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DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 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.
No such thing as
a stupid question
During school, I heard
there was no such thing as a
stupid question, only ques
tions that people weren’t
brave enough to ask.
I wasn’t so sure about
that then, and sometimes, I
still wonder about that.
But it was my freshman
year of high school and I had my fair share of silly
and stupid situations.
The first thing I discovered was that high school
was a lot different than middle school.
A’s were easy in middle school. High school
brought with it geometry and a foreign language
requirement.
For the first time, I found myself straggling with
schoolwork.
“What is wrong with you?"’ Granny demanded.
“You ain’t never brought home anything less than an
A.”
I didn’t know.
“She’s boycrazy,” she declared to my mother.
“That’s what’s the matter. She’s got boys on the brain
instead of her studies.”
That may have been kind of true. But, honestly,
boys weren’t my priority, especially not when there
were books, music, makeup, and hair products to
buy.
“It’s harder in 9th grade,” I said in my defense.
“Geometry makes absolutely no sense - there’s
shapes involved! And I am really having a hard time
in Spanish. I don’t understand it at all. It’s like Greek
to me.” Mama looked up from her crossword.
“Except it’s not Greek, Kitten. It’s Spanish. Have you
talked to your teacher?”
“No,” I replied forlornly. I hadn’t. I tried to keep a
low profile in the class, lest she call on me.
The teacher was a lovely woman from Argentina
and Spanish was her native language. The majority
of our class was done in Spanish only so we’d come
to be fluent in speaking it. I was drowning.
We had Latin in 1st grade - shouldn’t that count as
my foreign language?
I felt horrible, too, because I wanted to team
Spanish, along with French and Italian. But if the
first few weeks were any indication, speaking anoth
er language was not going to be in my future.
“You did good in Algebra last year,” Granny said,
still focused on the math. “You was taking it with
high schoolers.”
“What can I say? I peaked early.”
Of course, the Redhead Prime did not find that
funny at all.
Pop and Bobby both tried to help me with geome
try, it being something they used every day in roof
ing.
After one particularly tough session, my uncle
declared it was just good that I had other strengths.
When it came time for a parent-teacher conference,
Mama was determined to get to the bottom of things.
One teacher immediately started off by saying I
was talking constantly in class, but somehow had an
A.“I’ve moved her several times,” the teacher added.
“She still talks.”
Another teacher said, “I tried that; she will talk to
the wall. Even moved her next to someone she didn’t
like and they still talked.”
Mama said my Spanish teacher looked utterly
bewildered. “She has never said a word in my class.
She’s the quietest student I have.”
“My Sudie is the quietest student you have?”
Mama asked, confused.
My teacher nodded.
“Short girl, curly black hair, green eyes?”
My Spanish teacher nodded again. “She’s extreme
ly quiet. I sometimes forget she’s in there. But she
seems to be having a hard time with some of the
verbs and comprehension so far.”
She recognized me by my failures. It felt like there
was so much to team, that I was overwhelmed and
would never get the hang of it. “One thing your first
grade teacher said was you asked “why” more than
any other kid she’s ever taught,” Mama said. “Maybe
you need to ask more questions.” I had asked ques
tions; I still didn’t understand.
“Maybe you’re not asking the right questions,”
Mama stressed.
“There may be someone else in your class that
don’t understand it either and if you ask, they may
team, too,” Granny inteijected.
I knew all of that. I was a dorky nerd and pretty
comfortable with my lot in life.
But, I was bringing home something less than an
A, and that was cause for alarm.
“Is there anything in particular you’re straggling
with that you could ask your Spanish teacher to
explain better?” Mama asked.
Actually, there was.
The next day in class, my teacher asked a question
and ended it with por favor. I took a deep breath and
raised my hand. “Si, Sudie?”
“What are you building?”
“Que?”
“What are you building? I’ve been wondering for
weeks now. You keep saying four by four, and I’m
wondering what you’re building.”
The class went silent and my teacher broke her rale
of speaking Spanish in the classroom.
“Senorita, I’m not saying four by four. I’m saying
por favor. Por favor means please.”
She looked as confused as I normally did.
“Does that help clarify?”
I nodded, hearing a few snickers from my class
mates.
I was embrassed, of course, but if only I had asked
that stupid question sooner, I may have had a better
grade.
Sudie Crouch is an award winning humor columnist and
author of "The Dahlman Files: A Tony Dahlman
Paranormal Mystery."
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
NOW WHERE DO WE TURN to
for FAKE NEW5?
* *■ :>•••
A Y/fy'.' ; yfy
DR. ANDERSON
The time is coming when we will look like normal again
By Dr. Larry Anderson
Anderson Family Medicine
I may have some good
news for a change. We
were in Greenville for a
Rotary District
Conference. Something
was different the next
morning. All the shields
were gone from the front
desk. I was told it was a
corporate decision. It was
very different to see so
many people not wearing
masks, no shields in front
of people. No, I am not
advocating that you do this
yet but the time is coming
when we will look like
normal again. Still have the
flu to deal with. Get your
vaccine and stay away
from sick people.
Avian Influenza (AI) is
still a problem. You may
have noticed this at the
grocery store. Egg prices
are going up as are chicken
prices. This is due partially
by the death of millions of
egg-laying hens and broil
ers. May also noticed that
free range eggs and birds
are getting scarce. You will
recall that wild birds flying
over a flock of free range
chickens and turkeys will
often drop their calling
cards. This is how the AI is
spread. These birds have
been moved indoors for
their protection. Wild birds
such as Bald Eagles,
Herons and many others
are dying or being culled
because of infections from
this virus. Be careful. Pay
attention to your home
flocks. Protect them.
The Ukraine is still suf
fering losses. War crimes
seem to be at the forefront.
There is always something
more that we can do. Have
you made the phone call,
text or email yet? When
you are through reading
this column you will have
enough time before supper
is on the table to make a
call.
Take a stand. Do some
thing. Pray for the
Ukrainians to have peace
and safety and for the
Russians to go home.
Thanks for reading.
LETTERTOTHE EDITOR
Local elections
and growth
Our county is in the middle of a
new population growth burst. Most
of the people here do not want our
county to look like Forsyth but it
likely will. There are no real tools in
Georgia law avail-able to any elect
ed leaders to stop this. They can
cause the costs of development to go
up in an attempt to slow it. But
many will oppose those efforts.
The city and the county can pass
rules of development that favor
more expenses for builders and
those can make a real positive dif
ference in the appearance and func
tionality of the result. The influen
tial land owners who want to cash in
now with land sales will push back.
Some politi-cal balance will be
struck which will not satisfy either
side of the debate.
We will look a lot like Cobb and
Forsyth and Cherokee if the conflict
of zoning and ordinances are reason
ably settled. If unfettered develop
ment is encouraged and adopted we
will end up worse than those coun
ties. Crowded, jammed up roads, and
ugly as an old garbage can to boot.
Our local leaders are faced with
the infrastructure problems of water
supplies, sewer services, school
capacities, and roads. The school
system seems capable of managing
and have so far, but the numbers of
new people will begin to press them.
My guess is school capacity will fall
short in the coming years.
Water and sewer for the county
are not in the hands of the elected
officials. So far, Etowah Water and
Sewer has been well managed as a
business and charged the real costs
of service. It has not run sewer all
over the place and that has restricted
high density to limited areas.
The city is going to be short on
both water and modern sewer and
seems to support more of both to
support high density development.
Our roads are already a mess and
there are no major plans even in the
works to begin the fix. To do it right
the country would have to go into
debt with bonds to borrow the
money now and take the financial
risk in the out years. This means
that in the future there would be less
funding for the fun stuff like parks
not to mention police and fire.
We are going to elect new leaders
locally. You need to ask them point
ed questions about what they sup
port and what they oppose. If they
respond with “I just love my county
or city,” elect someone else that can
think about the big problems. Love
is good but it is not enough. Good
governing is about making hard
choices and living with the results.
Gary Pichon
Marble Hill
