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February 2008
Clinic treats those who fall through health care net
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He spent 19 months as a flight surgeon during the war in Vietnam.
Today, Bill Martin applies what he learned practicing medicine in the Southeast Asian country to the clinic he runs near First United Methodist Church of Lawrenceville.
“When you have a patient in front of you - North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, illegal immigrant or legal immigrant - it doesn’t matter,” the doctor said. “You just take care of the patient.”
Martin founded the Hope Clinic six years ago to care for the uninsured, under-insured and indigent. Referrals take many avenues. Patients find their way to his office after treatment in emergency rooms or public health offices.
Patients suffer with diabetes, cardiac disease, high cholesterol and hypertension. Some can pay. Many can’t; they get a discount. The difference is made up by donors. Supporters, though, wonder how long the clinic can continue.
On Wednesday, The Badie Tour stopped by Hope to talk to staff and volunteers about local primary health care. It mirrors what you’d find in Anywhere U.S.A.: Insurance companies are slow to pay claims or cover only certain conditions. People are under-insured or uninsured. Hospital emergency rooms become ad hoc providers.
“There are so many problems, but lack of care of the uninsured is a big issue,” Martin, 66, told me during a quick break between seeing patients. “If patients don’t have insurance, and they are charged exorbitant costs for preventive care, they don’t see a doctor. When they start feeling bad, they are already in trouble, so they show up at the emergency room with [sky-high] blood pressure.”
He sees about 20 to 22 patients a day and could treat more if he weren’t treating people with severe issues. The clinic sees walk-ins from 7:30 to 10 a.m. on weekdays, but recently has turned new patients away because of backlogs.
Some patients followed Martin to the nonprofit after he closed his private practice. John Mitchell, who serves on the Hope board of directors, is one of them. He worries about money to run the nonprofit. The charity received nearly $70,000 in grants last year; the goal in 2008 is to raise nearly $600,000.
“The clinic has been running hand to mouth, so to speak,” he said. “Martin is a throwback to that old-school doctor. His primary concern is taking care of patients. This has always been his dream - to have clinics available. We’d like to have five across the county.”
While the health care industry needs reform, Martin said the answer isn’t solely in universal health care - at least in the forms that have been proposed.
“Everybody needs to know that if we don’t do something about the uninsured problem, it’s going to take the system down,” he said. “This type of clinic needs to be a community clinic because this is a community problem. This model, in my opinion, is a step in the right direction.”
For more information about the Hope Clinic, call 770-685-1300.
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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Not every good project merits a TAD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michael Sullivan invokes what he calls the “but-for” test in weighing whether a special tax allocation district should be used to pay for a redevelopment project.
The Lawrenceville attorney says tax allocation districts (TADs) should be used to finance a project if - and only if - the project or development is too prohibitively expensive for the free market to get it off the ground.
“You use TAD funds where the project wouldn’t happen without that element,” Sullivan told me. “You don’t use them to make the project much more profitable. You use them when a project or development wouldn’t happen except for TAD funding.”
Sullivan knows a thing or two about TADs. He’s the attorney for the developers who have proposed the $2 billion redevelopment of the OFS Brightwave fiber optics plant at Jimmy Carter Boulevard and I-85. That project is now on hold as a result of the Georgia Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling Feb. 11.
The high court said a projected $850 million in school taxes can’t be used to build parks, transit and affordable housing on Atlanta’s proposed Beltline.
The decision riled many a developer. It put in limbo projects that had planned to use TADs as a funding mechanism, including the OFS proposal.
The high court got it right. Constitutionally, school taxes shouldn’t be used to pay for redevelopment projects.
J. Alvin Wilbanks, the superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools, said he thought the merit of TADs should be weighed on an individual basis.
“From the school system’s perspective, development can increase the growth digest, which could have a positive impact on the community and its schools,” he said in an e-mail.
Think whatever you’d like about the funding mechanism. The OFS site seems to be a prime candidate for it.
It’s one of the first industrial sites in Gwinnett. Costly sewer and infrastructure upgrades pose conditions that would make an overhaul of the site expensive for any developer, and that’s what TADs were initially created for: to help local governments upgrade blighted areas whose renewal carries sticker shock.
Some projects, though, make you wonder why a TAD is even necessary. Case in point: the Suwanee Gateway.
City leaders in the town want the area surrounding Exit 111 off 1-85 to be a showcase for residents and visitors. Before the high court ruling, they had plans to create a tax allocation district to help fund $35 million revitalization efforts in the area: think streetscapes, new offices and shops, according to the city Web site.
But would a TAD for this part of Suwanee pass attorney Sullivan’s “but-for” test - the one in which he questions whether a project could sustain itself without use of a TAD? Opus South Corp. has already begun building a mixed-use village on a 148-acre site east of I-85. Terraces at Suwanee Gateway is to include a mix or retail shops, restaurants, office space, a hotel and residential units. It should jump-start other projects.
Seems to me that in Suwanee - ranked by Money magazine as the 10th best small community to live in - the free market is alive and kicking along this corridor.
No need for a TAD.
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 field trips shouldn’t become a thing of the past
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My daughter’s kindergarten class recently took a field trip to the state Capitol.
A tour guide told them interesting facts - that the neoclassical structure was built with Indiana limestone and Georgia marble. That important work takes place under the Gold Dome.
The one thing that impressed Olivia the most, though, was the two-headed calf and two-headed snake. They are located on the fourth floor in the Georgia State Museum of Science & Industry.
Remember field trips? Fun. They never had to be anything exotic. A fire station or bank sufficed just fine.
Olivia attends New Life Academy of Excellence Inc., a charter public school in Norcross. Principal Alphonsa Foward says field trips - relevant ones, not trips to Six Flags - make core curriculum subjects living, breathing disciplines. It brings them to life.
“The kindergartners try to take at least one field trip a month,” said Foward, noting that the older grades aim for one trip a quarter. “Because of our size, it’s easier for us to manage [a group of] kindergartners than it is for most schools.”
I wonder, though: How big of a role do field trips play in today’s schools? We’re so focused on standardized testing, what kids learn, how well they are taught, whether individual schools need reform. Then, there are issues related to planning trips, such as transportation, funding, safety and liability. Must be hard for many Gwinnett schools to pull it off.
No, it’s not a necessity to hit the road. Today’s technology offers “virtual field trips,” and presenters can go to campuses rather than have students travel to them.
Despite that, nothing tops a well-planned field trip. Good educators know this, said Karen Hallacy, the state legislative chairwoman for the Georgia PTA.
“Every principal I talk to is very committed to the idea that field trips shouldn’t be eliminated,” Hallacy of East Cobb said. “Principals fight like the dickens to keep some aspect of them alive in their schools. It can’t be all math and all science, even though those are very critical.
“If that is all we ever focus on, our children will suffer. It’s the same thing with P.E. If kids just sit in their seats six hours a day, their attention is shot.”
In Georgia, field trips are decided at the local level. School systems aren’t required to report information regarding field trips to the state. That makes it impossible to determine whether the number of field trips over the years has increased, decreased or stayed the same, said Dana Tofig, the Department of Education spokesman.
Hallacy, though, said experience with her own kids shows that primary schools have cut back over the years.
“My oldest children went on more field trips when they were in elementary school than my youngest child,” she told me. “In fact, during my youngest daughter’s fourth-and fifth-grade years, they cut out a field trip at every grade level, and that was only a few years ago.”
Too bad.
What kid wouldn’t want to see a two-headed calf or snake up close?
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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Purple’s the hue of a whole new life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It started out as fun, a way to extend the weekend partying.
Before long, though, Russell Cook was hooked on crystal meth. Smoked it every day. He failed a random drug test and lost his job as an EMT at Grady Hospital. He lost his apartment and sold whatever he owned to pay bills, and to keep using.
“I never used it when I was at work in the beginning, only on weekends,” he told me. “One day I was having fun with it. The next, I was in over my head and couldn’t get out.”
Cook is talking to me on his cellphone. He’s headed to have coffee with the guys at Purple Inc., a men’s residential substance abuse program. This red farmhouse off Lawrenceville Suwanee Road, which the Badie Tour visited, was Cook’s home for six months back in the spring of 2005.
We are inundated with tabloid news about Britney’s and Lindsay’s struggles with sobriety. They’ve got the money to dip in and out of rehab. Their stories make me wonder about everyday people with addictions.
Where can they go for somewhat affordable treatment?
In Gwinnett, Purple Inc., a for-profit recovery program, was founded in 2003 for that very purpose. Joel Bagley and his son, Brett, had experience with addiction. Credit Brett’s drug-craving teen years. The cost of his outpatient treatment inspired them years later to design a state-certified program - a less costly alternative.
As Brett, the program director, told me, “We treat the average Joes of Gwinnett County, from the EMT, to the judge, to the diesel mechanic, to the small business owner.”
In 2005, Cook’s parents decided it was time for a change. They sold Cook’s Nissan Xterra to help pay for the $2,000-a-month program. Cook’s father picked him up from the Walton County jail, where he faced drug-related charges and other violations.
“At this point, I had been doing meth for the past few years, large quantities of it,” Cook said. “I was completely insane.”
Initially, he was angry - at himself for his actions, that he liked getting high.
“I was not your star student,” the Shiloh High grad told me.
Cook can’t pinpoint a “moment of clarity” or any kind of epiphany that sparked his sobriety. He just remembers, months after being in the program, that he stopped thinking about getting high.
“There’s no way for me to tell you when the change happened,” Cook said. “I was working through the 12-step recovery program with a sponsor, and I just wanted to change. I wanted my insides to feel differently.”
Today he’s on a brighter path. He oversees the receiving department for a local Home Depot. He has a girlfriend and a 3-month-old daughter. He’s been sober for nearly three years.
Every week, he stops by Purple Inc. to talk to guys, help them along, keep them from lapsing. Not all will win the battle. Bagley, the program director, said many don’t.
“It’s simple to overcome an addiction,” Cook told me. “It’s just not easy.”
For more information about Purple Inc., visit www.purpletreatment.com or call 770-962-8215.
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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Shop dresses up views of fashion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Julia Kilgore had a hard time finding suitable formal dresses for her daughters to wear when they were in high school.
Nothing, it seemed, was age appropriate. Too many strapless backs, thigh-high slits and plunging necklines.
Too much Britney Spears. Too much exposed skin. Way too much immodesty.
“Sixteen and 17-year-olds shouldn’t be wearing that,” Kilgore thought at the time. “Some women shouldn’t be wearing it, either.”
Last week, we talked in a small shop off Main Street in downtown Lilburn. Kilgore and her married daughters - Paula Roberts of Snellville and Natalie Giddens of Lilburn - unwrapped about 100 dresses that had just arrived. The dresses are a variety of bright colors and variations of satin, all fashionably modest.
Finally, Kilgore has realized a dream she’s had ever since her girls were prom-age at Parkview High. She’s opened The Yellow Rose, a boutique whose name reflects her native state and her favorite flower. The shop specializes in modest formal wear for girls and women. Prom dresses will range from $150 on the low end to $500 or so on the high end. Bridal gowns are in the $250 to $1,000 range.
“I felt a need for this,’ said Kilgore, who has lived in the Lawrenceville/Lilburn area since 1975.
I do, too.
Some 12-year-old girls dress like 18-years-olds, and too many 18-year-olds dress like 30-year-olds. Too much of it is raunchy, and it’s not empowering. It’s shameful. A few years ago, AJC Gwinnett News did a photo spread on high school girls shopping for prom dresses. Some ensembles were too risqué to print.
Kilgore and her daughters have spread the word about the shop’s theme to private Christian schools. They expect The Yellow Rose to also appeal to young women in public schools who can’t find modesty at the local mall.
“A lot more girls would dress modestly if they had the opportunity,” said Giddens. “Girls think they are doing the guys a favor if they dress [revealingly]. I think most guys would prefer that girls dress modestly.”
She thinks about her last statement. “Some guys would.”
Kilgore will buy her dresses wholesale from Beautifully Modest, a private online retailer in Orem, Utah. When the business started almost a decade ago, some retail manufacturers laughed at the concept, said Phyllis Nielsen, the company marketing director.
Now there’s competition.
“Even now, some of them think it’s funny,” she said. “There are women out there who have certain standards that they are trying to stick to, and it can be very difficult. They want to be beautiful and elegant and don’t feel like they have to show a lot of skin to do that. They want to cover up.”
Kilgore and her daughters say they know many situations in which young ladies end up ordering online because they can’t find a variety of modest formal wear in stores. Others have even flown out west to places like Arizona to shop in specialty stores.
“We know quite a few who have done that, especially for weddings,” Giddens said.
Now, maybe they won’t have to.
The Yellow Rose, 79 Main St., Lilburn, initially will be open only by appointment. Details: 770-315-6823.
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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MARTA may be smarter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every morning, a paratransit shuttle bus picks up Glen Appling at his home in Buford.
It transports him to the Park & Ride lot off I-985. He catches the 101 Express bus to downtown Atlanta. He’s dropped off in front of the Twin Towers, where he works as a records management technician for the Georgia Department of Corrections.
His transit fare runs about $124 a month, which includes the $4 a day paratransit fee. If the Gwinnett Transit System’s proposed transit hike takes effect, though, the service will cost him almost $300 a month.
“That’s pretty steep,’ said Appling, 44.
Indeed.
Some of the transit fee increases under consideration are excessive. The one-way charge for riders who hop on at the farthest stops will jump to $5 each way from $3. Other local fares won’t increase that much, to $2 from $1.75. And fares for senior citizens and disabled people would rise to 41 from 85 cents.
Under the bus fare proposal, riders like Appling who travel into the city would stomach the greater hit. Monthly pass fees will jump to as much as $190 from $100 on the farthest routes. The idea is for patrons who travel the farthest distance to pay more than the flat fee. It’s known as “distance-based fares” in the transit world. Some cities charge such fares to help offset the operating cost of a transportation mode that seldom pays for itself.
No one likes to see costs rise. But I’d imagine GTS riders don’t have one-track minds, either. They expect a fare increase every now and again, done incrementally but without the extreme sticker shock.
Maybe transit officials should rethink this proposed hike, even if is it the first one in six years. It threatens to tick off existing riders and shoo new ones away. It could decimate the one thing transit officials have worked to build and maintain: ridership.
Last week, I stopped by the GTS terminal near Gwinnett Place Mall. Willie Goodson had just gotten off bus No. 38. His Pontiac Gran Am was in the shop, and he was hoping it wouldn’t be a major expense. Some people, he said, just don’t have any extra money - not even for public transit.
“A lot of people are already struggling,’” said Goodson, 28. “The amount it costs to just keep gas in the tank - everything is just ridiculous.”
As soon as notice of the increase became public, some loyal transit riders began strategizing. Customers like Appling who work in the city in offices within blocks of each other are thinking about carpooling.
Heck, with these hikes, they may as well take rail. Sure, it might be out of the way to get to MARTA’s Doraville or Chamblee station. But when it comes to the pocket book, it would be a whole lot cheaper - especially if employers offer a subsidy.
On Tuesday, Appling sent an e-mail to the transit advisory board, asking them to please reconsider the bus fare hikes.
“There are definitely cheaper ways to get to Atlanta,” he wrote.
True.
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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Red roses draw double takes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gavin Averill / Special
Columnist Rick Badie delivers flowers on behalf of Brette Start Planning Floral & Event Design to a business in Norcross, Georgia.
“Be careful with the fiddle ferns.”
Brette Start, a florist, is talking to me. She’s loading a cardboard box into my back seat. It holds a mixed flower arrangement that has fiddle fern, a natural plant, in it.
It’s the day before Valentine’s Day. The Badie Tour has offered to make a few deliveries on the eve of the holiday. See, some people plan things. They don’t wait till the last minute - or completely forget - to show significant others some appreciation on this special day.
Start even made some deliveries on Tuesday.
“Some people are going out of town, and they want to enjoy the flowers a few days,” she told me. “And it’s great for guys to get them [Wednesday], so they can have them to give to their [wives and girlfriends] Thursday morning.”
Go ahead.
Pooh-pooh Valentine’s Day, the exchange of flowers, gifts, candy and cards. Say it’s a waste of time and money. Pat yourself on the back for being pragmatic, sensible, above it all. Call Valentine’s Day a marketing ploy and little else. Say all those things. Some of them may even hold truth.
But you know what?
You didn’t see the receptionist and others do a double take when I walked in Brandons Printing on Jimmy Carter Boulevard. It wasn’t me they were admiring. It was what I held: a vase with a dozen beautiful red roses for Darlene Byars. She wasn’t in, though.
“Where do you want me to put them?,” I asked the receptionist.
“Over there,” she said, pointing to a table in the lobby visible for all to see.
You didn’t see Carol Roush’s face when she opened the door of her Lilburn home to find me holding her mixed arrangement, fiddle fern and all.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” she said. Yes, they were.
She and Gerald L. Roush have been married 47 years. He didn’t always send flowers. That’s changed in the last couple of years.
“He realizes we are getting close to our 50th anniversary,” she told me. “This was just perfect.”
Later, when Roush and I talk on the phone, I suggest she check the water in her arrangement. The floor mat was soaked where her vase had sat in the truck. That wasn’t my only mishap of the day.
In Norcross, I had some explaining to do to Christian M. Stockhoff. He ordered a half-dozen red roses for his honey. By the time I got them to his office off Holcomb Bridge Road, there were five buds. My bad. Stockhoff, a vice president of operations for a brokerage firm, took it all in stride. Debra, his wife of 4 years, won’t mind. She probably won’t even notice. (Unless she reads this column.)
“She pretty much gets flowers and something else from me every year,” Stockhoff told me. “She’s come to expect it, and I have found it to be a happy routine.”
By the end of the holiday, Start will have filled more than 200 orders, most of which were scheduled for delivery. Her start-up business, Brette Start Planning Floral & Event Design, specializes in floral arrangements for high-end weddings and big events.
Flowers are her passion.
“Even if it’s a sad occasion, there’s nothing like seeing people’s faces when they receive their arrangements,” she told me.
“It’s great to see them get what they deserve.”
For more information about Brette Start Planning Floral & Event Design call 404-550-6986 or visit www.startplanning.homestead.com. 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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Venturing out a scary step after teacher’s attack
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She tried to shop at Wal-Mart the other day.
It wasn’t easy.
“What ifs” hound her, mess with her head.
What if the 12-year-old girl who attacked her is in the store?
What if the girl tries to finish what she started at Lilburn Middle School?
“I intentionally chose to live near the community where I work, so when I go out shopping, I’ll see the parents of my students,’ said Janie Fair, the teacher recovering from the beatdown.
“Now I don’t feel comfortable going into a store.”
On Jan. 29, I wrote about the incident in which Fair was attacked by a seventh-grade girl. The child, a former student of Fair’s, yelled at the instructor, then punched her several times in the face and head. Fair was swollen and bruised and has not taught since the Jan. 23 incident.
The column generated numerous e-mails and comments. Some writers wondered about the child’s mental state, prior behavior and family life. Others questioned whether she should have been on campus. One reader, though, said not to vilify the child, who hasn’t been identified by school officials because she is a juvenile.
“When you have heard all the facts,’ wrote Jane in a response to the Badie blog, “then make a judgment.”
The media tend to overuse words like “tragedy” and “trauma” to portray drama. I’ve spoken to Fair several times on the telephone. Make no mistake: She’s traumatized. You can hear it in her voice, a damaged spirit of someone who considers teaching a calling and still believes she has a lot to offer.
Her recovery has been slow going. She’s been seeing a medical doctor ever since the attack. A week ago, she became a client of Jennifer F. Kelly, a psychologist at the Atlanta Center for Behavioral Medicine. Kelly declined comment.
Fair cries a lot. She dreams about the attack. She dislikes being in public places.
“I was at the Wal-Mart the other day,” she told me. “How do I know I won’t run into this girl and her family?”
The girl had been charged with simple battery and disruption of public schools, according to a report from the Gwinnett County School Police. The status of her case with the school system or justice system isn’t clear. School officials declined to say what, if any, disciplinary action has been taken. In most cases, though, such a student would be suspended, then go before a disciplinary panel.
Fair told me she has nothing against the Gwinnett County school system. She’s received supportive calls from the district office as well as teachers at Lilburn Middle.
“I like this county, and I want to continue working in this county,” she said. “I am not going to let some troubled kid run me out of the career that I love so much. It’s been a very traumatic ordeal. When I tell you I felt like my life was in danger, I did. I just want to thank everyone who has wished me well. This won’t end my career.”
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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Happy birthday, “Mo-mo”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The grand kids love to hear “Mo-mo’s” stories.
I understand why.
Eva Strickland’s tales dip, dive, cross and turn. They can be simple one-liners, one particular topic, or a series of disjointed narratives that manage to connect, to resonate.
On Sunday, Strickland turns 100 years old. She was born in Walton County, the oldest of 12 in a farming family. Her father rented land to grow or raise most of what they ate. And yes, sometimes she walked to school - a mile and a half each way - if she got to attend at all.
Crops came first.
“One day I picked 500 pounds of cotton in one day,” she tells me as we sit in the living room of the Tucker home she shares with Celia Jones, her daughter. “You worked from sun up to sundown. There was no clock.”
At that moment, I think of my late mother: Lizzie Mae Badie. She and Strickland are similar, salt of the earth people. They didn’t moan and groan about life. They just lived it, and along the way planted seeds so that their offspring might have it better.
Then, someone else comes to mind: Richard Pryor, the late, troubled comedian. Though crass, he respected the elderly. You don’t get to be old being a fool, he’d joke. Then, he’d add something unprintable about “wise” young people being dead as a hammer.
Back at Strickland’s home, we’re in the middle of a conversation about her love for sewing, quilting, attending church and watching the Braves. She has a baseball autographed by Tom Glavine.
Suddenly, she turns to her daughter, one of six children. “Celia, get that suit I made for my mother.”
Jones exits, then returns with a light pink and green ensemble. It’s about 50 years old, Strickland estimates. She shows the laced insides.
“I never heard my momma say a bad word about anybody ‘cept for this one lady whose family thought they ran the church,” Strickland says, laughing. “One day she said, ‘I bet she doesn’t have as many dresses hanging up in her closet as I do.’ I made all my moma’s clothes.”
She still sews quilts and baby clothes. “She can thread a needle better than me,” Jones says.
Several times a year, Strickland and Jones deliver “redressed” baby dolls to Noah’s Ark, a group home for children in Locust Grove. The dolls are overstocks donated by another childrens home. The women outfit the dolls in hand-made clothes.
“I love to do things for children,” Strickland says.
That leads to another story.
“I helped my mother deliver one of her babies,” she says, though she can’t remember if it were one of her brothers or a sister. “I stood right by her bed. I’d say, ‘Moma, you’ve got to help me.’ I’d wipe her face. The doctor got there just in time.”
Strickland’s been married two times, and has outlived both husbands. Besides being a homemaker, she worked 27 years for a Georgia manufacturing company that, during World War I, made tents for the U.S. troops.
Generally, she’s in good health, though she uses a walker, has a pacemaker and wears two hearing aids.
“Nothing I eat hurts me,” she says.
Before I leave, “Mo-mo” does three things.
She shows me a card from President Bush and his wife, Laura, congratulating her on her 100th birthday.
She gives me a baby doll to give to my 5-year-old daughter, Olivia. “Tell her to name it ‘Eva,’ ” she says, chuckling.
Then she tells me something I already know, that we all know, but can always benefit from hearing again.
“Life is what you make it,’ she says. “I hope you live to be 100.”
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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Super Tuesday results reflects South’s sea change
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Robbie S. Moore awoke Wednesday to what she considers the New South.
Her new outlook stems from Super Tuesday, particularly the support Gwinnett gave Barack Obama, the Democrat running to be president. He tallied 68 percent of the votes cast. That’s 46,890 votes out of the overall number of 68,832 Democratic cards cast, according to the county Web site. By comparison, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, mustered 30 percent, or 20,703 votes.
“His [victory margin] was more than I imagined,” said Moore, president of the United Ebony Society, a civil rights group. “People are pulling together, not just looking at color. They want the whole country to benefit. People are seeing the need to look beyond black and white. They are looking for higher ground.”
Race and politics are forever intertwined, not just in the South, but across the nation. But Moore and others say local primary results convincingly show the South’s political landscape may be shifting. (Obama captured Alabama and Georgia. To his credit, Obama has downplayed race as a campaign issue.)
Gwinnett’s electorate is mostly white. Today, 70 percent of Gwinnett’s active voters are white; a decade ago, 93 percent were. While the minority voter pool is growing, it remains small. Blacks, for example, account for 17 percent of the electorate. Even if it were higher, you can’t assume most of them are Obama supporters.
So white voters had to have supported Obama, and in significant numbers. Lynn Ledford, the county elections supervisor, thinks that’s the case.
“We’ve heard the grumbling,” Ledford said. “People are very dissatisfied with the Republican Party right now, and that crosses racial and ethnic lines. And that’s the way it should be. You should never vote for someone because of their color, or their sex or age. You shouldn’t vote against someone because of those things, either.”
In Gwinnett, Super Tuesday’s turnout set a record - 46 percent of the 328,132 registered voters took part. Before Super Tuesday, the highest turnout was back in 1988, when 39 percent participated.
Initially, Ledford had predicted 82 percent of the voters would turn out for the presidential election in November. She has since adjusted her estimate, given Tuesday’s turnout and overall public interest.
“We may even hit the 90 percent mark,” she said. “As election administrators, we are very excited.’
There’s still much ground to cover before we elect a president on Nov. 4. The Democratic National Convention takes place in August in Denver. A month later, the Republicans host their convention in St. Paul, Minn. It’s a toss-up whom we’ll call president.
Whatever the case, “it’s all amazing, and exciting,” Moore said.
Rick Badie will resume his community tour next week. His column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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“Tackling the game, just like “Rudy”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He dreamed of playing football at the University of Notre Dame.
Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger was a pipsqueak by football standards. He stood 5-feet-7 and weighed 165 pounds. Tiny. Like his dad, he worked in the steel mills. He didn’t have the money to pay tuition at the private Catholic school. He didn’t have the grades, either.
Talk about a long shot.
But Rudy didn’t bow down to the obstacles. He chased his dream. He quits his steel mill job and enrolls in a junior college near the famed university. He eventually transfered to Notre Dame and landed a spot on the practice football team. There, he exhibits more guts and glory than some prime-time players.
“Rudy,” is one of my favorite movies. It showcases drive, desire, determination, luck, hope and fate. It’s about believing in yourself, never giving up, playing till the whistle blows on the gridiron or in life.
In Gwinnett, we have our own version of Rudy. Two of them, actually.
Meet D.A. Kennerly and Samuel Kim.
They were seniors this year on the storied football team at Parkview High. By football standards, they were undersized. That’s head Coach Cecil Flowe’s assessment, not mine.
“Size plays a big issue,” he told me.
But the Rudyesque way in which they tackled the game overshadowed physical attributes. They hit the weights and practiced hard. They were on the scout team - Kim - 5 feet 9, 180 pounds - at fullback; Kennerly - 5 feet 9, 170 pounds - at linebacker.
Obviously, these young men weren’t the best by a long shot. But there are varying degrees of best. It doesn’t always appear in sports headlines or highlight reels. It might mean seeing some action in a lopsided game and capitalizing on the opportunity. It’s what Rudy did in the movie, in the last game of the season.
“When Sam scored a touchdown in the Meadowcreek game, it was his first touchdown ever,” Flowe said. “D.A. made several tackles in that game. At some games they stood on the sidelines and didn’t play a down.”
Yet there was no crying, moaning or groaning. Not from Kim. Not from Kennerly.
Team first. Me second.
“Their attitude was that it didn’t matter,” Flowe told me. “You can cry about being passed over or you can work and help the team wherever you can. They played on special teams, but they did not have solid active roles on offense or defense.”
Every year, the Panther football players vote on what teammate will receive the “Orange Helmet Award.” It’s given to the player who personifies team sport, Panther pride, overall dedication.
The players couldn’t decide who best fit that description for the 2007 football season. So, there was a tie.
“This was the first time a tie has ever happened,” Flowe said. “Usually, there is one vote or two that swings it one way or the other. But [Kim and Kennerly] are great kids. They gave 100 percent, you know?”
Just like Rudy.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@
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History boxed away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aunt Ruby kept the box stashed away.
Everybody knew what was in it. Photos, military records and keepsakes. History.
Several years ago, someone riffling through the container came across information about Peter Boggs. He’s the great-great-great grandfather of Robert Sample of Lilburn. It was a notarized deposition given by Grace, Boggs’ wife, in 1909. She was applying for his military pension.
The hand-written affidavit gave details of Boggs’ life and military career. It outlined how he’d served with Company C, 2nd Regiment, of the 14th U.S. Colored Cavalry. How his horse was shot out from under him in battle, then fell on top of him. Boggs’ right knee, right shoulder and hip were severely wounded.
“He was pretty messed up,” muses Sample, 62. We’re sitting at the kitchen table of his Lilburn home. It’s pouring rain as we pore over a copy of the deposition. We come to a section that Sample had told me about on the phone.
It’s one sentence. Twelve words:
“[Boggs] belonged to John Boggs and Leah Boggs in Accomac County, Va.,” it states. Sample, a former paratrooper and Philly native, knew - or assumed - he had ancestors who had been slaves. To see evidence of that enslavement, in print, gave it context. Made it real.
“Now I have proof,” Sample says.
It’s that time of the year. Black History Month. Some folk “celebrate” it year-round. Sample does. He’s a military black history buff who thinks stories should be told and celebrated. Sometimes, he says, the emphasis can be skin color, but only in unique and distinct circumstances. Historic “firsts,” perhaps.
It was Sample, for example, who introduced me to the Triple Nickles. It stands for the 555th Parachute Infantry Division. A group of black men became the nation’s first black paratroopers. I wrote about them in November.
Sample thought their story should be shared with everyone. He feels the same way about his great-great-great grandfather.
“I have xeroxed copies of the deposition and given it to all my kids,” he tells me. “They’ve started to look into things. When you start, it tends to snowball and it keeps growing, getting bigger and bigger. A lot of us have lost history. A lot of us just don’t know.”
The answers, though, could be boxed up in the attic, collecting dust.
Pull them down.
Information could be in those long-forgotten family Bibles, scrapbooks and photo albums.
Take a look.
“You never know what you’re going to find,” says Sample, before I leave his home and head out into the rainy night.
“You never know who you may be related to.”
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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