Newspaper Page Text
Page 4—Wednesday, October 9, 2013 TheTrue Citizen
■*■■*'■*■* ■* •A * * * *
The Pledge Of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
stands, one Nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
■* * * ■* * * *■
LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-OCTOBER 8,2003
Laura Stone and Tedrick Kelly earned spots on the pres
tigious Georgia 4-H traveling musical company. Clovers &
Company. Stone was a junior at EB A and Kelly a senior at
BCHS.
A referendum on liquor by the drink would be on the
ballot for Waynesboro voters when they went to the polls
on November 4.
Because of failing health, veteran Burke County Com
missioner Herman Lodge announced he would resign from
the panel effective November 30, 2003. He had served in
the post for 22 years.
25 YEARS AGO-OCTOBER 12,1988
The Burke County EMA opened fire stations in Keysville
and Gough, bringing to four the number of operational ru
ral fire stations. Burke County Commissioners decided to
seek a grant for the construction of a station in Alexander.
Tickets were being sold here for a speech to be given in
Evans by Lt. Col. (Ret.) Oliver North. He was to speak on
Commitment, Trust and Family.
Joanne Dixon was installed as recording secretary of the
Georgia Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Hubert Roberts, Jr. was installed as president of the
Waynesboro Optimist Club.
50 YEARS AGO-OCTOBER 9,1963
An exhibit on “Nuclear Energy in Space” was scheduled
to be displayed at the Burke County Exchange Club Fair,
scheduled to open on October 21.
Waynesboro City Councilman Charlie Economos said he
would be a candidate for mayor in the December city elec
tion. C.L. Yeomans and E.F. Herrington announced their
candidacy for city council.
The Waynesboro Junior Chamber of Commerce was des
ignated to be the official sponsor of the STAR (Student
Teacher Achievement Recognition) program for the Burke
County School System.
75 YEARS AGO-OCTOBER 6,1938
Burke County farmers were scheduled to receive over
$127,000 in cotton price adjustment payments, according
to County Agent Joel Chappell.
In the first football game either team had ever played at
night, Waynesboro defeated Swainsboro 13-0. The game
was played at Swainsboro’s newly lighted field.
J.N. Bray Construction Company was the low bidder for
the contract to build the new county jail. The bid was
$34,197 and construction was expected to begin in a few
days.
We welcome your letters
Letters to the editor of The True Citizen are welcomed and
encouraged. These are pages of opinion, yours and ours.
Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s
readers. The True Citizen reserves the right to edit any and all
portions of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published.
Letters must include the signature, address and phone num
ber of the writer to allow our staff to authenticate its origin.
Letters should be limited to 400 words and should be type
written and double-spaced or neatly printed by hand. Dead
line for letters to the editor is Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Email Letters to the Editor to: traecitizennews@live.com
Cm Cifem
P.O. Box 948 • 629 Shadrack Street
Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Telephone: (706) 554-2111 • Fax: (706) 526-4779
Published every Wednesday by The True Citizen, Inc.
Periodical Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Georgia (USPS
642-300)
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The True
Citizen, P.O. Box 948, Waynesboro, GA 30830.
Roy F. Chalker
1915-1994
Roy F. Chalker Jr. Elizabeth Billips
Editor & Publisher Associate Editor
Anne Marie Kyzer, Managing Editor; Jill DuMars,
Graphic Designer; Marianne Smith, Business Manager;
Martha Chalker, Advertising Sales; Phil Chalker, Print
ing Manager; Ruby Barefield, Printing Associate
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
$1 per single copy at locations all over Burke County.
By mail: In Burke County, 6 months, $18.90, 1 year,
$29.10, 2 years, $49.20; outside Burke County, 6
months, $25.30, 1 year, $44.30; outside of Georgia, 6
months, $31.30, 1 year, $55. Student rate: 9 months in
state: $25., outside of Georgia, $30; One-year online
subscription, $20. All prices include state and local tax.
Don Lively
PIGSKIN PAST, PIGSKIN PRESENT
The more things change, the
more they stay the same.
You’ve
heard that.
Have
you heard
this?
The
more
things
change,
the more
they keep
changing.
You haven’t heard that cause
I just thunk it up.
But it’s true and getting truer.
Don’t believe me?
When’s the last time you
made a telephone call from a
landline, what we used to call
our “ home phone?" It hasn’t
been all that long ago when
many folks around these parts
didn’t even have phones in their
homes. These days ninety-five
percent of us walk around with
a phone in our pockets or purses
and would feel naked if we left
home without it. And if you
happen to be one of the five
percent who don’t have one,
not to worry, the government
will give you one.
Free.
With no strings attached.
Right.
When’s the last time you
wrote a letter, licked a stamp,
put the letter in the mailbox and
raised the little tin flag to let the
mailman know you’d left him
a delivery?
We no longer write letters, we
word process them. We no
longer lick stamps, we peel or
print or download postage. And
we no longer mail correspon
dence, we fax or email.
Then there’s football.
One thing that hasn’t changed
is the near worshipful attitude
we Southerners exhibit toward
our sweaty gridiron heroes who
entertain us on Friday nights
and Saturday and Sunday after
noons.
And Sunday nights.
Monday nights.
Thursday nights.
Even Tuesdays and Wednes
days on occasion.
See, that’s a change right
there.
Unlike “ the old days "when
we watched football on the
weekends, these days you can
catch a game almost every night
of the week during the fall and
the nights that there are no live
games you can watch reruns,
though why anybody would
want to is beyond me. If you
watched it live and your team
won, wouldn’t it be anticlimac-
tic to watch it again? And if
your team lost? Are you nuts?
Or just masochistic?
The point is, you can watch
football 24/7 these days if
you’re so inclined and so ad
dicted that, in a pinch, you’d
even watch Montana A&M play
Delaware Tech at 2 a.m., all
alone, just you and the Bud
Lights.
Predicting the games has
changed too.
Remember Leonard's Losers?
01’ Leonard made it easy. He
just picked the team he expected
to not be the winner. Other
prognosticators just picked the
winners. No point spreads. Just
who would win and who would
lose.
Nowadays it’s a scientific pro
cess by which millions of gam
blers lose, and thousands of
bookies win, billions of dollars.
Is your team’s best player out
with an injury? Sick with the
flu? Mad at the world and re
fusing to play? In jail?
If so, the betting line changes
and your team is determined less
likely to win or at least likely
to win by fewer points.
The game itself has certainly
changed.
Players are bigger and stron
ger and faster and more athletic.
And better dancers.
Yes, dancing appears to be
required if you play a position
where you might end up in the
end zone. Gone forever are the
classy days when a scorer tossed
the ball to the referee and headed
to his sideline. On today’s field
scoring one little touchdown is
reason to strut and swagger for
as long as you can without get
ting flagged for excessive cel
ebration, i.e., showboating.
Overzealous defensive divas
are offensive too.
To see some of today’s de
fenders prance around after
sacking the quarterback, you’d
think they’d just liberated Eu
rope from the Nazis rather than
made one tackle.
I suspect that if Vince
Lombardi had caught any of his
players sashaying after scoring,
after all scoring is how they earn
their paycheck, he’d have had
the whole team running laps till
they dropped from exhaustion.
I’m with you, Coach.
I long for the old game.
When it was about the
scoreboard, not the smack talk.
When the stars gave their au
tographs away instead of sell
ing them.
When professional players
making a few thousand dollars
a year cinched up those busted
ribs and broken arms and kept
playing unlike many of today’s
millionaire prima donnas who
miss six weeks with a sprained
pinkie.
Just a few reasons why I still
love college football and am
ambivalent toward the pros.
Cheer the collegians, tolerate
the NFLers.
Can’t wait till Saturday!
Sunday? Monday night?
Thursday night?
Yawn.
Wake me when it’s over.
Or when it’s 1966 again.
Don Lively is a freelance
writer and author ofHowlin ’ At
The Dixie Moon. He lives in
Shell Bluff. Email Don at
Livelycolo@aol.com and visit
www.DonLively.com.
Jim Shumard
IF YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE ABOUT SOMEONE, YOU HAD BETTER SEARCH HARDER.
I have been at Clergy Con
ference for the last two days.
Rob Voyle,
the author
of Appre
ciative In
quiry, has
been the
speaker.
He has re
minded us
of the im
portance
of words and action. Our
words will influence if not
dictate our action. They can
be positive and they can be
negative.
Rob’s philosophy includes
“talking positive.” Most of us
may have been taught: “If you
can’t say anything good about
someone don’t say anything
at all." [I wonder how quiet
our politicians and even many
church members would be if
we all stuck to that principal.]
Being quiet however is not
the answer. Be positive in
language and action. "Don’t
focus on what is wrong, but
focus on what is right, on what
makes you happy, on what
gives you joy, on what ener
gizes you.
If we are attempting to deal
with problems, then we need
to quit dealing with them and
start dealing with solutions
instead. If we have been liv
ing with pain or resentment
from the past, then reimagine
our future with the pain and
resentment left in the past
where it happened. Nelson
Mandela said that holding on
to resentment from the past is
like personally taking small
amounts of poison into your
body in order to kill your en
emy. Holding onto and incu
bating resentments and fears
will only make you a resent
ful and fearful person.
He advises that when work
ing together on something in
your community or your
church or organization, re
member what feels good to
you about that organization,
what gives you happiness and
then imagine together what
you can do to get more of that
good stuff.
You will find that your brain
is freed up to be more cre
ative, intuitive and produc
tive. Remember all the great
things about your spouse or
partner when you get into a
spat. Trust me, the spat will
turn into something much bet
ter if you do.
This is more than the
power of positive thinking
that Norman Vincent Peale
spoke of though his principals
are similar. It is more about
having a dream for the future,
where the lion and the lamb
lie down together, where
swords are beat into plow
shares and where Democrats
and Republicans sing in har
mony as they create a new
song.
For what it’s worth.
Dr. Jim+
“For now we see through a
glass darkly; but then face to
face.” I Corinthians 13.12
KJV.
Rev. Shumard is rector of
St. Michael’s Episcopal
Church in Waynesboro. You
may contact him at
ishumie@aol.com or at
stmichaelswaynesboro.org.