About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2022)
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, JANUARY 12, 2022 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. X V' V V )000C«| —o oc JOHN MADDEN 1936 — 2021 A party fitting for a pup Little Miss Mia, in all her puppy wild ness. turns one this month. In human years, she’s basically a first grader, a spunky wild child too smart for her own good and with her own puppy ideas about what she should be able to do and get away with. “How are you going to cele brate?” Mama asked. I wasn't sure. Every day is a celebration of Mia. “You need to have a party.” Mama continued. “Like you did for Pepper.” Ah, yes. Pepper had some fine birthday parties. I can’t remember how I got started throwing parties for the little evil Beagle but once I did, she expected it every year. I had to get her favorite chicken nuggets and waffle fries, along with a small con tainer of Cesar wet food, and a big rawhide for dessert. She also got a small piece of cake, because cake was the least offensive thing that dog ate. The little hound would sit in a chair at the table, covered with sparkles, balloons, and confetti, waiting to be served her feast. Even though she normally hated things on her head, she even let me put a birthday hat on her one year. My friends were invited and told while I didn’t expect them to bring anything, the birthday girl sure did. They knew better to show up empty handed too. I even invited my supervisor from work. She could be r 1 SUDIE CROUCH Columnist deceptively sweet when she wanted to be and had wrapped him around her little paw, to the point my boss liked her better than he did me. Robert even referred to Pepper as his niece in conversation, leading some of our co-workers to believe we were related. When her birthday rolled around that summer. I told Robert I needed an RSVP so I’d know how many nuggets to get. Pepper could eat a dozen or more by herself. “How old’s Pepper going to be?” a coworker asked. “Four,” I answered. The coworker commented about how that was such a pre cious age, to which I agreed. “Is she a mama’s girl, or a daddy’s girl?” the coworker asked. “Well, I got full custody of her in the divorce, so it’s just us,” I answered. “Oh,” she said empathetical- ly. “I’m so sorry.” “Nah, don’t be,” I said. “We’re good. Wouldn’t have it any other way.” On the day of her party, Robert met me in the break- room with a pink gift bag, complete with a card. “I’m not going to be able to make it tonight after all but give these to Pep. Make sure I got her something she’ll like.” I reached in the bag and pulled out the tins of Cesar and plastic squeak toys. “She will love these!” I assured him. “Wait a second,” our co worker said, overhearing the conversation from her table. “Robert, did you just give her some dog food for Pepper?” He answered in the affirma tive. “What is wrong with you? What kind of person calls themselves that child’s uncle and then gives her some nasty dog food and squeaky toys!” Robert and I exchanged glances, then looked at our co worker. “What do you think Pepper is?” I asked. “Your four-year-old little girl.” We looked at one another again. “Ah,” Robert began. “Pepper is her 10-inch, tri-col ored beagle. Not a child.” The woman’s face clouded with shock, surprise, and anger all at once. “What the -. Y’all have carried on and on about... a dog? For how long? What about those times she’s said she had to take Pepper to the doctor to get her shots?” “It was Dr. Ben across the street, and she was due for her rabies. She’ll bite someone, too; I’ve gotta keep that cur rent.” The woman’s face twisted with confused rage. “Robert, you call her your niece,” “Sudie reminds me of my sister, so I’ve adopted Pepper as my niece.” The woman was trying to mentally piece together all the facts we had given her and rec oncile them with the bits and pieces of conversation she had heard over the years. “And you had a birthday party - a birthday party. For a dog?” she asked incredulously. “Pepper loves to party,” I said simply. “Y’all are some...weird, twisted folks. Having birthday parties for dogs and acting like they’re people,” she said with a look of disgust as she left. She didn’t speak to either of us for about two weeks, and then it was with some serious hesitation. Pepper was my first inside pup and was very much my baby. Of course, each furbaby that’s followed has been even more spoiled to the point Mia is quite sure she can do no wrong. And she’s right; she can’t. She definitely deserves to have a party celebrating her first year being on this earth and all the joy and sassiness she brings into our lives. Well, all of us except for Pumpkin; she’s still not too keen on the pup. I haven’t had birthday par ties for the other pups. They are as introverted as I am so they wouldn’t want a big fuss. The cat wouldn’t mind some cake as that seems to be the only people food he likes. If we start having parties for Mia, she will definitely expect it, much like Pepper did. and probably want it to be bigger, grander with each year. The only problem is, it’s entirely too late to come up with a theme, hire a planner, or for that matter, a caterer. I guess I will just have to start planning next year’s party now. Sudie Crouch is an award win ning humor columnist and author of the recently e-published novel, "The Dahlman Files: A Tony Dahlman Paranormal Mystery." DR. ANDERSON Vaccination is the best way to protect our children from COVID-19 Advice to a great grandson for the new year Dear Cameron Charles Yarbrough, It is a new year and once again an opportunity for me to share some thoughts with you as you face a future that is going to be full of challenges. But, then, all futures are challenging because they are filled with unknowns. What counts is how you deal with those challenges. First off, take nothing for granted including life itself. When you are young, the assumption is that whatever you didn’t get done today you can make it up tomorrow. There are no guarantees that there will be a tomorrow. Every day is a precious gift. Don’t waste a single one. Be the best you can be at whatever you choose to do. Pursue excellence. But don’t try to live up to other people’s expectations. Be self-motivated and keep raising the bar yourself. There is no finish line. Be able to look yourself in the eye at the end of each day and tell yourself you did your best. It may not have been good enough but in your heart you will know it was your best effort and that is what mat ters. If you break it, own it. I’m not talking about dropping a doodad in a gift shop. I am talking about making a mistake. We all make them but what is important is how we deal with those mistakes. Remember Grandma Jane’s admonition: You are free to do whatever you choose to do in life. You just have to be prepared to deal with the consequences of your decisions. If it was a bad decision, don’t make excuses, try to rationalize it or blame someone else. Learn from it and don’t do it again. Your last name honors your great-great grandfather who was one of the most principled men you could ever have known. Please don’t do anything that would sully his memory. If your name is in the paper, be sure it is for something good you have accomplished and not for something that would embarrass us and bring dishonor to the family and to a man we loved and admired. Don’t try to be popular with your peers because you want to be liked. Be yourself and you will find out who your friends really are and that they will like you for who you are. There will be those who don’t have your motivation or your abili ties and will try to drag you down to their level. Don’t let them. Don’t be a follower. Be careful what comes out of your mouth. Don’t brag when you have suc cess or whine when you don’t. Avoid hyperbole. And keep your language decent. You can make your point without taking God’s name in vain, throwing in a reference to excrement or using the f-word. It is not necessary and it makes you look like a inarticulate hoodlum. I hope you will say “Yes ma’am” and “Yessir” and not “yeah” and “no” when talking to adults. Also, don’t forget to say “thank you” when someone does some thing nice for you, whether it is showing you how to tie a bowtie or checking you out at the grocery store. You will never offend anyone by showing them your appreciation. Know that there is more to life than work. There is life itself and it is com posed of little things that are, in fact, not little at all. Swinging in the hammock. Hanging out with your dad. The laughter of little sisters. Ice cream with sprinkles at the beach. Waffle House on Saturday mornings. In years to come, you will remember these things long after you have forgotten your Grade Point Average or where you finished in your cross-coun try competitions. I urge you to dream big. Someone is going to discover a cure for an incurable disease, become president of the United States, write a great piece of music or invent something that will change lives for the better. Whoever does, had big dreams. There is nothing to keep you from dreaming big except yourself. That’s enough advice for this year. I hope you find some of this useful. Frankly, some of it I wish somebody had shared with me when I was your age. It might have made my life a bit easier. Chances are I won’t be around to see how you turn out but from what I have seen so far, I think you are going to do just fine. And never forget how much I love you. It’s a bunch. — PA 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. By Dr. Larry Anderson Anderson Family Medicine What are we going to do with all the information that is out there? Let’s take a look at the Supreme Court v CDC. How many children have been admitted to the hospital with Covid-19? The cor rect number is not the takeaway. What is important to know is that children who have not been vaccinated are being admitted with Covid-19. Does it matter if Covid-19 is the primary reason for admitting or did they have something else and just tested positive for Covid- 19? No, it does not. Co-morbidity fac tors can be just as deadly. When do you test for Covid-19? Is it LETTERTOTHE EDITOR Person of Color I am trying to figure out exactly what that means. I guess I am a person of color. I am sort of a light tan color if you don’t count the really dark age spots. On the forms that I fill out in the race section there is no place to check for the color I am which is sort of beige. Webster says beige is light gray ish yellowish brown and in other meaings it says, “lacking distinction”. Seems accurate to me. I certainly am not white if you at time of symptoms, or 3 days later or 5 days later or when? Where does the swab go? In the mouth, in the nose or both? And where did this come from? Remember when I told you to read the original article and to ask questions? The article for this study was done with 30 patients. Really!! Even the authors said their data was inconclusive. There was no control study done. This is what we see a lot with Covid-19. Someone has a thought about where the virus is in the body: where does it go first and where does it go next? Then they write an article and we read it and then we make a decision of “does this make sense and should we give it a try?” Let’s put all this to good use. What is match me up to a piece of bond paper. Sometimes I think I must be “clear” because most people just ignore me. I would be identified as an old large beige bald person with white facial hair who is certain that he is a male married to a female. My drivers license is going to have to be a lot larger to contain all this. Or we could forget all the normal descriptions about skin color and define ourselves from where we origi nated. According to the National Geographic’s folks that study bones, all humans originated from Africa. That would make me an African the best way to help protect our chil dren from being hospitalized with Covid-19? Yes, vaccination is the cor rect answer. Will that prevent them from getting Covid-19? Not necessarily, but it is the only modality you have. Will waiting 5 days to test for Covid-19 be helpful? Only if you self-quarantine for the five days so you do not spread whatever you have to everyone else during the five day wait. By the way, we are beginning to see Strep with the Covid-19 cases and there is an uptick with the number of syphilis cases in Dawson County. Be careful as it is a biological jungle out there. Wear your mask. Get the vaccine. Thanks for reading. American so you Wokens cannot keep blaming me for everything that is wrong. I am tired unto death of talking about the color of people. Can we not simply take each other as we were made and get on with living. The past is important but we should not dwell on it all the time. The present is much more important. Now that I have all that straightened out my next project is how to go Carbonless. I am sure I can solve that too if I can keep from breathing out. Gary Pichon Marble Hill, Ga
