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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. Letter guidelines The Herald Gazette welcomes letters to the editor. For a letter to be considered for publication, please include the writer’s actual name, address and tele phone number. Limit letters to 250 words or less. Shorter letters are appreciated. All letters are subject to editing. No personal attacks on private citizens, political endorsements or letters that are racially divisive. Send letters to P.O. Box 220, Barnesville, 30204, email it to news@barnesville.com or drop it by 509 Greenwood Street, Barnesville. 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 770.358.NEWS P.0. Box 220 Publishers Staff SUBSCRIBE DEADLINES 509 Greenwood Street Walter Geiger Nolan George $30 per year in Lamar and sur- The deadline for public notices Barnesville, Ga. 30204 Laura Geiger Rachel McDaniel rounding counties; $40 outside is noon Thursdays; news and 770-358-NEWS Tasha Webster the local area. advertising before noon Fridays. barnesville.com General Manager Includes 24/7 access to Early submission is appreciated. E-mail: news@barnesville.com Missy Ware barnesville.com