Newsletter 364

7/31/2019 Newsletter 364

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The Citizen NewsletterThe Conserv at ive Vo ice o f Henry Coun t y

In This Issue:

Page Feature

1 Lying Viewed as Standard

2 Smith & Barham Win Runoff2 Mathis Extends Thanks3 Beach House Grille

3 Fayette Commission: Clean Sweep4 Bo Moss: Golf Tourney Fundraiser6 NO PENALTY for T-SPLOST Defeat

6 Institute on the Constitution8 Attitudes Toward Public Schools8 Schools: Problematic Bureaucracy10 Georgia Charter School Amendment

11 Anecdotes Are Meaningless

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Issue # 364 August 25, 201

AJC Letters

Lying seems to be viewed as standard

The reason for the T-SPLOST defeat is not thatthe public mistrusts government with money. Wdon t trust anything we hear from anybody with

something to gain from lying: from Atlantateachers cheating on test scores, to EmoryUniversity lying, to Joe Paterno hiding sex abusin his coaching staff.

Today s presidential race only adds to our

cynicism. The principles and staffers lie about

everything, and when caught, say well, its onlypolitics as if lying is okay from people weexpect to lead. It seems our entire population isadrift in a sea of pollution. We have a generatio

of adults in business and government who comfrom family (and education systems) that nolonger teach values and standards.

As a result, abhorrent behaviors are viewed asstandard. We also have concluded we don t tru

anybody around money because they will find away to get a chunk of it for themselves, familyand friends.

HARRY WATERBOR, CANTON

V iew o r dow n load a t

WWW.SCRIBD.COM/ HENRY_CITIZEN
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Tommy Smith & Gary Barham Win Republican BOC Runoff Races

PROOF OF RIGHT. Posted by JO AN I E SCOTT

Photo: Joanie Scott with Tommy Smith

Today the voters of Henry County decisively chose former Hampton Mayor Tommy Smith

their Republican candidate for Chairman of the Henry County Board of Commissioners over Incumbent BJ Mathis.Smith captured the race by exactly 1,900 votes over Mathis in a turnout of over 11,000 voters. He will now face

Democratic Candidate Carlotta Harrell in the November General Election to determine who will become the next

Commission Chairman.

Also victorious tonight was Gary Barham who handily won the District 3 Commission seat over businessman Bill

Toney. Congratulations to both of them for running a respectful campaign. Gary Barham will now face Democratic

candidate Sandra Vincent in the November General Election to determine which will be the next District 3

Commissioner.

In the meantime, keep your yard signs up for Tommy Smith, Gary Barham, and Bo Moss. On to November!

MATHISEXTENDSTHANKS

"I WANT TO SAY A HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO WENT OUT TO THE POLLS TODAAND VOTED FOR ME. I APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY.

ALTHOUGH THE ELECTION RESULTS DID NOT END UP AS WE WOULD HAVE HOPED, I AA FIRM BELIEVER THAT GOD'S RESULTS ALWAYS END UP RIGHT. I HAVE PRAYED MUCTHROUGHOUT THE CAMPAIGN FOR GOD'S WILL TO BE DONE IN MY LIFE. I KNOW HIMAND I KNOW HE HAS A BETTER PLAN FOR MY LIFE. I CAN TRUTHFULLY SAY IT WILL BENICE TO NOT LIVE MY LIFE UNDER A MICROSCOPE ANYMORE AND I AM EXCITED ABOUWHAT LIES AHEAD. I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT LEAVING A PUBLIC ELECTED OFFICE IN

DECEMBER ISN'T THE END, IT'S THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING NEW AND SOMETHING BETTER. I HAVBEEN DOWN A SIMILAR PATH BEFORE AND GOD OPENED DOORS TO ME I WOULD HAVE NEVERDREAMED OF, BUT IT TOOK LEAVING THE OLD BEHIND AND ALLOWING HIM TO LEAD ME TO THE NEW. WILL NEVER DO THAT IF YOU ARE HOLDING ON TO OLD. SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, ANDYOUR FRIENDSHIP, AND KEEP WATCHING. GOD IS DOING SOMETHING GOOD! BTW MY HUSBAND SAYSHE'S THE WINNER IN THIS! HE IS HAPPY ABOUT NOT SHARING HIS WIFE'S ATTENTION WITH 210,000

PEOPLE!"~BJMATHIS
http://proofofright.wordpress.com/author/jstjoan/


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BEACH HOUSE GRILLE. Folks this is where you will find some of the best eats. Your search freal, melt in your mouth pulled pork barbeque, the best burgers, or chicken wings ends HERE.

All meats are fully cooked to your liking on the Green Egg smoker/grill. WOW. You won't eat another fri

anything after tasting Beach House Grille's menu.

Clean sw eep of th e Fayett e Coun ty Boar d of Com m i ssioner s

Congratulations to Chuck Oddo, David Barlow and Randy Ognio!

Since my election, we have replaced all five slots. I saw that Eldrin Bell and BJ Mathis both lost. Tim Leedid pull off a narrow victory in Cobb.

~ Steve Br own

Here are the five commissioners who will be serving beginning 2013. STEVEBROWNand Allen McCarty arethe two on the right. The Take Back Fayette County PAC got them elected in 2010 and now we have bee

successful in defeating all 5 of the incumbent commissioners from 2010 who were not listening to thecitizens.

HTTP: / /WW W.THECITI ZEN.COM/ARTI CLES/ 08 -21 -20 12 /OGNI O-SWAMPS-I NCUMBENT-HEARN-BARLOW-DEFEATS-HUDDLESTON-2-FAYETTE-

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Range of factor s m ade r un offs tough on i ncum bent s

Jul ianne Thompson , a co-chairwoman of the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots, sees another messageTuesday's results: Voters just don't trust government.

Th e Ci t i zen : While former incumbents are blaming the economy and a general anti-incumbent sentimfor their losses they still don't get it. The incumbents removed from office portrayed the reasons so mpeople do not trust government. They showed we cannot trust the people IN government to conservativrepresent us.

Henry County Commission District 1Golf Tournament Fundraiser

September 17, 2012

9:00 a.m.

Bo Moss, Republican Nominee for Henry County Commissioner in District 1 is holding a Golf TournamenFundraiser at Cotton Fields Golf Course.

With Special Invited Guest,Congressman Lynn Westmoreland.

Lunch will be served after the game.

For more information contact Bo at BO@WI LLIAMBOMOSS.COM or call 678-447-2281

Cotton Fields Golf Course400 Industrial Way

McDonough, GA 30253

Surprise: Penalty is ZERO for TSPLOST failurePosted on August 23, 2012by TRICIACLEMENTS. HTTP://TRICIACLEMENTS.WORDPRESS.COM/2012/08/23/SURPRISE-PENALTY-IS-ZERO-FOR-TSPLOSTFAILURE/

By Ron Sifen

Most people agree that one of the reasons that the TSPLOST failed was because government lost the trof voters.

TSPLOST supporters want to believe that all of the distrust is only because of the Ga. 400 toll debacThey refuse to admit that voters figured out that most of the money was going to projects that would
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help to reduce traffic congestion on our roads. The projects list also contributed to the increased distrustgovernment.

Many people were appalled that the TSPLOST contained a penalty for voting against it. Some people weintimidated by The Penalty into voting for the TSPLOST. But many voters found The Penalty to be evmore reason to distrust government and the TSPLOST itself.

In reality, The Penalty only involved one pot of money, and there was no penalty for most transportatprojects.

But TSPLOST proponents, including many government officials, repeatedly played The Penalty card to to scare and manipulate voters into voting for the TSPLOST. In many cases they used misleading wordthat made it sound like it would impact all future transportation projects. We were repeatedly told horstories of the devastation that local government budgets would suffer because of The Penalty.

I kept telling people that The Penalty was tiny compared to the financial consequences of approving projects list. It turns out that The Penalty was even smaller than I thought.

I learned a few days ago that The Penalty for every jurisdiction in the Atlanta region will be ZERO. Let repeat that: The Penalty for every jurisdiction in the Atlanta region will be ZERO.

The Local Maintenance and Improvement Grants is an annual pot of money that is available for distributto all jurisdictions in Georgia. It is my understanding that each jurisdiction s allocation is based one-thirdpopulation and two-thirds on centerline miles of eligible roadway. Each jurisdiction can submit applicatiofor amounts up to its annual allocation.

Throughout the state, the overwhelming majority of LMIG funds are used by local governments resurfacing roads.

In the past each jurisdiction would simply submit a list of eligible projects that met the criteria for LMfunds, and they would get the money. Now, in the nine regions that rejected the TSPLOST, eajurisdiction has to demonstrate a 30 percent match.

So, let s figure out what this means by looking at how The Penalty will impact Cobb.

Cobb s annual LMIG allocation is approximately $3 million. That means that in order for Cobb to get themillion it must show that it will spend at least $900,000 of its own money on the projects that qualify LMIG funding. Essentially, that means that in order to get the $3 million, Cobb must now show $3.9 millof qualifying projects. But it turns out, that Cobb already spends far more than $3.9 million every year qualifying projects.

Therefore, the effective Penalty for Cobb adds up to a total of ZERO dollars. And this is also true for evjurisdiction in the Atlanta region. The Penalty for every jurisdiction in the Atlanta region will be ZERO.

The Penalty could hurt some of the poorer counties in rural Georgia who depend on LMIG for virtually altheir resurfacing. In the Atlanta region, every jurisdiction already spends more than the 30 percent maon qualifying projects, so the amount of additional funds that they will have to pay is ZERO.

Let s not forget other manipulations, like claiming the TSPLOST would alleviate traffic congestion, but oby defining alleviate traffic congestion as meaning increasing the hypothetical number of people wcould reach a given point within 45 minutes. They wound up admitting that the TSPLOST projects would have an insignificant impact on reducing commute times.


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Once this became widely known, TSPLOST was dead, based on its merits (or lack thereof). The TSPLOwas sold to us based on reducing traffic congestion on our roads. Voters rejected the TSPLOST when threalized that it would not reduce traffic congestion on our roads.

Government officials put together a projects list that would not reduce traffic congestion, and thgovernment officials pounded voters with misleading information. Now these government officials wonwhy voters don t trust them.

Voters are tired of being manipulated and mislead. And now we learn that The Penalty is ZERO.

Ron Sifen of Vinings is president of the Cobb County Civic Coalition.

A re you concerned about t he f ut ure of A meri ca?

D o you w orry about t he erosion of l ibert y as t he government grow s larger and more pow erf ul?

A re you t roubled by t he moral decl ine you see around you?

A re you w ondering if t here is anyt hing you can do to help rest ore t he A merican Const i t ut ionalRepublic?

I f asked by your chil dren or grandchil dren, w ould you have dif f icult y explaining the D eclarati on I ndependence, t he Const it ut ion and t he B il l of Ri ghts?

If you answered Yes to any of the above questions you are invited to participate in the

Inst it ut e on t he Const it ut ionRest oring t he Foundat ions of t he Const it ut ion of t hese Unit ed St at es

WHAT: IOTC is a twelve (12) part lecture series presented on DVD by John Eidsmoe, aConstitutional attorney with degrees in theology, law and political science.

WHERE: Crossroads Christian Church, Parkland Center 3287 Highway 42,Stockbridge, Georgia 30281

WHEN: Begins Sunday, September 9, 2012 and will meet each Sunday night throughNovember 25, 2012

TIME: 5:00p.m. - 6:30p.m.

HOST: Pastor Ken Davidson, Senior Pastor of Crossroads Christian Church

Co-Host: Larry McNorton, Director of High Point Christian Academy/Constitution PartyRepresentative


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*This is free seminar, however if you wish to have your own student workbook the cost is $35.00 to IOTCSeats are limited for this lecture series to about 60 persons, so please call Pastor Ken Davidson at770.634.0578 or Larry McNorton at 404.395.2903 to reserve your seat and workbook.

Inst it ut e on t he Const it ut ionRest oring t he Foundat ions of t he Const it ut ion of t hese Unit ed St at es

Schedule/ Lect ure t opic

Lecture Number Date Time Topic

1 September 9, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.A Biblical View ofHistory, Law, and

Government

2 September 16, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.

The Discovery,Settlement, and

Evangelization ofAmerica

3 September 23, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.The Religious Beliefs

of the FoundingFathers

4 September 30, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.The Founding Fathers

Five Fold Formula

5 October 7, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.1776 1789: From

Independence to theConstitution

6 October 14, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.An Overview of the

Constitution: Preamble;Article I


Constitution: Article IIand III


Constitution: Article IV-

VII

9 November 4, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.

An Overview of theConstitution: The Bill of

Rights; the FirstAmendment

10 November 11, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.An Overview of the

Constitution:Amendments II - XXVII

11 November 18, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.

An Overview of theConstitution: The Crisis

of the Constitution:From Biblical Absolutes

to Evolutionary

Humanism

12 November 25, 2012 5:00p.m. 6:30p.m.Reclaiming the

Constitution: A VictoryPlan for Restoring OurConstitutional Heritage


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2012 annual PDK/Gallup PollPublic s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools

There was the usual us and them divide in the PDK/Gallup findings; 48 percent of Americans award thown schools an A or a B, but only 19 percent feel the rest of the schools in the country merit such highgrades. But 62 percent are willing to pay more in taxes in order to improve urban public schools And askthe No. 1 problem facing schools, 35 percent of respondents say lack of financial support.

The poll notes stark divisions by political party. Here are highlights from the poll:

On providing children of illegal immigrants free public education, school lunches, and other benefits, 6percent of Democrats versus 21 percent of Republicans said yes. But overall, the poll found support fo

providing public education to these children is increasing; 41 percent of Americans favor this, up from 28percent in 1995.

Charter schools: Republicans are more supportive (80 percent) than Democrats (54 percent). However,

approval declined overall to 66 percent this year from a record 70 percent last year. The public is split inits support of school vouchers, with nearly half (44 percent) believing that we should allow students and

parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense, up 10 percentage points from last year.

Taxes: Ninety-seven percent of the public agreed that it is very or somewhat important to improve thenation s urban schools, and almost two of three Americans (62 percent) said they would pay more taxes

provide funds to improve the quality of urban schools. Eighty-nine percent of Americans agree that it isvery or somewhat important to close the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanstudents.

Teacher evaluations: Americans are almost evenly split in requiring teacher evaluations to reflect studenscores on standardized tests, with 52 percent in favor. But at least three of four believe that entrancerequirements into teacher preparation programs need to be at least as selective as those for engineering

business, pre-law, and pre-medicine.

Presidential race and education: The poll found that President Barack Obama holds a slight lead (49percent) over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (44 percent) as the candidate who would

strengthen public schools. Overall, 50 percent of Americans view the Democratic party as more interestein improving public education

While Americans are divided on many issues regarding the direction of our education system, they stanunited in agreement on some very important issues, said William Bushaw, executive director of PDKInternational and co-director of the PDK/Gallup poll, in a statement. Most important, it is reassuring toknow that, despite the recognition that our schools need improvement, more than 70 percent of Americado have trust and confidence in our public school teachers.

***

Problemati c Bureaucracy

Money is spent on expensive technology that is unused or underused because people aren t sufficientlytrained to use it or it is deemed not necessary after being purchased.


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Across t he board budget cuts (vs. strat egic, target ed cost reduct ions), operati onalinefficiencies and administ rat ive overhead mean that t oo few t axpayer dollars actuallreach the classroom.

Teachers often don t receive the support they need, and many talented Americans don t even entthe profession

Teachers don t r eceive the adequat e instr uctional resources, materials and technologythey need to tailor instruct ion to every st udent.

Teachers lack access to mentors, master teachers, collaborative planning time, expert lesson planand best practices to grow professionally by working with their peers.

Teachers lack access to proven int ervent ions for student s w ho are str uggling.

Principals often lack the time to support teachers in the classroom because of paperwork and otheregulatory burdens (e.g., unnecessary paperwork for central office sign-offs on field trips).

Test result s throughout t he year are provided t o t eachers too late for t hem t o re-t eacsubject s and fill gaps in learning before student s take high- stakes exams or before t h

end of t he year, so students enter t hose exams w it hout core know ledge and skills andfall behind grade level.

Teachers do not have the training and support they need to keep an entire classroom of studentsdisciplined, focused on, and excited about learning.

Centr al offi ce staff and principals are not evaluated regularly nor are t hey heldresponsible for t eacher or student success.

Even though millions of American children are not able to read or do math at grade level, teacherare nearly always found effective/satisfactory on evaluations, because those evaluations are not

meaningful, not connected to what teachers actually do and not connected to whether studentslearn.

Meaningless evaluat ions leave teachers in the dark as t o how they are truly perform inand provide lit t le to no guidance on how t o improve.

Top teachers are not properly recognized, rewarded or compensated, so they leave the profession

School boards focus on micromanaging, adult i n-f ight ing, and complying w it h existingpolicies and procedures rat her than on solving these systemat ic problems to createenvironment s that support t eachers and students and lead t o academic achievement .

School boards and committees require district staff to spend excessive time preparing for meetingand reporting to the board, rather than spending time working to directly support teachers andstudents.

Many elected officials, who are not aware of the scope of hur dles facing t hese systemand/ or w hose campaigns w ere funded by special int erest s neglect t his crisis alt oget heor pass laws that att empt t o fix one issue (e.g., class size reduct ion) but w hich


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inadvert ently cause additional bureaucrati c problems (e.g., hiring enough effectiveteachers to meet t he class size mandate).

Conse rva t i ves Nex t Bat t l e : The Cha r t e r Schoo l Am endm en t

Georgia s Charter School

Constitutional AmendmentWe will be voting to change our Constitution in November in regard to Charter Schools

If the charter school amendment passes, education would NOT be under the purview of voters or parentor the General Assembly. The enabling legislation for the charter school amendment is a bill that passed

this session, H.B. 797. It graphically explains the way charter schools would operate in Georgia. You maydownload the bill and read it.

Explain to everyone that the General Assembly would not charter schools, but an appointed commission,

which would be appointed by the State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the

governor, would charter schools. Neither local boards of education nor parents of students would governcharter schools. They would be governed by the governing board of the person or business that petitione

for the charter, as stated in H.B. 797. There is no restriction that requires petitioners for charters to be instate organizations or in-state businesses or in-state individuals although H.B. 797 DOES require membeof the charter school governing board to be U.S. citizens and residents of Georgia..

In fact, chartering schools has become a thriving business, with multiple businesses chartering publicschools all over the country, using tax money to create, staff, operate and maintain them. Again, I repea

parents do not govern charter schools. They are governed by the contract (charter) and can operateoutside laws, rules, policies and regulations required of other public schools and beyond the reach oflocally elected boards of education.

There is nothing to prohibit foreign entities from funding or creating or operating charter schools . ExcH.B. 797 that passed this session NOW requires petitioners to be U.S. citizens and residents of Georgia.However, in Georgia at least three Gulen schools have been operated by the Turkish Gulen movement th

brought educators and staff into the U.S. on H1B visas to teach our children and those of 125 other Guleschools scattered throughout the U.S.

Another point no one s mentioning is that, ultimately, control of charter schools is in the hands of the

federal government, BECAUSE state and local laws, rules, policies and regulations can be WAIVED bycharter schools, but charter schools CANNOT waive federal law s, rules, policies and regulations.

Therefore, the federal government has, effectively, taken control of education, which the U.S. Constitutioleft to the states. Subsequently, the Georgia Consti t ut ion requires locally elected boards ofeducation t o manage and control schools in t heir distri ct. That w ill change if t he proposedconstitutional amendment passes November 6 t h and schools can be chart ered by an appoint

stat e comm ission on charter schools .. far, far aw ay from parents and local contr ol, but NOfar, far away fr om federal cont rol!

~ Anne Perry and Sue Ella Deadwyler of the Eagle Forum


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Anecdotes Are Meaningless

By Joel Aaron

I would soften the blow of the following post by citing a litany of anecdotes to prove itnot simply hyperbole. God knows I could. But I realize at this point in our nationaldialogue, those already in agreement don't need the anecdotes, to those who disagrenone would matter and to the many who are truly ill informed they will dismiss any

contents written in this tone because they truly don't want to acknowledge it and they'd rather concentra

on something else. Therefore, in the words of Solomon, anecdotes (and by this I mean any news headlinare meaningless, in so far as they are helpful in convincing someone of the legitimacy of your perspectiv

That being said, here it goes:

People at worst no longer believe evil exists and at best have no healthy respect for it anymore andtherefore have little context for recognizing an actual threat to good. I largely blame the mainline Christiachurch (specifically, professional ministers, with obvious exceptions to the rules) for this reality in Americ

We hear all the time about how this perspective is being maligned and marginalized in the public squarebut this is built around the reality that it has largely been absent from articulation in an effective,

constructive and relevant way to the issues at play in the public square for quite some time. We may havbeen told "shut up! Separation of church and state!", but regardless of the inaccuracy of the statement,we were compliant in systematically and unilaterally confining truth to the "religious world". We built sub

sectors out of the existing industries that were dedicated to culture shaping - Christian music, film, TV -rather than engaging as salt and light and dominating the craft with excellence through the existingchannels. We turned our outwardly-focused denominations, with a rich, long history of permeating and

defining American culture as we saw in the First and Second Great Awakenings, into inwardly-focusedorganizations dedicated to self-limiting our access to the mainstream conversation, i.e. church programsand church campuses, and allowed our own institutions to confine our message within walls we built for

ourselves.

We've gone so long in not applying truth in a relevant way to the relevant issues in the world that peopleno longer have a context for recognizing evil. The end result of this is national apathy. My late father saw

it coming with his consistent message to the ministry community in which he worked for decades-applytruth to the real world, make it relevant, get it off the pages of a Bible and into the fabric of society, orelse shut the hell up and quit glossing over The Great Commission.

There, it's out there. Agree or disagree, sometimes I've just got to let the zeal out and be true to myname.

~~ Joel Aaron is CEO & Co-founder at CONVERGENCE ENTERTAINMENT LLC. Joel s mission is to empower and inspire people to embraiberty!
https://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceEntertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceEntertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceEntertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceEntertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceEntertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceEntertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceEntertainment


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Date post:	05-Apr-2018
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