Newspaper Page Text
(51?e Ahuattce The ADVANCE, December 28, 2022/Page 7A
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
-Walter Uppmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
Byron York, chief political correspondent
for The Washington Examiner. Most Ameri
cans don't know how bad the border crisis
Is.
The information deficit among so many
Americans favors the Biden administration,
If more people knew the true scope of the
problem the president's policies have creat
ed, then more would likely be concerned,
and more would oppose the administra
tion's actions. Indeed, the Harvard-Harris
pollsters, once they informed respondents
of the correct answer, asked, "Given these
numbers, should the administration contin
ue its current policies or issue new, stricter
policies to reduce the flow of people com
ing across the border?" Sixty-seven percent
of those polled favored new, stricter poli
cies, while just 33% wanted to continue cur
rent policies.
If more people knew what was happen
ing, more people would demand change.
Guy Benson, Townhall.corn's Political
Editor: Sinema: Look, it's a 'no brainer' for a
certain someone to finally visit the unsecure
southern border.
To the extent that they can help draw
any serious attention to the problem, which
the White House tends to dismiss as 'stunt'
work by Republicans, then more power to
them. If they can convince the president to
go down there to survey the historic, em
barrassing, lethal mess he's created, that
would be fine. But I fear that any presidential
excursion to the southern boundary would
end up being a photo-op-minded exercise
in useless box-checking. If Biden is willing to
really witness what's going on, without an
advance team sanitizing reality and steer
ing him clear of the true damage — while
listening to frontline agents with genuine
curiosity and interest — then a trip might
be worth it. Given this crew's track record,
I fear the chances of that really happening
are slim to none.
E. J. Antoni, research fellow at The Heri
tage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis
and a senior fellow at Committee to Unleash
Prosperity: Big welfare handouts mean folks
who stay home are living high on the hog
off your tax dollars.
While our study examined only two wel
fare programs that are not means-tested,
there is an entire suite of means-tested pro
grams for which many people are eligible,
and which together provide a surprisingly
high standard of living.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, just outside
Washington, D.C., you can receive over
$25,000 in annual rental assistance alone -
and that is just one program. Add to that
food stamps, which have just been ex
panded, and subsidies for everything from
education to transportation, and you have
not just a robust social safety net but a per
verse incentive not to work because even
a small amount of income disqualifies you
from receiving these means-tested bene
fits.
Write Us A
Letter
Have you a gripe? How about a compliment
for someone for a job well done? Let us
know about it with a letter to the editor. We
urge anyone to write us about any subject of
general public interest. Please limit all letters to
250 words double spaced.
All letters must by signed, but we may withhold
the writer's name upon request.
Please write to us at The Advance, 205 E. First St.,
Vidalia, GA 30474 or email: theadvancenews@
gmail.com (Subject Line: Letter to the Editor).
Trump’s Miserable Month
So far, Donald Trump is
having the worst campaign
launch since Beto O’Rourke.
Like almost everything else
he’s done lately his early an
nouncement of his next presi
dential campaign has proved a
flagrant political misjudgment.
A move that was supposed
to demonstrate his strength is
showing his weakness; a move
that was meant to keep other
candidates out of the race is an
invitation to other candidates to
get in; a move that was sup
posed to serve notice of his con
tinued dominance of the party
is pointing toward its potential
end.
He’s been eclipsed as an in
ternet troll by Elon Musk, and
as a vote-getter by Gov. Ron
DeSantis.
He’s managed to get the
worst of both worlds — he’s
been largely invisible at the
same time that he’s been in
volved in several damaging con
troversies.
His midterms got even
worse, with the final thudding
defeat of one of his prized po
litical projects, Herschel Walker
in the Georgia Senate runoff.
And Trump’s entry hasn’t
boosted his poll numbers, or
even stabilized them. He’s con
tinuing to slide versus DeSantis,
with a couple of new polls
showing him trailing the Flor
ida governor in a hypothetical
head-to-head matchup.
In short, it’s hard to imagine
how Trump could have had a
worse monthlong run. Ordinar
ily one might say, as a way of
exaggerating to emphasize the
point, that it only could have
been worse if he had had dinner
with a Nazi — but, of course, he
did that, too.
It’s still early, and premature
to count Trump out. Elected
Republicans remain scared of
him, and we still can’t know if
the only potential candidate to
show strength against him, De
Santis, will run, or how he’d
perform.
If Trump is going to win the
nomination, though, it will in
volve recovering from his disas
trous announcement and after-
math.
He clearly believed that the
act of announcing in and of it
self would be sufficient to ce
ment his status as top dog. That
was wrong, and it meant he
never thought through the
rather crucial question, “So
you’re a candidate — now what
are you going to do?”
There’s been no media
blitz. There’s been no tour of
the country. There’s been no
rollout of policy or any unifying
theme.
If it’s too early to make too
much of the polls, the former
president is still in a uniquely
vulnerable place. It’s one thing
to be trailing if you are a new
figure on the national stage who
still has room to grow; it’s an
other if you have universal name
ID and everyone already has an
extremely well-formed view of
you.
It’s going to be hard for
Trump to find a second act
when his act hasn’t changed
since 2015. Besides, even if he
purports to have turned a new
leaf, who at this point is going to
believe him?
He doesn’t have easy levers
to use to change the narrative.
It’s not as though he can have a
good legislative session next
year like the governors who are
thinking of running or use his
executive powers to pick useful
fights.
There probably aren’t even
exciting new events he can hold
to grab the attention of voters or
the media. His signature, of
course, are his rallies. They were
fresh and new in 2015 and 2016,
and quite powerful throughout
his presidency and immediately
afterward. Now, they are as old
and familiar as a Rolling Stones
concert.
What’s been most damag
ing to Trump is that association
with him in general and “Stop
the Steal” in particular proved
politically toxic in the midterms.
Other Republicans can try to
achieve distance in the future.
But obviously Trump can’t.
These things would have
been true even if he hadn’t an
nounced already but if he hadn’t
gotten in, people would have
wondered if he’d instantly look
stronger once he was actually in
the race. Now, he’s answered
that question for his adversaries
decidedly in the negative.
Rich Lowry is editor of the
National Review.
(c) 2022 by King Features
Synd., Inc.
GRITTY
How Do We
Get Our Nation
Back on Track?
Some thoughts
about our country as
Christmas and the
new year approach.
In his Farewell
Address to the nation
in 1796, America’s
departing first presi
dent, George Wash
ington, observed: “It
is substantially true
that virtue or morality is a necessary spring
to popular government.”
And what is the basis upon which we
define morality?
Washington answers, “Reason and ex
perience both forbid us to expect that na
tional morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principle.”
Per our first president, for a democracy
to function properly, it must be guided by
moral principles. And the guidelines and
rules by which we define what is moral are
framed by principles of the Bible.
This is not exactly what we have going
on today.
Rather than our democracy following
prior moral principles, our moral principles
now are defined by our democracy. What
we deem to be moral — good and evil,
right and wrong — now arrives to us not
from heaven but from Hollywood.
Consider how, over the last 20 years,
our idea of what is morally acceptable has
changed.
Twenty-two years ago, in 2001, per
Gallup polling, the following percentages
of Americans viewed these activities as
“morally acceptable”: gay/lesbian rela
tions: 40%; birth to unwed mother: 45%;
polygamy: 7%; suicide: 13%; pornography:
30%.
In the latest survey in 2022, following
are the percentages calling these same ac
tivities “morally acceptable”: gay/lesbian
relations: 71%; birth to unwed mother:
70%; polygamy: 23%; suicide: 22%; por
nography: 41%.
What exactly happened over 22 years
that, on average, the percentage saying each
morally sensitive area is morally acceptable
has more than doubled?
Please see Star page 8A
Oyster Stew
Every
year, as the
month of De-
From the Porch cember rolls
By Amber Nagle to a close, my
mind replays
the beautiful holidays of my childhood
— decorating a cedar tree with satiny
spun red balls and tinsel, visiting live
nativity scenes in town, driving around
neighborhoods to look at Christmas
lights, and oyster stew. Yum!
In my mind’s eye, I still see the
silver pot simmering on the stovetop,
and I can smell the sweet aroma waft
ing through the kitchen. I can hear the
sound of a big spoon stirring the but
tery broth — the light, rhythmic clink
of the spoon hitting the sides of the pot
with each rotation. Our family often
feasted on oyster stew during the holi
days — topped with tiny oyster crack
ers or saltines. I loved the “plop, plop,
plop” sound of the oyster crackers
dropping from my hand into the but
tery broth. Just thinking about it causes
my mouth to water.
My mother learned to cook oyster
stew from her mother, Ona Jarrard Jar-
riel, who lived near the Ohoopee River.
“Oysters are expensive, and we
didn’t have a lot of money,” Mom says.
“But Mama always made a pot or two
of oyster stew during the holidays. We
all loved it so much.”
She said that sometimes her fa
ther, Hub Jarriel, would drive down to
the coast and buy fresh oysters.
“He’d come home with those oys
ters and make a fire outside,” she says.
“That’s how I learned to love them.
They’d crack open with the heat, and
we’d eat them straight from the shells
sometimes after Daddy brought them
home.”
Other times, my papa purchased
the oysters from a local grocery store,
and my grandmother would make a big
pot of stew.
“She cooked the oysters in butter
first,” Mom says. “Then after they were
cooked through and through, she’d
pour in the milk — sometimes evapo
rated milk from a can to make it thicker
and creamier. Then she’d sprinkle lots
of salt and pepper in the pot.”
Mom made it the same way, and
our family devoured it by the bowlfuls
— well, all of us except for my sister,
who wasn’t a fan of oysters or stew.
“Don’t strain out all of the oys
ters,” Mom would say to us. “Leave
some oysters for the rest of us.”
Irish immigrants brought over
the tradition of eating oyster stew dur
ing the holidays to America. Catholic
tradition banned consuming meat on
Christmas Eve, so many Irish families
ate a soup or stew made from fish. Oys
ters were substituted for fish and it be
came a traditional Christmas dish for
many folks, whether of Irish descent
or not.
In the South, during the 1800s and
early 1900s, many households didn’t
have ice boxes or refrigerators to keep
oysters chilled, and so oysters kept
better during the cooler months (De
cember and January) of the year. This
seasonal window made oyster stew a
Southern holiday delicacy, and it is still
associated with Christmas and Christ
mas Eve cooking here in Georgia.
So, while it’s still rather cool and
wintery here, and you are wondering
what to cook for dinner for your clan,
consider stirring up a big pot of oyster
stew with plenty of saltines or oyster
crackers to toss on top. Just don’t strain
out all the oysters — leave some oys
ters for the rest of us.
Happy New Year!