About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 2021)
PAGE 7 A 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, 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. oePbaysoFomiCRpn HI HI HI HI HI HI TP IP ft f TP IP ooooo TWELVE R0LL5 of TOILET PAPER ELEVEN HANP 5ANITIZER5 TEN TEPI0U5 LOCKDOWNS NINE MANDATORY MANPATE5 EIGHT VARIOUS VARIANTS 5EVEN PI5INFECTING WIPES SIX 5UPER-5PREAPER5 FIVE FANCY FACE MA5K5 FOUR FAUCI FLIP-FLOPS THREE BOXES of TI55UES TWO LATEX GLOVES and a NON-CONTACT TEMPERATURE ASSESSMENT DEVICE 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.
