Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 — Wednesday, January 27, 2021, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
The Pledge Of Allegiance
1 pledge, allegiance, to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
*it stands, one Nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 2,20ll
Wes Lawson, who had served as assistant pastor at
Rosemont Baptist Church for ten years, was named as pastor
of the church.
Waynesboro officials tapped three finalists for the position
of Waynesboro Police Chief. A total of 34 applications were
submitted for the post left vacant by the retirement of Chief
Karl E. Allen.
Georgia Power Company completed construction of a
$2 million facility in Waynesboro that would facilitate the
coordination of a response in case of an emergency at Plant
Vogtle.
25 YEARS AGO- FEBRUARY l, 1996
Waynesboro Elementary School teacher Anne Wright was
named Burke County Teacher of the Year by the board of
education.
Tucker High School head football coach Mike Fulluer was
named as the new head coach at BCHS. He had a 39-9 record
in his four-year career at Tucker.
Prominent local businessman and civic leader Freddie
McKinney died at the age of 79.
50 YEARS AGO-JANUARY 27,1971
The Glynn and Geneva Saxon family was named Farm
Family of the Year by the Farmers Home Administration.
Waynesboro Police Chief W.W. McTier and Ft. Henry
Brooks served as security guards at the funeral of U.S. Senator
Richard B. Russell in Winder.
An open house and dedication ceremony were planned for
the new Edmund Burke Academy building on Highway 56
just south of Waynesboro.
75 YEARS AGO - JANUARY 31,1946
W.C. Clary, vice-president of the First National Bank of
Waynesboro, was reappointed to the State Board of Education
representing the First Congressional District. The appointment
was made by Gov. Ellis Arnall.
Carl Ivey and Howard Reid announced the opening of a
Southern Auto Associate Store at 715 Fiberty Street.
Ben F. Wardlow, Farm Service Administrator for Burke
County, cited the farm of John F. Brigham as an outstanding
example of the farm development work done under the FSA
Farm Ownership program.
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BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
Many, many years ago, I at
tended a meeting of the Burke
County Republican Party at
Mobley Barn just south of
Waynesboro.
I was there as a reporter for
The True Citizen and the head
line speaker was 12th Congres
sional District Representative
Max Burns.
All these years later, I still
remember something Burns
said to the group: “There is no
policy without politics.”
It’s probably the most hon
est statement I’ve ever heard
from the mouth of a politician.
Burns was shooting those of us
gathered there about as straight
as he could: policy, law, the
business of governing, can’t get
done without the Fll-scratch-
your-back-if-you’ll-scratch-
mine business of politics.
You see, politicians always
want something. They might
not want it today, but they’ll
want it eventually and that’s the
grease that keeps the wheels of
government turning from the
Burke County courthouse to
the gold dome in Atlanta, all
the way to Washington D.C.
herself.
It’s only fitting then, that last
week I found myself, recently
returned to writing, in a room
with Burns, the newly elected
state Senator for Burke County.
The policy this time around was
the proposed breakup of the Au
gusta Judicial Circuit, currently
comprised of Burke, Richmond
and Columbia counties.
The politics, however, are
about as layered and murky as
they could get.
I’ve written a news story in
this week’s paper that deals
with the facts of this issue but
the gist of it is this: after threat
ening to pack their bags and go
for a couple of years now, Co
lumbia County has decided they
want out of the Augusta Judicial
Circuit for good. They didn’t
just threaten divorce, to borrow
someone else’s description;
however, they went straight to
the lawyer’s office and hied the
papers to make it official.
Bums and six other Repub
lican senators have sponsored
Don Lively
It’s a great day to be alive.
It truly is, in spite of the
pandemic and in spite of an
unaccomplished career politi
cian now being the president,
it's still great to be alive.
It’s also a wonder that I am.
I’ve told you before about all
of the very close brushes that
I’ve had with death, including
one time that a fellow police
officer was assigned to start
planning my funeral.
Obviously, I didn’t succumb
then or from any of the other
near misses.
Booking back on my child
hood, frankly, it’s a wonder that
any of my brothers or cousins,
who were my playmates as a
child and running-the-roads
cronies as I got older, have lived
as long as we have.
For this week's screed I will
assign names to my loosely
based band of buddies.
Treetop daredevils.
We had free ran of thousands
of acres of woods. Fong before
much of the timber was cleared
for farmland there were still
places where the pines and
oaks seemed to reach the sky.
Of course, we had to find the
tallest trees that we could to
climb limb over limb until we
reached the top, high above
the forest floor. Sometimes
there would be as many as
five of us way up high where
the branches were the smallest
and the weakest. And the most
flexible. Being flexible allowed
us to sway back and forth like
we were in the crow's nest of
some old pirate ship. Somehow,
through many climbs, no limbs
ever broke and none of us went
plummeting to the ground.
It's a wonder.
Swamp explorers.
Sometimes, getting to those
stands of old growth trees
required us to cross swamps.
Well, required might not be
the right word. We could have
gone around the swamps but
being adventurous sons of
the Blessed South, traversing
straight through the muddy
murk seemed more audacious,
so, we crossed. Those swamps
were home to about a zillion
different poisonous snakes and
occasionally we'd spot a gator,
but we weren't deterred. Often
Senate Bill 9, which would
remove Columbia from the
judicial circuit and create for
them a standalone court sys
tem of their own. Richmond
and Burke would remain, their
shared funding dictated by the
same legislation.
Columbia County is a Repub
lican stronghold in the state and
with the GOP controlling both
sides of the Georgia Fegisla-
ture, it’s reasonable to assume
this bill has few hurdles in its
way to passage.
Burns found himself in a
no-win situation politically. He
represents folks in Burke,Rich
mond and Columbia counties.
Regardless of where he came
down on this issue, he was go
ing to disappoint some of his
voting constituency.
That being said, Burns cer
tainly could have given Burke
County officials a heads up the
legislation was on its way. In
last week’s meeting, he told
commissioners he’d help them
in any way he could. No one
bothered to ask if he was will
ing to vote against his own
legislation.
IT'S A WONDER
we would find a spot where the
mud was so deep that we could
sink up to our chests and, natu
rally, we called it quicksand.
None of us ever got bitten by
a moccasin or drowned in the
primordial muck.
It’s a wonder.
Fire leapers.
It’s always been a well estab
lished farming practice to oc
casionally bum off fields before
they are harrowed and plowed
and prepared for planting. I es
pecially enjoyed that chore. We
would set the fields on fire up
wind so that the breezes would
quickly spread the fire across
the dry weeds and crop stubble.
Our little group of daredevils
thought it was great fun to get
ahead of the flames and then
jump over them as they came
toward us. Our Mamas were
never happy when we came
home stinking to high Heaven
but none of us ever got more
than a few hairs singed.
It’s a wonder.
Barnyard cowboys.
Cows and pigs look so docile
when they're lounging around
their domiciles eating or wal
lowing. But, most cows and
pigs don't like, and aren't ac
customed to,being ridden. Such
The same could be said for
Burke’s County attorney Barry
Fleming, a long-time and influ
ential state Representative who
represents ... you guessed it,
Columbia County.
The taxpayers of Burke
County literally pay Fleming
to look out for our interests.
I can assure you he was well
aware of what was going on be
fore this bill was hied, proving
once again that the only thing
man likes more than money is
power.
Then there’s the Burke Coun
ty Commissioners, who are
pretty much powerless to affect
the outcome of any of this but
who will be forced to sign the
checks at some point.
The timing of this situation
is forcing them to consider op
tions without all the pertinent
information necessary to make
an informed decision.
All while being told by our
“friends” in the Fegislature that
they’re looking out for us.
For more Burke County po
litical news, follow Bird Dog
Politics on Facebook,
mundane details as an animal's
displeasure didn't dissuade us
in the least from trying to ride
them. We didn't have horses so
cows and pigs were our only
mode of riding stock. Most of
the time we weren't very suc
cessful. The animals quickly
learned that to get us off their
backs all they had to do was run
into the nearest nasty mudhole
and lay down. Our Mamas
weren't pleased with those
odors any more than they were
the smell of scorched earth but
none of us ever broke any bones
or got pinned under a half-ton
behemoth.
It's a wonder
Gully Tarzans.
Our family pond sits at the
bottom of a depression in the
earth and is bordered on one
side by deep gullies. The trees
along the rim of the gullies are
thick with vines as big around
as a hoe handle. Naturally, we
wanted to swing on those vines
like we saw Tarzan do on TV
on Saturday mornings. Some
of those vines rode us across
gullies as much as fifty feet
deep. But some of those vines
broke halfway across the gully
continued on page 6