11/23/97: To the AJC:
It's about time the AJC broadened their focus to include the growth North of Atlanta. We are all certainly disgusted with the City of Atlanta and their mismanagement, but let's do something about the Northern sprawl - while we still can. I operate a canoe, raft, and tube rental business (www.canoeamerica.net) at Buford Dam, and all the horrible stories about the river are obviously not good for business. I have been canoeing this river since 1966, after my Dad, brother, and I completed construction of our first canoe. I used to go on river trash cleanups with the Boy Scouts back in those days, and used to camp not far from the old Morgan Falls dump, which even then, it was hard to believe there was a dump so close to the river. Now, I am just sickened by the tragic history of the development along the river, though there was glimmer of hope when President Jimmy Carter signed the bill making it a National Park. I tried in the past as a member of the Georgia Environmental Project and the Soil and Water Conservation, and most recently the Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper, to contribute my meager effort toward the river and the local environment. Currently, as a small businessman and Georgia resident, I tremble in fear everytime the legislature is in session, but this subject is a no-brainer (which should come easy for most politicians). Put a massive fee on any development with even the slightest impact on the further degradation of our river water quality, scenery, or habitat. I used to chide people concerned about the water quality this far North of Atlanta, telling them "pollution doesn't flow upstream", but with the current rush of development in this area, I'm having to eat my own words. This is not just a front page story people, wake up! Just about everyone of the commissioners in Forsyth County is somehow involved in the development business, this stinks as bad as the sewage dumped in the river. Don't forget Gwinnett and the big dollars being made on the new mall of Georgia, which will have a huge impact. I gave up the commute and corporate rat race to try to make a living doing something I enjoy and commune a little with nature, what little there is left in this area. There is still a beautiful stretch of river from Buford Dam down to Morgan Falls, but every week almost, I can see the danger of destruction (construction) starting to encroach, it is very very sad. I remember when I was a boy, I could walk out of the back door of my home in Roswell and hunt and fish all day, walking down to Big Creek , Vickery Creek, HogWaller Creek, and to the Chattahoochee, what a distant memory that is now... Being an avid comic section reader of the Constitution back then, before heading off to ford Hogwaller Creek on the way to school, I remember reading the quote, even now, before it became a media darling - "We have met the enemy and he is us", spoke Walt through Pogo. Well, this ain't the comics, and it's damn sure not funny.

In conclusion, I have made up my own little quote: "The trail of tears still flows, but now over the river of painted rocks, and the great white father still speaks with a forked tongue." Damn the greed, the bureaucrats, and any politician or developer that's not for clean air and water, or simply doesn't believe in doing unto others, as they would have done unto them. Maybe Jesus will come soon, and us believers will get a second chance at doing it right!