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DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2021
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.
Baseball, football
and life in between
Maybe I am being a bit too Southern sensi
tive here, but I got the distinct feeling the
national media disrespected the Atlanta Braves
from the beginning of the playoffs through the
World Series and beyond.
Had they had their way,
I think they would have
preferred Los Angeles or
San Francisco. Then
some MSNBC weenie
decried us as racist
because of the Tomahawk
Chop and a sleazebag
agent claims the win was “tainted” because of
general manager Alex Anthopoulos getting
three outstanding hitters from clubs willing to
trade them.
Both Anthopoulos and manager Brian Snitker
were snubbed for postseason awards they
clearly deserved. As a result, all the team has
as a consolation prize is the forever honor of
being undisputed 2021 World Series champi
ons! Eat your heart out, whiners, and kiss our
grits.
The few responses I got supporting Donald
Trump’s harrumph about the late Gen. Colin
Powell was not because Powell was an up-
from-the-bootstraps South Bronx success story
who served his country with distinction in
Vietnam and later as chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and then secretary of state in
the George W. Bush Administration. No, it was
because he was considered (shudder!) a RINO.
That is someone who is said to be a Republican
In Name Only, or, more succinctly, someone
who does not support Donald Trump down to
his or her tippytoes. I hear that term a lot but
never DINO — a Democrat In Name Only.
Trump is on record as saying he wishes
Democrat Stacey Abrams had been elected
governor of Georgia instead of Brian Kemp.
He also financially supported current vice pres
ident Kamala Harris when she was running for
attorney general of California as a Democrat.
Does that make him a RINO or a DINO? I
don’t have the answer but I do have a feeling
someone is going to straighten me out on that.
My dear wife used to tell our grandsons, you
are free to do whatever you choose. Just under
stand there will be consequences to pay if your
choices are bad ones.
Somebody should have told that to UGA
linebacker Adam Anderson, who has been
arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a
21-year-old woman in the wee hours of Oct.
29. His lawyer says he is innocent. I say he
should never have had the woman in the apart
ment between 5 and 6 a.m. as has been alleged
and doing what he is alleged to have done.
What was he thinking? Obviously, he wasn’t.
Speaking of lawyers and football (Can I
segue, or what!),I saw a recent article decrying
the lack of Black attorneys in this country, say
ing that people of color make up 13.4% of the
nation’s population but only 5% of the legal
profession.
If we are going to use that as a standard, then
we need to apply the same rule to the National
Football League, which is 69% Black in a
country that is 72% White.
Maybe we can get the ACLU to quit stewing
over who can go to what bathrooms and devote
their efforts to getting more White running
backs in the league. Talk about an underrepre
sented class.
Seven law enforcement officers in Georgia
have been killed in the line of duty so far in
2021, including two this month. But I don’t
seem to recall a bunch of wet-behind-the-ear
anarchists hurling Molotov cocktails, turning
over cars and looting small businesses in pro
test. Frankly, they don’t deserve to be on the
same planet with these brave heroes and their
grieving families.
Finally, my friend Toby Probst, an ardent
baseball fan and an Auburn War Eagle of the
first rank, informs me that of the last three
World Series the Braves have won —1957 in
Milwaukee and 1995 and 2021 in Atlanta —
the quarterback at Auburn has been named Nix:
Lloyd Nix in 1957. Patrick Nix in 1995. His
son, Bo Nix this year.
I did some fact checking and discovered Bo
Nix has just one more year of eligibility left
and the only other two Nix surnames I could
find on the Internet were Wendy Nix, an ESPN
reporter and Sofia Nix, a porn star (I’ll take
their word for it), neither of whom seem to be
quarterback material.
Hmmm. This could be serious. Let’s hope
Alex Anthopoulos and Brian Snitker come up
with a brilliant alternative. Like re-signing
Freddie Freeman.
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.
Searching for the next best thing
I spent the first part
of my life trying like
mad to get out of the
town I grew up in.
To me, it was bor
ing, stifling, and felt
like a dead end town
void of opportunity
and possibilities.
Any time someone asked me what I
wanted to do or be, my answer was,
“Anywhere but here.”
Every decision I made, every step I
took, was to help move me away, off
to some distant, unknown to me land
where I would be free of the shackles
of a small town, where everyone was
in your business, and things never
seemed to change.
I didn’t know how to describe
where I wanted to live. In a lot of
ways, it was a feeling more than a
place. A sense of belonging, commu
nity, and a haven of sorts. All I knew
was, it would be better than where I
had been for the first 25 years of my
life.
I’ve done that with a few jobs, too,
always looking for something better.
It’s largely why I job hopped most of
my earlier life, bouncing from job to
job, only staying a year or two before
I hopped to the next one, in hopes of
something more appealing. If you
could see my resume you’d see my
work history ranges from working as
a criminal investigator to selling
makeup, directing weddings, working
in radio, and even a couple of salons.
Always in search of something that
made me happy, fulfilled, and felt like
home.
It also contributed to a greater sense
of dissatisfaction. Nothing seemed to
fill that void I was trying to close.
A few years ago, I commented on
social media that wished I could
move “home” - to the town I grew up
in, a place I had romanticized in
recent years, to be the only place
I had known joy. Within an hour,
one of my friends messaged me.
“Girl, what are you even think
ing? You know all we all talked
about when we were kids was
getting out of there.”
True. And once I did, I was
glad to be free and in a new location.
It was short lived though.
After the novelty of being in a new
place wore off, I felt restless and ill at
ease, like I was supposed to be some
where else.
I thought, at the time, it meant
moving back home.
I tried. I did.
Instead, I moved to the mountains.
Part of me felt like I had known what
it was like to live in my old home
town and I was hungry for new
adventures. I had always wanted to
live in the mountains and this
seemed serendipitous.
Again, I found myself quickly
experiencing that wanderlust of the
soul, feeling like I needed to be
somewhere else. But where?
“You didn’t like it up there at
first,” Mama reminded me the other
day.
No, I didn’t. I was frustrated with
traffic from the tourists along with
some of the small town constraints I
had been critical of in my former
hometown.
It was a sense of unhappiness and
not knowing how to make it right, or
even what it was that I was searching
for.
Don’t we all tend to do that to
some degree though? To always feel
like there’s something better, more
appealing - just somewhere on the
periphery of where we are? We feel
that sense
of discomfort, where we’re not
where we need or want to be, and
grapple with trying to make a
change that will give us the peace
we need.
It doesn’t always happen.
I’ve wrestled with those feelings
quite often over the years and found
myself not sure what needs to
change or what steps I need to take.
Difference is, something shifted
recently, maybe an epiphany of
sorts.
I’ve realized, I’m always looking
for the next best thing, when maybe
where I am already is pretty good.
Instead of keeping one foot out the
door, maybe I should put both feet
in and try to make the most of
where I’m at - kind of watering the
garden beneath my feet so to speak.
There’s nothing wrong with want
ing something better. It’s part of
what motivates us to create change
in our lives. But we can always be
so focused on getting that thrill and
rush of something new, that we
never take the time to appreciate
what we’ve already got, that’s pretty
dam good.
I came to realize that I had spent
a lot of my life chasing after some
elusive thing that was impossible to
capture, or if I did get it, it was hard
to hold.
The overall feeling was that of
contentment, fulfillment, peace, and
perhaps a little bit of joy in this
crazy life.
Maybe it’s not a place we’re look
ing for after all; maybe it’s some
thing inside of us that we’re trying
to find.
Sudie Crouch is an award winning
humor columnist and author of the
recently e-published novel, "The
Dahlman Files: A Tony Dahlman
Paranormal Mystery."
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist