Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011
BARROW JOURNAL
PAGE 5A
“I don’t like those...”
It's a good thing when we decide to make
friends with our childhood fears and phobias.
They can cause us to miss out on some really
good stuff.
If you know any kids — or ever were one
— you know that little folks have a funny
way of deciding for no particular
reason they don't like something.
My oldest nephew had an aversion to
people with anything on their heads.
He didn’t like hats, caps, hoods,
bonnets or hair curlers and not just
on his head. He didn't like them on
anybody else’s head either. And if
you were wearing any of them, he
wouldn't have anything to do with
you until you had removed the offen
sive items.
His phobia extended to hair dryer
bonnets, as well. My mother had
a stand hair dryer like the ones in
beauty salons. If any of us were
sitting under the dryer, Russ refused to even
come in the room.
Did I mention that Russ also disliked noisy
motors? The vacuum cleaner and air condi
tioner sent him into hiding. We finally were
able to calm him about the air conditioner
because we assured him it was only outside
and would not come into the house to “get”
him.
Kids often decide they don’t like a particu
lar food or another. In the movie “A Christmas
Story”, younger brother Randy didn’t like to
eat at all; his mother had to play ten kinds of
games to entertain him into eating. The piggy
snarfing mashed potatoes was especially dis
gusting.
My daddy had turned up his nose at toma
toes for as long as I could remember. (That
would probably be because he and his dislike
had been around a lot longer than I. It's funny
how that works...)
Daddy loved to eat and usually ate just
about anything put in front of him. But he
had managed to reach adulthood without
eating a tomato — at least not a raw one. He
liked ketchup, tomato soup, stewed tomatoes,
spaghetti sauce — just about anything with a
cooked tomato — but had decided he didn't
like tomatoes fresh from the garden. He didn't
know why. He just had decided he didn't like
tomatoes.
The tomato thing came to a screeching halt
one summer when Sara Wall started bringing
in fresh vegetables from their garden. Sara
and her husband Clarence had a big garden.
They grew scads of tomatoes, corn, beans
— heaven knows what all they had out there
in Statham — and Sara was always bringing
fresh vegetables to the drug store to share with
all of us. We never lacked for home grown
vegetables in the summer. They grew some
of the most beautiful corn I've ever seen. The
tomatoes were so big, I had to use both hands
to hold one of them.
It became a summertime ritual
for Sara to make tomato sand
wiches for everyone. She'd spread
some paper towels on a counter in
the office, break out a loaf of bread,
a jar of mayonnaise, and the salt
and pepper.
Those big oT tomato slices abso
lutely dwarfed the bread; we’d have
to wrap the sandwiches in paper
towels to corral the juice so it
didn't trail down our arms as we
devoured those heavenly summer
feasts. Before long, the aroma of
fresh sliced tomatoes permeated
the air and everybody lined up for
lunch.
Everybody except Daddy, that is. He would
automatically respond that he didn't like
tomatoes. But being a man of science, he
came to question why he liked everything
with tomatoes in it — even chicken stew and
vegetable soup — but wouldn’t eat a raw
tomato; it just didn't make sense.
Whether it was the scent of those juicy
tomatoes or the eagerness with which we all
devoured our sandwiches, I’ll never know, but
I remember the day my 60-some-odd year old
father finally decided there was something
unnatural — certainly un-Southern — about
his distaste for fresh tomatoes.
There’s no telling how long he'd been
puzzling over it. He once pondered a leaky
bathtub faucet for over three months before
accepting that the problem was not a faulty
washer and he needed to call Bob Sharpe to
come fix it. This tomato thing had been going
on for decades.
So he made the sacrifice. He asked Sara
to fix him a tomato sandwich and he'd give
it a try. And he liked it. So he ate another
one. And then another one. He became an
overnight connoisseur of the fresh tomato
sandwich.
Over the next 25 years, Daddy and tomatoes
made up for lost time. He even started watch
ing “Victory Garden” and planted tomatoes
every summer ‘til just a few years ago.
As for Russ, he made friends with hats and
noisy motors. He became a pilot.
Helen Person is a Winder resident and col
umnist for the Barrow Journal. You can reach
her at helenperson@windstream.net.
Letter to the Editor
The two faces of a bad economy
Teachers should watch out for their pension funds
Every few years the idea circulates at the
Capitol that it sure would be a good idea
to start using the state’s pension money to
invest in exotic business ventures.
During the Roy Barnes administration
there was a proposal to amend state law
so that the money in public pension plans
could be steered to such private equity
investments as leveraged buyout funds,
venture capital funds, and timberland.
A few years later, during the Sonny
Perdue administration, several bills were
introduced that would have authorized the
retirement systems to put billions of dol
lars into similar investment alternatives.
None of those proposals made it into
law, but the urge to gamble with the state’s
pension money never goes away. Our
governor and legislators cannot long resist
the temptation to play around with those
funds.
This year, one of the smaller state pen
sion systems — the Georgia Firefighters’
Pension Fund - was allowed to put some of
its money into alternative funds that invest
in startup business ventures and the debts
of financially ailing companies.
Gov. Nathan Deal recently told the
Georgia Research Alliance he supports
ending the ban on alternative investments
for the other pension systems, which is a
sure indication that such legislation will be
passed next year.
Supporters of these exotic investments
contend they will earn higher returns for
the pension plans than the more conserva
tive stocks and bond funds that draw these
systems’ investments. The billions socked
away in state pension funds can also boost
economic development by providing ven
ture capital for startup businesses, support
ers say.
They rarely mention that these alterna
tive investments carry much higher risks
as well - upping the odds that the pension
plans could lose the money they invest in
these business schemes.
The two largest plans are the Employees’
Retirement System (ERS) and the Teachers
Retirement System (TRS). They use their
nearly $60 billion in total assets to pay
monthly benefits to more than 150,000
retired state employees and teachers. I
don’t think these retirees would feel very
good about knowing their future pension
checks are being gambled on startup busi
ness ventures.
When the diversification of pension funds
was first discussed more than a decade ago,
the chairman of the ERS board of trustees
identified another troublesome possibility.
“The main problem is people who start
to apply pressure to the governor or other
politicians because
they’re starting a ven
ture capital fund and
they want to get $10
million or $20 million
in state money,” said
Michael Kennedy. “We
want to take as much
politics off the table as
possible.”
Let’s think about this
as well: we have a
governor whose track
record as an investor
is not one that would
normally inspire confidence. Deal lost
more than $2 million in a failed business
started by one of his daughters and is still
trying to pay off the debts associated with
that venture.
The governor now thinks it’s a good idea
to invest state pension funds in startup
business ventures. If I were a retiree, I
might have some questions about that.
Keep in mind that our retirement systems
traveled this high-risk, high-reward path
before and lost quite a lot of money.
From October 1998 to November 2001,
the state’s two largest pension systems
spent $166 million to purchase more than
2.5 million shares of stock in the high-fly
ing Texas energy company Enron, think
ing they would get better returns on their
money than they would from more conser
vative investments.
Unfortunately for our pension plans,
Enron’s management ranks included a fair
number of con artists and hustlers who
ran the company into one of the largest
bankruptcy filings in American history in
December 2001.
Enron’s stock price quickly plummeted
from more than $90 a share to 25 cents a
share. Georgia’s retirement plans ended up
with net losses of $127 million from that
attempt at diversification.
That’s essentially what Deal and the
other proponents of raiding the pension
funds want to do now - allow the systems
to make similar kinds of high-risk invest
ments in hopes that they might earn larger
returns on their money.
Perhaps it will work this time. If it
doesn’t work out, however, then a lot of
retired teachers and government employ
ees could be facing a very uncertain finan
cial future.
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia
Report, an internet news service at gare-
port.com that reports on government and
politics in Georgia. He can be reached at
tcrawford @ gareport. com.
Dear Editor:
While reflecting on the cur
rent state of our economy,
I can't help but think about
the previous biggest negative
economic event in our coun
try’s history, namely the Great
Depression of the 1930's.
(Oh, and by the way, how
crazy is it that the “powers
that be” think that we are
not currently in a recession.
Technically, a recession is two
consecutive quarters of nega
tive growth in the gross domes
tic product. Huh? It can only
be compared to the following
scenario: you come home to
discover that your house has
been totally destroyed and
blown away. Of course, you
think that a tornado has come
through your town. But, no...
the National Weather Service
has good news...it was not a
tornado, rather it was straight
line winds! What a relief! But
wait, isn’t the result the same?
You are homeless because
your house blew away! That
is the only comparison I can
come up with...we are techni
cally not in a recession, but it
sure feels like it!)
The reference to the “two
faces of a bad economy” are
to the pictures of the Great
Depression as contrasted to
any pictures we would take
of the current bad economy.
If you were to look up “Great
Depression Pictures” on the
internet, you would discover
the following themes: gaunt
men, women and children;
poorly clothed children with
no shoes; cars and bug
gies packed with all a fam
ily's earthly possessions; men
standing in line for soup;
pictures of the dust bowl;
and people sleeping on park
benches. Of course these pic
tures would be in black and
white, and most of the expres
sions on the faces are of utter
desperation.
If one were to take pictures
of the current economic down
turn, I suggest the following
would be included; houses
abandoned with unkept lawns
and “for sale” signs; an abun
dance of commercial space for
rent or sale; and, well, that's
pretty much it. Random cur
rent pictures would include:
highways bustling with traffic
and large, modern cars; busy
shopping malls on the week
ends; people that are — for the
most part — very overweight;
schools that look pretty much
the same as in previous years;
and an overall appearance of
an economy that most of the
world is envious of in many
ways.
So, why is this econom
ic downturn so different in
appearance? Here is a list of
my thoughts: food stamps and
food banks with preserved
food allow for storage and
distribution to the needy; the
internet allows for job post
ings and job applications
online; unemployment pay
ments keep money flowing,
along with welfare benefits;
people have larger houses
which allow for multiple fam-
Barrow Democrats to meet Monday
The Barrow Democratic
Party will hold its monthly
business meeting at the Golden
Corral Restaurant on East May
Street in Winder Monday,
Nov. 14. at 7 p.m. All are
invited and welcome. Please
come and get to know your
local Democrats, organizers
said.
$15.50 for 52 issues to the Journal
Call 770.867.6397 today
Maynard easily wins online poll
David Maynard was the run
away winner in an online poll
about the City of Winder may-
oral race.
Maynard obtained more than
87 percent of the votes in a
poll conducted by the Barrow
Journal. Incumbent mayor
Chip Thompson received
approximately eight percent
while just under five percent
said they were undecided.
The election for Winder was
held Tuesday. See today's edi
tion for coverage of local vot
ing.
A new poll is posted weekly
at www.barrowjoumal.com.
Physicians reminding residents to get flu shot
ily members to have a place to
live along with public housing;
and let's not underestimate
the role of prescription anti
depressants. Seriously... those
unfortunate souls in the Great
Depression had to turn to their
Faith, the bottle, or just be
sad. Statistics show that at
least 30 million people in this
country take antidepressants,
(which is about 10% of the
population), and sales of this
category of drugs will top $11
billion annually worldwide.
Antidepressants are the most
widely prescribed medication
in the United States.
Seventy years from now,
when the young folks today
are grandparents, and almost
all of us over the age of 30
will be dead, I guess some
folks will still be talking about
the recession that began in
2008. One can only hope that
they will not be talking about
the second Great Depression
of 2015.
Regardless, when the grand
parents of that future time
relate their stories of eco
nomic hardships, I'm sure the
young folks will look at the
pictures, roll their eyes, and
say “It looks like you had
it pretty good in the early
2000’s...what are you com
plaining about?”
Sincerely,
Dr. Fay S. Burnett
Winder
Sandra B. Reed, M.D.,
the president of the Medical
Association of Georgia
(MAG), is reminding
Georgians to get their annual
flu vaccination.
“As a rule, every patient
who is six months or older
should get vaccinated once
a year,” Reed said. “And we
encourage our patients to
consult with their primary
care physician to discuss the
flu vaccination as part of
their ongoing, overall health
maintenance program.”
Reed stresses that most
patients will just need to get
one vaccination during the
2011-12 flu season since this
year’s vaccine was formu
lated to guard against sev
eral flu viruses, including
the H1N1 strain. She also
says that vaccine supplies are
reportedly in strong supply
this year.
Reed reports that the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) has
estimated that more than
200,000 people are hospital
ized each year in the U.S.
with flu-related complica
tions. Most of the people
who get the flu will recover
in a matter of days, but she
says more serious compli
cations like pneumonia are
possible.
She points out that, “The
very young and the elderly
and the immune-deficient
are patient populations that
should, in particular, be vac
cinated every year.”
The flu can include a vari
ety of symptoms, including
high fever, headache, fatigue,
dry cough, sore throat, mus
cle aches, and stomach symp
toms such as nausea, vomit
ing and diarrhea, according
to Reed - who also reminds
patients to wash their hands
on a regular basis as a good
flu-prevention practice.
Finally, Reed explains
that both the flu shot and
the nasal-spray vaccine are
effective preventative mea
sures when it comes to sea
sonal flu.
“And it is true that minor
side effects can occur, but
you can’t get the flu from the
flu shot or the nasal spray
because the viruses in the
vaccines have been weak
ened or killed,” she added.
For more information, visit
www.flu.gov.
Bethlehem Community Wide
Thanksgiving Service
When: Sunday Night, November 20
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Bethlehem First United Methodist Church
We’ll have combined choirs and orchestras
from several area churches as we worship our Lord
together as one community. Come join us.
www.bigwhitechurch.com
770-867-3727 * 709 Christmas Ave. in Bethlehem
4860 Atlanta Highway, Bogart - Athens
One Mile West of Sam's Club • 770-725-1977
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