Over Coffee

by Gay Wiley Shook gayshook@mindspring.com

August 11, 2004    The runoff election in Gwinnett County, Georgia was August 10th. It was cataclysmic in its implications. First, hardly anybody voted. We are supposed to have 270,213 registered voters in this county and only about 10 percent of them voted. That dismal showing was a shocking disgrace. Wayne Hill, our capable three-term incumbent chairman of the Board of Commissioners, was not re-elected. Businessman Dwight Harrison, candidate for District 3 commission seat, was not elected. The "No Growth" voices and their candidates prevailed.    I submit that this election was fraught with code words. We heard complaints of traffic woes, overcrowding in our schools, and too much high-density housing. These are the code words for "We don't want any more immigrants!" Candidates who said they would put a stop to all these negatives of our community were elected.    If I remember correctly, Gwinnett County Public Schools actually became a minority-majority school system in January 2004, with a 51 percent minority and 49 percent white student body at that time. Demographics certainly aren't going the other way so I would imagine that the percentages have continued growing their split with the largest-ever enrollment of over 130,000 students at start of school this week. It is a little late to try to stuff the cork back into that giant genie bottle! We are already a minority-majority school system.    Gwinnett taxpayers will have three new commissioners when their terms begin in January 2005. District 2 Commissioner Bert Nasuti and District 4 Commissioner Kevin Kenerly have terms that expire in two years. Let us all hope and pray that these newly elected commissioners will be up to the job. As Nasuti is fond of saying, "Doing the job is a lot harder than complaining about the job!"     In my backing and forthing around this county, I was astonished at the folks who did not know who Wayne Hill was, after his almost 12 years in office. One small business owner has operated her retail location in Gwinnett for 17 years and had no idea who Hill was. She had never heard of Charles Bannister either. I think there are huge numbers of "pod people" in our country and our county who ignore the politics and the government of America completely. This doesn't make them bad people, much as I'd like to clap them upside the head for being that stupid. Their indifference only makes elections non-representative of the collective public will because the people who are against things always carry the day. The people who are for things do not usually fare as well.    So, I do not want to hear any talk of "mandate" arising from this election. There is no mandate. A tiny number of voters decided this important election and that is the fault of all the voters who neglected to vote. All of those non-voters now have no say whatsoever in what happens to our Gwinnett County government. That certainly ought to make Chairman-elect Charles Bannister happy. I say Chairman-elect, but Bannister still has to get through the November 2 General Election in which he has a Democrat opponent, a political newcomer who is completely unknown.  Thanks for reading. Hope all is well. 081104 Archives