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Nick can’t see,
but goals are plain
A person can do anything he sets his
mind to do if he has the faith and
courage to keep on trucking along, no
matter what obstacles may befall him.
Nick Thomas believes that and has
the first of his goals plainly in reach,
despite his blindness.
Thomas, blind after impaired vision
in his high school sophomore year, is
completing his requirements for his
high school diploma. He is taking a
special edition examination for his
General Educational Development
(GED) diploma.
Passing the GED will mean Thomas
can set another goal: to do further
study at an institution of higher lear
ning.
Thomas is the first Spalding County
student ever to take advantage of the
special edition examination for the
blind or sighted.
The materials tested are the same as
those for any person desiring a high
school diploma equivalency. The tests
are, however, recorded on cassette
tapes. Special testing booklets in
Braille are used for checking the
correct multiple choice answers.
Thomas said the test which is com
pleted in a day’s time ordinarily will
take him at least a week to complete.
Others throughout the state have been
known to take the test for a longer
period of time.
Test administrator Larry Dunn of the
Adult Education Center feels optimistic
that Thomas will pass the examination.
PSC chief to study
investigator’s charge
ATLANTA (AP) — The chairman of
the state Public Service Commission
says he’ll spend part of the weekend
studying a former Georgia Power Co.
security investigator’s charge that an
index to the company’s security files
contained names of persons opposed to
utility rate increases.
PSC Chairman Ben Wiggins said he
also will direct commission staff
members to examine the allegation as
part of their audit of the utility’s ex
penditures for security.
The sworn statement by John H.
Taylor of Atlanta was delivered to
Wiggins Friday by an attorney for
former state Rep. Larry Thomason,
one of several persons whose names
Taylor says he found in the security file
index.
Thomason’s attorney, John Vansant
Jr. of Albany, contended the statement
refutes Georgia Power’s contention
that it has maintained files only on
persons and groups considered threats
to company equipment or personnel.
The existence of a security division
within the utility was revealed several
weeks ago in a newspaper story which
said the company used a sophisticated
intelligence-gathering operation to
Andrew Young says he’s so committed
to job he feels guilty for getting paid
ATLANTA (AP) — Andrew Young,
the U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, says he is so committed to his
job that he “feels guilty for getting paid
for what I do.”
Young’s comments came Friday
night as he was honored by the Atlanta
Chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) for his “standard of courage
and determination.”
“It’s an honor and privilege to
receive this award and yet... I don’t
need an award...if there was any way I
could send my children to school and
feed my family, I’d do it for nothing,”
Young said.
The NAACP presented him The
Walter White Award for “the individual
in public service who most aptly
DAI I A NEWS
Daily Since 1872
Thomas said he felt pretty confident
about certain parts of the test but
certain areas of the exam gave him
some trouble. The testing covers
English, math, science, social studies
and literature.
After sitting through so many hours
of testing, Thomas when asked if he
would pass, candidly remarked, “I’d
better after all of this.’’
Having completed the 12th grade but
not graduating because of failing sight,
Thomas stuck with it as long as he
could. By his senior year, his sight was
letting him put written words together
only a letter at a time.
But the dream still was there.
Just how to obtain the dream did not
come into being until Mrs. Linda Akins
of the Educational Opportunities
Center showed Thomas how he could
get his diploma.
Her preparation of Thomas for the
GED test included talking books
relevant to testing requirements. With
her help, he knew what to expect of the
test.
An Atlanta native, Thomas, 31, said
he has grown tired of accepting the
minimal career choices open to a
disabled person.
He said he knew he could improve his
condition but it required an education
and that meant he had to prove himself.
The GED is that proving ground
which may set Thomas on a course to
include matriculation at a state sup
ported school then a training program
obtain data on a variety of persons and
groups.
Georgia Power spokesman Terry
Leedom said Taylor’s statement “is the
same old tired stuff we have been
seeing since November 1976 when Bill
Lovin was fired.”
Lovin, a former Georgia Power
security employe, accused the utility of
firing him for disclosing alleged
irregularities at one of the company’s
plants.
Communism worst crisis
in Europe, Wilson warns
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — The threat
posed by communism is potentially the
worst crisis faced by Europe in the past
25 years, former British Prime
Minister Harold Wilson warned Friday.
The important question is whether
the Communist parties of Western
Europe really are independent of
Moscow, the former Labor Party
leader told about 600 persons at
represents the standard of courage and
determination” exemplified by White,
a former Executive Secretary of the
civil rights organizaton.
“Andy Young dares to tell the truth,”
said Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson
who introduced him, calling him “New
Orleans’ gift to Atlanta and Atlanta’s
gift to the world.”
I “You put me where I am,” Young
told the crowd of several hundred
i persons in a downtown Atlanta hotel
ballroom. “You dug down deep.”
“The very dollars that make it
possible for you to be here would not be
in your pockets were it not for the
NAACP,” he said in a speech filled with
> anecdotes but no foreign policy
[ statements.
r But Young gave Jackson, who is
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday Afternoon, October 1, 1977
with perhaps the Social Security
Administration.
After a considerable lapse of time
since he really devoted his efforts to
studying, Thomas feels it will take
some effort on his part to get into the
swing of studying again. He also plans
to brush up on the Braille which he
learned in 7 months at the Georgia
Rehabilitation Center.
To find his place in society and to
make a living for himself, Thomas said
he even invented jobs to keep from
living off the state.
“I even trained once to work as a
darkroom photo finisher,” Thomas
said.
He has worked part time in Griffin at
the Georgia Factory for the Blind.
“I felt that there is something better I
would enjoy to make a living,” Thomas
said.
Making a living is important to
Thomas because he married his wife,
Claudia, last November after they met
at the Georgia Rehabilitation Center.
Mrs. Thomas who has rheumatoid
arthritis is presently under therapy as a
result of a broken neck due to the
disease. She is taking the therapy at the
Georgia Warm Springs Hospital.
Thomas knows what his future en
deavors must include to make a change
in his lifestyle.
Passing the GED is his stepping
stone.
People
...and things
Referee munching on hamburger and
soft drink' while waiting for game to
start in Pike County.,
Lady living on fixed income digging
into the bottom of her purse to get
pennies to pay for purchase at grocery
store.
Man and 2 boys entering hamburger
restaurant then leaving when they see
long line. They get into truck and go
through drive-in much faster.
Columbus College.
Wilson, who resigned as prime
minister in March 1976, discounted
communism as a problem in Britain.
No Communist has been elected to
Parliament since 1951, he said.
He said he is more concerned with an
increasing number of splinter groups
which are committed to violence in
trying to subvert British institutions.
seeking re-election Tuesday, a tongue
in-cheek endorsement. “I tell you all
you preachers better work very hard to
get Maynard re-elected mayor. If not
one of you is going to be out of a job.”
Special honorees at the 20th Annual
Freedom Fund dinner were Roy
Wilkins, former executive director of
the NAACP, and Benjamin Hooks, the
president executive director of the
organization.
However, while the NAACP was
honoring Young, a conservative
Georgia congressman reportedly was
seeking to impeach him.
In an interview before his speech,
Young said the Atlanta Journal story
Friday that U.S. Rep. Larry McDonald,
D-Ga., was seeking signatures on the
resolution was “nothing to worry
N Nil {
■r
J JI /
BSP wk '
U.S., Soviet breakthrough near
on Peace talks representation
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (AP) -
The United States and the Soviet Union
are on the verge of announcing a
proposed breakthrough in the deadlock
over Palestinian representation at
Mideast peace talks.
Details of the proposal were worked
out Friday by Secretary of State Cyrus
R. Vance and Soviet Foreign Minister
Andrei A. Gromyko. It represents the
highest degree of cooperation between
the two cochairmen of the Geneva
peace conference since it convened
Wilson praised the European Com
mon Market, but criticized the
bureaucracy with its “avid and
unremitting search for work.”
He said he favored joining the
Common Market because of Europe’s
diversity and assailed efforts to
standardize such items as bread,
sausage and beer throughout th-j
economic community.
about.”
Young said McDonald, a staunch
political conservative, and others who
might be backing such a resolution
“are the same people who have been
trying to hurt me all my life.”
“These are the people that tried to
keep me from voting, from eating at
lunch counters or even from being at
this hotel,” he said.
In light of publicity the matter might
draw, he said, “I really think he might
be doing me a favor.”
McDonald, whose Georgia district
adjoins the Atlanta district Young
represented in Congress before being
named U.N. ambassador earlier this
year, spoke against his appointment as
ambassador.
Vol. 105 No. 233
Nick Thomas is blind, but his goals are plain.
briefly in December 1973 following the
last Arab-Israeli war.
Terms of the proposal were not
revealed. Informed speculation was
that its strategy centered on per
suading Israel to permit Palestinians
linked to the Palestine Liberation
Organization but not widely identified
with it to be seated at the Geneva
conference.
With Gromyko at his side, Vance told
reporters at the United Nations, “Both
of us believe very strongly that we
should use our utmost effort to bring
about a convening of the Geneva
conference before the end of the year.”
Success of the plan depends on
Washington’s ability to sell it to Israel,
which has repeatedly refused to deal
K
Balls for fans
Miniature footballs were thrown to the
fans during the halftime activities of
the Pike County homecoming game
Friday night. Cheryl Caraway was one
of the cheerleaders throwing the balls.
The Pirates defeated East Coweta, 18-6.
See details of this game and other area
games on today’s sports pages, 6 and 7.
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA—
Sunny, warm and humid today with a
slight chance of thundershowers.
Partly cloudy, breezy and warm
tonight and Sunday with a chance of
thundershowers. Low in the upper 10s.
High Sunday in the middle 80s.
with the PIG, and Moscow’s ability to
persuade Syria, a staunch PLO
champion, to accept a compromise.
After his talks with Gromyko, Vance
met with Israeli Foreign Minister
Moshe Dayan. U.S. State Department
spokesman Rodding Carter said those
discussions were continuing and he
could not “go into specifics on what was
said.” Dayan said he would see Vance
again next week.
The PLO issued a statement at the
United Nations saying its represen
tation of all Palestinians “is non
compromisable and not subject to
discussion.”
The U.S. effort to reconvene the
peace conference by Christmas con
tinued with a breakfast meeting today
ter Hasan Ibrahim of Jordan.
The Palestinian issue has been the
principal roadblock to reconvening a
peace conference this year. President
Carter called Thursday for “adequate
Palestinian representation” and said
the PLO “represents certainly a sub
stantial part of the Palestinians.”
But Carter noted that there are other
possible representatives who are not
members of the PLO who could
represent Palestinian interests.
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
h M'S
IO
A jjj.
“The reason you have a path
to follow is that someone went
where there wasn’t one.”