About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 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, SEPTEMBER 21,2022 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. GOP governors want sanctuary cities to walk it like they talk it jHola elitistas aman- tes de los liberales! Nosotros estamos aquf ^Que hay para el alm- uerzo? For those of you around for whom English is still your pri mary language, the above roughly translates to: “Hello, liberal-loving elitists. Here we are. What’s for lunch?” It seems cities like New York, Chicago, Washington, D. C., and other Democratic bastions have declared themselves sanctuary cities, mean ing everyone is welcomed, including illegal immi grants (or as Joe Biden refers to them, “non-citi zens.”) They have stated flatly they will not honor efforts to enforce immigration law. Now there is a campaign among border states to transport migrants to these cities and challenge Democrat-run governments which have long tout ed their openness to immigrants to walk their talk. Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and Florida which are overrun with immigrants are taking the sanctuary providers up on their kind offer and are shipping them their very own — uh — whatchamacallits. This past week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shipped two planeloads of 50 immigrants to — are you ready? — tony Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. I can hear the martini glasses hit ting the floor at cocktail parties across the island along with dropped jaws. Immigrant-rights activists have accused DeSantis of using the newly arrived noncitizens as “political pawns.” Massachusetts politicians called it a cruel ploy. I call it a political “gotcha.” You say you love illegal immigrants? Here, have some of mine. “We are not a sanctuary state,” DeSantis said, “and it’s better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction, and yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pas tures.” The governor added, “Every community in America should be sharing in the burdens. It shouldn’t all fall on a handful of red states.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says his state intention ally sent two buses of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in the nation’s capital. “VP Harris claims our border is ‘secure’ & denies the crisis,” Abbott tweeted. “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job and secure the bor der.” Texas had already bused nearly 9,000 migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C. Abbott’s attitude seem to be: If those cities like undocu mented/illegal/noncitizen/immigrants so much, they should have few thousand of their own. Arizona’s Republican Governor Doug Ducey has had several busloads of immigrants dropped off near the U.S. Capitol. A spokesman for the governor said, “This is a problem caused by Washington. We’re bringing it to Washington and we expect Washington to foot the bill. We’re going to send them a bill.” Other Democratic sanctuary cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle are bracing themselves for an unexpected influx of immigrants from these border states. Clearly, these cities and those that run them have been caught off-guard by the action of those three state governors. Right now, the recipients of these non-citizen persons are mostly sputtering righteous indigna tion, although a group of liberal activists say they are headed to Texas to block future buses of immi grants from leaving the state. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he’s sending a “fact-find ing delegation” to Texas to see how that state treats migrants and to see “firsthand, the reported ly inhumane conditions in which asylum seekers are being subjected to by the state of Texas.” I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I’d be careful with my threats. As the old saying goes, “Don’t mess with Texas.” All of this furor is a result of Joe Biden easing immigration rules and letting a lot of people into the United States that I am sure Mexico and Venezuela and other countries are glad to get out of their hair. Sanctuary city liberals are wringing their hands at the cold-hearted actions of border state Republican governors and their perceived mis treatment of young families wanting a fresh start in the U.S. But there is no doubt a lot of bad actors are sneaking in as well, maybe even a ter rorist or two. Why should Texas and Florida and Arizona bear all the risk? Let’s all share and share alike. In the meantime at Martha’s Vineyard, I sus pect things may never be the same at the Friday night cocktail parties. Instead of, “Darling, have you read Barack’s latest book? He signed it for me, you know,” you are more likely to hear, “A sus canapes les vendrfa bien un poco mas de aceite de trufa.” (Your canapes could use a little more truffle oil.”) Welcome to America. You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyar- brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on Facebookat www.facebook.com/dickyarb. Starbucks closes stores across the country due to safety concerns ©2022 CREATORS.COM WWW.TOMSTIGLICH.COM Letter policy The Dawson County News welcomes your opinions on issues of public concern. Letters must be signed and include full address and a daytime and evening phone number for verification. Names and home towns of letter writers will be included for publication without exception.Telephone numbers will not be published. Letters should be limited to 350 words and may be edited or condensed.The same writer or group may only submit one letter per month for consideration. Mail letters to the Dawson County News, RO. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534, hand deliver to 30 Shoal Creek Road, fax to (706) 265-3276 or e-mail to editor@dawson- news.com. The weather-predicting pittie Georgia, of all places, had two earthquakes last week. We had no warning what soever, as is the case with earthquakes, but Doodle may have had an inkling some thing was about to happen. “She’s been so nervous for some reason today,” Lamar commented. “More so than usual ?” “Yeah,” he said. “She’s really super- anxious today.” “Is it supposed to storm?” “Maybe later, but I think we’re just getting rain.” Doodle may not realize it. but she has missed her calling. Whenever there is anything out of the ordinary weather wise, the little caramel colored pittie-mix knows way in advance. She’s not the first pup I’ve had who was able to let us know when the weath er was going to be bad. Venus often knew when storms were approaching, too. When three tornadoes were going through Atlanta and heading north sever al years ago. a friend called me frantic with worry. “I think we’re good,” I assured her. “Are you sure?” she asked. “It looks like those tornadoes are headed this way. Y’all need to come get in my basement.” I was more scared about navigating the narrow spiral staircase leading into her basement than a storm. I looked over at the small German Shepherd who was snoring by my feet. Even though the radar showed something ominous. Venus wasn’t affected by it. I felt certain we’d be fine and said so. Ava wasn’t one for alerting us to impending danger. Rather, she was more reactive, opening the bathroom door and getting in the tub whenever she heard thunder. She didn’t try to rally us all into there like Venus would, instead it was every human for themselves. Even though Doodle was only around Venus for just a couple of months before the sweet older pup passed away, she picked up a lot of her hab its and traits. One being the way she is precise and particular about her kibble and the other being her sensitivity to storms and nasty weather. We didn’t notice Doodle’s storm tracking abilities until several years when Hurricane Irma came through. She’s always been a nervous little thing, scared of her own shadow, with separation anxiety so bad we can’t leave her alone for long periods of time. But the day the hurricane was expect ed to make landfall, her behavior was even more anxious and high strung. She did not want anyone out of her sight, she whimpered, she shook. She shedded. Nervous dogs shed more, and I have no idea how this poor pup wasn’t bald. Her fur would just float all around her like she was PigPen from Charlie Brown. “What is wrong with her?” Lamar asked as she had paced the kitchen floor. She wanted us all to do something but she wasn’t sure what. When the rain started hours later and persisted, she grew even more anxious, and when the tree fell across the bam and onto the house, she screamed out as if in pain. Once it was over, she fell asleep on the floor, too exhausted to even get on the bed or couch. Doodle gets anxious when there may be snow. When it may rain. When there’s wind. The other pups don’t seem to care. The only thing Mia knows about nasty weather is she can’t get her workouts in because of it. Pumpkin doesn’t like it. but it never really bothered her. Since her hearing isn’t the best anymore, she only notices it if it’s really bad, and then she’ll even let Frank cuddle with her for comfort. But thunder and lightning terrify Doodle, I think even lightning bugs make her scared. So the day that earthquake happened in Jasper County, Doodle was all kinds of agitated. It didn’t help that for some reason, our power went out for about 15 minutes. Have I mentioned she’s scared of the dark? She is. The ferocious dog, who has terrified grown men 10 times her size just by looking at them real hard, is scared of the dark. Much like her human mama, she has to have the television on in order to sleep, or some kind of night light. When I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, she jumped over the baby gate to go with me. Apparently the power went out again after we all went to bed. That and the fact the earth rumbled a few counties over probably put her on Death Con Level alert. She tried to hide behind the toilet, not even being coaxed out with a peanut but ter bone. “Come on. Boo.” I whispered, trying not to wake up everyone else, including the cat. The pittie held firm in her spot and shook her head. “Til give you an extra treat if you come out.” I promised. She started, then paused, trying to determine if the extra treat was worth leaving her safe haven. Peanut butter won out and she finally relented, grabbing her treats before she ran to curl up in her crate. The next morning, I saw there had been a possible earthquake reported. “There was an earthquake in Georgia,” I told Lamar. “When?” “Last night.” We both looked at Doodle. “That’s why she was so upset yesterday,” he said. “She knew.” The petite pup looked up at us and gave a sigh of relief knowing her anxiety had indeed been validated. Sudie Crouch is an award winning humor columnist and author of "The Dahlman Files: ATony Dahlman Paranormal Mystery." SUDIE CROUCH Columnist LETTERS Our country is at a crossroads The politics of the extreme right- wing Republicans, referred to as the MAGA Republicans is dividing our country and is threatening our democracy. President Biden addressed this divide in his speech last week. MAGA Republicans are calling the speech divisive, but we call it facing the truth. We need two political parties that can work together to solve the issues our country faces. But the MAGA Republicans see it only one way: their way. And their way is to follow Donald Trump who is an authoritari an Fascist who only cares about his own wealth and power. Biden called out the MAGA Republican two weeks ago as repre sentative of an extremism that threat ens the very foundations of our republic. He drew a clear line between those supporting the former president and those from all parties who support democracy. He quite deliberately drew a line between Trump supporters and “mainstream Republicans” who do not embrace the “extreme ideology” of their for mer allies. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE AND WE DO NEED TWO PARTIES IN OUR COUNTRY TO PRESERVE IT. But the Fascist MAGA Republicans want to turn our country into a country similar to what Hitler envisioned for Germany in the 1930s. Why did Trump steal those classi fied documents and store them at Mar-a-Lago? What were his motives? It couldn’t have been any thing good for our country. We learned last week that FBI agents found a document detailing the military defenses of a foreign government, including its nuclear capabilities, during last month’s search of Mar-a-Lago. What is at stake is the security of the U.S. and our democratic allies. Some of the documents they found were so high ly restricted that they required spe cial clearances on a need-to-know basis. It is time to face reality. Don’t let our Democracy dissolve. Conservative well- known Journalist Bill Kristol said last week that, at least in the short term, the Republican Party cannot be saved. “And,” he offered, “if we don’t have two reasonably healthy parties, the unhealthy party has to be defeated.” Vote Democratic in the upcoming election, and then Republicans get busy restoring your party to reality and civility. Bette Holland Dawsonville Why climate action must happen now! There should be no doubt that Americans know we are in a CLIMATE CRISIS. Climate and Environmental Scientists have been warning us about this crisis for over 40 years! Many of us failed to believe the warning and since the problem didn’t affect us personally, we didn’t see a reason to act. Now climate is affecting us, our families and our communities in adverse ways. Our weather events are more severe and more frequent. The slight change in the earth’s tem perature, brought about by the burn ing of fossil fuels, is affecting our water and food supply which are essential to our survival. That’s the bad news. Now the good news! The Biden Administration has passed three bills that will help us get out of this crisis. First, the Inflation Reduction Act grants $150 billion in permanent tax incentives to accelerate America’s move to renewable energy. Billions more will help to electrify America’s transportation system. There’s money for de-carbonizing heavy industry, as well as $60 billion for environmental justice programs. According to the best estimates, this legislation puts the United States on track to cut emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and could generate as many as 9 million new jobs in the United States over the next decade. In addition to that, the Biden Administration has passed the first Infrastructure Bill in 60 years. It includes billions of dollars to upgrade our electric grid and to install EV Charging Stations around the country. In addition, this admin istration passed the Chips bill which allocates Billions of Dollars for research and development of the microchips needed to build electric cars and computers. So, we are on the right track, but we need each citizen to also take action. The North Georgia Conservation Coalition hosted a community forum earlier this month at the library in Dawsonville for the purpose of empowering citizens on ways they can help solve the climate crisis. We have practical ideas on what every citizen can do to help reduce their carbon footprint. Please contact us if you want more informa tion at ngcc2035@gmail.com. Linda Ryan Dawsonville
