About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 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 Opinions expressed by writers on this page are their own alone. We Christians should be ashamed of ourselves I am chagrined to report that I engaged in a conversa tion regarding the steps necessary to cure what ails our country with a man I respect that sank into partisan one-upmanship. I tripped so quickly I couldn’t tell you when or how it happened. Taking my descent into self-righteous partisan rhetoric across the board in our public and po litical discourse is a truly frightening thing. I really am ashamed of myself and feel hard-pressed to come up with a solution for avoiding the self-defeat ing land mines of partisanship. Whew! That confession was hard to make. That, too, is a part of the problems we face—an ability to face our mistakes without blaming others and making a contrite effort to correct our mistakes. I’ve dubbed a somewhat disjointed series of columns as “I’m Not Tilting at Wind mills,” because I believe we, the people, can and must ad dress the seemingly impossible task of curing the ills that plague our country. Good old Don Quixote may have mistaken windmills for dragons, but there is no excuse for our ignoring the dragons consuming us rather than attacking the blowing wind of self-serving politicians. And, hey, I’m not going to get into another political rant here about greedy cor porations, political vultures or our complacent citizemy. I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with con crete steps we can take. The best I’ve been able to come up with is for people of faith, particularly Christians to realistically take up the commission of spreading the Good News to which we are called. What I will address is the appalling witness of Ameri can Christians and how our failures are co-conspirators in America’s moral decline and self-destructive political process. I used to tell the children I taught in my religious education program to be wary of professing Christians who appeared angry or unhappy most of the time. I told them that those were clear signs of people disconnected from grace and walking with the Holy Spirit. Another thing I told my students was that Christians can sometimes suffer from spiritual constipation and diarrhea. My poor priest. He had to field so many com plaints about my take and delivery on matters of faith. While I’ll admit my descriptions of unhealthy Christian behavior may not have been “age-appropriate,” the defi nitions hold true. Spiritual constipation is revealed in faith communities that seem stuck in their pews—spiritual countiy clubs of a sort. We deem a good worship service in myriad ways throughout various types of congregations. In some, a good sermon hits the mark. What one determines a “good” sermon is variable. In how many instances does the good sermon last beyond Sunday dinner? How often does the good sermon lead us to share Christ with others, to pay enough attention to the morally decrepit and souls in pain to offer the balm that is the love and grace of faith in hands on ways? In other congregations we can observe the diarrhea of charitable works. We take up collections to send items to suffering folks in other countries while ignoring the drunk sitting on the comer we pass every Sunday on our way to church. We have bake sales and other such fund raising events for our building funds or baskets for children at Easter, or, or, or—fill in the blanks with many such efforts. Oh, yeah, we feel very holy indeed because we ran our selves ragged in charitable works of one sort or another, but rarely spread the Word or walk the talk. We’ve got people we meet every day who know some historical character named Christ existed but aren’t getting a real feel for Him because we do not connect the dots of our faith into our daily and public lives in meaningful ways. We are not teaching those who need instruction so much as preaching to the choir. (Forgive me, I couldn’t resist.) Then there’s the whole log-splinter thing we appear to have completely missed. Since when did we forget that we are all filthy rags? How many of our political figures have we scoured because their mouths, like ours, are of ten revealed to be wishful thinking rather than a daily walk? Jesus certainly had to come for some reason. We weren’t just doing fine and needed to brash up on a few things. TRENESIA STUBBS is a contributing columnist for the Georgia Post. Contact her at trenesia@psttel.net Humans and their lack of common sense D eath and politics bring out the best and worst in people. This was something my father and I talked about quite a bit. In the past two weeks I have made that statement to several different people who wanted to talk about politics. At a women’s conference I spoke at last month, one thing I said was that people don’t always hear what you say but your actions speak louder than words and both should line up. Of course at the conference, I was referring to as Christians this was doubly important but it also applies to politicians. If you want to really know about a politician, take note of their actions moreso than the words that they speak. the election. They can purchase adver tising anytime they choose to further their political endeavors. We feel we owe it to the citizens and have a responsibil ity to provide an insight on all candi dates. While we give them all a chance to respond, you cannot force them to respond and I do not feel we should have to beg them to respond. If it is really that important to them, they will have no trouble meeting our deadline with answers. If they don’t respond, then I don’t feel they take the office or the community very seriously. That is just my opinion. Sometimes change is good, sometimes not and you don’t always know until a person The human race seems to have taken a turn for the worse in the common sense department and the let’s be civil, especially when it comes to politics. Signs go missing, accusations are made and people are intimidated into posting a sign in their yard. I have even heard that those running threaten employees who they have control over, if they speak to or associate with the opposing candidate. In Crawford’s last election I was even told the spouse of one candidate visited the home of some one who had the opposing candidate’s sign in their yard and questioned them for doing so. How rude. It is not good enough to vote for someone because they are your friend. You need to know their agenda and where they stand on the issues that con cern you and all citizens as a whole. Some people who run have per sonal agendas and only run because of a grudge, which is certainly not the right reason. Some ran because they have an ego problem and incumbents come to like the power they wield. Of course, this is not true for them all as there are decent politicians around, though seem ingly few and far between, especially in our nation’s capitol. At the newspaper level, especially for community newspapers, we need to try and remain as unbiased as possible but sometimes you still get questioned if you speak to one politician at a gathering or show up to check them out or take a few pictures which we can use which we try not to make totally political. We give all candidates the opportunity to respond to questions we submit to them which we run four weeks prior to gets in office. Personally, I think changes need to be made on a regular basis and we should have term limits for our Con gressional seats. In small communities you may be friends with all candidates and therefore your talking to them doesn’t mean any thing. People will say anything just to keep from offending Death and politics bring people and the only thing that really out the best and worst in counts is the out- 7 come at the ballot people. box when all votes are counted and the candidate with the most proclaimed the winner. Candidates should not take them selves so seriously that they are watch ing everyone and jumping at every chance to take someone to task about something concerning the other candi date. Life is way too short for drama and for always trying to stir things up. They should also not take a defeat so person ally. When more than one is ntnning for an office, there can only be one winner, even if a run-off is required. If you are seeking political office, you must also be able to accept, not getting elected. It does not mean you are a bad person and getting elected does not mean you are necessarily the best person for the office, as voters don’t always make intelligent choices or use common sense. The mess in Washington is a perfect example of that fact. We are all human, we make mistakes, we fail, we succeed, we move forward. But we should treat each other with fairness and respect. That includes politicans. VICTORIA SIMMONS is publisher of The Georgia Post. Contact her at vsimmons54@ gmail.com THURSDAY OCTOBER 24,2013 Fat, clumsy livers This organ is responsible for over 500 crucial func tions “SO THIS IS SERIOUS!” Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) wasn’t even an issue 30 years ago, now it affects as many as a 1/3 of us in America and is the leading form of liver disease in the United States. One of my members recently had blood work done and was telling me how surprised the medical staff was that she had no signs of fat accumula tion in her liver. She said that most people they test at her age (44) either have or are showing signs of a fatty liver. A fat liver is unable to perform as well as a lean healthy liver, and since our liver helps with so many critical functions of the body, this can become a| major generator of various health issuesl and symptoms whether to us personally* or throughout our healthcare system. * K\ YOUR HEALTH Why is this so big a problem? I believe to find this out, “we need to simply look at what we are doing dif ferently that is causing our liver to store more fat.” The sugar trap: I’ve been researching something that I like to call a sugar trap, which is simply sugars/ glucose that gets trapped in our blood by insulin resis tance. Insulin resistance can be caused by huge surges of insulin from eating high sugar food and drink over a long period of time. It can also come from caffein which causes temporary insulin insensitivity. Either way when the cells of our body are not receptive to insulin (which is our sugar transport agent) and these sugars are left trapped in the blood for too long, it can really cause problems, “imagine how sticky and syrupy things get if these sugars stay in the blood. This can slow down circulation which can cause blindness and amputated limbs due to the lack of circulation. These trapped sug ars also cause advanced glycation end products (AGE’s) that cause rapid aging. High fructose com syrup: this sweetener is especially bad since it breaks down much easier because of the fructose/glucose ratio is not 50/50 like sugar, it’s a 55/45 ratio of fructose to glucose and it’s this “easy to break apart binding” that lets it slide like quick silver into our bloodstream without the normal breakdown in the digestive track or the spike in insulin which is our sugar digestion hormone. If this fructose is not burned off while in the blood, it will rapidly go to the liver and trigger lipogenesis “which is the process in which the liver converts the fructose to blood fats.” Opinion: I believe our body is designed to reroute things when it’s necessary to protect us and if this is true our body will be looking for a place to deposit these extra sugars that we are not burning off. If we have insulin resistance, (even if temporarily from caf fein consumed with sugary foods), it only makes sense that trapped fructose and glucose circulate to the liver, where the liver attempts to store it as a defense mecha nism “not to hurt us but simply to keep blood glucose levels safe.” Once these extra unburned, unabsorbed sugars get transported to the liver, it will go through a conver sion process where the liver changes sugar over into fat through a process called lipogenesis and triglyceride synthesis. It then becomes a stored energy in the form of fat. This is an awesome way for our body to control the uptake and the release of energy, however “if our liver is constantly taking up energy and not releasing it in equal proportions, “it only makes sense that it will continue to build up in our liver and our network of blood vessels. What we can do: the reserve energy in our liver is a primary source for an energy snack when we go into a calorie deficit, so if we simply cut our calorie intake down to about half of our normal daily intake for 1-2 days, this decrease in calories will cause your liver to release reserve energy snacks (fat) back into the blood in the form of triglycerides. Opinion: I believe that creating periodic calorie defi cits will help decrease the fat in our liver in the same way calorie deficits will cause the release of energy inside our fat cells throughout our entire body for their calorie content thus making them smaller fat cells. Our liver is our largest solid state organ handling 500+ crucial functions in our body, and when it is able to properly perform, “just imagine how efficient our inner healthcare system can become when a network of 500+ functions is affected by a healthy liver that not only breaks down and helps get rid of our body’s toxic waste products, but generates energy and nutrients for our body as well!” WADE YODER is a Master Trainer & Fitness/Nutrition Specialist. w factor A local question column Question: When was last time fire hydrants in the city and county were checked or have they ever been? Thanks to Chief Pate for answering this question. The county hydrants are on a schedule and are checked annually as required by the ISO. The city does not participate at the request of the mayor. It is up to each water department to monitor water quality for the entity. Question: Who decides on the equipment purchased for city, county and BOE employees? It appears we cannot pay them higher salaries but isn’t it possible to supply them with equipment to make their jobs easier? Question: What is the total number of employees of the Crawford County School System which actually live in Crawford County? Question: What cost saving suggestions have been given by the school board and why can’t they be imple mented? ANSWER: The system has implemented every cost saving they feel they possibly can including furlough days, hiring freeze, etc. They talked about programs but do not want to cut these out. Question: Why do we not just bus all of our students to Presbyterian Day School and pay the fees which would be a lot less money than the school system’s total budget which could mean no tax increases? NOTE: Questions are submitted to us by our read ers. This is your chance to ask questions you would like answered and hopefully we will get answers from the powers that be in control of the area you are question ing. HCIje (Georgia tPosrt 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 POLICIES Deadlines are Noon on Friday prior to issue. The comments featured on the opinion pages are the sole creations of the writers, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Post management. Letters to the editor must be signed and include a telephone number. We do edit grammar, spelling and punctuation when necessary. Libelous, slanderous or profane letters will not be published. We only accept three letters from the same person on the same subject and letters should be less than 250 words. Liability for errors in advertising will not exceed space occupied by error. OFFICE HOURS: Monday 9 am. - 5 p.m.; Tuesday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Wednesday 10:00 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Thursday Closed ; Friday 9 a.m. -5 p.m. Office is closed on weekends. HOW TO CONTACT US 58 S. Dugger Ave., Roberta, GA 31078 Periodicals Postage Paid at Roberta, GA31078 Publication No. USPS 217460 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: THE GEORGIA POST, P.O. Box 860, Roberta, GA31078 Official Legal Organ of Crawford County and the City of Roberta Phone: 478-836-3195 Fax: 478-836-9634 gapost@pstel.net or byronbuzz@pstel.net SUBSCRIPTION RATES Annual Subscription Rate $39 Out of State $48; Senior Discounts: $37 Single Copy - $1 - E-Edition, print subscribers $10; non-subscribers - $39
