About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2019)
PAGE 11A 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, JULY 10,2019 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. "Who knew the Fed sets the allowance rates too?" Death, taxes and applicable fees It started when my child was around 5 years old. He may have been a bit younger, or older; I am not entirely sure. I just know he was small. We had gone to the Everything is a Dollar store. The store that my husband will wander around and ask me the price repeatedly. “How much is this?” “A dollar.” “And this?” “A dollar.” “This?” “One hundred pennies.” I say, just to break up the rou tine and throw him off his game. So, there we were, in the Everything is a Dollar store and my child had a freshly gifted $5 burning a hole in his Pokemon wallet. Knowing the fact that everything was indeed only a dollar, he picked out five things. I tried to caution him that he should get just four items, but he ignored my warning. He had five things on his radar and five things he was going to get. He got behind me in line, waiting patiently for me to finish my purchase. Once I did, he placed his five items down on the coun ter and waited for his total. “Five thirty-five,” the cashier said. I was still holding my wal let, knowing he was going to need some change, but Cole put his $5 bill on the counter and slid it across to the cashier. “I have five,” he said. She smiled at him. “Honey, SUDIE CROUCH Columnist it’s $5.35. You need thirty-five cents. Do you have thirty-five cents?” I believe her question was more directed at me than my child. “What is the thirty—five cents for?” he asked. “Tax.” Cole nodded slowly. “Tax? Isn’t everything a dollar?” “It is, sugar, but you gotta pay tax on it,” she explained, thinking this was just a cute learning moment for my child. He nodded again. “Your sign says everything is just a dollar though. It don’t say nothing about taxes. You false advertising.” The cute learning moment was over. “You gotta pay tax though, everyone knows that,” she said. “Your sign doesn’t say plus tax; it says everything is just a dollar. You are false advertis ing,” he said again. He pushed his money closer to her. “There’s the five dollars for my items. That’s all I am pay ing because your sign did not mention taxes.” He took his bag and walked towards the door where his father was waiting. “You are getting the taxes, right?” the cashier asked me. I nodded and dug the change out of my wallet. This little exchange estab lished a lifelong aversion to paying sales tax for my child and the belief that Mama is supposed to pay it for him. Anytime he makes a pur chase, it doesn’t matter what it is, or how much money he has, my now teenager will look at me and ask, “You got the tax, right?” I sigh and assure him I will cover the tax. Sometimes, what he wants is slightly more than the money he has. “Mama, it’s only two dol lars more; can you help a child out?” I nod. “And you still got the tax, right?” Yup, I still got the tax. Gone are the days where just a dollar store toy will make him happy, and his tastes now involve video games. After receiving a gift card for three months for some online platform, my child was hooked. “Mama, if I give you the money, can you put it in your account and let me order it?” I agreed. “If there’s any tax...” “I’ll get it,” I said. However, to renew again was $25 per month once his subscription ended. “Can you ...” “Child, I will get the tax, but I’m not giving you $25 a month to play a video game. And I don’t like giving my debit card information to something like that.” He understood, but he still had to try. Being quite the resourceful one, he came up with an idea. “What if I had my own debit card?” he asked. “What?” “What if I had like a pre paid debit card. That way, it wouldn’t be linked to your account, and I could order my subscription. Would you be OK with that?” It actually sounded like a good idea, but there was one catch: there was going to a $4.95 fee to load the card. “What?!” my child exclaimed. “I have $201 want to put on there, and I have things I need to order. That means I will only have under $15.” He frowned at the thought of this. Five bucks is five bucks, no matter how old you are but especially if you already had it earmarked for something else. “I will cover the fee,” I said with a sigh. “Really?” he asked. “What if they charge me tax, too?” “Til cover that as well.” A few weeks later, he need ed to reload his card. “So, Mama, you got the fees for me, right?” he asked as we walked into the store. “And the tax?” I knew it was coming before he even asked. Just three things in my life are certain. Death, in some unforeseen future, paying taxes, and any and all applica ble fees. Sudie Crouch is an award winning humor columnistand author of the recently e-pub- lished novel, "The Dahlman Files: A Tony Dahlman Paranormal Mystery." 'Gone are the days where just a dollar store toy will make him happy, and his tastes now involve video games. After receiving a gift card for three months for some online platform, my child was hooked.' LETTER TO THE EDITOR A eulogy for 3 extraordinary wise men I called them the Three Wise Men. They came not bearing gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense. They brought service, dedica tion and integrity. And as with all wise men, they lived their example. No exotic names like Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar. Theirs were ordinary names: John. Roy. Raymond. But they were any thing but ordinary. Although they were never to meet, they shared a common bond. They were members of the Greatest Generation, strong family men, devout in their faith and highly success ful in their par ticular fields of endeavor. They made this a bet ter world by their presence and made me a better person for having known them. Some years ago, I wrote in this space about John Jacobs of Gainesville, Roy Hodnett of St. Simons Island and Dr. Raymond Cook of Valdosta, referring to them as the Three Wise Men. Thank God that they were around to read it and to know what they meant to me. Today I come to honor their memory. John Jacobs passed away in 2011, a few days shy of his 89th birthday. Roy Hodnett died this past April at the age of 98. Two weeks ago, Dr. Raymond Cook died three weeks before he would have turned 100. John Jacobs was a successful business man who turned a small radio station in Gainesville into a media conglomerate. Not content to bask in his business achieve ments, Jacobs put much of his time, energy and dollars back into making Gainesville and Hall County a better place to live. At the other end of the state, Roy Hodnett operated a real estate empire on Georgia’s coast. In a highly competitive business driv en by dollars and deals, his word was his bond. A contract with Roy Hodnett could be as simple as a handshake. Dr. Raymond Cook, as I have said many times, came along at a pivotal time in my life. An English professor at Georgia State, he motivated me to stay in college by his inspirational teaching. I would not be doing what I am today had it not been for Dr. Cook. What made these men so special to me? In the first place, they taught me that suc cess and kindness are not incompatible. All rose to the top of their professions while treating people with respect. To a man, they were eternal optimists and seemed to bring out the best in people, a trait I am still try ing to master. All were extremely humble when they had every right not to be. I had known John Jacobs for many years and was aware of his military service in World War II, but only when I was asked to emcee a tribute to him in Gainesville did I learn he had earned two Silver Stars for heroism in battle. Roy Hodnett was involved in some of the heaviest fighting in the war and was seri ously wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. He spent 14 months in the hospital and returned home with a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, a gimpy leg and a love for his fellow man that even a war could not kill. Dr. Cook was a distinguished educator, author and my beloved professor. He was also the smartest person I ever knew. How smart was he? He owned a 1939 Rolls Royce that had once been the property of Col. Jacob Schick, the Canadian razor mag nate. In redoing the wiring in the automo bile, he discovered that what the manual said did not work. He improvised, found a solution and informed Rolls Royce that their manual was incorrect. The company checked it out, agreed and rewrote the man ual. That is how smart he was. All three men were active right up to the end of their distinguished lives and remained my role models. John Jacobs instilled in me the importance of good citi zenship. Roy Hodnett taught me to treat people as I would like to be treated. Dr. Raymond Cook made me a man and, try as I might, I could never thank him enough. I will forever be grateful that I met and knew and learned from these Three Wise Men. I am also glad I had the good sense to convey my love and respect for them in a column while they were here to enjoy it. Now they are gone. I will miss them, but I will never forget them and what they meant to me. God bless them. God bless their memory. You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyar- brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online at dickyarbrough.com or on Facebook at wvwv.facebook.com/dickyarb. How was your 4th? I hope everyone had a good 4th of July—the day when we are supposed to be celebrating our wonderful coun try, founders, and the soldiers who protect us. But something very differ ent happened on this 4th of July. On July 4, 2019 our country took a step toward closer to totalitarianism and fascism. President Trump invited us in his weekly e-mail to join him for “Trumps 4th of July Celebration”. Not America’s celebration where families of all political leanings come together to enjoy each other, our patriotic music, and fireworks. Instead it was “Trump’s 4th of July” with tanks and armored vehicles, fighter jets flying over, big donors with free tickets, and a political speech by our inept President. And all on the tax payers dollar. Why is he an inept President? Just take a look at the things he did and said just in the past two weeks: • Last week said he believed the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia when the prince told Trump he hadn’t ordered the killing of an American journalist, even though our own CIA said he did! • He smiled and made light of a comment to Vladimir Putin about meddling in our elections again. • He cozied up to Kim Jon Un, a radical dictator who finds pleasure in killing his adversaries, putting his citi zens in work camps, and in develop ing nuclear weapons. • News and photos of the inhuman treatment of migrant families seeking asylum in the US continue to flow in. Trump is holding families in horrid conditions on the border. Children sleep on floors, have very little food, and have been told to drink out of the toilets if they need water. Concentration camps in America con doned by Trump. • He is making irrational state ments at press conferences. When asked about Joe Biden’s stand in the 70’s on bussing for integration, he went on and on about how important it is to use buses to get kids to school. • When asked about the decline of Western Liberalism (the political ide ology begun in the 1700’s which led to the founding of many great Democracies, including ours) he said that the crazy Democrats in California are losing steam?! • Promoting nepotism at the G20 Conference—having his unqualified daughter attend meetings, make com ments at the G20, and have her picture taken with 20 world leaders. Again, tax payers paid for this unqualified woman to attend this meeting. • He reached the milestone of telling over 10,000 lies since he took office. • Last Tuesday he said his adminis tration going to put the question about citizenship on the census question naire, even though the Supreme Court of the United States said it would be unconstitutional. Our US Congress needs to step up and stop this tyrant instead of looking the other way. But some Congressman say conservatives are getting the con servative things they want passed and they don’t care about “the other stuff’. What is more important — our democracy or lower taxes for the wealthy? Bette Holland Dawsonville DICKYARBROUGH Columnist
