From You
Letters
From You!
Save Forests
originally published April 19, 2006
The comment period to the USDA for Bush’s proposal to sell 300,000 acres of National Forest land has been extended to May 1. Please voice an objection at www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/spd.html and please write letters to your senators and representatives and tell them to vote NO. This sale includes 4,552 acres in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest with 144 acres in Green County, 139 acres in Oglethorpe County, and 264 acres in Putnam County. For more information, read the article “Bush’s Blue Light Special” at www.wildsouth.org. Click on the link “Bush put up your land for sale” at the bottom of the article for more information. Wild South is a grassroots forest protection organization. This land is supposed to be held in trust. Selling our national forest is NOT the way to raise money.
Carol Lavinder AthensLetters
From You!
Smoke-Free And Happy
originally published April 19, 2006
My wife and I - both Athens residents in the early 1990s - made our first trip back to Athens-Clarke County in 11 years this past Saturday to see the Allgood reunion show at the Georgia Theatre. We spent the afternoon driving up and down Milledge and Prince, through Five Points and beyond looking at houses we’d lived in after stopping at the Taco Stand for burritos and iced tea. We laughed about crappy jobs we had in the restaurants and stores, and reminisced about people we’d known and things we’d done when we lived there long ago.
By early evening, we’d ended up downtown at the Globe for drinks before the show at the Theatre. It was there we were confronted with a major change since we were there many years ago. There were no ashtrays on any of the tables… no large clouds of cigarette smoke hanging in the air… and a Post-It note at the bar back reading “Crack down on smokers. Undercover cops.” Athens-Clarke County has banned cigarette smoking in bars! Hallelujah!
Our congratulations to Athens-Clarke County for taking this step. Banning cigarette smoking in public gathering places has come up for discussion in our adopted hometown of Knoxville, TN several times, but has been tabled due to economic concerns expressed by bars and restaurants over loss of business. Judging from the packed houses at both the Globe and the Georgia Theatre that Saturday night, I’d say the negative economic impact in Athens must be minimal. We greatly enjoyed the Allgood show, and it was made even more enjoyable by not having painful burning eyes and reeking like smoke when the show was over.
We dropped $100 on local businesses Saturday - and there won’t be another 11 year absence before we return to Athens to see another concert, knowing that we won’t have to put up with gasping for air while watching the band. Thanks, Athens.
Scott and Mary Robbins Knoxville, TNLetters
From You!
Free Speech Zones
originally published April 19, 2006
On Apr. 7, I attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of a new building on the University of Georgia campus. George H. W. Bush was the keynote speaker. As usual, I wore my vest covered with anti-Bush buttons and carried a sign denouncing the actions of our current administration (George W.) in Washington. I have worn this vest and carried a protest sign almost daily for the past four years. As a citizen of the United States of America, I consider this a right guaranteed to me by our Constitution. Freedom of speech is not something I take lightly.
Soon after arriving at this event, I was approached by a UGA police officer who asked me to leave. He informed me that signs were not permitted at this event and if I wanted to carry a sign, I would have to go to a FREE SPEECH ZONE. Free speech zone, I asked? I thought the whole country was a free speech zone. I tried to explain that all I was doing was exercising my rights and that I had no intention of disrupting the event. I said I would keep my sign down and not bother anyone. He agreed that I could do this, but only in a free speech zone. I asked him if it didn’t seem a little absurd that in a free country, I was being asked to leave an event paid for with public funds and open to the public, because I had a sign? No answer. By now he had been joined by another uniformed officer and a man in a suit who informed me that if I was going to demonstrate, I better know the laws about demonstrating. Demonstrating? Laws? I was just standing there quietly holding a sign. I asked them politely, “Where is this free speech zone?” They pointed to a place about a block and a half away from the event and asked me if they needed to walk me over there. I tried one last time to explain, but they insisted that I leave. They informed me that I was free to come back, but only if I didn’t have a sign. Now that’s real freedom!
I know to some of you this sounds like a little thing, but it’s not. This episode, though only a slight denial of basic rights, seems to be the trend in our country today. Spying on citizens, illegal wiretapping, torture, no due process for those arrested, misinformation, leaking classified documents and lying all might seem like little things by themselves, but added together, they reveal a bigger problem. Freedom is under attack. It is only to be practiced in FREE SPEECH ZONES on the other side of the barbed-wire fence (or in this case a block and half away).
We should not allow the “chipping away” of our constitutional rights. We must all speak up and demand that freedom, the foundation of our country, not be relegated to free speech zones. If one by one we allow our basic freedoms to be taken from us for any reason, we will end up with no freedoms at all. You might say this can’t happen here, but it has already started. Just ask me. You can find me over in the FREE SPEECH ZONE.
Drago Tesanovich ColbertIf you are having problems with the site, or have questions or suggestions, please contact us here. Thanks!
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