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4A ®Ije Thcralti <©a??tt? Tuesday, February 23,2021 Opinions The cancel culture and the death of civility One of the early treasures 1 found on the internet was the original Dawgvent. Back in the early days of dial-up access, it was worth the long wait for it to load. Now at hairofthedawg. net, it remains a superb source of information on UGA sports and the world in general. One of the stalwarts of those message boards was a guy called Tee. Dead now, Tee was leg endary. His stock saying was, “Facebook is da debil.” He was way ahead of his time. Social media has played a giant role in the killing off of civility in this country. People will post things on social media they would never say to your face. 1 ruminated on this last week when 1 saw people whom 1 know posting scathing com ments about Rush Limbaugh after he died of cancer. These same people would have gone berserk if you posted something similar about the Casper Milquetoast voiced announcers on NPR. This is not a Repub lican vs. Democrat or conservative vs. lib eral issue. Many on both sides are guilty and many on both sides are horri fied when they see such remarks though it seems as though the number of those in the horrified contingent is dwindling rapidly. These online battles of words gave way to the cancel culture. This is a deep topic of its own but these are the basics. If you say or post some thing 1 don’t like or dis agree with me on an issue, it is fine for me to try to shut down your family business, force you out of your job, harass your spouse, vil ify your children and do pretty much anything else 1 would like. This does not just show a lack of civility, it is patently danger ous. The cancel culture is no longer confined to the national stage. We only have to look to a nearby community for an example. The newspaper publisher there got a tip sometime back that the school system was using a substitute teacher who had been convicted of child molestation and was on the sex offender list. The teacher had allegedly molested a student at a school where he had previ ously worked as a substitute. The news paper reported this and, to put it lightly, school officials took umbrage. They made it clear they felt they knew more about hiring substitute teachers than the publisher did, child molester or not. A bitter feud erupted and contin ues. It worsened when the publisher spoke out against shutting down public schools due to COV1D. School system administrators vehe mently disagreed and kids stayed home. Enter the volunteer baseball announcer at the county high school. He had spent the previ ous three years as the announcer for home baseball games. He made the mistake of support ing the publisher on so cial media and criticizing school officials for what he felt were personal, public attacks on the publisher. As baseball season ap proached, the volunteer announcer was told he was banned from return ing to the baseball field microphone. This is a perfect example of the cancel culture in action on the hometown level. In a newspaper ac count of his banishment, the volunteer said, “This kind of thing could make people scared to speak out. You’re starting to live in an age of ‘follow our way of thinking or else’. We just take free speech and throw it out the door?” Sadly, Mr. Volunteer, we are already there. Ci vility, particularly online, is on its last legs. We should all take to heart the age old ad age we, our parents and grandparents grew up hearing: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Walter Geiger is editor and publisher of The Herald-Gazette and Pike County Journal Reporter. He can be reached by email at news@ barnesville.com. GEIGER’S COUNTER Walter Geiger Editor & Publisher Governments speak with forked tongues KAV S. PEDROTTI kayspedrotti@gmail.com Lately it doesn’t seem to matter what politician or bureaucrat is speak- _ ing - what is j vBk said is likely » to change ** ^ within hours, or be stated differently next week, or be “walked back,” fully retracted, or subject to apology al most as soon as a state ment reaches the news media. Reversing the coin, there are those who seem to cling tenaciously to whatever they have stated as absolute truth, fact and unassailable, even after it’s been rec ognized as and proven to be wrong. If you remember the old (politically incorrect) western movies, “speak ing with forked tongue” often applied to the “white man.” There were so many promises made, and treaties signed as permanent “as long as the grass grows and the rivers flow,” to the na tive residents of what is now the United States. I remember reading state ments of Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Geronimo and many other tribal chiefs, in which can be discerned the sadness and disappointments, and the mourning and anger at the treatment inflicted upon and the wanton killing of the na tive people. I think it was Joseph who said, “They promised to take our land, and they took it.” Has anything really changed? Can any official in power be trusted? What are the slogans and catch-phrases but hollow promises? The bloated, debt-ridden, inefficient government we live un der (no matter the party) has become the beast that steps on us, not the paragon making our lives better “than ever be fore.” I challenge that. If we are actually managing to see better and better days, why then is there so much unhappiness, dissatisfaction, discrimi nation, rancor, injustice, violence and unexpected death among us? Many years ago, the bumper-sticker-of-the- month was “Impeach Congress.” How many of us have ever entertained the thought, “throw the bums out and start over,” to promote, finally, acting “without fear or favor.” The last Presi dent pledged to “drain the swamp.” That was thwarted by any number of reactions from the lobbyists, activists, lifer politicos, and anybody else who had an ax to grind. Any President from now to eternity will be scrutinized, and if found to harbor any plan to start over with cred ible, feasible goals and solid unity, he or she will suddenly find brick walls erected at every turn. It’s a known fact that the so-called “swamp” of Washington government could use some drain ing. But that alone is no answer; all of us must come to understand that WE THE PEOPLE are the government - together, all of us - not whoever is in power at any given time. Most of us are deep-down frightened - afraid that someone will usurp our jobs, that oth ers may be given more advantages, that revenge will descend upon our lives and livelihoods be cause of what we believe, that if we don’t stick to “the devil we know,” our children and grandchil dren will not ever under stand what real freedom is about. I know people who willingly do not vote at all, because they consider it an exercise in futility. How sad. Just a few simple changes: concentrate on “getting” less and “giv ing” more, whether it be smiles, goods, happy occasions, money or time helping others. Pay attention to your own community governing bodies; they are proving grounds and basic train ing for those who move into state and national positions of authority. We could be pleasantly surprised, in time, how effectively the quagmire evaporates and becomes the solid ground Ameri cans of all kinds have always wanted. Kay S. Pedrotti has spent some 50 years writing for newspapers. She is active in the Lamar County com munity and currently serves as the president of Lamar Arts. She lives in Milner with her husband Bob. Letter printing guidelines The Herald Gazette welcomes letters to the edi tor. Please include the writer’s actual name, address and telephone number. Send letters to P.O. Box 220, Barnesville, 30204, email it to news@barnesville.com or drop it by 509 Greenwood Street, Barnesville. HOW CAN YOU SIT HOME NIGHT AFTER NIGHT WATCHING ALLTHAT BICKERING OVER COVII> ^ SOLUTIONS? r ITTAKES TH'FEAROUTA v DYING „ i i i iVliiKifiy r .:::.V:.: -::-U--7.. ... ■ ... •.. . T r i J ? ■ (1 i( Remembering the Goat Man and the Pig on a cold day Randall Aspinwall’s parents, Sine and Vida, once operated The Pig, a legendary barbecue restaurant on U.S. 301 in Je- sup. On a vist to our farm, Randall (left); his grandson, Myles; and Randall’s son, Nick (Myles’ dad), reminisced about the Goat Man, who took rest stops at The Pig. DINK NESMITH dnesmith@cninewspapers.com If you grew up in small-town America in the 1940s and 1950s, ^ W chances are j^"j W you remem- ; Goat Man. That’s what happened when Randall Aspinwall, his son Nick, and his son Myles visited our farm on a cold, rainy Saturday. Randall spied the Goat Man’s picture hanging on the wall. That one glance rolled back the calendar 65 years. When the Goat Man and his flock of goats clinked and clanged their way up and down U.S. 301, Ches knew he had a welcome spot to spend the night. Better yet, he wasn’t going to go to sleep hungry. Randall’s parents, Sine and Vida, invited the eccentric wanderer and his junk yard on wheels to rest at The Pig Restaurant, cat- tycorner and across the road from the Jesup City Cemetery. Do you remember the animated neon sign with a fiddle-playing pig? That high-tech sign for the era and the alure of The Pig’s hickory smoke were magnets to pull in customers. Long before 1-95 drained north-south traffic off U.S. 301, The Pig was a must stop for travelers. Sine Aspinwall mailed his smoked hams, bacon and sausage all over the nation. An after school assignment for the Aspinwall boys—Al, Mike and Randall—was loading their dad’s pickup with meat orders and taking the shipments to the post office. The Pig is where my lifelong affinity for barbe cue is rooted. Sitting on a red-vinyl-topped stool— with my elbows on the Formica counter—I was mesmerized by the sizzle and smell of the pork dripping on the amber coals in the open pit. And I was fascinated, watch ing the staff stab a ham with a pitchfork to turn it or pull the meat to the chopping board. Whack! Whack! Whack! I can still hear the barbecue being chopped, just four feet away. And then Charlie Keith, Carobeth Highsmith, Har riett Stafford or Gussie Priester would deliver an unforgettable sandwich. Every barbecue bite since is compared to The Pig. Sine was more than a pit master. He was a salesman. Randall re members his dad slicing off a piece of the ham’s crunchy outside, putting it on a saucer and sliding it to a tourist. Laughing, Randall said, “One bite and that Yankee was or dering a ham to be sent home.” Randall also remem bers the day that the Goat Man returned Sine’s generosity. The bearded guest—with distinct aro ma of his own—gave the Aspinwalls a baby goat. My friend recalls the McCartney goat growing up in a pen behind their house. Looking at the picture, I told Randall, Nick and Myles about my memo ries of the Goat Man. My first was—as a child—at the old Milikin Field on U.S. 301 South. My last was in Twiggs County, before Ches McCartney died in 1998.1 had heard he was living in a nursing home in Jeffersonville. I detoured off 1-16, pulling a trailer of antique mule- drawn farm implements. And there he was. “Goat Man,” I said, “I’ve always ‘admired’ your stuff. Would you like to see some of mine?” He nodded, and we walked SEE GOAT MAN 5A FLASHBACK In honor of Elizabeth Sellers Feb. 21-27 10 years ago The Lamar County Trojans defeated North east Macon 77-71 to claim the Region 4AA basketball title. It was the 13th straight win for the Trojans under coach Gregory Freeman. Lead ing the Trojan attack were Terrance Childs, Camden Foster, Denarius Rutherford and freshman Qua Searcy. 25 years ago LCCHS athletic direc tor and head football coach Mike Pack hired attorney Tammy Jacobs to represent him after being pressured to re sign his positions. Pack refused to resign and was suspended with pay pending further action by the school board. Pack was said to be un der “extreme emotional distress”. 50 years ago The FBI, GBI, federal revenue agents, state fire marshal and the bomb squad from Ft. McPher son were called in to defuse a crude explosive device found in a barn off Ingram Road. The device consisted of 12 gauge shotgun shells, a battery, matches and plastic bottles containing unknown liquids. 100 years ago A fire broke out in the Barnesville Bakery about 8:30 Monday night but was soon put out after the fire company got on the scene, doing, howev er, considerable damage, mainly by water. The origin of the fire is not known, but Mr. Wilkie, the proprietor, rather inclines to the view that it originated from an electric wire. Mr. Wilkie carried an insurance policy which partially covered his loss. Zi)t Umltr barnesville.com 770.358.NEWS P.0. Box 220 Publishers Staff SUBSCRIBE 509 Greenwood Street Walter Geiger Nolan George $30 per year in Lamar and sur Barnesville, Ga. 30204 Laura Geiger Rachel McDaniel rounding counties; $40 outside 770-358-NEWS Tasha Webster the local area. barnesville.com General Manager Includes 24/7 access to E-mail: news@barnesville.com Missy Ware barnesville.com DEADLINES The deadline for public notices is noon Thursdays; news and advertising before noon Fridays. Early submission is appreciated.