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DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 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.
Could GOP
fighting help
Abrams win?
Donald Trump
is on record as
having stated that
having Democrat
Stacey Abrams as
governor of the
Peach State would
be better than our
current Gov. Brian
Kemp. At a rally in Perry, Trump said,
“Stacey, would you like to take his place? It’s
OK with me.” She almost did in 2018, losing
to Kemp by 1.4% out of 3.9 million votes
cast. She just might succeed this time.
Abrams has announced that she will be
running for governor in 2022. (No surprise.)
Now Trump is saying, “I beat her (Abrams)
single-handedly without much of a candidate
in 2018. I’ll beat her again, but it will be hard
to do with Brian Kemp, because the MAGA
[Make America Great Again] base will just
not vote for him what he did with respect to
election integrity and two horribly run elec
tions for President and then two Senate
seats.”
Trump goes on to say, “But some good
Republican will run, and some good
Republican will get my endorsement, and
some good Republican will WIN!”
Before you get out your partisan poison
pens to jab me, let me pause and state my
bona fides. I am one of the few columnists
you will read that doesn’t drink the Kool-Aid
of either party. I call ‘em like I see ‘em. And
what I see right now is a highly organized
Democratic Party in Georgia and a fractured
and fractious Republican Party still obsessed
over presidential election results that are not
going to be overturned or changed. That train
has left the station.
The late American pundit and philosopher
Will Rogers once said, “I am not a member
of any organized political party. I am a
Democrat.” Were he around today, ol’ Will
would be a Republican, for sure.
Republicans seem to have this innate
inability to figure out who the enemy is.
Hint: It is not each other. As I have men
tioned in the past, I keep hearing the epitaph
RINO (Republican in Name Only) hurled at
Republicans by other Republicans but I never
hear DINO uttered by Democrats.
So, here we are with a candidate who came
within a hair’s breadth of winning in 2018
pitted against an incumbent Republican gov
ernor under siege by the “Fergit, Hell!”
crowd.
Abrams, the darling of the national
Democratic Party, will get boatloads of
money from deep-pocketed out-of-state
donors and fawning coverage from the
national media and some local big city
media.
Anybody with the sense of a sand gnat will
see that keeping the governor’s office in
Republican hands is going to be a challenge
if Republicans don’t get past their internecine
warfare.
So far, the GOP has four announced candi
dates for the office: Jonathan Garcia, a crew
leader in a Cartersville carpet mill; Dr.
Kandiss Taylor, a Baxley public school edu
cator and former U.S. Senate candidate; one
time DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones and
the incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp. Rumors are
that former U.S. Sen. David Perdue is con
sidering whether or not to ran. (Cue the
denim jacket.) For the Democrats, there’s just
one candidate: Stacey Abrams.
Donald Trump and his supporters seemed
hellbent on bringing down Brian Kemp at the
risk of rending asunder the Republican Party
in Georgia by focusing on the past rather
than the future. Speaking of the past, it might
be helpful to remember that both of
Georgia’s Republican incumbents in the U.S.
Senate lost their reelection bids to political
novice Democrats last year despite Trump’s
backing. That seems to have been forgotten.
Trump wants to put the kibosh on Brian
Kemp’s reelection chances even though our
state’s revenue has grown by 13.5% this year,
we have a rainy day surplus of almost $4.3
billion, unemployment is at an all-time low
and for the eighth year in a row, Georgia has
been named the Top State for Doing Business
by Area Development magazine. For conser
vatives, he engineered a new voting rights
bill and a bill banning early abortions. That
deserves Republican punishment?
There is no question this is up-close-and-
personal and not a little vindictive for Donald
Trump and his followers and it could very
well get us a liberal Democrat governor and
the prospects of an expansion of social pro
grams much as is happening these days in
Washington under the Biden Administration.
Not to mention an energized Woke crowd
constantly taking us on a guilt trip for sins
committed by past generations.
If that happens, Republicans will have
reaped the whirlwind they have sown. And
they will have deserved it.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dick-
yarbrough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb.
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Necessity is mother of invention
Procrastination
has plagued me
most of my life.
It’s not intentional,
but rather I normal
ly just forget minor
details until they
have become
urgent.
“I need some pencils,” I
announced one morning at
the breakfast table.
“What kind of pencils?”
my uncle asked.
“Ain’t you got pencils?
What you been writing
with?” Granny demanded.
“These are special pencils,”
I said, making eye contact
with my uncle so he’d know
the gravity of the matter and
more importantly, that discre
tion was needed. “We gotta
have colored pencils for some
kind of project.”
“What kind of colored pen
cils?” he asked.
“No particular brand, just
the ones that are like crayons
but in pencil form.”
Granny had already wan
dered down the hall, not wor
ried about my pencil predica
ment.
“When do you need them
by?” my uncle asked.
“This morning.”
“Oh heck.” he muttered. He
took one last sip of his coffee.
“Come on. Dad, we gotta
go.”
This scene — or one like it
- played out on numerous
occasions throughout my
childhood.
I’d have a project due or
needed something specific for
school, and totally forget
about it until it was needed.
We had Wacky Hat day and
I remembered the night
before. The next day, I went
to school wearing a colander
with curlers strung through
the holes with yarn.
“I will die of embarrass
ment!” I cried, see
ing Granny’s cre
ation.
“This is what
you get when you
wait until the last
minute to tell any
one you needed
something,” she
responded. “Besides. It’s sup
posed to be a wacky hat. ain’t
it? You know the rules. You
get what you get and you
don’t pitch a fit.”
I knew better than to argue
with her.
The next morning. Mama
asked me what was on my
head. “It’s Wacky Hat day,” I
answered simply.
“Is that supposed to be a
hat?” she inquired, looking at
the horrors.
“It’s the best Granny could
come up with on short
notice.”
“I see.” Mama studied it a
bit longer. “Why didn’t you
ask me? I could have maybe
made something a little...bet
ter.”
I sighed. Even as a kid. I
sighed.
“You were at work.”
“When did you know you
needed it?”
I sighed again. “About a
week or so, I guess. I forgot
until last night.”
Mama nodded. She was
probably wondering if the hat
horror was simply Granny’s
passive-aggressive way of
getting back at me for waiting
until the night before to tell
her I needed something.
Of course, it didn’t work.
I lived fast and loose when
it came to needing something
for school. Dioramas, science
projects, book reports - all
were put off until the night
before.
The whole family was
involved in helping me get
across the finish line, and my
grandfather finally declared
one day he didn’t know why
anyone seemed surprised at
my emergencies.
As I grew older and wiser,
and couldn’t ask for parental
intercession, I learned the
importance of being aware of
deadlines and due dates.
It was too late though, as I
am sure Granny had already
cursed me enough times to
make sure I was going to be
paid back in spades for all of
my dilly dallying.
Enter my own precious
child, who seems to get his
procrastination from none
other than his mother.
“Mama,” he began one
night as he got ready for bed.
“I’m gonna need a costume
for school.”
“What kind of costume?” I
asked.
“For a living history lesson.
I’m gonna be Lance
Armstrong, the first man on
the moon.” “I think you mean
Neil Armstrong.” I said.
“Unless you’re going as the
cyclist.”
He shook his head. “No,
I’m going as the astronaut.”
“Okay,” I said, my brain
whirling with ideas. I was
thinking of how I could
maybe get some kind of large
bowl and cover in foil to
make it look like the helmet
of a space suit and was won
dering if I could get some
kind of white coveralls and
dye them silver. For once, I
was getting creative and
thinking of all the possibili
ties that could be made.
“When do you need it by?”
I asked.
He kissed my nose.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“What!” I shrieked.
“Tomorrow,” he repeated.
“Good night, Mama.”
My creativity had to shift
gears at breakneck speed.
There would be no silver
dyed overalls or fishbowl hel
met. I ran to my laptop to
search for ideas, something
Granny and Mama didn’t
have the luxury of using
when I was a small child.
I printed off a NASA logo
and typed “N. Armstrong” on
a doc and printed it off, and
safety pinned them both to
Cole’s blue button down shirt
from the previous Easter. I
pulled out his blue dress
pants, worried they’d be too
short. Granny’s favorite man
tra may have to apply to both
of us, I thought.
The next morning, Cole
greeted me at my office door,
Pop-Tart in hand.
“Do you have my costume
ready?” he asked, eyeing my
space.
I nodded, and handed it to
him.
“This isn’t what an astro
naut would wear,” he said,
crestfallen.
“It is if he’s going to a
meeting at NASA,” I said, not
sure if that was the truth or
not.
“B-but,” he began. “I want
ed to be Neil Armstrong.”
“You are,” I said, pointing to
the nametag. “See.”
He sighed. Another thing
he got from his mama is the
ability to sigh to express a
myriad of emotions, especial
ly disappointment.
“I wanted it to be a space-
suit.”
I did, too. But sometimes,
necessity warrants a different
kind of creativity.
Sudie Crouch is an award win
ning humor columnist and
author of the recently e-pub-
lished novel, "The Dahlman
Files: A Tony Dahlman
Paranormal Mystery."
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
DR. ANDERSON
This year's flu shot won't work until you take it
By Dr. Larry Anderson
Anderson Family Medicine
The flu season has started. Many
offices are starting to see this, as are
some school classes. So far in metro
Atlanta we have only had one hospital
ization and no outbreaks. That is good
news. The best thing you can do to pro
tect yourself and your family is to get
the flu vaccine. Most physician offices,
pharmacies and our health department
have the vaccine. Some do not require
appointments. Call and check before
showing up. If you are 65 or older then
you will get the high dose vaccine.
Like most vaccines, this year’s flu vac
cine will not work until you take it.
COVID-19 is still winning in our
county. 45 new cases in Dawson
County. The numbers were going down
and then they peaked again, and are
starting to slow down again. Since we
are out visiting our family, COVID-19
has done the same thing and brought its
cousin to visit. Yes, it is in Georgia.
Those of you who wear the T-shirt with
the COVID-19 bull’s eye have done a
good job in attracting it. I am sure it
feels welcome in Dawson County.
Do not believe everything you read
about side effects, risks factors, who
needs a booster and who shot John.
Remember to ask questions about what
you read. Read the whole article. There
is a two hour time limit for how long
the information is valid. When will
COVID-19 go away? You will have to
ask the unvaccinated as the answer lies
with them. Will we have to get a
COVID-19 booster each year? Again
ask the unvaccinated. Are you getting
my drift here? We are back to banning
flights from certain countries, requiring
COVID testing before entering the
country, and some are considering
requiring mask wearing for all indoor
activities, shopping, etc. Again, you
know who to ask when this will stop.
Get the vaccine, wear your mask, and
thanks for reading.