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The voice of independents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hello, friends and neighbors. I apologize for not talking with you for a while. Home projects have kept me otherwise entertained.
We will be celebrating the Fourth of July next week, and shortly thereafter we will find ourselves in a primary contest. So, as we prepare to celebrate our independence, I direct my thoughts to the voice of Independents.
What is an independent? Not a party man. A generic term bandied about is, “socially liberal, fiscally conservative.” Most Independents that I know cringe when they hear the words “liberal” or “conservative.” We hear them on the news, on the talk shows, but when we talk to and about each other, their words used far less frequently than what we hear.
Why? Because 70% of voters are independent. There are a lot more of us than there are liberals or conservatives. We don’t tithe the Republican or Democrat parties. When we talk about an issue in which we are told we are “with us or against us,” we say, “none of the above.”
We are frustrated by the “either/or” choices presented to us. We say that there has to be a better way, and we can’t understand how our leaders can be so obtuse.
Mostly it’s because we let them be obtuse. How many candidates are running for office unopposed this year? It surprises me, given that many of the people with whom I talk express their dissatisfaction with the status quo.
I think it’s because independents don’t like the hassle of politics. Politics is a nasty game. They don’t discuss what we should do, they discuss why we can’t do it that way. Want to run? You need money. This is the paradox. A minority represents the extremes of a political viewpoint, but the majority must conform their message to this viewpoint if they want financial assistance. Show me the money.
Although there are many issues on the table, the single topic of whether you are pro life or pro choice will determine any future political or monetary support that you will receive. Every thing else, in their mind, is irrelevant.
The problem with being independent, as I see it, is the need for dependents from people who don’t want you to think independently.
Ironic, isn’t it? I’m sure that many of us will be talking about a variety of things in the days to come. Might I suggest the following?
• Don’t listen to polls. They sample a very small number of people, and use that sampling to speak for our country.
• Change the channel. If you watch Fox news, switch to NBC. Hear what’s being said.
• Don’t listen to someone because you agree with him. Listen, because you disagree. Even if they don’t share your point of view, chances are, they have water to point they didn’t consider, and vice versa.
• Don’t find the answer, find a question. The question is not whether or not we should drill in ANWR, for example. The question is, what do we do about our energy needs today and in the future?
Remember, folks, this is your election, not theirs. Don’t glaze your eyes when they spit out a sound bite. Ask questions, of yourselves and of your candidates. If you want to celebrate the Fourth of July, that’s a good way to commemorate the day.
What questions would you like to ask?
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Is Duluth in danger of overbuilding?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Jais AAA Duluth,” one of the readers of my blog, recently asked a good topic question: Is Duluth still overdeveloping?
I would suggest that Duluth, specifically downtown, has never really established a good foundation on which to develop in the first place.
I was recently discussing this with some folks at a restaurant in downtown Norcross. We were remarking about how well the revitalization of Norcross had worked. Norcross has an old-timey feel. It is easy to park, stroll around the city, window shop, enjoy the parks and the local theater, and dine.
Duluth has tried to do the same thing. They have a nice green area/park; have residential and commercial interests, restaurants. They have most of the components requisite to establishing an old-timey feel.
Where Duluth differs from Norcross, in my opinion, is accessibility. The city of Norcross has traffic outlets on either side of the city through which traffic can pass without disrupting pedestrian flow.
Duluth is badly congested. The main traffic artery passes right through downtown. There is no way to bypass the pedestrian area. The traffic stops at Main Street/Hill Street/Lawrenceville Street?
Abysmal. Put a train into the mix, and rush-hour or lunch traffic, and you’ve got a situation that — well, it doesn’t invite people to want to see what the city has to offer. The Soda Shop and the Main Street Coffee Shop both closed. They were not getting enough business. Both were nice places, and provided good services and quality customer care. The problem was that no one went there.
In my opinion, it is not enough to have these nice places available to people. You must have a way to allow those people to get to them. Parking must be available and accessible, not hidden and restricted by traffic flow. I should not have to spend 20 minutes to drive the 3 miles from my house to downtown Duluth, because traffic is so difficult to navigate.
This is Gwinnett’s problem in general. It is not enough to say, “If you build it, they will come.” You also have to say, “Build a way to get there.” You can, as Wayne Hill once proclaimed, develop “until it’s full.” However, if a city restricts the flow of people to the vital organs of the city by prohibiting accessibility, new development will simply wither and die.
So, while the new City Hall is nice, it does not solve the problem. While the new administration complex is nice, it does not solve the problem. While the new police cars and enforcement devices are nice, they do not solve the problem. Duluth does not need to fight about Wal-Mart. It does not need to worry about new stores, new office space and new residential space.
Duluth city planners need to make it easier for people to access what the city has to offer. Until that is done, I think there will just be a bunch of expensive - but empty - buildings.
What do you think?
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Is Duluth in danger of overbuilding?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Jais AAA Duluth,” one of the readers of my blog, recently asked a good topic question: Is Duluth still overdeveloping?
I would suggest that Duluth, specifically downtown, has never really established a good foundation on which to develop in the first place.
I was recently discussing this with some folks at a restaurant in downtown Norcross. We were remarking about how well the revitalization of Norcross had worked. Norcross has an old-timey feel. It is easy to park, stroll around the city, window shop, enjoy the parks and the local theater, and dine.
Duluth has tried to do the same thing. They have a nice green area/park; have residential and commercial interests, restaurants. They have most of the components requisite to establishing an old-timey feel.
Where Duluth differs from Norcross, in my opinion, is accessibility. The city of Norcross has traffic outlets on either side of the city through which traffic can pass without disrupting pedestrian flow.
Duluth is badly congested. The main traffic artery passes right through downtown. There is no way to bypass the pedestrian area. The traffic stops at Main Street/Hill Street/Lawrenceville Street?
Abysmal. Put a train into the mix, and rush-hour or lunch traffic, and you’ve got a situation that — well, it doesn’t invite people to want to see what the city has to offer. The Soda Shop and the Main Street Coffee Shop both closed. They were not getting enough business. Both were nice places, and provided good services and quality customer care. The problem was that no one went there.
In my opinion, it is not enough to have these nice places available to people. You must have a way to allow those people to get to them. Parking must be available and accessible, not hidden and restricted by traffic flow. I should not have to spend 20 minutes to drive the 3 miles from my house to downtown Duluth, because traffic is so difficult to navigate.
This is Gwinnett’s problem in general. It is not enough to say, “If you build it, they will come.” You also have to say, “Build a way to get there.” You can, as Wayne Hill once proclaimed, develop “until it’s full.” However, if a city restricts the flow of people to the vital organs of the city by prohibiting accessibility, new development will simply wither and die.
So, while the new City Hall is nice, it does not solve the problem. While the new administration complex is nice, it does not solve the problem. While the new police cars and enforcement devices are nice, they do not solve the problem. Duluth does not need to fight about Wal-Mart. It does not need to worry about new stores, new office space and new residential space.
Duluth city planners need to make it easier for people to access what the city has to offer. Until that is done, I think there will just be a bunch of expensive - but empty - buildings.
What do you think?
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Time to do more to catch child predators
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
William Carter Gorman of Lawrenceville, a pharmacist, was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for collecting child pornography.
US District Judge Timothy Batten ordered him to be supervised the rest of his life after he is released from prison, and to have no more contact with persons younger than 18. He also must register as a sex offender. Additionally, he faces child molestation charges in Gwinnett County.
Apparently, the U.S. Postal Service was running a sting operation that advertised the sale of videotapes showing child pornography, and Gorman was one of many who answered the ad and purchased some videotapes.
Have you seen the TV show, “To Catch a Predator,” on Dateline NBC? Chris Hansen, the reporter, sets up stings in which people on the Internet think they are chatting with an underage girl. They arranged to meet, and Hanson is there, with cameras, to capture the whole humiliating incident, including their eventual arrest.
When I first saw the show, my first thought was, “Man, these people are stupid.” Then my thoughts quickly rolled into how sick these people are, and how easy it was for them to act upon the predatory instincts. Of the people that got caught, how many didn’t? How many got away?
Children are exploited in Third World countries, often sold into slavery — pornographic or otherwise — oftentimes because their sale means more money to their parents, money that they would not otherwise have access to.
It wasn’t so long ago here in the US — 100 years — when our children are put out in the street at ages 6, 7, 8. Their parents couldn’t take care of them, so it was time for them to earn their keep. They moved out into the street, worked in factories, sold newspapers, lacking education, lacking parental support.
This period in our history is one reason why public education was started. To get kids off the street and to help them develop opportunities previously unavailable to them.
How sad it is, then, to see how the level of predation has gone from manual labor to sexual gratification. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. And it’s unnerving, to me, to see how easy it can be to exploit our children.
Friends and neighbors, keep an eye on what your children do on the Internet. It’s not because we don’t trust them.
It is because we know how exposed and vulnerable they can be to someone who lacks the morals and scruples requisite to caring for our most precious resource. Involve yourself in their lives, and their schools, in their libraries, and in the public venues that we all share and enjoy. We may not be able to eradicate this problem.
But we can sure as hell reduce the number of victims available to these predators.
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Dealing with depression
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I suffer from depression.
It’s an after-effect of my stroke. My brain got discombobulated, and the production levels of serotonin, norepinephrine and whatever chemicals help it run efficiently got all messed up.
About two months after my stroke, I finished taking a shower one morning, and I started crying uncontrollably. Sure, I had been through a pretty traumatic experience, and getting back on my feet was tough going. I had good days and bad days, like everyone else. This was different.
There is a phenomenon called “phantom pain.” Someone who’s lost a limb feels a pain that makes the brain think it’s still there. That’s how I felt inside, like someone had put a plug in the bottle of my soul and I had no access to it.
Depression prevents a person from functioning normally, and often co-exists with other serious medical illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, HIV/aids, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. The National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) says that such illnesses may precede depression, cause it, and/or be a consequence of it. Or, the brain may simply not be functioning the way it should. People with depression can feel lousy and despondent just because they think that is how life is supposed to be. They have no other experiences against which to compare.
Alcohol and other substance abuse or dependence may also co-occur with depression. In fact, research has indicated that the co-existence of mood disorders and substance abuse is pervasive among the U.S. population.
There is no single known cause of depression. It’s often a combination of genetic, biochemical, environmental, and psychological factors. MRIs have shown that the brains of people who have depression look different than those of people without depression. The parts of the brain responsible for regulating mood, thinking, sleep, appetite and behavior appear to function abnormally. In addition, important neurotransmitters-chemicals that brain cells use to communicate-appear to be out of balance. But these images do not reveal why the depression has occurred.
Friends and neighbors, I’m not telling you this to generate a pity party. I’m telling you this because depression is a very real and treatable disorder. It’s not a weakness or a failing. You don’t get brownie points for being stronger than everyone else. If someone tells you to “suck it up,” it’s the worst piece of advice - and the most unnecessary - that someone can offer to another person. Get them out of your life. You’d go see a doctor if you had the flu, or chicken pox. The same goes for depression. The earlier that treatment can begin, the more effective it is and the greater the likelihood that recurrence can be prevented.
I talked to my doctor. The hospital warned me, when I was there, that this might happen. It happens to about 45 percent of stroke survivors. My doctor said that I had generalized anxiety disorder that accompanied the depression. He prescribed medication, and after about six weeks, I noticed a significant change. I’ve had to have my medication tweaked over time, but I feel better now than I have in a very long time. Even after a stroke and the clunker of a body that remained in its wake.
I think to myself, “My God. I never knew this was how life could be.” And then I think about how many people suffer from this illness and don’t know it . They never achieve their potential because they are unaware of the psychological barriers that hold them back. They never fight back because they think they deserve the misery that has befallen them. They take their own lives as a result of this illness.
To help a friend or relative, NIMH suggests the following:
• Offer emotional support, understanding, patience and encouragement. • Engage your friend or relative in conversation, and listen carefully. • Never disparage feelings your friend or relative expresses, but point out realities and offer hope. • Never ignore comments about suicide, and report them to your friend’s or relative’s therapist or doctor. • Invite your friend or relative out for walks, outings and other activities. Keep trying if he or she declines, but don’t push him or her to take on too much too soon. Although diversions and company are needed, too many demands may increase feelings of failure. • Remind your friend or relative that with time and treatment, the depression will lift.
Thanks for listening. We now return you to your regularly scheduled ranting.
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