT: “The Poppy Lady,” Moina Michael, is a native of Georgia
MYSTERY PHOTO: Can you identify this snow-capped mountain?
LAGNIAPPE: Others nations have their own national memorial cemeteries
CALENDAR: Ribbon cutting of Homeowners Resource Center in Norcross is June 5
Entitlements issue is key to reducing the long-term deficit
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | In 2037, the Social Security trust fund reserves will run out, says our government (In 2030, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance trust fund will also run out of funds.)
The only way around the third-rail dilemma regarding entitlement reform is to address it in a bipartisan, objective manner. Otherwise, it becomes a partisan issue that is used to make points.
Thus, President Joe Biden suckered in the Republicans in his State of the Union address. He implied that some, not all, GOP politicos want to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits. That created a vocal, and predictable, backlash by right-wingers who yelled “liar,” interrupting his address. He then turned that around and said that obviously everyone supported these programs. He was cheered loudly by both parties.
Biden won the political battle, but so far has not won the war to ensure entitlement solvency.
Again, this is a bipartisan issue which directly affects not only seniors but the financial health of the nation.
Entitlements in the budget are simply costing more than is being taken in. The obvious solution is to either cut spending or increase revenues, or both. But politically, entitlements are a nightmare. Democrats are inclined to increase revenue and the GOP to cut benefits.
For example, there is a Social Security cutoff point of $160,200 for earnings. Income over that amount is not taxed. Taxing all earnings of everyone in the country, as proposed by Democrats, would solve most of the shortfall. Or we could adopt the GOP approach, raising the retirement age, which has already been done once. Or a combination of the above would also help.
Medicare is a tougher issue. The GOP has been attempting to privatize this program through Medicare Advantage (MNA). The use of these plans has risen because many people have added vision and dental benefits. And many have lower premiums.
These Medicare Advantage plans also have obvious problems for many seniors. HMOs make up the majority of MA plans. Benefits change every year, and are not transportable if you travel. Referrals are required to access specialists. There are high out of pocket costs if you are severely ill and there are specified networks of doctors and hospitals where you can receive care.
But it’s the Medicare Disadvantage program regarding governmental expenditures that is costing $7 billion more than traditional Medicare (2019). The cost of MA is projected to rise to $664 billion by 2029, so that additional cost will rise significantly. A 2019 study found that the cost to the federal government for Medicare Advantage was $321 higher per enrollee versus traditional Medicare.
In addition, there is the broader issue of the cost of care in the U.S., which is more than double ($12,914 per person) that of other democracies (averaging $6,125 per person). And our mortality/morbidity results are worse than most of these nations. We live longer lives than other nations, and we are sicker. Many observers, this author included, believe that the solution is single payer reform.
The debt relief settlement may have been easy, compared with setting the crisis coming in our budget for Social Security and Medicare reform. In any case, nothing at all will be accomplished regarding entitlement reform unless the two parties agree. The first step towards that goal is to establish a bi-partisan commission to address the entitlements issue, which is key to reducing the deficit, long-term.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Ocmulgee-Flint Canal idea would have been a loser
Old Erie Canal State Historic Park in DeWitt, N.Y. Via. Wikipedia.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
June 2, 2023 | Let’s delve back some into recent Georgia history.
Do you remember a proposal, perhaps 50 years ago? There was talk of the possibility of constructing a shipping canal between the Ocmulgee and Flint Rivers. The closest distance between the two south-flowing rivers is about 30 miles, from Abbeville to west of Cordele.
This proposed waterway would have floated East Coast shipments that were headed to the Gulf of Mexico area, and possibly New Orleans and Texas. It would have cut out the long shipping route around the Florida peninsula, and be a major time and distance saving for boatmen. It would also provide similar savings for recreational boaters.
While there was some enthusiasm about the proposed canal, it was never built.
And that was a good development, we can say after reviewing load factors on the Erie Canal in New York state, and how they have become less common.
We’ve been reading about the Erie Canal lately, a monumental venture which started construction in 1817, with the 363-mile original navigational canal completed in 1825, on time and under budget (of $6 million.) It immediately opened up shipment of goods from the upper reaches of the United States to the port of New York, saving tremendously in time and freight costs. It was originally 4-feet deep and 40-feet wide.
The effect of the Erie Canal was both immediate and dramatic, and settlers poured west. What previously took at least two weeks to travel by stage from Albany to Buffalo, the Erie terminus, only took five days. The explosion of trade spurred by freight rates from Buffalo to New York of $10 per ton by canal, compared with $100 per ton by road.
In 1825, roughly 562,000 bushels of wheat, plus 221,000 barrels of flour, 435,000 gallons of whiskey, and 32 million board feet of lumber helped make up the 185,000 tons of eastbound canal cargo. Only 32,000 tons were shipped west, consisting mainly of manufactured goods. But now people in the western lands around the lake could get heavy goods like furniture at reasonable shipping costs.
The total amount of freight moved on the Erie Canal increased in volume as the years went by. In 1860, freight totals on the canal had increased to 1,896,975 tons eastbound and 379,000 tons westbound. In 1862, swollen by Civil War shipments, canal freight traffic exceeded 3 million tons.
Freight traffic reached a total of 4.7 million metric tons by 1951. The growth of railroads and highways across the state, and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, caused commercial traffic on the canal to decline dramatically during the second half of the 20th century. The canal still serves a niche freight function and is occasionally used to move projects and specialized cargo too large to fit on road or rail. Since the 1990s, the canal system has been used primarily by recreational traffic.
So, what has this to do with Georgia? It’s good that the idea of the canal connecting the Ocmulgee and Flint Rivers was not built. That’s because with today’s heavy rail line usage, and the increased use of trucking companies, the idea of building the canal for freight use today would have seriously declined. Such a canal would probably only today be used for recreational boating. And the financing of the bonds would have soured, because of the loss of freight revenues, and probably been a burden of the state.
So, be pleased that this Georgia project never got off (or in) the ground.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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Send us your thoughts
We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
Duluth plans 6th annual Clean-Up Day on June 10
The City of Duluth is planning its sixth annual Citywide Community Clean-Up Day at the Duluth Public Works facility, at 2450 Main Street, on Saturday, June 10, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The day is part of the Duluth Neighborhood Outreach Work Program.
As an amnesty dump day, the city will be accepting the following household items from City residents on this day only at no charge to Duluth residents. Residents must bring a current utility bill and driver’s license to enter the event. No vehicles larger than a standard-size pick-up truck will be admitted into the event.
- Up to four car tires;
- Leftover paint from your home improvement project;
- Debris from your home renovation project (tile, lumber, carpet, sinks, toilets, etc.);
- Vehicle parts and fluids (motor oil, batteries, antifreeze);
- Garden chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, and insecticides);
- Household chemicals;
- E-Waste recycling (monitors, laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, keyboards, scanners, printers, TVs, etc.).
- Paper Shredding
Other items acceptable include lawnmowers, appliances, grills, furniture, mattresses, electronics, cardboard, etc.), yard debris and paper for shredding.
This free event is only for residents who live within Duluth City Limits:
- All residents must bring a current utility bill and driver’s license to enter the event.
- This event is not open to contractors, builders or other construction trades.
- No commercial materials will be accepted.
- No vehicles larger than a standard-size pick-up truck will be admitted into the event.
Did you know…Many household items can be disposed of at your curbside or dropped off at the Public Works facility year-round.
Republic Services (your garbage company) will take mattresses, furniture, appliances and other household items at the curb. You must call Republic Services at 678.963.2800 within 24 hours of your scheduled pick-up day to request this free service. You must also attach a Duluth trash bag to the item.
Preston Williams Trail open in Gas South District
Gas South District has named its first trail to honor Preston C. Williams at Gateway Park. The trail connects the Gas South District to local hotels and restaurants and creates walkability of the campus. Williams, long the Gwinnett Convention and Visitors Bureau leader, retired in August of 2022 after 26 years of service. Signage highlighting Georgia trees and plants and the process of erosion will be located along the park path. DWR and Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful will work in partnership with Gas South District to preserve the space as a natural habitat. The trail begins at the southwest intersection of Satellite Boulevard at Sugarloaf Parkway, and ends near the theatre in the District. (Photo by Bruce Johnson of Explore Gwinnett.)
Norcross to hold two important plan updates
The City of Norcross is carrying out two important plan updates over the course of 2023: the citywide Comprehensive Plan and the Town Center Livable Centers Initiative Plan. Because of their interrelated nature, the two plan updates are being conducted as a joint effort, branded as Imagine Our Future. In-person and online engagement opportunities will be offered throughout the remainder of 2023.
The public is invited to provide input through an online Visioning Survey. The survey is available in English and Spanish. The City encourages community members to let their voices be heard before the survey closes on June 30, 2023. The next in-person engagement is a pop-up booth at Farm Fresh Days (Thrasher Park) on Wednesday, June 14, from 4 to 7 p.m.
The Comprehensive Plan update will provide guidance for capital investment decisions, rezoning properties, and day-to-day decisions for city staff and elected officials. It sets a policy framework to ensure the city is moving in a direction that fits with the community’s vision.
The Town Center Livable Centers Initiative Plan will build on the previous update, with new implementation strategies for enhancing pedestrian safety and incorporating electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the Town Center and along the Buford Highway corridor.
To learn more about each plan update and the upcoming community engagement activities, visit ImagineOurFuture.org. Community members can subscribe to receive project updates via the project website.
The Hudgens gets $20,000 from Gwinnett Creative Fund
The Jacqueline Hudgens Center for Art and Learning has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Gwinnett Creativity Fund! Hudgens Director Laura Ballance and Clara Rooks, marketing director for Explore Gwinnett, hold a replica of the award check. The Hudgens board sends thanks to the Gwinnett Creativity Fund, Explore Gwinnett Tourism and Film, and Gwinnett County, for their commitment to The Hudgens’ mission and vision, and for promoting the arts throughout the Gwinnett community.
Wedding of the Waters by Peter L. Bernstein
Our nation’s founder, George Washington, early on recognized the need for a speedy way to connect the 13 Atlantic seaboard states with the land beyond the Appalachian Mountains. He had surveyed the area. He suggested a canal following the route of the Potomac River. Meanwhile, others recognized the possibility that the Mohawk River in New York, an offshoot of the Hudson, could be that connector. This was in the early 1800s, and after President Madison vetoed a bill to fund the Erie Canal, the New York legislature provided $6 million to build it. By 1825, it was complete, on time and under budget, from Troy to Buffalo, N.Y., some 363 miles. What by wagon took more than a two week trip was cut to five days. The Canal flourished, opened up the country and made New York City our most important city. This easy-to-read book tells this great story. (The complete title is Wedding of the Waters, the Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation.)—eeb
- 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
“The Poppy Lady,” Moina Michael, is a native of Georgia
Moina Belle Michael, a Georgia educator, was best known for her work as a World War I remembrance advocate. Inspired by the poem In Flanders Field, Michael first proposed that red silk or paper flowers be worn in memory of fallen soldiers. As a result of her campaign, memorial poppies became an enduring symbol of military sacrifice throughout the world, and Michael came to be known as the “Poppy Lady.”
Moina Belle Michael was born in Good Hope, in Walton County, on August 15, 1869. Moina, the second of seven children, read widely which provided her a sound education. For seven years she walked to school at nearby Braswell Academy across the Morgan County line, and she later attended the Martin Institute in Jefferson..
Michael began her teaching career at the age of 15 in Good Hope. In 1909 she rose to the rank of lady principal at Bessie Tift College in Forsyth, where she served until 1912, when she enrolled at Columbia University in New York City.
By late 1913 Michael was a house director at the State Normal School, a teaching college in Athens that maintained close ties to the University of Georgia (UGA). In August 1914 she visited Europe on a university-led educational tour and was in Germany when the conflict began later that month. She then served as volunteer “secretary” to an ad hoc committee evacuating stranded tourists, who sailed to New York aboard the Carpathia, which had rescued Titanic survivors in 1912.
Disturbed by graphic news reports of battlefield carnage, Michael successfully applied to become a YMCA war worker in 1918. Working without pay on leave from the normal school, she helped to coordinate the transportation of fallen soldiers from New York City to their hometowns.
In her autobiography, Michael described her inspiration to make the symbolic Flanders poppy a “messenger of remembrance.” Describing “a full spiritual experience,” Michael vowed “always to wear a red poppy…as a sign of remembrance.”
After the Armistice, Michael led colleagues in a campaign to honor the American war dead by wearing poppies as a new symbol of remembrance and peace. By April 1919 the Flanders Fields Memorial Campaign was underway.Poppy sales would raise generous sums for veterans’ groups in the years that followed.
Residing at the Georgian Hotel in Athens, Michael still gave interviews to the media and to folklore specialists in the Federal Writers’ Project. In 1941 she published an autobiography, The Miracle Flower: The Story of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy. She died in Athens on May 10, 1944.
Many organizations have honored Michael’s work. A marble bust of Michael, created by Steffen Thomas and sponsored by the Georgia American Legion in the 1930s, now sits in the rotunda of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. In 1944, during World War II (1941-45), the U.S. Navy dedicated the SS Moina Michael, a Liberty class transport cargo ship constructed in Georgia. The Moina Michael three cent stamp was issued on November 9, 1948. And in 1969 the Georgia General Assembly named a section of U.S. Highway 78 near Athens the Moina Michael Highway. Michael was inducted into Georgia Women of Achievement in 1999.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Can you identify this snow-capped mountain?
Perhaps the shape of this mountain will give you a clue as to where it is. Put on your thinking caps, get some mountain views, and determine the answer to this edition’s mystery. Hint: it’s not in Georgia! Send your conclusion to elliott@brack.net, and include your hometown.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. wrote of the last Mystery Photo: “This is of the Amphitheater of El Jem located in the center of El Djem, formerly known as Thysdrus, in Tunisia, Africa. Built around 238 AD, it is one of the largest and best-preserved Roman Empire amphitheaters in the world, albeit it is smaller than the world’s largest—the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. It is three levels high, with 80 arcades, and is oval-shaped at 486-feet long by 400-feet wide. It could seat approximately 35,000 spectators who would go to the venue to see gladiatorial contests, animal fights, and public executions.
“The historic amphitheater is still used today for some events, such as concerts and festivals. It was also featured in the 1979 Monty Python film Life of Brian, as well as the seventh episode of the 2007 TV series Long Way Down. For Amazing Race fans, the Amphitheater of El Jem was used as the final pit stop of Season 1.”
The photo came from Steve Ogilvie of Lawrenceville. Other readers recognizing the photo were George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Lou Camerio, Lawrenceville; and Ruthie Lachman Paul, Norcross.
SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: elliott@brack.net and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
OTHER NATIONS also remember their military dead in special cemeteries. Here is a photo that Bill Durrence of Savannah sent out recently of a military cemetery in Cu Chi, Vietnam. Bill says that the shape of military grave markers will vary from culture to culture, but the common denominator in each military cemetery is the endless, numbing repetition of those markers, receding to a vanishing point at the horizon.
Ribbon-cutting of Homeowners Resource Center in Norcross is June 5
Peachtree Corner Town Center’s parking deck’s main entrance will be closed at 7 a.m. on Friday, June 2. Entrance to the parking deck can be made via the entrances in front of CineBistro. The alley is anticipated to be reopened at approximately 1 p.m. the same day.
Jazz in the Alley in Norcross will be Saturday, June 3, starting at 7:30 p.m. in Betty Mauldin Park. Join in performance of Adrienne Woods, The Headline Band, and Terence Harper. Bring your picnic basket, lawn chair and immerse yourself in the rhythmic vibes while savoring delectable treats from local food trucks. For more information and to see what’s next in the concert lineup, visit aplacetoimagine.com.
Ribbon Cutting: The Gwinnett Housing Corporation (GHC) announces the opening of the Gwinnett County Homeowners Resource Center, located at 128 Lawrenceville Street in Norcross. While the center will officially open to the public in July 2023, GHC and its partners will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site on Monday, June 5, at 2 p.m. The Center is designed to ensure that more low-to-moderate-income residents in Gwinnett have the opportunity to become homeowners, providing resources that support the preservation of home ownership to current low-to-moderate-income homeowners in the county.
The City of Braselton will have 1,000 bicycle riders traveling through town on Tuesday, June 6, arriving between 9:30 and 11 a.m. This is part of the 43rd annual Bike Ride Across Georgia (BRAG).The public is invited to watch BRAG cyclists during their arrivals and departures via West Jackson Road and East Lake Drive. Be aware that there may be road closures or heavy bicycle traffic each morning. Free public parking is available in the Downtown Parking Deck.The route for 2023 is from Clayton to Augusta.
Meet the Author Diane Marie Brown on Thursday, June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Duluth Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Come enjoy a lively, fun-filled author talk with the author of Black Candle Women! Piper Huguley, author of By Her Own Design, will moderate this event that is not to be missed! Books will be available for sale and signing.
Writers’ Workshop with the Atlanta Writers Club will take place on Saturday, June 18, at 12:45 p.m. at the Duluth Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. Learn more about writing, network with other writers, and listen to accomplished authors. Daniel Black and Meg Leader will each give presentations and offer tips to improve your writing.
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