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PAGE 2A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 8. 2011
Fight “planned obsolescence”
Buy quality goods and take care of them
One of this newspaper’s under-30 staff
members recently witnessed an estate sale and
was dumbfounded by the condition of the for
mer owner’s furniture, knick-knacks and other
household goods.
Everything in the lady’s home could be
considered antique. Down to the garden hose,
nothing was less than a quarter-century old.
But despite the age, it was all sturdy, clean and
impeccably preserved. Magazines dating from
the 1960s were pristine. Thirty-year-old board
games still had all the pieces, and antique bed
room sets were solidly con
structed and in near-perfect
condition.
It’s not uncommon for
younger people to joke about
the generation represented and
its stubborn refusal to change
home furnishings: the same old
towels hanging in the bathroom
for decades; the same pots and
pans having cooked family
meals since what feels like the
dawn of time.
That “keep it ‘cause it
works” worldview is hard to
find nowadays, and the lifespan of our goods
has denigrated from that of hearty oak to
cheap pressboard. The stuff we have we don’t
take care of or simply throw it away, because
we’ve been programmed to believe old is bad,
new is good, and newest is best. Call it the
plague of the gadget freaks. “Can you hear me
now?”
What too many don’t realize is the dispos
able society we find ourselves living in was
contrived this way by conniving manufactur
ers who rely on a marketing strategy called
“planned obsolescence.” Companies make
things not meant to last, and after a short while
people need to replace them. The approach
equals higher profit for the manufacturer and
higher costs for consumers over time.
And unlike the stuff of our grandparents’
era, the vast majority of modern goods we
purchase aren’t even made in America. They
ship in from across the Pacific from countries
like China, which has gained a terrible repu
tation for product quality.
According to The US-China Business
Council, America imported $365 billion worth
of goods from China in 2010, up from $102
billion in 2001.
In his book Poorly Made in China, Paul
Midler, who worked as a consultant to Amer
ican importers dealing with Chinese manufac
turers in the 2000s, says “[Chinese] factories
did not see an attention to quality as some
thing that would improve their business
prospects, but merely as a barrier to increased
profitability. Working to
achieve higher levels of quality
did not make me a friend of the
factory, but a pariah.”
How sad when we so will
ingly and lavishly support poor
business practices such as
these. But even if products we
purchase are of high quality,
somehow we are still goaded
by marketing (and conceit) into
thinking we need the newest,
sleekest smart phone or the lat
est model car. This type of con
sumerism plagues our
pocketbooks and our world.
A 100-year-old lady once interviewed here
told us her impression of people today is that
all many of them want is money and some
where to spend it, and we can’t disagree. The
influx and outflow of goods in our homes is
enough to produce a case of vertigo. Given the
present money pinch, it is past time to invoke
the spirit of our elders.
Grow a garden and reduce your grocery
bill. Downsize your vehicle and buy it used.
Green your home to save water and electricity.
Recycle. Buy quality products and take care
of them. Use public transportation to save
fuel. Refuse to purchase based on fad. Shop
locally to support your own community. And
buy American-made products to support your
country and help increase jobs here.
We all need to relearn the art of being re
sponsible stewards of the things we own, and
to not spend so much time worrying about the
things we don’t.
The same pots
and pans have
cooked the
family meals
since what
feels like the
dawn of time.
Agree or Disagree? Tell us your thoughts on this week’s editorial either online at
the message board on the Progress Online (www.pickensprogress.com) or with a letter to the
editor that will be published next week. Letters may be e-mailed to
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telephone number for verification. Phone numbers are not published. Letters may also be
sent regular mail to Pickens Progress - P.O. Box 67 - Jasper, GA 30143. All names are pub
lished. The Deadline for letters is each Monday at noon.
The Essential Bad Attitude
By Alan Gibson
Ten irritating grammistakes to avoid
Am I being pedantic? Yeah. I
can’t help it. Please avoid these
malaprops:
• Ex cetra - AcUially it’s ‘et
cetera;’ there is no x. Et cetera
literally means ‘and others.’
• The thing is is - One ‘is,
okay? Only one! Even Ivy Lea
guers make this blunder. The
thing is, they ought to stop.
• Nucular - It’s ‘nuclear,’ we
don’t need anybody’s finger on
the trigger who can’t pronounce
it.
• Calvary - The horse sol
diers about whom John Ford
mi
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Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main St. P.O. Box 67 Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457 FAX (706) 253-9738
www.pickensprogress.com
JOHN R. POOL DAN POOL
Publisher Editor
WILLIAM E. POOL
Managing Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia.
Entered at the Post Office at Jasper, Georgia 30143 as Mail Matter
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PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS. P. O. Box 67, Jasper, GA
30143.
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Georgia counties; $34.24 out of state.
made movies are in the cavalry.
Calvary is a hill in the Bible.
• I could care less - If you
could care less than you do, then
some caring does exist. To ex
hibit disdain, you couldn’t care
less.
• You know? - When the un-
glib use this lumpen plea for
empathy four or five times a
sentence it’s, you know, pa
thetic.
• Excape - Could mean ‘for
mer cape’ if one is Batman, but
more often is confused, horrifi
cally, with escape.
• Literally - As in “He liter
ally hit the ceiling.” Wrong, and
typical of the misuse accorded
this abused adverb. To ‘literally’
hit the ceiling, one would climb
a ladder and punch the plaster.
More ominous is the argument
characterized thus: “Boy was
she mad. She literally ate him
alive.”
• Free gift - And all the other
tautologies: frozen glacier; nec
essary essentials; dead corpse.
• Ax - If what you mean is
‘ask,’ please, for all our sakes,
don’t transpose to ‘ax.’ Unless
you’re Lizzie Borden in which
case “I’ll ax him” would be
grammatically on target. If still
a little choppy.
[For more of Alan Gibson’s
Bad Attitude visit his blog,
www. essentialba. com.]
Weather
By William Dilbeck
HI
LOW
RAIN
Tuesday
84
69
0
Wednesday
84
69
0
Thursday
84
67
1.58
Friday
90
66
0
Saturday
89
67
0
Sunday
79
67
.36
Monday
72
63
4.12
This week’s quotable quote
“Our enemies have made the mistake that America’s enemies always
make. They saw liberty and thought they saw weakness.
President George W. Bush
Other Voices From the Community
Never Forget. Never.
Retired Fire Chief reflects on 9/11
[Robert M. Winston was
the first paid/career Pickens
County Fire Chief-
2006/2007. He was a career
Boston District Fire Chief
and was a member of the
Boston Fire Department for
32-years where he was
trained in high-rise fire
fighting and fought several
fires in such buildings.
During his career he was
a first responder to several
structure fires where fire
fighters had become Line
Of Duty Deaths (LODD).
One fire in particular was in
the City of Worcester,
Mass, just to the west of
Boston where six very
brave heroic Worcester fire
fighters became LODD
when a huge cold storage
warehouse burned and col
lapsed as those firefighters
were searching for their
comrades who had become lost
in the smoke. Chief Winston was
one of many Boston firefighters
that joined hundreds of other
firefighters that responded to this
scene to search for and to re
cover thier six deceased Worces
ter Firefighter Brothers who
were buried under hundreds of
tons of smoldering building de
bris. That somber recovery task
took eight days before the last
firefighter was located and with
ceremony he was recovered and
removed from the destroyed
building. This was much like a
9/11 World Trade Center site,
only much smaller.]
By Robert M. Winston
Chief Fire Officer, retired
I was off-duty and we were at
home that fateful day in Septem
ber when the 9/11 attacks began.
My wife, Millie and I watched as
the horrific scenes unfolded on
the TV screen all day and into
the night. As we watched the
WTC Towers burning, I said to
Millie, “A lot of civilians and
some firefighters will die.
Those firefighters are running
into the burning buildings saving
thousands of lives.” And, they
sure did! I never thought that
those Towers would collapse.
But, as they continued to bum, I
knew that I was initially wrong.
When they did come down, it
was sickening to watch. As a
longtime firefighter I knew what
was happening to those inside
and outside the Towers.
Three hundred and forty three
very brave American Firefighter
Heroes died that day at the WTC
while saving thousands of oth
ers. Not mentioned very often
were the dozens of law enforce
ment and EMS personnel that
were as brave and heroic as the
FDNY firefighters who also lost
their lives that day. Then came
the news of the Pentagon being
hit by another plane and the
about plane that went down in
the grassy field in Shanksville,
PA. United Flight 93 contained
its own heroes, too.
A new book has just been re-
photo/Deputy Fire Chief, retired-Rod Devilbiss, BCFD
This piece of I-Beam steel was from the World Trade Center. As
are all WTC Steel that has traveled to all parts of the world, they are
considered as sacred and hallowed. This piece of WTC Steel was
transported to the annual Firehouse EXPO (that is attended by about
12,000 Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics) on July 23rd in a solemn
procession from New York City to Baltimore on a FDNY flatbed
truck.
The procession was made up of about 200 Fire Rider motorcyclists
from the FDNY and the Baltimore City Fire Department and several
fire engines. It was led into Baltimore by two BCFD Command ve
hicles. At each overpass along route-95, Firefighters with their vari
ous fire trucks stood at attention and saluted as the procession rapidly
made its way into Baltimore.
A very special ceremony was conducted at the BCFD’s training
academy where the WTC Steel will find its resting place of honor. It
was my privilege and distinct honor to have been an invited guest of
the BCFD’s Chief of Fire Operations and I rode with him in his com
mand vehicle - Robert Winston
leased entitled; WTC-In Their
Own Words is a highly detailed,
in-depth look at the worst terror
ist attack on American soil. It
contains scores of interviews
with the firefighters on the scene
at the WTC. Here are some of
their quotes and some facts:
Quotes From WTC - In
Their Own Words
Debris and fire trucks were
burning in the streets, oxygen
bottles were exploding in ambu
lances, we heard this loud rum
bling noise and it was the north
tower coming down.
An injured firefighter said
that he wanted to talk with the
fire department Chaplain, My-
chal Judge. What? He was killed,
too?
I was standing in front of the
firehouse at the WTC and there
were a lot of debris and body
parts on the street. A man and a
woman had jumped from an
upper floor and landed in front of
me. I had to step over their re
mains.
A Lieutenant was working a
swapped tour and he and all of
his ladder crew were killed. The
Lieutenant was supposed to re
tire the next day!
A firefighter and some
civilians slid down a giant
steel I-beam 40 feet to es
cape to safety.
I saw a man staggering
about all covered in blood.
The street looked like a war
zone in Beirut and the
place looked like it was hit
by a snowstorm.
Trapped in a protected
area after the collapses
were a Chief, a Captain and
12 other people. They all
somehow escaped death.
A Captain found a large
American flag and raised it
on a street light next to the
fallen towers.
Without the help of
steel and construction
workers using their tools
and torches the job of res
cue and recovery would
have been impossible.
Every time a victim
was located, be it a firefighter or
a civilian, an American flag was
draped over the body, a quiet
solemn procession followed and
a prayer was spoken.
President George W. Bush
and a retired Firefighter stood to
gether on that pile and the Presi
dent said, “.. .Those who did this
will hear from us!”
FACTS:
• 343 FDNY Firefighters and •
2406 other people were mur
dered on 9/11/2001
• 1125 are still missing
• Fires burned in the pile at 1,300
degrees for six months
• 606 children of Firefighters
were left fatherless
• 93 fire apparatus were de
stroyed
• 459 FDNY Funerals were held
since 09/11/2001
We all must never forget.
NEVER!
“WTC In Their Own Words ”
can be purchased from: Fire
house Magazine, Cygnus Pub
lishing, Melville, NY
11747 Firehouse.Com (800)
54 7-73 77
Have you
spotted an error
in our pages?
Let our staff hear
about it.
706-253-2457
dpool@pickensprogress.com