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PAGE 4A BARROW JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2008 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ” - Henry Ward Beecher - Chris Bridges, editor • Email: cbridges@barrowjournal.com The first gift of Christmas was a child THERE ARE several dozen smiling faces in this week’s newspaper, faces which mute the cynics and renew the faithless. This newspaper compiled photos of area children in a special series of pages this week. These children are those in whose hands rest all of our dreams. Where but in the eyes of a child can you see both the past — little Tommy has granddad’s eyes, sister Suzie has her mother’s hair — and the future — Blake wants to be a fireman, Jane a doctor. Tomorrow is a memory of today by the children, youngsters whose inno cence is our joy, whose faces light up our homes and whose wonder keeps tradition alive. Many cultures believe that it is the old who keep traditions, who pass down the wisdom of years and the touchstones of life. But it is the young who are the torchbearers. Without a new generation to teach, traditions mean very little. It is that faith in the future and our collective desire to pass the cultural torch which makes Christmas a spe cial season. It is a season of faith, not only of religion, but also in our humanity. Even with the kitsch and commercialism being blared around us, the fundamental desire for “peace on earth, good will to men” rings through. Our social conventions may sometimes be shallow, but somehow generation after generation will touch the core of the Christmas spirit and be renewed. For some, it is a season of mixed emotions. Amid all the gaiety, there are the memories of friends and fami ly who are gone. The music, the smell of a Christmas tree and the annual nesting of families bring back the bit tersweet thoughts. For others, it will be the last Christmas together. There are those who face the inevitable end and even having lived a good and long life is little consolation to the families who will miss them. But in the faces of their offspring, of the great-grandchildren who laugh and play around them, is the faith that pulls life forward. Without the laughter of children, there would be an empti ness in their wake. And so, the torch is passed and the traditions continue, someday to be in the hands of those who now play around the Christmas tree and peek up the chimney. The past and the future come together at Christmas — the memories of our own childhoods mixed with the new memories now being formed by our children. They will someday look back at this special time and smile just as we do at our own childhood memories. And someday our children’s chil dren will tug at the Christmas tree orna ments and be amazed by the shimmer ing Christmas lights along city streets. They will sing in church plays and perform in school concerts. They will sit on Santa’s knee and promise to be good so they can get that new bike. They will look at the nativity set and rearrange the pieces, always making a special place for the Baby Jesus. They will want to watch the tape of Rudolph until they know every line by heart. They will ask 1,000 questions about the sleigh and reindeer. They will leave milk and cookies because Santa’s sure to be hungry. They will check the stockings every day, just in case. They will eat too much candy and be happy about it. They will hope. They will dream. And they, too, will someday know that the first gift of Christmas was a child. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal and Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. This is his annual Christmas column. Being thankful in difficult times It’s 5 a.m. and I’m fresh off a 3 p.m. - 3 a.m. shift in the ER. I’m a social worker there, which is, at times boring — as in, “Bring me a Coke, or a blanket, or help me make a phone call.” It is also, at times, quite har rowing — as in, “Call this man’s family and tell them he has died in an ‘MVC’ (motor vehicle crash), and, get them here right away to identify his body and claim his valuables.” Really, really bizarre work — good work — but often really, really bizarre work. Tonight’s shift started out slow, which meant I had time to com plete my “holiday bereavement cards.” These are personal notes written to anyone I’ve tried to help through an awful experience during the past year. This year’s list included families of a “GSW” (gun shot wound — in this case, fatal) to the head; a prema ture and quickly fatal stroke; a suicide; a foreseen, but still very sad heart attack; and a 10-week old baby’s death. Serious stuff here. These people are hurting intense ly this holiday season and here I am, fretting about Mr. Clark finding work. Around 1:30 in the morning, as it often does, ER hell broke loose. A woman transferred from another hospital, bleed ing badly, is in need of surgery tonight. Her distraught, but clearly strong and connected family, signs the consent forms and tries to deal with the news from the surgeon that, “she probably won’t make it through this...” The wife and daughter of a man with untreated high blood pressure hear that he has suffered “a massive stroke from which he won’t recover.” Such strong women they were, praying and crying and talking to him, touching his chest and telling him how much they love him and how much they needed him to get better, while at the same time saying good bye. There was an intubated man, also transferred from another hospital, his injuries the result of an MVC. In this case, his girlfriend apparently dropped him off Let’s shut this IT WAS a moment for the history books last week as 15 Georgians gathered at the Golden Dome to play their role in finalizing the Electoral College outcome of this year’s race for president. The ceremony was duplicat ed in state capitals around the nation as the members of the Electoral College formally decid ed that Democratic nominee Barack Obama would become the first African-American to be elected president of the United States. Republican candidate John McCain, who lost the election to Obama, carried 52 percent of Georgia’s popular vote so he received the state’s 15 electoral votes, which were officially cast by 15 persons selected by the state Republican Party. Gov. Sonny Perdue told the electors sitting at antique wooden desks in the state Senate chamber that their actions symbolized the peaceful transition of power that takes place with every change of administrations. “We understand the other side got more votes and we accept that,” Perdue said. “We’re Americans, and I want this administration to be successful because I want America to be successful. We’ll have another shot in four years.” The certificates from the electors for Georgia and the 49 other states will be forwarded to the U.S. Senate, where they will be formally counted and a winner declared in a joint session of Congress held on Jan. 8. The Electoral College is a process as old as the American republic, but it has also been a target of criticism for many years. You can say that it’s unfair because presidents, unlike every other elected official in this country, are not required to win the office by popular vote. You can also make the argument that it thwarts the will of the people because it allows a candidate to win the presidency even if he receives fewer popular votes than his opponent - as we saw with George W. Bush in the 2000 election. Critics also contend that the “winner take all” aspect of awarding a state’s electors to one candidate effec tively disenfranchises those who vote for the other candidate: this would include the 1.8 million people in Georgia who voted for Obama, as well as the five at the ER and left. As head injury patients often are, he was combative and somehow ended up heavily sedated and on a breathing machine — no family, friends or girlfriend in sight, no numbers in the chart or anywhere on him to call. Add to all that, the poor panic attack girl who was on her second ER visit. After the seventh panic attack of the day and you really begin to count your blessings. After all, it is the holiday season and many of us have brightly lit Christmas trees or other holiday deco rations shining in our homes. We have loved ones and good health and holiday plans that involve good food, much laughter and excellent fellowship. It’s hard to imagine, as we gather near our Christmas trees or Menorahs or whatever, that some — in fact, so many — folks are struggling so hard, just trying to make it through the aftermath of a terrible tragedy. On the way out of the hospital I stopped to look at the huge Christmas tree they put up in the main lobby each year. It’s three stories high and replete with lights and great big shiny ornaments. Even though the hos pital was quiet and dark, almost eerily so at 4 a.m., I swear I heard a few strains of Silent Night swirling up around that beautiful tree, lifting softly and sweetly into the night. I thought about all the sad situations and difficult times happening to people in rooms all over this big place — and I said a heartfelt prayer of thanks. My life certainly has some very real, very big-seem ing problems looming relentlessly over our heads, even as we try to solve them. The brightness of my New Year, given the state of the economy and Mr. Clark’s continued unemployment, is in no way guar anteed. But I do have a healthy family who will gather around my Christmas tree again this year and once again, we are all, in various degrees, okay. Life, and God, are good, and I see that, and I hear that, in the faces and words of so many of the people who pass through the ER, having such very terrible days. They talk of love, and faith, and happy memo ries. There are no words of hate at an ER bedside. There are only tears, and hope, and sometimes — to those serving at that bedside — a reminder of how thankful we all must be. Lorin Sinn-Clark is a columnist for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal. com The Barrow Journal Winder, Barrow County, Ga. www.BarrowJoumal.com POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Barrow Journal, 77 East May Street, Winder, Georgia 30680 Published 52 times per year by Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Rates Pending at Winder, Ga. Email: news@barrowjournal.com Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397) Fax: 678-425-1435 SUBSCRIPTIONS: Inside Barrow County $15.00/yr; Senior Citizens in Barrow $13.00/yr.; Surrounding Counties $19.75/yr.; Other In-State $38.85/yr.; Out of State $44.50/yr.; Military/APO $42.50/yr. Out of county Senior Citizens Deduct $2 college down million people in California, the four million people in Florida, and the 2.7 million people in New York who voted for McCain. While the Electoral College system has not been eliminated, it is slowly changing. Two states - Maine and Nebraska - now provide for a portion of their electoral votes to be awarded to the candidate who gets the most votes in a congressional district. This feature enabled Obama to get one electoral vote in Nebraska, even though McCain carried the overall statewide vote. Several states have also adopted laws that provide for their electoral votes to be awarded to the candidate who gets the most popular votes nationwide - with a proviso that these laws will only take effect when they have been adopted by states controlling a majority of the electoral votes. Maryland last year was the first state to adopt this “national popular vote” compact and similar bills have been passed by New Jersey, Hawaii and Illinois. The same measure has been introduced in Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. A group of Democratic legislators in Georgia plan to introduce their own version of a “popular vote” bill in next year’s session “This is not a partisan issue, this is an issue about expanding democracy,” said Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) at a news conference held shortly before the Republican electors met at the capital. While nearly 47 percent of the state’s voters supported Obama, they “will have no voice, no representation in the votes today that are cast for Georgia,” Orrock said. “We believe it’s time for a change in this state and time for a change in this country,” said Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur), who called the Electoral College “flawed and outdated.” “I should think this is a non-partisan issue, because at some point this state could turn blue and Republicans would want their votes to count,” Benfield added. “This is something everyone should be supportive of.” It is not likely that the popular vote bill will be adopted in Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature, but the idea is obviously picking up support in other states. “I think momentum is growing,” Orrock said. “It’s not going to happen overnight - change rarely does.” Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@ caDitolimDact.net. Time to remember what is important THE ECONOMY is in the tank. Multi-billion dollar industries in our country, which operates on a tree- market system, are begging for a handout. It’s enough to make the common working man and woman — the ones who hope for even a small raise after 12 months of back breaking work — bitter. Yet, as much as it would be, and is, justi fied, to be madder than you know what about these things, I don’t find myself thinking about them. At least I’m not thinking about them this week. The timing is simply not right. My mind is on thoughts of more impor tant things like family and friends and co-workers, past and present, who made my every day existence bearable. Christmas is here again and I refuse to allow myself to fall in the steel trap of bitterness. There’ll be plenty of time for that when the cal endar turns to January and a new year. For now I find myself thinking of Christmases past when as I child I was fortunate to always have plenty of presents under the tree. I realize not all children are as fortunate. As a child you just assume everyone else has as much as you do. As you grow older, you realize that is not the case. I find myself thinking of my grand parents and how the holidays were always associated with them. I recall numerous Christmas Eves spent with my paternal grandparents and then Christmas morning with my maternal grandparents. These holi day traditions lasted for years and I think now what I wouldn’t give to be able to enjoy one more Christmas Eve and one more Christmas morn ing with all of them. I find myself thinking of my grand parents a great deal this time of year. We continue a tradition today of eating an old-fashioned Southern breakfast as a way of honoring my maternal grandparents. I don’t even have to close my eyes to instantly recall seeing what it was like during those times in my grandparents’ home on Christmas morning. We didn’t always have the Christmas weather Bing Crosby sung about, but the family gathering was perfect all the same. While Thanksgiving is the holiday associated with being thankful, I find myself giving thanks for so much during this time of year as well. It’s about family and friends and all that we have been blessed with. It’s easy to think about what we don’t have or what we think we have been denied. No doubt in many cases it is justified in thinking those things. But I realize I have been blessed beyond anything I have deserved. From a strong family support system to being employed full-time since graduating college to recently fulfill ing a professional goal, which I had begun to wonder whether or not it would ever happen, I have been blessed mightily. That’s why I try to share some of my blessings with those I know. It’s about giving a co-worker who has been a friend something special at Christmas and seeing the look of appreciation on their face. It’s about gathering with family and not think ing about work or politics or the problems of the world, even if only for a little while. It’s about realizing what’s truly important in our lives and making sure we emphasize those things more. I trust this Christmas is the best yet for you and your family. I thank you for your bringing our paper into your home and I look forward to a great 2009. Chris Bridges is editor of the Barrow Journal. E-mail comments to cbridges@barrowjournal. com. chris bridges