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Page 4A - Pike County Journal Reporter - Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Opinions
Ruffin’s Renderings: Power
F rom 1972-1975,
Bobby Louis Bar
kley and 1 com
prised 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-pres
ident 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. I
assume Bobby Louis was
elected senior class presi
dent before he headed off
to Georgia Tech. 1 don’t
know who was elected
vice-president.
Now everything 1 said
in that first paragraph
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 presi
dent and vice-
president only
of our classes at
Forsyth Road. 1
have no way of
knowing if we’d
have been elect
ed had there
been girls run
ning against us. Maybe we
would have. I mean, we
did win during our junior
year when the schools
became co-ed again (this
happened for reasons 1
don’t understand, 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 remem
ber them—un
der which the
election was
conducted. The
rule, which 1
doubt was writ
ten down anywhere, but
which was honored as if it
were in the United States
Constitution, stated that
whichever race the win
ner of the presidential
election belonged to, the
winner of the vice-presi
dential race had to belong
to the other. So after
Bobby Louis won the elec
tion for class president,
only white students were
eligible to become class
vice-president. 1 have no
way of knowing if I 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 mak
ing of any decisions or the
setting of any policies.
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.
Truck drivers definitely ‘essential workers’
LETTERS T
THE EDIT
A poem titled: Hope
February has been wearing her worn grey coat
with the missing button, but hidden underneath is
a spring dress in blues and yellows.
Don’t lose heart, weary world. Hope will come,
casting flowers at our very feet.
NANCY J. STAUFFER
Pike County Journal Reporter's
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KAY S. PEDROTTI
kayspedrotti@gmail.com
Thinking back over
the many mistakes made
by the myriad “handlers”
of the COV1D-19 pan
demic, one of the worst
of those mistakes has to
be overlooking long-haul
truck drivers as “essential
workers.” Use your imagi
nation here, and decide
whether their execrable
treatment amounted to
gross miscarriage of jus
tice. 1 think it did.
It’s estimated that more
than half the truckers are
still untested, much less
vaccinated. The Interstate
Commerce Commission
apparently did a lousy
job of providing 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 interaction 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 ship
ments of cars, tires, trac
tors, lawn mowers, heavy
equipment, etc., not to
mention wholesale com
modities 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 rem
edies, baby or feminine
products, necessary pre
scriptions, paper
products — whoa!
Imagine not just
a few days, but
months, of no-
toilet-paper.
Essentials for
industry and
the military, law
enforcement, am
bulance crews, hospitals,
dental clinics, radiolo
gists, 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 husband and
three children in Jones
boro 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 several 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 representatives,
senators and Georgia
legislators know that the
unnecessary perils of
truck drivers more than
qualify them for prompt
and widespread vaccina
tion. By the way, they are
mostly unionized - and
that has not helped either.
Remember: “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.
Red wave is coming to displace Democratic leaders in 2022
My Forgotten Ameri
cans, a dark cloud is
hovering over DC and the
forecast is severe thun
derstorms for the next
four years. The Democrat
ic Party used the corona-
virus pandemic as a rea
son for unsolicited mail-in
ballots that changed the
variables of a fair and
free election in 2020. For
with the assistance of U.S.
billionaire oligarchs and
a liberally progressive
biased media, all dissent
was illegally censored
and suppressed. And now
anyone who questions
the irregularities and
inconsistencies that are
highly improbable and
mathematically incon
ceivable are mischarac-
terized as conspiracy
theorists, insurrection
ists, or domestic terror
ists. This criminal collu
sion between American
oligarchs, the media, and
the Democratic Party
goes far beyond an abuse
of power; and when we
pull back the curtain and
find our nation’s most
unscrupulous nemesis
China; treason is actually
the appropriate word for
their misdeeds.
Nonetheless, Demo
cratic Senator Joe Man-
chin of West Virginia is
a liar just like President
Joe Biden and all those
who bought in on the
media’s farce that these
two would govern mod
erately were betrayed.
There are no moderate
Democrats left today and
the RINO’s are a cancer
in the Republican Party
for they too serve Wall
Street and China. And
that is why we must
challenge every Demo
crat and every current
Republican in every local,
state, and federal election
with New Republicans.
Although, the first step is
to conduct an indepen
dent nonpartisan audit
of every district in every
state especially the six
states Georgia, Arizona,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,
Michigan, and Nevada
that decided the Electoral
College outcome. And
if we find nefarious acts
which many believe hap
pened, all those involved
must be prosecuted to
the full extent of the law.
More importantly, if the
Georgia results which I
suspect may indicate or
prove the Democrats did
not win, we must recall
Jon Ossoff and Raphael
Warnock. For the more
the media and Democrats
try to reject or oppose
an impartial audit of the
2020 election, the more
guilty they appear to be,
for every fair minded
person would welcome
transparency in assuring
our election integrity.
In 2022, a Red Wave is
coming and if Joe Biden
continues to govern
as an autocrat, he and
Kamala Harris must be
impeached. Although, we
first must send all the es
tablishment Republicans
who refuse to expand the
base and listen to new
ideas home, for the cur
rent GOP is antiquated
and out of touch. Realisti
cally, the only 3 states the
Democrats have a mo
nopoly on is California,
New York, and Illinois;
but many in these states
are beginning to awaken
from their comas to the
anti-law and order, cor
rupt leadership of teach
er and labor unions, inept
bureaucrats and elected
officials, dishonest media,
racial and gender divi
siveness, and unaccount
able oligarchs that are
undermining their right
to pursue happiness and
prosperity. Here is a fact,
more African-American
children (55) were killed
in Chicago in 2020 than
African-American fa
talities during police
incidents over the last
5 years. Therefore, why
does the media continue
to vilify our police while
ignoring the violence in
corrupt Democrat run cit
ies? Maybe this constant
distortion and mislead
ing sensationalism is the
reason a large majority
of Americans don’t trust
them. So keep lying for
the Democrats, censor
ing and defaming the
opposition, promoting
the Chinese Communist
Party’s propaganda, and
protecting the treason
ous oligarchs for this will
exponentially increase
our wins across America
as the people rise up.
For 1 will say it again;
“You’ll will soon reap, all
that you’ll have sewn,”
because justice demands
it and GOD commands it.
Rise up America!
JAMES NOBLES
Pike County
Journal
Reporter
www.pikecountygeorgia.com
P.O. Box 789
16026 Barnesville St.
Zebulon, Ga. 30295
770.567.3446
The Pike County Journal
Reporter is the official
organ of Pike County, the
cities of Zebulon, Molena,
Meansville, Williamson
and Concord. It is
published weekly by
Hometown Newspapers
Inc. Second class
postage is paid at the
Zebulon, Ga Post Office.
Publishers; Walter and
Laura Geiger; staff:
Jennifer Taylor,
Brenda Sanchez and
Rachel McDaniel.
AT PIKE
BY DWAIN W. PENN
100 YEARS AGO
March 4,1921: The Zebulon High School Tor
nado basketball team beat the R.E. Lee Hurricane on
Thursday to clinch the TCAA championship, in the
fastest hardest fought and closest game of the sea
son. Lee led by three at the end of the third quarter,
but Zebulon eked out a one point win, 13 to 12.
75 YEARS AGO
March 7,1946: The Pike County Teachers As
sociation announced a meeting for March 8 at the
Concord high school. Claude Purcell, of the Georgia
department of education, would address enforce
ment of the school compulsory attendance law.
50 YEARS AGO
March 4, 1971: Pike County’s official population
in the 1970 census was up 2.5% to 7, 316 compared
to 7,138 in 1960. Pike census counted 4,357 whites
(59.6%), 2,956 blacks and 3 persons of other races;
1960 white population was 55.2%.
25 YEARS AGO
March 6, 1996: On the cusp of the last week of
winter, local gas companies declared that winter
1996 was the coldest in 25 years. The price of pro
pane fluctuated, not entirely due to temperatures,
but “demand was sometimes greater than supply.”