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4A ®jje 1) eralb <©a?£tt£ Tuesday, March 2,2021
From 1972-1975,
Bobby Louis Barkley
and 1 comprised a
formidable ticket in the
annual election of class
officers at Lamar County
High School. Bobby was
elected class president
and 1 was elected class
vice-president in our
freshman, sophomore,
and junior years. Our
streak was broken when
1 gave up my final year
of high school eligibility
to enroll early at Mercer
University. 1 assume
Bobby Louis was elected
senior class president
before he headed off to
Georgia Tech. 1 don’t
know who was elected
vice-president.
Now everything 1 said
in that first paragraph
Opinions
Ruffin's Renderings:
comes with two caveats.
First, for a few years—
years that included our
freshman and sophomore
years—boys and girls
went to separate schools
in Lamar County. So
assuming that the girls’
school in Milner—which
bore the characterless if
accurate name of Birch
Street School—also held
class elections, then two
girls were (obviously)
elected to the top spots.
The school that we
boys attended had the
equally characterless and
accurate name of Forsyth
Road School. This means
that during our freshman
and sophomore years,
Bobby Louis and 1 were
actually president and
vice-president only of
our classes at
Forsyth Road.
I have no way
of knowing if
we’d have been
elected had
there been girls
running against
us. Maybe we
would have.
1 mean, we
did win dur
ing our junior
year when the
schools became co-ed
again (this happened for
reasons 1 don’t under
stand, just as 1 don’t
understand why they
separated us in the first
place).
The second caveat
has to do with the rule—
there may have been
other rules, but if there
were, 1 don’t re
member them—
under which
the election
was conducted.
The rule, which
1 doubt was
written down
anywhere, but
which was
honored as if
it were in the
United States
Constitution,
stated that whichever
race the winner of the
presidential election
belonged to, the winner
of the vice-presidential
race had to belong to
the other. So after Bobby
Louis won the election
for class president, only
white students were
eligible to become class
Power
vice-president. 1 have
no way of knowing if 1
would have been elected
had the rule not been in
place.
1 said all that to say
that the posts to which
Bobby Louis and 1 were
elected, while they came
with a certain amount of
honor and looked good
on a college application,
carried no real power. 1
don’t remember our ever
being involved in the
making of any decisions
or the setting of any poli
cies.
But there are office
holders whose positions
give them considerable
power. We elect them
to the offices they hold.
We send them to Atlanta
or Washington. They do
their most honorable
work when they do their
best to honor their oaths
to support the Constitu
tion of the United States
and, in the case of state
elected officials, the
Constitution of the State
of Georgia. They also do
honorable work when
they seek to use their
power to work toward
making justice for all a
reality.
They do their most
dishonorable work when
their primary goal in
using their power is to
preserve it.
Mike Ruffin is a Barnesville native
who lives in Yatesville and works in
Macon. His new book, Praying with
Matthew, is available at helwys.com
and at Amazon.
Truck drivers definitely
are ‘essential workers’
KAY S. PEDROTTI
kayspedrotti@gmail.com
Thinking back over
the many mistakes made
by the myriad “handlers”
of the
COV1D-19
pandem
ic, one of
the worst
of those
mistakes
has to be
over
looking long-haul truck
drivers as “essential
workers.” Use your imag
ination here, and decide
whether their execrable
treatment amounted
to gross miscarriage of
justice. 1 think it did.
It’s estimated that
more than half the truck
ers are still untested,
much less vaccinated.
The Interstate Commerce
Commission apparently
did a lousy job of provid
ing testing opportunities;
the current information
is that there were only 13
“authorized” testing sites
for big-rig drivers. The
drivers have been forced
into so little human in
teraction that their cabs
have become prisons.
But they have to stay on
the road - if the wheels
don’t turn, they do not
make any money.
As for resting, that’s
another whole problem.
There are too few places
these big vehicles can
“pull over and take a
nap.” Most truck stops
stay full; drivers are
lucky to find a parking
place and a little real
food now and then. If
they stop on highways,
on-ramps or off-ramps
for an extended time,
they get citations and
black marks on their
company record.
Besides all that,
imagine what would have
happened if the trucks
did not keep up their
jobs - empty grocery-
store shelves, resulting in
price-gouging, food riots,
or worse; no deliveries
of medical supplies, and
more people dying of
just about everything; no
shipments of cars, tires,
tractors, lawn mowers,
heavy equipment, etc.,
not to mention wholesale
commodities like flour,
sugar, corn meal, meat
products, cooking oils,
fruits and vegetables,
milk, coffee ... the list
goes on. We would have
had no bandages, over-
the-counter remedies,
baby or feminine prod
ucts, necessary prescrip
tions, paper products
— whoa! Imagine not just
a few days, but months,
of no-toilet-paper.
Essentials for indus
try and the military, law
enforcement, ambulance
crews, hospitals, dental
clinics, radiologists,
oncology treatments and
much more would have
gone undelivered. While
it may be regarded as low
on the “necessity” lists,
there would have been
no new clothing on store
racks - you would have
to stay with your old
threadbare underwear
and last year’s summer
clothes that don’t fit.
Now to tell you from
whence I have extrapolat
ed all this stuff you need
to hear - my beloved
daughter-in-law has been
a driver for five years.
Since January of 2020,
she has seen her hus
band and three children
in Jonesboro only five
times for no more than
24 days, and her birth
family in New Jersey not
at all. Neither of those
dear families are on her
regular driving routes.
She has been very ill sev
eral times and has had to
seek what little treatment
she could find and afford.
Most recently, her truck
“froze to death” - her
words - in Colorado after
passing through Texas
and Oklahoma. She said
she was stranded five
days “in a cheap motel
with nobody to talk to
but the meth-heads” until
the truck was fixed.
Please pass this along
to someone who could
help - let the White
House and your repre
sentatives, senators and
Georgia legislators know
that the unnecessary
perils of truck drivers
more than qualify them
for prompt and wide
spread vaccination. By
the way, they are mostly
unionized - and that has
not helped either. Re
member: “If you bought
it, a truck brought it.”
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.
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Gordon State's Higgins honored at
2021 First-Year Experience Conference
Peter Higgins, Assis
tant Vice President of
Academic Excellence at
Gordon State College,
was recognized by The
National Resource Center
for First-Year Experi
ence and Students in
Transition at the 41st
annual conference of The
First-Year Experience on
February 12-15, 2021.
With the support
and co-sponsorship of
Cengage, Higgins was
recognized along with
nine other honorees from
across the nation for
their involvement and
impact in high-impact
practices for first-year
student success.
“It’s an unbelievable
honor to be recognized
by an organization that
has had
such a huge
SA influence on
_' A, my career,”
said Higgins,
mrriMQ who was
HIGGINS nominated
for the honor by Dr. C.
Jeffery Knighton, Provost
and Vice President for
Academic Affairs at GSC.
“Although my name is in
the conference program,
this is actually a team
award. It reflects the
fantastic—and difficult—
work the entire Gordon
State College Academic
Excellence team does
supporting our first-year
students’ success, day in
and day out.
Higgins was born
in Boston, Mass., and
earned a master’s degree
in English from Memphis
State University in 1991.
He started at Gordon in
2001 as adjunct English
faculty and moved into
the Director of Student
Success position in 2008
to oversee the College’s
new Student Success
Center.
In 2017, Higgins was
promoted to his current
Assistant Vice President
of Academic Excellence
position, in which he
oversees all academic
support programs;
Gordon State’s First-Year
Momentum Program;
GSC’s Minority Advising
Program; GSC’s Honors
Program; and the High
tower Collaborative
Learning Center and
Library.
Upson Regional Medical Center
achieves accreditation with ACHC
Upson Regional Medi
cal Center proudly an
nounces it has achieved
accreditation through Ac
creditation Commission
for Health Care (ACHC)
for Home Sleep Testing/
Sleep Lab Services.
Upson’s Home Sleep
Testing/ Sleep Lab Ser
vices treat sleep disor
ders such as sleep apnea,
narcolepsy, periodic leg
movements, and insom
nia. Dr. Charles Wells
serves as the medical
director of Upson’s Home
Sleep Testing/Sleep Lab
Services, supervising
and interpreting sleep
disorder studies. Dr.
Wells is board certified
in neurology with sub
specialty certification in
sleep disorders. He also
is a Fellow in the Ameri
can Academy of Sleep
Medicine. “Recognizing
and treating sleep disor
ders in the early stages
may prevent cardiovas
cular and neurological
problems, which can be
very expensive to treat,”
stated Earnestine Zellner,
Respiratory Director.
“By granting accredi
tation, ACHC finds that
Upson Regional Medical
Center has demonstrated
that our Home Sleep
Testing/Sleep Lab Ser
vices operate at a level
of quality, integrity, and
effectiveness consistent
with ACHC standards,”
stated Upson Regional
Medical Center CEO
Jeff Tarrant. “We are so
fortunate to have Home
Sleep Testing/Sleep Lab
Services available for our
patients,” he added.
For more information
on Upson’s Home Sleep
Testing/Sleep Lab ser
vices, please visit urmc.
org, or call 706-647-8111
ext. 1456.
Feb. 28-Mar. 6
10 years ago
The Lady Trojans
finished second at the
annual Trojan Cup soc
cer tournament played
here. Key players for
coach Wayne Calvert
were Jodi Good, Naomi
Rape, Fatima Guzman,
Melanie Cuviello, Jessie
McDaniel, Leann Harris
and Sydney Tenney.
25 years ago
The LCCHS Academic
Team was turning heads
with its performances
at several competitions.
The team consistently
excelled at mathemat
ics. Team members
were Maria Kimberly,
Laura Darden, Tiffany
Moore, Clay Kitchings,
Sarah Tennyson and
David Moreland.
50 years ago
The International
Karting Federation’s
Winter Nationals were
underway at the Lamar
County Go-Kart Speed
way on Hwy. 36 West.
Admission was $1 for
adults and 50 cents for
children. Dicky Wilson
of Barnesville was one
of the class winners at
the event.
100 years ago
Embracing two eras,
W. H. Crowder ran the
following advertisement
in The News-Gazette:
My Repair Shop on
Taylor Street can do
your work promptly and
give you best service.
We make a specialty of
Automobile Repairing
and Horse Shoeing. All
work guaranteed. Price
60 cents per hour. Mr. J.
A.Stone in charge. Let
us do your work.
Zi)t Heraltr #a^tte
barnesville.com
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