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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, September 5,2018
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.
We church-goers
don’t always walk
our Christian talk
I am occasionally asked to present the
weekly lesson in my Sunday School class. I
do it with the clear understanding that
everyone in class accepts the fact that I
need the lesson’s messages worse than they
do.
I am Methodist by birth and by the grace
of God and my momma. The Methodist
Church was founded by John Wesley along
with his brother, Charles, in England. The
Wesley brothers spent time in the Savannah
area during the period that Gen. James
Oglethorpe was busy organizing the colony
of Georgia and
making sure we
would always be
the largest state
east of the
Mississippi
River, and one
day would con
tain the oldest
state-chartered
university in the nation with an abundance
of Rhodes Scholars and No. 1 NFL draft
choices. To say he was successful would be
a gross understatement.
The most recent lesson in which I talked
to myself and invited everyone else to listen
in was about acting like Christians instead
of claiming to be one. There is a big differ
ence.
We Christians can be a petty, judgmental
and downright hypocritical crowd when we
choose to be, which is a lot more times than
God would like. We forget that it is not how
we act on Sunday morning that counts, it is
how we behave the rest of the week.
This is where John Wesley comes in. My
lesson that day ended with this admonition
from the great man: “Do all the good you
can. By all the means you can. In all the
ways you can. In all the places you can. At
all the times you can. To all the people you
can. As long as ever you can.” My friends,
that will preach.
It is no secret that the institutional
church, including the Methodist church, is
in trouble. A study by the Pew Research
Center in 2015 found that as older church
going adults pass away, they are being
replaced by a younger crowd that has much
lower levels of interest in organized religion
than did their parents and grandparents.
Some of that has to be because the younger
generation watches how the rest of us
church-goers conduct ourselves when we
don’t know they are looking at us and they
don’t like what they see.
This attitude even carries over to young
people who attend church regularly. One
church told of their teenagers on a mission
trip identifying themselves as being “in
Christ” rather than calling themselves
Christians because they had observed that
Christians don’t always behave Christ-like.
One of my favorite stories concerns the
late evangelist Billy Graham. In the days
before air travel, Billy Graham was in line
at a train station trying to change his ticket
and dealing with a rude and uncooperative
clerk at the window. After several futile
attempts to resolve the situation with a
bureaucrat unwilling to help him, Dr.
Graham politely thanked the clerk and left
the line, not knowing a newspaperman was
standing behind him.
The journalist later wrote that was the
greatest sermon Billy Graham ever
preached. He didn’t try to pull rank. (“Do
you know who I am?”) He didn’t lose his
temper. He was kind and courteous. The
Billy Graham he saw in private was the
same one we saw in public. He walked his
talk.
When I have written about Bill and
Gloria Gaither, who are to gospel music
what Beethoven is to symphonies or
Pavarotti to “Nessun Dorma,” I have gotten
a goodly number of responses from people
who know them or have met them and who
say they are as genuinely nice in person as
they seem to be on television. I would be
crushed to hear otherwise.
A good step toward walking our talk as
Christians is to read Galatians 5:22-23 in
which the apostle Paul talks about the
Fruits of the Spirit — the qualities we
should live by. They are: Love. Joy. Peace.
Patience. Kindness. Goodness.
Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.
My challenge to you: Try to get through
one day exhibiting all nine qualities. I read
that passage daily and haven’t made it yet. I
might have an outside chance if we would
drop the requirement for patience but I’m
not optimistic.
That doesn’t mean I don’t keep on trying
to do better. As unqualified as I may be as a
Sunday School teacher, after every lesson I
present not only do I leam something, I get
a spiritual kick in the pants and say to God:
“Thanks. I needed that.”
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.
"If politicians were
smart, they would
cancel all their
speeches after
Labor Day.
"Because that's when we
start paying attention
to what they say!"
Plenty of animals need forever home
On Aug. 24 I spent the day
in the slammer. You read that
correctly. I was locked up in
the Big House - the Big
Puppy House.
I wasn’t exactly sure that I
signed up for when the
Humane Society of Northeast
Georgia reached out to me
asking if I’d be willing to be
locked up for an entire day as
part of their third annual
Adoption Angel Lock In.
Since I have been volun
teering at HSNEGA for the
past several months (I photo
graph all the dogs up for
adoption to help boost their
online exposure) I was excit
ed for the opportunity to give
back a little more to these
wonderful dogs.
It meant that I would take
Friday off. It meant getting up
early and making a 45 minute
drive to the humane society in
Gainesville. It meant being
locked in a pen with one dog
looking for his forever home
for an entire day. It meant
possibly being peed on, licked
on and shed on. It meant
working tirelessly to raise
money through social media
so that HSNEGA could raise
$65,000 to help every dog in
the shelter and many more
dogs coming into the shelter
to have zero adoption fees.
I woke up early Friday
morning with excitement.
Even though I was exhausted
I couldn’t wait to get to the
shelter to meet my penmate
for the day and do everything
I could to raise my $250 goal.
Down at the end of the first
run of pens was a little
Chihuahua mix named Mario
who loved to sing the blues.
The little 1-year old black and
JESSICA BROWN
Columnist
brown pup with ears bigger
than his head and soft brown
eyes looked up at me as I
entered his pen.
“It looks like we’re cell
mates today, Mario,” I said as
he jumped up excitedly.
At first it took some time to
get used to sitting in a pen. I
was posting photos and vid
eos of Mario on social media
and raising money for his
adoption fees to be paid off,
but Mario was beside himself.
Dogs would walk by to go
outside and he would bark
and bark and bark.
A volunteer or a family
would walk by and he would
bark and bark and bark.
There was no comfort for
Mario for the first two hours
of our day. He ran back and
forth around pen 12, exhaust
ing himself but finding no
relief with sleep.
As I watched Mario franti
cally prancing around the pen,
I comforted him until he felt
relaxed enough to sit on my
lap. His bursts of calmness
lasted mere minutes because
once he heard another dog
barking, another pitter patter
of feet in front of his pen, he
was on alert again.
I thought sitting in a pen
with a dog would be an easy
task. Realistically it’s not
hard. You sit with him, pet
him, play with him, fundraise
from your phone and keep
busy so you forget how bor
ing it is to be stuck within the
same four walls.
But watching Mario
exhaust himself and watching
him never get comfortable
enough to take a nap or finish
eating his food was a loud
wakeup call. This is Mario’s
life all day every day. It’s all
of these wonderful dogs’ lives
all day every day until they
find a home.
There’s no Netflix or
Facebook to occupy their
time. There’s not someone
there to play with them for
hours and hours. If they’re
lucky, these dogs will get a
few minutes outside to go to
the bathroom and maybe get a
walk and a few minutes of
playtime.
Still, even with the wonder
ful staff and numerous volun
teers at HSNEGA, when the
shelter is full with 30 plus
dogs they can only get so
much time out of their pens.
They’ll spend 22 to 23 hours
in their pens alone every sin
gle day until they are adopted.
My heart hurt for all of the
dogs that are stuck in shelter.
It’s one thing to see their pic
tures on Facebook. It’s anoth
er to be sitting in the pen with
them and getting a taste of
what it’s like to walk in their
paws.
It’s lonely. It’s loud with
crying dogs echoing around
the room. It’s no way for a
dog to live his life.
Thanks to the efforts of the
shelter, the volunteers and the
penmates, HSNEGA raised
$59,000 of their $65,000 goal
by the end of Friday night and
$65,000 by Aug. 31. And
thanks to my friends and fam
ily who donated, I raised $500
— double my original goal.
It means that Mario and all
of his friends at the humane
society have no adoption fees
and will be able to go to their
forever homes sooner.
Overall I spent six hours
locked in the pen with Mario.
I had the luxury of getting out
of the pen to use the restroom,
to grab lunch, to walk around
the other pens to say hello to
all of the dogs. Mario didn’t
have that luxury.
When I left to grab lunch I
saw his eyes grow sad and it
pained me to leave him.
When I returned his eyes lit
up and his tail wagged hard
enough to start a gentle
breeze.
For one day he had a friend
to stay with him, to chase
away the loneliness and to pet
him as he sat on a nice warm
lap. It may not have been
much for me to give, but the
look in his eyes reassured me
that just being there sitting in
a pen with him made a differ
ence.
On Aug. 26, Mario was
adopted by a lovely couple
who had fallen in love with
my cute little cellmate. Over
the span of Friday, Saturday
and Sunday, 27 animals at the
humane society found their
forever homes.
But there are still plenty of
dogs, puppies, kittens and cats
looking for their forever
homes at HSNEGA. If you
are looking for your next fam
ily member, come to the
humane society at 845 W
Ridge Road. You’ll be glad
you did.
Jessica Brown is a reporter
for the Dawson County News.
LETTERTOTHE EDITOR
What will it take?
When will conservatives finally face
the facts about climate change?
Hurricane Katrina left 1,836 dead. That
didn’t seem to faze them. Then
Superstorm Sandy put much of New
York City under water. That wasn’t
enough. Then last year three major hurri
canes hit the U.S. — yes, Puerto Rico is
part of the U.S. and its inhabitants are
U.S. Citizens. All Trump could say was
“Only 16 people died — no big deal.”
That count was taken right after the
hurricane hit. The actual total once res
cue workers could get to them was close
to 3,000 dead. But those three hurricanes
weren’t enough. And those devastating
weather events occurred just in the U.S.
Tragic and devastating storms have been
happening all over the world. Hawaii
just suffered a hit from a hurricane that
dumped four feet of rain in less than two
days. Almost every day another record is
broken somewhere on this dying planet.
When records are broken every week
you have a problem.
So maybe it will be this year that our
legislators and so-called leaders take
note of what is happening to our planet.
Have they noted the triple digit tempera
tures in California coupled by the long
drought resulting in not just a fire sea
son, but fires all year long. And no, it is
not the Californians’ fault because they
let water from rivers flow to the ocean.
(Another wise statement by Trump.) All
rivers eventually flow to the ocean.
Maybe the smoke from the wildfires
that cities in the east are experiencing,
causing hazardous breathing conditions,
or the worst “red tide” ever seen in
Florida killing millions of pound fish,
sea turtles and manatees will move them.
Do they care about the hundreds of
deaths around the world attributed to
record-setting heat waves in places like
Japan and India?
Polling shows that the number of peo
ple who believe that climate disruption is
a problem has risen to 77 percent. But
the issue is that our leaders, Trump and
company, say it’s all a hoax. They are
overturning everything that past admin
istrations have done to try to cut carbon
emissions. Not only that, they are shrink
ing the acreage in our National Parks
and monuments and then leasing the
land for drilling and fracking. In addition
to that, they are encouraging more coal
production. And even in north Georgia,
at the foot of the Appalachians, land has
been leased for drilling and fracking.
Trump is trying to do away with regula
tions on emissions for cars, on the Clean
Air and Water Bill (law since Nixon
passed it), and the Endangered Species
Act. Now, the Clean Energy Bill passed
by President Obama is under attack.
Our lives and the lives of our grand
children are at stake. But there is some
hope. Perhaps the “Blue Wave” that is
running throughout the states will turn
U.S. Congress, the state legislatures and
governor’s seats around so that people
who actually care about this country and
our planet will get elected! Maybe — be
sure to vote.
Bette Holland
Dawsonville
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