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“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house,
they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had
opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.” - Matthew 2:10-11
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Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
December 22,2022
From the Staff
Are you ready for Christmas?
Last week as a staff member was drop
ping off some recycling, a friendly man
there asked: “So are you ready for Christ
mas?” Their reply was quick and some
thing to the effect of: “Yes I think I’m
almost ready.”
We talked about his question around
the office. What does it mean to truly be
ready for Christmas?
Does it mean our houses are decorated
and our trees have been up since Thanks
giving?
Does it mean we have all our gifts
wrapped with a bow under the tree for
everyone on our lists?
Does it mean we are spiritually ready
for Christmas?
Have we listened to enough Christmas
music this year? Or do we need to con
stantly be playing Mariah Carey’s All I
Want for Christmas is You? And when
we’ve listened to it enough, will we fi
nally feel a sense of being in the holiday
spirit?
Maybe last year we didn’t feel like we
were in the holiday spirit enough, so this
year we’re determined to watch more
Christmas movies, listen to more holiday
music, bake more festive desserts and at
tend more Christmas services. Maybe if
we spend more time holiday shopping or
listening to some of our excellent local
church choirs we will feel better about
the quickly-approaching holiday.
But is anyone ever truly ready for
Christmas?
While the celebration of the birth of
Jesus Christ comes once a year and some
of us may spend the year waiting for it to
roll around, others might be dreading it.
Because along with Christmas comes a
lot of holiday stress and excitement. Ac
cording to at Newsweek article published
last month, two in five Americans feel
their mental health worsens during the
holidays.
Spending extended amounts of time
with family, picking out the perfect gifts
and preparing the right Christmas dishes
are all things that either bring excitement
or add stress this time of year.
Is it even possible to do enough
Christmas activities, or will we always
feel the need to do more to get into the
spirit?
Many of us may never feel truly ready
for Christmas but, ultimately, it doesn’t
matter how ready you feel for the day.
Christmas is about more than check
ing off a list to finally be ready to cele
brate. Christmas is about celebrating -
however you personally honor the day -
and spending time with loved ones. It
doesn’t really matter how many Christ
mas songs you listened to or if you found
the absolute perfect Christmas gift. It all
comes down to your attitude surrounding
Christmas.
There is no recipe for how to have a
perfect Christmas, because a picture per
fect holiday doesn’t exist, despite how
many movies might make us think other
wise. The only thing we really need for
Christmas is a happy heart and some ex
citement for the holiday, whether we are
excited to do all the traditional Christmas
things or just be excited for some time off
work or school.
It doesn’t matter if we’ve checked
everything off our holiday to-do list.
Everyone has a different approach to the
holiday and will celebrate it this Sunday.
So throw out that to-do list and stop
trying to curate a perfect Christmas. For
the next few days until Christmas, just
enjoy as much of the season as you can.
Catch a Christmas movie, or don’t. Lis
ten to Christmas music exclusively, or
don’t listen to it at all.
Attend a Christmas Eve service of
your choice or spend time alone ponder
ing the reason for the season.
Do whatever feels right for you this
holiday season. Whatever we may or
may not do to get in the holiday spirit,
just remember to enjoy this time of year
with our loved ones while it lasts.
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
Caleb Smith
Silent
Night
Just days away from the
most wonderful time of the
year, and I am in hog heaven.
It’s cold enough that I have
an excuse not to go outside,
and with the obligatory feasts
right around the comer, I
have potentially weeks of
munching on leftovers ahead
of me.
Forced to stay inside and
read all while gorging my
self? It’s Christmas.
Don’t get me wrong, the
parties are nice, and it’s al
ways good to see my ex
tended family....briefly, but
the real fun starts when the
sun goes down. When every
body is nestled in their beds,
dreams of sugar plums or
crashing credit card debt
dancing in their heads
....When the food is un
guarded.
Oh the torture to know
that, only feet away, there are
meats and casseroles and
desserts and bread all just
waiting for the big day. But
when everyone’s asleep
who’s to say that a few plate
fuls don’t get sampled ahead
of time?
This can be awkward if
someone else is getting a late
night snack, apparently the
sight of an overweight man
slithering into the kitchen at
1 a.m. can be a bit shocking.
I still miss Aunt Helen...
But, assuming no aging
relatives are slinking around,
it’s a simple enough task to
raid the fridge. Then, like the
Grinch robbing the Whos,
I take some ham,
I take some beans,
I take some jello,
Even though it’s
lime green,
I sneak in some rolls, all
golden and crisp,
Then look for a few other
things, still on my list.
Desserts get heaped high,
on a couple of plates,
And casseroles are mi
crowaved, despite it
being late.
When at last I was done,
with my sneaking and
skulking,
It’s back to my room, for
some good home cooking.
With a bed like a table, my
feast spread around,
I stop and I pause,
as I hear a little sound.
The door creaks open,
alas! I am found,
And I look at the evidence,
all scattered around.
But as the door creeps open,
to reveal me, the hog,
I smile as I see, it’s
only my dog.
I know this game,
I’ve played it before,
And I lay out her payment,
at my feet on the floor.
Two slices of ham, is the
price of her silence,
worth every penny,
to protect me from violence.
Alone in the midnight, my
puppy and me, we enjoy a
Christmas feast,
silent, and merrily.
Caleb Smith is a resident
of a ramshackle cabin on an
undisclosed mountaintop. He
can be contacted at jcaleb-
smith90@yahoo.com.
(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.
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as Mail Matter of Second Class.
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#lbe H>d)ciol
Legislative committee recommends funding
home- and community-based care for
2,400 more Georgians with disabilities
By Rebecca Grapevine
Staff Reporter
Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA - Georgia
should add 2,400 slots for
serving people with intellec
tual and developmental dis
abilities in their homes and
communities in next year’s
budget, a state Senate study
committee recommended
Wednesday.
“We’re looking at hope
fully being able to eliminate
the waiting list over a three-
year period,” said state Sen.
Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, co
chairwoman of the commit
tee.
The waiting list currently
has more than 7,000 people
on it.
The program pays for sup
port services for people with
an intellectual or develop
mental disability so they can
remain in their homes and
communities and not lan
guish in large institutions.
Increasing the funding for
the program so that the wait
ing list can be cleared has
long been a priority of the
disability advocacy commu
nity, and the study commit
tee’s recommendations may
be the crucial first step to
ward decreasing the length of
the waiting list.
The study committee,
which held several public
meetings this fall, grew out
of a resolution passed earlier
this year that aimed at ad
dressing the waiting list and
other problems faced by
Georgians with intellectual
and developmental disabili
ties. The panel adopted 14
recommendations on
Wednesday.
Key among them is that
Georgia set up a special com
mission devoted to improv
ing services for people with
intellectual and developmen
tal disabilities along the lines
of the state’s Behavioral
Health Reform and Innova
tion Commission. That com
mission, formed in 2019,
spearheaded the drafting and
passage of a sweeping mental
health reform bill earlier this
year.
The intellectual and devel
opmental disabilities com
mission would include not
just legislators but key staff
members from state agencies,
experts, family members and
people who have develop
mental or intellectual disabil
ities.
Georgia should also con
sider refining how the waiver
waiting list works, the study
committee’s report sug
gested. The waiting list
should take into account peo
ple’s current and future
needs, their current supports,
age, region and other factors.
The list also should be made
more transparent so the pub
lic can better understand how
it works.
The committee also issued
several recommendations for
addressing the state’s short
age of direct-support profes
sionals, the frontline workers
who help disabled people
with daily tasks and other
support.
The shortage in the field is
due in part to the low pay for
the job. The committee rec
ommended increasing wages
in fiscal 2024, noting that pay
should be sufficient for work
ers to cover transportation
and housing.
The committee did not
provide a specific amount for
the wage in the report. How
ever, the state Department of
Behavioral Health and De
velopmental Disabilities
(DBHDD) recently issued a
draft report suggesting the
rate for direct support profes
sionals be raised to just above
$ 15 an hour.
Sen. John Albers, R-
Roswell, the committee’s
other co-chairman, said he
thought $ 15 would likely not
be enough to address the
worker shortage, especially
given recent inflation.
“We know that our end
goal is not yet achieved [with
the $15 recommendation],”
he said. “[But] this is advanc
ing the ball.”
The report also recom
mended the state consider
finding a way to add retire
ment, health-care and other
benefits for direct support
workers to incentivize enter
ing and remaining in the
field. The state should also
consider adding a profes
sional credentialing process
for direct-support jobs.
The committee also sug
gested the state find a way to
pay family members who act
as caregivers for people with
intellectual and developmen
tal disabilities.
Another suggestion in
cluded in the report is that
Georgia consider shifting
medical care for people with
intellectual and developmen
tal disabilities to a managed-
care model currently used in
many other areas of health
care. The state would pay a
private insurance company to
provide medical care for peo
ple in the program.
If the state wants to move
forward with the idea, the re
port recommends first setting
up a pilot program enrolling
about 1% of the people who
need the services, around 130
to 150 Georgians, to test out
whether the managed-care
model would deliver quality
care for this population.
“We are so grateful to
everyone who came forward
and told their stories,” Harrell
said. “Each story helped to
highlight a different piece of
the puzzle. Once we put that
puzzle together, it was clear
that this community is in cri
sis with tremendous unmet
needs.”
CORRECTION - In the
article submitted to the
Progress last week, the num
ber of The number of Opera
tion Christmas Child
shoeboxes delivered to the
drop off location in Jasper
was 2,142 - rather than 1,142
originally reported.
Spot an error,
let our editor
know.
dpool@
pickensprogress.com
706-253-2457
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