Elliott Brack’s Perspective
BRACK: New national suicide prevention phone line is 988
By Elliott Brack | Here’s something that might be mighty important to some Gwinnettian. You can now access the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline with a three digit telephone code, 988, providing quicker and easier access. The old number was 800-273-8255. To me, this really seems to be a major, and mighty important, change.
BRACK: New book of Gwinnett’s transformation raises at least one question
By Elliott Brack | A new book from the University of Georgia Press is entitled “Gwinnett County, Georgia, and the transformation of the American South, 1818-2018.” The book is edited by two professors, Michael Gagnon of Flowery Branch, who is an associate professor of history at Georgia Gwinnett College, and Matthew Hild of Atlanta, a lecturer at Georgia Tech.
BRACK: Taxing real property is not always easy and often not fair
By Elliott Brack | Equally taxing people is complicated. For the tax year 2022, you could have two families living side-by-side in similar houses and one might be taxed considerably higher than the other. That’s because some Gwinnett residents get the benefit of a value offset exemption (VOE) for owner-occupied residences.
BRACK: Gwinnettians work on dedicating 8-foot statue to King
By Elliott Brack | Several Gwinnettians are involved with producing an 8-foot bronze statue to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which will be placed in downtown Atlanta on Jan. 16, 2023. The near-complete clay statue model was unveiled last Thursday in Athens to a gathering of about 100 people, mostly from Gwinnett.
BRACK: Gwinnett Foundation founders must be mighty pleased
By Elliott Brack | The original founders of the Gwinnett Foundation must be smiling today, those still living, and those who have passed away, at the mounting size of its assets. When it started in 1985, the Foundation, now known as the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia, had only $170,700 in assets at the end of its first year. Today its assets top $80 million.
BRACK: Congress can step into breach of rights by the Court
By Elliott Brack | The two bomb blasts handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court last week may serve as a rallying cry to change our nation. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick.
When the court hands down verdicts that a majority of the people are not in step with, something eventually must give. We have little doubt that a majority of Americans, and especially women, think it should be an individual woman’s fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy.
Gwinnett Forum | Jan. 10, 2025
“Nothing makes us feel more connected than when we are engaged in a healthy balance of thoughtful speaking and hardcore listening.”
— Belgian-American psychotherapist and relationship expert Eshter Perel (1958- ) via John Titus, Peachtree Corners.
Recent deaths
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.
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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