Newspaper Page Text
Page A— Wednesday, September 21,2022, 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-SEPTEMBER26,2012
Tedi Thurman, 89, was laid to rest in her native home of
Midville. She had been famous as a national radio and tele
vision personality. She was best known for her role as the
“Miss Monitor” weather girl on NBC Radio.
Incumbent 12th District Congressman John Barrow was
fighting for votes with his Republican opponent Lee Ander
son of Columbia County. The race was considered a toss-up
by most political observers.
Old Fella Burke County Animal Rescue members were
trying to reach an agreement with the county to operate an
animal control program in the county. They had previously
offered to operate the program for $175,00 per year, but the
commissioners rejected the proposal.
25 YEARS AGO-SEPTEMBER24, 1997
Attorney Beth Ann Smith said that she and her mother,
Barbara Ann Smith, had purchased the historic Anthony
Wayne Hotel and planned to restore it. She said plans in
cluded a restaurant and offices.
The Waynesboro Rotary Club donated $25,000 toward the
construction of the Augusta Tech campus here. Spokesman
Clifford Lewis said the funds were the result of the com
munity’s support of the club’s annual onion sale and golf
tournament.
John T. Hamilton was running unopposed for Mayor of
Sardis after incumbent Mayor Preston Conner declined to
run for re-election.
50 YEARS AGO-SEPTEMBER20, 1972
Waynesboro’s newest manufacturer, Terry Industries, a
division of Fleetwood Corp., rolled its first travel trailer off
the assembly line here. The plant employed 70 workers with
plans to increase to 120.
Burke County property owners got a break when the Burke
County Commission and the Board of Education cut taxes
by a combined total of 4 Vi mills. Officials said the cuts were
possible because of an increase in the digest.
S .M. Whitney Co. of Augusta received its first cotton bale
of the season from M>B> Hillis of Waynesboro. The 400
bale was ginned by Burke County Gin and Fertilizer Co.
70 YEARS GO-SEPTEMBER25, 1952
Waynesboro’s School Boy Patrol was reactivated with
Mrs. A.L. Crittenden as supervisor and the Georgia State
Patrol as advisors. Members included Ellis Mills, Charles
Westbrook, Bobby Carter, Cleve Thompson, Wayne Weddon,
Gene Hardin, Carroll Grimes and Bill Cates.
Dr. Miller Byne, Jr. and the staff at the Burke County
Hospital said the facility would begin using Trilene, the
same anesthesia administered to Queen Elizabeth II when
she recently had a child.
Ben Story of the Georgia Power Co., won a trip to New
York City, Baltimore, Md. and Mansfield, Oh. Through the
Westinghouse Corporation.
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Don Lively
It’s by far the oldest garment
hanging in my closet.
It long ago shrank so small
that I couldn’t get into it now if
dear life depended on it.
It’s lived everywhere that
I’ve lived over the decades,
through four states and at least
twenty addresses.
It’s not real pretty these days
but it was once magnificent.
It’s my high school letter
jacket.
It’s purple and white, though
the white leather sleeves are
grayed, cracked and worn, and
the purple fabric is pilled and
faded.
It’s literally worthless.
Yet to me, even though I
haven’t actually worn it since
Gerald Ford accidentally be
came president, it’s priceless
because I earned every thread
and stitch of it.
Many of my friends had
a jacket of the same design
with slight variations. Some
had little basketballs, or tennis
rackets, or the little winged foot
icon for track and field. Several
friends had multiple patches for
multiple sports.
My jacket had only one patch,
a little football.
Have I ever mentioned that I
love the game of football?
Baseball might be America’s
pastime.
Football is the Blessed
South’s passion.
Right here in my little South
ern hometown, within the last
decade, one of our local high
schools brought home a state
championship and the other
high school came within a
hair’s breadth of another. On
any given Friday night, unless
there’s a “bye”, fans of both of
those teams heartily support
their gridders, win or lose.
Even though it was a lifetime
ago when I last donned a foot
ball uniform, I can still smell the
chumed-up grass dotted with a
few wild onion plants that made
up the turf of our playing field.
I can still hear the crowd yell
ing and the band playing Cliff
Noble’s classic, “The Horse”.
I can still imagine the adrena
line rush every time the ball was
snapped and 22 young, strong
and sweaty bodies charged
into each other, all going for
the pigskin.
Those were the days.
A few years ago, a country
song perfectly stated what many
of us felt when we realized that
our playing days were over.
“At eighteen, turned my hel-
JUST FIVE MORE
met in and walked to the fifty-
yard line.
Just the coach and me after
we lost eighteen to nine.
And I cried, man, the next
time to get in here, I’ll have to
buy a ticket.
Can’t you give me five more
minutes?”
The only differences are, my
boys and I won our last game
and none of us could stand
our coach and wouldn’t have
walked to the two-yard line
with him, let alone the fifty.
That’s another story.
I’d bet that every high school
senior that walked off the field
that long ago Georgia autumn
night would have loved “five
more minutes” to play.
One of my cousins, let’s call
him Trimbo, has made a list of
all of the boys from our huge
Dixie family who have played
football around these parts. It
started back in the mid-thirties
when Daddy and Uncle V.Z.
played with leather helmets
and no facemasks. There are
dozens of names on the list that
extends right up to the present
day. There are a few short gaps
in the timeline but for the most
part, I’ve had a kinsman play
ing football in our neck of the
woods for over 80 years.
My clan loves us some foot
ball.
My teammates from many
years ago and I still talk about
our playing days.
Last week we lost one of
those teammates.
Dave played fullback and
linebacker and though he was
not a big fellow, he played big.
He had a floating bone chip in
the tip of his nose and he could,
and would, intentionally start
the blood flowing all over his
chin and jersey during a game.
He looked like a wild man and
when he charged into the line
he’d shriek like a banshee. Dave
gained a lot of yardage using
those scare tactics.
Dave became a pilot and last
week he died doing what he
loved best, flying.
He was a great teammate
and the world is poorer without
Dave in it.
Rest in peace, old friend.
This coming Friday night
there will be a young cousin
suiting up for each of the two
local high school teams. While
they are hitting and driving and
grunting and sweating, they
won’t give a second thought to
the fact that there will come,
as sure as the sun rises, a last
game.
Enjoy it while you can boys.
One day you will sit and pon
der, and wish.
For five more minutes.
Michael N. Searles
Redress of grievances refers
to the legitimate expectation
by a citizen in a democratic
society that complaints against
public officials will be con
sidered fairly and impartially
and that legal remedies for
wrongs will be available where
malpractice is revealed.The
First Amendment to the Con
stitution protects the right to
petition the government for a
redress of grievances. When
wronged, a person has a right
to seek a remedy through the
government. While there are
several ways we may petition
the government for redress, the
most common is the use of the
courts. From criminal charges
to civil suits, one of the main
duties of government is to hear
these cases and attempt to find
justice.
We often hear of cases where
an aggrieved party seeks re
dress from the government.
When government on the lo
cal, state or federal level takes
an action that discriminates
based on age, race, national
origin, religious beliefs, gen
der, disability, pregnancy and
veteran status, the injured party
has the right to seek redress.
There are, however, certain
instances where an injured
party is restricted by law from
taking action. Anyone can sue
the military unless they were
a member of the military (ac
tive duty or active reserves) at
the time of injury. Recently,
law offices have flooded the
airwaves with ads targeting
former military and civilians
who lived or worked at Camp
Lejeune in Jacksonville, North
Carolina from 1953 to 1987.
The drinking of contaminated
water at Camp Lejeune has
caused cancer and other serious
health issues. With the passage
of the Camp Lejeune Justice
Act, Congress opened the door
to veterans, their families, and
contractors injured as a result
of drinking toxic water while
stationed at Camp Lejeune.
African Americans have felt
the sting and pain of discrimi-
REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES
nation often without redress.
There is an egregious example
of what happened to a black
couple nearly 100 years ago.
Charles and Willa Bruce built a
resort in 1912 that they named
Bruce Beach. The Bruce fam
ily, harassed by their white
neighbors and the Ku Klux
Klan in 1924, had their prop
erty taken by the municipality
of Manhattan Beach through
eminent domain.
While the city officially took
the property to build a park,
the land sat vacant for several
decades. Recently, Los Ange
les County officials returned
the Bruce Beach property to
Anthony Bruce, the great-great
grandson of Charles Bruce,
presenting him with a copy of
the land transfer.
The redress of grievances
is a more challenging concept
than the words might suggest.
In 1997, black farmers filed a
lawsuit charging discrimina
tion by the Department of
Agriculture in administering
its loan program. The failure
of providing loans to black
farmers drove many of them
to lose their land while driv
ing others into debt. In 1999,
the court ordered the govern
ment to pay black farmers
for USDA’s discriminatory
practices. Many black farmers
left out of that process made a
direct appeal to the government
for restitution. The pandemic
relief package opened the door
by including billions of dollars
in loan forgiveness for black
and other minority farmers.
What appeared to be a happy
conclusion abruptly halted
when white farmers ensnared
the Department of Agriculture
in lawsuits. Even with 100 years
of discrimination as a backdrop,
the Midwestern white farmers
charged the Biden Administra
tion with excluding them from
the federal pandemic loan for
giveness program as a violation
of their constitutional rights.
Suffering and discrimina
tion have long been distributed
unequally in our society. While
the courts have found that the
Department of Agriculture con
sciously discriminated against
black and minority farmers, ad
dressing grievances often does
not occur in a timely manner.