Recent editorials from Georgia newspapers:
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March 22
The Augusta Chronicle on email spoofing and scams:
Is no one immune? Apparently not.
It takes a lot of brass - or a lot of stupidity; we haven’t determined which - to tweak the nose of law enforcement in cyberspace.
But that’s what happened recently while the Burke County Sheriff’s Office was switching over email systems. We were warned this week that apparently a few spam emails went out under the name of BCSO Deputy Chief Lewis Blanchard. Clicking on any links or attachments in the emails could’ve given your computer an unhealthy dose of malware.
It’s called email spoofing - a too-cute name for a too-common problem. Aw, it’s just a little spoof, right?
We’d characterize it closer to forgery - pretending someone’s online “signature” is your own. It’s lying. It’s unscrupulous. And really anyone perpetrating email spam in any fashion tempts us to advocate bringing back the pillory in the town square.
But sadly, we’re told the practice isn’t illegal. It’s hard to identify the third parties who execute the spoofing - which is precisely why spammers prefer the method.
Email spoofing can wreak all kinds of havoc. In 2013 an email made the rounds supposedly from a small Swedish company to news agencies, saying tech giant Samsung offered to buy the company. The news spread, stock shares soared - and the email was found to be fake.
As far as we’re concerned, there’s little more than a single letter that separates “spam” from “scam.” But while the former doesn’t always reach the scale of the Samsung incident, the latter can be devastating on a smaller scale … Be wary of scams. These days they/re just a phone call away.
In the past week or two, scammers posing as fake police lieutenants have been dialing up unsuspecting folks in Columbia County and parting them from piles of money.
One woman surrendered $550 after “Lt. Westerbrook” and “Lt. Bobby William” told her she missed jury duty, and had to send them money through NetSpend gift cards to avoid getting arrested, and to give the “officers” the card information.
Please clip out this next sentence and paste it directly onto your telephone so you’ll neve forget it. The sheriff’s office never, ever, ever will ask you to pay fines or fees with any type of money card.
These two bad lieutenants worked the same scam on at least one other Columbia Countian - a woman from Appling on March 15. They got $1,000 out of her …
Don’t be the next victim.
Online: https://www.augustachronicle.com/
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March 23
The Savannah Morning News on naming the field at University of Georgia’s football stadium:
Between the hedges, no Georgia Bulldog has enjoyed more success than Vince Dooley.
One could say Dooley owned the Sanford Stadium field in his 40 years of service. First as head football coach, then as coach and athletic director, and finally as athletic director, Dooley set a standard for excellence at the site.
The time has come to name the playing surface in the coach’s honor.
More than 450 Bulldog lettermen, led by Savannah’s Kevin Jackson and the great Herschel Walker, want the turf christened Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium. The group has lobbied University of Georgia President Jere Morehead to establish this tribute to Dooley.
“We want to do something good for a great man who has meant so much for the University of Georgia, and we’d like to do it while he’s still around,” said Jackson, who played on the Bulldogs’ defensive line of the early 1980s, including on the 1980 national title winning team. “It’s about doing the right thing.”
Don’t mistake Jackson’s sentiments for fears about Dooley’s health. He celebrated his 86th birthday last September but displays the energy of a man decades younger.
His former players, and likely hundreds of thousands of fans who encouraged Dooley’s Dogs to “hunker down one more time,” simply want to see the university show long overdue recognition of the single greatest influence on Georgia Bulldog football.
What’s in a name?
Dooley took off his hobnailed boots 15 years ago.
He retired as Georgia’s athletic director in 2004, four decades after coming to the school as the head football coach. On the field, he won 201 games, six Southeastern Conference titles and a national championship.
The stadium expanded eight times during his tenure, growing from 35,000 seats to more than 92,000. The increased demand for seating is testament enough to Dooley’s contributions.
Some have even advocated for expanding the stadium’s name to include Dooley’s. A push for Dooley-Sanford Stadium swept the state five years ago, with proponents pointing to hyphenated titles at several other SEC venues, such as Mississippi (Vaught-Hemingway), Auburn (Jordan-Hare), Alabama (Bryant-Denny) and South Carolina (Williams-Brice).
That campaign sputtered and died, however, out of respect for the stadium’s namesake, Steadman V. Sanford. As the school’s longtime faculty chairman of athletics, he championed its construction.
Sanford Stadium opened in October 1929, three years before Sanford was named University of Georgia president.
Dooley may have led expansion efforts, but it was Sanford who built the original venue.
An indisputable legacy
Adding Dooley’s name to the grass rather than the stadium face is an acceptable compromise.
Christening the playing surface in honor of a coaching great is a fitting tribute elsewhere. Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium is home to Coach K Court. Same for Syracuse’s Carrier Dome and Jim Boeheim Court.
And while most red-and-black fans would rather not acknowledge it, the University of Florida’s Ben Hill Stadium includes Steve Spurrier-Florida Field.
For Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium to become a reality, first the university president and then the Board of Regents must give their blessing.
UGA’s current leader, Morehead, has been inundated with correspondence in support of the move. Even the Savannah area’s local congressman, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Georgia 1), sent a letter.
In making the case for Dooley, Carter playfully pointed to Dooley’s one fault: he attended Auburn, not Georgia. Carter labeled the Alabama native’s choice of college as a “youthful indiscretion.”
Dooley’s name is certainly more synonymous with Georgia than Auburn. His legacy is stained red and black, not burnt orange and blue.
We encourage the university president and Board of Regents to paint Dooley’s name on the stadium field this year.
Online: https://www.savannahnow.com/
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March 23
The Brunswick News on Atlanta’s BeltLine and revitalization:
When he was a grad student at Georgia Tech, Ryan Gravel came up with the creation of the Atlanta BeltLine. He did so in 1999, envisioning the project in his graduate thesis.
That idea would come to life as the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile transit greenway that changed Atlanta physically while also affecting the way of life for many of its residents.
Gravel recounted his story … at College of Coastal Georgia as the first speaker in the 2019 Distinguished Speakers Series hosted by the College of Coastal Georgia Foundation. Gravel’s story is an important one for any area that is looking to improve, like Brunswick. Revitalization has been on the minds of a lot of local leaders, business owners and residents.
Most of those talks center around attracting more people to downtown Brunswick, which has already seen a lift from new restaurants, shops and additional living space.
“We are in the beginnings of a really radical transformation in the way that we build the cities around us, in the way that we live our lives,” said Gravel, who is an urban planner, designer and author. “And we’re just starting to see the beginnings of those conversations.”
The idea, though, is not enough by itself. It has to be the right idea that the entire community embraces.
That is one of the reasons why the BeltLine project has worked so well. Gravel said that neighborhoods fell in love with his proposal and took ownership of the project.
That is also part of the reason why the push to turn the Oglethorpe block into a conference center didn’t work. The News’ poll on the subject showed more than 94 percent of the 1,128 valid responses we received voting against it.
While downtown Brunswick is on the rise, the right idea is still needed to spark a true revival. It could be the proposal that Glynn County commissioner Allen Booker brought before the city commission … to create a cultural center on the block that could promote Gullah Geechee heritage. It is an idea worth looking into for the city.
Somewhere in a sea of innovation and ideas, the right one for our area is waiting to be found. Let the search begin.
Online: https://thebrunswicknews.com/
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