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Pickens County Editorial Quote of the Week: An optimist is a fellow who believes a housefly is looking for a way to get out. George Jean Nathan Page • Opinions • Community Views • Good Old Common Sense January 7, 2016 n rom the Staff Things we’d like to see in 2016 •Tourism efforts put on the backbumer by county and city officials and business groups. Enough with the water park and tourist desti nation dreams. Let’s concentrate on what we already are - a great bedroom community for the metro area - and look for ways to capitalize on this. •For Kirby Smart to fire up the DAWGS and have us poised for a serious run at the national championship bowls next year. Enough good- but-not-good-enough out of Athens; we want to be a contender. •A cool restaurant, ideally a brew-pub, in the restored NAPA building on the corner of Main Street and High way 53. The building makes a great anchor for downtown. Now we need a tenant that is truly a draw for the whole street. •The Boys & Girls Club building completely funded and built by their goal of this spring. The fundraising team has raised over $2 million for the project and is less than $200,000 away from a fully-paid-off facility that will give our kids and teens a safe place to spend time. If you haven’t yet, please donate. •A revival of the arts. We were sad to see Sharptop Arts Association close their doors, just as we were sad to see many other galleries and arts events (i.e. the Jasper ArtFest) that have come and gone. We would like to see new groups or new faces step up - like the suc cessful Ed B’s Studio 54 in downtown - and make arts-related events happen here because they make a community richer and more vi brant. •More support for veterans. We’d like to see more programs that help our vets transition back into civilian life so they can find work From brew pubs to Blue Bell and a good DAWGS season, here are our 2016 wishes and live out a happy life at home with their families. We’d also like to see more funding for programs that help veterans struggling with drug addiction, PTSD, homelessness, job in security or disabilities from combat. We ap plaud all the programs out there already, like the well-received Veterans Court in this judi cial circuit and programs offered through Highland Rivers, but we think more can be done in our country for those who served. •At least one good snow before spring. •New sports heroes and idols to cheer. Every body loves a hero and southern boy Cam New ton has been great to cheer for this past year as he nearly led his Car olina Panthers to a perfect season (thanks Falcons) but we need more sports role models for us and our kids. It’s fun to get behind sports figures, especially when they espouse the values we’d all like to emulate. •While not original, we would like a more courteous tone in politics. We realize that partisan ruthless ness and low intellectual tone are chronic fea tures of politics because they work - up to a point. But so does decency. •More adoptions at the local shelter - and less animals there in the first place. Spay and neuter people. Spay and neuter. •Jon Stewart’s yearlong retirement ‘joke,’ end and him announce a new show. Comedy makes everything better. •And maybe, just maybe, Blue Bell will come back with expansion plans after a safe return to shelves following the listeria scare that took the smooth, creamy, sugary stuff from us. AGREE OR DISAGREE? Tell us your thoughts on this week’s staff editorial with a letter to the editor that will be published next week. Letters may be e-mailed to news@pickensprogress.com. All letters must have a valid e-mail address, full name and telephone number for verification. We still take them by regular mail at Pickens Progress, P.O. Box 67, Jasper, GA 30143 The Essential Bad Attitude By Alan Gibson Redundant Speech - Using Two Words Where One Will Do I hereby vow to seek out and quash redundancies wherever I find them. Here are some com mon instances of overstatement that you and I may encounter. famous celebrity - A celebrity may be assumed to be famous. Otherwise one isn’t much of a celebrity. crazy nut - If you’ve estab lished that one is a nut, he is pre sumed to be crazy. maximum capacity - There’s no such thing as partial capacity, which is probably an oxymoron although I’ve never like that word. Anyway if a ballpark is filled to capacity, it is understood to be maximum capacity. honest truth - “Tell me the honest truth,” a prosecutor might ask, to which a clever witness might respond “One may assume the truth to be honest.” warm welcome - You might contest this one, averring that a welcome could be frosty. But then it wouldn’t be a welcome. A welcome is presumed to be warm - otherwise it’s some kind of am bush. free gift - A gift is ipso facto free. That is unless you’re ca joled by advertisers to ‘pay only shipping and handling’ in which case it isn’t a gift. dead corpse - Assuming one is not a zombie, a corpse may be assumed dead. lazy loafer - It is probably impossible to be anything but lazy if one is a loafer. There are very few ambitious loafers. starts out - Can’t a story just start? Does it have to start ‘out’? exciting adventures - An ad venture is, by its nature, exciting. Otherwise stay home. phony facade - The job of a facade is to disguise reality, thus it is intentionally phony and does not need to be so characterized. On the other hand redundan cies are devilishly hard to avoid. If they emphasize the point you’re making, charge ahead (note the redundancy: it’s hard to charge backward). Life is, after all, an exciting adventure (another redundancy). This has to stop. Spotting redundancies is turning me into a crazy nut. [Gibson is a regular colum nist for the Pickens Progress.] ’iragrgBS (USPS 431-820) 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 A. 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 of Second Class. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS, P.O. Box 67, Jasper, GA 30143. One Year’s Subscription: $29.96 in Pickens County and in Gilmer, Cherokee, Dawson and Gordon Counties. $39.59 in all other Georgia Counties; $44.94 out of state. Are we getting it straight? Spot a mistake in the paper, let us know 706-253-2457 dpool@pickensprogress.com Dec. 29 - Jan. 4 HI LOW RAIN Tuesday 64 51 .81 Wednesday 59 48 .42 Thursday 59 35 .00 Friday 44 30 .00 Saturday 46 29 .00 Sunday 51 30 .00 Monday 37 19 .00 10)<a Other Voices How will you use the 2016 bonus day in Leap Year? By Reverend Max Caylor Former pastor of the Jasper United Methodist Church, retired. cardinalmax@bellsouth.net The calendar, seasons and the orbit of the earth is out of synch and about every four years has to be adjusted because it takes 365.242199 days to move around the sim. February twenty-ninth is added to keep the seasons in line and is called Leap Year. How will you use the extra day? When one Googles New Year Resolution Ideas the second article states “50 New Year’s Resolution Ideas and How to Achieve Each of Them.” The top three listed by author Dimitrijevic was to “get in shape and look for steady results with a program that is easy to stick to.” The next is start eating health ier food, and less overall by not eating emotionally. The other top suggestion was to “stop procras tinating by do something fun in stead of hard work.” As one went down the list the closest resolution to “spiritual” was number eleven which said “learn to be happier with your life, number thirty-three suggest ing reinvent yourself and almost at the bottom number forty-eight stating face your fears and inse curities.” These are all great suggestions with positive rewards but what about the spiridial? One might consider adding questions to the above for a 2016 resolution? God, how can I be happier by opening my life to you? Lord, how may I reinvent myself by reading your Word? Holy Spirit, how can I face my fears and insecurities by follow ing you in my head and heart? In 1972 I had been struggling with a call to ministry since 1968. I was not HOLY enough! I can’t quote scripture! I don’t pray enough! I don’t own a black tie with a black suit much less have a white one with belt and shoes to match! A scripUire changed all of that for me. The Apostle Paul was strug gling with his situation like all humankind in some way. He called it “a thorn in my flesh” and no one knows whether it was physical, emotional or spiritual. It was so annoying, painful and bothersome he asked the Lord THREE times to remove it. God’s answer to Paul changed his life, mine and possibly yours. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” 2 Corinthians 12:9. For Paul it did not matter about the thorns and for me I did not worry about being HOLY enough because our strength to deal with situations came by and through the Grace of God with us. We have an extra day with a bonus 24 fours containing 1,440 minutes to consider our thorns and God’s amazing Grace to overcome them. Happy Leap Year! START OR RE-NEW your subscription to the Don t midd a dingle id due in 2016 Rates for one year subscription: $ 29 96 if you live in Pickens, Dawson, Cherokee, Gilmer or Gordon $ 39 59 if you live in another GA county $44 94 if y 0U n ve ou tside of GA E-edition- Add the online E-edition to your print subscription for Just $ 7. 00 per year or buy it separately for $ 28 00 per year (E-edition Only) Every story, every week plus archives, search features Start your subscription by calling 706-253-2457 or at our website: pickensprogressonline. com