Articles by: Elliott Brack
BRACK: New Mexico in forefront paying college costs for residents
By Elliott Brack | There are benefits for these United States in having 50 states. Each state has its own distinctive characteristics in several ways. And each state competes in so many ways with the other 49 states. Some states are more liberal than others, and vice versa, as some states produce more far-out characters. And some states seem to hum along, not attracting a whole lot of attention. But for sure, each state keeps a keen eye on what is happening in other areas.
BRACK: What happened to civility in discourse in our country?
By Elliott Brack | We want to yell out to everyone for them to think as we ask: “Hey! What happened to civility?” Have you recognized how we have become so downright mean and uncouth in our relationships to people who don’t agree with us? Will our country ever be able to return to the time when people got along with one another?
BRACK: The government is considering regulating how we keep time
By Elliott Brack | So, what’s your take on how we should keep the time? Do you like the idea of “Spring Forward” and then “Fall Back?” How to count the time is controversial. The timing question has strong advocates among us for both sides. Now the U.S. Senate has jumped into this fray. If the Senators had their way, our country would be permanently on what we now call Daylight Saving Time.
BRACK: Flock camera system reducing crime in Gwinnett
By Elliott Brack | Two Georgia Tech graduates are making life better in Gwinnett and in the nation after developing a new way to fight crime. They uncovered a statistic – that seven out of 10 crimes involved a vehicle – and then tweaked a camera to capture the license plate of cars visiting an area, which has greatly reduced the crime rate where the cameras were installed.
BRACK: Know a candidate? Make sure they contact the Forum soon
By Elliott Brack | Do you, as a reader of GwinnettForum, personally know any of the current Gwinnett or statewide political candidates? If you do, you can help GwinnettForum, and even moreso, you can be of major assistance to the candidate. This time of year, we are spending 30 minutes with as many candidates as we can. That’s to evaluate their candidacy and determine which candidates GwinnettForum will endorse in the primary and general election.
BRACK: The war in Ukraine: Can China become a peace negotiator?
By Elliott Brack | Please understand up front that we know few people who are well-versed about the country of Ukraine. Certainly, we are not in that category. Yet just watching the news reports, and reading the dispatches about the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, certain elements pop out at us:
BRACK: Ryan shows us how to bow out of Atlanta with grace
By Elliott Brack | Don’t you just love it when someone bows out with class and poise? It might happen anywhere, and whoever it is gains new stature because of their grace under dire circumstances. This week we saw one person departing an Atlanta career with distinction. We’re talking about former Atlanta Falcon Quarterback Matt Ryan, who was summarily traded to the Indianapolis Colts after 14 seasons in Atlanta.
BRACK: Help us figure out which is the oldest business in Gwinnett
By Elliott Brack | Let me invite GwinnettForum readers to join me on a quest that will tell us more about Gwinnett. See if you can come up with what is the oldest business in your city under continuous operations, and try to figure out, too, which is the oldest business in Gwinnett. You see, no governmental agency keeps tabs of businesses that way. We’ll just have to figure it out.
Gwinnett Forum | April 11, 2025
“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”
– American Astronomer and Science Communicator Carl Sagan (1934-96).
Continuing objectives
Gwinnett Forum publisher Elliott Brack suggests Gwinnett County needs a long-range list of continuing objectives for improving the county. His 2025 list:
- Move statewide non-partisan judicial and school board elections to the date of the General Election.
- More creative efforts to support the arts in Gwinnett.
- Advancement and expansion of city historical societies.
- Require establishments that serve alcoholic beverages to halt sales of such products at 1 a.m., and close by 2 a.m.
- Require the Georgia Legislature to meet only once every two years.
- Eliminate single-use plastic packaging and straws in Gwinnett and require instead the use of paper products.
- Gwinnett planners to encourage condos and townhouses instead of apartments.
- County-wide microtransit services.
Interested in Gwinnett history?
Now re-printed in its third edition, Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta, the award-winning history of Gwinnett County, is once again available for purchase. It sold out of its first two printings. The book won the 2010 Award of Excellence in Documenting Georgia History from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board. The book is available at Old Town Antiques at 93 Main Street in Lilburn.
- The history of Gwinnett is also available as an e-book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $9.95.
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