About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2013)
CODE OF ETHICS: Seek Truth <5*? Report It - Minimise Harm - Act Independently - Be Accountable. Where the press is free and every man able to read,, all is safe. Thomas Jefferson 4 THE GEORGIA POST Adventures in sports with Bettye Joyce You may have read about my mother, Bettye Joyce, at some point if you’ve read this column for any length of time. Mom would have been 77 years old this year on September 22nd. Gosh, I miss her. I miss her so much. Bettye Joyce loved football. She first became interested in football while watching me in the marching band at high school games. We bought season tickets to the Dolphins and University of Miami games not long after that. Mom mastered die rules of the game in very short order and became so adroit at calling penalties everyone in our section would look to her for the ruling. It was like those old E.F. Hutton commer cials where a hush falls over the crowd and all ears were cocked to listen. She was rarely wrong. Mom, rabid fan that she was, led cheerleading sessions at work during lunch. I was charged with buying her every bit of sports paraphernalia available. We had shirts, pom poms, Dolphins binoculars, UM seat pads, watches, hats, pennants and lots, lots more. It was necessary to have the right seat pads and other paraphernalia. For example, it wasn’t acceptable to take a Dolphin seat pad or binoculars to a UM game. The first few years we had University of Miami seats at the Orange Bowl, we were kind of in the middle of a row. I worked for the University of Miami for it years and finally managed to obtain aisle seating so Mom could do her touchdown dance unhindered. It was something wonderful to behold as every fiber of her being was joy ously involved in the dance. Mom would rev up the other fans on the metro on the way to games and by the time we arrived at the stadium we’d have a conga line of fans prepped for victory. Of course, neither the Dolphins nor the Hurricanes won all the time, but Mom wasn’t a fair weather fan. Win or lose she would cheer the team, but she could be pretty tough on the coaches. Rain or shine we were there. It was very important to her that we make it to games by kickoff, which some times led to some pretty hair-raising drives to the stadium. Bettye Joyce had a gift of becoming everyone’s mother. Once you met her it was very difficult not to become protective of her. One season our section was joined by a quartet of foul-mouthed drunkards. My mother never had to say a word to those guys. By half-time of the first game they were drank and obnoxious. The men in our section followed them out to the concession stand. Upon their return the new guys apologized for their foul lan guage. Mom graciously accepted their apology and while they continued to be somewhat obnoxious, there was never another incidence of drunkenness or foul language. Mom loved country music and had ambitions toward writing country music songs. I don’t believe she ever gave that desire a real try, but she definitely channeled it into making up catchy cheers. She loved to sing, though she couldn’t carry a tune even a very little bit. That didn’t stop her from singing the Miami Dolphin song in full and terrifying voice. I miss the games and fun we had and I’m grateful for the memories. Seeing the platters set up for game day at the grocery store the other day reminded me of our putting together our “supplies” for games. It was an enjoyable necessity that we made into a kind of a military operation. Sunglass, check; water bottles, check; field glasses, check; pre-game sandwich, half-time snack, and third-quarter pick-me-up snack, check, check and check. Rain gear, check; seats, check; change for the metro, check. Newspapers were useless without the sports section. Mom kept stats in her head and could tell you who coached whom where and when. Woe to the man who assumed she wouldn’t want the sports pages and asked to have it. While at a University of Miami football game against Florida State University, a rivalry of epic proportions, Mom began to pray like mad. I told Mom, well, the other side has someone praying for them, too. She looked at me quizzically and stated quite firmly, “Today, God likes me better than them.” I didn't have a comeback for that, especially after we won the game. r &i • ■ I auv ij [»■ * , OF THIS & THAT Trenesia Stubbs TRENESIA STUBBS is a contributing columnist. E-mail her at trene- sia@pstel.net DjEinniiss T® Tuan Eecw Jesus Is The Only Way Editor, The Georgia Post: In the 9/11/13 edition, Billy Powell cast doubts on the interpretation of John 14:6 that Jesus is the only way to God. Out of concern, I have provided the brief information below. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am THE way.” Also: NO MAN cometh unto the Father, BUT BY ME.” Theses words apply today just as when Jesus said them (see Matthew 24:35; Hebrews 1:12; 13:8). Jesus being the only way to God is shown also by Acts 4:12 and Timothy 2:5. Since we need Jesus everyone else does too. is ®f)e (Georgia (Post is published every week by Crawford Publishing, LLC. Floyd Buford - President Victoria ’’Vicky” Simmons - GM/Publisher vsimmons54@gmail.com or byronbuzz@pstel.net Renee Goggins - Layout/Graphic Design Robbie Robertson - Distribution Carey Lee - Sports Photography Denisia Stallings, Student Assistant Tammi Walberg, Reporter Contributing Columnists: Trenesia Y. Stubbs, Charles Cook, Nancy Gibbs, Billy Powell, Angie Carr, Wade Yoder, Dan Gatlyn, Rev. James Snyder, Spencer Price Opinions expressed by writers on this page are their own alone. Childhood memories R eaders of my column know David and I have a boxer named Roxie. My love of boxers came from my father, who raised them when I was a child. When I think back on those days, two of them stand out in my mind. Max, whom daddy actually rescued and was older, loved my brother and I. He would not let my mother discipline us. When she was scolding us he would get be tween her and whichever one of us was in trouble and growl. If we had done something which warranted a spanking, she would wait until daddy came home because Max would have none of it. He would bark, growl and try to get the switch from her hand. Needless to say, my mother was not crazy about that dog. My father actually thought it was funny, but of course he would not tell my mother that, only us. I think my father’s favorite boxer was Bruno. A beautiful handsome box er whom daddy raised from a puppy. He was daddy’s constant companion. Every time daddy would open the door to his truck, Bruno would jump in and sit tall and straight next to daddy. Daddy took him everywhere with him when he was not working. He was well behaved and would mind daddy explicitely. Bruno stayed in the house when we were not at home. If you know anything about boxers you know that they get bored easily so you must have a supply of toys for them to play with or they will find things like your shoes, etc. to enter tain themselves. One Saturday we were going to spend the day with my grandmother, who lived over an hour away and mother insisted that we leave Bruno at home. Daddy agreed because on the farm we probably would have had to watch him all day to keep him from running off or chasing something at the farm. It was dark when we returned home. When we opened the front door, it looked like it had snowed inside our house. Only the snow hap pened to be feathers from everyone’s pillows which Bruno had decided to destroy. In fact, he was still tossing feathers up and trying to catch them. Mother was not a happy camper. It took us the rest of the night and part of the next day to clean up the feath ers. We were finding a feather here and there for sometime later. Daddy of course had to scold Bru no, but a few days later when we were out working in the garden in back of our house, he laughed about it. One of our neighbors had chick ens and something began taking the chickens. They accused Bruno as the culprit. Daddy always said once a dog got the taste of blood from another animal, they would always want to eat that animal. The only thing to do was put them down. This was the first time I had ever seen my daddy cry. He was vis ibly upset for sometime after Bruno had to be put down. The really sad thing is that the chickens con tinued to go missing and eventually the culprit was found to be a fox, which my daddy had tried to tell the neighbors in the first place. Though they did tell daddy about the fox, they never apologized for accusing daddy’s beloved Bruno, nor did they offer to pay any kind of restitution. It was several years before my daddy would let us get another dog. I have lots of childhood memo ries of the animals we had and their antics. My father also passed his love of this particular breed on to me. They are comical at times, caring, loving and protective of their family. They also do not realize how big they are and continue to be lap dogs even when grown. They also need lots of play time so they are not for every one. But with the right breed of dog, your life can be much richer. I am sure all the dog owners and lovers out there know this to be true. Have you hugged your pet today? *** How wonderful is it than in just about three weeks, the Roberta- Crawford County Chamber of Commerce has held three ribbon cuttings?! With the economy as it has been, to me that is amazing and great for our city. Some may say that is an indication the economy is improving but I beg to differ. Perhaps it’s a little but not enough to make a huge difference. The Eagles showed much improve ment Friday night. Now to just get a win under them, might just give them the boost they need. Lots of things going on here which in part, is thanks to the Chamber, with a big thank you to Patti Temple, executive director. Have a blessed week. VICTORIA SIMMONS is publisher of The Georgia Post. Contact her at vsim- mons54@gmail.com THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 Take ownership of your own healthcare system I remember listening in shock to a speech in January of 2003 that president Bush gave on medical tort reform. The reason for my shock was the reason we were given to go to war in the Middle East was to protect Americans over here from terrorism, after a terrorist act that killed almost 3,000 people. I had just heard prior to the speech in 2003, that the 3rd leading cause of Americans dying (around 100,000 per year) was from medical misdiagnosis and hospital infections. Medical mistakes kill enough people each week to fill four jumbo jets- Wall Street Journal September 21,2012 January of 2003 was my turning point of believing that the war on terrorism was motivated by other things and not so much for the benefit of ordinary American citizens. The next thing I noticed over the past 10 years was a govern ment, media and health reports that were increasingly making our seniors feel insecure about growing old in this country, (whether in their financial or healthcare se curity.) If someone doesn’t show they care about grand ma, grandpa, and the unborn, “they will not convince me they care about the ones in-between either “except for personally motivated reasons.” When a country’s government makes it a critical mis sion to take over a healthcare system, my opinion is that it’s for the purpose of making healthcare available “not so much to the ones that deserve it” as for making it avail able to ones that are of value to them in sustaining the tax system to pay for the debt burden who the government is and has been placing on it, while at the same time lower ing life expectancy and quality of life for the ones that expect to be able to draw on a social security system they have been paying into most of their life, “that our govern ment has been pillaging for the last 25+ years.” There are many passionate doctors, surgeons, spe cialists and other medical staff (who give themselves unselfishly to the cause and profession they joined) and I don’t at all want to sound in a disparaging way toward them, “My uncle is one of these passionate doctors” whether with his patients or on the mission field. The new healthcare laws also catches the medical field in the crosshairs and makes it harder for them to do what they know is best for their patients when its something that falls outside the new guidelines of how they have to treat their patients. We have, however, become far too reliant on the healthcare system and should become much more proac tive as a country in taking personal responsibility for our own health. I recently had a conversation with my uncle about diabetes and he told me how reliant many patients become on medical treatment while absolutely refusing to make any lifestyle changes which caused this condition in the first place. Modern medicine has made it possible to address the symptoms on an underlying problem many times with out curing the root cause. It’s kinda like putting a sump pump in a leaky basement and not concerning ourselves about finding the leak, “the problem is that over time the leak is apt to get worse not better!” Modern medicine has simply made us way to comfortable with continuing past mistakes that led up to the need of the medicine. Though advancements have been made in medicine and medical procedures that can seem to extend life or add to the quality of life, we need to ask ourselves a question: what will I do if I can no longer qualify for this procedure or this medicine? What we can do: we need to take inventory, or an assessment of how dependent we are on anything other then the basics which are “oxygen, water, food, exercise, sunshine and rest?” Then ask ourselves why am I having to use this? After we know why we are using something, we need to ask ourselves what is causing the problem? When we fully understand what is causing the problem, it then becomes easier to find a lifestyle change that can address or offset the reason for the medicine, supplement or procedure. Example: if we have a deteriorating condi tion in our back, “decompressing and then strengthening the muscles in this area can help offset the deteriorating condition, “possibly to the point that it relieves this area so much that the body can actually fix it for you!” This is one of my favorite quotes of all time: Ask why, and ask it again five more times, until all the artifice is stripped away and you end up with the intellectually hon est answer~ Andy Grove WADE YODER is a Master Trainer & Fitness/Nutrition Specialist. Contact him at Vclub@comsouth.net w factor A local question column For those of you who think this col umn is just to fill space, you are mis taken. It is a means of communication from the general public for items they have as a concern and don’t know the answer. We do not want to embarrass anyone, however, we do want answers. Question: When will the grass be cut in the City on the curbs and in the streets? With visitors and potential new residents coming through the city, it does not appear very attrac tive. City of Roberta employees were cutting and edging along Hwy. 341N Monday so maybe your street will be next. Why are they not using the city’s edging machine which would be much faster? Question: Who can tell us if or when the leadership of the city and county has met to even see if there is any consideration for consolidating the two bodies or any parts of them? With the school board tax increase, we would hope all three of the taxing bod ies would get together and see if they could help each other. Question: Let’s hear from citizens on what you think on these and other subjects. POLICIES Deadlines are Noon on Friday prior to issue. 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