Newspaper Page Text
Page 4— Wednesday, March 30, 2022, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
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LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-APRIL 4,2012
Rudy Falana, a graduate of Cambridge University, was
named as the new Burke County School Superintendent. He
had been the principal of Burke County Middle School since
the previous summer.
For the seventh time, Valley Irrigation dealer BAS Inc. of
Waynesboro was honored for exceptional performance by the
Valmont Industries.
BCPS Nutrition Director Donna Martin was named treasurer
of the board of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She
was the first school nutritionist to serve on the panel.
25 YEARS AGO - APRIL 2,1997
Waynesboro police officers were pelted with bottles when
they attempted to disperse an unruly crowd of about 150 people
in the Jet Food Store parking lot on North Liberty Street. No
one was injured but Chief Karl Allen warned that the “street
parties” could easily get out of hand.
Long lines awaited people who waited until the last day to
pay their license tag fees at the Burke County Tax Commis
sioner’s office.
Cellular One opened its new mobile telephone sales office
in Waynesboro. Kenny Hood was the new account executive.
50 YEARS AGO-MARCH 29,1972
Stripe Discount Drug Store opened at 627 Liberty Street in
Waynesboro. The Pharmacist Manager was Donald N. Evans.
The Burke County Board of Education voted not to imple
ment tenure for local teachers for the next school year. The
policy would have provided that teachers could only be termi
nated after three years unless the reasons were clearly stated.
70 YEARS AG0-APRIL3,1952
The Burke County Farm Bureau announced that any member
was eligible to purchase health insurance through Blue Cross
Blue Shield.
Porter W. Carswell headed up the local effort to support U.S.
Sen. Richard Russell for the presidency.
Chuck and Walt Seeger were among the entrants of the baby
contest sponsored by the Midville Lions Club.
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Will smith got ah
oscar for best acior
After slawHo crrk rock.
THEY HEEDTO
REPHRASE
THAT.
V
HO, ITHIUK
THEY ©OT IT
RIGHT.
Don Lively
It’s nearly that time.
If you’ve lived around these
parts for long, you’ll know ex
actly what time I mean.
The piles of white material
have begun to appear on the
edges of fallow, still weedy
fields. I don’t have enough
farmer in me to know what the
chalky looking substance is,
lime maybe, though I know it’s
not land plaster. Land plaster
will come later.
No, I don’t know what the
piles are or what they accom
plish beyond the fact that what
ever is going to be planted in
those fields will eventually
benefit.
I don’t know what they do,
but I know beyond doubt what
they signify.
Planting season will be here
in “two shakes of a rabbit’s
tail”, as Mama used to say.
I’ve noticed that some of
the fields have already been
plowed, the middles busted and
the furrows slightly heaped, the
first step before the actual plant
ing will begin.
Even as a young boy who
dreamed of leaving the farm
and exploring the rest of the
world, I still loved the planting
season.
The planting season meant
that it was spring and I have
always loved springtime.
Spring is here.
The main reason that I can
tell is the nearly universally de
spised pollen. Yes,I’m aware of
how necessary pollen is for the
survival of humanity. I know all
about pollen is required for the
“seeding” of new generations
of plant. But I also know that
my eyes and nose and nasal
passages fill up with the yellow
stuff and drive me to distraction
for a few weeks.
Still, pollen is the only down
side of spring, in my judge
ment.
This week I have begun to
see the little white buds start to
pop out in the small dogwood
grove just a few feet from the
north porch. In a week or so it
will be in full bloom, lasting for
several days. Dogwood season
could be longer for my money
but I do enjoy it while it lasts.
The woods between my
house and the road, a couple of
hundred yards away, have be
gun to green up. Since late Oc-
HASSPRUNG
tober, any car going down the
road has been at least partially
visible after the leaves vacated
the area. With the exception
of the few pines, there’s been
nothing green between the west
porch and the mailbox.
I welcome the foliage.
And, the new squirrels.
The wooded enclave has
never lacked for squirrels and
every year about this time I start
to see the babies, high in the
sweetgums and oaks crawling
in and out of the patchwork of
stick nests where their mamas
and daddies brought them into
the world. They are as cute as
they can be and they seem to
know not to venture too far
while the parents are out gath
ering food.
The hummers are back too.
I’ve never been one of those
folks who seem nearly obsessed
with hummingbirds, and never
put out a feeder until I moved
back near the old homeplace.
Once I decided to give it a try,
I know see why people enjoy
the energetic little buzzballs.
I usually hear them coming
before they actually head to
the feeder. They seem to like to
perch on a limb and watch me
for a few minutes to make sure
that I’m no threat before they
proceed to gorge themselves. I
always thought that humming
birds were pretty much all the
same color but theses days,
when they start fighting over the
feeder spouts, they put on quite
a colorful performance.
This afternoon I pulled all
of the winter weeds out of my
raised tomato box, raised so
that I don’t have to get down
on my knees to work. Getting
down there isn’t all that hard,
it’s the getting back up that’s
the problem. I built the box so
that I can till, weed, fertilize
and pick without so much as
bending over. I’m quite proud
of the box and, because it
will soon be time to plant, am
already starting to think about
tomato sandwiches and tomato
pies, two more great reasons to
love spring.
So, in spite of the itchy eyes,
the runny nose and the slight
dizziness brought on by the
pollen, spring is back in grand
style.
Welcome back.
Don Lively is a freelance
writer and author of several
books of Southern Humor. He
lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don
at Livelycolo@aol.com.
P.O. Box 948 • 629 Shadrack Street
Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
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Michael N. Searles
When one party rule is dis
cussed, it is often in the context
of European socialist and com
munist states or other systems
based on Marxist ideology.
One party rule is a political
system and state where a single
political party rules and where
opposition political parties are
precluded from rule. In the
United States we are blessed
to have a republic with three
co-equal branches of govern
ment. We also have two major
political parties that give the
people a choice as to how
they are to be governed. This
system has served us well in
the past when liberals and con
servatives were found in both
political parties. There were
conservative Democrats and
liberal Republicans in various
geographical regions. Congres
sional representatives had to
appeal to a diverse electorate
in order to win. While electoral
districts were not politically di
vided evenly, no particular point
of view could be completely
ignored. We currently live in
an environment where it is very
difficult for an elected member
of a political party to side with
or support any action promoted
by the opposite party. To do
so courts a primary challenge.
An official who dares do his or
her duty can face the wrath of
the party. Congresswoman Liz
Cheney was first elected in 2016
on a platform of pursuing con
servative solutions to help cre
ate jobs, cut taxes and regula
tion, expand America’s energy,
mining and ag industries and
restoring America’s strength
and power in the world. She
was a highly respected member
of the Republican establishment
with a 77% lifetime conserva
tive voting record rated by Heri
tage Action until she challenged
President Donald Trump. From
a leadership position of respect
and good standing, Congress-
woman Cheney has become the
most unpopular Republican in
the country among GOP vot
ers. While she is still the arch
conservative she has always
been, she has run afoul of strict
party adherence required to be
ONE PARTY RULE
a member of the Republican
Party. Maybe it doesn’t mat
ter if a political party demands
complete loyalty but recent
events suggest something dif
ferent. In a recent editorial by
Dana Milbank, using data from
the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention, he found that
since the ready availability of
the COVID vaccine, 14 states
with the highest death rates per
100,000 were all run by Repub
lican governors. This included
Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Geor
gia, West Virginia, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, and Wyoming, In
many of those states, not only
were the governors Republican
but they also controlled one or
both legislative houses. The
states with the lowest death
rates from COVID were all
run by Democrats. A graphic
example of the differences was
found in Florida where the
death rate among residents was
three times higher than Califor
nia and 212 times higher than
New York.
We as a nation need a two
party system to promote de
mocracy and sometimes to save
our lives. The Founding Fathers
knew that power concentrated
in the hand of the few leads to
tyranny. One party rule is the
first step towards ignoring the
will of the people. We benefit
from having a functioning two
party system where checks and
balances are intact. No one
wins when one party is allowed
to call all the shots. Even when
the other side wins in an elec
tion, it is reassuring that the
rule of law will prevail and that
in the next election, your side
can prevail. In Russia today,
the people do not have the
opportunity to hear dissenting
voices. Putin can say that there
is no war in Ukraine and the
government there is controlled
by Nazis. Most of the Russian
people believe him because
information is highly restricted.
A young Russian man living
in Ukraine called his father in
Russia and told him Putin was
not telling the truth. The father
said, “I don’t believe you. What
you are telling me is false.” We
can see the insidious nature of
one-man and one party rule.
It was the late Supreme Court
Justice William O. Douglas who
quipped, “Without account
ability, tyranny thrives,” and
he was right.