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publish, and conceal not." - Jeremiah 50:2
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2018 wlm'len Best Serious Column - On the Porch
2018, 2017 ~ Best Humorous Column- On the Porch
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
[orsyth's city council met on Monday for the first
time since this newspaper reported that two coun-
cil members want the city to pay for their families
to accompany them on city trips. The blowback
around town and on social media over the proposal
prompted reporter Diane Glidewell, who first broke the
story, to predict that council wouldn't bring up the idea
ever again, publicly at least. As of Monday, her prediction
has thus far proven right. It was like it never happened.
Good. I hope a lesson was
learned -- by all sides.
When Ben Franklin emerged
from Independence Hall in
1787 after the Founders fin-
ished writing the constitution,
a woman asked: "What kind of
government have you given us,
Dr. Franklin?"
He replied: republic,
if you can keep it:
It's a point we've largely forgot-
ten today. Our govemment will
be to us and do to us whatever
we permit. The apathy that per-
meates today excites wannabe
tyrants and dictators who would
violate our rights and freedoms, and abuse their office,
even in small things. This newspaper will always aim to
keep a sharp eye on public officials on behalf of our read-
ers. But we require engaged and informed readers to make
self-government work. When bad policies are defeated, it's
a sign of health for local government.
For another example, Glidewell reports that our local
school board members on Saturday voted 4-3 to begin the
process of giving themselves a raise from $75 per meeting
to $250 per month. Apparently local leaders are feeling
pretty good about their performance. The county com-
missioners are looking to increase their pay as well.
Board members Eva Bilderback proposed the pay in-
crease, and she joined Priscilla Doster, Judy Pettigrew and
Greg Head voting in favor. Board chair Nolen Howard,
vice chair I.P. Evans and board member Stuart Pippin
voted against it. The measure would next go to the state
legislature for approval.
Assistant superintendent Jackson Danid noted that
board members were actually only supposed to be getting
$75 for regular meetings and $25 for meetings like budget
hearings and committees but have been getting $75 for all
meetings.
"We all ,knew what we were going to get when we ran
for office, said Evans, who has served on the school board
for almost 40 years. Where is this money going to come
from?"
"It's not really going to come from taxpayers" said
Doster. "It's already in our budget"
"Basically we're making that [$250/month]" said Bilder-
back. "We're just making it monthly [instead of by the
meeting]"
Superintendent Dr. Mike Hickman noted that Georgia
sets a minimum of $50 per meeting for county school
boards, which is what board members in Upson and
Bleckley counties are paid. School boards in the cities of
Buford and Chickamauga do not pay board members.
Forsyth County pays board members $75 per meet-
ing, and Pike County and leffersonviUe city pay $100
per meeting. Oconee County pays $150 per month,
and Houston County pays $300 per month. Bibb, Jones,
Twiggs and Liberty counties pay $500 per month. Hick-
man said that many of the school systems pay an addi-
tional stipend to the chair and vice chair, usually about
$50, but in Liberty County, the chair is paid $710.
Hickman said that last week Butts County board of edu-
cation members asked to increase their pay from $400 per
month to $700 per month. Board members said their pay
is significantly below that of similar government bodies in
Butts County.
Should Monroe County pay our school board more? I
don't know. But I do know that should be up to you, and
not them. Let your local governments hear from you --
often.
~nroc County
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Publication No. USPS 997-840
PEACH STATE POLITICS by Kyle Wingfield
Georgia's elections last yearrise even to $13 an hour has lowered
took on an unusual, per- the take-home pay of many hourly
unprecedented, na- workers. Those who werent working
onal tinge as Brian Kemp many hours before the increase have
and Stacey Abrams tried to rally seen their hours cut, or their work
supporters based on their respective
affinity or repulsion for President
Donald Trump.
It should come as
no surprise, then, that
some of that national-
ization is showing up in
this year's legislative ses-
sion. Already, Georgia
Democrats are staging
their biggest effort yet
to demand an expan-
sion of Medicaid as
allowed under Obam-
acare. I've explained in
previous columns why
that's the wrong way
to help lower-income
Georgians get meaning-
ful access to health care,
I'll do so again soon.
But another progressivist idea that's
made its way to Georgia is the notion
of raising the state's minimum wage.
Today, Georgia's minimum wage in
certain cases is only $5.15, below
the federal level of $7.25 set in 2009.
Democrats in both the House and
the Senate have filed bills to raise it
immediately to $15.
Examples such as Seattle illustrate
why this is a bad idea. There, even
though the cost ofliving is already 51
percent higher than in Atlanta, not
to mention rural parts of Georgia, a
opportunities disappear altogether,
according to researchers at the Uni-
versity of Washington.
But we need not look
that far. Georgia's own
experience demonstrates
the folly here.
It's important to
understand a couple
of key facts. First, the
real minimum wage
is zero: Ira job doesn't
exist, it doesn't matter
how much the employer
would have to pay if it
did exist.
Second, the minimum
wage is a relative non-
factor in the labor mar-
ket when the economy is
growing. Only when the economy is
struggling does it affect many people
- and then, the result may well be to
keep them out of work.
Consider data from the federal Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics. In 2008, just
as the Great Recession was begin-
ning, only 1.8 percent of all Geor-
gia workers (about 76,000 people)
earned the minimum wage or less.
That proportion grew to 3.6 percent
in 2009, 4.2 percent in 2010, and
5 percent in 2011 as the economy
strained to recover. It has trended
downward since then, hitting 1.6
percent in 2017, the latest year for
which data are available.
From 2008 to 2011, the number
of Georgians working at or below
the minimum wage rose by about
120,000. If that sounds bad, consider
the 221,000 Georgians who stopped
working at all. For them, the mini-
mum wage truly was zero.
Since the trough of2011, Georgia
has added more than half a million
jobs - despite shedding 123,000 jobs
at or below the minimum wage. A
growing economy is the best way to
address low wages and inequality.
It's also worth noting who holds
minimum-wage jobs. Nationally,
the BLS reports that in 2017 workers
ages 16 to 19 were six times likelier
than those 20 and older to have min-
imum-wage jobs. Despite making
up less than 6 percent of all hourly
workers, these teenagers represented
more than 21 percent of minimum-
wage earners. Less than 2 percent of
workers at least 30 years old worked
at or below the minimum wage.
All of this points to a simple but
dear truth: Minimum-wage jobs
are the first, temporary rung of the
economic ladder. We want to make
it easy for people to get on the lad-
der and then climb, not boost a few
people up a rung by bumping others
off the ladder entirely.
The president and CEO of the Geor-
gia Public Policy Foundation, Kyle
Wingfield's column runs in papers
around the state of Georgia.
TAKING A LIKENS TO YOU by Dale Likens
EotVery comedian has
at least one mother-
-hw joke. I'm
a comedian;
so I dodt have one. But I
remember my mother-in-
law very well.
Sometimes she
was hulTlorous
enough to make
me laugh even
When I wasn't
inthemoo& I
remember one
day When my
wife and I went
to her house
she was sitting
in her favorite
chair star-
ing under her
television and
smiling. ' /hat's so funny,
Mom?" Karen asked.
'Tve been watching that
mouse down there for a few
days. He comes and eats the
cheese offthat trap and I just
sit here and watch him."
"Mom, your trap isn't even
set. I don't think you're go
ing to catch him" I said with
a smile on my face.
"I know it's not setl He's
too cute to catch! I just enjoy
watchi him!"
Karen's mom was known
as the town's best cook.
Whenever someone in our
town was sick, Karen's mom
was the first to send food.
Every time a church meal
was planned, it was Karen
mom Who led the march.
Why not? Karen was the
second of seven children
and was often standing at
her mores feet each meal
that she prepared. She
remembers those days welL
Karen still laughs when she
tells me of the many town
women who would ask for
her monks recipes but would
later call and explain how
the recipe didn't turn out as
well as her mother's. "Oh
shucks! I remember I
told her four eggs instead of
two!" her morn would smile
when Karen hung up.
One day I was sitting at
the kitchen table with one
of Kareds brothers eating
some mUs a ne' hbor had
sent over. Karen and her
morn were preparing sup-
per for the family when I
commented how wonderful
the rolls were. "Too much
flour!" She snapped softly to
Karerr "She aways puts too
much flour into her mils!"
When Karen
and I first mar-
fled we lived in
a small house
neat her family.
I enjoyed plant-
ing a garden,
but her mom
knewknew
more than I did
about garden-
ing. She and
I would plant
a garden near
our house and
each day she
would walk to our garden
with her hoe and together
we prepared the garden.
"No! You're planting those
tomato plants too dosed' she
would say. Then we would
talk about the gardens she
and her step-dad would
plant when she was a child.
I loved to fish and she loved
to fish. Usuallyher fish sto-
ries were better than mine.
Karen would laugh at our
stories and continue hoe-
ing at the other end of the
garden. When harvest time
came we aways had the law
est potatoes, the best beets
and carrots and the sweetest
tomatoes!
One day when Kare
mom was in high school,
her mom and step-dad
decided to go on a small
trip. "Take care of your
younger brothers and sisters
while we're gone!" they said
as they pulled down the
road. Not long after they left
for their smaU trip one of
the farm heifers got caught
in a barbed wire fence and
strangled itself. Karer s mom
quickly hung the heifer up
on the lift out back and
butchered the heifer like she
remembered her step-dad
doing. Then she personally
canned all the meat like her
mother had taught her. "Not
bad!" Her step-dad said
when he returned from the
trip. "Not bad at all!"
Since Karen was the first
of the three daughters to
marry she was also the first
to become pregnant When
the time came to deliver our
daughter we quietly rushed
to the nearest hospital in
our 1949 Chevrolet. When
Karina was bom Karen sug-
gested I call her mother to
let her know before we in-
formed anyone else. When I
called her from the hospital
there was a long silence at
the other end. Finally, she
began to cry. "Why diddt
you come and take me with
you? I'm the grandmother!
I should have been with
Karen in her delivery!" Mis-
take number one! I think
the rolls I ate from that day
on had too much flour!
Each Fourth of July
Karen:s large family of
cousins, aunts and undes
always met at Karen's unde's
house for our family picnic
and a few rounds of softball
games. Karen and I always
loved the food and especial-
ly the fellowship with all the
cousins, aunts and undes.
Kareffs mother was a great
softball player and always
managed to play in one
or two of the daily games.
I remember one of those
games in particular. As her
mom was rounding third
base she knew the play was
going be dose so she threw
her body to the ground and
slid into home head first.
She was safe.
My mother-in-hw learned
to play the piano when she
was a young girl in school
so a piano was always sitting
in her house waiting to be
phyed. As talented as she
was, I believe the town folks
never knew she could play
a piano. She knew music
weU and always sang in the
church choir. Kareffs father
couldn't carry a note in a
bushd basket, he always
kidded about himself "But
your mother could sing!
That's for sure!" he would
boast.
One day Karen and I
were singing a duet in
church while I provided the
background with my guitar.
While we were singing, I
noticed that Karen's mom
would not look at me. After
church she walked up to
Karen and me. "It wasn't
bad!" She commented to
Karen. "But you need to sing
louder. All I could hear was
Dale!" Then she turned and
walked away. IfI remember
well, I think my rolls had too
much flour that evening.
A number ofyears ago
my father-in-law went to
his doctor and had a cyst re-
moved from his back. Two
years later the cyst returned.
My mother-in-law told my
father-in-law to remove his
shirt. She then walked to her
knife drawer in her kitchen
and pulled out her sharp-
est small knife and boiled it
in steaming hot water. She
then turned to my father-
in-law and cut that new cyst
from his back. In the years
to follow that cyst never
returned.
My mother-in-law was a
true Christian woman who
never spoke of her personal
belief in God but very sel-
dom spoke ill of others. She
never preached to others.
She simply lived her life as a
person full of love for all I'll
always remember her stand-
ing in her kitchen preparing
for another family meal. She
reared her children to love
others and help those in
need. A few short years ago
she lay in her bed taking her
very last breaths of life on
this earth as Karen and her
two s'tsters sat at her bedside
singing her very favorite
Christian songs. When she
took her last breath my wife
turned to me with tears
flowing down her cheeks,
' Are sang her into heaven!"
Her three daughters cried
tears of joy and held her
hands.
I have no jokes to say
about my mother-in-law.
To her I simply sa) "Thank
you for passing your love to
me through your wonder-
ful daughter, Karen. She's so
much like you in so many
ways. When we meet in
heaven for supper, I think
the rolls will be just fine.
You were a great mother-in-
law!" God bless.
Dale Likens is an author
who lives in Monroe County.
