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ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
by Don Daniel
Confession time! Remember the dassic W e, ndy's,
ad with the lady asking "where's the beef?. Thats
the same question ! wanted to ask after succumb-
ing to Burger Kings hoopla advertising campaign
for their new veggie Whopper. Trust me it ain't a real-meat
Whopper. Has all the pickles, lettuce and special sauce, but
it is no real Whopper.
After a couple of bites and even trying it without the bun
and condiments, it was tasteless
beef, more like what I think of
when I see a cow chewing cuds.
You know, grass.
WELL LOOKS like two of
Forsyth's incumbent council-
men didn't get a free ride in the
upcoming Forsyth city election
coming up on Nov. 5. Mayor
Eric Wilson and councilman
Greg Goolsby got a free ride, but
Councilman Melvin Lawr,ence ,
will be on, the ballot with want
your seat Rosemary Walker. As ( .L/ '
a side note, Rosemary was on
the front page of the first issue of this newspaper--Nov. 7,
1972 when she was elected Mary Persons' Homecoming
Queen. She also was on student council.
Council member and former mayor John Howard is
being challenged by Walter Goodson. qhat could be a fight
ugly race.
Guess if Rosemary gets elected and being the only
female, Forsyth's city council members will no longer be
referred to as councilmen, becoming gender neutral and
referred to as councilpersons.
ON a less serious side, this from the Wall Street Journal:
Chinese consume (eat) 67 pounds of pork per capita per
year. Americans are less porkie, consuming 51 pounds per
person per year. A lot of that is consumed on holidays like
the one we just celebrated, Labor Da)
THERE HAS been a committee appointed and named
to start the planning on Monroe County's Bicentennial.
We had our first meeting last week with Historical Society
Chairman Ralph Bass at the helm and Forsyth CVB execu-
tive director Gilda Stanberry helping to row the boat.
Conspicuously absent or not appointed were repre-
sentatives of the Forsyth-Monroe County of Commerce
and Downtown Development Authority. I am sure their
involvement will become necessary and voluntary as plans
for the party/celebration become more solidified and all
ideas for the event are flushed out.
Monroe County was created on May 15, 1821, so the
200th celebration will be in 2021.
THE FIRST correct answer to last week's The Question
identifying Annie as Monroe County's cutest dog was from
Shannon Randall. He gets a certificate for a dozen Dunkin
donuts, Whistle Stop fried green tomato appetizer, Dairy
Queen Blizzard, slice of Jonah's pizza, single dip of ice
cream from Scoops, slice of Shoney's strawberry pie and a
Forsyth Main Street t-shirt.
Here's The Question for this week: Columnist Sloan
Oliver's new hero is? First correct answer after 12 noon
Thursday gets the goodie certificate.
I CLASSIFY our hotels and motels--- 14---as an integral
segment of our "industrial complex" simply because of
the number of people they have working, the investments
they have made/make and the amount of hotel/motel tax
collected for Forsyth.
For example, just in the month of June the City of For-
syth collected $41,247.20 in hotel/motel tax with the city
getting $24,748.37 and the Convention and Visitors Bureau
getting the balance $16,498.91 to promote Forsyth tourism.
Multiply those two numbers by twelve and you can see just
what impact as an industry our hotels have on the local
economy.
Here are some more numbers that add to the valid-
ity they are an industry; in 2018, $506,388.29 with
$202,555.32 going to the CVB to promote us! Those two
figures do not include what the hotels pay in monthly
water and electric bills, plus city and country taxes!
The number one hotel collecting the most tax for June
was Holiday Inn Express, collecting and paying $8,415.01.
Coming in at number two, Hampton Inn paid $7,098.02.
Number three, LaQuinta Inn and Suites, collected and paid
$4,646.13. Number four was Days Inn $3,579.16. Coming
in at fifth, Comfort Inn and Suites paid $2,947.46.
The lowest amount oftax paid, $113.00 came from Bud-
get Inn.
OVER AT the county, it was bin-paying time, with
$350.957.79 in payments which included $9.49 paid to
Office Depot for peppermints. We must have a lot of"pets"
since we paid Caldwell Veterinary Hospital $1,156.04 for
Jack, Bella, Margot, Brownie, Goose, Xibi and Rocky, who
alone had a total of $1,087.71 for his visit to Dr. Butler.
Wonder if the "new" shirts the commissioners and
other county employees are sporting around was part of
*1,221.63 bill we paid for uniforms and May rentals. Mont-
gomery Printing got a check for $77.53 for uniforms.
Inmates in the county jail got fed pretty good since we
paid $17,046.80 to the Georgia Public Safety Training Cen-
ter for their meals, July alone. Also besides eating "high on
the hog", we paid Correct Health $15,513.26 for inmates'
medical and dental.
Critter Control obviously controlled some kind of annoy-
hag county critters since they got paid $300.
I'VE GOT a lot more I could tell you about, but I have
run out of the space Will allots me.
Don Daniel is the#under and former publisher of The
Monroe County Reporter. Email him at mediadr@bellsouth"
net.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
O
To the editor, their toll on me, my family and
It has been the honor and privi- my staff. My Parkinson's has been
lege of a lifetime to serve the progressing and I am continuing
state of Georgia in the Georgia physical therapy to recover from a
State House, Georgia Senate, fall in July. In addition, this week I
U.S. House and U.S. Senate. As you had surgery to remove a growth on
know, I have been battling health
challenges for several years, and after
much prayer and consultation with
my family, I have decided I will leave
the Senate effective Dec. 31, 2019.
I am leaving a job I love because
my health-challenges are taking
my kidney.
In my 40 years in elected office, I
have always put my constituents and
my state of Georgia first. With the
mounting health challenges I am
facing, I have concluded that I will
not be able to do the job over the
long term in the manner the citizens
of Georgia deserve. It goes against
every fiber of my being to leave in
the middle of my senate term, but
I know it's the right thing to do on
behalf of my state.
I thank you for your continued
support. Without it, my years of ser-
vice would not have been possible
and because of that I am forever
grateful.
Johnny Isakson
Washington, D.C.
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
D ems, please stop your
incessant racial hatred.
Except for you Demo-
crats, very few people are
racist. And except in elite Democrat
circles, racism isn't everywhere.
Actually, racism is extremely rare.
So, rare that even the slightest hint
of a "racial" incident immediately
receives national attention. It does
so because racism almost never oc-
curs - at least not the way the Dems
would have you believe. However, if
you only listen to the
media and the Dems
(I repeat myself) you
wouldn't know that
racism is rare. You
would think that
every white person is
a racist and racism is
rampant because "rac-
isM' and accusations
of "white nationalist"
are thrown around
every single day by
every Democratic
presidential candi-
date, and then echoed
by the sycophants in the media.
I'm beyond being disgusted. This
country is not racist and it wasn't
founded on racism.
TWO WEEKS ago, Bernie Sand-
ers said if he wins the presidency,
he's go to war against "white nation-
alism" and racism. Bernie claims
that "nationalism" is a bad thing. It's
not; nationalism is what I want and
expect from my politicians. What is
nationalism? I define it as support-
ing one's own nation and placing
your nation's interests over those of
other countries. I expect our politi-
cians to do just that - put the inter-
ests of this nation above the interests
of other countries. Since I'm a white
guy, I must be a white nationalist. I
want more white nationalists, just
like I want black nationalists (i.e.
blacks who put the interests of the
United States above the interests of
other countries), Latino nationalists,
Native American nationalists, etc.
HOWEVER, WE know what
Bernie wants and what he's talking
about. Bernie and his fellow Demo-
crats oppose the United States. He'S
a globalist who thinks a "world gov-
ernment" should dictate and rule us
underlings. Bernie puts the interests
of all other countries above the in-
terests of the United States. Nation-
alism isn't evil; the "globalism" that
Bernie demands is evil. Only a good
globalist like comrade Bernie would
put the interests of others over the
interests of the United States.
HEY BERNIE, speaking of rac-
ism, outside your Democratic Par ,
where is all this racism? You're
doing an excellent job of projecting
your sins onto others. If you see rac-
ism, it's because you and your party
are the racists. To wimess true rac-
ism, look no further than the Dem-
ocratic Party, particularly
at the 20 or so hoping to
become president, which
includes - Bernie Sand-
ers, Mayor Pete, Kamala
Harris, Cory Booker, Joe
Biden, and the other 15
candidates. How did we
get to this where racism
is at the very center of
every Democratic cam-
paign; not improving the
economy, not balancing
the budget, not fighting
inner city violence, not
getting tough on crime;
racism is their primary focus and
concern? All 20 candidates claim
that the United States is inherently
racist and, by golly, they're going
to fix it but first you must vote for
them. Racism is all they talk about.
Every Dem accuses the entire coun-
try of racism and the only cure is to
vote for a Dem who, it just so hap-
pens, is the only one who sees it.
LET'S HAVE a brief history les-
son. Thirty years after Columbus
discovered the New World (NW),
black slaves were brought to the
Caribbean to work the plantations.
The slaves were captured in Africa
by other black tribes who sold them
to various merchants and middle
men who then shipped them to the
Various European countries
(Portugal, Spain, France, England,
and the Dutch) were all involved
in the slave trade. The first slaves
brought to what is now the United
States came in 1619. Slaves were
imported for the next 200 years.
Except for slave-owning Demo-
crats, most people came to realize
that slavery was wrong and moves
were made to outlaw and abolish
the institution. The culmination of
the abolition movement was the
election of Abraham Lincoln in
1860. However, southern Demo-
crats wanted to keep their slaves and
fought a civil war to do so. After the
southern Dems were defeated, the
slaves freed, and the South largely
destroyed, those southern Demo-
crats wanted to suppress and keep
the newly freed blacks "in their
place:' To do so, the Dems formed
the KKK, implemented the Black
Codes, and passed Jim Crow laws
that effectively suppressed blacks for
the next centur)n It wasn't until the
1950's and '60's that the Civil Rights
Movement defeated the Democrats
and freed blacks from the evils of
Jim Crow laws. So, if anyone knows
a Dem, remind them that their
slaves were freed 154 years ago, that
their Jim Crow laws were outlawed
55 years ago, and it's time to move
on.
RECENTLY, THE NY Times
shifted focus. Since their Russian
collusion hoax bombed, they've
shifted from Russia to racism. In
a leaked memo, the Times admit-
ted they're going "all in" to accuse
President Trump, and his sup-
porters, of being racist. Obviously,
they're following the lead of Demo-
cratic leaders - projecting their sins
onto others, not caring that they're
dividing the country. Just last week
the Times accused Trump of being
anti-Semitic. The same President
Trmnp whose daughter is Jewish,
grandkids are Jewish, and strongly
supports Israel is called anti-Semitic
by a newspaper that employs anti-
Semites. Tom Wright-Peirsanti is a
senior editor with the Times, who
for years has made hateful remarks
against Jews. Wright-Peirsanti
wrote, "I was going to say "Crappy
Jew Year,' but one of my resolutions
is to be less anti-Semitic. So Happy
Jew Year. You Jews:' - Peirsanti's
actual tweet from Jan 1, 2010. We
really shouldn't be surprised by
Wright-Peirsanti's comments; after
all, he works for the Times, he's a
Bernie Sanders communist, and
thinks exactly like most of the me-
dia, leftists and Democrats.
WEEKLY QUOTE: "I'm rooting
for a direct hit on Mar-A-Lago."
Tweet by Kim Campbell, former
Canadian prime minister talking
about Hurricane Dorian - proving
that other North Americans are as
hateful as Democrats,
Sloan Oliver is a retired Army of-
ricer who writes a weekly column for
the Reporter. Email him at sloanoli-
ver@earthlink, net.
Back in June, Monroe
County taxpayers paid
$2,765 for an investiga-
tive report into a county
employee allegation
that commissioner Larry
Evans harassed her for
not hiring his "niece".
But commissioners
have refused to let the
taxpayers, who paid
for the report, see it.
They've kept it hidden
from public view. Only
District 3 commissioner
John Ambrose sup-
ports letting the public
see if. If you think you
have the right to see
the report, tell your
commissioner or call the
office at 994-7000 and
let them know. Mean-
while, we will count the
days they~e kept their
constituents in the dark
until released.
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