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Quote of the week - “If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything.
You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ” -Michael enchton
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Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
September 23,2021
From the Staff
Preserving what we can
By Dan Pool
Editor
A picture is said to be worth a thousand
words. If true, there is a table in the Progress’
small lobby worth a million words right now.
It’s loaded with pictures.
For those not seeing the ads, after 40
years, we are doing a full renovation of our
office on Main Street - and if that million
words translated into dollars, it would really
come in handy.
Anyone who has entered our office will
attest, it’s cluttered and badly in need of a
facelift. We’re working on it.
Part of the challenge we anticipated going
in was what to do with all the stuff (for lack
of a better word) we have accumulated --
everything from super cool looking 1970s
computer parts to our Hackin’Packin’Aplaca
toy given to us by a PACA arts group leader
as part of a running joke.
Getting rid of old desks and chairs - while
tough on backs - doesn’t have much emo
tional impact; shredding old financial records
is a mundane chore.
Then there are the photos. Lots of photos
taken by our photographers at news events,
photos sent by proud parents, photos showing
sports glory and car wrecks and parades
downtown and people standing around at
events like a Marble Festival art show.
Some are entertaining to anyone looking
at them but most are fairly routine - unless
you know the people in them.
For every one of a massive crowd down
town, there are dozens of a ribbon cutting at
a business or two people shaking hands or a
baby - only interesting if you know the baby.
We have thrown it open for the past few
weeks to come and get any of these photos.
We have e-mailed or messaged subjects in
photos we recognized or their relatives. If it
is your baby or business ribbon cutting or
your uncle taking an oath of office, we’d love
you to have the original. After all we have a
copy, well preserved in our archived printed
pages.
But there are a couple of things we can’t
do and after I explain, I hope you’ll under
stand.
First, back to the thousand-word value —
What is a photo worth if it’s unlabeled and
unidentified? Our collection is sorted by date,
making it hard to know what’s there without
flipping through one at the time. This is why
we offered no definite answers to questions
of “is there any of XYZ in there?” The best
we can say is “maybe, come take a look.”
A Nostradamus might have come along in
the 1980s and said hold on newspaper editor,
one day there will be a way to show all these
photos on everyone’s telephone and you need
to keep them sorted and scanned where you
can easily upload them. We would have
laughed at the idea of looking at photos on a
phone.
It would be a tremendous amount of labor
to go back and start labelling and scanning
and posting.
But for anyone who worries we have been
cavalier with preserving history, please con
sider:
• Our e-editions now preserve photos and
everything else we publish every week and
they are searchable online and available to
all.
• We are turning a big pile of old cds and
dvds over to the University of Georgia li
brary. For many years we saved our digital
pages on discs with the belief discs would
never become obsolete. Hmmm, missed that
one, too.
• Our older microfilm of pages, before cd
burners came along, have been sent to News
papers.com, a product from Ancestry.com
and they will be available there at some point.
For our truly old editions, it’s only paper.
It will take someone with special equipment,
scanning the pages one at a time and keeping
the pages properly labelled, then uploaded
somewhere. No small task and we guard our
paper archives, the older the pages the more
dry and fragile.
Not everything can be saved and pre
served and made available online, but we
have done what was feasible for a small staff
who still has to get out a paper every week.
Finally, for anyone who would like to
take a look at the photos and see if there
are any they want, come by our office
Monday through Friday 9 a.m. until 4
p.m. before Wednesday, September 29
when all the remaining photos will be
turned over to an interested, local citizen.
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
By Caleb Smith
Time After
Time After Time
Where has the time gone?
Just yesterday I was five
years old, sitting on my
grandpa’s lap as he told me
stories of the west and a long
horn named ‘Bull.’
Now I’m grown, with a
wife and house and bills and
responsibilities. Personally, I
preferred the time spent lis
tening to the exploits of Bull
the bull.
Back when ghost stories
were real, magic was a fact,
and problems were some
thing that adults had. Back
when my biggest concern
was whether or not I would
get my PB&J sandwich with
the crust cut off or if I had to
do it myself.
I blinked and I was in
school, learning such valu
able life lessons as the
recorder and how to find the
area of a circle. I can’t tell
you how many times I’ve sat
down to do my taxes or had
to change a tire in the pouring
rain when those skills came
into play.
“Honey, can you change
the tire?” my wife asked.
“No, but here’s ‘Mary had
a little Lamb’ in A Minor.”
It seems I woke up this
morning and met a fresh-
faced redhead at the Apple-
bees. By lunch I had asked
her to marry me and by mid
afternoon we were on our
honeymoon. School, deaths,
loss, gains, joy, sorry, all
seemed to happen in the
breadth of a few hours. Now
here I am in my office, plans
of the future dancing in my
head as I enter my fourth
decade of life.
Where did it all go? As
sands through the hour glass,
as the philosopher once
wrote, these are the days of
our lives. Have you ever seen
an hour glass? The grains
flow through inexorably,
dozens in the space of a sec
ond. That’s how life is some
times.
Another philosopher once
said “Life is like sitting on a
snake, sooner or later, it’s
gonna bite you in the butt.”
Well let me tell you, my
butt’s been bitten more than
once. Sometimes it feels like
I’m in a racecar, barrelling
around the track without
knowing where the finish
line is, what place I’m in, or
even if I’m going in the right
direction.
You know what that? De
spite all of that, it’s a beauti
ful ride. The passengers that
have ridden with me have al
ways been interesting, if not
the best people. From time to
time, some have gotten off
and gotten back on, others
left and never came back. But
through it all, here I am.
Watching as the countryside
passes by, listening to good
music and laughing along
with my ever-present co-po-
lite, my wife.
Yessiree, it’s a beautiful,
chaotic, terrifying, some
times sad but always interest
ing, ride.
[Caleb Smith is a long
time, award-winning, colum
nist for the Progress.]
WEATHER
By William Dilbeck
HI
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RAIN
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(USPS 431-820)
Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457
www.pickensprogressonline.com
DAN POOL
Publisher/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 PICKENS COUNTY
PROGRESS, 94 N. Main St., Jasper, GA 30143.
One Year’s Subscription: $39.59 in Pickens County and in Gilmer,
Cherokee, Dawson and Gordon counties; $50.29 in all other Georgia
counties; $59.92 out of state.
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Other Voices
Suicide is increasing in Georgia;
we can all help reduce it
By Melanie Dallas
CEO of Highland Rivers
Health
Over the past several
years, I've written about the
topic of suicide several times.
It is a complex topic that
continues to demand our at
tention. While my most re
cent article celebrated
September as National Re
covery Month, September is
also recognized as National
Suicide Prevention Month.
And unfortunately, suicide
trends in Georgia are not a
cause for celebration, but
consternation.
According to state-spe
cific data published by the
American Foundation for
Suicide Prevention (AFSP),
suicide in Georgia is increas
ing. Its 2019 Georgia re
ported 1,451 deaths from
suicide, a rate of 13.59 per
100,000 residents. In 2020,
AFSP reported 1,569 sui
cides in our state, a rate of
14.53. In 2021, both numbers
increased again: 1,585 deaths
and a rate of 14.67. Georgia’s
2021 ranking is 31st in the
nation, up from 39th in 2019.
There is an important
caveat with these reports,
which AFSP gathers from
data published by the Centers
for Disease Control and Pre
vention (CDC): they are all
two years old - because it
takes time to collect and ver
ify state-level mortality data.
So AFSP’s 2019 Georgia
report is actually based on
suicide deaths that occurred
in 2017, and the 2021 num
bers reflect deaths from
2019. In other words, it won’t
be until next year that we can
confirm the impact of the
pandemic on suicide in our
state. We know it won’t be
good.
Despite these grim statis
tics, suicide can be prevented
and there is much that can be
done. Toward that end, I want
to make our communities
aware of the resources High
land Rivers Health provides
- many at no cost - to help
individuals and communities
learn about and prevent sui
cide. Contact us at ZeroSui-
cide@highlandrivers.org for
professional assistance with:
Early detection. We pro
vide evidence-based assess
ments to identify risk factors,
and referrals to mental health
and other community support
organizations for individuals
at risk.
Education. Highland
Rivers offers many suicide
prevention resources, includ
ing a no-cost suicide preven
tion training called Question,
Persuade, Refer (QPR). This
highly efficient one-to-two-
hour training can be provided
onsite (and online) for busi
nesses, schools, churches,
community organizations,
healthcare agencies, or other
organizations. Education and
trainings can also be cus
tomized to the specific needs
of any organization, commu
nity or age group.
Therapy. Highland Rivers’
professional therapists use
evidence-based practices to
treat and minimize suicide
risk factors.
A licensed clinician and
peer specialist are available
to meet with individuals who
report suicide risk factors,
and their family members, to
help manage suicidality and
provide interventions to in
crease resiliency and foster
hope. Our clinicians can also
provide therapeutic support
to fellow clinicians, health
care workers, first responders
and others who experience
distress from suicide-related
incidents in the course of
their work.
Recovery support. We
provide individual and group
therapy, and referral to sup
port programs, for individu
als who have survived a
suicide attempt, as well as in
dividuals who have been im
pacted by the suicide or
suicide attempt of a loved
one. Next-day crisis counsel
ing and recovery support is
available for schools and stu
dents that are coping with the
loss of a student to suicide.
On an individual level, it
is imperative for everyone to
know what to do if you en
counter someone who may
be thinking about self-harm
or suicide. If connecting with
a professional therapist
would be beneficial for you
or a loved one, contact High
land Rivers at (800) 729-
5700. During non-business
hours the Georgia Crisis and
Access Line, (800) 715-
4225, and the national Sui
cide Prevention Lifeline,
(800) 273-TALK (8255), are
available 24 hours a day.
Both can link individuals in
northwest Georgia with crisis
services at Highland Rivers.
Finally, in spite of these
saddening circumstances in
our state, I remain hopeful -
and we all must. Suicide can
be prevented, and we all have
the power to help. The sui
cide you help prevent not
only helps an individual, but
his or her family, the commu
nity and everyone in Georgia.
[Melanie Dallas is a li
censed professional coun
selor and CEO of Highland
Rivers Health, which pro
vides treatment and recovery
services for individuals with
mental illness, substance use
disorders, and intellectual
and developmental disabili
ties in a 12-county region of
northwest Georgia.]
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