Newspaper Page Text
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, MARCH 23, 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.
Readers weigh in
on weighty issues
Between the pandemic and Putin, it
has been a stressful couple of weeks.
Thankfully, my readers have come to
the rescue. I don’t
want to get into a
debate with my col
umnist colleagues
but there is no
question that my
readers are smarter
than anybody I’ve
ever seen on
Jeopardy and sharper than a chain saw.
And they don’t hesitate to tell me
what’s on their mind. For example, a
number of readers fussed at me last
week about my column on the stupid
poll some PR genius published that
said Georgia was not a good place to
live, when in fact we are the eighth
fastest growing state in the nation.
Their complaint was that they want
loud-talking, know-it-all Yankees to
believe that malarky and to remain
where it snows 10 months a year and
all their buildings are rusted instead of
moving here and making fun of the
way we talk. They make a good point,
but I fear it is too late.
And then there is the reader who
writes frequently to remind me that I
am an idiot, as if I don’t already know
that. He even encloses the particular
columns I have written as proof of my
idiocy assuming, perhaps, that I may
not have not seen them even though I
wrote them. The columns in question
usually reference Marjorie Taylor
Greene, she of the unfortunate
Gazpacho police incident in
Washington when she was threatened
by a bowl of cold Spanish soup. I guess
“idiot” is in the eyes of the beholder.
This week, among my emails were a
couple from a Great American in Cobb
County, Joe O’Connor, and a retired
physician friend in Madison, Dr. Rose
Ann Weaver. Nothing deep and
weighty, but I found them funny.
Figuring we could all use a chuckle in
these turbulent times, I pass them
along.
First, from Mr. O’Connor: “If walk
ing is good for your health, the post
man would be immortal. A whale
swims all day, only eats fish, drinks
water, but is still fat. A rabbit runs and
hops and only lives 15 years, while a
tortoise does mostly nothing, yet it
lives for 150 years. And you tell me to
exercise? I don’t think so. If God want
ed me to touch my toes, he’d have put
them on my knees. I finally got my
head together, and now my body is fall
ing apart.
“Now that I’m older, here’s what I’ve
discovered: It was a whole lot easier to
get older than to get wiser. My wild
oats are mostly enjoyed with prunes
and all-bran these days. I spend a lot of
time thinking about the hereafter. I go
somewhere to get something, and then
wonder what I’m ‘here after.’ I started
out with nothing, and I still have most
of it. If all is not lost, then where the
heck is it?”
And some poignant questions from
Dr. Weaver: “Why do drugstores make
the sick walk all the way to the back of
the store to get their prescriptions
while healthy people can buy cigarettes
up front? Why do we buy hot dogs in
packages of 10 and buns in packages of
eight? Why don’t you ever see the
headline ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’? Why
is ‘abbreviated’ such a long word? Why
is it that doctors call what they do
‘practice’?
“Why is the person who invests your
money called a ‘broker’? Why is the
time of day with the slowest traffic
called rush hour? If flying is so safe,
why do they call the airport the termi
nal and if the black box in airplanes is
so indestructible, why don’t they make
the whole plane out of that stuff?” And
finally: “If ‘con’ is the opposite of
‘pro,’ then is Congress the opposite of
progress?” I think we all know the
answer to that one.
I’m not sure where they got their
material but I am glad they passed it
along for me to share with you. It was a
good respite from watching a Russian
nutcase trying to justify the killing of
innocent people and the blathering of
the pro-vaccination vs. the no-vaccina-
tion crowd.
It also gave me a week to rest my
weary brain and not have to come up
with my usual high-minded pontifica-
tions. But, rest assured, I’m not going
to make this a habit. The editors just
might discover that my readers are fun
nier than I am and will work a lot
cheaper. I may be an idiot but I’m not
dumb.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dick-
yarbrough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139; online at dickyarbrough.com or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb.
©2022 Creators Syndicate Creators.com
An un-bear-able task for a pup
Mia doesn’t know it yet, but
the German shepherd puppy has
a big role awaiting her.
“Has Mia seen a bear yet?” I
asked the other day.
“I don’t think so,” Lamar
answered.
I am quite curious as to what
her response will be.
So far, she hasn’t figured out
that every animal venturing into the yard isn’t
here to play or adore her.
Mia’s playful curiosity makes her think
everything is a potential friend.
That may change when she finds out the
main job Pumpkin has assigned to her.
After being the baby for years. Punk found
herself tending to Doodle when they were
left as the only two pups after we lost Pepper.
Venus, and Roubaix all within a month one
summer.
The Border collie never really had aspira
tions of being the lead dog; her fife’s ambi
tion is for all of us to be within her field of
vision so she knows where we are. Her
puppy months were spent nipping at Cole’s
heels and having a fit when he got out of her
invisible boundary fine that only she knew.
She’s never been one that liked confronta
tions either, and often tried to avoid the evil
beagle’s histrionics.
No, my Punky Brewster is a herder, not a
fighter.
In no way does that mean my sweet girl is
a coward though.
One night, not long after she and a five-
month old Doodle became our only pups.
Pumpkin’s mettle was put to the test.
The girls woke us up, and we assumed
they just needed to go out.
Lamar has puppy potty duty, so he slipped
on his shoes and headed out the back door
with the girls.
A few minutes later. Doodle came tearing
back in and tried to squeeze her chubby,
puppy body under the bed.
When she discovered she
couldn’t fit, she crawled under
the foot of the covers and up to
the top, burrowing under my
pillow where she whined and
shook hysterically.
“Mama!”
What in the world was going
on? I thought as I ran towards
my child.
“I think Angel had an accident in here,” he
said, calling her by her given name as he
pointed to the quickly growing puddle.
Why would she have an accident inside if
Lamar was letting them out? I knew the pit-
tie-mix was scared of the dark but that was
unlike her.
Where were Lamar and Pumpkin?
“Cole, go in there with Doodle,” I said, my
fear growing.
It was dark and three had gone out and
only one had come in, promptly had an acci
dent, and then ran to hide in the bed. This did
not bode well.
Even though Cole was young, he knew
this seemed like something was wrong too
and headed towards our bedroom to see how
Boo was doing.
Of course I couldn’t find one of the dozens
of flashlights we had when I needed one.
Just as I remembered I had a flashlight on
my phone and headed to get it, Lamar and
Punk rushed back in and the Border collie
ran right to me, shaking.
“There was a bear out there!” Lamar said.
“Are y’all OK?”
Lamar nodded. “It was close though. So
close. I didn’t even see it and got right up on
it.” He paused to take a breath. “It wasn’t
until I heard it that I realized how close it
was.”
Cole and Doodle had joined us in the
kitchen. Doodle eagerly licking Punk’s face
and trying to comfort her.
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
“She was incredible,” Lamar said, petting
Punk. “She didn’t leave my side. She got
between me and the bear and stood her
ground. She wasn’t going to let it get me.”
“Did it hurt her?” I asked.
Lamar shook his head. “No, it let out a few
huffs though.”
No wonder Doodle was terrified.
She was just a baby and hadn’t encoun
tered a bear before. She was smart enough to
know to be scared.
Pumpkin knew what it was and how dan
gerous it could be, although up until a few
months before, she had never had to be the
one to deal with it. Bears weren’t something
to herd up, so they fell under the German
shepherd’s job description of protection.
Here she was trembling by my feet as I
loved on her and told her the bear was gone.
“She’s very brave of heart,” Lamar said.
“She stood her ground and didn’t budge until
the bear ran off.”
Thankfully, we didn’t have any more bear
visits that summer, and when we got Ava that
following February, Punk at first was not
very happy about the new pack member. At
least until she realized Ava was picking up
bear duty; then her attitude towards her soft
ened ever so slightly. Ava’s hyper keen hear
ing could detect a treat bag being opened in
another room behind a closed door and a
bear stepping on the property, even with the
windows closed.
Now, our youngest pup is a German shep
herd, and she will probably have to learn her
bear scaring-off skills soon.
Doodle will tell her to just look at it real
dang hard. I’m not even sure how you’d
teach a dog to have good courage.
All I know is. we’re all counting on her to
bark fiercely enough to scare the bears off,
especially Pumpkin.
Sudie Crouch is an award winning humor
columnist and author of the recently
e-published novel, "The Dahlman Files: A
Tony Dahlman Paranormal Mystery."
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Help injured animals this
spring
Spring has come! This is the time of the
year for all the newborn animal babies:
kitties, puppies and fawns.
Every spring many drop off their
unwanted or orphan babies in our beauti
ful parks! These kittens and pups can’t five
off of grass, bushes and trees and survive.
PLEASE if you can’t take care of these
little friends, please take them to our no
kill humane society building near ROCK
CREEK PARK.
Have a heart, give them a good chance
to live! Living next to a park, we and our
neighbors, have rescued too many kittens,
puppies and even a one-eyed chicken.
Animals are given by God to make our
lives more beautiful and sweet.
Thank you,
Dawn Trail
War Hill Park
The Struggles for
Democracy
Throughout history, America has faced
threats to our Democracy from outside the
country and from within. Some groups
insist that Democracy is outdated. That
threat now is coming from within—
Trump followers who would prefer an
Autocracy—and from outside—Russia,
which is an autocracy. We have always
managed to overcome these threats and
we will do it again.
From the beginning of our country,
many believed that some people were
superior to others and should be the rul
ers. But people who believed in a
Democracy didn’t believe this. A commu
nist dictatorship run by oligarchs believes
only the wealthy should rule the country.
Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin is a dicta
tor (and one of the wealthiest people in
the world) and many of the people who
support him are the oligarchs.
For many years, the USSR was a
Communist Country consisting of multi
ple countries which it had conquered
(Ukraine) and some (Czechoslovakia)
who were ruled by the USSR. When the
USSR was dissolved in 1991 Russia
became a separate country. Most of the
other countries tried to become
Democracies. Russia began giving more
freedoms to their citizens, allowed west
ern businesses like McDonald’s and
Starbucks to set up shop, and allowed pri
vate media to begin working and replac
ing some of the “state-run media”.
But since Putin came to power in 1999
his rule has been characterized by corrup
tion, the jailing and repression of political
opponents, the intimidation and suppres
sion of media freedom in Russia, and a
lack of free and fair elections. He began
taking away the rights of the Russian peo
ple almost immediately away by making
protesting illegal, arresting or poisoning
those who opposed him, and taking over
more and more private businesses.
Then he found Donald Trump and he
knew if he supported Trump and helped
get him elected, that Trump would help
his cause which he did by praising Putin
as being a strong leader. And then Trump
tried to dissolve NATO
Everything came crashing down when
Trump was not re-elected. Thus began the
campaign that the election was rigged and
many of Trumps’ followers and govern
ment supporters were sucked in by that
scenario. The far-right wing of the
Republican Party started doing exactly
what Putin did when he took power:
1. Making it harder for all people to vote
by instituting voter suppression laws
across the country.
2. Trying to squash information about
history and government by introducing
laws making it illegal for schools to dis
cuss American history and the country’s
struggles.
3. Making laws against legal, peaceful
protests.
4. Spreading disinformation through
right-wing media such as Fox News and
News Max.
As Boston University History
Professor, Heather Cox Richardson has
said, “Ukraine’s people are trying to save
their democracy from a criminal assault
by an autocrat who has perverted his
own country’s government, concentrat
ing the nation’s wealth and power in the
hands of his cronies, and silencing those
who want a say in their government.
That fight is not limited to Ukraine.
Bette Holland
Dawsonville
