Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current, April 28, 2017, Image 4

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    A4
Lake Oconee News
Friday, April 28,2017
Start the conversation
Send us your opinions by Monday at 1 p.m.
news@lakeoconeenews.us
‘Farther along
we’ll know
more about it’
“The midnight will he
glassy black
Behind the panes, with
wind about
To set his mouth against
a crack
And blow the candle out.”
Elinor Wylie,
Prophecy
I’ve been looking for
some nugget of wisdom
ever since Sunday night,
some morsel of comfort in
a world of chaos and pain.
But I haven’t found
anything much to say that
I can guarantee as wise.
In lieu of wisdom, let
us explore some simple
things.
Let’s look atthe sky, atthe
curve of blue that stretches
toward tomorrow in one
direction and yesterday in
the other.
Clouds waltz in from
the west headed toward
the future, some hot white
and others dappled with
gray; they are always on
the move, seeming to drift
ever eastward like a herd
of charolais shambling
toward Paris.
So beautiful.
But then you might
imagine they are running
from something just over
the horizon, some fearful
thunderbird with bloody
talons rising over the
Rockies that will turn
these dollops of argent
mist into lightning and
rain.
Easy now, that’s just
your imagination, corrupt
T. Michael
Stone
Associate Editor
and disagreeable tool that
it has become, ruining the
day with gloom and uncer
tainty.
Clouds are imperma
nence personified, always
waxing or waning as they
strafe the firmament with
dreams of heaven.
It’s almost as if you
could climb up an oak and
leap from a limb onto a
cotton tuft as soft as swan
feathers and be on your
way to the pearly gates.
Sometimes that’s an at
tractive notion, to leave this
place behind and ascend to
something better.
All in due time, I
suppose.
“Take a number and
wait your turn,” old Grim
might say. “I won’t forget
about you.”
The Earth rotates and
revolves and and drifts
along with the galaxy to
which it belongs, wander
ing unhurried through the
cosmological vision of a
SEE STONE » A6
In praise of the lonesome road
Few things in modern
American life seem as uni
versally deplored, yet as
frustratingly necessary, as
air travel. The social media
Vesuvius that erupted over
United Airlines’ rough treat
ment of a passenger a few
weeks ago was, to my mind,
less based in wrath over one
man’s manhandling and
more a collective scream
of primal rage directed at
the realities of flying as
they exist today. To ride on
airplanes as anyone poorer
than a Saudi prince is to be
subjected to a depressingly
quotidian parade of small
indignities, from the over
priced coffee to having to
slip off your shoes and pad
Katherine
Klimt
Staff Writer
across a security threshold
in mismatched socks. Then
the obligatory police detain-
ee-cum-exotic dancer pose
all must assume before the
Transportation Security
Administration douses
you in enough radiation to
ascertain whether you are
planning on lighting your
underpants on fire.
It’s a cruel process, and
I say this as an extremely
fair-skinned member of
the fairer sex who is on no
aviatory mall cop’s radar.
Others have it far worse. But
still, what are you going to
do? America is a big country,
and Americans are a deeply
impatient people. To board
a plane in Atlanta and rush
into my parents’ loving
embrace at Dallas Love-
Field takes an impressive
two and a half hours or so.
To drive there, an odyssey I
completed for at least the
dozenth time over Easter
weekend, is a grueling haul
across five states that takes
at least 13 hours, in which
for hundreds of miles a
driver is presented with
naught but the glories of
the scrubby flora and strip
malls that pepper the sides
of the 1-20 interstate.
A beautiful drive it is
not: Alabama is all verdant
rolling hills until you slide
into the Mississippi delta,
whose dominant charac
teristics appear to be un
pleasant smells of uncertain
provenance sharpened by
positively coruscant heat
and bugs. There is a quiver
of excitement upon passing
over the Mississippi River
in all its muddy majesty,
but then you’re confront
ed with the unremitting
mediocrity of northern
Louisiana, a swathe of sop
orific swampland at last
mercifully perforated by the
garish lights and absolutely
atrocious public infrastruc-
SEE KLIMT » A8
"So, which do you want to hear f irst...how state
revenues are up, or how the state plans to spend it?"
Legislature turns adoption efforts into political sausage
There is a saying that the
two things you don’t want
to see made are law and
sausage. Sometimes, they
are hard to tell apart. State
Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Mar-
ietta, can speak first-hand
about how the political
process can stink worse
than ground-up hog parts.
Georgia’s adoption laws
are antiquated and in
serious need of updating.
The last time the state code
was updated was in 1990,
due mainly to the efforts of
a state senator by the name
of Nathan Deal.
Dick
Yarbrough
Guest Columnist
There are currently
12,000 foster children in
Georgia. The average time
for foster care adoption in
our state is a bit more than
two-and-a-half years. Na
tionally, the figure is just
over a year. Many Georgia
families go out-of-state to
adopt because it is easier.
Rep. Reeves began an
effort two years ago to mod
ernize the code, working
with the Georgia Council
of Adoption Lawyers, the
Department of Family
and Children Services,
the Council of Superior
Court Judges and adoption
agencies among others in
crafting appropriate legis
lation.
Reeves says the bill was
simply a rewrite and mod
ernization of the current
code to make the adoption
process more efficient,
(since the last rewrite, some
thing called the internet has
appeared on the scene), to
give judges more leeway in
determining custody issues
and to streamline interna
tional adoption procedures.
In late February, Reeves’
bill passed out of the House
of Representatives unani
mously and then was sent
to the state Senate. At the
request of a subcommit
tee of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, changes to the
bill were made and agreed
upon and everything
seemed in order to pass the
bill out of the full commit
tee, through the Senate and
then onto the governor’s
desk for his signature.
That is when the stink
of petty politics began to
permeate the place. As the
Senate Judiciary Com
mittee was getting set to
consider Reeves’ bill, Sen.
William Ligon, R-Bruns-
wick, informed Reeves he
had tacked on an amend
ment to the bill that would
allow mission-based
adoption agencies not to
have to place children with
same-sex parents. Suddenly,
bipartisanship became po
litically toxic.
Let me stop at this point
to say that if this matter was
that important to Ligon
and his colleagues, they had
had all session to introduce
a separate bill to deal with
that issue. He didn’t. He
chose to hijack Bert Reeves’
SEE YARBROUGH » A8
, L -
Lake Oconee News
General Excellence Award Winner 2015-2016
GEORGIA PRESS ASSOCIATION
President / Publisher A. Mark Smith
Vice President Jo Ann Smith
Vice President, General Manager Mark Smith Jr.
Vice President, Circulation Matt Smith
Vice President Michael Smith
Associate Editor T. Michael Stone
Sports Editor Justin Hubbard
Staff Writer Dave Brown
Staff Writer Shannon Sneed
Staff Writer Katherine Klimt
Display Advertising Manager Vicki Parker
Advertising Representative Mary de Guiseppi
Advertising Representative Michael Payne
Advertising Representative Tricia Wall
Eatonton Messenger Associate Editor Lynn Hobbs
Lakelife Editor Beverly Harvey
Lakelife Associate Editor Hank Segars
National Advertising Manager Amy Hood
Legal Advertising/Circulation Becky Meyer
Production and Technology Manager Josh Lurie
Graphic Artist Ali Henderson
Graphic Artist Mark Brill
Business Manager Cassandra Fowler
DEDICATION
Battle B. Smith
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
1956-1988
Micky Smith
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
1989-2003
ADVERTISING,
NEWS AND
INFORMATION
Lake Oconee
1106 MARKET ST. • GREENSBORO
706-454-1290
Fax 706-454-1292
Madison
195 W. JEFFERSON ST.
706-342-9833
Fax 706-342-9839
Call 706-485-3501 for subscription information
Subscription Rates One Year Two Years
Putnam, Morgan, Greene counties $35 $65
Other Georgia counties $45 $80
Out of Georgia $55 $95
Postmaster: Send address changes to the ,1106 Market St., Greensboro, GA 30642. Periodicals
postage paid at Greensboro, GA 30642. The (USPS 024-046) is published every Friday by Smith
Communications Inc., 1106 Market St., Greensboro, GA 30642.
All rights reserved. Reprints by permission of the and individual writers only.
State and Federal Elected Officials
Gov. Nathan Deal (R)
203 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-1776
Web/e-mail:
gagovernor.org
Sen. David Perdue
(R)
B40D Dirksen Senate
Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3521
Sen. Burt Jones (R)
407 East Second St.,
Jackson, GA 30233
Phone: (770) 775-4880
Fax: (770) 234-6752
Sen. Johnny Isakson
(R)
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3643
Rep. Dave Belton (R)
401-B Coverdell Legislative
Office Bldg.
Atlanta, GA 30334
404.656.0152-Office
dc.belton@house.ga.gov
Rep. Jody Hice (R)
1516 Longworth House
Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4101
Fax: (202) 226-0776
Rep. Trey Rhodes (R)
Room 612-B Coverdell
Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, GA 30334
404-656-0325
trey.rhodes@house.ga.gov
The deadline to submit
letters to the editor
each week is
Monday at 1 p.m.
Send letters and other news to news@lakeoconeenews.us