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Page 4A — Wednesday, August 17, 2016 The True Citizen
OPINIONS
The Pledge U1 Allegiance
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LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-AUGUST 23,2006
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns approved Burke
County along with 154 other counties for disaster aid as the
result of drought conditions.
The City of Waynesboro approved a request by FIAMM and
applied for an Employee Incentive Program grant to help fund
the company’s expansion and construction of a railroad spur.
Austen Chambers of Waynesboro graduated from the U.S.
Marine Corps basic training at Parris Island.
25 YEARS AGO-AUGUST 22,1991
Representatives from Sunbeam-Oster, the new owner of
the former Keller Aluminum Furniture plant here, said that
employees should be returning to work by early October.
Governor Zell Miller’s proposed budget cuts could result
in the closing of the local Extension Service office, according
to local Extension personnel. The service faced a cut of up to
28 percent of its budget.
McDonald Construction Company of Vidalia was selected
to build the new $7.5 million Burke County Middle School.
Sardis Mayor James Bargeron resigned, citing health issues.
50 YEARS AGO-AUGUST 17,1966
Members of the local Explorer Scouts attending the Na
tional Explorer Conference in Indiana were: Lonnie McNor-
rill, Alan Gelderman, Jimmy Griffith, Mike Herrington and
Stan Jenkins.
Following a period of remodeling, the Grand Theatre was
scheduled to re-open. Admission prices were set at 75c for
adults and 35c for children.
A new educational television station, WCES-TV, channel
20, was completed near Wrens and would serve the local area.
75 YEARS AGO-AUGUST 21,1941
J.B. Brinson of Munnerlyn reported that he had successfully
grown a rice crop on his land.
The Civil Aeronautics Commission painted a large sign on
top of the Burke County Packing Corporation identifying the
city as Waynesboro, Ga.
Local high school graduates Lillian Neely, Betty Jones, Mae
Humphrey, Charles Gray Green and John T. Palmer, spoke to
the Waynesboro Rotary Club about their plans for the future.
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Tv\jl Election year rflov fe femam
Don Lively
I i
What a mess.
What a nasty, stinking mess.
You know what I'm talking
about if you're paying attention.
There are currently some
where north of 320 million resi
dents of these good old United
States of America.
Three hundred and twenty
million Americans of all stripes
and colors, all shapes and sizes,
all religions and ethnicities, all
economic classes.
And, yet, when you go in No
vember to cast your vote for the
most powerful office on the face
of the planet, no matter your
political bent, you'll be voting
for the most flawed, unethical,
dishonest, egotistical and just
plain unlikable humans that you
could possibly imagine.
And, please, save your calls
and emails about a third party
candidate.
He has as much chance of
becoming the next president
as I do of being crowned Miss
Ukraine.
Spare me the pious lecture
about voting your conscience.
I wouldn't go to a racetrack
and bet on a horse that had
pulled up lame before the race
even started just because I like
MISS
the horse.
I'd pick the next best horse,
one that actually has a shot at
winning, and bet, come what
may.
But, that's just me.
The fact is, we are a nation
divided. You don't need me to
tell you. Your head's not buried
in the sand. We could debate
all day long and never agree on
whose fault the divide is, which
political parties caused it.
We just have to acknowledge
that it exists and ask ourselves,
" Now what do we do?"
Frankly, I haven't a clue.
How do we get back to a time
of more civility and less agita
tion and intimidation? More
dialogue and discourse and less
discord and disharmony?
Again, no clue.
But, I do have a short term
solution for a brief respite from
the 24/7 cycle of depressing
and discouraging garbage that
modern day "journalists", used
sarcastically, want we, the great
unwashed, to believe is hard
news.
I'll be taking a break this
week, and I hope you'll join me.
What can make us forget it
all for a couple of hours you
might ask.
Well, perhaps Hoke and Daisy
can.
Driving Miss Daisy is coming
to town.
DAISY
One aspect of my real job,
the one that pays the mortgage,
not my once-a-week scribbling,
is that I get to plan events for
my beloved hometown. And
other times I get to partner with
other groups to bring wonderful
cultural experiences to our area.
This week is one of those
times.
Driving Miss Daisy was a
wonderfully uplifting play be
fore it was adapted to the big
screen in 1989. The play tells
the story of two people who,
at the beginning of their rela
tionship, seem to have nearly
nothing in common and are
as opposite as night and day.
Simply because of the two main
protagonists having rarely dealt
with the quirks and idiosyncra
sies of the other, there is, at the
outset, a natural wariness that
goes both ways. The elderly,
Jewish woman, no longer able
to drive herself, is forced to
take on a chauffeur, a slightly
younger, good-humored, black
gentleman. The story begins in
1948 and spans thirty-two years
during which the two. Miss
Daisy and Hoke, not only learn
to like and accept each other but
also become very good friends.
Friends and kin, there are les
sons to be learned from Driving
Miss Daisy.
I'm not naive enough to be
lieve that we, as a nation, can
simply snap our collective fin
gers and go back to a time when
half of us didn't hate the other
half, as it seems we do today.
If it can happen at all, it's go
ing to take generations to undo
the damage that we've done to
ourselves by electing the lead
ers that we have, on both sides
of the aisle.
So, I'm not asking for mira
cles, though I am friends with
the only One who can provide
them.
I'll leave that to Him at a time
of His choosing.
For me, this week. I'm going
to kick back for a couple of
hours and watch as a crotch
ety, wealthy Jewish lady, and
a working class black man
overcome their differences and
become friends.
Come join me.
Maybe we'll learn something.
What do we have to lose?
(The Averitt Center produc
tion of Driving Miss Daisy will
begin at 7PM on Thursday, Au
gust 18th, at the Burke County
Office Park. Tickets are $15 ad
vance, $20 at the door. Get your
tickets from any Waynesboro-
Burke Concert Series board
member, at the Burke County
Library, at First National Bank,
or contact Don Lively.)
Michael N. Searles
UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
The idea of the government
giving every adult $1,000 a
month seems like a radical and
crazy idea. Yet, there are indi
viduals and organizations that
are advocating this approach
as a way to promote national
economic health. They argue
that the money would help fi
nancially stabilize the country
and boost a lackluster economy.
They argue that manufacturing
jobs and many of the jobs that
people hold today will disappear
as automation and globalization
increase dramatically. In the
past, it took several electrical
power workers to change a
street light. Now one man in a
truck with a lift can drive to the
electrical pole, get inside the lift
and maneuver up and replace the
bulb. What will happen as hard
working people no longer have
any work to do? It has been
estimated that within the next
twenty years as many as one-
half of our current jobs will be
gone. However, we do not have
to look to the future; it is occur
ring now. Millions of Americans
cannot find work or work at
jobs that do not allow them to
pay their bills. Universal Basic
Income (UBI) as a government-
insured guarantee would provide
an income floor that no citizen's
income would fall below. All
citizens would receive the UBI
without a means test or work
requirement. While Americans
hold a deep-seated bias against
people getting something for
nothing, we either must accept a
new reality or accept the social
disruption of massive unemploy
ment and privation.
There are several major issues
that have been raised about a
Universal Basic Income. How
would we pay for it? Would
people simply stop working
when they received their $1,000
a month? Why should rich
people be given money they do
not need? These are all legiti
mate questions that have been
addressed by the defenders of
UBI. The federal government
has many programs that pro
vide assistance that could be
eliminated or greatly reduced
if a UBI was instituted. There
have been various proposals to
acquire the money needed to
pay the added expense of the
program. A land value tax, a flat
tax of 40%, a 10% value added
tax and raising the current 39%
tax rate of the top income earn
ers. As to the second question,
would people stop working,
we have a model. In Alaska
since 1977, the Permanent Fund
Dividend (PFD) financed by oil
revenues has provided a yearly
dividend to all Alaskan men,
women, and children living in
the state. The income received
neither has made Alaska citizens
less responsible nor less hard
working. The PFD has over
whelming support among all
Alaskans both conservative and
liberal. While the well-to-do
do not need the money, there is
more acceptance and support for
programs that benefit everyone.
It has been said that policies
designed for the poor are poor
policies and eventually, those
programs are cut or eliminated.
The idea of a UBI may seem like
something cooked up by leftist
radicals. However, the idea of
a Guaranteed Annual Income
was promoted as far back as
the 1970s by President Richard
Nixon. Recently, Charles Mur
ray, the W. H. Brady Scholar at
the American Enterprise Insti
tute and a Wall Street Journal
contributor wrote the follow
ing: “When people learn that I
want to replace the welfare state
with a universal basic income,
or UBI, the response I almost
always get goes something like
this: “But people will just use
it to live off the rest of us!”
"People will waste their lives!”
Or, as they would have put it
in a bygone age, a guaranteed
income will foster idleness and
vice. I see it differently. I think
that a UBI is our only hope to
deal with a coming labor market
unlike any in human history and
that it represents our best hope
to revitalize American civil so
ciety.” Where Universal Basic
Income has been instituted,
people do not live exclusively
on the UBI. They work or go
into business in order to increase
their income and make their
lives better. While it’s hard to
embrace change, it’s easy to
think too highly of ourselves and
too little of others.