Newspaper Page Text
October 15, 2008
'^Reporter
PAGE 5A
On the outside looking in
Around the Bend
Halloween has
come early...
W hen I am in some far-flung, dis
aster-ravaged community and I
want to get a fast pulse of the
local community, one of the
strongest indicators is reading
the local newspaper. From the local newspaper
you can determine how well businesses are
doing, what crimes are being committed, how
the schools are doing both in sports and aca
demics, what is the pre
dominant religious affilia
tion, what kind of jobs are
locally available, who are
the political big dogs, how
well the local government
entities are functioning
and in the attitude of the
community from the edito
rial page. There are a lot of
other indicators if one just
studies the local news
paper.
In other words, the
local newspaper is a
reflection of the commu
nity it serves and usual
ly there is always some
bad news along with the good news...and that is
called reporting.
Often, the local newspaper reflects what is
going on nationally but on a more local and per
sonal level. For instance it is obvious marijuana
is the drug of choice among some of our citizens
when you read the incident and arrest reports.
At the same time the sports pages reveal foot
ball, soccer and baseball are all strong and we
have a great recreation department while the
churches goings on reflect a strong religious
foundation in our community.
As I have urged, reading the public notice ads,
also known as legal ads, can tell you more about
the community than some of the news pages. I
realize the legalese used in the legal ads is often
over many of our heads, but again the legals do
a lot of reflecting.
The public notice ads can give one an idea of
what is going on with the local governments as
well as being depressing, sad and an economic
indicator of what is locally financially happen
ing. For the last three weeks in this newspaper
and for one more week, 25 Notice of Sale Under
Power legal ads are advising at least 25 families
which are going to lose their homes or property.
This has to be a record and with the economy
tanking as it is, I would not be surprised if that
25 will be a minimum number in the months to
come.
For those losing their homes, Halloween has
come early for those listed in the Notice of Sale
Under Power and the $700 billion bail-out will
not be a treat. They were tricked into believing
they could pay the mortgage.
WE HAVE all heard how history supposedly
repeats itself. In 55 B.C. a Roman politician—
Cicero—made this statement: “The budget
should be balanced; the Treasury should be
refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arro
gance of officialdom should be tempered and
controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands
should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt.
People must again learn to work, instead of liv
ing on public assistance.” WOW!
GREENVILLE, Miss, doesn’t offer a whole lot
of entertainment when it comes to nightlife. Yep,
there are a couple of casinos, a movie theater, a
shopping mall and some pretty good eating out
places that are not franchise operations. After a
12-hour, seven-day workweek, I just wanted to
veg out and blip channels.
I watched the Palin/Biden and Obama/McCain
debates and have come to the conclusion—some
of you will not like this—Barak Obama is going
to be our next president. Not that I think he is
the best and most qualified, but because the
national news media, including the three major
networks, CNN, Fox and MSNBC have gotten on
the Obama bandwagon. According to them,
Obama can do no wrong and has not done any
wrong.
In my years of being a member of the media,
observer of the media and teaching media rela
tions, I have never seen such bias and
favoritism in reporting on such a national scale.
The national media has created an “Obama
Phenomena.”
So, a couple of days of watching and hearing
the “Obama Phenomena” reporting, I learned
how to use the blipper and began watching re
runs of “Hogan’s Heroes,” “Andy Griffith,” and
the Food Channel. I even learned how to change
the radio dial and began listening to—believe
this or not—the country music stations of the
Mississippi Delta.
A final note on the presidential race: Obama
knows how to communicate and how to preach
to the choir that is singing their financial woes.
That is his strong suit. “Obama the Orator and
Relator” should be his campaign slogan.
THE PECAN trees are gone just in case you
haven’t noticed. I’m sure Miss Jane will miss
them along with a lot of others.
Donald Jackson Daniel is the founder and for
mer publisher of The Reporter. He encourages
you to contact him at tullaybear@bellsouth.net.
The power of forgiveness
I Was talking to a woman the other day
who tried to claim that she never
makes mistakes. She emphatically de
clared "I do not make mistakes!" I
moved over a little to avoid the im
pending lightning strike.
I am sparing her the humili
ation of writing her name
here, although I am dying to
do so. But, I figure she will be
exposed soon enough without
my help.
That's because the fact is . . .
everyone makes mistakes.
We're human beings. We
screw up from time to
time. Even when we have
the best of intentions, we
all make a wrong turn
every once in a while. I know I do.
There was only one perfect being to
ever walk the face of this earth. I am
very thankful for Him. Because of Him,
my mistakes are forgiven.
That's nice.
Last week I made a big mistake. I
totally and completely forgot to put
something in the paper that I had
promised to get in. Just forgot. Even
though I had been working on it for a
long time, I still forgot. That screw-up
resulted in people not getting informa
tion they needed. All I can say is thank
God for the website and thank God for
forgiveness.
About 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, after
a looooong Monday press night, I woke
up in a cold sweat and leapt out of bed.
"I forgot to put that thing
about the Zapareo Glover foot
balls in the paper," I
screamed.
Larry had no idea what I
was talking about. He wearily
looked at me and said, "I'm
sorry," as if he had anything
to do with it.
"I can't believe I could
4^3- be 80 stu P id >" m y rant
7 (J continued. But it was no
use. The paper was done.
There was nothing I could do to change
it. It stinks when you realize what's
done is done.
I was all prepared to beg for forgive
ness. I raced to work and and put the
information on the website, telling
myself that it would at least be out
there. I was waiting to call the guy in
charge of the whole thing until I had it
online. Then I could at least offer up
some sort of consolation prize. But he
came in to get a paper before I called
him. I had to break the news that I
had screwed it all up.
I was forgiven instantly. So instantly
that it took a few minutes to sink in.
That's the real test of a true
Christian, I thought. He forgave me
without hesitation. Wow. Just like
someone else I know.
I was humbled by Wiley Crosby's
willingness to let it go so easily.
"It will all work out," he said. "It will
be OK."
I thought about how good it felt to be
truly forgiven by another human being.
I thought about the Lord's Prayer I say
all the time. . . . "forgive us our tres
passes as we forgive those who trespass
against us."
If I can be forgiven so easily, then I
should also be willing to forgive. I was
inspired.
In this business, so many times, it’s
one and done as far as mistakes are
concerned. People, even people who
claim to be Christians, will rant and
rave and cuss and pull their advertis
ing and cancel their subscriptions over
one mistake.
It’s nice to know there is still some
forgiveness left in this world. I intend
to pass it on.
Email Gina at news@mymcr.net.
Destination: Bolingbroke
Meet Bolingbroke’s TV star
O K, you and I know a lot of
people that have interesting
or unusual careers. But I’ll
bet you never met anyone
like Bolingbroke’s
very own Kip Dingier. Sure,
he’s a nice guy, but what he
does for a living makes him
one of a kind. I am not the
only one who thinks this about
Kip. Perhaps you have seen
his commercial on national TV.
He was chosen out of thou
sands of entries to be the star
of a recent BC headache pow
der commercial. While listening
to a radio station one day he
heard an announcement that BC was
looking for an individual with an usual
occupation. He does have an unusual
one. The Dingier family has been in
the parade float making business since
the mid 1950’s.Kip took over the busi
ness in the early 80’s. He has two
locations. One at Central City Park
and the other in Bolingbroke. Very
soon you will begin to see Kip and his
entourage heading out with beautiful
floats to all parts of the southeast as
we near the holiday parade season.
He says the Christmas season is one
of his busiest times but does about 60
parades a year, including the Fourth of
July, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day,
Cherry Blossom Festival and other
hometown parades such as the
Peanut Festival parade in Dothan,
Ala.
Kip does the designing, building
and sales while his daughter
Carson assists him and his
wife Judy (a full time
teacher) is his office coordi
nator. He says his neighbors
and several firemen (who
work for him on their off
days) help him with delivery,
etc. Kip says it is a lot of
hard work but a lot of fun
too.
Well, back to that BC com
mercial. He says he was aston
ished that after calling in to the con
test and leaving a recorded message
about his unusual occupation, he
received a phone call back a couple
of weeks later saying they wanted to
interview him. After narrowing the
picks down to three, he was chosen.
What an experience and a produc
tion! He says a crew of about 65
people came to his home and work
place to produce the commercial. Kip
says he gets a kick every time he sees
it aired, mostly on sports channels. If
you would like to see it, go to Kip’s
website at www.kipdingler.com.
Next time you see one of those fancy
floats in a parade, think of
Bolingbroke’s own Kip Dingier and I’ll
Kip Dingier with his daughter Carson.
bet BC headache powders will come to
mind also.
Vicki Smith is the Bolingbroke colum
nist for the Reporter. Email her at
vickiqsmith@yahoo.com or call
478.474.7320.
By Vicki
Smith
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dems, not Chambliss, caused problem
To the editor:
've heard a lot of peo
ple say that they are
mad at Saxby
Chambliss lately.
They're mad because
of the current economic poli
cy and his "yes" vote for the
"bailout". I don't like the
bailout bill either. But,
before we start casting
"revenge votes," let's take a
look at a few things.
What caused the crisis
we're in? The housing mar
ket experienced a "bubble
burst" causing the economy
to take a downward turn. It
started long ago when the
Community Reinvestment
Act was passed under the
Carter Administration.
Then it was strengthened
under the Clinton
Administration, both
Democratic administrations.
The purpose of the bill was
intended to encourage
depository institutions to
help meet the credit needs of
the communities in which
they operate. In theory, it
was a good idea but it was
carried way too far in that it
started giving loans to peo
ple that couldn't pay the
loans back. When President
Bush, members of his
administration, and certain
Senators pushed for
increased regulation of
Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, they're proposals were
met with strong resistance
from other members of the
Senate. President Bush,
John Snow, Alan Greenspan,
and John McCain told the
Senate that these two organ
izations were in trouble
starting as far back as 2001.
Other Senators such as
Barney Frank, Charles
Schumer, Christopher Dodd,
and Maxine Waters argued
that everything was fine and
stopped any legislation that
would have tightened the
rules for obtaining a home
loan. I can still hear their
cries, people would be left
out of the "American Dream"
because they couldn't meet
the requirements for a home
loan. The result is painfully
obvious now that Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac was
backing a lot of loans with
our tax dollars that should
have never been approved.
What do we do about it? I
don't know and I'm not sure
Congress knows but some
thing has to be done to pre
vent further damage to our
economy. A "revenge vote" is
not the answer. Seems
Democrats got us into this
mess by not allowing tight
ening of the rules. To vote
in such a manner that would
put our country into the
hands of the likes of Nancy
Pelosi and Harry Reid would
be worse than what we have
now.
Steve Bentley
Forsyth
High Falls forum to feature legislative races
To the editor:
he Fall 2008 Political Forum
of the High Falls Towaliga
Watershed Alliance will fea
ture the senate race between
Ronnie Chance and Jerry
Brilliant and the House of
Representative race between David
Knight and Bill Mauldin. The forum
will be held at the High Falls State
Park Group Shelter on Thursday, Oct.
23 at 7 p.m.
This event is sponsored by the High
Falls Towaliga Watershed Alliance, The
High Falls Civic Club, The Jackson
Lake Homeowners Association, The
North Lamar County Community
Association and Harbour Shores
Homeowners Association.
Visitors are invited to join us at the
State Park to hear these speakers.
Suzanne Lawler of 13WMAZ will mod
erate the event. The agenda will cover
a wide range of topics including the
state budget, water conservation and
pollution, the Georgia Dam Safety
Program, taxes, campaign finance
reform and commuter issues.
For directions go to www.gas-
tateparks.org or contact the High
Falls/Towaliga Watershed Alliance at
www.HighFallsTWA.org or call 992-
8070.
Bud Queen
High Falls