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3axfesoti 'Pragress-^rgus J. D. Jones Publisher (1908 1955) Dayle Jones Jr. Editor and Publisher (1955-1975) MRS. MARTHA G. JONES PUBLISHER VINCENT JONES EDITOR OFFICIAL ORGAN BUTTS COUNTY AND CITY OF JACKSON Published every Thursday at 129 South Mulberry Street, Jackson, Georgia 30233 by The Progress-Argus Printing Cos., Inc. Second Class Postage paid at Jackson, Georgia 30233. Address notice of undeliverable copies and other correspondence to The Jackson Progress-Argus, P.O. Box 249, Jackson, Georgia 30233. NATIONAL NEWSPAPER 1 (o0 mOCUTHH filial IMS* rrt<*.sl NNASUSTAINING L===S MEMBER-1977 Advance Subscription Rates, Tax Included: One Year, in Georgia $6.24 One Year. Out-of-State ~.57.28 Six Months, in Georgia $3.91 Six Months, Out-of-State $4,16 TELEPHONE 775-3107 Editorials Hurrah for the Red Devils In sports, as in life, the victor gets the immediate spoils. In Georgia’s Class A baseball that probably consists of a handsome trophy to grace the school’s trophy case, a highway sign on the city limits denoting the home of the state champions and, in the moment of triumph, a kiss from your favorite girl, a hug from your parents and a pat on the back and a well done from the coach. Whatever the spoils are, Pepperell will get them this year for they earned them Saturday afternoon on Wallace Field, defeating the Red Devils 7-2 in the rubber game for the championship. But the Red Devils did nothing Does Butts County Need A Comprehensive High School? Among the recommendations made by the grand jury at the recent term of Butts Superior Court was one dealing with the need for a comprehensive high school in the County. Although not up to date on such pedagogic terminology, we can see a distinct need for a facility along the line the grand jury members envisioned. With about 25 per cent of our graduating seniors going to college, we are giving diplomas to the other 75 per cent and sending them out into the job markets, ill-prepared, with far too little technical or vocational training. A comprehensive high school combines the practical with the theoretical training a student needs to survive in today’s fierce competition for jobs. In addition to providing more intensive technical and vocational training, especially for those students who do not intend to go on to college, such a facility could be effectively utilized by existing, or new, industry in training its work force. Adult training courses could be offered also and skills taught in a variety of fields for those wishing to polish and perfect some latent talent. Over 100 Georgia communities now have comprehensive high schools where a perfect blend of classroom instruction and voca tional training better equip their students to find profitable employ ment after graduation. Many of these facilities are merely add-ons to existing school buildings, giving the students under one roof a well-rounded education combining the “tell me” and “show me” techniques. The present vocational facili ties at Jackson High School are woefully inadequate to properly prepare high school students for the future. Although the vocational staff is doing a creditable job with the tools at hand, there is no reason to believe that properly equipped to dishonor the school’s name in the tension-filled game. They battled valiantly and, if the fates had been somewhat kinder, the game could have gone down to the last out still undecided. Over the season, they amassed a 22-5 record and that alone proves the kind of stuff they are made of. They played like champions all season long and their talent and determination have made them champions in the hearts of all who watched their diamond wizardry. When a champion loses like a champion, he is due all the homage and respect accorded the winner. So we say let’s hear it for the Red Devils and just wait ’till next year. this same staff could not have the finest technical training program in the state. The County’s private schools can do little in the field of vocational education due to lack of staff, facilities and equipment. The idea of a comprehensive education for high school students is about 100 years behind the times and should have been a by-product of the industrial revolution. For decades the schools have pursued their plodding, nose-in-the-sand philosophy of teaching a student Shakespeare when he should be studying brick laying, or trying to make a math scholar out of a student more attuned to carburetor tune-ups. But, call it what you wili, for years we have been short changing the students at Jackson High School by providing them with second-class facilities that just don’t jive with our belief that we have first-class students. Butts County ranks among the lowest in the state for per capita expenditure of local tax funds on its educational system. Do we care more about money than our children? If we do, then what’s wrong with our thinking that would breed, or tolerate, such a philosophy? The present gymnasium is a disgrace for a County the size of ours. Athletic programs at Jackson High suffer for lack of proper equipment and the vocational program makes do on a pittance of the equipment it needs. The question goes beyond the need for a comprehensive high school in the County. The question is, do we want a first class school system? Or are we content to go along with what we have? And grumble and grumble and grum ble. The answer lies with YOU. Not with the school board or the school administration. They both will provide what you demand. And, in the words of President Carter, why not demand the best? THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA The Last Straw BY VINCENT IONES One of the joys of newspapering is being able to share with your readers some of the finest writing that comes across an editor’s desk. Here, for exampl e yj an article that hj the Cincinnati Post in a g U esf column that paper features It was written by Robert Test, an advertising ma n. It needs no comment, for Te£t has said it best. If goes £s follows: "The day will come when my body will lie upon a spotless white sheet neatly tucked under four corners,of a mattress located in a large hospital busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment*. a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped. When that happens, do not attempt to install artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. I do not wish to become a medical curiosity or inflate the ego of some physician who proclaims a record for man-made life. On the other hand, don’t refer to my last resting place as my death bed. I’d prefer to have it called the Bed of Life for at the moment of clinical "death", do not put my body into a box and lower it into the ground to be covered with earth, marked with a slab of stone and, eventually forgot ten. Rather, take my body as quickly as possible and use it to help those who might benefit from its various parts. Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman. Give my heart to a person whose own has caused nothing but endless days of pain. Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play in the twilight of his golden years. Give my kidneys, if possible, to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week. Take my bones; every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make crippled children walk. Dissect my entire corpse, bit by bit. Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window. Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow. If you must bury some thing let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all prejudice against my fellow man. Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God. If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.” Look at your attitude toward aging. Get off your rocker. Don’t take old age sitting down. A Stroll Down Memory Lane News of 10 Years Ago Jackson High School grad uated 81 seniors in exercises Monday evening. Jennifer Coleman is valedictorian of the 1967 class; Leon Cook, salutatorian; Jane Anne Settle, Alan Jones, and Linda Young are honor graduates. Henderson High School will graduate 54 at exercises on Wednesday. Willie Watson will give the valedictory address, and Van Johnson the salutatory. Dr. Francis Holston is leaving Jackson and will begin work July Ist at the Washington-St. Tammany Charity Hospital in Boga lusa, Louisiana. Kay Whidby, Gail Carter and Kay Pinckney, Jackson Senior Girl Scouts, will attend the Region Scout meeting at the University of Georgia in Athens. Ken Thurston, of Flovilla, has captured an albino flying squirrel. John Blackman Settle has received a Master of Profes sional Accountancy from Georgia State College. Deaths during the week: Charles Dodson Fletcher, 55; Nathan F. Thaxton, 86; John Ray Darnell, 19. News of 20 Years Ago Butts County adults be tween the ages of 20 and 40 will be given an opportunity to take the Salk vaccine against polio June 13-14 at the Health Center. The Town Theater has been sold by Wendell McCoy, Jr. to Frank Miller, effective June 3rd. A mass meeting of citizens interested in organizing a Butts County Chamber of Commerce, and speeding the industrial development of the County, has been called for Friday night in the Court house. Miss Sylvia Thaxton, daughter of Mrs. W. K. Thaxton and the late Mr. Thaxton, was awarded the 1957 B&PW Club Achieve ment Award at graduation exercises Monday evening. David Ridgeway will head the Butts County Jaycees for the coming year, with Joe Brown, vice-president; Mer rill Price, treasurer; Marion Whiten, secretary; Clyde Herbert, Robert Jones and Lee Roy O’Neal, directors. Butts County Sheriff V. H. Ham and Deputy Hugh Polk announce that four stills were destroyed last week in their efforts to dry up the county. Deaths during the week: Hollis Forest Washington, 62; Mrs. J. T. Moore, 80. News of 30 Years ago S. H. Thornton, Jackson funeral director, has pur chased the G. C. Cagle property at the corner of Second and Covington Streets and will erect a modern funeral home there. Mrs. Howard Jolly, editor of the Georgia Parent-Teach er Bulletin, is leading a delegation of Georgia PTA members to the national convention in Chicago. James B Williajnson will graduate June 3rd from Norman College. He has made the Dean’s List for each quarter since reenter ing college after serving in the Navy during World War 11. Miss Frances Furlow, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Furlow, former Jackson residents, is vale dictorian of the Winter Haven, Florida graduating THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1977 class. Sponsored by the Flovilla Women’s Club, the LeFevre Trio and Jim Waits will present a program Saturday evening at the Indian Springs School. With M. L. Powell direct ing, the Jackson Kiwanis Club will present a variety show on Friday, June 6th. Deaths during the week: Warren A. Lester, 52; William Mitchell O’Neal, 81. News of 40 Years Ago The Jackson Kiwanis Club will meet next week with the Jenkinsburg PTA, the first of a series of meetings in community centers of the County. Mrs. John Edward Lane has been named the first life member of the Butts County Historical and Archaeologi cal Society. Interest centers in the announcement made by Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Brownlee of the engagement of their daughter, Winnie Jane, to Noah Arthur Powell. Miss Elise Barnes, daugh ter of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Barnes, received an A. B. degree and a diploma from the music department at graduation exercises at Bes sie Tift College. The Woman’s Division of the Butts Cos. Chamber of Commerce will have a Library Day in conjunction with the dedication of the Jackson airport. In compliment to her house guest, Miss Clara Gurley, of Lavonia, and to Miss Jane Brownlee,’ bride-elect, Miss Lucile Akin entertained five tables of Hearts at her home on Third Street on Saturday afternoon. Deaths during the week: W. A. Moore, 53; Mrs. Martin Luther Duke, 61. News of 50 Years Ago All business houses in Jackson closed shop Friday afternoon and the entire community adjourned to Indian Springs for an afternoon of fun, frolicking, swimming and enjoying a picnic lunch. The Jackson Kiwanis Club will be represented at the Kiwanis International con vention in Memphis by President R. P. Newton, Willis B. Powell, O. A. Pound and H. O. Ball. Governor Clifford Walker has appointed Butts County delegates to the U. S. Good Roads Convention in Savan nah. They include J. O. Gaston, W. E. Watkins, J. T. Moore, T. H. Buttrill, Dr. R. A. Franklin and J. D. Jones. About 60 students are enrolled in summer school here, with Prof. T. J. Dempsey and Mrs. R. I. Knox in charge. S. S. Copeland, general manager of the Butts County Products Company, reports that he will operate two bins of his curing house this fall for those wishing to cure their sweet potatoes. Local interest is centered in the announcement of the marriage of Miss Betty Lester, daughter of Mrs. Annie Carmichael Lester and the late L. P. Lester, of Jackson, to Mr. Henry P. McGill, of Petersburgh, Va. Deaths during the week: Mrs. T. E. Norsworthy, 28. Editor’s Quote Book One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilder ness of warning. James Russell Lowell RbirouFßi St Mrs. Cfentv Brown I feel in a philosophical mood today and I feel like talking about friends and friendship. A person can have all the riches of the world, but if he doesn’t have one really special friend, he has nothing—how’s that for starters? I believe everyone needs someone to talk to aside from their spouses and parents. I have a friend I can talk to; even when the rest of the world seems to be caving in, my friend is right there to listen and help pull this poor old body through. I know I can talk to her about ANYTHING and it will never go any further than the two of us. You know, that can mean a lot to a person. She is the type of friend who likes me in spite of my “very few” faults! If I am wrong about something, she doesn’t say, “Oh, you are wrong about that”, instead she says, “Well, I thought it was this way, but I could have been mistaken”. I like friends like that. Tact is one ruth at random By Ruth Bryant YOUNG FOLKS You are alert, alive, and strong So practical, you all agree. You like to push the “new” along And understand the things you see! So come what may from day to day Some poetry you like to read, You like it free and young and gay To satisfy your every need! |P} ‘Whatsoever Jfg? Things’ ITij By Donald E. Wildmon PAY THE PRICE OR FORGET THE CAUSE Gerard LePage is a pacifist. He is a pacifist I admire. For he is one of thousands who claim that title who is fit to wear it. LePage, a 26-year-old Specialist 5 from Waterbury, Connecticut, was arrested by military police shortly after attending a midnight Christmas service. The MP’s didn’t have to do that because he was on his way to turn himself in, he said. LePage had served 10 months as a clerk in Vietnam. He told newsmen he would be a hypocrite if he continued to serve the military. He would have been eligible for an honorable discharge in a couple of months. He had earlier said he would remain AWOL at least 30 days - long enough to be classified as a deserter -and then would turn himself in. At the Christmas service LePage read a statement saying, “... this sanctuary is just the beginning - the commitment to love and freedom and life will endure.” Four blocks from the church after the service, MP vehicles stopped a car LePage was riding in and he was arrested. LePage said he could have used underground connections to get to Canada, as literally thousands of others. But LePage didn’t want to go. “Canada is a cop out,” he said. And he is right, that’s exactly what it is. Here is the reason this man gained my admiration: “It’s my right to speak out and then take the punishment for it,” he said. That is a sign of highness in a man to go against that which he believes is wrong and then to be willing to pay the penalty. LePage asked no favors. He knew the punishment. But he believed something, believed it enough to pay the price of punishment. That man I admire. If you will recall, there was another Man some two thousand years ago who felt the same way. There was wrong in society, He said, and He set out to correct it. He walked the hillside of that little province of Galilee teaching men anew way of living, anew way of worshipping, anew way of serving. He went from Jerusalem to Jericho to Sidon teaching those who would listen about anew way of life. And when it came time for Him to face the authorities concerning this new way of life He preached, He did so fully prepared to pay the penalty. And so the powers that were took His life on a Judean hillside, hanging Him on a tree between two thieves. I admire a man who stands up for that which he believes to be right, and then is willing to take the punishment for his belief. I have nothing but disgust for that person who knowingly breaks the law and then tries to escape the punishment. While they both do the same thing, there is a world of difference in their methods and reasons, and in themselves. With one I will stand, with the other I have nothing in common. If there is an unjust law, first make up your mind that you will pay the penalty for breaking it. And if you aren’t willing to pay the penalty, forget it. You do the cause more harm than good. It is a petty little person who wants the benefits without the Cross. attribute all real friends should have. Even when they know you’re wrong or down and out, they will stand by you. As I have gotten older, I have lost contact with some friends—a few have moved away, some have passed on and for any other number of reasons, I no longer have certain friends to talk with at least weekly. And as I have gotten older, I have learned the values of friendship—real friendship—not society’s ex cuse for the same. Well, I guess that’s enough “Platoism” for one day, but I think that every now and then, we all need to be reminded to appreciate those people close to us; for there comes a time in everyone’s life when they are no longer there. I don’t want to wait until that time comes to remember how much I loved a friend—l think that joy of friendship needs to be expressed now, when it can mean so much.