Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current, May 04, 2022, Image 7
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, MAY 4, 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. Courtroom not place to decide Greenes future I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is a joke. An unfunny joke. She has accomplished nothing in her one term in Congress except to be denied assignment to any Congressional committee where the real work is done. That means she has no influence in what passes or doesn’t pass in Congress and is relegated to making out landish statements. Even before she was elected, Greene had endorsed posts calling for the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She also liked Facebook comments about executing law enforcement agents who are in the “deep state,"’(not to be confused with the Gazpacho police.) And who can forget her concerns about the California wildfires having been started by a laser beam in space controlled by the Rothschilds, a prominent Jewish banking company. There are more examples, of course, but I think you get the idea. She has made buffoonery an art form. Now, Marjorie Taylor Greene is making headlines of a different kind. Five of Greene’s constituents represented by a group called Free Speech for People are seeking to disqualify her from appearing on the ballot in next month’s primary. They contend she violated the U.S. Constitution by engaging in an insurrection with her alleged support for the January 6th Capitol riots. The case centers on a provision of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution - known as the disqualification clause - which bars any person from holding federal office who has previously taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and then has “engaged in insurrection” against the United States. Administrative Faw Judge Charles Beaudrot has heard from both sides on the matter and says he will finalize his recom mendation shortly. That recommendation will then go to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will decide if Greene remains on the ballot for the May 24th primary. Greene’s attorney James Bopp said, “The right to vote is at stake, right here, right now. Because they (meaning the plaintiffs) want to deny the right to vote to the thousands of people in the 14th District of Georgia by having Greene removed from the ballot.” You may want to sit down lest you fall over in a faint at what I am about to say: Despite my oft-stated antipathy for Greene and her motor mouth, I agree with Mr. Bopp. It is not the court’s business whether Maijorie Taylor Greene is or is not on the ballot in May. She was duly elected by the voters of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. It is their right to return her to office or to kick her out if they so choose. Assuming she survives the current court challenge, a group of six candidates are lined up to face off against Greene in the May 24 Republican primary while three Democrats battle it out in their primary for a chance to be on the ballot in November’s general elec tion. Defeating her will be a tall order. Greene has over $3 million in her war chest and the reelection rate for incumbent U.S. House members is roughly 95 percent. But however things turn out, there is no question that Marjorie Taylor Greene is the gift that keeps on giving. You may have read about the text she sent to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days follow ing the Washington riots suggesting that his boss might want to declare “Marshall law.” I’m not sure if she was referring to the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall or former Secretary of State Gen. George C. Marshall or Cuddles Marshall, the hard- throwing righthander for the old St. Fouis Browns. I doubt Meadows knew, either. I suspect he was more worried about what the Gazpacho police might do. Greene told the media that she didn’t “recall those being my text messages.” I don’t blame her. I would try and forget that, too. Now we await the recommendations of Judge Beaudrot and the final decision of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as to Maijorie Taylor Greene’s political fate. I am going to assume that he will allow her on the ballot. Invoking the 14th Amendment is a stretch. Besides, I find it ironic that a group calling itself Free Speech for People is trying to stifle her free speech, as onerous as it is. Marjorie Taylor Greene may be a joke to some - or to many - but voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District sent her to Washington to be their elected representa tive. They very well could do it again. And that’s no joke. You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dick- yarbrough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on Facebook at wvwv.facebook.com/dickyarb. DICKYARBROUGH Columnist A different perspective on Mothers Day Mother’s Day has taken on a new mean ing for me since I became a mother myself. Fargely because it is a day I never thought I’d cele brate. I wasn’t one of those women who normally cooed over every baby; they typi cally terrified me. since they had a soft spot and people talked about umbilical cords falling off. Not to mention a friend explained something in terms of “explosive” and “projectile” one day, and I said that sounded like some thing I didn’t think I could handle. But it wasn’t just that I feared babies. Fong before Famar and I married, I had dealt with a lot of issues, which only got worse with each year. It got to the point where I felt like I needed answers, so I went to the doctor only to find out that more than likely. I wouldn’t be able to have children. Even though we hadn’t been talking about the possi bility yet - we had only been married about two months - we had discussed wanting children on our first date. Hearing that news knocked the wind right out of me. It was just not a possibility I had even remotely considered. A few months later, when I found out I was pregnant, it was hard to believe. I had thought I had some how caught mono and that was why I was tired all the time. The smell of Famar mak ing espresso in the morning could make me nauseous even when I was in the show er. “You need to take a preg nancy test,” my friend. Cherie, said. Her husband had been an OB/GYN, and she had often helped in the office, so she knew a few of the not-so-normal symptoms. “I can’t get pregnant,” I said. “I don’t care. You need to take a test.” So I did. I didn’t want to tell anyone until the doctor confirmed it. “I thought I couldn’t have kids,” I said to the physi cian’s assistant. She looked back through my file. “Based on those tests you had a few months ago, it was very unlikely.” “Were those tests wrong?” She continued reviewing them. “Nope. There was a very slim possibility, but somehow you defied those odds. That baby’s supposed to be here.” It wasn’t an easy pregnan cy though. You know how there are some women who just glow and look amazing when preg nant? That was not me. That was the total opposite of me. Even when I was put on bed rest, all I could think was how no matter how miserable I was, it was worth every sec ond of it. The day my son was born our scheduled C-section was bumped for hours; we learned later that one baby being delivered was in dis tress, and another was still born. As I held Cole that night in my hospital room, it hit me. Not every mother was get ting that moment to bond with their baby, count their fingers and toes, and smell their little heads. There are some women who may try and try to con ceive and never do. There are women who have miscarried. And some delivered a baby they wouldn’t take home. While Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate mothers, there’s a lot of women who have yearned and ached for a baby, and this day hurts. Hearing someone ask, “When are you going to have a baby?” to someone is one of the most obtrusive and painful questions that can be asked, and it’s one that some people ask, not thinking that maybe that woman has strug gled with infertility or maybe even lost a baby. It’s such a personal and sometimes painful thing to deal with. Knowing I was told I couldn’t have a child, then being able to, has given me such a different perspective on Mother’s Day, one that I don’t think I would have had otherwise. This year, may we hold that space in our hearts for all those women who are mothers and those who have yearned to be. Sudie Crouch is an award winning humor columnist and author of "The Dahlman Files: A Tony Dahlman Paranormal Mystery." SUDIE CROUCH Columnist DR. ANDERSON Pay attention, be proactive to protect yourself from viruses By Dr. Larry Anderson Anderson Family Medicine We have some interesting numbers today. 25 people in the metro Atlanta area have died so far from influ enza. 97 people in Dawson County have died from COVID. 3 Bald Eagles in Georgia have died from the Avian Influenza. Over 28 million birds have been culled because of Avian Influenza. 1 person in America has contracted Avian Influenza and has survived. Viruses are not always our friend. We need to pay attention to protect ing ourselves and being proactive. Wash your hands a lot. Dirt has nothing to do with it. It would be a lot easier if we could see the virus. They are everywhere. Just a thought. When was it ever a good idea to put people on a cart and let them pedal from bar to bar. The Ukrainians are giv ing a good accounting of themselves. The atrocities never seem to be slowing down. Yet most of the world is still sitting back and not doing much. Sanctions are being applied but slowing down the killing is not the same as stopping the kill ing. Soldiers wear a uni form for a reason. You can separate them from the civilians just by looking at what they are wearing. This is not like dealing with the Taliban when they dressed as civilians and it was very hard to tell who was who. Pray for the safety of the Ukrainians and for the Russians to go home. Wash your hands. Cover your mouth. Sneeze into your elbow. Stay away from sick people. Thanks for reading. LETTERTOTHE EDITOR Who is at fault? The whole Ukraine war is a tragedy for the world and for the Ukrainian peo ple and the Russian people, and it is just at the beginning. It will touch us all even if the best possible ending comes to pass. The damage is already horrific. The root cause of that damage is Putin. He imagined that he and his peo ple were threatened and he imagined that the Ukrainians would welcome him and the Russians. He imagined that Ukraine wanted to be part of the old imperial Russia or the renewed mini Soviet Empire. Biden may not be he direct cause but he has thrown gas on Putin’s fire. Putin said clearly that he wanted Ukraine to never become part of the NATO alliance and that he wanted the NATO alliance to pull back from the borders of Russia. He said those things as he assembled his troops and equipment. Biden said absolutely — No!!! to all Putin’s demands. Biden spoke for NATO because without the USA, NATO is as weak as old dish water. So no it was. Putin moved and we had no real options to stop him. He is close and we are far. Then real negotiations started with the Ukrainian leader and the Russians, and in the middle of those talks Biden says that Putin should not be allowed to remain as the leader of Russia. Rus-sia protested. More talks were then resumed. Then Biden, who cannot control his brain or his mouth said that Putin was a war criminal. War criminals, if they lose a war, are tried and either hung or sent to a dark prison hole for the rest of their days. Then more talks happened and in the middle of those talks stupid Biden says that Putin has committed genocide. How would you negotiate with someone who has already convicted you and sentenced you to death? Biden may be right but he is the head of State not some Senator from Delaware. He needs to shut his mouth. There are no talks now. Absolute posi tions preclude negotiated settlements. It will be settled by a terrible war of destruction. Biden was a bad negotiator. Putin is in a dream reality of his own making. My guess is that Russia will grind Ukraine into surrender and there may be nothing much worth having when sur-render comes. God help us all. Gary Pichon Marble Hill