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Sunday, April 22, 2007
Who are our county commissioners really looking out for?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Modern day humans are intent on stereotyping themselves and others with misplaced social stigmas that can lead to misunderstanding and division.
Take politics, for example.
It’s rare to have a Democrat referred to as a conservative, or a Republican as a liberal, even though there are some politicians from both parties who have positions with both points of view.
If you listen to talk radio and watch the Sunday morning talking head shows as often as I do you hear our legislators use stereotypes and point fingers at one another while they waste our time and money with nothing but more bickering.
When State Rep. Hugh Floyd (D-Norcross) proposed legislation to expand the Gwinnett County Commission in an effort to accommodate our growing population with smaller districts, all we heard at first was “well this is just an attempt to add a Democrat to the commission.”
Not true, according to Floyd.
Floyd told the AJC that it’s hard to draw a political map with more districts that doesn’t include a Democratic seat, especially in southern Gwinnett. (That’s because of the influx of ethnic minorities who tend to vote Democrat.)
Floyd also pointed out to the paper that he didn’t draw the map. The nonpartisan state Legislative Reapportionment office did.
I believe there were certain “public officials” who just so happen to be card carrying members of one political stereotype who were (and probably still are) ready for a fight solely because they don’t want to lose any of their power in our county government.
Had Floyd acted purely for political reasons, I would have been the first to blast him (and anyone else who tried that) and remind him that he is probably only the District 99 state representative because he ran unopposed.
The Legislature didn’t pass Floyd’s plan, but it remains on the table for next year’s session.
During his farewell address in 1796, President George Washington made a very prophetic statement, considering the current political climate. He spoke about the move to a party system and its potential for divisiveness:
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”
With all the bickering over these new commission seats, it almost makes you wonder just who the current commissioners are looking out for, doesn’t it?
Maybe their reaction explains exactly why southwest Gwinnett has been so neglected by the commission and why we have to deal with the conditions like traffic, crime, and other quality of life issues like we have today.
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