(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
The readers’ verdict is in. I should not retire and start drinking again if that’s what it takes to keep my muse happy and the words flowing like wine. I was first advised of the readers’ decision by Scott Hudson, The Augusta Press’s Senior Reporter.
“The readers of TAP have spoken,” he said. “You can’t retire yet. We all need you!!!!!”
“So should I break out the champagne to celebrate?” I replied.
“Yes, that would be great!” he said.
Well, Scott, there’s just one problem. Teetotalers like me don’t have champagne or any form of alcohol on hand – but I will make an exception this one time and buy some Cook’s from Walmart and toast you and all of the wise and witty readers who responded to my plea for advice while I was coping with the Kris Kristofferson Syndrome.
MORE: Opinion: Augusta commissioners consider call for ‘kinder, gentler’ code enforcement
Blame the gun, and your job is done
Mayor Hardie Davis fired the first shot in his war against “gun violence,” Tuesday with an agenda item to spend $300,000 of what’s left of the American Rescue Plan money on Flock security cameras.
Cameras that commissioners previously authorized for the sheriff’s office have been very successful and more would be helpful in solving “gun homicides,” Davis said.
“Is this your request or the sheriff’s request?” Commissioner Sean Frantom asked.
“It’s my request,” Davis replied.
“I kinda want some details,” Frantom said. “To put this amount of money in this. What do we do next year? It’s like we’re just throwing a bunch of money at this….”
“We’re not throwing money at anything. To date, we’ve had 35 homicides – gun-related deaths,” Davis said, adding that people are breaking into cars and homes not to steal TVs but to steal guns.
“We’ve got guns on the street in inordinate numbers,” he said.
Guns on the street? Did they crawl out from under mattresses, drawers and closets shelves on their own and go out on the street and commit these “gun homicides?”
I truly believe there’s not an honest bone in that man’s body. What sophistry! He can’t talk about the real causes of “gun homicides’ without indicting himself and the other Democrats.
Frantom mentioned maintenance costs associated with the cameras, Davis said they could address maintenance costs in future budgets.
“We’ve got a public health crisis in our city,” Davis said.
“I can’t disagree with you, but what’s the plan?” Frantom asked. “What made you say $300,000? We have serious budget concerns in 2024. I’m just looking for direction on a plan.”
Davis said they did not lay out a plan about where the cameras would be for public consumption.
“Three hundred thousand will allow us to lay out cameras across the county,” he said.
Commissioner Alvin Mason said he didn’t doubt that the cameras have a “necessary effect,” but he added that commissioners owe the public some explanation of where those dollars are going.
“If we are having these kinds of issues, then I would like to hear from the sheriff,” Mason said. “I, for one – and I have no problem stating this emphatically – I’m getting pretty tired of not seeing our sheriff addressing the needs of the community. I hear it from Patrick Clayton. I see it from others, but we elected this sheriff to represent us in Richmond County. I’d like to hear it from him. What his thought process is.”
Mason also noted that Davis’ request didn’t come through the public safety committee first, the normal path for matters affecting the sheriff’s office.
Commissioner Brandon Garrett’s substitute motion to refer the request back to that committee for discussion failed, and the original motion to spend $300,000 passed 8-2 with Frantom and Garrett voting no.
The woke spoke. But Jefferson Davis’s defenders refused to surrender
Augusta Commissioner Moses Todd spoke at Tuesday’s commission meeting in support of changing the name of the Fifth Street Bridge to Freedom Bridge and removing the plaques honoring Jefferson Davis.
Todd, like commissioners who later spoke on the matter, appears to think their opinions are infallible and the only ones that matter.
“My enslaved name is Todd,” he said. “My grandfather and great grandfather was enslaved property. I am no more proud of that than my friends on the other side of this issue is proud of having ancestors that was traitors for a Lost Cause.”
Obviously, Todd doesn’t have many friends on the other side of the issue because millions of people are very proud of having ancestors that were, as he puts it, ‘traitors for a Lost Cause.’ Many have just been shamed into silence for fear of being called racists.
Six people who haven’t been shamed spoke at Tuesday’s commission meeting about their reasons for not renaming the bridge, but they were wasting their breath. Historical facts, such as that white people did not invent slavery but were the first to outlaw it in England in 1807. That slavery existed for 5,000 years all over the world and long before Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas meant less than nothing in that arena.
Shortly after the defenders spoke, Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams said he was ready to vote on Commissioner Ben Hasan’s motion to rename the bridge and remove the plaques with Jefferson Davis’s name on them although General Counsel Wayne Brown recommended that commissioners postpone a decision until legal questions concerning the “plaques and cravings” could be analyzed.
Yes, he did say “plaques and cravings.”
“I sit here, and I ponder how my ancestors would feel,” Williams said. “If Commissioner Hasan wants to go forward today, I’m willing to go forward. I have a family. Much of them were enslaved. Their voices are crying out to me. My ancestors are crying out to me, ‘Do what you have to do!’”
That’s like my ancestors in Ireland crying out, “The landowners have reduced our plots so much we can’t produce enough food to live. We’re starving. We’re eating grass soup!” And my Jewish Sheftall ancestors crying out against persecution and pogroms, violent attacks by local non-Jewish people on Jews.
Anyway, Commissioner Sean Frantom, as he so often does, straddled the fence.
“The first question I have based on what I’ve heard is whether … Can we make this change?” he asked.
“For me, the name of the bridge is the Fifth Street Bridge. The city, the DDA, the CVD is marketing it as the Fifth Street Bridge. I’m not sure it makes any sense calling it Freedom Bridge – the why behind it. But I definitely understand how removing plaques and changing names and whatnot, so that it’s inclusive of everyone, moves this city forward.”
Now everybody is happy.
Commissioner Ben Hasan said speaker Theresa Pittman, who suggested they pray about it and take it to God, gave commissioners the guide he said they needed.
“If I were on the other side of the aisle, I would understand the plight of Blacks in America,” Hasan said. “There’s no honor in what we’re talking about here today. It’s hard to defend. Jefferson Davis felt that the Black man was inferior by nature, and he did not have the ability to take care of himself.”
Commissioner Brandon Garrett asked whether the same laws applied to decommissioned bridges as to other bridges.
“At one point, we were going to tear it down,” he said. “I’m just curious as to whether there would be this kind of outrage if we had torn it down.”
(Not if they did it before anyone knew it was going to happen like when the Georgia Historical Society removed the William Makepeace Thackeray brass sign on Broad Street overnight a decade or so ago because someone found Thackery’s words offensive about slavery being “no where repulsive” during his visit to Augusta in 1856.)
Commissioner Catherine McKnight said she really liked the thought of Freedom Bridge, but it might not be the commission’s place to be voting on removing the plaques.
Is she taking lessons from Sean?
MORE: Column: Mayor Davis says Gold Cross is like Burger King
Think it Can’t Happen Here? Think Again.
Speaking as chairman of Augusta’s Cemetery Committee, Todd said if Jefferson Davis was buried in Magnolia Cemetery, he would take care of his grave just as well as he takes care of the soldiers that rest in Magnolia now.
That gave me pause for thought. I can foresee the day when forces not as benevolent as Todd will not respect the graves and tombs of Confederate soldiers. You know how history repeats itself. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell in England played a key role in defeating the Royalists and the following execution of King Charles I. Cromwell then became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Ireland and Scotland. But after Cromwell died, Charles II returned to the throne and had Cromwell’s body removed from his tomb in Westminster Abbey and convicted of high treason posthumously. Cromwell was also hanged and beheaded, and his head was placed on a 20-foot spike outside the Tower of London where it remained for 30 years.
Don’t think something like that can’t happen in America. Who over the age of 65 ever would have imagined murderers, rapists, robbers and perpetrators of other serious crimes serving a few years in prison before being released to murder, rape, rob again? Who would ever have imagined groups such as Antifa encouraging people to kill policemen? And mayors and city councils in some of the most crime-infested cities defunding their police departments? And district attorneys imposing no bail bonds for serious offenders?
Who would ever have imagined public schools would be teaching our children to hate their country? And colleges removing American flags because they were offensive to some people? Moreover, who would have imagined our parents putting up with it?
And who would ever have imagined there’d be a demented old geezer-puppet in the Oval Office presiding over an 8.2 percent inflation rate and a recession while sucking our retirement accounts dry and saying conservatives are the biggest threat to Democracy in the country?
If I’m lying, I’m dying. And drinking, but not driving.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
