This is a column by Opinion Editor Adam Van Brimmer.
Next to the door of the Savannah Economic Development Authority boardroom is a framed front page of the Savannah Morning News from Sept. 22, 2009.
It’s what we call in the newspaper business a “one-story front” meaning the news being presented is big enough to command the entire page. The headline, in large type and all caps, is “IT’S MITSUBISHI.”
Twelve years have passed since the gas turbine manufacturer became the first tenant and until last week’s Amazon fulfillment center announcement the only tenant of the most anxiety-inducing place in Chatham County this side of the Tybee Road on a beautiful summer weekend.
No warning gives pause quite like “Enter at your own risk.”
“Come on in,” such guidance beckons, “but don’t come crying to me if you don’t like the consequences.”
Here’s the COVID-19 version of those instructions: “Decline the vaccine at your own risk.”
Every Savannah-area adult has now had ample opportunity to get that shot or shots in the arm and inoculate themselves against the virus. Mass vaccination sites have been operating since mid-March. Local clinics, both public and private, started welcoming walk-ins weeks ago.
Authorities aren’t counting on a second wave of vaccine seekers either. Demand is dropping and the health pros mobilized to deliver the vaccine are scaling back operations. The mass vaccination site at Gulfstream will close May 21 and the Civic Center operation has cut back to one day a week.
Virtual school is the pits, in this parent’s perspective.
Yet one dad’s mantrap can be another’s paradise.
Local school officials better take heed.
Districts are announcing plans for next school year, and the tone is unmistakable: Leaders are as eager to abandon online learning as high school seniors are to turn the tassels on their graduation caps.
Effingham County Schools Superintendent Yancy Ford said this week, “We do not plan to have a virtual option.” Never mind that 1,305 students 10% of the population are learning from home over an internet connection this year.
Savannah-Chatham Superintendent Ann Levett told the School Board on Wednesday that the virtual option will be available by request only and on a limited basis. Meanwhile, 25,000 of the district’s 37,000 students are currently learning from home five days a week. The parents of the majority of those kids have said their children will return to school buildings in August, but a significant number p
The Georgia GOP is as crumbly right now as is straight-from-the-oven cornbread.
Across the state, county parties are censuring the state’s top Republican, Gov. Brian Kemp. Conventions are more medieval mêlée than feel-good rallies. Decorum and long-respected procedures have been abandoned.
Losses by high-profile Republicans in the last election have sown doubt and fueled desperation. The far-right faction, those who embrace conspiracy theories and consider the U.S. Capitol insurrectionists patriots, is gaining support as conservatives flail about for a platform to embrace.
The current climate was well summarized recently by the Chatham County Republican Party chair.