Opinions

Finally, a voice.
Last week, three parents of children at Gum Springs Elementary School spoke out at a Jackson County Board of Education meeting.
It was a historic moment. [Full Story »] 

Next week, Georgia students in grades 3-12 will begin taking the new Georgia Milestones standardized tests. Milestones replaces the old CRCT and EOCT tests.
And Milestones may prove to be another disaster in a long line of state testing failures.
There are a lot of reasons for that. Topping that list is a state department of education run by bureaucrats who are more interested in finding ways to keep their jobs than to serve students. That’s why the state’s curriculum has become a constant churn. There is nothing stable about Georgia’s curriculum or its tests.
Last year was the first year of Milestones and it took months for the state to compile results. That’s of no use to school systems or teachers halfway through the following school year. (The state promises to have the results earlier this year.) [Full Story »] 

Georgia’s 9th Congressional District is considered the “most conservative” in the nation.
But apparently incumbent Rep. Doug Collins isn’t right wing enough for some in the district. He has garnered four opponents in the upcoming May 24 election, each claiming to be more right-wing than Collins.
Three of those opponents probably won’t make much of an impact.
Mike Scupin of Gainesville is a Tea Party activist, as is Roger Fitzpatrick who is president of the Lanier Tea Party Patriots. Fitzpatrick ran for this seat in 2012 and finished third in a three-way race. [Full Story »] 

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said this week he will veto controversial legislation that would have allowed faith-based organizations to deny services and jobs to those it disagrees with.
Called a “religious liberty” bill, HB 757 was a backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year that ruled gay couples have the right to get married.
The legislation was similar to bills in other states that have been introduced in the wake of that Supreme Court ruling. Those bills have been pushed by various Christian religious organizations that believe the clergy and related religious institutions are under fire from the gay community. In some states, this legislation has been titled “Pastor Protection Act” in a bid to frame the debate as protecting ministers from having to perform gay marriages. [Full Story »] 

What should Jefferson do to attract more retail businesses?
That was the topic at a recent Jefferson City Council meeting. After we posted the story to our website, it got a lot of comments online.
Here’re a few (edited down for space): [Full Story »] 

So this is how great nations fall, not with a bang but with a Trumpet.
As I watched last week’s Republican debate, I felt as if I were in a Third-World country. It was a vulgar, ugly display of big ego and small minds.
This is the United States? [Full Story »] 

In 2015, Georgia approved allowing medical patients to have CBD cannabis oil for medical use. But the state didn’t approve in-state production of cannabis oil, meaning residents have to travel out-of-state to get it.
In addition, some medical conditions need other compounds beyond CBD oil. [Full Story »] 

State Rep. Tommy Benton created a firestorm of controversy two weeks ago when he downplayed the racial violence created by the KKK in the years after the Civil War.
According to Rep. Benton, the Klan “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order. It made a lot of people straighten up. I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.”
Rep. Benton is a retired history teacher and friend, but on this issue, I have to part ways with his interpretation of history.
There are several examples of Klan violence in our local history. One Klan story from here even led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1884. [Full Story »] 

Dear Governor Deal:
When I began growing my medical marijuana plant last month as a political statement about Georgia’s need to make cannabis oil available for medical use, I had no idea the kind of nerve it would hit. Dozens of people from all across Georgia have contacted me in support of making medical grade cannabis oil available in Georgia.
Governor, it’s a huge issue, much larger than I ever imagined. This issue has, in just a few years time, jumped from the political fringes into the political mainstream. It’s an issue that crosses political party bounds in a way that a few years ago, was unthinkable. [Full Story »]