Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016
Archibald Rutledge
McCLELLANVILLE. S. C. — A brief
sojourn into South Carolina’s low coun
try offers much. If you should make a
list, you begin with hospitality, charm
and history. You’ll find that everywhere,
A recent trip began with a stopover in Isle
of Palms, the barrier island, connected to
Charleston geographically like
being joined at the hip.
If you have been to Charles
ton before, you likely are a kin
dred spirit of those who profess
that they can't get enough of
the Holy City. My hand, as we
speak, is raised in confirmation
that I belong to that fraternity.
Founded in 1670 as Charles
Towne, Charleston has experi
enced as many ups and downs
as a cotton farmer in the boll
weevil era.
When you travel, it is nice
to be a favored guest. Bobby Johnson,
the former football coach at Vanderbilt,
and his lovely wife, Catherine, were
our hosts at the appropriately named,
“Bobcat Inn” on our excursion to the
low country. Bobby’s skill on the Green
Egg and Catherine’s touch in the kitch
en resulted in a meal worthy of several
stars. Good wine and dining alfresco,
while monitoring cruise ships and tankers
ply their way out to sea in slow motion,
raised the spirits. Sagging palms, olean
der. wax myrtle and sea oats, thrive with
a glint of freshness as if they, the sea oats
in particular, know that they can’t be
disturbed without legal recourse. Then
sundown segued into the silver showers
from a full moon. Emotional fulfillment
accompanied the humility of the setting.
Such an ambient setting enveloped by an
arousing and inspirational atmosphere
made one wish he were keeping a diary.
The scene remains affixed in the mind’s
eye, however.
The next day, there was a tour of
Charleston by Bobby’s boat, “Gridiron-
sides.”
This was a new experience, seeing
Charleston from the water, gliding by Ft.
Sumter with flashes of regrettable history
in the forefront of your thoughts.
Bobby allowed Gridironsides to drift
aimlessly at the Morris Island lighthouse.
The sea was slapping ferociously about
the rocks of its foundation, counter punch
ing as if it meant to topple the imposing
structure with sea gulls squawking loudly
and incessantly as if they were competing
for a prize, making no sense but to them-
-like the stockbrokers on the floor of the
New York Stock Exchange.
There was no agenda organized for our
stay at the Bobcat Inn, but a side trip from
Charleston to McClellanville, a commu
nity of 525, allowed for a glimpse in the
past when rice production was an import
ant cash crop, made so on the backs of
poor men. mostly black. At the Village
Museum, the curator handed over a pam
phlet that proclaimed McClellanville now
is the “Seafood Capital of the World.”
Bet that comes as a surprise to countless
seaport villages in New England.
The Atlantic is more than arms
length, but not much so, from the
village which is best described
by South Carolina’s poet lau
reate, Archibald Rutledge, who
grew up in these parts and is
about as highly regarded as the
Revolutionary War General,
Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion.
His words about McClellanville
have endeared him to local resi
dents.
“The village faces n the wide
Green-waving marsh that
fronts the sea
There in the coastline’s curv
ing side.”
It nestles white and tenderly.
We have come here to see the Hampton
Plantation State Historic Site, mainly
because a friend, Coleman Hood, gave
me a book, “Home by the River,” a story
of life on a plantation where Archibald
Rutledge grew up, resettling on the prop
erty late in life where he made do, hunted
and fished to his heart’s content and
wrote about it. His writings are not only
popular among natives of the Palmetto
State, but at large.
His book, “Life’s Extras,” has such
demand that it causes perpetual reprint
ing. Only 44 pages long, it has vignettes
that bring about the greatest aftertaste
when you put it down.
When he was a young man, fresh out of
college. Rutledge settled in Mercersburg,
Pennsylvania, teaching at a preparatory
school for boys. He discovered three
Confederate graves in the local cemetery.
Rutledge wrote about the Confederates
for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which
elicited a response from Hallie Quain-
tance, the widow of one of the soldiers,
who wanted to come visit the grave of her
husband who had left her soon after they
were married, never to return. She was
apprehensive, wondering if she would be
welcome.
The town, Union to the hilt, turned out
en masse to welcome her. Union Army
veterans, flower girls, all citizens of the
town-and, of course, a band. Widow
Quaintance was the guest of honor and
a musical tribute ensued following her
laying of a wreath on her late husband’s
grave, Archibald Rutledge’s title for that
chapter in “Life’s Extras” was “When the
Yankee Band Played Dixie.”
Loran Smith is a columnist for the
Barrow News-Journal. He is host of the
University of Georgia football radio pre
game show.
loran
smith
Letter to the Editor
Expects better from Trump
and this paper’s editor
Dear Editor:
You aren’t the only one who watched
the campaign from the beginning.
You stated Trump won’t be the worst
president in history.
Is the second or third worst up to your
standards?
The clown spoke about the size of his
penis.
He mocked a goldstar family.
How many of his companies went
bankrupt? Do you know?
I sure don’t want him running are
economy.
I could go on and on.
Chris, you should be ashamed and
embarrassed, for this none thought out
article.
Chris, I suppose you think of yourself
as a reporter, well O.K, but try being hon
est. You will be respected for it.
Donald Trump is an embarrassment to
the Republican Party and you know it.
I’m no Hillary Clinton fan either.
Maybe Green Party.
I am hoping for better from you.
I could go on and on.
Maybe just maybe your readers have
higher standards.
Sincerely,
Terrence Dombrowski
Winder
Statham Library to host events
The Statham Public Library has the following programs and events planned for the
upcoming months.
•Ready to Read Pre-K Story Time every Monday at 10:30 a.m.
•Thursday, Sept. 1, at 11 a.m.: Homeschool Parents Organizational Meeting
Friday, Sept. 9, and Fri., Sept. 23, at 1 p.m.: Knitting Club. Beginners welcome.
•Saturday, Sept 17, book sale in front of library beginning at 10 a.m. during the
Statham Sunflower Festival.
All monies raised will be used to purchase a new rug for the children’s area of the
library.
•Thursday, Sept. 22, at 5:30 p.m.: Adult Beginning Computer Skills Class. Call
770-725-4785 for reservations as space is limited.
•Saturday, Sept. 24, and Saturday, Oct. 1, at 11:00 a.m.: Free writing class offered
by Bilbo Books of Athens. Classes will last about an hour. “If you have always want
ed to write a book but didn’t know how to start, this is the class for you,” said Suzy
Dukes.
“The Friends of the Statham Public Library needs you.” said Dukes. “There are
officer positions available, of if you would just like to help our library call 770-725-
4785 or email Dukes at sdukes@prlib.org.”
An organizational meeting of the Statham Home School Community is set for 11
a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1, at the library.
Skinner family reunion set Sept. 11
A family reunion for the descendants of W.N. Sr. and Lena Doster Skinner will be
held at noon on Sunday, Sept. 11, at the Lions Club in Winder.
Solutions to abortion
I am going to follow up with my
column from last week and offer the
solutions from a libertarian perspective.
While I do believe that the termina
tion of any human life (other than
self-defense) is murder, I do not
think that prohibition of abortion
is going to stop abortions any
more than prohibiting drugs has
stopped drug use.
Unfortunately, we do not live
in a utopian society. Because man
is fallible, it is impossible to cre
ate a man-made utopia, and any
attempt to do so will turn into a
dystopic society that is worthy of
a George Orwell novel.
I will say that I am pro-life
because I am pro-choice. By this
I mean that I will not declare that it is
“my body,” and therefore my choice to
choose to abort, but rather that it is the
body of another human being that would
be butchered, and the life of this human
being that would be terminated, and this
is not extending the right to make choic
es to this person if I am the sole person
to decide whether or not he or she lives
or dies.
Because prohibition does not work,
attempting to ban abortion in this nation
at this point would result in a higher
demand, creating a black market that
would then lead to more crime.
We see this with the War on Drugs,
and upon studying history, we see the
exact same thing happened with the pro
hibition of alcohol in the 1920s. For this
reason, we need to focus on the heart of
our culture before trying to take mea
sures to demand the hand of government
to intervene.
One thing that we need to remember
is that women are not victims in every
abortion case.
The majority of the time, women
become pregnant as a result of the
choices they make. Rape consists of
only about 1 % of all abortion procedures
in the nation, which hardly justifies
the victimization of women and their
“rights” to terminate another human life.
For women who are raped, they should
immediately seek help and take advan
tage of emergency contraceptives avail
able. I would support an organization
that would provide such things for these
women, doing whatever necessary to
make them feel safe so that they would
seek help.
We also need to understand that our
life choices make us volunteers, not
victims. I know this isn’t something
that a lot of you want to hear (or read,
in this case), but the truth is my way of
extending love to you and the future of
this nation.
There are some cases in which a wom
an’s health may be at risk if she moves
forward with a pregnancy, which is one
Random Rants in Rhyme
of the rare times abortion may be justifi
able. Self-preservation is a human right.
I shall again reiterate the point I made
in my last article, which is that we must,
as a society, once again value
life and true human rights—
those of life, liberty and the
pursuit of property. (Note that
“Pursuit of Happiness” is men
tioned in the Declaration of
Independence, but not the Con
stitution itself, which is why I
chose this change in terms.)
These rights are inherent,
given to us by our Creator, not
by government.
Government has no authority
to give or take rights, or even
to redefine rights, and the only
reason it exerts such power over us is
because we allow it to. Government’s
sole purpose upon the founding of this
nation was to preserve the rights and
liberties of the people, and now we are
trying to redefine what a “person” is so
that we can exclude them from these
rights.
Let’s not forget this is the exact thing
that was done to justify slavery.
The biggest solution is education
of what abortion really is, what real
ly happens during the procedure, and
the statistics of who is affected most
by abortions: African-American babies
and other minorities. Abortion has been
referred to as a “Black Genocide,” which
is not only supported statistically as
almost 16 million of African-Americans
have been aborted since 1973 after the
Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
While this group only makes up about
13% of the population, they represent
about 36% of abortions performed each
year. This is highly disproportionate.
This is not surprising if we under
stand the motives of Planned Parenthood
founder, Margaret Sanger, who believed
that “birth control must ultimately lead
toward a cleaner race,” (Birth Control
Review, p. 108, 1932) and that “[the]
most successful educational approach
to the Negro is through the religious
appeal. We don’t want the word to go
out that we want to exterminate the
Negro population, and the minister is the
man who can straighten out that idea if
it ever occurs to any of their more rebel
lious members.” (Women, Morality, and
Birth Control, p. 12, 1922)
Once we have an understanding—
both political and historical—of what it
truly means to deprive the right to life
from another person, we will be able to
understand how demeaning it is to our
race to deny the chance at life to our
own kind.
Jessica Swords is a local columnist.
She can be reached at jlswordsl998@
aol.com.
Can Sharia Law Be Far Behind?
A little chink here - a little chunk there -
just enough to raise a few eyebrows -
have brought our country into despair,
the terrible place where we stand now.
dr.
cb
skelton
At first, we were a Christian nation.
Oh, not everyone exalted Christ’s name,
but His principles formed our Constitution
and our laws and our courts upheld the same.
Most “institutions of higher learning”
were chartered by Christians with a common faith.
But many of them are presently spurning
and mocking the idea of salvation by grace.
Professors with humanistic knowledge
suggest that Christians “have rocks in their heads,”
teaching evolution as fact to our kids in college.
One even reasoned that God is dead.
The so-called “Blue Laws” affected sales
and nonessential work on the Sabbath day.
But they have vanished - with Christians as well -
and respect for the Sabbath has fallen away.
The ten Commandments may not be displayed
in any government building or function.
If the Bible were read or somebody prayed,
how long would it take to get an injunction?
Many more things have happened that show
that we. as a nation, have turned our backs on God.
He has taken notice and wants us to know
that a price will be paid for the path we trod.
His hand of great blessing has been removed,
and hatred and fear are on every hand.
To regain His blessing, then we are behooved
to have great revival sweep through the land.
The latest example of our defection
came with Obama’s hand-picked selection
of Carolyn Walker, a Muslim woman
as judge in a municipal court in Brooklyn.
She made her oath on the holy Koran -
a thing that blows most American minds.
Since the Koran only sanctions the Sharia plan,
can Sharia Law be far behind?
© 2016,cbs
Dr. CB Skelton is a Winder resident and retired physician.