Newspaper Page Text
Page A— Wednesday, February 23, 2022, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
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LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 22,2012
Nearly a century after his death, a murdered Waynesboro
Police Chief would be memorialized in Washington, D.C.
Jack Samuels, who was shot and killed at an illegal whiskey
house, was to have his name inscribed in the Law Enforce
ment Officers Memorial.
Property owned by the First Baptist Church of Waynesboro
was rezoned to allow the church to construct a new sanctuary.
The City of Waynesboro announced plans to annex the 150
acre industrial park north of Veterans Parkway.
25 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 26,1997
Burke County Hospital Authority chairman Roy F. Chalker,
Jr. announced that the hospital was severing ties with Memo
rial Health Services, Inc. The contract between the facility
and the management company expired Jan. 31 and was not
renewed. Dr. Russell Acree, president of the Adel-based firm,
had been imprisoned on federal drug charges since 1995.
The Waynesboro-Burke County Recreation Commission
announced that background checks would be performed an
all volunteer coaches and staff members.
Groundbreaking for the Burke County campus of Augusta
Technical Institute was projected to occur in the spring of
1998. A local campaign to raise $500,000 for equipment,
furnishings and technology was launched.
50 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 23,1972
Superior Court Judge F. Frederick Kennedy announced
plans to retire at the end of his current term and Augusta
attorney Franklin Pierce said he would be a candidate for
the post.
Vickie Fynn Wallace of SGA High School was named
Burke County STAR Student for 1972. Bea Broxton received
the honor for Waynesboro High School and Stanley Jackson
won for Boggs Academy.
Fouis Abbott of A&W Oil Company was recognized for
25 years as a jobber for the Shell Oil Company.
Airman Eddie J. Smith of Midville completed his U .S. Air
Force basic training at Fackland AFB, Texas.
70 YEARS AGO-FEBRUARY 28,1952
As a result of the efforts of Henry W. Blount of Waynes
boro, a member of the State Board of Education, Burke
County was to received $2 million to upgrade all schools in
the county. The announcement was made by Joe Reynolds,
chairman of the county school board.
Porter W. Carswell announced he would be a candidate
for the Georgia House of Representatives. He had formerly
served in the State Senate in 1947-48.
Advertisers included Waynesboro Gin Co., A&P Super
market, Jarvis Drug Co., Mills Ambulance Service and Radio
Station WBRO.
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BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
announced last week his office
would be supporting legisla
tion to ban mask mandate re
quirements in Georgia school
districts.
In my opinion, Kemp has
done a pretty good job navigat
ing Georgia through the mine-
held the COVID-19 pandemic
created, both from a health
perspective but also in the un
avoidable political landscape
that cropped up with the vims
as well.
Now, however, Kemp has a
primary challenge from fellow
Republican and former United
States Sen. David Perdue. The
entirety of Perdue’s campaign
to be the next governor of
Georgia seems to be built on
the premise that the 2020 presi
dential election was stolen from
President Tmmp.
Perdue’s hard right stance has
forced Kemp to jerk the wheel
into the far-right lane himself
and thus the announcement for
a new law to strike down those
evil mask mandates.
The Georgia GOP has long
prided itself on the idea of lo
cal control for school systems,
at least they did until they got
tired of local school boards do
ing things they disagreed with.
Coincidentally, the Burke
County Board of Education
(BOE) held its regular monthly
meeting on the same night as
Kemp’s announcement and the
discussion of Burke County
schools’ mask requirement
came up.
Unlike so many of these
discussions taking place in
the public space these days,
I’ll give our local BOE mem
bers credit for not letting their
debate delve into political
nonsense.
While there was disagree
ment as to how and when the
local mask requirement in
our schools should be lifted,
both sides appeared to have
taken their position based on
concern for students’ and fac
ulty’s health and well-being.
Obviously, there are health con
cerns to doing away with mask
requirements in classrooms,
but there are also legitimate
questions as to what effects the
wearing of masks for almost
two full years has had on learn
ing, particularly for younger
children as they are taught to
speak and read.
I’ll be the first to say, I do not
have the answers when it comes
to planning on how to deal with
the continuing pandemic. I
wouldn’t want to be an elected
official or medical professional
whose job it is to sort through
all the data and facts, as well as
the opinion and political pres
sure, to make such decisions.
One of the things I’ll fault the
Feds for, both the politicians
and the doctors, is for telling
us all along we could eradicate
this vims and make it disappear.
Science was never my forte,
but even I can wrap my mind
around the fact that a vims is
always changing, mutating as
it jumps from person to person.
That’s why your doctor recom
mends a flu shot every year to
combat whatever prominent
strain is expected to make the
rounds. In all my years, I’ve
never heard any medical or sci
entific professional suggest we
were on the cusp of eradicating
the common flu.
I heard it suggested recently
that it’s time we switched our
mentality to “learning to live
with the vims,” and I couldn’t
agree more. Total eradication
was always a lofty goal. It’s
been made that much harder
by a segment of the population
that believes COVID-19 is a
figment of our imagination or
that microchips are being im
planted in our bodies through
vaccinations.
Do you realize that there are
some younger children in our
schools who have never looked
around a classroom at their fel
low students and seen all those
different faces and the smiles
to go along with them because
they’ve never been to school
without a mask? I’m no doctor
but that can’t be healthy either,
especially for children just
starting out in school.
Again, I don’t have the an
swer to when and how we move
forward, but at some point, life
must return to normal, or as
close to normal as can be on the
other side of this.
For more Burke County po
litical news, follow Bird Dog
Politics on Facebook.
Don Lively
NOT SO STRANGE
I was a stranger in a strange
land.
I’ll expound on that opening
statement shortly.
The last couple of weeks
we’ve been talking about peo
ple. First, we chatted about
church folks, people that we
see in church and nowhere else.
Fast week the subject was work
folks, the ones who we labor
day in and day out with who can
make our lives better, or worse.
This week, strangers.
I suspect that we’ve all met
strangers along our life’s jour
neys who made a lasting im
pression on us. I know I have.
There are many people I’ve had
brief encounters with who I’ve
never forgotten.
Here are just a few of those
strangers.
My oldest daughter and I
were traveling across Northern
New Mexico. I’d let her drive
for a spell while I napped. She
got too involved in my Meat
Foaf tape (Yes, tape. This was
before the advent of the CD.)
and ran the truck out of gas.
We managed to get ourselves to
a small store out in the middle
of nowhere.
That’s where I met Ben Mills.
Ben looked old but was as
spry and alert as a twenty-year-
old. He just happened to have
dozens of empty milk jugs in
the back of his ancient station
wagon and gladly handed over
a couple of them for me to put
gas in. Then he made sure that
we got gassed up and back
on the road. He had a white
beard down to his belt buckle,
stained with tobacco juice. He
told us tales of his exploits
which included having been in
contact with NASA about his
invention to improve rocket
fuel, his having come up with
an “almost sure-fire” cure for
cancer, and his having been
married to two different Miss
Americas. He pointed out his
place of residence, an old line
shack, far off the road out on
the plains.
Our encounter lasted less
than an hour but I never forgot
him.
I met Pete at a pub in Craster,
on the east coast of England.
He came in while I was chat
ting with the pub mistress and
when she asked if he wanted
a drink, he made it known
that there would be no other
reason for him to be there. At
first, I thought Pete was being
cantankerous, but it turned out
he was a regular who loved
giving the pub workers a hard
time. I learned that Pete had
been a child during World War
II, living in Fondon. After I
paid for two of Pete’s pints, he
told me about having survived
numerous bombing campaigns
by the Fuftwaffe. It was the
only time in my life that I ever
talked to anyone with direct
knowledge of the war that
wasn’t American, and it was
quite enlightening.
This past Christmas Day as I
was sitting on the beach, a spied
a lady coming toward me being
led by seven dogs on leashes.
She was struggling to keep the
group from going after the gulls
but appeared very cheerful.
Her path brought her directly
in front of my chair. I assumed
that she was one of those pro
fessional dogwalkers who get
paid to walk other folk’s dogs.
As I was musing that thought,
she stopped right in front of me.
“You look lonely,” she said,
very matter-of-factly. I suppose
she had noticed that I was one
of only a very few folks who
were not in a group.
“No ma’am. I’m fine, but
I appreciate your concern,” I
replied.
I asked who all of the dogs
belonged to.
“They’re all mine,” she said,
and then told me their names
and how she’d come to own
each of them. When I responded
that I only had one dog, she
just chuckled and continued
her walk.
One a mountain trail in Colo
rado I met an old man leading a
donkey who still prospected for
gold and silver.
While a cousin was visiting
me Out West I got my truck
stuck in a snowbank. A young
fellow pulled up, got out of
his truck with a chain, hooked
to mine and pulled us out. He
never said a single word, just
nodded at my profuse thanks,
and drove away.
At the Rose Bowl on January
1st, 2018, after my Dawgs had
beaten Oklahoma to advance
to the National Championship,
as I was walking out, a young
woman, probably half my age,
saw my UGA shirt, grabbed
me, pulled me down to her
level,kissed me squarely on the
lips, shouted “Go Dawgs” and
walked away.
Strangers all, but unforget
table strangers.
Next week: Kin people.