Newspaper Page Text
Page 4— Wednesday, September 22, 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 - SEPTEMBER 21,2011
Approximately 800 workers came to the area to work on
Plant Vogtle’s planned outage. Each unit required the pro
cedure every 18 months and resulted in an economic boost
for the area.
Burke County code enforcement officers had issued more
than a dozen citations for illegal dumping during the month,
resulting in fines up to $ 1375.00. They were issued to out-of-
county people dumping in Burke County dumpsters as well
as local residents dumping unauthorized items.
25 YEARS AGO -SEPTEMBER26, 1996
Waynesboro native Reuben Chance, IV joined Poteet Fu
neral Homes of Augusta as manager of the company’s South
Augusta location on Peach Orchard Road.
Chip Cochran of Waynesboro was runner-up to Vaughn
Taylor for top honors in the Cadillac Cup series of golf
tournaments in the Augusta area. Joe Jackson, also a local
native, garnered enough points to finish fourth in the series.
Shay Petro, daughter of Waynesboro residents Jim and Jane
Petro, joined the staff of Burke Apothecary as a registered
pharmacist. Other pharmacists in the business were owner
Walt Seeger, Teresa Miller and Melanie Jones.
50 YEARS AGO-SEPTEMBER22, 1971
Georgia Power Company announced that Westinghouse
Corporation would build the nuclear reactors for the com
pany’s proposed $600 million generating plant here.
Burke County commissioners took the first step toward
adopting a county-wide zoning ordinance. County Attorney
Preston B. Lewis, Jr. was authorized to begin work on an
ordinance needed to implement such a plan.
70 YEARS AGO-SEPTEMBER27, 1951
Robert H. Powers was elected president of the Midville
Lions Club following the resignation of R.E. Evans. Club
treasurer J.R. English reported that $150.00 had been raised
for instruments for the school band through the barbecue
supper and square dance sponsored by the club.
The Coca Cola Bottling Company donated a new score-
board for the local sports stadium.
Capt. Carnes, Chemical Officer at Camp Gordon, spoke to
the Waynesboro Rotary Club on the subject: “If an atomic
bomb fell in Waynesboro, what would you do?”
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Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
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BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
Suspended Waynesboro
Mayor Gregory Carswell is in
need of an attorney.
According to documents hied
in Bulloch County Superior
Court, Carswell’s attorney, J.
Grady Blanchard of Evans,
has taken steps to withdraw as
Carswell’s defense attorney.
Carswell is currently awaiting
trial for four felony counts of
theft related to a previous job
he held at a title pawn business
in Statesboro.
On Sept. 7, 2021, Blanchard
hied a motion to withdraw as
representation “on the grounds
that the client has failed to pay
legal fees within a reasonable
amount of time.”
The motion goes on to state
that Carswell, “by his conduct
has made it impossible for
[Blanchard] to represent [Car-
swell] effectively.”
At last week’s Burke County
Commission meeting, com
missioners voted 3-2 to pay
$2,900 to cover the cost of a
tree that the City of Vidette had
cut down in its park because
Vidette claims they couldn’t
afford it themselves.
As usual, it was Commis
sioner Lucious Abrams who
led the movement to pay for
the service. He said something
ridiculous about caring for
people or not caring based on
whether you agreed to help
or not.
Abrams reminds me of my
children who would adopt
every stray cat or dog or give
every dollar we have to home
less people on the sidewalk. I’m
glad I’ve raised empathetic kids
and we try to teach them by ex
ample, but if we paid for every
single cause out there, we’d be
homeless as well.
That’s not an issue that con
cerns Abrams because it’s not
his money he’s pledging, it be
longs to the taxpayers. Abrams
has proven time and again that
he simply does not understand
the way property taxes work
nor does he see the burden his
spending habits place on all
citizens, including those who
struggle to pay their bills, like
property taxes.
Last month, Abrams wanted
the taxpayers to pay for porta-
lets at the Gough Fest. At the
time, he called it an “outcry”
that the group putting on the
festival should have to pay their
own expenses, even though
they were renting vendor spaces
at $25 each. Not to mention,
groups hold events every week
end in this county without ask
ing for the county to help pay
for them.
Admittedly, portalets and
tree removal don’t amount to
much by themselves but when
you add these requests to all the
others, it’s easy to see how our
commissioners are now consid
ering a budget for next year that
is more than $42 million. The
2018 budget from five years
ago was $34.8 million.
Abrams wants the county to
replace Keysville’s city water
system. Gough has started
kicking around the idea of its
own community well. Midville
would like the county to help
with issues in their city. I’m
sure Sardis and Girard could
come up with a list of things
they could use while Abrams is
playing Santa Claus with other
people’s money.
It’s worth noting however,
that Abrams can’t do this with
his lone vote. Commission
Chairwoman Terri Kelley has
become a reliable “yes” vote in
these requests as well.
Somewhat surprising has
been Tommy Nix’s “swing
vote” to give the requests their
final approval. I say this is
surprising because Nix is em
ployed at Plant Vogtle and
seems to understand that lottery
ticket will soon begin its slow
decline. So it’s odd to me that
Nix so willingly goes along
with every request for taxpayer
dollars.
One has to wonder, when the
Vogtle spigot starts to run dry,
will these three be so eager to
vote “yes” when it comes to
time to raise everyone’s taxes
or will they finally have the
political courage to say “no.”
For more Burke County po
litical news, follow Bird Dog
Politics on Facebook.
Don Lively
I often catch myself lament
ing the so-called “advance
ments” that humanity has made
over the past few decades with
respect to technology. For
instance, since the advent of
the Global Positioning System
(GPS), you no longer need to
stop and ask for directions if
you find yourself lost. You.
Not me. I’ve personally never
been lost in my life but I have,
to quote Daniel Boone, “Been
a mite bewildered a few times”.
Whenever one of those bewil
derments occurred, in olden
days, risking losing my man
hood membership for doing so,
I’d stop and ask somebody for
directions.
Not anymore.
Nowadays people who are
asked for directions look at the
asker like he’s daft.
“Don’t you have GPS?”
Well, excuse me.
Incidentally, recently I was
driving to a conference in the
North Georgia mountains when
my phone’s GPS informed me
that it had lost “the signal”.
Apparently, GPS systems are
capable of their own bewilder
ment.
All that being said, there is
one modem innovation that I’m
completely on board with.
Caller ID.
One of the best features of
Caller ID is when you see this:
Potential Spam. Blocked on
(date).
I don’t remember signing up
for that feature but my cell pro
vider must have wised up and
started it themselves. Before
that began to happen, I was get
ting as many as a dozen calls a
day from numbers that had the
same area code and the same
prefix as my own, so, I naturally
assumed that they were actual
personal or business calls. I
answered many of them only to
sometimes be greeted by very
friendly recordings offering to
extend my car’s warranty (My
warranty expired years ago), or
by a robotic sounding voice, ob
viously not familiar with proper
English, advising me that there
was a warrant out for my ar
rest but that this cyborg could
keep me out of the hoosgow if
I’d simply “verify” my social
security number.
Apparently, there are people
who actually fall for that BS.
So, since the “potential
spam” warning has been added,
I simply swipe down to discon-
WHO'S CALLING?
nect it, then block the number.
Unfortunately, spammers and
scammers seem to have an
unlimited number of phone
numbers as I currently have
over 500 blocked.
Then there are the “Sad
Sacks”.
There are people in my life,
and I suspect in yours too, that
are what we called back in the
70s, “downers”. They are never
happy. They are never satisfied.
They are never upbeat. A won
derful thing about Caller ID is,
I can see that it’s one of those
folks calling and I can avoid a
long, depressing soliloquy that
I know would only make me
what to drink heavily or break
out the Willie Nelson albums.
Now don’t misunderstand,
don’t think me heartless. I am
willing to listen to those sad
conversations from folks I love,
but Caller ID allows me to do so
at a time of my choosing.
The Needy.
These are the folks who call
you only, I repeat, only when
they need something. As soon
as I see that it’s one of those
folks, I start a little game with
myself, trying to guess exactly
what it is they will be asking.
More often than not, I’m right.
Caller ID lets me avoid hav
ing to come up with an excuse
why I can’t fulfill the caller’s
request.
But Caller ID can also bring
instant joy.
When I see that one of my
kids is calling, I’m immediately
brightened. All three of my
kids have become successful,
interesting and funny young
adults as has my nearly-perfect
daughter-in-law, so the chats
are always welcome and fun.
The calls also often give me op
portunities to talk to my grand
children, a delight all its own.
Last week I got an email from
an old friend’s email address
but because I hadn’t heard from
her in years, and because the
email looked fishy, I suspected
that it was spam. So, I checked
my cell’s built-in phonebook
and found that I still had her
old number. Not knowing if
she still had the same number,
I texted her reference the suspi
cious email. Ten minutes later
my phone rang and the Caller
ID showed that it was my old
friend. I was delighted and we
caught up after several years of
no contact.
So, in spite of my trepidation
about modern technology, I
openly admit to being a fan of
Caller ID.
Still, if you see me driving or
walking around looking con
fused, I’m not lost, just a mite
bewildered.