In the Holy Scriptures,

Jesus once asks rhetorically, "What parent, if their

children asked for bread, would give them a stone?"

Well, I now have found the

answer to that question.

The ones who live in

Fayette County.

These cold-hearted,

unfeeling, uncaring, ideological Neanderthals who live in

Fayette County - one of the richest and fastest

growing areas of the state - would obviously give

their children a stone instead of a loaf of bread.

For, that is exactly what

they did in the recent Special Purpose Local Option Sales

Tax referendum.

They rejected the plan

proposed by the county school board to raise $90 million

through the use of a SPLOST to fund some mightily needed

improvements.

Fayette County Board of

Education Chairman Debbie Condon was, well, embarrassed.

She was embarrassed at the

turnout - just 20 percent of the county's 54,000

registered voters - and she was embarrassed at the

fact that she lives "in one of the wealthiest

counties and we don't care about our children or their

education."

So am I.

Several years ago, I worked

for a newspaper in Fayette County, covering at various

times the county school board and the county commission

(as well as other county bodies and groups).

During that tenure, I got

to know some very fine people - not very many native

Georgians, to be sure, and very, very few who would even

admit under their breath that they might have voted for a

Democrat on occasion - but some generally upstanding

individuals.

One of my favorites was

Debbie Condon, then just a member of the Fayette County

Board of Education.

And, my wife and I enjoyed

seeing her and her family when we went to the summer

concert series in Peachtree City (Our seats were just a

few rows apart, so we got to visit a little.)

Without fear of dispute, I

can say that Debbie is one of the sincerest and most

hard-working individuals I ever met.

She may be wrong on

occasion, and she may make mistakes.

But, she is concerned and

caring.

And, I know now that she is

hurting.

Hurting with embarrassment.

And, that is exactly what

all the rest of those tax-cutting ideologues in Fayette

County ought to be: They ought to be embarrassed.

After all, neither Debbie

nor the other members of the county board of education

could be called "big-spending liberals" by any

stretch of the imagination.

There are no closet

Democrats on that board.

They are all card-carrying

members of the Republican Party and after looking at all

the other alternatives available, they determined that

the SPLOST was the one which made the most sense and the

one which would be the least painful for county taxpayers

faced with the needs of a school system busting at its

seams.

Yet, the obviously

concerned citizenry of Fayette County, who care so much

about their children and their children's future -

spoke out loudly and firmly: "No!"

Other counties across this

state - including most of the very conservative,

Republican-voting ones, like Cobb and Gwinnett -

have found this method of gaining new revenue to fund the

service they want and need more palatable than raising

property taxes.

Indeed, every other county

which voted on the same day as Fayette endorsed their

calls for a SPLOST.

But, in their wisdom, our

neighbors in Fayette voted against the SPLOST.

In doing so, they gave

their children who were begging for bread, a pile of

stones.

Maybe the folks in Fayette

County need to consider another verse of Scripture:

"Let them who have ears to hear, listen and

do."

It is apparent they did

neither when they entered the voting booth recently.

[Lee N. Howell is an

award-winning writer who has been observing politics and

society in the Southern Crescent, the state, and nation

for the past 25 years.

<!-------------