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Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
January 7,2021
From the Staff
A thanks to elected officials
Being an elected official isn’t easy. As
a media outlet that works closely with
these people day-in, day-out, we can see
the long hours some of Pickens’ leaders
- such as outgoing commission chair
Rob Jones - put in. We see them at offi
cial government meetings and at a vari
ety of other events all
hours of the day. We also
understand that Jones and
other officials often shoul
der the brunt of residents’
complaints, whether those
complaints are fair and
well-informed or not, and
they are often blamed for
issues they don’t even
have control over.
Jones, who despite this
publication holding his
feet to the fire on numerous occasions in
stories and editorials, has always had an
open door policy with us, has always re
turned our calls promptly, and has always
answered the questions we asked. We
know someone in his position gets in
vited to pretty much every social event
imaginable, and in his case he almost al
ways seemed to make it out.
The last year or so has seen a lot of big
changes for Pickens’ elected leaders;
after 16 years Jones was forced to leave
office when our new commission chair
Kris Stancil beat him in the primary;
longtime Jasper Mayor John Weaver,
who we also had a very good working re
lationship with, did not seek re-election
in 2019 and was replaced by current
Jasper Mayor Steve Lawrence in January
2020. We wanted to take this opportunity
to thank all those who have served our
community in the past, as well as those
who are coming on board to serve in the
future.
We realize these are paid positions, in
some cases full-time salaried positions,
but there’s a lot of baggage that comes
along with them, and in instances such as
school board or city council the pay is so
inconsequential it’s clear
they aren’t doing it for the
money. School board mem
bers make $100 per meet
ing. Jasper City Council
members make $50 per
meeting. These groups only
have a few meetings a
month so it doesn’t add up
to much. This amount
surely wouldn’t make all
the long budget meetings
and after-hours calls from
angry parents and constituents worth it.
We’re not arguing that all elected of
ficials should be applauded and that
some don’t take advantage of their posi
tions of power. There are bad apples with
ulterior, unethical motives, and leaders
who make poor decisions that could
damage a community. This is precisely
why a free press and outspoken and in
volved public are important - but in in
stances where elected leaders are in
politics to try to make an honest and pos
itive difference they deserve a round of
applause for doing what most people
aren’t willing to do.
We’ve enjoyed working with (most
of) our past leaders, and look forward to
getting to know the new ones. Time will
tell if they prove themselves to be good
servants for Pickens County residents.
There are some
bad apples, but
many elected
officials deserve
thanks for jobs
that are often
times thankless
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
Ponderings of a Simple Man
Py Caleb Smith
The Wild
Bunch
Allow me to paint you a
picture. It’s New Years, the
noon day sun is shining
through the windows, and the
Simple Man is just beginning
to stir from his slumber.
Grunting and growling
like an angry bear, awakened
too early from his hiberna
tion, he stumbles to the
kitchen in search of life-giv
ing coffee.
In his sleepy stupor, he
stumbles over the detritus
from the night before. It had
a been a wild evening in the
Smith household. His wife,
still in her 20s, and he, at the
ripe old age of 30, had de
cided to go all out in celebra
tion of the demise of one of
the most challenging years in
living memory.
Empty bags of Cheetos
crumpled under his bare feet,
discarded cans of Coke (the
regular kind, no low-calorie,
sugar-free crap for such a
momentous occasion) lined
every flat surface in sight.
He rubbed at his aching
head as he stared at the empty
coffee pot. His lovely bride
was still sleeping off the ef
fects of so many carbs and
calories, and they have yet to
create a coffee pot that grinds
its own beans, loads its own
water, and intuits when the
owner is in dire need of caf
feine. He made a mental note
in his ‘invention’ file, marked
under ‘billion dollar ideas.’
He swore softly as he
shuffled to the refrigerator
and pulled out a fresh can of
Coke and took a long draw.
Blearily, he glanced around
the living room, cupcake
wrappers, empty cartons of
ice cream, and DVDs of
Columbo littered the nor
mally pristine room.
Normally the Smiths tried
to limit their Columbo con
sumption to no more than
two episodes a night. The
eternally rumpled, yet dis
armingly insightful, detective
was more excitement than
they could normally with
stand.
But after all, it had been a
special night. They had
stayed up till nearly 11 p.m.,
binging on the murder/mys
tery show. It was later than he
had stayed up for a long, long
time, and the lack of sleep
was taking its toll on the
pudgy humor writer.
He made a single,
abortive attempt to pick up
some of the trash spread
around, then quickly gave it
up. He was too tired, too sore
from the ill-conceived game
of charades that had erupted
at 8 p.m., instigated by the
sugar high that had kicked in
sometime around his fifth
Little Debbie.
Groaning again, he
limped back to bed where he
collapsed, face first, into the
sheets. Using his little re
maining strength, he pulled
himself to his wife’s side
where he immediately fell
asleep.
It would be a long time
before he celebrated as hard
as he had on New Years Eve,
he just wasn’t cut out to be a
party animal.
[Caleb Smith is a long
time, award-winning, colum
nist for the Progress. Look
for his books at the Progress
office or on Amazon.]
If you spot a
mistake,
contact our
editor.
dpool@
pickensprogress. com
Printing
The Pickens
Progress can
handle all set up
and
printing for
everything from
business cards to
flyers.
706-253-2457
(USPS 431-820)
Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457 FAX (706) 253-9738
www.pickensprogressonline.com
DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia. Entered
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r
ikfjool
ONLY 0
ON CoNTP-OL
(JO.
FUTURE-
t>R A-
OTHER VOICES
By Mary Migliaro
Over time I have come to
believe that there is a secret
place where men are sent be
fore they get married and it is
called Man School. The les
sons learned there are impor
tant for men so they can be
sure their energy is con
served, and they can use their
wives as true helpers to make
their lives easier.
Mind you, I am not sexist,
but I have begun to see the
crafty ways my own husband
asks me to help him and I
now know why and how he
does it. I’ll provide exam
ples.
When my husband is
looking for something, he
doesn’t bother to search for
it; he simply asks me. “Do
you know where my (glasses,
keys, wallet, etc.) are?” In the
beginning, I would try to
help him locate the missing
item or if I knew where it
was, I would simply tell him.
After 4,000 of these
episodes, I began to get tired
of stopping what I was doing
to do what he could do him
self. I decided to make him
own his problem, so I began
responding, “Not my job to
keep track of your (glasses,
keys, wallet, etc.)” That was
the beginning of my thoughts
on Man School. Now I sim
ply mutter to myself, “They
must teach you that in Man
School.” After all, why
bother to even look for some
thing when you can ask your
significant other to be the
GPS for those items?
Here is how I believe the
folks at Man School teach
men how to get out of doing
things around the house like
loading or unloading the
dishwasher. If it is a chore
you do not want to do, sim
ply do a poor job of it for a
time or two. Invariably, at
some point, your significant
other will tell you to never
mind and do it herself. This
allows men to opt out of any
thing they really don’t want
Man School
to do but men, beware...She
will begin to build resent
ment towards you for it.
When a woman asks her
man to do something, he will
invariably say, “Sure, in just
a few minutes.” Again, if it is
something the man does not
want to do, Man School in
structs them to simply ignore
the task until she reminds
once or twice. The beauty of
this is that after her three or
four reminders, she will go
ahead and do the task herself
because she is tired of re
minding her man, thus the
man is free to continue his
agenda having avoided the
task altogether. However,
here is another reminder for
caution using this method...
She will begin to build re
sentment towards you for it.
Let me say that these ex
amples are not true of all
men, but I believe there is
enough anecdotal evidence
from my own experiences
and those of my friends to
believe that there really is a
Man School out there. It
most likely stems from their
upbringing and how their
mothers treated them grow
ing up. The most flagrant ex
amples are found in men who
were the only child or the
youngest child, especially if
they were the only boy.
Can men skip Man School
or overcome these habits? I
believe so simply by being
the loving, helping partner
their significant other fell in
love with in the first place. If
you are a man guilty of one
or more of these habits, pick
one to work on to reverse.
Look for your own glasses or
do the task when first asked.
Then sit back and watch the
response from your partner.
You might be able to stay out
of the “doghouse” more and
in her good graces.
If you become fully re
formed, consider acting as an
advocate to your male friends
and teach them the secret to
avoid Man School habits.
Wouldn’t the world be a
much better place without all
that ill will and resentment
between men and women? I
certainly think so.
[Mary Migliaro, M.Ed. is
an educator and parent men
tor who contributes regular
parenting columns to the
Progress. She can be reached
maiymigliaro@aol.com.]
WEATHER
By William Dilbeck
HI LOW RAIN
Dec.
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30
50
44
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31
59
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50
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61
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40
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04
51
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