& EDrrOR]AI
Declare among the
nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not; Jeremiah 50:2
2016 and 2017 winner: Editorial Page excellence ~c~lA ~%.
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2017 winner: Best Humor Column - On the Porch
ON THE PORCH bZ Wilt Davis
' how you do it
Tdidn't do it. I i)mmise. Yes, the Reporters Vent at
I www, .mymcr.net crashed this week, which is why you
I wont find any vents in their usual spot on page 3A.
I One disgruntled reader was breaking her computer
,J,mouse clicking 'l ikes" to her vents about me. I don t
know ff that caused the problem. I do know vents critical of
us give us no reason to break our vent. As you read in last
week's paper, we give our critics ample opportunity to have
their say. Never fear, we have a
top-notch computer whiz work-
ing to get the Vent back up and
running soon for your edification,
education and entertainment, not
necessarily in that order.
Meanwhile, we~l see whether
the Monroe County school board
addresses the issue of how it
hired a substitute teacher who
had pled guilty to attempted
child molestation at its first
meeting since that news broke,
next Tuesday, March 13 at
6:30 p.m. The school system
still has refused to provide this
x~ ~~ newspaper with acopyofthe
background check it did on Mr.
Stewart. And it has refi~d to
identify what other documents
it is withholding from the pubhc. I hope the school system
will one day learn a valuable lesson in how not to do "crisis
managemenf' from this episode. First, before all the facts
were known, it insisted it did nothing wrong and that it
knew things we did not. Then, confronted with more evi-
dence, it said the teacher met the criteria when he was
hired, mumbling something about maybe changing some
policies. '"We've got to circle to wagons," said one school
leader, perhaps accidentally blurting out the truth.
Here's what school board chairman Nolen Howard
could've said: '%Ve have made a huge error in hiring some-
one convicted of attempted child molestation. For that we
apologize to the parents and children of Monroe County.
Realizing our background checks were insufficient, we are
now doing new, more thorough background checks on all
our employees. Keeping our students safe is our highest pri-
ority. And because of this oversight, and to show our parents
and taxpayers we take this seriously, we have suspended
the person responsible for this careless background check
without pay for one week. We will work hard to earn again
the trust of our parents and taxpayers."
Now, that wasn't hard was it?
then he switched to this
race. Tolbert is the only
Continued from page 1A Monroe County candi-
date so far to qualify for
to oppose them yet. a legislative seat, and
Former commissioner he and wife Stacy own
Mike Bflderback, who Tolbert and Associates,
represented District 3 an investment and insur-
before he was elected ance company. If Tolbert
chairman, said he's not won, he'd be Monroe
interested but will wait County's first lawmaker
to challenge current in Atlanta since Jim Cole
chairman Greg Tapley in stepped down in 2009.
2021. Rep. Robert Dickey
Meanwhile there was (R-Musella) has qualified
a surprise entry into again to run for District
Monroe County's state 140.
legislative races. Bibb State Sen. John
County commissioner Kennedy (R-Macon) has
Gary Bechtel qualified to qualified again to run
run for the GOP nomina- for his Senate District
tion to represent House 18, which includes all of
District 141, the seat Monroe and part of Bibb
that Rep. Allen Peake County.
announced he is leaving Monroe County
at year's end. Superior Court Judge
Bechtel joins Shane Tommy Wilson has quali-
Mobley and Monroe fled to run for the bench
County's own Todd again in the Towahga
Tolbert in the race for Judicial Circuit, which
that open House seat. includes Monroe, Lamar
Mobley owns a health- and Butts counties.
care company and was As of Tuesday, Dickey,
running for insurance Kennedy and Wilson face
commissioner until no opposition but qualify-
Peake announced he ing lasts until noon on
would not run again, and Friday.
tt~ Mon~m CM,umy
www. MyMCR.net
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Will Davis, President Robert M. Williams Jr Vice President
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Publication No. USPS 997-840
PEACH STATE POLITICS by Kyle Wi field
T egislators this past
I week passed a signifi-
I cant income-tax cut for
1 Both the
~ouse and the Senate
passed their own versions of a plan
to coordinate and expand mass tran-
sit in metro Atlanta. A of bills to
boost rural Georgia advanced in the
legislative process, as did measures
to take cellphones out of drivers'
hands and keep the mentally ill
from buying guns.
Agree or disagree with any or
all of those, they are substantive,
meaningful pohcies receiving sober
consideration. And yet, the only
story many Georgians -- not to
mention millions outside the state
-- might recall from the week's
action under the Gold Dome is the
move by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to
block the elimination of the jet-fuel
tax for commercial airlines because
Delta Air Lines ended a minor dis-
count for NRA members.
If that's not emblematic of the age
of Trump, I don't know what is.
The substance of Trumpism
alarms many people. Possible pohti-
cal dalliances with Moscow by his
campaign, restrictionist immigra-
tion policies, httle seriousness about
the national debt, the new tariffs on
aluminum and steel he announced
Thursday: There's something worri-
some for everyone. But even when
the substance has been better
-- the long-needed revamp of the
corporate tax code, regulatory rehef,
success against ISIS -- it's only
temporarily gained notice before
being drowned out by the latest
tweet, or outburst, or White House
infighting.
At some point, all many people
remember is the style of Trumpism,
which can range from tinpot dicta-
tor to somewhat-controlled chaos.
You have surely heard even
the MAGA-iest Trump supporter
concede it would be nice if the
president would either
stop tweeting or learn
to bite his tongue just
a bit. Yes, the lack of
political correctness or
what experienced poli-
ticians call "message
discipline" endeared
him to some voters.
But eventually the
unpredictability wears
on people.
So you might think
the political class would
take a hint and avoid
running a bunch of ~'~
clones of this style. But
theirs is an industry in
which many copycats
just want to wring one more elec-
toral victory (or consulting contract)
out of a formula that worked once
before, no matter how poorly the
suit fits their client. And when the
substance is impossible to mimic
-- because hey, it's hard to predict
who will be the last person in the
president's ear before he opens his
mouth -- the style is all that's left.
While we haven't (yet) gotten to
lUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
t has been three weeks
since the deadly Florida
school shooting and there
continues to be a great
deal of discussion about
gun violence. Let's do a quick
review. Nikolas Cruz, the con-
fessed killer, is a disturbed
young man and has been for
many years. The police and
sheriff deputies were called to
his house upwards of 40 times
over the past few years. A Cruz
classmate said, "Something
wasn't right about him" and
described him as "an evil kid."
Cruz was known to kill ani-
mals, drink gasoline, and "cut"
himself- all are signs of severe
mental illness. Family members,
friends, and teachers knew that
Cruz had mental problems. On
social media, Cruz threatened
to kill people and shoot up a
school. Twice, people called the
FBI's hotline about Cruz and
his legitimate threats to kill
people. Then, on February 14
Cruz carried out his threats
and killed 17 people at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School.
Fortunately, Scot Petersen,
an armed deputy sheriff, was
on school grounds when Cruz
started shooting. Unfortunately,
Petersen is the coward of
Broward County and refused to
enter the building while Cruz
was murdering his victims.
Then, three more Broward
County deputies arrived and
they cowered with Petersen and,
also, refused to confront Cruz.
CRUZ'S MURDERING ram-
page was a tragedy from start to
finish. The shooting was tragic,
but the greatest tragedy is that
the truth is being denied. It's like
we're living in an Orwellian world
in which a journey "through the
looking glass" is called the truth
and the truth is called a lie. The
police did nothing to prevent this
massacre, the sheriff's depart-
ment did nothing, the FBI did
nothing, and the armed deputies
did nothing; yet, they're not being
blamed for the killing spree. Heck,
Cruz is barely being blamed.
No, with all the preventive mea-
sures that were ignored, the left
and their naive teenage pawns
are blaming lawful gun owners,
the National Rifle Association,
Republicans, and even President
Trump for all the recent mass kill-
ings in our country. The left and
liberals are denying reality which
makes me question their sanity.
The left's sheer stupidity would be
humorous if it weren't so danger-
OUS.
IF A problem is never properly
identified; the problem will never
that point in this year's gubernato-
rial election, this past week was an
indication we might be heading in
that direction.
It's an open question whether
Cagle helped himself in May's GOP
primary and/or hurt himself in the
general election, should he win the
nomination. But he was hardly the
only Republican to employ the talk
tough/tweet tough method. Not
to be out-pandered,
Secretary of State
Brian Kemp proposed
replacing a sound tax
change (removing a tax
on a business input, i.e.
jet fuel) with a truly
un-sound one (a sales
tax holiday, which
shifts consumption
rather than stimulat-
ing it, for guns and
ammunition).
The real problem
here, as the Kemp
~1/~ ~'-.~,(. example ought to
if the Cagle
illustrate
one didn't, is the style
eventually becomes the
substance.
We already saw that with some
lower-tier candidates. It's not reas-
suring to see the front-runners
adopt that tactic.
Kyle Wingfield writes for The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, the Monroe County
Reporter and other newspapers. Reach him
and read more at ww~.bit.ly/Kyle Wingfield
O
be solved. Just ask any family
member of an alcoholic, domestic
abuser, drug addict, or schizo-
phrenic - you must first identify
the underlying causes before you
can solve the problem. So, let's
look at one underlying cause of
gun violence. Given Cruz's history
of mental illness and his multiple
law enforcement encounters, how
was he able to purchase a weap-
on? Easy, he passed a background
check. That leads to the question:
with all these law enforcement
encounters, how was he able to
pass a background check? That
answer is rooted in liberalism and
requires some explanation.
BACK WHEN Obama was
president, he was upset that
black, teenage males, and other
minorities, were being sent to
prison disproportion-
ate to their population
in what is commonly
called the school-to-
prison (STP) pipe-
line. Obama and his
Department of Justice
(DOJ) wanted to end
that pipeline. If the
STP pipeline could be
reduced by changing
the lawless behavior
of minority teens,
that would be great.
However, Obama, the
DOJ, and Broward
County had no desire
to change the behav-
ior of lawless teens.
Instead, the DOJ worked with
Broward County, and other school
districts across the country, to
drastically reduce the number
of school-related arrests by sim-
ply stopping to make arrests for
various crimes. It was called the
Promise Program. That's cor-
rect; the Promise Program called
for police and sheriff's depart-
ments, with the Approval of local
school districts, to not report,
not investigate and not make
arrests for certain crimes, and
magically the teen arrest rates
dropped. School-related arrests
in Broward County went from
1,062 in the 2011-12 school year to
392 in 2015-16, one of the lowest
arrest rates in Florida. Oh, and
the reduced arrests meant that
the school district received more
education grant money because
they were able to reduce school-
related arrests. So, there was
a HUGE incentive to not make
school-related arrests. Liberal
academia made the decision to
reduce teen arrests by not making
arrests - problem solved. (Note:
many policemen were disgusted
with this "don't arrest" for certain
crimes but could do nothing.)
THEREFORE, based on
Obama's wishes to reduce the
number of young minorities
being arrested, is there any
question why Nikolas Cruz
(Hispanic sounding name) wasn't
arrested any of the 39 times the
police were called to his house?
Remember, if someone never gets
arrested, there is no derogatory
information inputted into the
national database. And back-
ground checks for gun purchases
rely on derogatory information
inputted by law enforcement
agencies. The national database
is only as good as the information
entered; bad input = fraudulent
results. And that's one example of
how liberalism denies the truth.
HERE'S MORE proof of
liberal nonsense about gun vio-
lence: during an
interview President
Trump called would
be school shooters
"savage wackos" to
which CNN called
such talk "dangerous"
and "mean spirited."
Note to CNN - School
shooters are danger-
ous and they are sav-
age wackos. Or con-
sider that a CNN ana-
lyst said that arming
teachers is a bad idea
because most teach-
ers are women and
then asked, '~Where
does a woman hide a
gun while wearing a skirt?" Then,
we have Lawrence O'Donnell,
MSNBC news host, who said
that arming teachers is stupid
because "a bullet fired from an
AR-15 travels 3x faster than one
from a handgun." What can you
say to such broad based liberal
ignorance?
5/o O/,'v'er
THIS FLORIDA school shoot-
ing highlights the fact that gov-
ernment failed at all levels - local,
state, and federal. Background
checks failed to prevent a bad guy
from buying guns, and the sheriff
deputies failed to defend stu-
dents when the shooting started.
Despite all that, liberals want
more government and more gun
control. They demand guns be
confiscated, and they demand our
safety and security be put in the
hands of the very institutions that
failed us. No thanks.
WEEKLY QUOTE: We've iden-
tiffed one of the primary causes of
gun violence; it's liberalism.
Sloan Oliver is a retired Army officer
He lives in Bolingbroke with his wife
Sandra. Email him at
sloanoliver@earthlink, net.
