Newspaper Page Text
Page A— Wednesday, November 10, 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-NOVEMBER 9,20ll
The Burke County Bears claimed the Region 3-AAA title
for the second straight year by defeating Thomson 31-8.
The team had gone 16-0 against region opponents over the
past two years.
Pauline Jenkins and George DeLoach faced each other in
a runoff for Mayor of Waynesboro. Jenkins polled 44.1 per
cent against DeLoach’s 41.8 percent in the Dec. 8 election.
Cannon McClain, a senior at Burke County High School,
was named best actor in the Region 3-AAA One Act Play
competition held at Cross Creek High School.
25 YEARS AGO-NOVEMBER 10,1996
A recount of absentee ballots in the District 3 election
for Burke County Commissioner returned Ellis Godbee to
the seat by 33 votes. Newcomer Wayne Crockett had been
declared the winner after the initial vote count Nov. 5
Sunbeam Corp., which operated the Sunbeam outdoor
furniture plant in Waynesboro, announced it was cutting
about 6,000 jobs and closing all but eight of its plants. The
fate of the local operation was not known.
Rhea Dolin, who along with her husband, Sam, was a
pioneer in the clothing business in Waynesboro, died at the
age of 94 in New York City.
50 YEARS AGO-NOVEMBER 10,1971
Mayor Earl Lauderdale announced he would not run for
re-election. Manager of Radio Station WBRO, he had been
elected in 1969.
John Thomas Wynne of Sardis was elected chairman of
the Burke County Board of Education, replacing Paul L.
McNorrill who had resigned.
Tickets for the annual Rotary Club pancake supper were
on sale. Adults were $1.25 and children were 75c.
70 YEARS AGO-NOVEMBER 15,1951
Reckless driving and speeding were the suspected causes
of traffic accidents involving twelve vehicles in the city over
the past week. One collision resulted in multiple injuries, but
no deaths were reported.
The Perry-Bargeron Co., Darling’s Dry Goods Store, J.G.
Heisler and Sons and Jenkins Brothers were all the victims
of burglaries in Sardis over the weekend.
O. J. Cliett announced his candidacy for re-election as
Sheriff of Burke County and A.H. Gnann said he would run
for re-election as school superintendent.
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Aaron feDGERs ^
JEHPARBy/
Don Lively
“This winter will be punc
tuated by positively bone-
chilling, below-average tem
peratures across most of the
United States
Thus, sayeth the Lord.
Okay, not really the Lord.
Those words came from the
Old Farmer’s Almanac, which,
if you’ve lived in the rural
farming communities around
these parts, you understand
that that yearly periodical is not
really sacred but is fervently
studied by many. The Almanac
has proven to be incredibly ac
curate in the 229 years that it’s
been published.
Two hundred and twen
ty-nine years seems like a
long time but my great, great,
great, great Granddaddy Abram
started rambling around the
Blessed South fifty-some-odd
years before the first Almanac
appeared. Abram had already
helped General Oglethorpe
kick the Spanish out of Georgia
and had received a land grant
for his service. That’s how my
family ended up settling along
the banks of Brier Creek.
But, once again, I digress.
We were talking about the
cold.
As somebody who lived
Out West for thirty years, and
who has traveled throughout
America in all kinds of weather,
I know what cold is.
Years ago, when I was a
young detective in an urban
police department, I was as
sisting the narcotics team with
a drug raid up in the mountains.
I had lived in Colorado for sev
eral years by then and should
have known how to dress for
the cold. I had taken a few
precautions. I wore a ski parka
and wool socks, and I had my
department issue gloves.
I nearly froze to death.
As it turned out, we had to
stand outside of the drug house
for hours because our warrant
was delayed. We had taken
up surveillance positions on
the corners of the house and
couldn’t leave once we were
in place. No retreating to the
warmth of my car, just standing,
and occasionally stamping my
feet to keep them from turning
to ice, and waiting for some
judge to finally sign the docu
ments that would allow us to
kick down the door.
When that moment finally
arrived, I rejoiced.
I’ve never been so happy to
be inside the home of a low
life drug dealer, because this
particular lowlife drug dealer
liked to keep his house very
AS A WELL DIGGER'S FANNY
warm. Once we had arrested
the owner, who we immediately
sent down the mountain in the
paddy wagon, and gathered up
the evidence, I didn’t want to
leave.
But, alas, we had to vacate.
Just the walk back to my car
was chilling and it took me the
whole drive back to warm up.
That, my friends, is what you
call cold.
But, it’s not the coldest I’ve
ever been.
The coldest I’ve ever been
happened right here in the
friendly confines of the Peach
State.
Athens, Georgia to be pre
cise.
Sanford Stadium to be even
more precise.
My Dawgs were playing
Georgia Tech in late November,
1974.1 had worked my morn
ing shift at the bus station sell
ing tickets and shipping freight.
The day had started off chilly
but not cold. I was wearing a
flannel shirt and jeans, which
is what I wore most every day
from October until April. I got
into the stadium just as a misty
rain began falling and the temps
started to drop. No big deal, I
thought, with all those folks
packed in I could stay warm.
Nope.
Did you know that flannel
soaks up water better than most
fabrics, which means it stays
wet longer?
Are you aware that blue jeans
are even more absorbent than
flannel?
By midway through the sec
ond quarter, I was soaked and
shivering so badly, and my teeth
were chattering so loudly that a
total stranger pulled a bottle of
bourbon out of a hidden pocket
and insisted that I take a pull. I
did. A long one. It didn’t help
one iota.
I finally just abandoned the
game and headed to my car,
which was a mile away, shak
ing so badly that I could barely
walk. I was able to get home
and immediately turned on
the hot shower and climbed
in, which did indeed stop the
shivering.
One of my friends who was
a pre-med student later told me
that getting in the hot shower
like that could have brought on
a heart attack.
At that point, cardiac arrest
would have been preferable.
I found out later that the Yel-
lowjackets drubbed UGA.
I didn’t care.
I’ve been cold plenty of times
since then, but never have I
been colder.
Nowadays, I keep a copy of
the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
And plenty of firewood in
case they are right, again.
Michael N. Searles
THE GRIM REAPER
The Grim Reaper is the lord
of death —a black, shrouded
specter who appears when your
time on earth has ended. His
personality and his work are
as mysterious as death itself.
Above all else, the Reaper is a
hard worker. His job is to col
lect souls when they reach the
end of their time on earth, and
he is extremely diligent about
getting his work done.
He always meets his dead
lines , and he is rarely distracted
from or persuaded not to do his
job. Most of us would want to
stay as far away from the Grim
Reaper as possible. While there
may be a few Halloween trick
or treaters who wear costumes
featuring this ghoul from the
nether world, there is an earthly
mortal who embraces the title.
Senate minority leader Mitch
McConnell who enjoys kill
ing legislation and blocking
appointments takes pride in
referring to himself as the Grim
Reaper. McConnell showed his
true colors early in the Obama
administration by stating his
number-one goal was to make
Obama a one-term president.
To a certain extent leaders of the
opposition party always want
their party nominee to win the
presidency, but few pursue that
effort with the zeal of McCon
nell. He bragged about blocking
President Obama’s attempt to
fill federal judicial vacancies.
All the Grim Reaper could do
was laugh and announce that
he was in charge for the last
two years of the Obama admin
istration.
On February 13, 2016, Su
preme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia unexpectedly died dur
ing Obama’s presidency. On
March 16th President Obama
nominated Merrick Garland,
chief judge of the D.C. Circuit
Court of Appeals to fill the
Scalia vacancy. Judge Garland
was known to Republicans and
Democrats as a judicial moder
ate. The Republican position
prior to Garland’s Supreme
Court nomination was that he
would be a good if an unlikely
choice for President Obama.
President Obama praised
Garland’s credentials and tem
perament as he made the nomi
nation. "The men and women
who sit on the Supreme Court
are the final arbiters of Ameri
can law. I’ve selected a nomi
nee who is widely recognized
not only as one of America's
sharpest legal minds, but some
one who brings to his work
a spirit of decency, modesty,
integrity, even-handedness and
excellence."
Those words and sentiments
meant nothing to McConnell.
For the next eleven months, Mc
Connell assembled a phalanx of
eleven Republican members of
the Senate Judiciary Committee
who signed a letter saying they
had no intentions of consenting
to any nominee from Obama.
The action of McConnell and
his cohorts violated precedent
by completely ignoring the
nominee and refusing to meet
with Garland or extend basic
senatorial courtesies. McCon
nell, in referencing what he
had done, made the following
comment: "One of my proudest
moments was when I looked
Barack Obama in the eye and
I said, 'Mr. President, you wifi
not fill the Supreme Court
vacancy.”
McConnell continued his ef
forts to sabotage the legitimate
functions of government when
ever the opportunity presented
itself. He blocked County
Counsel Julien Neals of New
Jersey from becoming a federal
judge under President Obama
as long as he was Majority
Leader. Endless actions were
taken by the Kentucky Senator
to frustrate and block legisla
tive actions. Routine matters
that formerly had bipartisan
support now faced Republican
intransigence.
Raising the debt limit sets the
cap on how much the Treasury
Department can borrow to fund
federal operations. Under Presi
dent Donald Trump, Congress
passed three spending bills to
suspend the debt limit in 2017,
2018 and 2019. In these ac
tions, Democrats, in the spirit
of bipartisanship, unanimously
supported suspending the debt
limit. Things changed after
Democrats gained control of the
Senate. Republicans under Mc
Connell’s leadership refused to
support lifting the debt limit to
pay for the debt mainly accrued
under President Trump. The
Grim Reaper once again could
laugh sardonically and live up
to his name.