http://www.ajc.com The latest headlines from AJC en-us Copyright 2009, Cox Newspapers Inc., AJC Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:50:53 EST Newspapers COXnet RSS Generator v1.0 http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/08/17/52/image_1352178.jpg http://www.ajc.com 5 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/13/rogersed_0113.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/13/rogersed_0113.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:40:17 EST I was a surgeon in Macon for several years before dedicating myself to emergency medicine. It was my privilege to have been one of the original members of the trauma service when the Medical Center of Central Georgia first established it in the early 1990s. Over the years I saw and cared for many injured people from babies to grandparents. There are some of these trauma victim's stories that I will never forget and will share with you. Then I shall ask you to urge the Legislature to create a statewide trauma network in Georgia. I remember three small boys whose throats were slashed by their father because he was mad at their mother, and the young woman who had been beaten with a crow bar and then run over by her jealous boyfriend. She broke both arms, both thighs and her pelvis. There was the 16-year-old girl who was in a bad car wreck and came in on two ambulances — she was in one and her leg from the mid-thigh down was in the other, and the young mother who was shot nine times by her husband in front of their small children. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/13/murphyed_0113.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/13/murphyed_0113.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:39:42 EST The sages at the National Bureau of Economic Research have finally concluded what many Americans have known for months: The United States is in a recession. Several prominent economists have recommended vast government spending as a cure. In the December issue of the New York Review of Books, Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman wrote: "[P]olicymakers around the world need to do two things: get credit flowing again and prop up spending." This is the wrong prescription, for a number of reasons. On the surface, it seems obvious that a recession occurs when people stop spending money. From an individual firm's point of view, if the demand for its product falls off, it has to cut back its own purchases of materials and lay off workers. On the other hand, if demand picks up, then this is a signal of prosperity. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/13/krugmaned_0113.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/13/krugmaned_0113.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:39:10 EST Last week President-elect Barack Obama was asked to respond to critics who say that his stimulus plan won't do enough to help the economy. Obama answered that he wants to hear ideas about "how to spend money efficiently and effectively to jump-start the economy." OK, I'll bite — although as I'll explain shortly, the "jump-start" metaphor is part of the problem. First, Obama should scrap his proposal for $150 billion in business tax cuts, which would do little to help the economy. Ideally he'd scrap the proposed $150 billion payroll tax cut as well, though I'm aware that it was a campaign promise. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/12/bonesteeled.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/12/bonesteeled.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:24:47 EST As the product of 20 years of public education, a journalist, substitute teacher and parent of three students enrolled in Atlanta Catholic schools, I disagree with Maureen Downey's column ("Private schools not inherently better," @issue, Jan. 5) singing the praises of public schools. While Downey is quick to focus on teacher turnover rates, facilities and luxe campuses to make her comparisons, she is ignoring several of the biggest factors influencing parents' decisions to apply their children to private school, frequently at quite a financial strain. Parents chose private or parochial schools because they want to give their children freedom to learn —- flexibility without the red tape involved in petitioning the administration for more challenging material or, on the other hand, having to fill out layers upon layers of paperwork in order to get extra assistance. Downey also leaves out a factor at the heart of many parents' decision to choose a faith-based school, the belief that religion has a place in schools. Religion classes encompass centuries of knowledge and resources simply not available or allowed in our public schools, giving students the framework to understand and explore all the issues connected with faith. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/12/whyteed.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/12/whyteed.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:24:19 EST In 2008, the southeast corner of the northern Australian state of Queensland, where I live, entered its 10th year of drought —- officially the worst period on record. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth, but until recently, that was never a huge problem for the 90 percent of us who live in coastal cities and towns. We always had thought of dry spells as the farmers' problem. But as the recent drought dragged on, fruit and vegetable prices began to rise. Then public parks went from green to brown. Finally, even city folk began to talk about drought. In May 2005, restrictions were imposed on watering gardens, washing cars and filling pools. After that, I could water the vegetable patch in my backyard with only a bucket, and then only three times a week after 7 p.m. on my allotted days. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/09/wassermaned_0109.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/09/wassermaned_0109.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Thu, 8 Jan 2009 20:26:29 EST News that Dan Abrams, former anchor and top executive with MSNBC, is launching a new PR firm that will hire practicing journalists to advise corporate clients on handling the media has drawn pretty mild criticism, considering. That may say something about the respect for Abrams and his collaborator, ex-Huffington Post media writer Rachel Sklar, among commentators who might otherwise be appalled by a plan that skates on the thinnest of ice when it comes to fundamental principles governing conflict of interest. But I think it also says something about the obsolescence of traditional rules that are supposed to keep journalists free of conflicts. It's not that the business doesn't still need rules; but they're getting hard to frame both sensibly and realistically, as the lack of outrage over Abrams' plan suggests. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/09/whiteed_0109.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/09/whiteed_0109.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Thu, 8 Jan 2009 20:25:59 EST I have never seen the AJC get a story as wrong as it did recently with its article about Atlanta's lackluster nightlife, ("Lackluster nightlife may cost Atlanta," Page One, Dec. 30). The tone of the article was that somehow Atlanta nightlife had just slipped away unnoticed and with no malice aforethought. That's just plain silly. It also suggested that the reason there aren't more clubs downtown is that there isn't enough of an available audience downtown for nightclubs to be successful. That's silly too. It's got nothing to do with the lack of customers downtown. Have you ever been to Atlantic Station? There is a huge population downtown. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/08/suzmaned_0108.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/08/suzmaned_0108.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Wed, 7 Jan 2009 19:58:24 EST Helen Suzman's death on Jan. 1 at the age of 91 marks the end of a remarkable political career in which she never was afraid to "speak truth to power," or to say what she thought was right, whatever the consequences. Political convenience was not in her vocabulary, as unusual as it may seem for someone who became South Africa's longest-serving member of Parliament with a 36-year record of opposition to the Nationalist Party government of that period. What is often not reported are the innumerable times she responded to requests from unknown, everyday black people, who were seeking to receive some small degree of justice, to redress a wrong or to find a family member imprisoned by the South African system. Helen always rose to the occasion and used all her powers as a member of Parliament to obtain some degree of relief for those being so unjustly dealt with by the system of apartheid that she despised. The last time I spoke with Helen was about a year ago, at her home in Johannesburg. Although physically frail, her mind was as sharp as ever and before I realized it, I fell victim to Helen's concern regarding the possibility of Jacob Zuma, recently elected president of the African National Congress, becoming the next president of the country. I made the rather weak argument that the charges of taking payments for facilitating arms purchases from European companies, even if proved true, were not unheard of among political leaders all over the world, and that he should be judged rather by the policies he planned to pursue as president. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/08/wilkesed_0108.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/08/wilkesed_0108.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Wed, 7 Jan 2009 19:55:20 EST One hour after Brian Nichols was sentenced in Fulton County Superior Court to serve consecutive four life sentences without possibility of parole, seven life sentences with parole possible after 30 years and additional sentences of imprisonment totaling 485 years, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard suggested something stupendously stupid. He proposed retrying Nichols, this time in federal court, for one of the murders for which Nichols had just been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Capital punishment, like torture, is so corrupting that it deranges its advocates. Even though Nichols' prosecution cost millions, even though the jury convicted Nichols on all 54 counts, even though the judge imposed the maximum punishment short of death, and even though Nichols will spend the rest of his life miserably confined in a maximum-security prison, Howard's death penalty fixation deludes him into thinking that executing Nichols is so desirable that taxpayers should fund, and that witnesses, jurors and court personnel should be subjected to, a second capital trial. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/08/carlsoned_0108.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/08/carlsoned_0108.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Wed, 7 Jan 2009 19:53:30 EST Federal prosecution of Brian Nichols is needed now. On the recent night when it became clear that Nichols had escaped the death penalty, the public responded. An early WSB-TV poll reported that 86 percent of sample viewers condemned the sentence as "too light." Public discontent was also fueled by news reports one juror solved crossword puzzles in the jury room. Major Atlanta public figures, including Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard and AJC Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker, have expressed their dissatisfaction in opinion articles on these pages. For Howard, one of his biggest disappointments was the "three jurors [who] would not engage in [jury] discussion" and the one who reportedly worked a crossword "to preclude further discussion." Tucker rightly decried a climate of litigation delay that she said rendered the Nichols saga "a mockery of justice." http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/07/adamsoned_0107.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/07/adamsoned_0107.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:47:58 EST Judge Griffin Bell and I were breakfasting in the White House mess in 1991 with my wife, who was then on President George H.W. Bush's senior staff. The president heard Bell was there and sent a message to visit in the Oval Office. It was a visit among friends, and Bush and his wife, Barbara, at Bell's invitation, were soon at Sea Island where they had not visited since their honeymoon. Rounds of golf were played, a return engagement for Bell followed at Camp David that included golf with Bush and Arnold Palmer, and Bush soon had Bell as his personal lawyer. For Griffin Bell, who died Monday at age 90, that was normal. During his terminal illness, Bell's doctors told him to establish a goal each day. He accomplished many during the last six months, invigorated by the outpouring of visits and calls of his lifetime of friends, and at peace after a satisfying and long life. His mind stayed clear and vigorous to the end. Former Atlanta Constitution editor Eugene Patterson was one of those who told Bell in a call a few weeks ago how "the courage" displayed by Bell and Gov. Ernest Vandiver to bring Georgia within the legal requirements of integration and save public education in Georgia "set my own bearing." Bell was a new 43-year-old judge for just a few months on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals when he drew the case that ended the discriminatory county unit system and changed Georgia elections. He was soon embroiled in Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett's defiance of court orders to admit James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. The Georgia and Mississippi cases were two among about 3,000 cases in which he participated and more than 500 opinions that he wrote. These cases reflected his frequent and significant role during his nearly 15 years as a judge in which he synthesized the court's center, advancing civil rights. President John F. Kennedy went on television in the midst of the Barnett controversy to cite Bell and other southern judges as courageous heroes. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/07/abukhatered_0107.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/07/abukhatered_0107.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:47:13 EST At the onslaught of Israel's air offensive, Israel's consul general for the Southeastern United States pointed out that 2008 was the 60th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ambassador Mansour wrote that this is "the time for the international community to assert its right to live free from terror and fight back." We'd like to remind him that 2008 is also the 60th anniversary of what we call "al-Nakhbeh" which roughly translated means "the Great Tragedy" — the emptying of vast swatches of Palestine by members of Israel's Stern and Urgun gangs, among others. This disaster resulted in more than three-quarters of a million Palestinians becoming refugees and the country of Palestine being wiped off world maps. Sixty years later these refugees, many of whom live in Gaza, would like nothing better than to "live free from terror" but Israeli bombs and tanks are bearing down on them in a completely disproportionate attempt by Israel to fight back against Hamas rocket launches. By Tuesday, fewer than a dozen Israelis were dead compared to nearly 600 Palestinians. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/07/mansoured_0107.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/07/mansoured_0107.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:46:40 EST Some of the Arab and Muslim demonstrators who recently came to our offices were holding signs that said "Free Gaza." Many Israelis would raise that same sign, me included, but for different reasons. People tend to forget that as of August 2005, Israel has not been in Gaza, and that the Gazans have been under Hamas control since June 2007. Indeed, Gaza needs to be freed from many different extremist forces. Gaza should be freed from Hamas, a terrorist organization that seized the strip by force. Since the takeover, Hamas has run Gaza's economy into the ground and now nearly half of the work force is unemployed. Hamas has built a Taliban-style state in Gaza and introduced many of the Islamic Shari'a laws, institutionalizing the persecution of women and minorities. Hamas has transformed Gaza from a free territory to a large bunker, a place where rockets are stored under families, schools and places of prayer. Unfortunately, Gazans not only live among this militarization, but are now a tool in Hamas' aggression. The terrorist organization has developed a strategy of using innocent civilians as human shields. When Israel warns that the houses of Hamas operatives and commanders will be targeted, the terrorists bring in innocent citizens, often by force, in an effort to increase the likelihood of civilian casualties. Hamas' leaders rely on the strict Israeli moral code, hoping to avoid being attacked or that a strike will allow them to score points in the media by sacrificing their own people, creating what looks like acts of Israeli military aggression. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/06/radulovackied_0106.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/06/radulovackied_0106.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:02:33 EST A for-profit company based in Florida is fast-tracking its way toward ownership of Georgia's mental health crisis as state officials tout privatization as a solution to treating the mentally ill. As a hospital-based psychiatrist who regularly treats very difficult — sometimes life-threatening — mental and addictive diseases, I applaud the urgency Department of Human Resources Commissioner B.J. Walker has brought to the state's mental health care crisis. But is privatization going to solve the problem? Or will it actually deepen this crisis? The impulse is to trust a free market solution — and, in a recent opinion column, Walker made clear that she does ("Privatizing state mental hospitals," @issue, Dec. 19). She described her faith in the private sector's ability "to deliver innovative health care." And she asked, "Doesn't someone with mental illness deserve the same level of care as a cancer patient?" http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/05/eberharded.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2009/01/05/eberharded.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17 Mon, 5 Jan 2009 11:35:36 EST All of Georgia's publicly funded institutions are on a forced economic diet these days, and your public library isn't exempt. But most have a loyal group of Friends —- that's uppercase, please —- to help them out. So the patrons of the Hart County library in Hartwell can still count on getting the New York Times top 10 fiction and nonfiction books each month. The library's Friends group is paying for them.