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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, FEBRUARY 15, 2023
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.
We the unwashed
get hosed again
I am struggling
to come up with
just the right word
to describe the trip
two lame-duck
politicians and
their posse took to
Europe this past
November on your
and my dime (aka, taxpayers.) Boondoggle,
which is defined as “an activity that is waste
ful or pointless but gives the appearance of
having value,” is about the best I can do at
the moment. But “arrogant” and “insensitive”
wouldn’t be far behind.
It seems that before leaving office, Lt. Gov.
Geoff Duncan, who chose not to run for
reelection, and Sen. Butch Miller,
R-Gainesville, president pro tern of the state
senate, who ran to replace Duncan and lost,
decided they needed to go on a weeklong
economic development trip to Germany and
the United Kingdom as part of a special
Senate Committee on Economic
Development and International Relations.
The committee, by the way, was created at
the end of the 2022 legislative session under
the watchful eye of—guess who? — outgo
ing Sen. Miller. Knock me over with a feath
er.
The entourage included 14 people:
Duncan, Miller and state Senators Sheikh
Rahman, D-Lawrenceville; Emanuel Jones,
D-Ellenwood; Sonya Halpem, D-Atlanta;
and Clint Dixon, R-Buford, as well as the
state senate’s PR guy and two members of
Duncan’s security detail. (Why does Duncan
need a security detail when most people in
Georgia couldn’t tell you who the Lt.
Governor is and likely nobody in Germany
or Great Britain would know or care?)
I am sure all the Brits and Germans they
met were polite and accommodating but
were no doubt aware that these two guys
have zero power now. They couldn’t pass
gas.
Some of you may recall the Thanksgiving
turkey of a trip the late Speaker David
Ralston made in 2010 to Germany and the
Netherlands with his family and his chief of
staff and spouse, courtesy of a Washington-
based lobbying firm to look at highspeed rail
service between Chattanooga and Atlanta.
Why you had to go to Europe over the
Thanksgiving holiday to talk about running a
train from Chattanooga to Atlanta was never
explained to me satisfactorily. What I did
understand was that boondoggle cost We the
Unwashed $17,000.
The more things change, the more they
remain the same. A boondoggle is still a
boondoggle. Only, in the case of this particu
lar boondoogle, we don’t know what it cost
us. That is because our intrepid public ser
vants and their bureaucratic minions under
the Gold Dome won’t tell us.
The Atlanta newspaper found out about the
trip and asked how much it had cost.
Although the paper estimates the cost to tax
payers to underwrite the boondoggle as being
in the “tens of thousands of dollars,” the
General Assembly’s legislative counsel, Rick
Ruskell, told the paper to go suck an egg.
“The Georgia General Assembly and its
members, staffs, committees and offices are
not subject to Georgia’s open records laws,”
he wrote. So there.
It seems that the people who pass our laws
feel no need to abide by them. Legislators
will tell you that conversations with constitu
ents should remain private. I have no prob
lem with that. But when a gaggle of politi
cians and their PR flack and security detail
bop off to Europe on a meaningless sightsee
ing trip, you and I have every right to know
how much it cost us. It is, after all, our tax
dollars.
There may be a light at the end of the tun
nel. The Atlanta newspaper reports that in a
rare moment of bipartisanship, current Lt.
Gov. Burt Jones, Senate President Pro Tern
John Kennedy, R-Macon, and Senate
Minority Caucus Chairwoman Elena Parent,
D-Atlanta, are wondering aloud themselves
about the trip and say they plan to look into
the matter as to why and how much.
Lt. Gov. Jones and Sen. Kennedy issued a
joint statement, saying, “We are taking this
issue very seriously and our offices will
investigate this process and ensure more
transparency for hardworking Georgians.”
Sen. Parent said, “There should be a level of
transparency and accountability to the pub
lic.”
Talk is cheap (certainly cheaper than the
boondoggle.) Let’s see what if anything
comes of this. I’m sure former Lt. Gov.
Duncan and former state Sen. Miller are los
ing no sleep over it. They got their free trip
in, thanks to us, and feel no obligation to tell
us what their excursion cost taxpayers. The
only thing we know for sure from this unwar
ranted boondoggle is that once again We the
Unwashed got hosed by our intrepid public
servants. So, what’s new?
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.
DICKYARBROUGH
Columnist
Cats,
I am quite
sure I will more
than likely meet
my demise by
trying to pet
something I
shouldn’t.
Dogs, cats,
squirrels, birds,
goats, ele
phants. You name it, I want to make it
my pet. Doesn’t matter what it is, they
all are adorable to me.
Some folks are more particular about
what kind of animal company they pre
fer to keep however.
“I’m more of a dog person,” Mama
has said repeatedly.
Which is kind of shocking because
Mama was crazy about her little cat.
Bennie. Benetton, or Bennie as we
called her, was the little five pound,
fluffy black and white that Mama
adored. I think the Crazy Redhead
would have given that kittie her only
working kidney if she had needed it.
When I returned from my honeymoon
with the Ex and went to see Mama at
work, she turned to introduce me to a
coworker, saying. “I want you to meet
my precious baby.” The coworker
looked stunned. “I thought Bennie was a
cat? She’s human?” I promptly told
Mama to get her arm off of me since she
talked more about the cat then she did
me. “Well.” she began. “Bennie didn’t
get married and move four hours away,
did she?”
I don’t know if I am a dog person or
an original Crazy Cat Lady — I tend to
love them both, although depending on
the circumstances, I will declare one is
superior to the other.
Like when Mia ate the remote.
“Sexy Frank wouldn’t do that,” I state
matter of factly. True. He wouldn’t. The
mini-panther doesn’t seem to eat large
chunks of plastic.
“No,” Mama agreed. “But he will give
you a black eye though.” Perhaps.
Each species has their positives. Dogs
are considered man’s best friend.
They’re loyal. They live in the moment
and they don’t hold grudges.
They also bark at the most inoppor
tune times.
The house can be relatively quiet until
I’m on a call or in a video meeting, and
then you’d think the nefarious squirrel
army was breaking in by the cacophony
of barking that erupts.
Cats, however, don’t bark.
They judge. They definitely hold
grudges. But they don’t bark.
My grandfather loved dogs. In fact,
when he had a milk delivery route, he
was bitten by a dog and feared the
owner would hurt the dog in retaliation.
To make sure the dog wasn’t harmed,
when the owner asked Pop how he could
make up for the bite, my grandfather
said, “Give me the dog.” So he got the
dog.
However, at 2 a.m. in the morning,
when he was awakened by one of our
dog’s barking at a leaf falling, he’d mut
ter that our cat didn’t do that.
“Is a cat going to protect us if some
one’s breaking in?” Granny would mut
ter back.
“It could,” my grandfather would
reply. “That’s the beauty of a cat. You
don’t know what they’re capable of.”
Granny didn’t really like cats. I’m not
sure if she liked dogs. Heck, sometimes
I wondered if she liked people.
When it comes down to it, I think I’m
just an animal person, like my uncle.
When Bobby noticed Rhiannon.
Bennie’s mother, was acting like she
was still hungry after he fed them, he
discovered a possum was eating her
food.
He followed the possum and found
she had at least a dozen babies, so he
started taking some leftovers and dry cat
food to the edge of the woods for her.
“I’d kill it.” Granny said, a statement
that horrified me then and even now.
Bobby shook his head slowly, the only
time he’d defy his mother was if it con
cerned an animal or me. “No, Mama.
That’s one of God’s creatures too, and
it’s hungry. I’m going to feed it. If I
can’t help it, I’m surely not going to
hurt it.”
He fed the possum until she eventual
ly didn’t show up any longer. We aren’t
sure what happened, but Bobby decided
as long as she came around with her
babies, he was feeding them.
I’ve done the same, feeding the little
possums that show up at our barn. We
have one or two — we’re not really sure
how many — feral cats that hang out
under there as well.
“You don’t need to put food out
there,” Lamar cautions me as I walk out
the door with a bag of dry cat food.
“You don’t know what you’re feeding.”
No, I don’t. But whatever it is, I’m
sure it’s hungry.
“It might be a possum,” I tell him.
“They are our friends. We should feed
them.”
“You’re probably feeding the rac
coons and squirrels.”
I don’t see the harm in that.
“And those cats out there are probably
keeping the rats and mice away. If you
feed them, they may not do that.”
Seeing as we had a mouse in the
house recently, playing right under Sexy
Frank’s nose, I wasn’t so sure the barn
kitties were necessarily doing rodent
patrol.
Maybe I’m feeding the cats. Maybe
it’s the possums, or even a few raucous
raccoons.
Whatever it is, it’s hungry and I have
every intention of being kind to it and
just maybe getting the opportunity to pet
it.
Sudie Crouch is an award winning
humor columnist.
dogs and critters
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
DR. ANDERSON
Stay mindful of world events, war in Ukraine
By Dr. Larry Anderson
Anderson Family Medicine
At times, we seem to think that
things go away if they are not front
and center in the news. We need to be
mindful of all things bad that are
going on in our world. Turkey and
Syria are having a horrible time with
the earthquake and massive deaths,
injuries and displaced persons. They
desire our prayers and assistance.
US Representative Rick
McCormick met with some of us
folks last Friday. My main concern is
discussions with him was Ukraine.
What are we doing and how are
things going. He is on the Armed
Forces Committee and will also be in
Europe with a NATO conference and
Ukraine is on the agenda. Not sure
what will happen there.
Ukraine has been at war with
Russia for a year now. No one wants
this to turn into a long drawn out war.
We, US and other countries, need to
give them whatever they need to
bring this to closure and send the
Russians home and stop doing stop
gap measures.
Here is a homework assignment for
you. Google Michail Vershnin and
Mariupol. He was the chief of police
there when the Russians invaded the
city. He was taken prisoner. Lost over
80 pounds. I have written about him
before. He will be here Wednesday for
a 3 week visit. If you get a chance to
meet him, it will be worth your while.
When in the steel mill fighting the
Russians, he made a bracelet that I
wear. The resolve of the Ukrainian
people is very strong. They will sur
vive and they will achieve their free
dom. All that evil needs to succeed is
for good people to do nothing. Do
something.
Be safe. Thanks for reading.
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