Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A — Wednesday, March 17, 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-MARCH 24,2011
William Stanley “Bubba” Redd, who had been convicted of
one of the county’s most heinous murders, died in prison at the
age of 48. He, along with John Calvin Jones, had been found
guilty of the 1987 murder of 23 year-old Rodney Dickey.
Roosevelt Lodge, 62, was named as the Waynesboro Po
lice Department’s assistant Chief. Chief Alfonzo Williams
said that Lodge had more than 30 years of experience in law
enforcement.
25 YEARS AGO MARCH 21,1996
John Giles Day, son of Mr. and Mrs. Doug Day, was given
the Clint Castleberry Award by the Atlanta Touchdown Club.
Day was recognized for his participation in football, basket
ball and baseball and his high academic rank in his class.
A four-way stop sign was to be installed at the intersec
tion of Highways 80 and 305 in Burke County. State Rep.
George DeLoach had requested the Georgia DOT study the
intersection, which had been the site of dozens of accidents
and a number of fatalities in recent years.
State Sen. Charles Walker said that $240,000 in seed money
had been put in the state budget for a Burke County campus
of Augusta Technical Institute.
50 YEARS AGO-MARCH 17,1971
The Waynesboro High School basketball team lost to
Berrian County in the State Championship game in Atlanta,
gamering the team second place in Class AA. The SGAgirls’
basketball team, coached by Joe Felton, was headed to Macon
for the State Class C Tournament.
Rhonda Elaine Johnson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse
Johnson, Jr., was named “Little Miss Burke County” in the
second annual pageant sponsored by Young Life.
Walter Yelton of Waynesboro was named chairman of the
1971 Easter Seals drive by UGA football coach Vince Dooley.
M.K. Tucker was designated as treasurer.
70 YEARS AGO-MARCH 22,1951
Joseph W. Collins resigned from his post as vice-president
of the Bank of Waynesboro to accept a position as comptroller
of the Knox Corporation in Thomson.
The Bank of Waynesboro announced plans to expand its
floor space by about 40 percent by annexing an adjoining
building to be used as a vault and for clerical workers.
King Godbee of Girard was elected president of the
Waynesboro Rotary Club. J.P. McDowell would continue to
serve as treasurer. Directors included Ben Brooks, H. Cliff
Hatcher, Sidney Bames,Bill Smith, J. A. Hutchinson, Jr. and
Roy Chalker.
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Cte €mt Ciiisrn
9
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.
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Citizen, P.O. Box 948, Waynesboro, GA 30830.
Roy F. Chalker Roy F. Chalker Jr.
Publisher Publisher
1945-1970 1970-
Lavonna Johnson, Managing Editor; Jill DuMars, Adver
tising Manager/Printing Assistant; Diana Royal, Feature
Writer/Reporter/Copy Editor; Shellie Smitly, Feature
Writer/Reporter; Marianne Smith, Office Manager;
Martha Chalker, Advertising Sales; Roy F. Chalker, Jr.,
Printing Manager.
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Don Lively
COUNTRY QUIET
I had to have the shirt.
I'll tell you why in a bit.
I was at a Grand Opening
and Ribbon Cutting for a brand
new store in the little downtown
where I work at my real job, the
one that pays the bills, not the
one where I (attempt to) write
clever and witty words. I had
been to the "soft" opening of
the same store exactly one week
before. In my position, I've
learned a lot about downtown
development and the retail
business, and I now know the
difference between a soft open
ing and a Grand Opening.
I hope you're impressed.
Anyway, the new shop is one
of several that have opened dur
ing my tenure, which adds to
an already vibrant and, in the
words of a female friend who
recently visited for the first time
in years, a "cute" place to shop
and dine.
The new shop had a very cool
tee shirt.
On the back was the image of
a cotton patch, a bam and a silo.
Have I ever mentioned that I
grew up in a cotton patch?
It's true, though some years it
was a peanut patch.
Or a com held.
Or, in later years, a soybean
held.
You get the idea.
I grew up on a farm sur
rounded by crops.
So, the tee shirt with the cot
ton patch, bam, and silo was a
"must have" for me.
Now for historical accuracy,
and based on the certainty that
I will be called down by my
kinfolk if I don't set the record
straight, we did not have a silo.
We did have a Butler Bin and
if you were raised on a farm in
the Blessed South, you know
exactly what that is.
If you weren't raised on a
farm in the Blessed South,
well I'm sorry, bless your heart;
Google it.
The hrst eighteen years of
my life were considerably dif
ferent from the next forty. For
all intents and purposes, after I
left for college, I didn't live in
the country again until about
a decade ago when I "came
home" for good. During those
forty years, I never lived any
where that I wasn't two minutes
away from a grocery store. Two
minutes from a gas station. Two
minutes from a variety of eating
establishments.
These days, to get to any of
those places, it takes a bit of
preparation and driving time.
I couldn't be happier at the
"inconvenience".
Many years ago, when I
would spend the night at my
in-town Grandma's house, I was
always fascinated by the vari
ous sounds that go on all night.
Traffic noise, dogs barking
close by, and emer
gency sirens were the
norm.
My Granddaddy
SEE
LIVELY,
5A
Michael N. Searles
Courage is defined as the
ability to do something that
frightens one and strength in
the face of pain or grief. We
are aware of courage on the
battlefield or on Flight 93 when
the bravery of passengers and
crew on United Airlines chose
death to keep terrorists from fly
ing the plane into the Nation’s
Capitol. Some acts of courage
are observable and gain the
recognition of society while
others are only seen by a small
number or even one person.
There also are internal acts of
courage that are never officially
recorded or recorded some time
later. Chadwick Boseman, star
of Marvel’s Black Panther and
many other movies died at the
age of 43 from colon cancer
that he battled in secret for over
four years.
Standing up for what is right
and relinquishing undeserved
privilege is another way of
displaying courage. Courage
and self-sacrifice sometimes are
linked. The Publishers Clear
ing House car pulls up to your
house and people jump out with
balloons and a giant check for
$5,000. You realize that they
are at the wrong address and
you direct them to your neigh
bor’s house. Maybe the mistake
would have been caught before
you started receiving the $5,000
COURAGE
a week, but speaking up be
cause you knew it was not right
would be an act of courage and
self-sacrifice.
Today, in American society,
we are being asked to look past
our personal circumstances in
order to advance the general
good. The wearing of a face-
mask to protect not only your
self but others is an example.
In a changing world, there are
other ways we are challenged to
look past personal benefit. Your
last name begins with the letter
A, and you often are called hrst
to receive some benefit. The
coronavirus vaccine generally
was distributed by age, but if
you were given the opportunity
to receive the vaccine because
your last name began with an
A, would you gladly accept it
or say, “There are others that
should receive the vaccine; I
should not be singled out be
cause of the hrst letter of my
last name.” If this statement
were followed with, “I will not
take the vaccine, even though
I do want it. Please give it to
someone more deserving.”
In most cases, we are not
confronted with these kinds
of choices. However, in some
cases, many of us are. If you are
a white American who receives
benehts that you did not request
at the expense of others who
should either receive or share
them, you have a decision to
make. You can say, “I did not
request these ben-
1 SEE
ehts but they have
helped me and my SEARLES,
family live a better 5A
Diana Royal
Last week, I joined educators
across the county as we lined
up to get our hrst dose of the
COVID-19 vaccination. Let
me tell you this — our public
health workers have that drive-
thru running better than that
chicken restaurant people are
always bragging about. We
pulled up (we being me and
my father who chauffeured me
there) and got checked in with
no problems for my 11:30 ap
pointment. Within hve minutes
I had a needle in my arm and a
red A in the dash signifying I
had allergies and needed to wait
longer to make sure I didn’t
have a reaction. We pulled
around to the designated park
ing area, right next to EMA staff
who were on site for the pos
sibility of reactions and waited
out my 30 minutes. During the
duration, a man came around
just to check on everyone and
ask how we were feeling. When
time was up, another lady came
through asking again how we
all felt and released us one car
at a time.
While I waited, I watched my
friend Gina Richardson scoot
around in her pink vest, work
ing the only way she knows
how — hard! Just before I got
my shot,Ms. Darlene (Beazley)
greeted me with that warm,
JUST SHARING
calming smile I’ve seen during
a few pandemic drive-thrus
since this all began. She’s had
to shove that swab thing in my
nose twice and seeing her just
before the needle hit really did
set my mind at ease.
Steven Murray has always
been the hrst face I see at these
things, and he was out there
again Thursday morning over
seeing operations and getting
folks checked in.
Countless others have been
there, day in and out, work
ing to take care of not just our
county but assisting with other
sites, managing appointments
and answering a multitude of
questions from the public and
the media. I’ve yet to encounter
anyone who hasn’t done so with
grace. We really need to take the
time to thank all of these folks
for the work they’re doing.
No one knows all the behind
the scenes stuff that’s required
of them, the meetings, phone
conferences, turnaround time
for inputting data. Gina has
shared a bit of that with me, and
she still answers my frantic pre
7 a.m. phone calls when I fear
I’m symptomatic or my midday
texts asking, “Well what about
this or why is such and such
like that?”
Thank you Gina. Thank you
everyone at B. Lamar Public
Health Center. Thank you all
healthcare workers.
Your job is so im-
portant and I hate it ROYAL,
took a pandemic for 5A