Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 5A
Dear Mr. President
jimmy
terrell
Now that you have
been in office for about
three weeks, I have a few
thoughts I would like to
pass on.
To be hon
est with you,
I didn’t think
you were the
best candi
date for the
job.
However,
as we moved
through the
campaign
you said a
lot of things
I liked. You
were certainly the best of
the two November choic
es.
Sometimes, your
delivery was more than
brash but your message
resounded with a lot of
us who are Constitution
alists and avid supporters
of the republic. It didn’t
take long to see that a
large portion of your
message was one a lot of
us wanted to hear.
I particularly liked
your comment on “drain
ing the swamp!”
Washington, D.C. has
become a quagmire and
it’s not all mud and water.
I’m surprised the peo
ple in our nation’s capi
tal don’t wear waders to
work every day.
I can come to Washing
ton if you want or need
someone to wade out into
the muck and pull the
plug.
It would be an honor to
serve my country in that
manner.
You were, and remain,
on target when you spoke
about the unnecessary
burdens placed upon us
by the Environmental
Protection Agency.
You may not be aware
but several years ago,
farmers were told to
report the amount of flat
ulence (gas) their live
stock herds produce.
At the time, I was chair
of our Local Emergency
Planning Committee and
a farmer from Madison
County called and asked
“...how in the h A #l ...”
was he supposed to mea
sure his herd’s gas releas
es and in what format did
I want his report.
To protect the innocent,
I can’t go into further
detail.
It was about the same
time the Obama adminis
tration also came out with
the ruling that if you have
a ditch on your property
and it collects rain water
then the feds consider it
to be a navigable water
way. That prohibited the
landowner from doing
anything to restrict the
flow of water into or out
of that ditch, regardless
of erosion issues or for
any other reason.
You also mentioned
you would help reduce
the restrictions placed on
businesses and the Dodd-
Frank issue was in your
sights. You were right on
target, so keep pulling
the trigger.
The Second Amend
ment folks will keep you
supplied with ammuni
tion that we thought we
would need to defend the
Constitution.
As a veteran, I like
your position on Russia
(Ukraine), China and
Iran, as well as your
commitment to cleaning
up the Veterans Admin
istration.
I think 99 percent of
our vets and active duty
personnel realize the
degree of endangerment
Obama placed upon our
country by reducing our
military strength.
Obama made some
serious tactical errors
with Iran and we need to
draw a line.
He obviously wasn’t
strong at drawing
lines or else he
was forgetful and
couldn’t remem
ber where he drew
lines.
I know you took
some heat this
week from the left
and their media
platforms for say
ing you respected
Russian Premier
Vladimir Putin.
I’m sure you lost a cou
ple of minutes of sleep
over their moans and
groans.
However, we know that
a warrior who fails to
respect his enemy will
find himself in deep trou
ble.
That’s been the wisdom
of both conventional and
unconventional warfare
for hundreds of years.
While we are discuss
ing Washington, I hope
you will check on some
recent correspondence I
recently received from
Medicare/Medicaid Ser
vices regarding discrimi
nation of services.
The letter was printed
in 15 different languages
on one piece of paper;
English, Spanish, Ara
bic, Armenian, French,
German, Haitian Creole,
Italian, Japanese, Kore
an, Polish, Portuguese,
Russian, Tagalog, and
Vietnamese.
This means American
taxpayers are paying for
translators and mailing.
My personal feeling is
that if you are in America
legally, drawing tax payer
services, you should be
able to read and speak
English. Maybe that’s
a little old fashion but
that’s pretty much the
way it works in the rest
of the world.
I would also like to
offer some suggestions.
While I largely agree
and didn’t have any heart
burn with your travel ban
on potential terrorists, I
would like to say that it
wasn’t well thought out.
It may have been
implemented too quickly
and, frankly, made your
team look a little ama
teurish.
Restricting travel for
those who were already
approved to be in the
country was awkward,
even though the issue
was quickly resolved.
I think you have a large
number of people who
agree that it was import
ant to get the ban in place
quickly before anyone
realized there would be
limited travel rights.
Hindsight always bites
you as you know, espe
cially when the major
news networks are just
waiting to shoot at you on
any issue and paid agita
tors are stationed around
the country waiting to
deploy on a moment’s
notice.
I would like to suggest
fewer tweets or at least
be more informative and
less caustic.
Your criticism of Judge
James Robart over the
so-called travel ban was
somewhat harsh.
While I disagree with
his reasons (I admit I am
not a jurist), he is a part
of our judicial system
created by our founding
fathers, which you sup
port.
Please allow the courts
to work.
I wish you wouldn’t
take things so personally
and immediately go on
the attack.
The media is waiting
for your response and, of
course, they have a hey
day in attacking you and
your thought process.
Let’s go unconvention
al here.
Don’t respond for at
least 48 hours.
I think your waiting
will absolutely drive
them nuts.
Make them wait and
wonder.
I’m giving you a grade
of B to date; B is bet
ter than what we had or
could have gotten.
Jimmy Terrell is a
retired law enforce
ment official. He can be
reached at ejterrell@
gmail.com.
Letter to the Editor
President Trump’s executive order
on Muslim refugees
Dear Editor:
The conservative think tank Cato
Institute did an investigation on which
countries have made attacks on U.S.
soil since 1975 through 2015, including
the 9/11 attacks.
They tallied up the number of attacks
on us by citizens from those Muslim
countries. Their findings are very inter
esting: those seven countries that Trump
barred have “zero” attacks on us, while
Saudi Arabia has 2,369 attacks; United
Arab Emirates 314: and Egypt 162.
Why didn’t Trump include those
three countries since they have a history
of their people attacking us? All 9/11
instigators were from Saudi Arabia. If
Tramp is, as he claims, seriously con
cerned about ISIS attacks on us, isn’t
it logical for him to take the Cato Insti
tute’s findings and include those three
countries as well? We all know that he
has business ties to those three.
Even many Republicans, including
Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Gra
ham are opposing this executive order.
Their concern is that this order has
made us less safe by inflaming a reli
gious war. His action may make Israel
a target from those countries that once
were friendly with the U.S.
Already 21 Republican elected offi
cials have issued statements against the
president’s executive order.
On a personal note: I have an excel
lent dentist in Athens, who keeps my
old teeth healthy. She happens to be an
Iranian. I have an appointment with a
highly recommended family doctor in
Winder. She is so popular that I have to
wait for over a month to see for the first
time. She is a Syrian. What is going to
happen to them when they go out of the
country to visit their family, or even just
to go on vacation abroad? They have
put their roots here and have been tak
ing care of our health in our community.
Do we want them out, just because
they are from Muslim countries?
Sincerely,
Yoshiko Acey
Winder
Buffington continued from 4A
“I don’t like it because many people
are ready to come, but when Tramp
said they can’t come anymore, they’d
already sold everything.” one of them
said about approved refugees who had
left the camps for preliminary training
programs in Thailand before coming to
the U.S.
The people she was referring to have
been caught in the middle. They have
valid refugee visas, but no place to live
while they wait and see if their refugee
status will be honored by the U.S. gov
ernment.
Three other women refugees and their
children are currently at Jubilee from the
Congo. As is typical, these new arrivals
spend two or three months at Jubilee
before being resettled to Clarkston. One
mom and her children were scheduled
to move to Clarkston the day following
our visit.
We met three of her school age chil
dren in a small classroom at Jubilee.
These three girls were being prepared to
attend American schools, a concept that
is very foreign for many refugees.
The day before our visit, the kids had
been taken to Comer Elementary School
to see how American schools are orga
nized. They had their photos taken in
classrooms, the lunchroom, gym. office,
playground, etc. They showed me the
photos and read aloud tag lines their
teacher had prepared for them.
Once enrolled in a public school in
Clarkston, these children will first be
given intensive language instruction
before they move into regular class
rooms.
By all accounts, the Northeast Georgia
community has always been welcoming
to Jubilee and its refugees. The Method
ist and Baptist churches in Comer hold
citizenship classes for Jubilee refugees.
And the group’s leaders say the com
munity has always been willing to help
refugees — the organization’s 38 years
of success seems to bear that out.
But here’s the strange thing: The same
community that has been so accommo
dating to resettling refugees for so many
years heavily supported Donald Tramp
for president last November, a man who
has openly disparaged refugees.
Which perhaps goes to show that it’s
easy for us to belittle a group of people in
the abstract, but when it’s people we see
and know personally, it’s different.
“Refugees” aren’t a group, they’re
individuals. They have names. And they
each have stories of how they were driv
en from their homes and had to flee their
native lands.
Visiting Jubilee Partners last week was
a refreshing reminder that even amid all
the ugly anti-refugee rhetoric we hear,
there are still good people who extend
Christian charity to those being perse
cuted.
I think there’s something written in the
Bible about that.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of
Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be
reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
February 8, 2017 ~ Crossword Puzzle
Across
1. Powder mineral
5. Ten million (in India)
10. Culture medium and
a gelling agent
14. Cain and_
15. Bullfighting maneuvers
16. Baseball’s Ruth
17. Venice beach
18. Infirm due to old age
19. Attentiveness
20. Mortify
22. Whale (Norwegian)
23. Family Bufonidae
24. “A Passage to India” author
27. Ocean
30. Dad’s partner
31. Owned
32. Swiss river
35. Female golf star Gibson
37. Base
38. A way to summons
39. Acquit
40. Male parent
41. Brendan Francis author
42. Rattan
43. Aromatic hot beverage
44. Inflorescence
45. Former CIA
46. Make lace
47. Airborne (abbr.)
48. Thieving bird
49. H. Potter’s creator
52. Frequency
55. Nothing
56. More lucid
60. Riding mount
61. Deducted container weight
63. Molten rock
64. In this place
65. Ancient upright stone slab
bearing markings
66. Rumanian Mures River city
67. Mentioned before
68. An heir (civil law)
69. Without (French)
Down
1. W. Samoan monetary unit
2. Baby’s feeding apparel
3. Queen of Sparta
4. Shut
5. Certified public accountant
6. Payment for release
7. Red twig dogwood
8. Basked in
9. Midway between E and SE
10. A way to detest
11. Mother of Cronus
12. In bed
13. Bolsheviks
21. Farro wheat
23. CNN’s Turner
25. Farmers of America
26. Small amount
27. and Venzetti
28. Hers in Spanish
29. Belongs to sun god
32. Expressed pleasure
33. Small terrestrial lizard
34. Regenerate
36. Own (Scottish)
37. The cry made by sheep
38. Chest muscle (slang)
40. Explode
41. Notice
43. Pitch
44. Run due to the batter
46. Fight referee declares
47. Alternate forms of a gene
49. Shifted in sailing
50. One who cables
51. Elaborate celebrations
52. Expresses pleasure
53. Carbamide
54. Persian in Afghanistan
57.1st capital of Japan
58. Welsh for John
59. Radioactivity units
61. Tanzanian shilling
62. Hyrax
1
2
3
4
14
17
20
27
28
29
35
39
42
45
'°
11
12
13
52
53
54
60
64
67
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