About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2018)
PAGE 9A 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 19,2018 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. /s /y 1 rr M // ^ DICKYARBROUGH Columnist A treatise on the art of being a Southerner Occasionally, I will drop in a comma where it doesn’t belong or fail to associate phrase modifiers with the nearest preced ing noun and other stuff like that to see if you are paying attention. Trust me, I do this on purpose. I happen to be an expert on the subject (or is it predicate? I can’t English lan guage. Many of you are quick to point out my (wink, wink) errors. This is my way of ensuring you are reading the column without the cost of doing a survey. There are also the calls to the editors want ing to know why they publish such unso phisticated drivel on their editorial pages, but I tend not to count those. I just hope the editors don’t, either. I recently heard from a reader who asked whether I had meant to use a possessive as opposed to a contractive word in one of my columns. That was an excellent ques tion and one that I plan to answer as soon as I have found a place to put my dangling modifier. In his note, he indicated that he was a recent Northern transplant who was “hav ing some trouble adjusting to Southern mores, values and habits.” He has obvious ly done some adjusting because he said he enjoys my columns. That is not usually the first thing I hear from a Northern trans plant. If he can sensitize me to the proper use of possessive vs. contractive whatevers, I can certainly help make his transition to the South a little easier. Frankly, I have not always done as good a job as I should in welcoming our new friends, and, as a result, we find ourselves dealing with a large number of know-it-all Yankees who think we talk funny and marry our third cousins. This is exacerbated by the fact that they won’t move back to where they came from because it snows there 10 months a year and all their buildings are rusted. I told my new reader friend that I would be happy to help him understand how we do things here and perhaps he can in turn help other Northern transplants as they arrive. First and foremost, always stand at attention when you hear Ray Charles Robinson, of Albany, Georgia, sing “Georgia on my Mind.” If you choose to kneel during our state anthem, do it out of profound respect or somebody may hurt you severely. Finguistically, never tell anyone that you are preparing to do something. The correct term is “fixing” as in, “I’m fixing to fix dinner.” And you don’t drive someone any where. You carry them, i.e., “I’m fixing to carry Momma to the store.” There are also some misconceptions about Southern speech. We don’t say “you all” as rumored. It is “y’all.” The only time you hear a Southerner say “you all” is on a television show produced by somebody who has never been south of Fifth Avenue. We don’t like to be confrontational with the exception of reminding us about losing the Uncivil War. We don’t have much of a sense of humor about that. We know we lost and tearing down our statues doesn’t help things. If you hear someone say “Bless his or her heart,” that is about as ugly as we get, but we aren’t misunderstood. (“If brains were dynamite that poor girl couldn’t blow her nose, bless her heart.”) As for Southern cuisine, most everything we eat comes from a hog or chicken and is fried in grease. The only exceptions are pecan pie and sweet tea. And we don’t drink sodas in the South. We drink Ko-kolers. It is not only permissible but encouraged that you put a handful of pea nuts in the beverage for a rare taste treat. In the South, we worship God and foot ball in that order with the exception of the fall when the order is likely to be reversed. To many, heaven is considered to be Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia, on a crisp, sunny Saturday afternoon and “Glory, Glory to Ole Georgia,” a hymn of praise and thanksgiving. I hope my new friend finds this helpful. Please know that Southern hospitality is real and you are welcomed. However, if there are those Northern transplants among you who don’t like how we do things here in the South and are just going to make fun of us, y’all don’t let the door hit you in the fanny on your way out, bless your heart. You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyar- brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on Facebookatwww.facebook.com/dickyarb. "Now there go some real heroes!" <&>20J8 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Immediate action needed Greetings to everyone in our county, state and country. This is an urgent call to all. As most already know: We are being overtaken. No, not what you may think, but by Kudzu. Immediate action is needed! Our counties and states do a great job keeping the grass cut along our roadways. However, I have noticed that while we the taxpayers pay for these services, the mowers and trim mers are carrying this invasive vine from one property to the next. It only takes a small piece to take root. Once it takes root, there is a new location where it grows a foot a day. This vine will not only take over a property (our home) but it will also kill our trees, shrubs and flowers. We all need to be contacting our county, state and feder al road commissioners etc. to try to address and minimize this growing problem (including decreased property value). After recently going to look at some property that was put on the market to sell, I left immediately when I saw that the Kudzu had overtaken and killed most all the trees. I believe if we will all work together, we can at least slow down this terrible plant brought from Japan so many years ago. Kudzu was introduced in the U.S. in 1876. From 1935 to the 1950s farmers were encouraged to plant Kudzu to reduce soil erosion. If you see it growing on your prop erty please try to control or totally destroy it. This is not an easy job, but we must take quick action before this vine takes over what we’ve worked so hard to have (our home). One way I found was not easy, but I began to pull up the vine (roots and all). After sever al months of evenings and weekends, I finally found what seem to be the first and biggest base and roots of it all. After digging and burning, it finally seems to at least be under some con trol. Fet’s do this not only for our selves, but our children, grandchildren and neighborhoods for generations to come. Please do some research about this plant. You will find its origin, data, control and much more! Thank you for your time and help. G. Allen Boyd Marble Hill Climate change a huge risk to humanity's future I was interested to read recently published letters on climate change from both sides of the aisle. Therein lies the problem — the subject is too often politicized rather than analyzed via a scientific impartial view. We know politicians are beholden to their financial supporters which influences their decisions. Having worked in the nuclear power industry I confess to some personal bias in supporting that technology proposed by one writer. I also agree that a strong military is important; having also worked on military proj ects it surprised me that our military branch firmly recognizes climate change and are actively dealing with the risks of as a matter of national security particularly at the coastal ports. As to whether greenhouse gas increase and consequent climate change is entirely natural or impacted by human activity, it is certainly a combination of both. However approximately 97 percent of climatol ogists agree that the human contribu tion is significant and climate-warm ing trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, according to NASA.gov. There has never been an increase in greenhouse gases such as we are see ing at present. Atmospheric concentra tion of the major greenhouse gas, car bon dioxide, followed a very regular 50,000-year cycle of increase and decrease for 400,000 years until the mid-20th century when a sudden spike started and has continued to rise (NOAA website). The planet’s aver age surface temperature has risen about 0.9 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century (the start of the industrial revolution). This compares to the previous 1-degree Celsius tem perature rise that took approximately 10,000 years. As one of our more impartial and respected politicians John McCain predicted in 2008: “the facts of global warming demand our urgent attention; we are likely to see more forest fires than in previous decades ... changes in crop production ... more heat waves afflicting our cities and a great er intensity in storms” Very topical this month! Climate change is a huge security, health and economic risk and the sci ence cannot be ignored. While carbon dioxide is essential to life on earth, too much can be harmful, just like poli tics. Phil Wolstenholme Dawsonville Letter policy The Dawson County News welcomes your opinions on issues of public con cern. Letters must be signed and include full address and a daytime and evening phone number for verification. Names and hometowns of letter writers will be included for publication without exception.Telephone numbers will not be published. Letters should be limited to 350 words and may be edited or condensed. The same writer or group may only submit one letter per month for consid eration. We do not publish poetry or blanket letters and generally do not publish let ters concerning consumer complaints. Unsigned or incorrectly identified letters will be withheld. Mail letters to the Dawson County News, RO. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534, hand deliver to 30 Shoal Creek Road, fax to (706) 265-3276 or e-mail to editor@dawsonnews.com. <sz>20J8 "My opinion? My opinion is I had rather you not call me about my opinion!"