GwinnettForum | Number 22.55 | August 1, 2023
WITH GWINNETT SCHOOLS starting Wednesday, watch out for the speed cameras near schools, or else you could get a speeding ticket. The speed limit is 25 mph near schools. And from what we hear, it’s difficult to argue against a speeding ticket when photographs of your auto license plate and the speed you are doing are shown. During the school break, you may have not paid attention in these areas. Fail to do so at your peril.
TODAY’S FOCUS: U.S. is in danger of new epidemic from the animal complex
EEB PERSPECTIVE: FDR comes to Georgia and endorses a challenger, who loses
SPOTLIGHT: Georgia Banking Company
ANOTHER VIEW: Actions of presidential children bring disgrace to the office
FEEDBACK: Feels wrong name used in previous edition
UPCOMING: Hudgens $50,000 prize winner show opens Aug. 19
NOTABLE: 63rd Atlanta Model Train show in Duluth Aug. 26
RECOMMENDED: Berry Bar in Johns Creek
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Ponce de Leon ballpark was home of the Atlanta Crackers
MYSTERY PHOTO: Colorful umbrellas will protect you when here
CALENDAR: 6th Downtown Wine Walk in Braselton Aug. 10
U.S. is in danger of new epidemic from the animal complex
By Alan Schneiberg
SUGAR HILL, Ga. | Beware! We are in danger of a new epidemic. But the danger is not now China, it is the United States.
Schneiberg
A major study by the New York University Environmental and Animal Protection and Harvard University is reporting that in the United States lack of government regulations and oversight of animal commerce is creating a significant risk of another major pandemic.
This well-documented study (170 pages and 1,204 footnotes) starts with the fact that during the second half of the 20th century ,the United States was the source of viruses that killed more Americans than World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined. Yet the United States will spend 1,650 times more for defense than on pandemic preparedness.
The United States has a massive and complex animal industry. For example, there are more exotic pets imported than there are dogs and cats. Most animal markets go unnoticed in an opaque supply chain. This system is largely unregulated. Yet the potential of animal-human interaction creates the real danger of another world wide pandemic.
This study looks at a complex consumer market of animal commerce. This includes pet trade, hunting, fishing, trapping, food production including big game farming, fur farming, industrial animal agriculture, livestock auctions, live animal markets, aquaculture, specialized farming including such things as bat guano harvesting, fox urine production, and backyard poultry production. The study also examines the entertainment and research industry that includes livestock fairs, petting zoos, animal racing, and animals in research.
This largely unregulated industry creates a significant risk of a zoonotic disease in the United States. There is a growing concern among scientists that the next pandemic may be far worse than what we have just experienced.
However, the report concludes that the risk can be minimized if we prioritize prevention like we reacted to 9/11. We have actually reacted to many zoonotic pathogens that endangered us from external sources. Such pathogens as anthrax, Ebola, and Marburg are the focus of a 2003 law called the BioWatch protecting us against bioterrorism.
No such program protects us from animal to human transmission of disease within America. Yes we have state and federal food inspections and labeling laws yet overall the industry is far more complex and dangerous for our meager efforts to protect against another pandemic.
I am scared! This significant study has not yet been widely reported in the press. Unfortunately government action is not possible in this conspiracy driven political environment. Our citizens are tired of pandemic restrictions.
Yet we are facing a pandemic of enormous proportions without the willingness to protect ourselves.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
FDR comes to Georgia and endorses a challenger, who loses
(Editor’s note: Here’s a bit of history, partly from The American Presidency Project. It forms a distinctive report on how Georgia politics worked years ago. So enjoy today’s political history lesson of Georgia. –eeb)
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
BARNESVILLE, Ga. | At the celebration dedicating a new Lamar Electric Membership Cooperative here on Aug. 11, 1938, there were 50,000 people in attendance for the opening of the electric co-op.
Lamar EMC began with 357 members, 144 miles of power line, and two employees. It now employs 64 people and serve more than 16,000 members in nine counties: Bibb, Coweta, Crawford, Lamar, Meriwether, Monroe, Pike, Spalding, and Upson. Today it is operating under a new name, Southern Rivers Energy, changing the name from Lamar EMC in 2005.
That August was a big day for Georgia, since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to throw the switch to send electricity to the county. Also on stage were three candidates for the U.S. Senate, the incumbent Sen. Walter F. George of Vienna, former Gov. Eugene Talmadge of McRae, and Walter Lawrence Camp of Atlanta, who was a former state attorney general and Federal District Judge. Also on the platform was Georgia’s governor, Ed Rivers.
The “staged meeting” was inherently confrontational, a fact that had been advertised, and it was in the expectation of exciting theater that most of the vast throng had come.
Roosevelt signs the GI Bill in 1944. George is standing behind the U.S. Rep. Edith Rogers, R-Mass., and has a handkerchief in his pocket. Photo via U.S. Senate.
FDR spoke of the South’s economic problems and urged Georgia voters to send liberals to Washington so that the federal government could continue to attack these problems.
The record shows him saying: “Here in Georgia, however, my old friend, the senior Senator from this State, cannot possibly…be classified as belonging to the liberal school of thought… Let me make it clear that he [George] is, and I hope always will be, my personal friend. He is beyond any possible question, a gentleman and a scholar….[But] on most public questions he and I do not speak the same language.”
Roosevelt continued: “The third candidate that I would speak of, United States Attorney Lawrence Camp, I have also known for many years. He has had experience in the State Legislature; he has served as Attorney General of Georgia and for four years; he has made a distinguished record in the United States District Court…I regard him not only as a public servant with successful experience but as a man who honestly believes that many things must be done and done now to improve the economic and social conditions of the country, a man who is willing to fight for these objectives. Fighting ability is of the utmost importance.”
So the big bombshell, which was mainly known in advance, was that the President wanted someone besides Walter George representing our state in Washington, and he was saying this in Georgia. By no means could it be the No-New-Dealer Gene Talmadge, so Judge Camp got the endorsement.
When the primary votes were counted, under the state’s distinctive County Unit System, Senator George won with 242 votes, Talmadge had 148 and Camp 10. (The popular vote didn’t count then, and it didn’t give Georga a majority popular vote, as he won 44 percent of this vote. Talmadge 32 percent; and Camp 24 percent.)
Talmadge at first refused to concede, citing evidence of fraud in 30 counties. By December, Talmadge conceded, praising George and Russell as “the two best senators in the United States!”
George, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, soon reconciled with Roosevelt in advance of World War II. He served as a key legislative shepherd of administration foreign policy, including the Lend-Lease Act.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Georgia Banking Company
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Actions of presidential children bring disgrace to the office
“If Republicans are going to say this about Hunter Biden, then where’s the other side of this?” – Joe Scarborough, MSNBC host.
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | The U.S. House Oversight Committee, run by right-wing Republicans, has publicly declared war on Joe and Hunter Biden, aggressively pursuing its questionable investigations. But let’s be real. Hunter is unquestionably a total bum, playing on his family name. However, so are the Trump kids, if anything, more so. And, despite GOP screaming, absolutely nothing has ever been proven to show that Joe Biden has done anything wrong.
Still, Hunter Biden cheated on his taxes. Plus, he had a gun, even though he was a drug user. And, based on numerous reports, he probably peddled influence, pressuring his foreign contacts based on his name.
On the other hand, the Trump kids also have questionable actions:
- Federal nepotism laws presumably should have prevented Trump children from benefiting from their father’s position. But this law was ignored by them.
- Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, got $2 billion from the Saudis to start up his hedge fund. He has absolutely no investment background that would warrant this infusion of money. The Saudis were obviously investing simply to buy Trump’s goodwill.
- Kushner’s family real estate company, in trouble financially, received a number of questionable loans from various foreign lenders (including Qatar) while Jared was in a White House advisory position. These loans were given at favorable rates at a time of severe need by the Kushner family companies.
- While a White House adviser, Kushner sought Chinese and Qatari investors to finance a key Kushner Company property (666 Fifth Avenue).
- Ivanka, Trump’s daughter, obtained lucrative business deals with the Chinese when her Dad was engaged with the Chinese president. These deals included 16 trademarks for very profitable Chinese “fashion accessories” like shoes and women’s handbags.
- Donald Jr., Trump’s oldest son, negotiated deals for resorts planned for Indonesia and investments in India, all while his father was in office.
- Son Eric Trump cost taxpayers a tremendous amount of money by visiting Trump properties overseas, including in Scotland.
In a recent New York fraud action,“the Attorney General’s office is seeking $250 million in damages and to permanently ban the ex-president, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, from ever running a business in New York again, among other penalties.” This suit has not yet been resolved and Trump has invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination an amazing 400 times.
One organization calculated that Donald Trump had 3,000 conflicts of interest while in office, many involving his children).
The bottom line is that there is no question that both Biden and Trump have spoiled, rotten kids. But linkages between them and their off-spring’s questionable activities are still up in the air.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Feels wrong names were used in previous edition
Editor, the Forum:
In your comment recently (“Justice delayed is justice denied”), I believe you have the names of the people delaying justice wrong.
Unlike Rep. Adam Schiff who promised witnesses against former President Donald Trump for his impeachment who never materialized, there have been plenty of witnesses against the Biden family who have testified that government entities were weaponized against Trump.
The only thing that is now keeping the truth from coming out is the judge who was responsible for Hunter Biden’s plea “deal” from falling apart with the introduction of new evidence. Biden’s press secretary said that Hunter Biden is a private citizen and that Joe and Jill Biden support him at this time.
Tell me, what “private” citizen arrives in a courtroom after being a part of a presidential caravan of cars with a smug (in your face) look that he was to be given the plea deal of a lifetime for crimes that others are in jail for years and promises of immunity that President Biden will only be able to dream of should the Republicans take control of Congress again.
Hunter Biden seemed to be missing that smug look on his face and refused to answer questions as he left that courtroom. Although, I’m sure this will just be a bump in the road. That judge and her family need to hire private security until this matter ends.
– Roberta Cromlish, Stone Mountain
Roman Catholic nun also helps refugee community
Editor, the Forum:
You had an article about the celebration of the Vietnamese community.
A number of years ago, I would say one of the first Vietnamese folks in Gwinnett was a Roman Catholic nun who today still works out of Good Shepherd Services on Shallowford Road off Buford Highway. She is Sister Christine Truong. I met and took her to Meadowcreek High School and had her speak to the Leadership staff at Gwinnett County Public Schools.
The story of how Sister Christine Truong got away from Communism is very telling. She hosts a Thanksgiving celebration a week before Thanksgiving each year and I usually attend. Mary Kay and Mike Murphy sometimes attend. It is a small but wonderful event.
She can tell the story of how her dad, I believe, put their kids on an airplane to send them to this country. When she went back to visit family she could not wear her nun’s habit as she would still be arrested. She is very humble but does amazing work.
–Louise Radloff, Lawrenceville
Editor’s Note: Ms. Radloff refers to Good Shepherd Services. Its web site is https://www.goodshepherdatl.org.
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.
Hudgens $50,000 prize winner show opens Aug. 19
Amoda
An exhibition by renowned sculptor Olu Amoda, winner of the $50,000 Hudgens Prize for 2022 for Georgia artists, will open Saturday, Aug. 19, at the Fowler Gallery of the Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for Art and Learning in Duluth.
Amoda’s show is titled Scavenging and Scanning: Sculptural Exploration of the Earth’s Belly. The opening will be Aug. 19 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the exhibition runs until October 28.
Laura Ballance, executive director of the Hudgens Center, says: “Amoda is an emerging artist with a unique style, and we believe our visitors are going to truly enjoy this exhibition.”
Amoda is a Nigerian-born sculptor, muralist, furniture designer and multimedia artist who is best known for using discarded consumer products such as rusty nails, metal plates, bolts, pipes and rods to create sculptural figures, flora and animals to highlight a variety of socio-political and cultural issues. He says: “I am interested in the former lives of the objects I use and in the new meanings they take on when they are brought together.”
Amoda graduated with a degree in Sculpture from Auchi Polytechnic, Nigeria, and received a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. He is currently based in Alpharetta.
Summer meals program underway through August
Gwinnett County will extend the Summer Meals Program to include free grab-and-go meals on Friday nights, from August 4 until September 1. The meals are for families with children ages 18 and younger or adults 19 and older with a physical or mental impairment.
Parks and Recreation Director Chris Minor says: “So far this summer, more than 200,000 meals have been given to Gwinnett families. There is a strong need in the community and I’m grateful the Summer Meals Program is able to help fill that void and serve those in need.”
Meals can be picked up curbside at six sites from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. while supplies last. Pick-up locations include Bogan Park Community Recreation Center in Buford; Best Friend Park Gym in Norcross; Lilburn Activity Building in Lilburn; Lenora Park Gym in Snellville; Rhodes Jordan Park Community Recreation Center in Lawrenceville; and Shorty Howell Park Activity Building in Duluth. For more information about Gwinnett Summer Meals, call 770-822-8840 or visit GwinnettSummerMeals.com.
63rd Atlanta Model Train show coming to Duluth Aug. 26
Many exhibitors will be present. Photos provided.
Golden Spike Enterprises, Inc. announced its 63rd Atlanta Model Train show and sale will be held this year at Gas South Convention Center in Duluth on Saturday, August 26, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
See working model layouts.
Over 300 tables representing dealers from all over the nation will have model items in all gauges and Railroad Antiques for sale. This is Georgia’s largest combination show, displaying items for both the “modeler” and “railbuff” alike all under one roof. The model railroader may choose from Lionel, American Flyer, LGB, Marklin or Ives trains from the past or present. The rail buff may focus on dining car china, lanterns, switch locks and keys, calendars, timetables, signs or any other artifacts actually utilized by the railroads. Both collecting interests represent truly unique pieces of Americana.
As an extra feature of this show there will be at least six large working layouts for all to view and enjoy during all open show hours.
Attendees will be able to relive the glory days of railroading in Georgia when the Southern Railway, Georgia Railroad, Seaboard Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad were king.
For other details or dealer information please call (813) 949-7197 and ask for Alan Altman or Charlie Miller at (703) 536-2954.
Admission is $10, with children under 12 admitted free. Parking fee will be charged. For discount coupons go to www.gserr.com for $1 off show admission. For online tickets please go here.
Berry Bar in Johns Creek
From Cindy Evans, Duluth: My friend, Jama, and I were delighted to go to the newly opened Berry Bar in Johns Creek. The employees offered us free samples! There were quite a few smoothies and acai bowls to choose from, plus you can build your own! We almost had option overload! I ended up choosing the Berry Bar Special. That consisted of a base acai and coconut heaven, with toppings of banana, strawberries, blueberries, granola, vanilla chia pudding, chopped almonds coconut flakes goji berries, almond butter and cinnamon. Yum! Jama did a build your own option, with coconut, her fave! These were affordable and tasted delicious and so healthy! They were also very pretty to look at and we would definitely go back! The smoothies would be fun to have before or after a movie at the Regal, which is nearby! It is at 9700 Medlock Bridge Road, open seven days a week.
- 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
Ponce de Leon ballpark was home of the Atlanta Crackers
Ponce de Leon Ballpark in Atlanta was one of the nation’s finest minor league baseball facilities in the early to mid-20th century. The original ballpark was built on property northeast of downtown owned by the Georgia Railway and Electric Company, directly across Ponce de Leon Avenue from an amusement park. A lake on the site was drained, filled in, and converted into a $60,000 ballpark made of wood. More than 8,000 fans welcomed the minor league Atlanta Crackers to their new home on May 23, 1907.
Ponce de Leon ballpark with the Sears in the background. Photo via DeadballBaseball.
In 1923 the wooden ballpark burned down, and the Crackers finished out the season at Grant Field. Then a wealthy concessionaire named Rell Jackson Spiller spent $250,000 to build a concrete-and-steel baseball park. When R. J. Spiller Field made its debut in time for the 1924 season, the Atlanta paper City Builder called it “the most magnificent park in the minor leagues.” The new facility drew lavish praise from baseball officials across the country. Chairs were fastened into the stadium’s new concrete skeleton, furnishing seats that were far more comfortable than the wooden benches fans used to occupy. The grandstand’s entire capacity was 9,800. The bleachers for the white fans, located in right field, accommodated 2,500, and the seats in left field, for African Americans, held the same number. With standing room for more than 6,000, the stadium could hold 20,000 fans.
The fence was 365 feet down the left field line, 321 to right, and 462 to dead center, where a giant magnolia tree grew. Spiller Field had the only ground rules in baseball history allowing for a tree in the outfield. (One year, during a preseason barnstorming tour, Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees came into town. Ruth and his fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews are the only two men ever to have hit home-run balls into the magnolia.)
When the park opened, there was a swimming pool next door where fans could go if the game got a little slow. Train tracks ran above the first-base line, and engineers frequently stopped their trains to watch the games. Across the street were horse stables, as well as a Spiller-owned restaurant, where alligator wrestling was an attraction.
Fans could also entertain themselves by gambling, which Georgia law allowed when it wasn’t conducted under a roof. The covered grandstands became home to the true Cracker faithful, and the outfield bleachers were host to the “fly-ball fans,” who sat with the local oddsmakers. People would bet on anything, including on whether an outfielder would drop a routine fly ball. Buster Cheatham, a shortstop for the Crackers in the 1920s, probably saved bookies more money than any minor leaguer in history with his spectacular outfield catches. Once a group of bookies gave him a pot of about $200 in appreciation. Cheatham, afraid that people would think he had been corrupted, gave it back.
Soon Cracker officials began prohibiting gambling during games, so bookies and their customers devised another language: finger signals. While the police roamed the stands looking for perpetrators, the bookies were paying or collecting from their customers.
The Crackers called Ponce de Leon Ballpark home until their final season in 1965, when they moved into the newly built Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium ), awaiting the arrival of the major league Braves from Milwaukee. The ballpark was torn down in 1966, and the site has been home to numerous retail operations since then. The magnolia tree, however, still stands.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Colorful umbrellas will protect you when here
Here’s a colorful photograph that you may have to been there to identify. So put on your best thinking outfit, and see if it will shower you with the correct answer. Send your thoughts to elliott@brack.net, and include your hometown.
The last Mystery Photo came from Rick Krause of Lilburn, and Allen Peel of San Antonio, Tex. recognized it, and tells us about it: It’s the the Columbia County Courthouse in Dayton, Washington. It was designed by local Dayton architect W.H. Burrows and completed in 1887, two years before Washington officially became a state in 1889. Since the building still serves as a courthouse, this 2-1/2 story stucco-brick, Italianate-style building is officially the oldest working courthouse in Washington State and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The construction contract for the building was awarded for $32,732, which in today’s dollars, is only $1.05 Million. Quite a bargain to me, huh?”
Others spotting this courthouse include Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C..; Stew Ogilvie, Lawrewnceville; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; and Ruthy 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.
6th Downtown Wine Walk in Braselton Aug. 10
Snellville Commerce Club meets on August 1 at noon in the community room of Snellville City Hall. Speakers for the upcoming meeting will be Jason West and Brian Boggs, both of the Gwinnett Department of Community Service. They will appear in an interpretation of Snellville founders James Sawyer and Thomas Snell. Go to this link for reservations, which are required.
Visiting Author: Award-winning Julia Franks will discuss her new novel, The Say So, about two young women contending with unplanned pregnancies in different eras. She will speak at the Duluth Branch Library on August 3 at 7 p.m. Books will be available for sale and signing.
The sixth annual Downtown Wine Walk returns to Braselton on August 10. At each sipping station, businesses will welcome walkers with a wine sample paired perfectly with a food bite–some provided by Braselton’s finest restaurants. Sip, stroll, shop and enjoy! Tickets include a souvenir wine glass, punch card with map of locations, a wine tasting and food sample at each sipping station, plus a chance to win a “Buy Local Braselton” e-gift card! The walk begins at 5 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m. Walkers must be at least 21 years of age to participate and will need to show a valid ID at check in. Tickets are $50 per person.
The Lionheart Theatre Company will support Project Chimps by hosting an evening of entertainment featuring song and dance, comedy, theater, and DRAG QUEENS. Attend its Bananarama II production, This Time It’s for Fun! This will be on August 11-12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lionheart Theatre, 10 College Street in Norcross. Come out for a night of fun and to support a great cause – learn more at projectchimps.org. Note that this event is appropriate for ages 16+ and is not for kids!
Author Talk: Come hear Terah Shelton Harris speak about her debut novel on Tuesday, August 15, at 7 p.m. a the Lawrenceville Branch of Gwinnett Public Library. She will talk of her book, One Summer in Savannah, a story about motherhood, unconditional love, and forgiveness. Books will be available for sale and signing.
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