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September 2007
“No-shows may need to rethink political strategy”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Robbie S. Moore remembers the first time she met Wayne Hill. It was 1988. Hill, then a Democrat, ran for a seat on the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners.
Moore, president of the United Ebony Society, a Gwinnett-based civil rights group, hosted a candidates’ political forum. It rained cats and dogs, but voters attended.
So did Hill, who lost that particular bid.
For nearly two decades, the Ebony Society has been hosting forums, trying to arrange a little face-to-face time between voters and the candidates who want to represent them.
But Moore’s organization keeps running into a pattern of behavior that’s playing out nationally, too. At least when it comes to top GOP contenders.
They’re no-shows for debates put on by, and tailored to, minority concerns. If you watched the GOP televised debate Thursday night, you saw the empty lecterns. They represented those who didn’t turn out - Fred D. Thompson, Mitt Romney, Rudolph W. Giuliani and John McCain. They say they had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t attend the event at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Maybe so.
Nevertheless, their absence and explanations for staying away have been broadly criticized, even by hard-core Republicans like Newt Gingrich.. The decision, he told the Washington Post, was an “enormous error” and “fundamentally wrong.”
Last year, the Ebony Society had to cancel two forums in Gwinnett due to no-shows. In October 2006, only two of a dozen invited candidates agreed to attend. They were Denise Majette, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for state school superintendent, and Allan Burns, also a Democrat, who was trounced by U.S. Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.).
The absentees, Moore told me, spread ill will.
“It makes us feel like we were not important - that the people and this community are not important enough,” she said. “We started letting [the candidates] know way back in the summer. Some wrote letters and said they couldn’t make it.”
Maybe Republican strategist figure that, in a county so solidly “red,”they don’t need to woo new voters. Maybe they deem the black voting bloc paltry, and comprised of die-hard Democrats. Maybe they view the Ebony Society as small fry, a lightweight with no clout.
Maybe it’s time they rethought their political strategy. Gwinnett’s demographics are changing. Though whites make up the largest group of registered voters (70 percent), a third are ethnic minorities.
“This may mean reaching out to voters that [a candidate] has never reached out to before, and showing up at some forums that, in the past, weren’t worth [a candidate’s] time,” said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.
Tavis Smiley, the PBS talk show host, hosted Thursday’s televised debate. In interviews, he said he didn’t believe the absences were due to hectic schedules. Moore understands his frustration.
“The society puts on forums to educate the community and to get to know the candidates,” she said, adding that they have events planned for the 2008 elections. We want the candidates to tell us why we should vote for them.”
Hard to do if you’re absent.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Perdue on water, litter, growth”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Whenever I cover a big shindig, I tend to skirt the glad-handing movers and shakers and seek out that one person who appears timid, as out-of-place with the posturing as me.
Meet Mick Gallagher, a Brookwood High senior.
I met him at the eighth annual Governor’s Environmental Address, held Wednesday at the Gwinnett Center off Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth. He was selected by the school sponsor of Quest, an academic club for brainiacs, to represent his school.
Gallagher considered it an honor. The operatives in attendance were a who’s who list - county commissioners, city leaders, law enforcement officers, teachers - and several more students like Gallagher.
“I don’t know what to expect,” he told me before lunch. “But [Gov. Sonny Perdue] seems like a pretty cool guy.”
The cool guy started off with a joke, then eased into what he’d come to discuss - issues that he said are near and dear to his heart. Initially, he touched on something that resonated in ways he may not even realize. He mentioned the “problems of prosperity and the problems of growth” and the way they intertwine to tax local leaders and planners.
“I can’t think of a county that has been challenged more than Gwinnett,” he said. “I wish we’d done as good of a job over Georgia as you have done here.”
I liked the way Perdue segued into his next subject, veering from his scripted speech. He talked about “the war,” how -despite media reports - “it’s proceeding better than we read about.”
Only he wasn’t talking about the war in Iraq.
“It’s the war on litter,”proclaimed Perdue. “And we’re winning.
“We’re winning because of communities like this that understand it’s not just a slogan. It’s getting the job done.”
Then he talked about a partnership between the state and the Pepsi Bottling Group regarding Georgia’s new anti-litter campaign: “Litter: It Costs You.” PBG’s delivery trucks will display that message with a picture of the state’s anti-litter mascot, “General Buster the Brown Trasher.”
“Litter is everyone’s job,” Perdue said.
So is water conservation.
Georgia, Perdue said, needs a statewide comprehensive water plan. He encouraged the audience to attend public hearings on the proposed plan, which will be held across the state Oct. 15-19. The final plan is to be presented to the Legislature in January.
Perdue said he wants to work with people in this county to keep Georgia clean, abundant and beautiful. He will be long gone from office, but there will always be county leaders to rise to the challenge.
Like Gallagher, the Brookwood student.
“It could be me someday,” he said, “being a leader.”
To read Perdue’s prepared speech, click here.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Have paddle, will play”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The kids and I got dressed early Saturday morning and drove over to Bill York’s house.
He invited us in and led us to the backyard patio. There, we sat down and waited for them to come.
The hummingbirds.
The little fellas ate from the feeders and performed acrobatics that rivaled anything Miles and Olivia could have witnessed holed up inside, watching Saturday-morning cartoons.
Nature never fails to amaze. It makes you think, too, and York and I struck upon an idea that we think can only help a county like ours, one that could use another way for residents to connect.
For the past year, we’ve been playing Ping-Pong whenever and wherever we can - every few months or so at the Gwinnett Senior Center in Lilburn and, more recently, at Southern Athletic Club on Beaver Ruin Road.
We had a show-down at the athletic club on Friday. I gave York a beat down, convincingly, in the first game. A rare feat. Terrible mistake, too.
York, in his early 80s, has won several table tennis tournaments held during annual senior games. When he finds himself losing, he resorts to nifty spin serves that make returns practically impossible. Suffice it say, the first game was the only game I won that day.
Of course, winning isn’t everything, but it sure feels good. York and I like victories, but that’s not the sole reason we play. Camaraderie and fellowship drive us.
Then there’s the game itself. The crisp sound that echoes when paddle hits ball and ball kisses table. The pace of the matches which is fast, coupled with the reaction the game demands, which is quick. Throw in the spins and smashes and you’ve got a full-body workout for all ages.
Most times, when you mention Ping-Pong to someone who’s played it, you get two responses.
“I used to play all the time in college,” is one refrain. “I stopped playing after I left the military,” is the other.
Why stop, though?
Which brings me back to our idea.
On Saturday, as we watched the hummingbirds come and go, talk turned to table tennis. We lamented that we ought to play more, make the time to do so. Then we thought about this county and the closet Ping-Pong lovers who most certainly live here, who enjoy the sport as much as we do. But they never play, probably because they don’t have their own tables or places to meet other players.
So York and I have decided that we’d like to start a Ping-Pong club in Gwinnett. As far as we can tell, no such outlet exists in the county. Tell us if we’re wrong. I know there’s a business in Duluth that lets you pay-and-play, and a few high schools have clubs for students. That’s about it, though.
Let’s change that. Ric Crosby of the Southern Athletic Club has said that he’d welcome a Ping-Pong club within his facility. Cool.
But there are particulars to work out. How formal, or informal, should the club be? How often - and when - should we play? What about dues? Or should membership be simply a matter of showing up at the host venue when play time is scheduled, signing up to play, and donating a few dollars to the cause, if at all?
Let me know what you think and if you’re interested.
After all, it’s just an idea, dreamt up by two gents while enthralled by nature.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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“When patience runs thin”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The cell phone rang while he was on Lake Lanier with his son and a fishing guide.
His wife was calling.
Their house in Norcross - the one they’d lived in nearly 50 years - was on fire.
“She knew we’d paid for a fishing guide, so she said I might as well keep fishing,” Nathaniel Brown said. “The firefighters were there. Nothing I could have done, anyway.”
I’ve been to the brick ranch on Autry Street a few times to interview Brown, a retired civil rights activist in his mid-70s. When it comes to Norcross, the county, its people, he’s a living history. Conversations can stretch into hours. Stories flow, some easier for him to recall than others.
I’d tried to contact him a few weeks ago. We’d talked about going fishing - “wettin’ a hook,” as my pops would say - many times, but never got around to it. Perhaps, I thought, I could mix work with pleasure, turn a fishing trip into a Badie Tour and write about it.
Imagine the headline: “Sage and student go fishing.” Sweet.
When I called Brown, though, I got a recording. The number, it stated, had been disconnected. Odd. I tried a couple more times to make certain that I’d dialed right.
Same result.
Brown called me last week. He sounded tired, fed up, put out.
His home is uninhabitable. He and his wife are living with a daughter in Duluth. They have filed a claim with Allstate, their insurance carrier. But three months and 16 days after the June 7 fire, their house is still in ruins, and they’re wondering if they’re in good hands.
“It’s been really strange,” he told me. “Every time you talk to them, they tell you something different.”
On Friday morning, I met Brown at his daughters’s house and we drove over to the old stead. On the way, he pointed out houses, who’d lived there, what they did and what had happened to them. Stories.
At the house, we stood in the kitchen and he showed me the possible origins of the electrical fire. The house has been stripped to its foundation. Insurance adjusters have collected what’s salvageable - clothes, furniture and such. If possible, those items are to be cleaned, repaired and returned to the family. Insurance coverage initially paid for enough clothes to last 30 days; some clothes that have been cleaned have been returned to the family.
Brown had wanted to build or move somewhere else, but he gave in to the emotional tug of his wife and kids. So the house will be rebuilt. When is unclear. Hammer and nails aren’t flying at 489 Autry Street.
Matt Hunter is the Allstate structure adjuster assigned to the Brown case. I called to see what’s going on, if something on Brown’s end had delayed the project. He told me a company spokeswoman would get back to me. Renita Ward called on Friday. She told me that Brown’s claim was a bit more complicated because his house is located in a historic district. It has to be rebuilt on standards that typically don’t apply.
“It’s moving forward,” she told me.
Generally, after the homeowner files all the proper paperwork, it takes about 60 days to repair a typical house, according to the office of John Oxendine, the state insurance commissioner’s office.
Remember Village Place subdivision?
Three children started a fire that torched four houses in the Loganville neighborhood. Those homes were rebuilt in 60 days, thanks to Loganville-based Meridian Homes and the homeowners’ insurance coverage.
Brown has contacted Oxendine’s office. He’s been a patient man, and in this world that’s a good thing, regardless of whether you’re dealing with a fire tragedy or trying to land a few striped bass.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Gwinnett’s true king of the roads”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jess and Renie Vics of Duluth traded the harsh cold of New York State for the milder winters of Georgia a decade ago.
Jess Vics, a retired eye doctor, had always wondered who Steve Reynolds was and why, exactly, a major boulevard carries his name.
He got his answer in Tuesday’s AJC Gwinnett News. It carried the story about the passing of Reynolds, 87, who had died the night before after a two-year battle with lung cancer. He’d been a former state senator and state Transportation Board chairman who presided over the improvement of Georgia’s roads and highways.
“Now I know,” said Vics, who was getting his car spiffed up at a car wash Wednesday near the intersection of Pleasant Hill Road and Steve Reynolds Boulevard.
The boulevard is a 4.6-mile road that was built in phases during the mid-1980s and late 1990s. About 35,000 vehicles travel it everyday, and I suspect that most of those motorists would do what several people did Wednesday when I asked them if they knew anything about the road’s name.
Shake their heads, sheepishly, and say, “no.”
Patrick Robinson’s excuse seemed plausible. He moved to Gwinnett a month ago to escape what he called crime-ridden Miami. I told him he may have jumped from the fire into the frying pan. He admitted to beginning to think the same. Robinson, 50, details cars at the Pleasant Hill Car Wash & Lube, where the Badie Tour came across Vics.
“Do you know who Steve Reynolds is?” I asked Robinson, motioning to the road.
“Nah, not really,” he said. “Hopefully you’re going to tell me.”
Well, you could call him “Transportation Czar,” and a special friend of Gwinnett’s.
Brian Allen, the director of the Gwinnett County Department of Transportation, credits Reynolds for much of the local road network, a system of more than 2,600 miles of asphalt and 615 signalized intersections, according to the county government Web site.
Early on, Reynolds recognized the value of building roads with local money raised from general obligation bonds, and later, the special local option sales tax. It helped the county pay for projects and move them along quicker.
“Most of the major roadways are examples of that [funding] principle,” Allen wrote in an e-mail. “It would be impossible to completely quantify [Reynolds’] contribution to our transportation infrastructure. Most of what we see in the way of major roadways, interstates, arterials and collector streets in the county are a testament to his career of service. He was diligent in his efforts to make sure that our area received its share of transportation funding, to the extent that many across the state say we have historically received more than our share.”
Usually, I think it’s unwise and premature to name a public facility or anything like it for someone still alive. Later on down the road they might pull an O.J. or something.
Then what?
In the case of Reynolds, though, there apparently was no gamble, no risk. On Dec. 15, 1987, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution that renamed Red Plum Road, Franklin Road and part of Singleton Road as Steve Reynolds Boulevard.
“Obviously, he was worthy of the honor,” said Vics, the New York State transplant.
I gave Robinson, the newcomer, a pass for not knowing anything about Steve Reynolds Boulevard, or the humble Lawrenceville man that it honors. But not Tommy Brown, his 25-year-old co-worker. He’s home-grown, for goodness sakes, a 2000 graduate of Norcross High.
“I know the road and all that, but I didn’t know it’s history,” he told me.
“Now I know.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-39875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Citizen input might curb haphazard development”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A developer proposes an 1,800-house subdivision.
Opponents cry foul to anyone who’ll listen. They protest.
The developer returns to the table with a scaled-back project. Instead of 1,800 houses, 1,500 will be built. And to show that he’s community-minded and dealing in good faith, he promises to plant a few more trees and shrubs and agrees to other changes that are cosmetic at best.
On the hot seat, county commissioners praise the project and the developer’s stellar reputation. This project, the elected officials say, will be an asset to the community. So they give it the green light, even if it doesn’t fit the comprehensive land-use plan.
In these here parts, it can happen. And in other states like Florida, the story typically ends no differently. There, practically anything goes when it comes to residential and commercial construction. Developments are seemingly allowed anywhere, built over any type of geographical terrain.
Well, there’s a grass-roots, nonpartisan group that’s trying to nip willy-nilly development in the bud, before the entire state gets paved over. It’s called Florida Hometown Democracy, founded by Florida natives Ross S. Burnaman and Lesley Blackner, according to the Web site www.floridahometowndemocracy.com.
Florida Hometown Democracy wants to put a referendum on the 2008 ballot that would require voter approval of changes to master growth plans. Say an entrepreneur wants to build a CVS Pharmacy in Ocala, Fla., at a location that’s inappropriate. If city leaders OK’d it, the people of Ocala would have to agree to it.
I lived in Central Florida for eight years, so I know and can tell you: Metropolises in the Sunshine State have got nothing on Gwinnett - and vice versa - when it comes to the mind-boggling proliferation of strip malls and subdivisions. Both locales are first-place contenders for the King of Sprawl award.
Burnaman grew up in Winter Park, Fla., near Orlando. Blackner’s a Jacksonville native. Both are attorneys. And like so many of us, both are sick of what sections of their hometowns and other communities have become.
A mess.
When I interviewed Burnaman Monday, we exchanged examples of the nonsense that goes on here and in Tallahassee, his home. Strip malls go up on one side of the road while another strip mall with vacant space sits across the street. Strip malls and storefronts sit right next to one another, yet are not connected by a road or walkway.
If the people had a stronger voice, Burnaman said, they’d be more protective of a community’s quality of life. His organization is trying to collect 611,000 signatures by Jan. 31 to qualify for the November 2008 ballot. So far, they’ve gotten about 500,000. He thinks developers would stop proposing outrageous projects that don’t fit land-use plans if they had to win over citizens.
“We simply want to have a citizen veto at the tail-end of the process,” said Ross, who once worked for the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the state’s planning agency.
“We’re not cutting out the politicians. The only way a [proposed project] would get on a ballot is if a majority of the politicians wanted to do it. If local planners and planning agencies and politicians want to go forward with a project, they have to sell it to the citizens. If people had a vote on these issues, then maybe [growth] would be more constrained.”
Naturally, the idea has its critics, namely the Florida Retail Association, the Florida Homebuilders Association and the state Chamber of Commerce, according to articles in various Florida publications. They say passage of the amendment would stymie the state’s economy and raise the cost of projects. The same concerns would be raised in our county, our state, against such a measure in our county, I suppose.
Yet it seems that more and more Gwinnettians are voicing their discontent with the growth pattern that has been allowed to proliferate. It’s a concern that gets aired routinely in the opinion pages of AJC Gwinnett News and one that I hear often in the community. True, property owners have the right to develop their property - as long as it fits zoning regulations and the growth plan. But let’s be real: Rules get bent all the time. How else can you explain so many situations where buildings sit out of character with their surroundings?
Surely, there’s a better way. We need a more balanced, sustainable approach to a decades-old pattern of development in this county.
Maybe Florida Hometown Democracy is on to something.
What do you think?
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Biofuel Believer”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you stand near Ben Cowart’s Ford truck when it’s running, you just might smell a big whiff of french fries.
Cowart powers his 2005 Superduty F-250 with vegetable oil. Used vegetable oil. The Duluth resident - who dabbles in real estate, builds houses and “buys and sells stuff” - also fuels his military-style Humvee the same way.
And he’s satisfied with the performance, as pleased as he’d be with a Big Mac combo with extra cheese.
Biggie-sized, of course.
“I read up on the technology and I said. ‘You know, I have plenty of friends who have restaurants and obviously, I go to them,’ ” said Cowart, 42, poking fun at his heft. “All I do is filter out the french fries and get out a little water. The oil’s fine, and it’s free.”
Cowart’s F-250 typically averages about 16 miles to the gallon. “I drove 500 miles down to South Georgia and it cost me about $10,” he said, referring to the amount of money he spent on petroleum to make the fuel mixture.
His 6.2-liter Humvee carries two fuel tanks - one for diesel and one for vegetable oil, which is either canola or peanut. The diesel fires up the engine. Once it’s humming, he pops a switch to draw from the vegetable oil tank.
Hot water from the coolant heats the fuel line and fuel filter so that the oil, which needs to reach about 160 degrees, can flow and burn properly.
He eventually wants to install a two-tank system in his truck. For now, though, it runs on a mixture of diesel (20 percent), gas (3 percent) and veggie oil (77 percent).
According to my research, vegetable oils have properties similar to diesel fuel and gasoline. Differences can be overcome.
Those in the know call vegetable oil used as fuel straight vegetable oil (SVO); oil discarded from a restaurant is called waste vegetable oil (WVO.)
When it comes to veggie power, Cowart is a “WVO” man.
“It burns very clean,” he told me. “It runs the same, the exhaust smells like french fries and it’s good for the environment. I heard that McDonald’s plans to run its tractor-trailer trucks on the stuff.”
With gasoline prices the way they are, I would be surprised if more individuals don’t switch to biofuels - some governments already have.
On Friday, the AJC Gwinnett News ran a story about Lawrenceville city government using biodiesel for its fleet of garbage trucks. City Hall expects to save about $12,000 a year.
Cowart says he’ll pocket some money, too. “I’m going from spending about $5,000 per year for gas to about $1,800 this year,” he told me. “Next year I want all my trucks working on a two-tank system.”
For now, he’s trying to convert others.
“(Duluth Mayor Shirley Lassiter) is a friend of mind,” he said. “She put me in touch with the city maintenance guys, and they’re running their equipment on it.”
It’s just like Cowart to try something new, somewhat edgy, something wacky. I first wrote about him nearly two years ago when he was selling military-style Humvees.
At the time, the UGA fan had about 70 of them - some at his residence in Duluth, the rest at a location he wouldn’t divulge. He and a partner had purchased the vehicles at an auction in Atlanta. They had a falling out, hence the explanation for the secret hideaway.
Well, Cowart’s still in the Humvee-selling business. “Moved about 20 a month ago,” he told me.
“Got 10 left.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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‘Mama Jean’ puts patriotism on display
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every month, she decorates her yard in a different theme.
Back-to-school in August. Christmas in December. Halloween in October. Whatever the season, Jean Evans - known to many, especially the neighborhood kids, as “Mama Jean” - arranges a vivid display for motorists who travel James Road in Lawrenceville to see and enjoy.
This month, September, is no different. The theme carries a serious tone, though.
“Remembering 911,” a sign states. Her front yard is in memory of Sept. 11, 2001 - the day terrorists struck on U.S. soil and claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
Drive by Evans’ house in the 600 block of James Road.
You’ll see a garden with a flag in the middle that’s surrounded by seven flags in a circle. Two mannequins are decked out in faux military uniforms. Uncle Sam sits on a bench. A banner says “Proud to Be An American.”
And then there’s the tribute to first responders at ground zero, as well as the servicemen who are protecting the country in its aftermath - firefighters and soldiers.
“I’m just a real patriotic person,” Evans told me. “I keep a flag out all the time. That day was such a tragedy. People don’t want to forget it, but they do.”
Months ago, an AJC Gwinnett News reader told me about a wonderful neighbor who passes on humor, reflection and good vibes by decorating her yard. The reader promised to let me know the next time Evans did something special. She kept her word, so the Badie Tour stopped by Evans’ house Wednesday.
First, a little about Evans.
She’s a 69-year-old widow who grew up on the very spot of land she lives on. She’s worked several jobs, including a stint as a school bus driver. She now works as a part-time bank courier. She’s a proud member of the “Gadabouts,” a local chapter of the Red Hat Society.
Her husband of 34 years, Bill, died in 1990. Evans took it hard. To rise up from depression, she took to working in the yard, cutting grass and tending to flowers and plants. In her yard stands a magnolia tree that she always had wanted to decorate for Christmas. One year, she did.
“It was so cheerful,” she told me.
When the holiday season ended and January rolled around, dreariness returned. Evans decided to start setting up monthly displays to raise her spirits as well as those of others who might see her magical yard. She buys costumes and decorative trinkets from thrift shops, garage sales- wherever she finds them.
“This has been a blessing for me,” she said. “It’s good for me and the people enjoy it, too. I’ve met so many people, people of all nationalities. People stop and say, ‘You know, I was having a bad day until I came by your house.’ I have people drive by just to see what I’ve put up.”
Evans’ keen sense of humor and imagination comes across vividly.
Remember the “Runaway Bride?”
Well, Evans did her up nice.
She configured a bridal scene with a bride, groom, three bridesmaids, a ring bearer and a flower girl. A toy school bus served as the Greyhound bus. Evans wrote “Albuquerque” on the bus, lest anyone forget the June 2005 saga. Jennifer Wilbanks of Duluth got cold feet days before her wedding, faked her own kidnapping and hopped a Greyhound bus to New Mexico.
The ordeal became a national story, so it would make sense that Evans’ display would prove quite popular. In fact, it was so popular that somebody stole the bride.
“Maybe they took my point the wrong way,” she said, laughing.
Halloween’s right around the corner. Evans plans to display a little man whose rear end is two pumpkins. She’s going to dress up stick people in costumes and arrange them in a pumpkin patch.
“Life is too short not to enjoy,” she said. “I like to have a good time.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Nonprofit helps refits homes for injured troops”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
His daughters are married to Army men.
Rob Wolfe’s a captain; David Branch’s a major.
And Marshall Wages of Lilburn is their father-in-law.
Last Christmas at a family gathering, talk turned to the U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and how the home front could support them. Two of Wolfe’s fellow soldiers had been killed by a car bomb in Iraq. Relatives wanted to help the fallen soldiers’ families. Someone suggested Homes For Our Troops, a nonprofit that builds or remodels houses to accommodate severely wounded veterans.
“They said, ‘If you do anything, do something to help all the soldiers,’ ” Wages said. “So we picked Homes for Our Troops.”
On Monday, a charity golf tournament was held at the Bears Best Club in Suwanee to raise money for the 3-year-old charity, based in Massachusetts. The event, which included lunch, a barbecue supper and silent auction, raised an estimated $5,000. More contributions are expected.
Wages manages a warehouse for Plantation Door Company. His employer, in partnership with All Georgia Exteriors, set up a local nonprofit - the All Georgia Foundation Inc. - to funnel tourney proceeds to Homes For Our Troops. Brandon Leatherwood and Jeff Teems own Plantation Door; Duane Laricey and Kevin O’ Neil own All Georgia Exteriors.
The Lawrenceville businessmen hope to make the tourney a yearly event - or at least as long as it’s necessary, and that might be awhile. More than 20,000 servicemen have been injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, according to the Homes For Our Troops Web site.
“These men and women are risking their lives and limbs to allow us to enjoy the quality of life we have here,” Becky Teems, Wages’s sister, said in an e-mail. “Many times, when they return wounded and maimed, their quality of life suffers greatly. We know that the money we raise will be a drop in the bucket to what is needed. But it is a good start.”
Numerous school groups, civic clubs and individuals send care packages to U.S. troops abroad. That’s great. In a recent letter to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, though, an Army sergeant suggested that citizens stop shipping wet wipes and such. Soldiers, he said, would rather have DVDs and phone cards.
Now imagine some of those very soldiers, critically injured, missing arms and legs, returning to a house in America that doesn’t fit their special needs. One with no ramps, proper doors and lifts. Well, Homes For Our Troops works to either give such homes an extreme makeover or build a new structure altogether.
And it doesn’t cost veterans a cent.
The nonprofit raises money, building supplies, labor, whatever, to make houses handicapped accessible. According to its Web site, 15 projects have been completed and another 20 are under way. Homes have been adapted for two disabled Georgia veterans.
Late Monday, I called the nonprofit’s headquarters to tell them about the charity golf outing. Kirt Rebello, vice president and chief projects officer, expressed gratitude but not surprise.
“We couldn’t do what we do without the generosity of donors across the country,” he told me. “The response has been overwhelming.”
Wolfe, the Army captain and son-in-law of Wages, has completed two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He escaped the car bombing that claimed the life of two fellow soldiers.
“I walked,” said Wolfe, 37, who took part in Monday’s charity tournament.
Others, he said, aren’t as fortunate.
“The number of amputees alone is staggering,” he told me. “It’s great to help the soldiers.”
To donate to the local fund-raiser, make checks payable to All Georgia Foundation Inc., 1675 Lakes Parkway, Suite 101, Lawrenceville, Ga., 30043; 678-377-7955 or www.homesforourtroops.org.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Blame the Illegals”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some people don’t mind expressing their hatred when it comes to illegal immigrants.
I got some gems in my blog after Thursday’s column about the dwindling number of day laborers at a doughnut shop off Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
“Illegal immigrants are the bane of the American existence,” wrote someone who identified himself or herself as “Alexis.” The writer is embarrassed that his or her subdivision - Sugarloaf Country Club - is so close to “nasty ghettos” that have been inhabited by ” barrio thug invaders.”
Unless there are two Sugarloafs in Gwinnett, that would be the same address of “Mansion Madam” Lisa Ann Taylor, who faces charges of cocaine and marijuana possession, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, prostitution and keeping a place of prostitution.
I’ve come to expect such nastiness anytime I write about the immigration issue. Gwinnett apparently was quite heavenly before the floodgates opened and cheap illegal labor poured in to cut the grass at places like Sugarloaf.
Illegal immigrants, it seems, have ruined this once-beautiful county. Single-handedly, I might add.
In truth, though, some of us suffer from a chronic disease called “Blame the illegals.”
Car won’t start? Blame the illegal immigrants.
Late for work? It’s an illegal immigrant’s fault.
Son hooked on crystal meth? It’s them illegal immigrants.
Marriage sucks? Blame an illegal immigrant.
Yes, I’m being silly, but you get the point.
Without question, the issue of illegal immigration - its causes, impact on community, and resolution - is important. Too bad the most vocal among us find the topic hard to discuss cogently, without resorting to hatred and name-calling.
Truth be told, those kinds of attitudes are probably based on perceptions and conventional wisdom that’s unsubstantiated but accepted as gospel. Truth is hard to get at.
Joshua Holland has written the best analysis I’ve read on the immigration issue. His article, called “Toward a Real Immigration Debate,” can be read at www.alternet.org/workplace/34713/. Be forewarned, though: It may not support your views, regardless of whether you’re pro-immigration or anti-immigration.
As for my Thursday column, the majority of people who posted comments, called or e-mailed were quite civil. It wasn’t because they held soft spots for illegal immigrants. They simply don’t group all Latinos under one roof or make sweeping generations. They viewed the average illegal immigrant as everyday people doing what they can to make a living and raise a family.
Guy Stevens, 80, of Norcross put it best.
“Suppose you live somewhere and don’t have a job, but across the road there are plenty,” he told me.
“What would you do?”
Stevens doesn’t understand all the vileness. He’s old Norcross, a 1944 graduate of Norcross High. He lives off Beaver Ruin Road, a native who didn’t pack up for Jefferson, Ga., or Jackson County when Hispanics started moving in.
To stay fit, Stevens plays golf and works out several days a week at Bally Fitness in Norcross. After his workout Friday morning, we met for breakfast at a Waffle House on Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
Over grits and coffee, we talked about a little bit of everything, most of it related to Gwinnett - changes in his lifetime. This notion of nostalgia for the good old days doesn’t stick with Stevens.
“In the good old days, I walked two miles to school,” he said, chuckling. “We didn’t have electricity or paved roads. I remember my father would have to leave his car on Buford Highway and walk home when the road got too muddy.”
Stevens thanked me for the points I raised in Thursday’s column, which labeled illegal immigration a problem, but certainly no greater than foreclosures and overdevelopment in the region.
All Hispanics are not Mexicans. All Mexicans are not illegal immigrants. And all illegal immigrants shouldn’t be pegged the scapegoats in this mess of a county.
Stop the blame.
And the hatred.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Laborers Not Having Much Luck These Days”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Times sure have changed on the boulevard.
Jimmy Carter Boulevard, that is.
There was a time day laborers would practically hop into my truck bed as soon as I pulled into the Dunkin Donuts located next door to the U-Haul store.
I junked that truck, after 280,000 miles, and bought a car. I stopped by the doughnut shop Wednesday to witness a scene entirely different compared with years past.
And it wasn’t because of the car I drove.
Sometimes you don’t need statistics to get the picture. Anecdoctal observations can suffice just fine. So on Wednesday, the Badie Tour stopped by the doughnut shop to find out what’s going on with the day laborers, where they’ve gone.
This particular Dunkin Donuts, as well as the QuikTrip off South Norcross Tucker Road, once teemed with day laborers. You had to walk around them to get inside the business.
Not anymore.
Around 8 o’ clock Wednesday morning, only seven men were looking for work. Most said they’d arrived at the parking lot early that morning but had no luck.
In the mid-1990s, rumor had it that a sign along the Mexican/U.S. border advertised Gwinnett County as the place to go for jobs. Maybe that’s changed. Maybe we aren’t so thirsty for cheap labor to exploit anymore.
I met two Hispanic men Wednesday who offered their perspectives. Sergio Guevara, 38, of El Salvador, and Gustavo Varala, 23, of Mexico.
Day laborers, they told me, are packing up. They’re moving to states like North Carolina, Virginia - returning, even, to their native countries. Crackdowns on illegal immigration and a stalled economy have some leaving the county.
Guevara is a mechanic who’s on the pathway to citizenship, thanks to his wife, a Puerto Rican. His livelihood revolves around the Hispanic community, though, and as of late it’s been tough going.
“In Georgia, so many problems,” said Guevara, who stopped by for a cup of joe. “If you don’t have papers, there’s no work. The people are going because there’s no work. It’s very hard.”
Varala, an illegal immigrant who’s been here two years, says he hasn’t worked in days. “I wouldn’t tell anyone in Mexico to come here,” he told me.
Last year, I wrote a column about illegal immigrants who had made contingency plans in the midst of all the immigration reform rhetoric. If parents were deported, their children were to stay with legal relatives and friends.
So even if the men, and in some cases the women, are indeed leaving Gwinnett, many offspring are staying put.
So many of us view the end of illegal immigration as the magic bullet that will help upright a county that’s operated on warp speed for decades. In truth, the root of many of the quality-of-life issues is due to a region that grew so large, so quickly, seemingly with scant introspection.
No doubt, illegal immigration is an issue. But what’s equally pressing are skyrocketing foreclosures, a loss of housing value in certain ZIP codes, traffic, packed schools and overdevelopment.
You can’t lay those woes on the men looking for work on the boulevard. And now, even some of them are taking flight.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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Family aims to share story to help others
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Nordic, her first name means “divinely protected.” In African, it stands for “safe and secure.”
So when Selma Wood’s parents talk to their 2-year-old daughter and call her name, they’re reassuring her, telling her life is going to be just fine.
Selma has heterotaxy, the abnormal placement of the organs. It’s a complex condition that creates heart defects. Among other issues, Selma’s septal wall is deficient, and she suffers from pulmonary stenosis, a narrowing of the artery.
“She’s had two of the standard surgeries, and during one of those she had to go [right] back to the operating room for the surgery again,” said Peggy Strieper, a pediatric cardiologist who’s part of Selma’s medical team at Children’s Sibley Heart Center.
“She’ll need a fourth one as well.”
Parents Tommy and Stephanie Wood of Lawrenceville found out about Selma’s condition while she was still in the womb, about 20 weeks old.
“It floored me,” Tommy Wood, 37, told me in an e-mail.
“I remember telling my wife: I just hope I’m strong enough to stand by this little girl. She deserves every chance, and I don’t want to fail her with a bad decision or lack of faith.”
Now he wants to share Selma’s story. Wood wants to produce a documentary about pediatric congenital heart defects, and he already has a working title: “Someone Else’s Life.”
Besides a keen interest in the subject, Wood has the professional background. He owns Stimulus Inc., a Grayson-based video production company that does graphic design and small-scale videos.
As part of the documentary, he’d like to create a TV version of the 90-minute film as well as a mini-version that would be made available for parents who find themselves in similar circumstances. He wants the documentary to appear on educational channels, become a DVD and be distributed at hospitals and medical offices.
To make this film a reality, though, Wood needs help. Yours. He needs volunteers to help with filming and to maintain the Web site. And he needs money — corporate and individual sponsors to cover the $60,000 projected cost. He has some commitments, including comedian Jeff Foxworthy of Alpharetta. He’s agreed to narrate the film.
“A film like this is not terribly expensive, but it still costs money to get the gear and to keep the focus on the project,” he said. “We’re hoping to find sponsors that would want to ‘partner’ in the creation of the project. We need about $10,000 to start the first wave of production and a projected $50,000 more over the next 12 to 18 months.”
I remember when my wife and I got the news that Miles (Latin for “soldier”) had a congenital heart defect. Transposition of the great vessels, doctors told us. May as well had been talking Greek. Nothing made sense. All we knew was that our son, barely a day old, was gravely ill. When his condition was diagnosed nearly 12 years ago, it sure would have been nice to pop in a video and see families, children and doctors sharing their success stories, their experiences.
Today he’s fine, a miracle child who loves to read, wears a size 9 1/2 shoe and shoots a sweet jump shot. I share his story often to help others. Selma’s journey can, too.
“The day Selma was diagnosed, we went home with tears and fears,” said Wood, whose project is in preproduction stages.
“It would have been real nice to have a video of other people who have gone through this. We want to create the video to give hope — the best catalyst for the healing of the child.”
For more information, visit http://www.someoneelsesfilm.com. Contact Tommy Wood at tommy@stimulusfilms.com. 404-281-1174. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Why is it so hard to find a cabbie who speaks English?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She left the message on a reporter’s voice mail.
“Hello, my name is Sylvia Booker,” she began. “I need help finding a taxi cab in my area that’s licensed, reliable and [with a driver] who speaks English.”
Booker’s 1999 Buick Le-Sabre is being repaired. She said a woman with “wonderful insurance” backed into it at a gas pump on Monday. Since the Buick would be ready any day now, the Norcross widow decided to bide time.
“I said, ‘Heck, I just need a way to get back to the collision center when my car is finished,” she told me. “So I called all these taxi cab numbers in the phone book.”
Most of the phone numbers were either disconnected or out of service. When she did get a live person on the line, he or she didn’t speak English. Booker, 75, a retired IRS tax examiner, doesn’t speak Spanish.
In Gwinnett, a local law requires taxi drivers to speak enough English to understand traffic signs, a passenger’s request and how to write a receipt. It also requires drivers to show a green card or other proof that they are allowed to work in the United States legally. In 2009, taxis can’t be older than eight years.
When I talked to Booker, she didn’t come across as a xenophobe. All she wanted was a taxi driver who spoke English. Ethnicity didn’t matter. Yet she couldn’t find one.
“I have no idea why it’s like that,” she said.
Of course, free market and free enterprise dictate. Latino-owned and operated taxis are expected to flower in Gwinnett, home to thousands of Hispanics, many carless.
According to latest figures from the county’s licensing and revenue department, 61 licensed taxis currently operate here. Cursory observations tell me a majority are Latino. Cool.
A question begs to be answered, though. Whatever happened to the native-born taxi drivers and independent operators? It’s as if they’ve vanished, vamoosed, never existed.
It’s a question worthy of posing in regards to other areas, too — construction, lawn maintenance, restaurants, county and state road crews. Hispanics appear to dominate certain jobs. Maybe it’s employer preference. Yet they comprise a mere 17 percent of the county population.
Apparently, there’s an economic and social dynamic at work that’s bigger than my little brain can comprehend. It’s bigger than you and me and the role we play in this mess of a county.
Maybe you can explain it to me. Booker, too. And save that tired tripe about Latinos embracing jobs that Americans reject. I don’t buy it.
Gut instinct tells me something, though. Whatever the reason for the dynamic, its surge in Gwinnett isn’t an altogether blessing or benefit for the majority of us. Hispanics included.
Booker’s condo is a five-minute drive from my office at Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Best Friend Road. I offered her a ride.
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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