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August 2008
Ruckus over race a sorry distraction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I know an educator who takes to heart this proverb: “When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
These days, it’s apropos in Gwinnett County. An unfortunate turn of events pits the local school superintendent against the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, among others.
Last Saturday, I wrote a column about a workshop in which an administrator gave a discipline report to school officials. The report gave racial breakdowns as they relate to the number of discipline hearings during the 2006-07 school year. It showed that black students racked up half of such hearings even though they make up less than a third of the student body.
James Taylor, who oversees discipline for Gwinnett schools, said during the meeting that disproportionate discipline of minority students is a problem for school systems everywhere in the country except Idaho.
According to news reports, Superintendent Alvin J. Wilbanks then asked:
“Do they have any blacks in Idaho?”
On Monday, Gwinnett NAACP branch president Jorge “J.P.” Portalatin met with Wilbanks. He said later that Wilbanks had refused to apologize for his comment, which Portalatin and others say seemed to put the blame for the disparity on black students. As Portalatin pointed out, the disparity could be explained just as easily by inconsistency in the application of punishment.
By Thursday, leaders of the Metro Association of Classroom Educators were picketing outside the school system’s administrative offices. One sign read: “Wilbanks Arrogant and Insensitive.”
Oh, the irony.
Wilbanks brought Taylor on board specifically to rid the system of ambiguities in discipline matters. He also had Taylor assemble a 49-person task force (which included NAACP reps, bus drivers, teachers, and students) to address the issue. Now he’s being attacked. At the very least, detractors want an apology, but some want him fired.
Wilbanks has said his comments were not meant to be racist or insensitive. Only he knows the truth. Fault him, if you must, for any host of perceived sins — thinking out loud, misspeaking, offering no apology, being culturally aloof.
He could of course squash the controversy by uttering two simple words: “I’m sorry.” But frankly, I fail to see the need. How can you hold a discussion about the disproportionate number of minority children who are disciplined without mentioning the race of the group you’re trying to help?
That’s beyond political correctness. It’s asinine.
And it blows my mind.
At a time when so many kids drop out of high school, commit crimes and can’t read, write and add, our community leaders get up in arms over much to-do about nothing. Plenty of educational causes are worth fighting for, but this isn’t one of them.
When the elephants fight, the grass may indeed suffer.
When adults fight, needlessly, our children suffer.
Rick Badie updates his Gwinnett blog Monday through Friday. His column appears on Saturdays in the print edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Readers may post comments online (www.ajc.com/gwinnett) or contact Badie directly. He may be reached at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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Nunn: Georgia is in play for Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Democratic National Convention has ended. As we look to the Nov. 4 election, it’s time to ponder a comment made earlier this week by Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn.
He said that the choice of Joe Biden as a vice presidential contender might help Barack Obama win working-class voters in Georgia. And that, he said, would be critical to winning the state.
I don’t see it happening.
What do you think?
Can Obama squeak out a win in Georgia?
How will he fare in Gwinnett?
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Kindness and justice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When her family lived in the Middle East, she saw kids working in the fields and scouring garbage bins for items to sell.
“It’s pretty sad over there,” said Fatimah Fye, 15, of Lilburn. “The kids work like adults. They ride donkeys. You see adults doing the same thing. It’s really sad.”
Time spent there inspired the teen to write a fictional short story - “Kindness and Justice.” In it, a poor boy named Adil - which means judicious in Arabic - is the main character. He lives with a family on a farm. Adil dislikes injustice, which is the moral of the 15-page children’s story.
“There’s a part in the story where a bully is picking on these kids,” Fatimah said. “Adil tries to make things fair and tells the bully that what he does is wrong. In the end, he and the bully become friends.”
Fatimah’s mother, Sally Faal, thought the world might benefit from a sincere, heartfelt tale told in a child’s prose. She searched the Internet for a self-publishing company and found Zavia Books and Printing in Appomatox, Va.
Atia Nasar, Zavia’s executive director, thinks there’s a market for “Kindness and Justice.” Plans are to publish it, then sell it as part of the company’s children and young adult fiction division.
“For a young lady, she grasped the context and presented the message in a very entertaining way,” said Nasar, who also had her 15-year-old daughter read the text. “Amina thought it was entertaining as well.”
Fatimah says it took her about three months to write the story. She also drew the illustrations that accompany it. Some of the aspiring artist’s drawings have been included in displays at the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center.
“I like writing and drawing,” she said. As for the book, she said, “It’s really fun to educate people on how they should treat one another and to be thankful for what they have. Even though Adil and his parents are really poor, they are a happy family.”
It’s a message that Faal, a nursing student at Georgia Perimeter College, has tried to instill in her three children. Look at the content and character of a person, she tells them. Don’t judge someone based on their race, religion or economic status.
“I’m trying to raise my children to be good, loving and gentle people,” she said. “There is a lot of hatred going on regarding race, color and religion. We are one big family regardless of all that.”
For more information, E-mail Sally Faal at hopeful4paradiseofdelight@yahoo.com. Rick Badie updates his Gwinnett blog Monday through Friday. His column appears on Saturdays in the print edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Readers may post comments online (www.ajc.com/gwinnett) or contact Badie directly. He may be reached at 770-263-3875 or E-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Museum needs new home, seeks old house
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was the home of Duluth’s first female mayor.
The Victorian-style manor also served as a children’s clinic when the town didn’t have a hospital. Doctors would perform tonsillectomies and other operations. Alice Harrell Strickland - the mayor of Duluth in 1922-1923 - occasionally assisted.
“People know that home,” said Judy Wilson, president of the Duluth Historical Society. “Descendants have been born there. People have been in and out of it, and they know its grounds. If we don’t preserve it, it will be gone.”
The 108-year-old Strickland house sits on three acres about a block north of Duluth’s historic downtown. Strickland’s granddaughter, Alice Ziegler, owns the house. Her son lives in it. It’s listed for sale for $3.5 million, and Wilson’s group is interested.
A city-owned house located on West Lawrenceville Street serves as the historical society’s current museum. The 1940s granite-style cottage will be torn down next year when the area is turned into a mixed-use development. So the historical society needs a new home.
Wilson told me the Strickland house - where babies were delivered and sick children received care - is the ideal place to store and display vestiges of the past. She noted that the refurbished house has parking space for school buses, plenty of “old-growth” trees and an attached building that could be used for offices.
But like many things, it takes money to make it happen. The society, with the help of city officials, plans to apply for grants. A fund-raiser is under way - the Duluth Historical Society Strickland House Fund. An account has been set up at Gwinnett Community Bank.
Then, there’re the dogs.
Replicas of about 25 labs, bulldogs and other breeds have been decorated by local artists and displayed about town. The canine art will be auctioned off to the highest bidder at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Red Clay Theatre. Proceeds benefit the historical society. (For more info, visit www.dogsdaysofduluth.com.)
Initially, the historical society wants to lease the property, an arrangement that would give them more time to acquire it. Metro Atlanta is notorious for demolishing buildings, not preserving them. Wilson doesn’t want the Strickland house to suffer such a fate.
“We are already losing so much of our history with buildings being torn down for renovations,” she said. “If we don’t save this piece of history, it will also be gone.”
Just like everything else.
For more information, please contact the Duluth Historical Society at 770-476-0335. Rick Badie updates his Gwinnett blog Monday through Friday. Readers who want to discuss the topics he writes about may post comments online (www.ajc.com/gwinnett) or contact Badie directly. He may be reached at 770-263-3875 or email: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Little bang for (rebate) bucks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Preliminary studies show many consumers did one of three things with the economic stimulus checks they received a few months back. They either put the money into savings, used it to cover rising food and energy costs or paid off debt. (I did the latter.)
Not one of the three, according to a business story by Robert Cohen of Newhouse News Service, stimulated demand for new goods and services. Analysis of the $100 billion stimulus package continues, but critics are already saying the plan didn’t - and won’t - deliver enough bang for the buck.
What do you think? How did you use your rebate check? Is another federal stimulus plan warranted?
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Reclaim students ‘old-school’ way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
James Taylor is “old-school.” He was among the black students who integrated the University of South Carolina, and he’s been in education for decades and currently oversees discipline for Gwinnett County schools.
He has a favorite saying: “We don’t suspend students. We don’t expel students. We suspend or expel certain behaviors. If a child attaches himself to a certain behavior that is unacceptable, there are consequences.”
Recently, Taylor gave school officials a discipline report for the 2007-2008 school year. The report showed that, of 1,910 discipline hearings held that year, 931 of those were held for black students. About 18 percent, or 345, discipline panels were held for white students.
In other words, black students racked up half the disciplinary hearings, though they make up less than a third of the student body. There’s a term for this: “disproportionate discipline” of minority students. It’s an issue that schools across the nation grapple with, Taylor explained.
A smaller percentage of black students were disciplined in the 2007-08 school year than the year before, but Gwinnett’s disproportionate numbers are still a concern. Various measures have been suggested, including cultural sensitivity training for administrators and programs to reward positive behavior. Taylor has already ended the school system’s “zero-tolerance policy.”
But while Gwinnett officials rightly ponder measures to keep kids in school, let’s hope they also keep in mind what I consider the problem’s root. It revolves around a message that too many kids — skin color aside — apparently don’t hear enough at home anymore. It’s one my parents, salt-of-the-earth people, gave us with no frills, fancy words or concern for feelings. You attend school to learn. Sit down. Shut up. Do as you’re told.
These days, it’s commonplace to point fingers at the system — at the teacher who is out to get me; at the administration that’s racist or racialist or unfair. Some of that may be true. Some is pure perception.
Let’s be honest, though: It’s highly unlikely that all 931 black kids would have been disciplined if they’d all had a mom, dad or grandma who laid down the law. Consistently. Too many of us have gotten away from the no-nonsense child-rearing my mom and dad practiced. It’s considered dated, out of touch, country.
But look at what’s happening to our kids.
“We have got to reclaim our kids,” Taylor said. “We have a message we need to hammer home.”
He plans to do just that by visiting black churches to deliver this message: Gwinnett schools don’t want to show students the door. That pushes down the graduation rate, among other things.
But we are a society of standards and expectations, he points out. In schools, they boil down to two areas — academic standards and behavioral standards. These standards are uniform, in place for everybody.
I hope Taylor ends his talks with another one of his sayings as it relates to school discipline: “If you don’t want to be expelled or suspended, don’t attach yourself to behavior that is unacceptable.”
Rick Badie updates his Gwinnett blog Monday through Friday. Readers who want to discuss the topics he writes about may post comments online (www.ajc.com/gwinnett) or contact Badie directly. He may be reached at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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Join the Spelling Bee Club
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two years ago, Rosemarie Lebert-Clarke invested her own money to launch an academic tutoring service.
Reading to Learn Inc., sits next to a Domino’s Pizza and a Mega Tools store in a strip mall off Indian Trail Road in Lilburn. Unlike the franchised operations that charge out the wazoo, the nonprofit organization charges a sliding fee.
“There are so many people who just can’t afford Sylvan Learning Centers,” Lebert-Clarke said Wednesday when the Badie Tour stopped by.
In the years that Reading to Learn has operated, Lebert-Clarke has noticed a common thread among the students who seek one-on-one help with math, science, reading and writing. Many can’t read well.
“Even the ones who are doing OK in school can’t,” Lebert-Clarke said. “I’ve had 12th-graders functioning at the sixth or seventh-grade reading level. “And most of them are boys.”
That last comment stung. That’s the very reason I started a book club for boys nearly two years ago. There’s been an ebb and flow in the number of participants - from a high of 14 tykes to the current six who are sticking it out. We read several books last year. Now that school is back in, our get-togethers and discussions should become more routine.
Lebert-Clarke contacted me when she read my initial column about the club. She wanted to wish us well, and said she’d thought about starting a similar group.
“I decided not to since you were starting one in the area,” she told me.
But there’s room aplenty for enrichment activities and programs to stir young minds. And Lebert-Clarke, who left the world of corporate advertising and lithography to start Reading to Learn, told me about a project she plans to launch this fall.
It’s a free Spelling Bee Club. It will be for boys and girls in fifth through eighth grades. The idea is to help kids expand their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills by using strategies, games and other means.
“It won’t be just spelling,” Lebert-Clarke told me. “They’ll learn the roots and origins of the words and their meanings. It can help them in the long run with standardized tests and when they read, they’ll understand more.”
Beginning Oct. 3, the club will meet every Saturday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Reading to Learn center. Kids from any metro Atlanta school system can apply to join the club, but there are requirements. They must have a least a C+ in their most recent language arts class. Students will be chosen on the basis of a teacher’s recommendation and on the quality of an essay that they must write - “Why should I be selected to be a member of the Reading to Learn Spelling Bee Club.” The deadline for the essay is Sept. 12.
“Kids have very low esteem these days,” Lebert-Clarke told me. “All they hear is that they are failing. Our purpose is to focus on reading, math and science. To help kids learn in every subject.
“And to build their self-esteem.”
For more information about the Reading to Learn Spelling Bee Club call Rosemarie Lebert-Clarke at 770-279-6987 or visit www.readingtolearn.us. Rick Badie updates his blog daily. Readers who want to discuss the people, places, events and topics he writes about may post comments online or contact Badie directly. He can be reached at 770-263-3875 or via e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Fire the Superintendent?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hi Cindy.
I read your post about Gwinnett County Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks and you’re right: It is a great topic. For those of you who don’t know, there’s a story on the Gwinnett page about some parents calling for the ouster of Wilbanks.
Here’s why:
Last week the school board hosted a workshop on the disproportionate discipline of minority students in Gwinnett. (A topic I plan to write about in my print column, which debuts this Saturday on a special page that will be a regular feature of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
At the meeting, an administrator said that discipline of minority students was a problem for school district nationwide, except for Idaho.
Wilbanks then asked the administrator a question:
“Do they have any blacks in Idaho? They don’t have many.”
The comments alarmed parents. And J.P. Portalatin, president of the Gwinnett NAACP, has called for Wilbanks to apologize. Some parents think he should be removed from office.
So Cindy, since you raised the issue, you should have first crack at it. What do you think about this “controversy?”
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Suspicious Suspension
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett County Administrator Jock Connell has suspended Gwinnett County police Chief Charles Walters without pay. It’s great to see him take disciplinary action against such a high-ranking official, but inquiring minds want to know what, exactly, Walters did that was so egregious.
In today’s article, Gwinnett County District 1 Commissioner Lorraine Green said she was told Walters was suspended because he campaigned against her during a staff meeting of about 75 to 100 people in a staff meeting held a week before the Aug. 5 Republican primary run-off.
In the runoff, Green narrowly lost against County Commission Chairman Charles Bannister.
Green may be right, but my gut tells me there’s more to this story. Otherwise, why would Connell clam up?
What do you think?
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Local parks system one of the best
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s one of the nation’s best.
Don’t take my word for it, though. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) a Virginia-based organization that advocates the significance of parks and recreational space says so. NRPA gives an annual award to counties and municipalities that operate top-notch park systems.
Gwinnett, home to 37 parks and aquatics centers that cover more than 8,800 acres, is in the running for the organization’s prestigious Gold Medal Award. Gwinnett is up against Ft. Worth, Baton Rouge and Las Vegas. This marks Gwinnett’s third time being nominated for the honor; the winner will be announced in October, said Marianne O’Riley, NRPA’s awards coordinator.
It’s so easy to criticize government, to lambaste officials for spending - sometimes wasting - taxpayer money. But governments deserve equal praise when they get it right, act on behalf of - and for the good of - the community. Especially in a county like ours, with roughshod development and other contentious factors.
“The rising cost of fuel and the ability to purchase open land at a reasonable price are the two things that are really challenging agencies now,” O’Riley told me. But ” [Gold Medal nominees] always seem to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.”
In an Aug. 10 Gwinnett News story, Sharon Plunkett, division director of operations for Gwinnett Parks and Recreation, says the county’s stellar parks start with residents. They voted for a recreation tax in 1986 to create a county-wide parks system. A decade later, voters approved a penny sales tax that made it possible to buy land, build parks and trails, athletics fields, community centers, as well as renovate existing green spaces.
It’s been money well spent. Drop by Tribble Mill Park in Grayson or George Pierce Park in Suwanee - two of the more popular locations. Or talk to residents like Jerry Sherill of Norcross. The bailiff for Gwinnett County walks his dog, “Ande,” at Mountain Park Park.
“I think the county parks are a definite asset,” Sherrill, 65, wrote in an e-mail. “They provide ample opportunities for recreation, for exercise, for competition, for group and family gatherings. And they do it in a controlled environment. They also offer a wide range of programs for seniors as well as educational classes.”
A while back, I asked readers whether Gwinnett had an identity, some type of signifier to hang its hat on. Several residents praised the parks network.
If you feel inclined to pooh-pooh the national reputation the county’s park system enjoys, say that our active and passive parks are nothing special, consider this. DeKalb County recently hosted a shindig to mark the opening of Browns Mill Aquatics Center - the county’s very first one.
In Gwinnett, we have five.
Rick Badie updates his blog daily. Readers who want to discuss the people, places, events and topics he writes about may post comments online or contact Badie directly. He can be reached at 770-263-3875 or via e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Hindu temple beats banality of (another) strip mall
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s become a tourist attraction as well as a place for individuals to worship.
I’m talking about the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a Hindu temple, Lilburn’s newest landmark. Thousands of people volunteered time and money to build the structure, said to be one of the largest of its kind in the United States.
Catherine Fox, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s arts critic, wrote last year that “Lilburn’s new landmark rises - literally and figuratively - like a heavenly white apparition above the banality of a nearby strip mall.”
I got to thinking about the temple this morning after reading an article in today’s AJC about the building of Al-Farooq Masjid, Atlanta’s largest mosque. The new $10 million edifice, located on 14th street, was the site of a grand opening and celebration on Sunday.
Location, it has been said, is everything. So let’s consider the Lilburn temple from a pure location standpoint, not a faith or religious one.
Does it “fit” where it’s located, at the intersection of Rockbridge Road and Lawrenceville Highway?
Does it dress up that stretch of asphalt and strip malls, make the area more appealing?
Or is it too ornate, too opulent for that section of town?
Personally, I like it there.
What about you?
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Finding love on the Internet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
His wife and best friend of 16 years wanted a divorce.
It left Jerry Robb devastated. He found himself “out there” again, dating.
One day his office manager at the time suggested he look for romance on the Internet. Robb cringed. The only thing he thought he’d find in cyberspace were fruitcakes and nuts. He’d read horrific stories about Internet weirdos.
“I had read blurbs about stalkers or somebody getting raped,” he told me.
But his employee didn’t let up. She compared online dating to airplane mishaps. The planes that take off and land without incident never make the news; the ones that crash or have mechanical difficulties do. With most things, you only hear about the tragedies, she told him. That made sense to Robb of Duluth, so he registered at some singles Web sites. His perceptions about Internet dating and the type of women he’d meet did a 360.
“I assumed there were a bunch of derelicts online, ” he said. “But it wasn’t.”
Robb’s experience with cyberdating inspired him to pen a manuscript - “Finding Love on the Internet.” It’s a how-to guide on Internet dating that tackles the subject in less than 100 pages. The guide, which he plans to self-publish and market, is chocked full of advice on everything from safety to interpreting E-mails.
Early on, he addresses computer literacy, discussing hardware, cable hook-up and expenses. Then he moves onto Internet singles Web sites, membership fees and profile writing.
The heart of the book, though, are the personal stories. Robb interviewed about 300 men and women from across the country who were willing to share their experiences with services such as Matchmaker.com. Their names have been changed to protect their privacy.
“Faintofheart” from Minneapolis told Robb a story about a woman he’d talked to via E-mail and on the cell phone. One day, he asked if she’d like to meet for coffee. The woman declined because of a rule: Before meeting anyone, she had to exchange at least 15 E-mails and have five phone calls. “Faintofheart” never talked to her again.
Robb says the target audience for his book are singles who are 40 and older. They’ve probably been married for a number of years when they suddenly find themselves single. They get back into the dating game but are uncomfortable trying to find Mr. or Miss Right in a bar or through blind dates set up by friends.
“I think the Internet is the best place to go for people over 40,” said Robb, 61. “But you have to remember there are good people and bad people. You might get an E-mail that’s insulting or something like that. But all you have to do is delete the E-mail and block the sender.”
Robb hasn’t found love on the Internet yet. But he’s made life-long friends.
“Whatever it took for us to have a relationship wasn’t there, but I have five or six very good friends who would not be my friend if it wasn’t for the Internet,” he said. “There is not a lot to lose in trying Internet dating. You meet some interesting people.” Jerry Robb can be reached at Jrobb3328@aol.com.
Rick Badie updates his blog daily. Readers can discuss the people, places, events and topics he writes about may post comments online or contact Badie directly. He can be reached at 770-263-3875 or via e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Gwinnett growth slows - good thing or bad?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You may have seen the story in the metro section of today’s paper about growth in these here parts. What surprised me were the numbers for Gwinnett. We apparently are experiencing a slower population growth when compared to recent years.
The county’s population in 2007 was 740,200; this year, based on estimates by the Atlanta Regional Commission, it is 752,800. That’s a paltry increase of 12,600 residents, or a 1.7 percent increase, according to the article. Usually, Gwinnett adds 20,544 new residents per year.
My question is this. Do you think the sluggishness is a good thing or bad thing? And all long do you think it will last?
Feel free to post comments.
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Gwinnett 911
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The female caller saw a man attack a woman.
So she dialed 911 on her cell phone.
“Gwinnett County, 911,” answered Susan Gifford, a supervisor who took the call. “Do you have an emergency?”
“Yes mam,” the caller said. “I was driving down Northbrook Parkway near Jimmy County Boulevard. There is a guy and a lady at the bus stop and he was punching her in the face. When I was driving by, he punched her twice.”
Gifford asked pertinent details. She verified the street (Brook Hollow Parkway, not Northbrook Parkway) possible landmarks (a Hindu temple); the caller’s name and cell phone number; what the man was wearing; whether he had a weapon or not.
“I didn’t see any weapon in his hand,” the caller said.
Gifford entered the information into the computer, then patched it over to the dispatch desk before she even completed the call. Within minutes, two patrol cars were dispatched to the scene.
On Wednesday, the Badie Tour spent a couple of hours in the county’s 911 center. I wanted to observe the action, given the recent tragic mishap in North Fulton that has been reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Darlene Dukes of Johns Creek died Aug. 2 from a blood clot in her lung. Gina Conteh, a 911 dispatcher, sent help to southwest Atlanta rather than north Fulton. It took 25 minutes before another dispatcher realized emergency crews were looking in the wrong place. It took another 20 minutes before Fulton officials realized they had dispatched fire and police, but not an ambulance.
Everybody makes mistakes, but being involved in one that claims a life is pretty severe. So heads have rolled. Alfred “Rocky” Moore, the 911 center director, has been reassigned. Conteh of Lilburn has been fired.
My question is: What took so long?
Conteh’s personnel file, obtained by the AJC through the Georgia Open Records Law, is rife with incidents. It shows at least seven suspensions for everything from fighting with co-workers to sleeping - sleeping, mind you - while on duty.
Let’s hope some good comes out of Dukes’ death. Maybe our neighboring county will build a better 911 operation. Maybe everybody’s truly alert and aware of the impact communications has on the safety of citizens, firefighters, cops and paramedics.
“A call-taker gets information to assist the [responding officers and emergency personnel],” Gifford told me between calls. “With dispatchers, your focus stays on officer safety. You keep up with where they are; where each unit is; what they are doing. You work to serve the citizens, but officer safety is paramount.”
I spent an hour or so with Gifford, listening to calls and watching her direct them. The technology is amazing. Say someone calls in on a cell phone and can’t give their location. The Gwinnett 911 center has a software system that - by using cell tower locations or the cell phone’s global positioning chip - can pinpoint the origin of the call, or at least get first responders within its vicinity.
Before I leave, another interesting call comes in. A school bus driver says a man, carrying a bag of groceries, is walking in the middle of the road in the Grayson area.
“He looks drunk,” she told Gifford.
“We appreciate your calling,” Gifford said. “We’ll get someone there.”
Rick Badie updates his blog daily. Readers who want to discuss the people, places, events and topics he writes about may post comments online or contact Badie directly. He can be reached at 770-263-3875 or via e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Hours after the Republican run-off, Green’s yard gets trashed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She stepped outside to get the morning newspaper.
Hours earlier, incumbent Gwinnett County Commissioner Lorraine Green had lost a hotly-contested race for the chairman’s post. Incumbent Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charles Bannister (51 percent) had narrowly defeated Green (49 percent) in the Aug. 5 Republican runoff.
The next morning, she was greeted with a reminder of just how ugly the contest had been. The front yard of the home she shares with her husband, Bob and two sons, had been littered with her campaign signs.
“They were signs that had been ripped out from their posts from all around here,” Green told me Wednesday.
But the culprits didn’t go undetected.
Turns out a neighbor’s security camera caught them on tape. Green said several adults can be seen emerging from four cars to do their deed. The camera noted the time at 2:53 a.m., about four hours after the election results had been confirmed.
“It was adults,” Green said. “They were some people I know.”
Green made it a point to say that she was not intimating that Bannister had anything to do with the mean-spiritedness. She hasn’t decided whether to involve the authorities.
“Part of me says to let it go,” she said. “Part of me says people deserve to know about this. My first thought was that my kids don’t need to see this.”
So I ask you, the readers.
What would you do if you were Green?
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Veteran for hire
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In June 2001, he graduated from high school. The next month, he shipped off to boot camp.
Cyril L.Vickers, a graduate of West Philadelphia High, could have gone to college, maybe even played a sport.
“Coming out of high school, I had academic scholarships to Penn State University and Drexel,” he told me. “I had a few football scholarships, too.”
Yet Vickers followed in his Dad’s footsteps. His father had spent nearly two decades in the Army. The younger Vickers was even born in Germany, where his father was stationed at one point.
So he, too, became a military man. The Navy. He spent numerous months on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. Jets took off and landed 24/7. Vickers liked the excitement despite the drawbacks.
Like sleep deprivation.
“Being on an aircraft carrier is like trying to sleep underneath an airport,” said Vickers, 26, of Stone Mountain. “You might shut your eyes, but you’re not asleep. Your body just finds a way to adjust. Jets are taking off on the front of the carrier and landing on the back. The whole time we’re just doing doughnuts in the Mediterranean Sea. The only time they aren’t flying is when the boat is turning.”
On deck, Vickers was a visual communicator, responsible for identifying vessels that came within the vicinity of the carrier.
“New technology has phased that job out, made it obsolete,” he said. “That’s why I got out of the Navy. My time was up anyway. I don’t have any regrets about the military, though. It’s a great stepping stone that can do different things for different people. It helped me understand how to survive and take care of certain situations.
After the service, he moved to Hampton, Va., where his father lived. He took several courses at ECPI College of Technology. He eventually landed a job with Nextel and transferred it to Atlanta to be near his infant daughter, Mikayla Cheerese France.
I noticed Vickers last week in a restaurant. He was poring over the want ads in a city magazine. Trying to survive and earn a living. Job hunting. It’s been that way since late 2007, when he was laid off as a technician at Nextel Sprint.
“I was terminated the day before Thanksgiving,” he said. “I was good at what I did, but it was because of the Nextel/Sprint merger. I filed for unemployment, but I haven’t worked since.”
Vickers spends his days visiting staffing agencies. He follows up on leads about businesses or companies that might be hiring. Good thing he’s in metro Atlanta.
“Things aren’t so bad,” said Ed Freeman, co-owner of Employment Atlanta Staffing. “There is always a demand. Atlanta is so diverse. It’s not like we are a Pittsburgh, where we rely on steel manufacturing. We are into so many different things.”
Vickers stands willing to try anything field.
“I have even been to Foot Locker - places like that,” he said. “I would love to get back working in a network operations center or call-center. It’s what I have been doing the last three or four years.”
If you are hiring, or know someone who is, give Vickers a call. He can be reached at 215-868-1803.
Rick Badie updates his blog daily. Readers can join in on the discussion of people, subjects and topics he writes about by posting comments in the blog or contacting Badie personally. He can be reached at 770-263-3875 or via e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Still kicking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Debbie Haralson called and left me a message this morning.
She wanted to say how sorry she was that the print edition of AJC Gwinnett News has been discontinued. The last edition was published Sunday. She also said she planned to do something that I hope all of you (‘cept for a miscreant or two), will do, too.
“I’ll make it a point to check your blog,” she told me.
I hope you all do the same. With the demise of the print edition, I plan to update my blog daily with comments and news bursts that may interest you, anger you, make you cry or make you happy. I welcome your comments.
I also still plan to continue writing an online column that will appear on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Moreover, I will be a regular contributor to a Community Voices page that will appear in the AJC on Saturdays.That column will focus on Gwinnett as well.
So stay in touch. Keep reading. And keeping posting.
Now, on to the news: I see the Snellville City Council is to address the new crematory tonight. City Manager Russell Treadway is scheduled to give a presentation on whether there could be an environmental impact if the city allows the Cremation Society of the South to open near some homes.
What do you think the report will say?
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Crusade for war veterans continues
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For years, Lawrence T. Hess had helped William S. Burton Sr. research cases of military personnel who may have been exposed to asbestos while serving.
But in mid-2000, Hess, a World War II Navy veteran who also served as a Secret Service agent, was diagnosed with asbestos-related pleural disease. Burton encouraged him to file a military compensation claim.
“When he was dying in the hospital, I told him, ‘Larry, sign this so you can file for disability,’ ” Burton told me. “I told him it would help his wife out.”
Hess of Snellville died in Nov. 2006. He was 79. Today, his wife Suesan Hess receives “dependency and indemnity compensation” for his years of service, Dec. 1944 to July 1946.
When I met Burton three years ago, he’d just self-published the second edition of a book, “Asbestos — The Silent Killer of Navy Veterans.” The book explains the disease, its causes, the difficulty in correctly diagnosing it, and steps veterans should take to prove their compensation claims for war-related illnesses.
It took Burton several years to prove his own claim — that asbestos exposure while in the Navy had caused him to contract a lung disease. So he wrote the book to help veterans navigate the maze.
“I printed this book to get the help out to the people,” the Lilburn resident said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you did, you have to work through the system.”
Burton admits he’s toned down his combativeness and criticism of the Veterans Administration. He had to, if he wanted to succeed in his crusade to help as many veterans as possible get disability compensation. He also has learned to collaborate, notably with the Georgia Department of Veterans Service.
“Bill Burton is a true veterans advocate,” wrote George Langford, the state director of claims, in an e-mail. “His book is informative and useful to veterans service officers. The Claims Division has won asbestos-related cases before the Department of Veterans Affairs using the information learned from Mr. Burton and his book.”
Asbestos-related diseases, Langford told me, are difficult to prove. Veterans needs to have a “military occupational speciality” that’s been approved for claims by the Department of Veterans Affairs. They also must show specific symptoms and a diagnosis to file a successful claim.
Here’s what troubles Burton, 83; Many veterans don’ even know about the dangers of asbestos exposure, much less what’s required of them to seek compensation. That’s one reason he decided to self-publish his tome again. About 600 boxed copies sit in the garage of his home in Lilburn.
“The VA just can’t pass out money to people who don’t qualify for it,” he said. “With the help of Langford, we’ve gotten over $7 million in claims. I’m looking to help the veterans and their wives.”
Wives like Suesan Hess, whom I met one recent morning at Burton’s home. She is Taiwanese and speaks several languages, but admits English isn’t her best.
“He knows everything,” said Hess, patting Burton on the shoulder. “He’s my hero. I can’t say enough.”
For information about “Asbestos — “The Silent Killer of Navy Veterans,” visit asbestos-silentkiller.com or call William S. Burton Sr. at 770-381-5395.
Today marks the end of the print edition of the AJC Gwinnett News section. You can now find your local community news in the Metro section of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Rick Badie, your Gwinnett columnist, will be a regular contributor to a Community Voices page that will appear in the AJC on Saturdays. You also can see what he and readers have to say online. Beginning this week, Badie will update his blog daily with comments, questions, news bursts, tour information, as well as full columns. So visit www.ajc.com/gwinnett and click on Badie. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Building porch requires red tape
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Do you want to do a story about Snellville?”
Posing that question to me is like offering crack to a crack head. It’s what Judy Ackerman asked the other day when she rang with a story about a couple who want to build a screened porch for their backyard.
Ralph and Jacqueline Blanchard want to do it legally. Sometimes following the law means dealing with bureaucracy, rules and regulations that don’t make a whole heap of sense to everyday people. So the Blanchards turned to Ackerman, a neighbor and friend, to help navigate City Hall. After sitting in on a meeting they had Wednesday with city officials, I see why.
“Maybe they should build a crematory,” quipped Ackerman, poking fun at the city for a zoning classification that will allow a crematory to operate near a neighborhood whose residents are none too pleased with the business’ location.
The Blanchards need a city-approved variance because the proposed porch would encroach on the required setback. The variance must be approved by a nine-member Zoning Board of Appeals.
But I’m getting ahead of the story. Before going before the board, the former funeral home owners must apply for the variance, an application process that requires a landfill of paperwork, not to mention a $250 fee. These items are part of the “submittal checklist”:
A certificate of title of the property. A map of the property. A list of adjoining property owners, their addresses and tax parcel numbers. A site and concept plan. Proof that property taxes are paid. An analysis/details of the waiver request. Nine copies of the application packet. A CD/ROM of the site and concept plan as well as other documents.
The Blanchards just want a porch so they can enjoy the outdoors sans mosquitoes. I’m not advocating skirting the law, but this sweet couple could have done what some people do. Build without a peep to City Hall.
“We couldn’t do that,” Jacqueline Blanchard told me. “We’re Christians. We want to follow the law.”
“We want to be able to sleep with ourselves at night,” added Ralph Blanchard, who’s been in and out of the hospital as of late.
Laws, even bad ones, are made to serve a purpose. And I’m sure valid reasons exist for Snellville’s variance application process. But it seems to me Snellville, as well as other municipalities, should have a separate, more streamlined procedure when it comes to seemingly harmless home projects.
This project, in the words of Ralph Blanchard, is little more than a “box” that will be built over a concrete slab. He told acting city planner Jason M. Thompson, and John Dennis, the zoning administrator, as much Wednesday. The Badie Tour tagged along.
“There is no plumbing in it, no heating and AC, and no wiring involved,” he said. “It will just be a box, sitting there, that affects nobody. Seems like to me this should be a simplified process.”
Thompson and Dennis are two of the most professional and respectful city workers I’ve ever come across. And I’d like to think it wasn’t because yours truly occupied a seat in the corner. They seemed to care.
“We can do a lot to help you through this process,” Thompson said. “It’s pretty complicated, but this is the only way to make it legal. I don’t have a problem helping you through the process. I know it seems excessive for something like this.”
Ralph Blanchard turned to his wife of 60 years.
“You want this porch bad enough?” he asked.
“Whatever you want to do,” she answered. “I think we can do it.”
And with the help of Ackerman, I think they can.
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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Heart screenings can ease the pain, but not completely
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dr. Robert N. Vincent listens to a patient’s heart with his eyes closed.
He takes a breath, closes his eyes, then places his stethoscope against the patient’s chest. He listens for the sounds and murmurs of each valve.
Vincent is a pediatric cardiologist at Sibley Heart Center of Cardiology in Atlanta. He’s my son’s cardiologist. Now 12, Miles had heart surgery at 5 days old to correctly reattach his arteries. He has to have his ticker listened to and photographed every now and again to make sure everything is in order.
Vincent expects his office, as well as those of his peers, to be flooded with inquiries over the next few days. It happens every time a teen athlete dies, as was the case recently in Gwinnett.
Jahceem Xavier, a 13-year-old boy from the Snellville area, died last Monday after his very first practice in the Gwinnett Football League. The county medical examiner’s office believes it was a heart attack. Jahceem had an enlarged heart, a condition many believe would have been detected with an echocardiogram, basically a heart screening.
With the death of Jahceem, concerned parents and coaches think it’s time for high school sports teams and recreational leagues to start offering heart tests. The test costs thousands of dollars, but UltraScan, a business in Suwanee, stands willing as part of a charity to provide the exams for $58.
Of course this is a good idea and would be a great service, but with drawbacks - false positives and false negatives being two of them. The biggest negative of all, though, may be the false security such a screening would give parents and teens.
An echocardiogram, Vincent told me, can only detect certain conditions, one of the more common being hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - or thick heart muscle. But there are several other underlying conditions in the sudden cardiac death of teens that screening by echocardiogram won’t detect.
“You’re fooling yourself if you think that all the other causes of sudden cardiac death in teens can be picked up in the echocardiogram,” he said. “It takes more than that. A good medical history and a physical and an electrocardiogram are probably just as good at sorting these things out, if not better.”
Vincent doesn’t object to heart screenings for athletes. Like me, though, he wants a community that’s emotionally torn up by the loss of Jahceem to be realistic. To realize that screenings will detect some abnormalities and save some lives, but definitely not all.
Vincent compared heart screenings to the use of seat belts. When you ease onto I-285 and traffic is flowing at 80 miles per hour - with people yakking on cellphones and tuning radios and putting on make-up - there’s only so much of a safety net a seat belt can provide.
Same for echocardiograms.
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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Emory hits milestone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The band was playing “Wooly Bully.” And Terry Green was on the dance floor, gettin’ down.
It was 1997. Green and his wife of 36 years, Danette, were on a cruise to the Bahamas. Suddenly, he seized up while cutting the rug. A pain, similar to a leg cramp, consumed the center of his chest. He immediately went to the ship’s infirmary.
At first there was doubt he’d suffered a heart attack. Indigestion, maybe, but not a heart attack. He didn’t have all the telltale signs: discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach; nausea and light-headedness.
But an EKG showed a definite abnormality. Green was stabilized until the next morning, till the ship could dock. A Nassau ambulance service would take him to a hospital. Before that could happen, though, he went into cardiac arrest. Three times.
“The reason I know they had to shock me three times is because they bill you for each shock,” Green, 61, told me, laughing.
When he returned to Atlanta, his heart condition remained stabilized for many years. Then in the latter part of 2006, Green said the “perfect storm” struck again. One of his prescriptions was filled with the wrong medicine. He had had some dental work done and - though it was never proven - Green suspects that bacteria affected his heart.
He spent time at Eastside Hospital. His heart operated at bare minimum. The retired state employee and fifth-generation Gwinnettian eventually had a heart pump put in. Doctors adjusted medications. But in January 2008, he worsened.
“Even though I had a Super Bowl Party planned, they decided that I should go stay at Emory,” Green told me.
And that’s where he remained until he was released March 17. With a new heart, and a piece of history.
He’s “Mr. 500.”
Green is the 500th patient to receive a heart transplant at Emory University. His surgery took place on March 8.
In June, the hospital held a press conference to mark the milestone along with the 20th anniversary of its heart transplant program. In a video, Green is flanked by Dr. Sonjoy Laskar and J. David Vega, the surgical director.
Besides the 500 adult heart transplants, the Emory Clinic cardiothoracic surgeons have performed more than 200 pediatric heart transplants, according to hospital spokesman Lance Skelly.
Green was pleased to help the hospital celebrate the milestone, but found one aspect of it disheartening - that more transplants haven’t been done. Emory has a transplant waiting list of about 50 cardiac patients.
“My concept was that this was more frequent and common that what it is,” he said during the news conference.
Today, Green feels fine. He takes a “godly dose” of drugs - two immunosuppressants and medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol. He goes to Emory every now and again for check-ups and rehab work.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I was so rundown with the old heart, and I got so much energy and vigor with the new heart. It’s amazing that it would make that much difference.”
As for being No. 500, well, Green is content.
But he would have been just as pleased to be No. 499 or No. 600.
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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