Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2006 > December > 08
Friday, December 8, 2006
Coastal development, marriage and health
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
Metro Atlanta is one of only four population centers in the country where car-pooling increased between 1990 and 2000, up less than 1 percent, according to the National Academies Transportation Research Board. And why here? Hispanics. That’s not good news for “car pooling.” It’s a warning of future highway congestion. When the poolers get a financial toehold, they buy their own rides.
Praise to all involved in the decision that led Paulding County taxpayers to tax themselves to buy a 7,080 acres of green space. There’s more green space in rural Georgia than government can or should buy. But that’s not the case 50 miles out from downtown Atlanta. Taxpayers should buy every plot they can afford.
A black Christmas tree is a one-year novelty. Green is forever. It’s a marketing gimmick. By now everybody’s bought all the decorations they need at after-Christmas sales at 50 and 75 percent off.
Jekyll Island “is a jewel on the Georgia coast that has just sort of been overlooked for the last 30, 40 years,” says developer E. Wade Shealy Jr., a developer with big plans to correct that oversight. It’s not been overlooked. It’s been intentionally under-developed. If Republicans are looking for a way out the statehouse door, to be seen as turning Georgia’s coast into a playground for the rich and for those on expense accounts is a fast way to be shown the exit.
I’ve become less inclined to blame social workers when bad things happen to children, largely because I doubt that any of the rest of us would be any better equipped to make the decisions they’re required to make. But goodness gracious it’s near impossible to imagine why any responsible adult would have allowed children to remain in the household with Shandrell Banks, the woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter. Social workers, in this instance, wanted the child taken; supervisors, who’ve resigned, over-ruled. Bring back orphanages. And sterilize women and men who cause children to be born that they then harm, mentally or physically.
It’s ironic that the nation is so health conscious — New York City bans trans fats in restaurant cooking — and yet so little attention is directed to the crisis affecting children casually brought into the world by unmarrieds. Their chances of having a healthy life are far slimmer than those of adults dining out. Our priorities are skewed.
Yes, home foreclosures are high. The debate to be had is whether it is a good thing that lenders are luring borrowers into debt they can’t afford. Saving a 10 percent down-payment is evidence of the financial discipline necessary. But home ownership is an important element of responsible citizenship and therefore should be encouraged. Accepting high risk to own a home is not always bad. My fear is, however, that buyers will take too much risk and in large enough numbers that some politician will deem it necessary to bail them out with public money.
Quote of the week: “It was a fast romance, I guess,” said State Sen. Curt Thompson of the bride he took with a deportation order pending, a fact both the politician and his beautiful young bride denied knowing at the time. But all’s well that ends well. An immigration judge lifted the order.
George W. Bush, without U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is a weaker president.
Emory University’s raising parking fees to force employees to car pool, take transit, or use off-campus park-and-ride lots. Surely it will also raise salaries enough to cover the now-higher cost of their work-related expenses.
