uDeclolre among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
The brevity of life
t was 10 years ago that Kell Joseph and I coached our
daughters’ Fillies softball team together at the Monroe
County Rec Department
We were neighbors and friends, but he was a better
baseball! softball player than I was. I was glad he was teaching
the girls. I was just there for morale — a cheerleader, urging our
daughters to quit drawing in the dirt.
Kell was one of the first people we met when we moved to
Forsyth in 2007. He lived on a high
hill across the cul de sac. We were
new to town, but Kell was pretty
much Mr. Forsyth. He grew up
here. He played football at Mary
Persons. His whole family lived
here. He hunted and fished here,
and had a grading business during
the busy mid-20008. His family
had the iconic Joseph’s store on the
courthouse square.
Our girls became best buddies
growing up in the cul de sac on '
Kyndall Lane. They often took
turns, as little girls do, spending the \Q Q
night with one another. But the first & ‘k
few times Emily stayed with us, she
couldn’t make it through the night.
Will, I have a stomach ache,” she would say.
“Do you want to go home?” I’d ask
“Yes sir,” she would say sheepishly, and we’d load her in the
truck and take her up the hill She was a daddy’s girl and I sus—
pected she missed him.
The Josephs eventually moved a few miles away and I missed
seeing Kell too. When the real estate recession hit, he gave up his
full-time grading business and pursued his dream of opening
a taxidermy shop, Boneheads, in Smarr. He was always hosting
friends to shoot the bull while he worked
On Saturday morning, another old Kyndall Lane neighbor,
Jim Finch, told me what had happened. I am still in shock Kell
apparently suffered a massive heart attack at home early Satur-
day morning. He was gone. The news spread around this town
like fire. Kell was a likable, laid—back guy who was easy to get
along with. He was like an old, comfortable shoe.
The long line at visitation at Monroe County Memorial
Chapel on Monday night was a testament to his personality and
deep roots in Forsyth. It took some people 90 minutes to get
through the line.
There was some talk that it had taken Monroe County EMS
a long time, 30 minutes, to arrive to try to revive Kell. I asked
my county commissioner, Eddie Rowland, about that. He said
the county actually had three ambulances on duty on Saturday,
which is more than usual. Two of the three ambulances were
working a wreck on I-75. That’s because one of the drivers, De—
marius Dean of Warner Robins, who was going 15 mph on the
interstate and suspected of DUI, claimed he was the passenger
in his 2003 GMC Denali. So two ambulances had to respond in
case they found the “driver”. EMTs eventually figured out, since
he was trapped in the driver’s seat, that he had to be the driver
and was just trying to wiggle out of his-DUI. '
Anyway, Rowland said the first two units arrived at Kell’s
home off Hwy. 83 five miles south of Forsyth 12 minutes after
the call, and a county ambulance arrived in 14 minutes. That’s
not a bad response time actually.
Sadly there was more tragedy to come in Monroe County on
Saturday. A 2-year—old girl on Wadley Road also passed away.
See her obituary on page 6A.
As I get older, I get used to some things. The ease of childhood
eventually gives way to the reality that life is hard But one thing
that’s hard to get used to is that life ends —— for all. There’s a
100
percent chance that none of us are getting out of here alive. The
Bible puts it this way in James 4: 14: “Yet you do not know what
tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that
appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
And the Psalmist adds: “So teach us to number our days, that
we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
The fact that I will die, and that all my friends and loved ones
will die, is the most important fact of life. It makes me realize so
many of the things I worry about are a waste of time and energy.
Ball games, status, money, social media — the things that grab
my attention — none of them matter when I consider that one
day soon I will appear before Jesus Christ At that time, the only
thing that will matter will be whether I let Him in when He
knocked on the door of my heart.
Reporter
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Publication No. USPS 997-840
EDITORIALS
2019, 20m winner: Best H
2019 winner: Best Cowman;
PEACH STATE POLITICS by KyleWErtgfieid
Ga. must keep cutting taxes
0 rise, or not to group based in Washing—
rise: that is the ton, D.C., arrive at these
question. rankings? It considers
No, I don’t five key types of taxes:
mean the Atlanta Falcons, corporate taxes, indi-
who blew their chance vidual income taxes, sales
to “rise up” this season. taxes, property taxes and
Rather, unemployment
I’m talk— insurance taxes.
ing about It ranks each
whether state on each
the state type of tax, then
of Geor— compares them
gia will overall.
maintain its It turns out
upward tra- that Georgia is
jectory in better than the
economic median state
competi- on only one of
tiveness. w these: corporate
A key WW taxes. With 1
measure of being best and
our prog- 50 being worst,
ress, the Tax Foundation’s we rank 36th in individual
State Business Tax Climate income taxes, 29th in sales
Index, was updated this
past week The good news:
Georgia rose four spots in
the new edition, the third-
largest gain of any state.
The bad news: Even
that improvement left us
ranked a middling 32nd.
The states we climbed
over are not exactly a
hotbed of competitive-
ness: Illinois, Kansas,
Maine and Massachusetts.
You deserve a prize if you
guessed even debt-ridden
Illinois and “Taxachusetts”
had better business tax 'cli-
mates than Georgia until
this year.
How does the Tax
Foundation, a nonpartisan
taxes, 28th in property
taxes and 39th in unem—
ployment insurance taxes.
Our ranking improved
by two spots on corporate
and individual income
taxes, both tied directly to
the changes the General
Assembly passed in 2018.
Lawmakers were reacting
to the federal Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act of 2017, which
eliminated many of the
federal deductions that
Georgia simply adopts and
consequently would have
increased state taxes by
more than $1 billion per
year.
Recall what happened in
the state bill: First, effec—
tive last year, the standard
deduction was doubled,
reducing tax bills for the
majority of Georgians who
don’t itemize their deduc—
tions. Second, effective this
year, the top income tax
rate was cut for the first
time, from 6% to 5.75%,
saving money for all single
taxpayers with more than
$7,000 of taxable income
($10,000 for married
couples).
Yet, until now the net
result from the state
and federal laws was an
increase in state taxes.
That’s right: Georgians this
year are expected to pay
over $100 million more
in state income tax than
they would have otherwise
(apart from the effect on
federal taxes).
At the state level, all
of this tax reform — the
changes, remember,
that led to that welcome
improvement in our state
business tax climate
won’t become an actual
tax decrease unless the
General Assembly follows
through with the third
part of its package: afur-
ther reduction in the top
income tax rate, to 5.5%.
Only then would the net
impact on state revenues
turn negative for the year.
Even then, the impact is
expected to dissipate over
the course of a few years.
Given the sudden nar—
rative that this tax cut is
20I9 winner: Best loyoul are D n
2019 winner: Best Serena Come. Don Danie:
publish, and conceal not." Jeremiah 50:2
20W, 2018, 10", 2016 winner: E-‘~r ~‘ 9”: l
the reason Gov. Brian
Kemp has ordered some
state agencies to cut their
budgets, bear this in mind:
The total impact of that
third tax change is less
than the total of the poten-
tial spending cuts.
In fact, the total of the
potential cuts is much
more comparable to
the amount legislators
approved this year for
Kemp’s $3,000-per—year
pay raise for teachers.
It remains unclear if the
total state budget is actu-
ally going to decline. It is
possible the spending cut
in one place will be redi-
rected to higher priorities
for example, the other
$2,000 per year Kemp has
promised teachers.
Far from arguing for
scrapping the rest of the
state’s tax reform, the les-
son here is the state can
achieve multiple objectives
at once. Georgia can find
efficiencies, re-prioritize
spending and provide a
modest amount of tax
relief for citizens. It’s
about time opponents
explained why they think
taxes should instead go up
— while Georgia’s competi-
tiveness takes a tumble.
The president and CEO
of the Georgia Public
Policy Foundation, Kyle
Wingfield’s column runs in
papers around the state of
Georgia.
BACK 'N‘ FORTH by Bili Weaver
Bulldog Brigade or delight to see, and hear
laying the tuba never was
a boyhood dream. For that
matter, does ANY boy or
girl entering the sixth grade
' really have a yearning to play the big-
gest and heaviest horn in the band?
Maybe, but I never met one.
FOR MOST of my band-playing
years I played a white fiberglass
sousaphone, the big tuba-sounding,
wrap-around horn that usually plays
the lowest oom-pah notes in the
band. John Philip Sousa, the great
composer of military march music,
helped create the wrap-around tuba,
which later became known as the
sousaphone.
MY FIRST instrument was the
trumpet, but later I was moved to
the baritone, and later still I landed
under the sousaphone, which I
played in middle and high school,
two semesters of college, and then for
a couple of seasons in a community
band.
ON FRIDAY nights, when the
Mary Persons Bulldogs play at home,
I gladly pay $10 to get in to see not
only the game, which I enjoy, but
especially the Bulldog Brigade and
its four players who have the honor
of blowing into their beautiful, brass
sousaphones. This past Friday night
was a special treat -. ..
because not only did
the Brigade entertain
us, but the big West
Laurens band — which
s .0.
WE WERE disciplined and well
coached. I recall the “spinning right
flanks,” which not many bands used.
When we were supposed to turn 90
degrees to the right, instead ofpivot—
ing on our left foot and turning right,
we pivoted on the ball of
our right foot and spun
270 degrees around to the
left, leaving us headed to
the right. Trombones and
h d 1 trumpets had to raise their
a at eaSt “fice a5 horns high to avoid hitting
marry $011331) CITIES their neighbors. It was
pe OI’me as We . pretty
hWATCflIIHNG fifND BUT WE had nothing
eanng ose pe or- .. _ on the Bulldog Brigade.
mances took me back What makes a marching
to my high schorgl d mm", band is really the sound
yezriilwl en our a3 — that big, brass sound. I
f a e 0W? 1‘ ecor always felt sorry for the
0f conseCUthe suPe' woodwind players — clari—
rior One ratings at marching band
contest — 49 straight years. We were a
proud crowd at a small high school,
which had about 280 students in
grades 9- 12, about 65 of whom were
in the band.
nets, saxophones, flutes, etc. — be-
cause they rarely played the melody
and rarely could be heard over the
sound of the brass. The more brass in
the band, the bigger the sound. The
Bulldog Brigade has that sound, and
A young Bill Weaver plays the sousaphone.
they perform their music very well.
THE “LIGHT Up the Night” show
Friday night was excellent. The last
song, called “Firework,” a pop song
by Katy Perry, was performed with
great enthusiasm. And to top it off,
while the band was playing, to the
right of the end zone someone set
off a nice display of fireworks. It was
dramatic and unexpected.
I WILL stand or sit for any march-
ing band — especially ones that play
Sousa marches-- and I do not go
to the food stand or the restroom
during halftime of any football game,
high school or college. The band is a
big deal, and I appreciate the stu-
dents who put in the time to practice
and then entertain us. I congratulate
them for their dedication and effort,
and I will watch them and listen to
all the instruments, but especially the
sousaphones and their players who
blow oom-pah—pahs all night long.
Bill Weaver lives in northern Monroe
County. He can be reached Via email at
billweaver81 1 @gmail. com.
