Elliott Brack’s Perspective
BRACK: GwinnettForum endorsements in the Aug. 11 runoff election
By Elliott Brack | With early voting already under way since June 20, today we’ll reiterate our endorsements in the August 11 primary run off elections.
Eligible voters may vote in advance in person every day, including weekends, through August 7 at the Voter Registrations and Elections Beauty P. Baldwin Building located at 455 Grayson Highway, Suite 200 in Lawrenceville from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
BRACK: Good to see many high-quality political candidates in 2020
By Elliott Brack | Spending a year in graduate school at the University of Iowa, I became a regular reader of the region’s most influential newspaper of that day, The Chicago Tribune. It was a rock-ribbed stalwart Republican newspaper of high quality. With gusto, it covered Chicago and the Midwest. It had one feature I remembered when I came back to Georgia to get into newspapering.
BRACK: Used car licenses, wisteria, early streetcars and two daylilies
By Elliott Brack | The business community of Peachtree Corners is growing, as are many Gwinnett cities. A report from Peachtree Corners the other day listed 33 new businesses in the city in June. But on close inspection, 14 of these new firms had applied and were granted a license as a used car dealer.
BRACK: Gunnin, former commissioner, was respected for his vision
By Elliott Brack | One of the first elected Gwinnett officials to anticipate how the county would grow and who helped pave the way for it, died on June 30. He is Ray Gunnin, who was 92 when he passed away at the home of his daughter in Colorado. Gunnin was elected in 1968 to represent County Commission District 2 (the Norcross and Lilburn areas, which now includes Peachtree Corners). In those days, the population of Gwinnett was 65,362 residents.
BRACK: Evidence suggests possibility of blue Georgia in November
By Elliott Brack | While it appears that Gwinnett County could see many of its local offices land in the Democratic column come November, that’s most likely not true of the majority of the counties in Georgia. While the larger cities of the state may report in the Democratic column, much of the state, including the Legislature, will no doubt remain in control of the Republican Party.
NEW for 7/3: From crazy world to changed election, more
Click here to read our latest issue.Inside this edition:
TODAY’S FOCUS: From U.S. Grant, to the Dixie Chicks, the World Has Gone Crazy
EEB PERSPECTIVE: A Perfect Storm from COVID-19 Resulted in a Changed Primary Election
ANOTHER VIEW: Reflections about Memorial Day and the George Floyd Incident
SPOTLIGHT: Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful
FEEDBACK: While Reading Ashley Herndon, the Tears Started To Flow
UPCOMING: Gwinnett CARES Act Program Has $20 Million Available
NOTABLE: Arts Organizations in County Get $51,000 from Explore Gwinnett
RECOMMENDED: Book on CD Review: Six Months That Changed the World by Professor Margaret MacMillan
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Drip Irrigation Technique Emits Precise Steady Drip for Crops
MYSTERY PHOTO: For the Fourth of July, Here’s What May Be a Cream Puff Mystery
CALENDAR: Two Farmers Markets in Gwinnett To Be Open This Weekend
BRACK: Perfect storm from COVID-19 resulted in changed primary
By Elliott Brack | It was a perfect storm that changed a primary election. If our world had not been in the COVID-19 pandemic, the outcome of the Georgia Primary could have been different.
Here’s why. Never before have so many Georgians voted by absentee ballot Statewide, there were 1,149,469 absentee ballots cast, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. (Poll officials were overwhelmed with counting this many absentee ballots.) Back in 2016, as a comparison, only 36,986 absentee ballots were cast in the primary.
BRACK: The red daylily, John Wesley, Marlene Buchanan and Wendy’s
By Elliott Brack | The return of an old friend: Last year, this daylily output was a feature photo in this publication, and now the plant has blossomed for another year. It’s located just outside our kitchen window. Its compatriots, the orange type, develop earlier each year, and we await the red daylily’s bloom with anticipation. We found this about old friends: “Say what you want about aging, it’s still the only way to have old friends.”
BRACK: If statues come down, it should be by petition, not mob rule
By Elliott Brack | Monuments, historical plaques and statues have been set up “in the heat of the moment” throughout the United States to honor individuals by people intent on recognizing the activities of what was seen as worthy individuals. But not all such recognitions are always deemed worthy several generations after the monument’s erection, when a more historical and more enlightened evaluation may be made of that honoree’s accomplishments.
Gwinnett Forum | Aug. 23, 2024
“Never tell anyone that you’re writing a book, going on a diet, exercising, taking a course, or quitting smoking. They’ll encourage you to death.”
– Comic Artist Lynn Johnston (“For Better or Worse”) (1947 – ).
Recent deaths
DULUTH FALL FESTIVAL
The family-friendly event, Duluth Fall Festival, will take place on September 28-29. This is the 41st year, and the Festival has consistently been voted one of the top festivals in the entire area, including “Best Large Festival in the Southeast’” by national publications.
There will be more than 300 arts, crafts and food booths, a huge parade, entertainment at two venues, a 5K road race, and much more. If you would like more information, are interested in volunteering, etc., go to the Festival website:
Continuing objectives
Gwinnett Forum publisher Elliott Brack suggests that Gwinnett County needs a long-range list of continuing objectives for improving the county. His list:
- Move statewide non-partisan judge and school board elections to the General Election.
- Adoption of the 2023 Transit Plan for Gwinnett.
- 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.
- 21st century salary for the Gwinnett County Commission members.
- Remove chewing gum on sidewalks at entrances of post offices and other governmental buildings.
- Eliminate single-use plastic packaging and straws in Gwinnett and require instead the use of paper products.
- Condos instead of apartments for Gwinnett.
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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