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PAGE 6A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017
Caldwell a shining star for Barrow
Letter to the Editor
She has given so much,
to so many.
Life was made for her
and she was made to live
a good life.
Wife, mother,
grandmother,
friend, bridge
player, facilita
tor, politician,
teacher and
mentor — a life
fulfilled.
Barrow Coun
ty has been very
fortunate to be
home for a lady
who has given
so much in such
an unselfish
way.
Saturday night the Bar-
row County Chamber of
Commerce recognized
and celebrated Beth Cald
well at its annual meeting
for her efforts, visions,
and work over the years.
She was the recipient of
The Shining Star Award.
It was well deserved.
I first met Beth in 1975
when I was hired by the
Barrow County Sheriff’s
Department.
I quickly earned her
friendship but more
importantly she became
a mentor for which I will
always be thankful.
It did not take long to
see that once she identi
fied and defined a goal,
the mission was a go.
You could either work
with her or get out of the
way.
My mother would
describe Beth Caldwell as
“headstrong” and that is
certainly without deroga
tory connotations.
If you ever worked with
Beth on a project, you
learned early on that the
phrases “It won’t work,”
or “It can’t work,” were
just not in her vocabulary.
Those of us fortunate to
be working with her found
that things did work,
sometimes with a push,
sometimes with a compro
mise, sometimes with a
good dose of persistence.
I think it's safe to say
Beth has lived her dreams
and Barrow County is for
tunate that Dr. and Mrs.
Keith Caldwell decid
ed to move to Winder in
pursuit of their dreams.
Those who know Beth
would quickly say that her
dreams were always for
others; family, friends and
strangers.
Beth loved challenges
and each chal
lenge that she
took on led to
new challenges, a
greater sense of
good and mean
ing for those
around her.
I don’t believe
the word failure
has ever been in
her vocabulary.
Problems simply
offered new pos
sibilities and new
adventures and she was
never one to hesitate to
step beyond her comfort
zone.
In her pursuit of life,
Beth has been about creat
ing fulfillment and oppor
tunities for both stranger
and friend, as well as our
community.
Beth Rowell Caldwell
grew up in Alabama and
attended Huntington Col
lege. After a face-to-face
discussion with the Aca
demic Dean, Beth took
a different direction in
life and graduated with a
degree in Sociology and a
minor in Education.
She never looked back.
While working with the
American Red Cross, she
was at Fort Jackson, S.C.,
where she met Lt. Keith
Caldwell.
After completing his
service obligation, the
pair married and moved
to Winder where Dr. Cald
well had an opportunity
to purchase an optometric
practice.
They joined the First
United Methodist Church,
began a family, and Beth
began a career of ser
vice to her fellow man.
She taught school and
then went to work for
the Department of Fami
ly and Children Services.
At that point she realized
we needed to do more to
prepare our children for
a future.
She was instrumental in
forming the Barrow Coun
ty Child Development
Center and helped estab
lish the Family Counsel
ing Center through her
church. Her family time
and her bridge club activi
ties provided her with per
sonal time and relaxation.
With visions of more
to do, Beth ran for and
was elected to Winder
City Council, becoming
the first woman elected to
the council.
She later was elected to
the Barrow County Board
of Education and then the
Barrow County Board of
Commissioners.
In 1991, she helped
establish the Winder-Bar
row Certified Fiterate
Community Coalition to
address the county’s high
illiteracy rate.
The results are obvious
today.
In 1990, the county's
illiteracy rate was 42 per
cent and today it stands at
20 percent.
Over 10,000 adults have
been served through vari
ous programs that evolved
from Beth’s dreams. She
knew we could be better.
She then led county
leaders and interested cit
izens in a move to bring
college opportunities to
Barrow County and in
2002 Fanier Technical
College came to Barrow
County.
The success of that
early program led to a
new full-service $16 mil
lion campus now serving
students.
The local campus offers
degrees from Business
Management to mecha-
tronics, to wireless engi
neering.
In the Chamber’s pre
sentation, it was noted
Beth Caldwell came to
Winder to make a home.
Her vision and determina
tion has enabled Barrow
County to have and to be
so much more.
Crystal Paine once said,
“If you want to live an
amazingly fulfilled life,
you must live for some
thing bigger than your
self.”
Beth Caldwell is the
epitome of those words
and Barrow County is for
tunate to have Beth as our
“Shining Star!”
Jimmy Terrell is a
retired law enforcement
official. He can be reached
at ejterrell@gmail.com.
The importance of
Black History Month
Dear Editor:
I watched President Trump’s commem
oration of African-American history month
on television and read his posted prepared
statement. He missed a golden opportunity
to begin the healing process with many
Americans and to connect specifically with
the African-American community. His
speech was disappointing.
To begin with he surrounded himself
mostly with African-American “leaders”
that no one that I know has ever heard
of with the exceptions of Omarosa Man-
igault and Dr. Ben Carson. Omarosa is
from Trump’s television production, “The
Apprentice” (where she was known as the
“the woman America loves to hate.”) She
earned this title resulting from her rancor
ous behavior during game play. Dr. Ben
Carson, who has been nominated by Presi
dent Tmmp to be the Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development, was also there.
Carson, a successful neurosurgeon has no
experience in housing law or in urban devel
opment. More so, he has very close to no
following in the black community. Where
were the most moderate civil rights leaders?
I wonder if they were even invited?
In his short speech President Tmmp
name-dropped three names: Dr. Mar
tin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass,
and Rosa Parks. They are important Afri
can-American figures in American history.
Their struggles and sacrifice impacted tens
of millions of Americans. Volumes can be
written about the protracted and gallant
struggles of all three.
Unfortunately, the president did not men
tion any of their accomplishments nor their
importance in U.S. History. The president
constantly gazed down at his prepared
speech and appeared not to know much
about them.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the only
non-white and Christian minister to have a
national holiday named in his honor. His
campaign of non-violent change in America
was responsible for civil rights, housing, and
voting rights bills that benefited all Ameri
cans. This is a debt that can never be repaid.
Frederick Douglass, a 19th-century
Republican, was a politician and activist
back in the days when Republicans stood up
for working people, farmers, minorities, and
small business owners.
Douglass, a slave at the age of 9, was
given to a family as a gift. His new “owners”
were not familiar with owning a slave and
the woman of the house taught Douglass to
read. The original “owners” upon learning
of this advised them they were breaking
the law by teaching a black to read and that
it would make Douglass unfit as a slave.
Douglass, who grew into a muscular and
tall man. was beaten repeatedly by slave
breakers. He often fought back.
Eventually, he escaped the terrorism of
the slave South. It was not unheard of for
Southern slave owners to cut off the arms
and legs of captured runaways so it took
great courage to flee. The atrocities of the
time were recently depicted in the movie
“12 Years a Slave.”
Douglass made his way to the North
where he was given refuge in the print shop
of a black Connecticut businessman. There
he learned the publishing trade.
Douglass put his knowledge to good use.
He published a newspaper, The North Star,
which documented the horrific stories of
ungodly terror blacks in America faced. He
also wrote and published three best selling
autobiographies.
Douglass was the first black to be nom
inated for Vice President of the United
States. He was a highly regarded orator.
He often defended women’s and Native
American’s rights — as well as for Afri
can-Americans.
I was offended that none of these points
were mentioned in the president’s speech.
The legacy of Douglass continues on
today. His great-great-grandson, Kenneth B.
Morris, Jr., is president of Frederick Doug
las Family Initiatives, which fights human
trafficking.
A mountain of history was available for
the president (and his writers) to consult on
African-Americans’ contributions in sci
ence. math, and invention. One thinks of
the great movie. “Hidden Figures,” which
portrays three mathematicians who calcu
lated flight trajectories that made NASA
orbits possible.
He could have talked about the mili
tary contributions, artistic achievements and
even the White House history documents
the great contributions of slave laborers
(who were kept chained in cages at night on
the White House grounds). The house was
once known as “the house built by slaves.”
See: http://www.bbc.com/travel/sto-
ry/20170112-a-white-house-built-by-blacks
In fact it is the coerced unpaid labor of
millions of Africans over hundreds of years
that made America the richest country on
Earth. See: “The Half Has Never Been
Told: Slavery and the Making of American
Capitalism” by Edward E. Baptist.
President Trump did not see fit to include
any celebratory facts about African-Ameri
cans what so ever.
This kind of slight is the reason that Dr.
Carter G. Woodson started Black History
Month back in February of 1926 because of
America’s legacy of obscuring contributions
of Black America.
The president and all Americans should
read the moving, powerful, and revealing
book titled “Africa’s Gift to America” by J.
A. Rogers. It will open our eyes about the
need for and importance of Black History
Month.
Sincerely
Dwight Acey
Chairman
Barrow County Democratic Party
Winder
Buffington continued from 4A
Now, newer technology
threatens even more jobs.
Driverless trucks, 3-D
manufacturing and artifi
cial intelligence could all
upend many other posi
tions across a number of
job sectors.
A professor at the Uni
versity of Virginia recently
predicted that a “technol
ogy tsunami” could mean
the loss of 47 percent of
American jobs in the com
ing 10-15 years.
Think about that.
Such a massive automa
tion would leave millions
of American unemployed.
That has huge political
and social ramifications
for the nation.
What do we do with that
level of unemployment?
Not all sectors will be hit
as hard in this transition.
Jobs that require human
interaction (medical care,
for example,) and creative
positions will not lose as
many jobs. Still, the pros
pect that millions of jobs
across the nation could
be automated in the com
ing decade or two means
that schools will have to
completely rethink their
education programs. How
do we train people for a
world that is changing so
rapidly?
Politically, how does a
nation survive when tens
of millions of its people
become unemployed?
And what do we do with
people who lack the basic
skills to be retrained for
higher-skilled positions? It
took the Industrial Revo
lution around 200 years to
evolve.
It destroyed a lot of
jobs along the way (think
buggy makers and black
smiths), but it also created
new jobs.
It’s likely that our Tech
nology Revolution will
evolve much faster — per
haps only 20-50 years to
mature — and it’s uncer
tain if it will create very
many new jobs as it makes
old jobs obsolete.
For those of a certain
age, the science fiction
of our youth is becoming
reality.
But what will it mean
for our children and grand
children?
Mike Buffington is
co-publisher of Mainstreet
Newspapers. He can be
reached at mike@main-
streetnews.com.
Low Cost Vaccination Clinic
Saturday, February 25th
lpm to 3pm
Barrow County Animal Control
616 Barrow Park Drive, Winder, GA 30680
ALL SERVICES ARE CASH ONLY
All animals MUST be on leash or in carrier
Rabies (1 year) $10
DHPPV (dogs) $10
FVRCP (cat) $10
Microchipping $20
Dewormer (two doses) $5
Nail trim $5
Information on deeply discounted spay and neuter services
and pet food assistance available
AtnalAIW.
All proceeds to benefit Animal Alliance of Georgia's community
outreach programs. For more information, visit
°fGeor<$^
www.animalallianceof2eoreia.ore or call 678-542-9572
Sunday, February 26, 2017
12:30pm - 3:30pm at the Hotel Indigo in Athens, GA
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102.1FM
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