Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2008 > March
March 2008
Move over Tupperware, here comes the Taser party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He bought his wife a Taser shortly after Meredith Emerson was snatched out of the woods and killed.
Firearms, Tim McCoy told me Saturday, are not allowed in national forests. Tasers are.
We’re talking in the kitchen of the Lawrenceville home he shares with Leigh, his wife of 12 years. They had invited me to a party, one with an unusual theme. A Taser party. Think Tupperware party but with Tasers in designer colors like electric blue, black pearl and titanium silver.
It was quite the bash, though no one got liquored up. (Booze wasn’t served, a wise move when you’re hawking stun gun devices. During the party, McCoy let his wife shoot him for demonstration’s sake. More on that later.)
The McCoys decided to become authorized Taser dealers after they purchased two of the devices. They were granted dealership status in February after going through the approval process with Taser International, the manufacturer.
Their business, “Packing Jolt,” was born. Their slogan: “Speak Softly and Carry a Big Shock.”
Civilian tasers and police tasers vary. Shock from the police device lasts four seconds. The blast from the civilian one lasts 30 seconds. That way, the shooter has time to escape to safety. If the shooter presses the “trigger” again, he’ll release another 30-second cycle of electricity. If there’s more than one predator, the others will probably scat after they see their comrade paralyzed, according to the video shown Saturday.
The civilian taser has a 15-foot coil with two barbed probes on the end. The probes hook to the attackers’s clothes, or the skin. So in addition to being blasted with 50,000 volts, an attacker might get hooked like a fish.
“Not as messy as a .357,” quipped Alan Oberlander of Stockbridge. He attended the party with his wife, Vivian, and two kids - Kristle, 19, and Joe, 15.
Oberlander struck me as a no-nonsense guy. You know the type: Deep love for the USA and the right to keep and bear firearms. He bought two Tasers - one for his wife and one for his daughter.
“Just think if those two girls would have had a Taser,” he said, referring to the University of North Carolina and Auburn University co-eds who were recently murdered. :This is better for women who may not feel comfortable carrying guns. But believe me, we got those, too.”
No doubt, Tasers are valuable to civilians and cops. They just need to be deployed wisely.
In May 2004, a Lawrenceville man died in the Gwinnett jail after the authorities shocked him five times. I wrote that local law enforcement agencies should hold off using the devices until research could determine whether they contributed to this man’s death and others in Georgia. A medical examiner’s report concluded the chest shocks didn’t kill him. A heart attack did.
Apparently, Taser International understands the need to draw a line between the infliction of punishment and forced submission. In June 2005, the manufacturer released an advisory warning to law enforcement, saying that repeated and prolonged strikes from its stun gun device may impair breathing and lead to death.
I almost died Saturday after seeing McCoy take a five-second burst. To prepare, he put on an insulated vest and positioned himself so that he’d be struck in the back.
Oberlander did the countdown. “5,4,3,2,1!”
McCoy’s wife pulled the trigger. Zap.
McCoy didn’t drop to his knees, but he buckled a little. Everybody asked the private investigator and AT&T construction lineman if he were OK.
“Pull the probe out!” he yelled. That took a while, but Oberlander finally got it out his back.
Then, I asked the one question everybody wanted to know:
“How did it feel?”
His answer is unprintable. Suffice it to say that McCoy likened the shock to an engine firing up while a spark plug is stuck up a certain part of one’s body.
The basic civilian Taser costs $299; the laser-sighted model sells for $350. Packing Jolt gives Gwinnett residents a break. They get $75 worth of free accessories (holster and extra cartridges) as well as free shipping and delivery. The couple has sold 11 devices so far, including the two Oberlander bought Saturday.
The McCoys feel strongly that Tasers are going to change personal safety, much the way air bags enforced automobile safety. The predator’s job, they say, just got harder.
For more information, visit packingjolt.com or call 678-427-7530. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (62) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
California Reeling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An appeals court ruling in California that says home-schooling parents must have teaching credentials in order to educate their kids has some Gwinnett parents reeling.
“Everybody’s freaked out,” said Andrea Hermitt, a Lawrenceville mom who writes a home-school blog. “Completely freaked out.”
The Feb. 28 decision by a three-judge panel dealt with a child-welfare case. The 2nd District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that minor children must attend a public school unless they are in private school or are taught by a teacher/ tutor with a valid state teaching license, according to news reports.
In California, a campaign is under way to reverse the ruling. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he’d push for corrective legislation if it’s not overturned. The state appeals court expects to revisit the issue this summer.
Locally, home-schooling parents worry about the copy cat effect. States who see what has transpired in California might get bright ideas to adopt similar credential mandates, said Hermitt, a married mom who home-schools Jordan and Jackson.
“It might cause a ripple effect,” she said.
Georgia sets guidelines for home-school families, but none address teaching credentials.
“A parent or guardian who home schools must have a high school diploma and/or a GED, and can only teach their children,” said Dana Tofig, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.
The California ruling goes against the grain of parental responsibility. Mom and dad are supposed to be a child’s first teacher, whether they home-school or not.
The ruling appears even more absurd when you take education out the equation and apply it to other parental roles. Basically, it would mean that I can’t teach my son how to grill jerk chicken because I’m not a chef. I can’t teach my daughter how to parallel park because I’m not a certified driving instructor.
Credentials look good on a resume. They impress when hung on a wall. But you never know the holder’s quality and ability till it’s time to make the doughnuts.
I’ve had some really great public school teachers who earned degrees from marginal colleges. I’ve also had some drastically unfit ones who held high academic credentials and pedigree.
“Nobody, no teacher, principal or superintendent has (the complete) knowledge to teach a child,” Hermitt told me. “What a [home-schooling parent] needs is some good sense to know what they can teach, what they can’t teach, when to call somebody for help and when to join a program.”
Like Hermitt.
As the kids grew older, she realized she needed a better balance between her roles as school teacher and mom. So she enrolled the kids in the Masters Academy of Fine Arts, a private school for homeschoolers that has a Duluth location. Jordan, a sixth-grader and Jackson, an eighth-grader, attend two days a week.
“I needed to step back a little, just for the sake of our relationships,” Hermitt said. “They are performing fabulously.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Pawn shops thrive in hard times
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He walked into the pawn shop clutching a guitar.
William Bones had hoped to exchange the instrument for cash.
No dice.
“We can’t take it,” said Tony Papandrea, co-owner of The Pawn Shop in Norcross. “See. It’s warped.”
No worries.
Bones took the guitar and returned with a .38-caliber revolver - to pawn, not shoot up the joint. Shop co-owner James Peacook recorded the revolver’s serial number and model number, required information on all pawned items, which is given to Gwinnett County police. He checked Bones’ identification, took his fingerprint and his photo.
Bones left with $100 cash. He has to repay $125 or forfeit the gun.
“I’ll get it back,” the laborer told me before leaving the shop. “Things have got to get better. Somebody has got to get in the White House and help the people who are hurting, man.”
When it comes to the economy, here’s what Papandrea and Peacook have seen in recent months: a notable increase in the number of people who can’t make ends meet. They want to take out loans or hock something to buy gas and food. Familiar customers want bigger loan amounts; new ones want to trade something for cash.
It’s not just residents on the lower economic rungs who are finding their way to the shop on Buford Highway. Think electricians, mortgage brokers and investors. Everybody.
“They want money for their stuff, their jewelry and Rolexes,” Papandrea told me Wednesday during the Badie Tour. “I just got a truckload of furniture from a lady. She had to make a payment on something by 6 p.m. that day.”
For William Carroll, working at The Pawn Shop has been an eye-opener. He’s seen people looking to pawn drive up in a Mercedes Benz or Jaguar. They needed money for gas.
“I’m surprised,” Carroll said.
Apparently, some first-time customers are humbled to the point of embarrassment. In a pickle, they turn to what many consider a sleazy type of business that charges sky-high interest rates. One day, a struggling electrician brought in some tools.
“He had to have $400,” Peacook recalled. “He was so embarrassed. He couldn’t believe he was standing here. But he left here with a completely different view of pawn shops.”
In a dour economy, pawn shops write more loans, but the retail end of the business flutters. So in-store stock isn’t moving, but many pawnbrokers are processing more loans for larger amounts, said Jackie Kinlaw, president of the Pawnbrokers Association of Georgia.
Every customer I talked to at The Pawn Shop promised they’d be back for whatever they gave up to get a loan. In reality, though, Papandrea said about 50 to 65 percent of them never do.
Bones, the laborer, said he was happy he’d pawned his gun. Otherwise, he might do something crazy.
“I don’t want to be out robbing and mobbing,” he told me. “But money is tight.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
A greener trim can be found
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowers aren’t the only thing sprouting up in my yard.
Over Easter weekend, I spotted a few blades of grass - new growth - and a heap of crab grass. It’s grass-cutting time. Before long, that ominous sound of lawn mowers, weed trimmers and other yard equipment will fill afternoons and Saturday mornings.
So you know what that means. Well, maybe you don’t. It’s time to service that gas-powered lawn mower, to change that spark plug and filter, maybe sharpen the blade. Your mower will cut better and burn less gasoline.
A well-maintained mower serves another purpose, too. It helps air quality, the environment. I didn’t realize how much pollution lawn mowers, weed trimmers, edgers, leaf blowers and other gas-powered yard tools belch out until I began researching this column. Many people are in the same boat with me, I’d imagine.
“You’re right,” said Kevin Green, executive director of The Clean Air Campaign, a nonprofit that works to improve air quality. “People think that if they pull the cord and the engine starts, they are good to go. They don’t realize you are supposed to change spark plugs and filters. A simple 30-minute tuneup can reduce air pollutants by as much as 50 percent.”
The Web site of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has some interesting facts. Did you know:
- A gas-powered push mower gives off as much pollution per hour as 11 cars.
*Last year, the EPA set new emissions standards for gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment that will be phased in by 2011, at the earliest.
- An EPA study found that roughly 9 percent of some air pollutants nationwide come from small engines in lawn and garden equipment.
Green gave me a scenario of what takes place on those weekend mornings when people crank up their gas-powered mowers across metro Atlanta.
“The pollutants from the mower combine with pollutants from auto tailpipes and other causes and form an ozone plume,” he told me. “If there is not a lot of wind, that plume hangs out over the region. If gas-powered mowers and equipment contribute up to almost 9 percent of air pollutants, that’s a pretty significant, considering the machines aren’t operating all the time like cars.”
Green implores us to beat the rush. Get the mower serviced, or do it yourself. It’s four simple steps: Change the filter, oil and spark plug; and add fuel stabilizer.
A few years ago, the National Wildlife Federation and Briggs & Stratton Corp. teamed up to launch a now-defunct campaign that declared March as National Mower Tune-up Month. The small-engine manufacturer used the environmental message to help drive sales of its mower tune-up kits.
Call it capitalism with purpose.
And advice I always heed.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
What is Patriotism?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We loaded up the car and hit the road around midnight. We were three college buddies with a few days off for spring break. Road trip! We headed to Washington, D.C., to see the sites and visit a friend who worked at the Capitol.
One night, we decided to check out the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, specifically “The Wall.” What a site. The black granite. The names of the soldiers - either killed in action or classified as missing in action. The notes and other sentimental trinkets left at the base of the monument.
Some people made pencil tracings of the servicemen’s names. Others touched the massive display. Many cried.
I was 20 years old when I first saw the memorial, and for me it became a defining moment. While taking in the wall on that misty night in March 1985, I felt something I’d never really felt before.
Patriotic.
It’s a concept that’s been in the political news of late. Some pundits wonder whether Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has it or is sincere enough about it. His wife, Michelle Obama, was put through the ringer for telling an audience in Milwaukee that “for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but (because) I think people are hungry for change.”
Critics had a field day questioning her love for the country. She has pretty much slunk from the spotlight.
My parents were salt of the earth people, hard-working South Georgians. They never impressed upon us patriotism as a concept to embrace.
Yet they passed on to us traits that personify the very essence of the word. They showed and taught us to work hard; to shun victim hood; to be smarter, if not the smartest; to prosper. Our patriotism is and has been reflected in our quest to be responsible, productive U.S. citizens.
Nowadays, the concept of patriotism is often hijacked, relegated to a sport, a sound bite. It’s defined by who does, or doesn’t, wear a U.S. flag on his or her lapel. It’s expressed by calling a radio talk-show and telling the host “you’re a great American.” It suffers under blind support for political parties, partisan politics, war and government policies that help a chosen few, not the masses. It’s trivialized with bumper stickers, ribbons and other tips of the hat.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with symbolic displays. Don’t get it twisted, though. Don’t think that your patriotism runs deeper, is more real and heartfelt than those who choose not to wear lapel pins or place bumper stickers on their cars.
Back in March 1985, The Wall helped me tap into the emotional side of my patriotism for the very first time. Today, I can visit a place closer to home when I want to rekindle that feeling.
The Gwinnett Veterans Memorial Museum in Lawrenceville pays tribute to local men and women who have defended the country, starting with the Revolutionary War. The displays are spectacular, but the museum volunteers are the stars. Many are veterans who have great stories to tell if you can get them to open up.
Their humility amazes me. So does their patriotism.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (61) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Relax: The drinking water is fine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Neal Spivey should have been my high school chemistry teacher.
If he had, I might not have gotten all those “C’s.”
Spivey is the county director of water production. He simplifies scientific stuff to the point that a child could understand, that I could grasp. Maybe that’s because thousands of kids visit the Shoal Creek Filter Plant in Buford. The Badie Tour paid a visit Wednesday.
Drinking water has been in the news of late. An Associated Press investigation, published in newspapers nationwide on March 11, found that an array of pharmaceuticals have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. Some findings included traces of medicine taken for heart problems and cholesterol.
Naturally, alarms went off. The thought that a glass of H2O might contain drug traces is unsettling, no matter how tiny the concentration or minute the possibility of adverse health effects.
But how real is that possibility to the local water supply?
“Gwinnett’s water is completely safe,” Spivey told me. “We use a very different disinfectant process than most metro Atlanta counties.”
That would be the ozone disinfectant system. It removes disease-carrying bacteria, contaminants and viruses. It oxidizes iron and other elements. It zaps nasty tastes, colors and odor.
“Ozone is stronger than chlorine, seven times more reactive, and as it turns out, it deals with a wide variety of things,” Spivey told me. “It’s effective at oxidizing pesticides and other contaminants.”
In December, the county authorized the University of North Carolina to conduct tests for pharmaceuticals and personal care products at three locations: Our water source (Lake Lanier), drinking water and treated wastewater at the F. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center in Buford.
Initially, investigators tested for 19 different classes of pharmaceuticals; 17 showed up in the wastewater the first time. But as the water flowed through the treatment process, Spivey said fewer compounds hung around. Only two were found in the final batch of treated water. The lake water contained traces of caffeine; no contaminants showed up in the drinking water.
“I was rather pleased with the results, given all those locations,” Spivey said. “We think the [ongoing] study will answer what we are discharging in our wastewater and secondly, whether our water treatments can remove all contaminants. We think the answer is ‘yes.’ ”
Before I left Shoal Creek, Spivey gave me a step-by-step explanation of the purification process, from the intake of water from Lake Lanier to the final product that eventually flows through a network of 3,300 miles of pipe.
He made the process sound simple, nothing like my experience in basic high school chemistry.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Girl Scouts treat soldiers to cookies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Karen Harper, troop leader and cookie chairwoman for Girl Scout Troop No. 1031, e-mailed the other day with a question that stumped me.
Her pack collected Girl Scout cookies to send to U.S. troops in Iraq. They had to figure out a way to get them there.
“Do you know of anyone we can contact that would help us get these cookies to some well-deserving Americans?” she wrote.
I suggested she contact an American Legion Post. As expected, the veterans found a way.
You may remember a miserably cold Saturday a few weeks back. March 8, I think. We even got a little snow.
Well, the girls of Troop 1031 braved the elements in two booths - one set up outside the Embry Hills Kroger off Chamblee-Tucker Road, the other at a Kroger near Five-Forks Trickum and Rockbridge roads.
Harper’s daughters, Elizabeth, 11, and Katherine, 10, worked the Embry Hills booth for two hours. Then they joined scouts Rachel Samaras and Olivia Dunahoo, both 11, at the other location.
“They stayed till 3 o’clock,” Harper told me. “It was freezing.”
The troop had pre-sold 80 cases of cookies and ordered another 30 for booth sales to the public. The girls decided that, when they manned the booths, they’d ask customers if they cared to donate a few boxes for the soldiers. A lot of customers didn’t buy cookies for themselves. They bought them for the charity.
“When we were at Embry Hills, one lady who bought cookies gave us a letter that her grandson had written for the soldiers,” Harper said. “She asked us to include his letter in the boxes we were shipping.”
The drive collected about 300 boxes of cookies. Harper was able to find a group to ship half of the bounty - Soldier Connection, a charity of American Legion Post 233 in Loganville. It ships care packages to deployed soldiers.
“We ship 50 boxes of donated items every two weeks,” said Jane Brown, a volunteer who helps with packaging.
The charity was to mail a shipment of cookies Monday. The Girl Scout troop plans to pay for delivery of the remaining boxes. Somewhere in Iraq, a group of soldiers soon will have boxes of Samoas and Thin Mints to munch on. They have the cookie queens of Troop 1031 to thank.
“This is what the girls decided to do,” Harper said, noting that only five girls make up the troop. “It was worth it.”
Found teddy bear
On Monday, Deanne Beesley dropped by my office with a teddy bear. She found it Friday at Medlock Bridge Road and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. Beesley, an executive liaison to the president at Sterling Industries, a home furnishings company, cleaned “Teddy” up. She wants him returned to his rightful owner.
“He’s lost, and he needs to go home,” she told me.
If Teddy’s yours, or you know who it belongs to, give me a call. He’s sitting on my desk.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Categories: Rick Badie
Women: Don’t ignore the alarms
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She placed local ads seeking men and women to take part in a clinical study on chronic angina.
Know what that is?
It’s chest pain, or discomfort, the result of your heart muscle not getting enough blood. It’s also a symptom of coronary disease.
Laura P. Kimble, an associate professor at Georgia State University, noted a distinct difference along gender lines when she talked to potential study participants. Women tended to explain away symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath. Kimble would keep asking questions. She found out that some of the female responders were smokers, overweight and didn’t exercise - prime candidates for a heart attack.
“They attributed their chest pain to stress, menopause or eating too much,” said Kimble of Lawrenceville. “Never to cardiovascular disease. Instead of calling me about the study, they should have been calling their doctor.”
The way Kimble sees it, women are well aware and attuned to monitoring for breast cancer. Not heart disease. It often goes undetected, though it’s the No. 1 killer of women. (Cardiovascular diseases kill nearly 12 times as many American females as breast cancer, according to the American Heart Association.)
Kimble wants a change. She wants women to learn to recognize the early symptoms of heart disease. . And learn to manage it. Don’t ignore the alarms.
“If you develop a (breast cancer) lump, you can check that out because it’s obvious,” Kimble told me. “Women are a lot more concerned about breast cancer than heart disease. With heart disease, it’s vague. It’s subtle. But there are women in their 30s, and 40s having heart attacks.”
The “Angina Study” explores the differences between men and women who suffer from chronic angina. Principal researchers for the project are Kimble and Nicolas Chronos, president and chief scientific officer at Saint Joseph’s Research Institute.
They hope the study results provide insight that can be used to craft gender-specific interventions for cardiac patients. Some interventions would be tailored for men; some would be designed for women.
“We want to find out what messages benefit men and what messages benefit women,” Kimble said.
There’s one hurdle, though: It’s been difficult recruiting enough men and women to sign up for the study. Ideally, the researchers would like to have 50 participants, split evenly between males and females. Right now, they have only 10 men and eight women. If you want to participate - and have been diagnosed with coronary artery disease - contact Kimble at anginastudy@GSU.edu.
Kimble doesn’t have cardiovascular problems, but she’s taken her research to heart. In January she began exercising and watching her diet. She’s dropped 16 pounds.
“We have to decide for ourselves if we want good cardiac health,’ she told me.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (32) | Categories: Rick Badie
Independent senior not ready for move
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Look at what I got in the mail.”
It’s Wednesday morning. I’ve just settled into Blondine Mosley’s kitchen. She’s got the coffee brewed and the honey buns ready. She hands me an envelope. It contains a flier from an assisted living facility in Loganville. Mosley has been invited to an event as a potential resident.
“They are bugging me,” she muses. “I’ve been bombarded with calls.”
Recently, Mosley made a few inquiries into assisted living facilities, just for information’s sake. No way is she ready to leave her home, give up her independence, though that’s inevitable.
This 83-year-old widow has lived in Snellville all her life. She’s the oldest living member of First Baptist Snellville. She’s a 1944 grad of Snellville High (now South Gwinnett High) and recalls getting married one day, then participating in graduation exercises the next.
For the past 18 years, she’s lived alone in a well-maintained ranch house that sits on an acre. There, she raised a grandson who has cerebral palsy and lives in Athens. Two children are deceased. A daughter died of leukemia; a son died from complications of Lou Gehrig’s disease. The loss of the children left her husband of 46 years too broken to live. He committed suicide.
All but one of her four siblings are dead. An older sister who has Alzheimer’s lives in a nursing home in Decatur. So when it comes to blood kin Mosley pretty much stands alone. She’s worried about where she’ll live out her twilight years, a conundrum that she says most friends her age contemplate.
These are seniors who have slowed down considerably. Their health is fading. They may, or may not, need round-the-clock care. They could use someone to help them get the groceries in, maybe cook a meal, do a little housecleaning.
They’d like to continue living as independents, in the place where memories were made. Their homes. Not a one of them, Mosley told me, wants to give up their homes.
“I have a lot of good friends,” she said, “but they are all getting old. I’m not complaining. Every morning I sit on the side of the bed and thank God for the blessings.”
She suffers from gout and arthritis and wears a catheter. She uses a motorized wheelchair and drives a van with hand controls. When Mosley buys groceries, she has to make about six trips between her kitchen and van. She’s fiercely independent, maybe to a fault. The other day, before the Badie Tour stopped by, she mopped the floor.
“Don’t ask me how I did it,” she said. “It wasn’t easy.”
Mosley has friends who call to check on her, who drop by with an occasional meal, who accompany her on doctor’s appointments. A nurse visits once a month.
And she has options. A friend has suggested that she and Mosley move to an assisted living facility together. A church friend has given her the name of a spryer senior woman who might become Mosley’s housemate. It’s an alternative with appeal.
“My doctor told me I could take my van and go to assisted living and all, but it wouldn’t be home,” she said. “This is not fancy stuff, but it’s my stuff. I don’t want to leave it. I’m just not ready. I dread the day that it will come.”
Permalink
| Comments (15)
|
Categories:
Rick Badie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Parkview High students who belong to a school-sponsored prevention club held a routine meeting last April, shortly after the massacre at Virginia Tech. Lots of kids wanted to talk about the tragedy - its senselessness, the violence behind it, the shooter’s motivation. More important, though, they tried to move beyond the finger-pointing generally associated with a crime of this nature. “Talk is fine, said Margaret Shortreed, the club sponsor. “But the thing we try to instill in the students is what actions can we put behind the words. Pointing fingers is the last thing we want to do.” Preventive action is the mission of Parkview’s SAVE/SADD club, a combination of two national student organizations: Students Against Violence Everywhere and Students Against Destructive Decisions. Shortreed knew about SAVE before she joined the Parkview staff as a parapro. South Gwinnett High had a chapter when she worked there. Parkview High had a SADD chapter when she got there. With the administration’s blessing, she started a SAVE chapter, then merged the two clubs. The club hosts Red Ribbon Week, the annual fall drug awareness campaign. And in April, the group runs pledge campaigns that implore students to have a safe prom and grad season. Every summer, club members take part in a weeklong camp at the Georgia Teen Institute, a leadership training program, held at Oxford College, Emory’s two-year campus. There, students are encouraged to identify a community need. The Parkview club chose high-risk teen behavior - violence, drug and alcohol abuse - as issues to combat. These topics will be the focus of a town-hall meeting set for 6:45 p.m. Thursday in the school theater. Panelists are Nicole Love, associate director for the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services; Millie Linville and Mary Kate-Murray, program specialists for Gwinnett United in Drug Education (GUIDE); and Bill Richardson, a founder of “It Won’t Happen to Me,” a teen driver safety awareness program. You’re invited. Mandisa Surpris, a Parkview senior who serves as club president, said the prevention club hopes to encourage parents to be more attuned to their kids - what they are doing, who they are doing it with, where it’s taking place. “Our mission is to spread education about how to live above the influence,” she wrote in an e-mail. “We give students alternative ways to have fun, rather than be involved in ‘destructive decisions.’ ” For more information about SAVE/SADD or Thursday’s town-hall meeting, contact club sponsor Margaret Shortreed atmargaret-shortreed@gwinnett.k12.ga.us. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink
| Comments (17)
|
Categories:
Rick Badie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “No comment.” Journalists hear those two words, in some form or fashion, often. We come to expect it in some situations. Like when we ring the door bell or call the home of relatives in grief. Or incidents in which individuals have been accused of criminal or moral malfeasance. Sometimes we get the blow-off in what should be feel-good stories. Like when a lottery jackpot changes a person’s life overnight. It’s understandable, for lots of reasons. And let’s face it: Some reporters can be a bit overbearing. They can be arrogant, pesky, intrusive and, in some cases, downright vulture-like when it comes to gathering news. As for the grieving parents, the newly-crowned millionaire or alleged miscreant - they are private citizens. It’s their call on whether or not they want to appear in a newspaper or on TV. But for people who are hired, appointed or elected to public office - it’s a different ball game. It’s not about choice. It’s about responsibility and duty to taxpayers, the people who live in the community and pay the bills, including the office holders’ paychecks. Explanations, information and facts about issues shouldn’t be hard to come by. Access should be free of orchestrated blockades to mislead or keep the public clueless. Years ago, I worked as an education writer for The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel. I covered a semi-rural school system with a controversial, conservative-minded school board majority. Whenever I tried to interview the chairwoman, she’d ask what the issue was and what I wanted to know, even if it were a mundane topic. Then, she’d call back hours later with a scripted response. Some board members did her one better. They’d return calls the next day, when the story had already appeared in print. Crafty. On Friday, AJC Gwinnett News ran a story about the $45 million baseball stadium the county will build for the top minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. County officials had said no property tax increases are planned to pay for the facility. Records obtained under the Georgia Open Records Act show that’s not entirely the case. There had been talk of a small property tax increase to finance the stadium. Somebody in county government had some explaining to do. Michael Pearson, the AJC Gwinnett News reporter, contacted county commissioners on Wednesday, two days before the story ran. He left messages on the cell phones of four of them, outlining the reason for the call, the story he was working on. Commissioner Mike Beaudreau picked up when Pearson called. “No comment,” he said in so many words. Pearson was only able to talk to County Manager Jock Connell and Bert Nasuti, the Gwinnett County Commissioner who came up with the idea to bring minor-league baseball here. As of Saturday, mum still was the word from Commissioners Beaudreau, Lorraine Green, Kevin Kenerly and Chairman Charles Bannister. Maybe they are out of pocket, somewhere remote where cell phones and telephones don’t work. Maybe they decided to let Nasuti be the mouthpiece. After all, this was his baby. Perhaps they are bedridden; isn’t the flu going around? Let’s hope it’s one of the above. I’d hate to think our public officials deemed the subject of the article unfit, that an explanation was unnecessary regarding a (mostly positive) project that’s lacked transparency. OK, so maybe they don’t want to communicate through the media. They still need to talk to the people. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink
| Comments (856)
|
Categories:
Rick Badie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution What makes a good police officer? One of Gwinnett’s most community-minded lawmen told me. “A good officer is not one who sees how many young people he can lock up,” said Detective Marco Silva of the Gwinnett County Police Department. “A good officer tries to get in touch with kids, try to prevent them from being locked up.” On Wednesday, the Badie Tour stopped by Silva’s office to talk about teenage crime. If any law enforcement officer is qualified to discuss the topic, it’s Silva. He went from being a kid in a Chicago gang to serving as co-founder and president of the Georgia Gang Investigators Association. In Gwinnett, the most sensational crime of late is linked to a teenager. Last Thursday a Gwinnett deputy and her two daughters were found dead inside their Lawrenceville home. The deputy’s teenage son has been charged with their murders. Maybe you noticed. Perhaps you’re outraged. Silva is, though he acknowledges horrific acts like this and others committed by teens are exceptions. “Many [teen crimes] make me go ‘whoa,’ ” said Silva, 46. “Crimes like this should always make me go ‘whoa.’ If they don’t, I’ve started to slip.” The morning we talked, Silva was to teach a 12:30 p.m. class on youth crime prevention to park rangers who patrol Lake Lanier. He recently led a class on gang awareness and juvenile delinquency to Buford’s Spanish-speaking residents. Silva’s bilingual. Silva would like to see residents sign up for free courses, classes and programs offered by the county Crime Prevention Unit. Some topics on crime prevention and reduction are geared to parents, such as “Gang Awareness for Teens and Parents,” and “Drug Awareness for Teens and Parents.” There’s generally one problem, though. “Like everything else, people don’t take advantage of it till it affects them,” said Silva, a former Marine. If there’s one thing that he’d like to see change, it’s the tendency - mine, probably yours - to react to crime, not approach it proactively. We generally don’t care until someone we know gets victimized, or our homes or cars get raided. Then we call the authorities. Silva wants change. For the sake of the community. He wants us aware, alert, concerned at all times, not just when a gruesome crime makes news. The way he sees it, we’re all in this together. Get involved. He gave an example of the little things we can do. He told me about an incident that took place at a movie theater where he works part-time security. A group of kids were harassing another youngster. An adult, unrelated to any of the kids, brought it to Silva’s attention. “These are the kinds of things you would like to see more of,” he said. “But too many people say, ‘It’s not my kid. It’s not my problem. “But it’s everybody’s problem.” And that’s straight from the mouth of an experienced lawman. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink
| Comments (51)
|
Categories:
Rick Badie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution My daughter asked me to pop in her CD. No, she didn’t want to hear the Backyardigans for the umpteenth time. She wanted to practice Chinese from her school-issued CD. Olivia’s a kindergartner at New Life Academy of Excellence, a charter public school where the often-called “language of the future” is taught. By the end of eight years, Olivia and other charges at the school should be bilingual, director Alphonsa Foward Jr. has said. On Monday, I read with interest a front-page story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams’ dream. He wants the state to pony up $20 million to pay for foreign language classes in kindergarten in the state. He also would like for the state to put in another $20 million every year to add another grade to the foreign language program. “The rest of the world teaches a foreign language in the early grades,” said Williams, who speaks Italian, Hebrew and Spanish. “It’s expensive, but I think it’s necessary when we operate in a global environment.” Chinese is considered a “critical need language.” China, the Asian giant, will be a force to be reckoned with on the political and economic scene. We’ve been told that our children could benefit from knowing how to speak the language and have some sense of the country’s culture and tradition. Maybe so. In 1990, the state started a pilot foreign language program that was well-received and recognized. It didn’t last, though. No governors or lawmakers advocated putting more money into the budget to take the program statewide. Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed wiping out the program several times, but lawmakers put the money back in the budget. Last spring, Perdue killed it. Williams is right. It would be a wonderful and worthy thing if all the state’s kids could start learning a foreign language in kindergarten. But here’s the issue with this pipe dream: the price tag. The kind of foreign language program Williams envisions might cost more than $100 million a year, according to the AJC article. Talk about bad timing. State lawmakers are having a hard enough time funding basic school programs. They have pledged, and are trying to provide, an extra $140 million to make up for “austerity” spending cuts Perdue recommended in the basic allocation for schools, according to the AJC article. The state needs to be practical, to teach kids reading, writing and arithmetic in a uniform manner. Equity in public school funding has always been an issue, especially for small, tax-poor communities that can’t make up for cuts in the education budget. And we want their kindergartners to learn Chinese? The only reason Olivia’s school can offer Chinese is because it’s a charter school. Those schools receive tax dollars, yet have more latitude than traditional public schools when it comes to what and how they teach. The state needs to take care of basics first. Then, someday, maybe, we can make foreign language instruction a reality. Just not today. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink
| Comments (30)
|
Categories:
Rick Badie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution They had three kids already - two boys and a girl. Jim and Mary Jane Dunn had no desire, or plans, to add to the brood. So they thought. Late last year, though, the Monroe couple said they sensed God was speaking to them, nudging them to open their home to more kids. When he’d read the Bible, Dunn said he’d be drawn to Scripture that dealt with caring for orphans and connecting with the poor. Then there was Oprah Winfrey’s show, two episodes in particular. One dealt with teens from Liberia; the other featured kids from Somalia. All needed homes. A seed was planted with the couple. Mary Jane had been born in Brazil, where her family had done mission work. The couple contacted Limiria, a Texas-based adoption agency, that led them to a group of five siblings, most of whom have lived in an orphanage in Curituba, Brazil, since 2004. In a videotape sent to the Dunns, the orphaned kids all said they wanted one thing: parents. “It breaks your heart,” said Dunn, a 1981 graduate of Norcross High. “That shouldn’t be the first thing on a kid’s wish list.” The Dunns are to leave for Brazil on Monday. They will meet the orphans for the first time on Wednesday, then co-habitate with them for about 40 days. If all goes as planned, Marlon, 10; Ana Carolina, 7; Diogo, 5; Gabriel, 3; and Robert, 2, will get their wish. They’ll have new last names and a home in Monroe. International adoptions aren’t cheap. Potential parents have to pay for a home study, medical reports and passports. The Dunns also had to pay for airfare for their entire family, food, lodging, visas and other legal documents for the Brazilian kids. In all, it cost $40,000, money the Dunns didn’t have. So they stepped out on faith - in themselves, their church, family, friends, corporate sponsors and the kindness of strangers. The family set up a Web page, www.dunnadoptions.org, to tell their story and raise the $40,000. They held fund-raisers such as yard sales and “Comedy Night” at Hope and Life Fellowship Church, where Jim is associate pastor. “We made a deal with God,” Dunn, 42, wrote on the Web site. “If He would provide for this adoption, by means other than my paycheck, that we would do whatever He wanted and that we would also help others do the same.” The couple fell about $1,450 shy of reaching the fund-raising goal. Dunn said they’ll scrape it out of their personal finances, somehow. They still have to renovate their three-bedroom, two-bath home to make room for the new additions, but most everything else has been taken care of. “I don’t have enough time to tell you how things have come in, from cribs to clothes and people who don’t even know us sending money,” Dunn told me. “It’s like they are ours already. We will accept them and love them and let them know they are in a safe place.” Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink
| Comments (7)
|
Categories:
Rick Badie
Parkview students to confront dangers of risky behavior
No comment
Officer: All must fight teen crime
Kids’ language instruction can’t override basics
Monroe family to double in size through adoptions
Services »
