About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 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, 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
