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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, NOVEMBER 30, 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.
Can nations
democracy
outlast us?
This is kind of a
bummer way to start
your day but it is
worth reflection:
“Remember, democ
racy never lasts long.
It soon wastes,
exhausts, and murders
itself. There never
was a democracy yet
that did not commit suicide.”
Who said that? Karl Marx? Ayatollah
Khomeini? Vladimir Putin? Wrong, wrong and
wrong. It was John Adams, second president of
the United States. He also added, “Individuals
have conquered themselves. Nations and large
bodies of men, never.” Could he have been talk
ing about us?
I posit that the biggest threat to our future
comes not from China or Russia or North Korea.
It comes from within. It comes from people who
somehow find nothing wrong with a bunch of
goons wreaking havoc on the United States
Capitol because they didn’t like the results of a
presidential election. They call themselves
“patriots.” They are no more patriotic than grape
nut cereal contains grapes.
It comes from people obsessed with a past that
is over and done with and who are not content to
look at the progress that we have made since
then. Call them the Woke generation. They for
get they live in a country that freely allows them
to disrespect it. Try that in Russia.
It comes from people who feel the need to
hyphenate their origin as though they aren’t real
ly committed Americans, they are hyphenated
Americans. (As an aside: I have a white acquain
tance that grew up in South Africa. Does she
qualify as an African-American?)
It comes from universities that make it as diffi
cult as possible for conservative viewpoints to be
expressed while they make it easy for liberal
expressions.
It comes from biased media that pander to a
particular political philosophy and then claim to
be fair and balanced. (Watch Fox’s Tucker
Carlson and any talking head on MSNBC report
the same story.) They make it hard for any
media to be trusted to report a story accurately.
Where are Chet Huntley and David Brinkley
when we need them?
I am a tiny tadpole in the large media stream
but I value my integrity too much to say there
can only be one side to an issue. As a reader cor
rectly discerned last week, I am neither to the
left nor right on the political spectrum but smack
in the middle. Smart reader.
Before you become totally bummed out, let
me give you some important perspective. It
seems we have always been like this, going back
to our beginnings as a nation.
If you have read any history at all, you know
that our Founding Fathers were petty, spiteful
and a sometimes dishonorable lot who created a
nation every bit as prone to violence as is
today’s. The more I read of our early days, the
more amazed I am we have made it this far.
For example, Secretary of State Thomas
Jefferson hated Secretary of the Treasury
Alexander Hamilton, and the feeling was mutu
al. John Adams didn’t like Jefferson or
Hamilton. I am amused when I hear all the talk
about “fake news” today. Both Jefferson and
Hamilton funded newspapers for the expressed
purpose of slanting public opinion in their favor.
President John Adams pushed the passage of
the Sedition Act of 1798 which criminalized
making statements that were critical of the feder
al government. And lest we forget, Vice
President Aaron Burr killed Hamilton in a duel,
which makes former Vice President Dick
Cheney shooting a hunting buddy in the tush not
so big a deal.
Somehow we have managed to make our
democracy function for a little more than two
centuries but as John Adams himself noted, we
are not a sure thing. The biggest difference
between then and now is that misinformation
and political demagoguery are disseminated
with an immediacy not available in days of yore.
Can you imagine Thomas Jefferson and
Alexander Hamilton on Twitter?
If you take John Adams and his views on
democracy literally, the day may be coming
when we will self-destruct. But it doesn’t neces
sarily have to be. Let us pledge ourselves not to
waste, exhaust and murder our precious free
doms through complacency, apathy or narrow
minded self-interest. Philosopher George
Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from
history are doomed to repeat it.” May it not be
on our watch.
And as bad as things may seem to be, just
remember what Winston Churchill said,
“Democracy is the worst form of government —
except for ail the others that have been tried.” I
agree. And I hope John Adams would, too.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyar-
brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139;
online atdickyarbrough.com or on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/dickyarb.
Searching for that Christmas spirit
I don’t know about the
rest of y’all, but I am miss
ing the way Christmas
used to be.
Not just the Christmases
of my childhood, which I
always seem to yearn for,
with their tinsel and wine
laden fruitcake, but I miss
how Christmas was not that long ago.
When my son was little and
Christmas still had that magic to it.
Trying to keep Santa alive and
showing up once a year for my then
little one was fun and something that
we loved to do - it made this time of
year seem like it was a time of mira
cles and good cheer.
Even though I had lost that holiday
sparkle of my own childhood, I
embraced the notion that I had a small
child to make Christmas special for
and tried even though I am not one
with natural decorating and holiday
razzle dazzle.
If anything, my holiday pizzazz is
really just trying to put up a fake tree
and a few stockings and hoping for
the best.
But as a child, Cole seemed to like
it. Of course, I did a bit more in reali
ty; we had a nativity scene that we put
out every year, which Cole even
begged us to leave it up after
Christmas, saying he didn’t want to
put Jesus back in the box.
We left it out but something hap
pened and Baby Jesus got broken.
We’d go find Santa so Cole could
give his list. We’d drive around to see
the lights.
It wasn’t much, but it let us know it
was Christmas.
It seems like it was just yesterday
when he’d have me checking the
paper every week, waiting for the big
toy sale book from Toys R
Us. He’d flip through it
once with intention, eye
balling everything on the
pages and then hand me
the phone and ask me to
call Nennie.
“Nennie. you got your
paper? Did you get the
Toys R Us book?” he asked, his tone
serious and businesslike. Mama would
assure him she had her copy and was
ready.
“OK. Now, turn to page 12. You
there?” “I am. What do you want on
that page?” she’d ask.
“Everything. If it’s on page 12,1
want it.”
Mama still giggles over that memo
ry. “That baby knew what he wanted
and that was precious,” she’ll say.
“Reminds me of you and the Wish
Book. You’d earmark so many pages
in there. You wanted a guitar and a
ballet costume one year.”
Didn’t every girl want to be a rock-
star ballerina?
Then, one year instead of writing a
letter to Santa, Cole wanted cash so he
could get what he wanted. There was
no pretense of the jolly elf arriving on
December 24th, no sneaking around
trying to hide gifts and arranging
times to shop to surprise him.
We stopped making cookies and
leaving them out on a plate with baby
carrots for the reindeer.
Everything changed over the years
for so many reasons. As we’ve lost
loved ones, grief changed us and our
traditions, and kids do what they do
best; they grow up.
When Granny passed away, the hol
idays felt different and even before
that she said Christmas wasn’t the
same without Pop.
I understood what she meant then
and even more now, when family
dynamics are so different and as an
adult, you’re just trying to get through
each and every day, while trying to
make the special days feel meaningful
for everyone - and sometimes, just for
yourself.
And now, I feel like I am in a holi
day limbo and not sure how to get my
bearings again.
There’s just that longing, that yearn
ing for the Christmases we had and
hoping we can create something mem
orable in the present.
I don’t think I am alone in this; I
think many of us are trying to find our
way back to that joy, that spirit. That
magic that only happens when we
give in to the time of the year and
believe in miracles.
“We haven’t gone to see the lights
in ages,” I stated simply to Lamar. “I
think we need to do that this year.”
We hate driving at night or even
leaving the house at night. Or just
leaving the house for that matter.
But sometimes, there’s memories to
make and just moments to enjoy that
make it worth it.
I even put up a few decorations
right after Thanksgiving. And a string
of lights on the mantle.
“Those look nice,” Lamar said, kiss
ing the top of my head. “Festive.”
It may not be much, but maybe it
will be a start to get us all back in the
Christmas spirit.
Sudie Crouch is an award winning
humor columnist and author of the
recently e-published novel, "The
Dahlman Files: A Tony Dahlman
Paranormal Mystery."
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
LETTERTOTHE EDITOR
The Anne Styles park
Every now and then someone does
something to affirm my belief in the
goodness of people. That just hap
pened up in my part of the county.
Anne Styles, who lived for years
over off Elliot Parkway, has just gifted
to Dawson County 120 acres of abso
lutely beautiful rural land for a public
park. It is up on a high spot and you
can see the Nimblewill and Winding
Stairs sections of the mountains off in
the distance.
I think it is the largest gift ever in
the history of the county. If you see
Miss Anne around please thank her. It
is a spectacular act of goodness in a
world that needs a little goodness.
Anne might be a little older than
me, but not much, and she is as quick
witted as the people I hang around
with. And she is no shrinking violet I
tell you. Anne does not take ordering
around. She is lively and quick and I
have enjoyed getting to know her.
She wants that land to be used as a
park for the people of Dawson
County. She wants a place for walking
and bicycling and appreciating nature.
The land has pastures and good hard
wood trees and she wants it kept like
that. I took her and a couple of the
Commissioners over to see the
Talking Rock Nature Park over in
Pickens County to see if Anne liked
what she saw there so maybe we
could have something like it.
That park was developed by the
Southeastern Trust for Parks and Land
run by Bill Jones. It has a walking and
biking trail of about 10 miles that
winds around rural land. The trail was
laid out and cut by Ken Nix who is
“the best” of trail builders. The trail is
natural and unpaved. I hope that we
can get them to do the trail building
for Anne’s Park. They have the pro
skills to do it right. Their parks are
low cost to build and to maintain.
The Talking Rock park is a quiet
place. No big lights. Just one porta
potty and a small gravel parking lot
that usually has about 5 or 6 cars
there. Anne liked what she saw and
she walked a couple of miles to see
for herself.
It is my hope that the Commission
will undertake the building of a park
here along the lines of the Talking
Rock Park and I encourage the public
to support the commission in those
efforts.
Get your walking shoes out and
ready and your mountain bike tires
aired up. Maybe in the next couple of
years Anne’s Place will be opened for
your enjoyment of the great outdoors.
Gary Pichon
Marble Hill
RSV affecting young people, older adults
By Dr. Larry Anderson
Anderson Family Medicine
Now is the time to get serious about
the RSV virus. It is affecting our
young people and running rampant in
the schools. It is also affecting older
adults. When you talk about young
people and older adults, you are often
talking about children and grandpar
ents. People of parents’ age don’t seem
to get this particular virus. If you are
sick, or if your children are sick, stay
home. If in doubt, stay home. Don’t
take chances. COVID-19 precautions
also prevail here: wash your hands, use
hand sanitizer, and don’t be afraid to
use a mask. Thanks for reading.
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