Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
THE JACKSON HERALD
PAGE 5A
Obviously at a loss for words
Since no startling political verbiage
or anything of socially redeeming
value comes to mind, I will begin by
telling you about some funny signs I
have seen lately. I
see them out in the
real world and on
the internet too.
A rather scruffy
looking gentleman
was sitting beside
a busy street.
With the look of
a homeless person,
he wasn't holding
the usual sign ask
ing for donations
to buy food. His
money for DNA test. Girlfriend may
be my sister.” That kind of uncertainty
would have to be stressful.
* * *
A guy working with us on a job in
Atlanta had moved here from Florida
and had been living in his car. One
day I noticed a hand-lettered sign in
the back of his car saying “Will work
for food.” I thought to myself that
this fellow had probably been through
some really tough times. A day or so
later I glanced in his car and he had
crossed-out the word “food” and put
something that probably shouldn’t be
printed in this family-oriented news
paper. It was a three-letter word hav
ing to do with biological recreation.
* * *
The other day I pulled-up behind
a station wagon that had the little
stick-figure family members on the
rear window, that decrease in size
as they go from left to right. There
was an adult, two children and a dog.
There was a space between the adult
and the children. Someone had taken
something like white shoe-polish and
drawn an arrow pointing to the open
space. Above it was written: “This
position open.”
* * *
It is common at amusement parks
to have signs indicating how tall you
must be in order to get on a ride.
Someone sent me a picture of a silhou
ette of “Uncle Sam” dressed in his top
hat and patriotic regalia. He had his
arm extended with his hand about 5
feet above the ground. Below his hand
was a picture of the North Korean
dictator, Kim Jong-un. A sign beside
Uncle Sam said: “You must be this tall
to launch nuclear missiles.” I wish it
was really that simple.
* * *
I once rented a house to a young
couple from the Ukraine. They spoke
pretty good (broken) English. One
day, I went by the house for something
while the woman's grandmother was
visiting.
“Hello, my name is Aurora,” she
said when introducing herself.
“What a nice name.” I said. “I
assume you spell it like the Aurora
Borealis.”
“No,” she said, “I spell it like the
Oldsmobile!”
Apparently she wasn't familiar
with the peculiar light phenomenon
observed in arctic regions, but she
could definitely relate her name to a
car from back in the 1970s.
* * *
It must be difficult living some
where with only a vague knowledge
of the language spoken there.
My daughter (a speech therapist)
tells a supposedly true story about an
Asian who was shopping for groceries
and could not find the poultry she
wanted in the meat products. She
could not think of the word: “chicken,”
either.
She did, however, find the eggs.
She simply removed an egg from
a carton and walked over to a store
employee. She showed him the egg
and said “I need to find its mother.”
That’s overcoming a lack of vocab
ulary with creativity.
* * *
Knowing that I am an animal lover,
people often send me really cool pic
tures of cats and dogs. Someone
sent me a picture last week of four
Labrador Retrievers. The first was a
beautiful Chocolate Lab. followed by
a Yellow Lab and then a Black Lab.
They were all great-looking dogs
except for the one in the last picture.
One ear pointed up and the other
pointed down. Its eyes were crossed
and its tongue stuck out to one side. It
was a “Meth Lab.”
* * *
Not long ago my wife stepped into
my office with an unusually big grin
on her face. She was wearing the wed
ding dress she had worn on the day we
were married.
Telling this to a group of people we
were with at a party one evening, a
friend of ours was on her third mar
riage.
“Wow, I wonder if I could still get
into my wedding dress,” she made the
comment.
“Which one?” her daughter asked.
(You had to be there.)
* * *
At an outing on Lake Chickamauga
one night, we decided that everyone
would board a big pontoon boat and
ride around the lake while listening
to music. It was very dark and the
water was unusually low. Every
one was helping the driver look for
stumps until we got into deep water.
Everyone except me. that is. With
no restroom on board and everyone
looking the other way, I was standing
on the back of the boat, doing, well,
you know.
Suddenly my cousin, who was driv
ing the boat, realized we were in
open water and dumped the throttle
wide open. I toppled off the back
of the boat yelling at the top of my
lungs. Between engine noise and a
mega-decibel sound system, no one
could hear my screams. Luckily,
another boat was following behind,
also watching for obstacles.
They saw me bobbing in the water
and with a loud horn and a bright
spotlight they were able to make the
people on our boat see me. I didn't
have on swim trunks. I had on Ber
muda shorts, a polo shirt and flip flops.
They took me back and left me
standing on the dock. They wouldn’t
even give me time to put on dry
clothes, they just took-off toward open
water. One flip flop was never recov
ered and had it not been for that
second boat following closely behind,
you would probably be reading some
one else’s article in this spot.
You have probably figured out by
now that I can't deliver a “Pulitzer
Prize Winner” every week. Some
times I just have to ramble and hope
for the best.
Mike Rector is a local contractor.
Send comments to mikerector405@
gmail.com or 405 Washington Pkwy.,
Jefferson. GA.
mike
rector
sign said: “Need
A curious case of bias
By Nathan Almodovar
When it comes to the subject of
bias, the Fox News network has been
heavily criticized for having an obvi
ous conservative agenda. Critics of
the network assert that because of this,
their bias should classify them as enter
tainment, not as news.
This type of criticism confounds me.
Not in so much of what is being said,
but rather who is saying it.
News networks like CNN, HLN,
MSNBC and the like are all just as
bad, if not worse, than Fox News when
it comes to bias. An honest review of
these channels and the content that
they promote is indicative of a center
left-leaning bias.
My issue is not the fact that a net
work like Fox is criticized for having
bias, but rather that the people who
condemn it are guilty of promoting a
bias themselves.
Unless these organizations cut down
the amount of content that is directed,
produced and distributed, there is no
way to eliminate a point of view from
saturating into the content. It is remote
ly impossible.
For many people, their culture mat
ters. Because of this, when they talk
about something like politics or reli
gion. their personal convictions influ
ence them to write on how they see
things, rather than removing the emo
tional connection that comes with the
subject.
Take myself as an example. I am
clearly biased in favor of Christianity
and anything that I say and do is going
to reflect a positive portrayal of the
Christian faith. Despite that I do my
best to be as objective as possible,
the emotional connection that I have
to something as precious as my faith
is going to influence my line of work
when I am speaking on the particular
subject.
Another point I would like to address
is the criticism of the people who work
within these networks. If we are going
to suggest that someone like Sean Han-
nity or Tucker Carlson are not “true”
journalists, are we going to make the
same criticism of Anderson Cooper,
Don Lemon or Brian Williams?
These reporters have worked for
networks that have claimed to be just
as objective and balanced as Fox is,
but have been caught in a scandal of
omitting the truth and distorting cur
rent events to suit a narrative.
Williams himself was dismissed for
exaggerating truth and out-right lying
to his audience. He still somehow has
a career in media.
We don’t have to go that far for more
instances of distorting truth.
Take the Milwaukee riots for
instance. Sherelle Smith, the sister of
Sylvelle K. Smith who had been shot
and killed by police, was being inter
viewed by various media outlets.
CNN ran her interview as she was
calling for peace in her community.
What their doctored footage failed to
show their viewers was that she was
calling for the rioters to take their frus
trations out in the suburbs. To “bum
their shit down.”
CNN later retracted their piece when
they were called out for omission. Crit
ics of this piece may accuse me of
white knighting for Fox, but an honest
assessment of the mainstream media
is largely indicative that they do have
an issue of bias, and it is not fair to
condemn one particular network when
they all do the same thing. We must
understand as the audience that we
are always going to have to deal with
someone's point of view, and by care
fully navigating the information we
have received, hopefully find ourselves
coming closer to the truth.
Nathan Almodovar is a columnist
for MainStreet Newspapers. He can be
reached at nathanalmodovar@gmail.
com.
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i Hi
IN
Hill
_
Lots of
learning going on
It’s awards time for schools. Everybody is being
recognized for everything.
Sometimes it gets a bit over
whelming. Makes me wonder if
we go overboard in handing out
awards.
If everybody gets recognized,
the recognition means less. Right?
We’ll hear a lot over the next
month or so about kids going to
college and the record amounts of
scholarships earned by this year’s
seniors. Good for them. It will, no
doubt, be deserved.
We have pages of school news
nearly every week. Much of it
recognizes students for competitions at the region or
state levels.
Just in the past couple of weeks, I have seen or
heard: 1) a video that was impressively done by
an environmental science class at Commerce High
School about a trip it made to Cumberland Island; 2) a
STEAM showcase in Barrow County that include more
than 40 projects done by students from elementary to
high school age; and 3) the continuing emphasis by
the Jackson County schools on a new “college and
career academy” to broaden the horizons of students
for potential careers. That last one was talked about
at a Jackson County Chamber of Commerce meeting.
Those are just the ones that come to mind quickly.
The “college and career academy” concept is one
that has gotten considerable traction in Georgia
schools in the past few years. About 40 of them are
around the state.
Jackson County hopes to join that group if it gets
a rather large grant by the end of the year. Hall and
Barrow counties have similar academies.
The idea is to combine academics and what old
fogies like me think of as “vocational” subjects. Those
areas are now high tech. Most of them involve exten
sive use of computers, higher math and science.
“Mechatronics” is a word I've learned in the past
year. It combines a bunch of subjects to provide man
ufacturing folks who understand and can use math and
science skills that are way beyond my capacity.
Educators talk a lot these days about “college is not
for everyone.”
I keep thinking we’re going back to the 1960s.
Apprentice programs are coming back in fashion.
They were pretty prominent in the 1970s, especially
for skilled craft work such as machining and welding.
Speaking of, I’ve been told for four or five years that
businesses can’t find enough welders and I've known
of two or three kids who had job offers before they
finished high school.
I’m also told that automotive dealers are grabbing
up kids who have been in automotive training courses
in high school and starting them while still in high
school in some cases. Car repairs are maybe more
about computer diagnostics than grease and wrenches.
You may hear more about college and career acad
emies quite a bit in the next 18 months or so. It is
almost certain to be a major part of Casey Cagle's
campaign for governor. He has promoted and pushed
and campaigned for them. He likely deserves to claim
them as his accomplishment.
It is interesting to me that only about 40 school sys
tems have put the concept into practice. Maybe it’s the
money. Welding or machining equipment is not cheap.
The STEAM showcase at Barrow and Jackson
County’s recent robotics competition are examples
of the combination of intellectual work, hands-on
creation and working together that are so prized in
today’s business and industrial worlds. The county
4-H program has a robotics team that recently com
peted at a large event in Texas.
Schools have a dizzying array of programs that
engage students in fields that sometimes I don’t even
recognize.
Those programs require thought, energy and care
from teachers. They cost money. Kids have to be excit
ed and motivated. Parents can help with the latter two.
When it all works, it’s pretty amazing. It’s called
education.
Ron Bridgeman is a reporter for Mainstreet News
papers.
PUBLIC HEARING
The Jackson County Board of Adjustment
will hold a Public Hearing on Thursday,
June 1, 2017 at 6:00 p.m., at the Jackson
County Administration Building Auditorium,
67 Athens Street, Jefferson, Georgia, on the
following matter:
New Business:
1. BOA-17-02 - Thomas Harden, 1460
Staghorn Trail, Nicholson, GA; 2.40
acres; variance to reduce left side setback
from 40 ft. to 21 ft. in order to build a
detached garage. (Map 025A/Parcel 248)
Complete applications, plats, texts, maps,
and public hearing procedures are available
for review in the Planning Division Office,
of the Department of Public Development
during regular office hours Monday thru
Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm or online at
www.iacksoncountvgov.com. All interested
persons are invited to attend.
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