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Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534; fax (706) 265-3276; or email to editor@dawsonnews.com.
DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, August 22, 2018
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
Readers, teachers
respond to letter
on education
Maybe I have worn them out (I hope so) or
maybe they have chosen to ignore me (Bad
idea. That only encourages me), but oppo
nents of public education — including pri
vate school scholarship tax-giveaway advo
cates and for-profit charter school manage
ment shills — were strangely quiet after my
recent Open Letter to Georgia’s public
schoolteachers.
Maybe in the recesses of their shallow, spe
cial interest-driven hearts, they know I am
correct. What is wrong with public education
is not the fault of
those trying to
educate the next
generation of
Georgians. It is
the fault of those
of us who have
let our society
sink like a rock
and then have
decided the best solution is to ran away from
the problems and blame the schools.
Not surprisingly, the column generated a
number of responses from readers and from
schoolteachers across the state who shared a
variety of thoughts on the subject. The teach
ers among them shall remain anonymous,
lest some Kool-Aid drinking politician or
Nervous-Nelly bureaucrat/school board
member seeks to reprimand them.
A sampling of my mail indicates that
sometimes the enemy is within. Meddling
school boards, politically correct administra
tors and too many bureaucrats with too little
to do seem to frustrate teachers as much or
maybe more than political ideologues who
couldn’t carry their book bag.
Said one teacher, “I used to love waking up
and being so excited to get to school and be
able to use my God-given talents and abili
ties, with my own creativity, to help positive
ly impact the lives of my students. I had free
dom to choose my methods, materials and
means to help achieve my goals. By the end
of my career, it was such a different story.
There were constant demands to teach in a
dictated and prescribed way, determined by
someone who had little knowledge of chil
dren and how they learn. Creativity was lost
as we straggled to meet the ‘standards’ and
‘teach the test.’”
A teacher with more than two decades in
the classroom said, “I told my daughter if she
went to college to become a teacher I would
not pay for it and that made me sad. I know
why she wants to be a teacher. The same rea
son most of us do but she would be as miser
able and jaded as I have become. I told her to
get a degree that allows her to earn a living
and use her time to volunteer for organiza
tions that will allow her to have a positive
impact on a child’s life without teaching to
the test and jumping through hoops created
by people who have no real concern for pub
lic education.”
A retired school superintendent whose
daughter is a teacher opined, “During my
years in education I found that almost every
one is an expert when it comes to what’s
wrong with education. It’s the only profes
sion that I know of where everyone is an
expert on how to fix our children’s education.
If I had known how to fix it for every child, I
would have fixed it many years ago.”
My favorite response came from a parent
who said, “Some folks may think public
schools are the last resort, ‘for the dregs.’
Where do most delinquents end up when
their antics have resulted in expulsion?
Private school, for those who can afford it.
Which is one reason I decided to send my kid
to public school. Life is not private school. In
life, most likely, you’ll have to deal with a
wide variety of folks ... not an elite group
that self-segregates.”
Suck on that one, Kool-Aid drinkers.
Still, many echoed this teacher from south
Georgia: “It’s refreshing to know that some
one who reaches ‘a lot of eyeballs each
week’ can be my voice of reason when most
of the country seems ready to privatize every
thing we know about public education.
Money is not always the answer and it surely
doesn’t solve the societal problems you
spoke of. Kids will be back in school tomor
row in (my county) and we’ll be prepared
and ready to change lives.”
That is what teachers do. God bless them,
one and all.
I don’t know how we got in the mess we
are in, but this much I do know:
Schoolteachers didn’t cause it and shouldn’t
be blamed for it.
I would suggest we let public schoolteach
ers do what they do best — teach — and get
the heck out of their classroom. As for the
rest of us, we would do well to try and clean
up the mess.
DICKYARBROUGH
Columnist
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyar-
brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA
31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb.
"Wait! ...There's hope for my leisure suit yet!"
<&>20J8
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Fascism today
Many people have heard of com
munism (a political ideology) and
socialism (an economic theory). But
what is fascism?
The most prominent fascist that we
learned about in our history books was
Adolf Hitler, well known for killing
over 6 million people in death camps
during World War II. But how did he
get the good people in Germany to go
along with his radical ideology?
A common tool used to manipulate
the population into accepting fascism
is that of dividing society into “tribes”
of polar opposite beliefs. Another is
to create a common enemy by instill
ing fear of the created enemy into the
population. For Hitler it was the Jews.
He also spread the false belief that he
was the only one who could save
Germany from the enemy.
Rigging elections is another tool
used by fascists. The objective is to
exaggerate the internal national divi
sions, thereby raising fear to a level at
which enough of the population will
willingly accept leadership from the
fascist manipulators.
Free people find it quite difficult to
give up their liberty and have to be
coached to normalize things which
they do not usually agree with (such
as immoral behavior). The tools for
coaching include instilling a disbelief
in truth as it is produced by the legiti
mate media; a distrust of government
institutions, particularly the justice
system; the use of false propaganda
and spreading of lies that vulnerable
subjects will believe.
When successfully implemented,
the manipulative strategy arouses the
population to a fever pitch.
In Europe in the 1930s, the created
enemies were Jews, communists, dis
abled people and those who did not
look white. It is important to note that
Hitler did not win an election by a
popular majority—but the Gestapo
rounded up anyone who didn’t agree
with him. Hitler also demonized his
media and shut them down, convinced
the public that the justice system in
Germany wasn’t working, and that the
people should only trust him.
EJ Dionne, writing recently in the
Washington Post, compares what is
happening in the world today to what
happened in Germany in the 30s and
40s. He cited History Professor
Benjamin Hett’s book, “The Death of
Democracy.” Hett suggests that we
should heed the warnings that led to
the collapse of freedom in Germany.
When you have a president who
demonizes certain ethnic groups
(Muslims and Hispanics), who tells
his constituents that the media is all
fake news and that they should believe
only him but who has told over 4,000
lies since he was inaugurated, who
states at a rally that he wants “his peo
ple” to stand at attention when he
speaks, who has criticized and
obstructed his own justice department
and who wants to build a wall to keep
people out, you should take notice.
I am not comparing Tramp to Hitler,
only to the fascist tactics.
Our representatives in Congress are
overlooking what is happening today
because they are getting what they
want—tax cuts for the wealthy, cuts in
safety net programs such as social
security, Medicare and Medicaid and
the slashing of regulations. But are
these things worth losing our
Democracy? I don’t think so. Vote—
don’t let this happen in our country.
Bette Holland
Dawsonville
Thankful for officers
The two officers in the subject of
this letter need to have this commen
dation put in their personnel file. Give
me the liberty of going into detail
regarding the circumstances surround
ing my call to the Dawson County
Sheriff’s Office non-emergency cen
ter.
I’m on my way to Atlanta for a
wonderful birthday dinner, car loaded,
so I decided to run through North
Georgia Premium car wash. When I
pull out onto the street I hear my tire
flopping. It is still at Kroger Gas sta
tion, the first place I could get out of
traffic.
I called the car wash, they denied
responsibility, but said call the non
emergency center. Super polite girl
that answered said we will send some
one to change your tire. In a short
period of time Deputy Kirkland and
Anthony Davis pulled up.
They worked for over an hour in
the heat trying to get the lug-nut off
that was apparently stripped. Deputy
Davis went to the auto store to get dif
ferent tools to no avail. To give you a
full picture of how impressive their
behavior was, one woman stopped,
rolled down her window and took pic
tures of them dripping with sweat in
the heat and said, “You guys get so
much criticism I want to record this. I
have two uncles who are state troop
ers.”
Later, another woman came over
with three bottles of cold water for us.
By now we were all perspiring. In the
interim I called my son at work to see
if he could come to pick me up to take
me to my home at Amicalola Falls.
When the deputies heard he wouldn’t
be able to get me for a few hours, they
determined it would be too long to
wait in the heat. They loaded my
belongings into the patrol car and
Deputy Davis drove me all the way
home.
What can I say? You can’t thank
people enough for this kind of assis
tance when you feel frantic and help
less. When I walked into my home, a
flood of emotional relief came over
me. This isn’t the first time the
Dawson County Sheriff’s Office have
been uniquely generous to me, as well
as other citizens who have described
similar encounters. It is a very special
community in which to reside thanks
to the type of officers assigned to help
us when we are in need.
Thank you again.
Paula Ruth
Ellijay
"No, he's a stranger to me, too."