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PAGE 4A
November 28, 2012
^Reporter
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Opinion
Declare among the nations,
and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not;
Jeremiah 50:2
On the Porch
Coach Pitts: ‘Tickled to death about MP’
H undreds of Monroe
Countians are walking
taller because of the Mary
Persons Bulldogs’ march
through the state
playoffs, and one Newton Drive
resident with a special tie to the
program is no exception.
That would be Dan Pitts. You
may have heard of him. The
legendary former MP mentor,
who became the winningest ever
high school coach in Georgia
during his 39-year tenure with
the Bulldogs, says he has thor
oughly enjoyed watching the
10-2 Bulldogs make their deepest run
in the playoffs since the season after he
retired, 1998.
“I am tickled to death,” Pitts said of
the 2012 Bulldogs.
While the 80-year-old Pitts is recover
ing from the flu, or something like it,
don’t take his comment literally - he’s
doing better. Sickness did force him to
miss the Cairo game. And no, he didn’t
catch cold standing on the press box
stoop at the stadium named for him
while watching that first round beat-
down of Statesboro.
And now that he’s taking some medi
cine, he’s already back watching
MP practices - from a distance. He
stands on the far bank next to the
practice field and watches the boys
work.
So what does Pitts think about
Brian Nelson’s first squad?
“They play hard from the start
to the finish,” said Pitts.
“Everybody’s excited about it.
They’re just playing so well,
that’s the thing.”
At 37, Nelson is the youngest MP head
coach since Pitts was hired at age 25 in
1959. With Nelson doing so well in his
first season, I asked Pitts to reflect on
his first.
“Well, we won two ballgames. We beat
Jackson and Henry County, and lost to
everybody else.”
Pitts said Nelson had the advantage of
being an assistant coach before becom
ing head coach, something he wished he
had had.
“I was never an assistant, and that’s
not the way to do it. I had to learn on
the run.”
With Pitts’ alma mater UGA making
a run for the championship as well, has
that made it an even more exciting fall
for the retired ball coach? Not really.
“If Mary Persons wins, I don’t care
what Georgia does. I’m happy.”
So has Pitts shared any of his vast
experience and wisdom with Nelson?
“No, I try to stay out of it,” said the reti
cent Pitts. “He’s doing a great job and
all the rest of the coaches are too. That’s
the reason they’re winning.”
What did the famously defensive-
minded Pitts think about that slog
against Cairo, which was knotted 0-0
after four quarters?
“I loved it,” said Pitts, “that’s the way
the game ought to be played.”
Does he recall coaching any games
that ended 0-0? “Well,” said Pitts, “I
know I had some ‘0’ games, but I don’t
know about ‘0 to O’.”
But, a snarky reporter asked, what
about that soccer player, senior
Kenny Miller, winning the game
for us? What did you think of
that?
“I never had anything against
soccer,” laughs Pitts, who, like
most Deep South coaches
of his generation, had little
experience with European
football. “My only problem
with soccer was when they
first talked about adding
soccer [to Georgia high
schools] they were going to
play in the fall. That was
my only concern.”
But still, said the report
er, what’s this about a soccer
player winning the playoff game
for the Bulldogs?
“Well, he’s a football player right
now!”
And the people replied: “Amen!”
/
t
E-mail Will Davis at publisher@
mymcr.net
MCR POLL
What do you think about Mike
Bilderback beating James Vaughn
for county commission chairman?
1 was
shocked!
18 votes
24 percent
Well, it’s a Repub
lican county.
13 votes
18 percent
Get the popcorn,
county government
is about to get in
teresting.
18 votes
24 percent
Vaughn alienated
people with his per
sonal tax appeals
and spending on
lawyers.
25 votes
34 percent
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Don’t compare Lowery to West
To the editor:
T his letter is to make
a semantic correction to
Pastor H. Darrell Watson’s
Letter to the Editor printed
in the Nov. 7th. issue
of The Reporter. He is writing about
the “incendiary” remark or senti
ment made by Rev. Joseph Lowery
that all white folks are going to hell.
Then Watson goes on to equate senti
ments or comments made by Florida
Congressman Allen West with that
of Rev. Lowery. Congressman West
is a black, Christian, conservative
Republican who has said that most
Democratic congressmen are socialists
or communists and that he, as a black
Republican, is one of the few to have
escaped the social welfare plantation.
Sadly, these comments should not be
considered “incendiary” because they
are factually correct, in spite of how the
national news media choose to portray
them.
In a few words, socialism is when
the government controls and com
munism is when the government
both owns and controls. For example,
Mayor Bloomberg of New York City
has ordered that all restaurants limit
the size of sodas to 16 oz. That is
socialism; government controls (all for
your own good, of course) but does not
own. Obamacare is another perfect
example of socialism; the government
will eventually control all hospitals
and insurance companies and much of
what doctors can and cannot do. It will
be the greatest redistribution of wealth
this nation has ever experienced. On
the other hand, the bail-out of General
Motors is a good example of commu
nism; the government both owns (a
large percentage of the stock) and con
trols (selects the chief officers).
Congressman Allen West has got it
right; not a single Republican voted for
Obamacare, the Democrats voted for
socialism. And even some Republicans
voted for the bail-out, communism.
Sadly again, all this is unconstitu
tional. When the government takes
money (taxes) from the successful (the
wealthy) and gives it to another voting
citizen, deserving or undeserving, it
can organize them (read Obama - the
community organizer) into a voting
block. When that block reaches about
50 percent, the election will go to the
candidate who can promise the most.
We just observed this on Nov. 6. If the
trend continues, when the money taken
from the “rich” runs out, chaos will
follow and then dictatorship. History
proves it. This time, it will likely lead
to global dictatorship under the United
Nations. Familiarize yourself with
their Agenda 21.
Finally, the Democrat Party has
become the social welfare party (plan
tation), especially for the blacks, gath
ering 90 percent plus of their votes
every time! The Democrat Party moved
heaven-and-earth to defeat Allen West
and Mia Love, the lovely, black, con
servative, female, Republican mayor in
Utah who spoke so eloquently at the
Republican National Convention and
ran for congress.
By the way, Rev. Lowery should have
listened to his mentor, Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr.; it isn’t the color of the
skin but the quality of the character.
Believing in Christ, and Christ alone,
is the way to heaven. And thank you
Pastor Watson for your letter.
Marshall Keen
Juliette
Civil War Sesquicentennial
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Will Davis, president
Robert M. Williams Jr., vice president
Cheryl S. Williams, secretary-treasurer
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Publication No. USPS 997-840)
Georgia needed salt of the earth
O ne hundred and fifty
years ago in Monroe
County, salt was on the
mind of the county’s citi
zens. Temperatures were
beginning to drop; it was hog-killing
time and securing salt was a real
problem.
People in Monroe County needed
salt for curing meat. As there was no
refrigeration in 1862, once a hog or
beef was killed, the persons doing the
butchering used salt to keep the meat
from spoiling.
Before the war, Georgians depended
on imported salt. Salt from Europe
was relatively inexpensive and
because of its ready availability, there
was no impetus to develop Southern
production of salt.
Now, however, the federal blockade
restricted the availability of imported
salt. Georgians had to depend on
resources under Confederate control.
In the Confederacy, these consisted
of three types: salt springs, mines
of salt, and sea or solar salt, gotten
through evaporation. For Georgians,
sea salt was the most readily avail
able local source, there being no other
significant saline resources in the
state.
Stories in local newspapers 150
years ago discouraged hope of the
Confederacy’s ability to produce suf
ficient salt for its needs. A report of
“towering cliffs...of pure salt” near
Opelika, Ala. proved to be false
rumor. In Louisiana, federal forces,
which had taken New Orleans ear
lier in 1862, overran the Confederate
defenses of a salt works on the
Lafourche River.
Here in Georgia, Gov. Joseph E.
Brown, ever striving to be a friend
of the little man, took an active role
in securing quantities of salt for his
Georgians. His concern reflects a real
change in attitude in the state govern
ment toward public welfare.
As Katherine Brackett observed
in a recent essay, “Before the war,
Georgia’s government played no sig
nificant role in providing welfare, but
the shortages associated with the con
flict forced the state to undertake new
welfare measures,” including provid
ing salt for Georgians.
When the state legislature met 150
years ago in November 1862, it appro
priated $500,000 to provide Georgians
with salt. The legislature gave Gov.
Brown extensive leeway in how he
could use that money. He could spend
it to transport salt into the state from
sources outside of Georgia. He could
subsidize salt-producing operations.
Brown pragmatically looked to
salt resources in Virginia, working
assiduously to tap them for the use
of Georgians. Brown’s agent, John
W. Lewis, leased a portion of the salt
works in Saltville, Va., in the extreme
southwestern part of the state, and
began to produce salt for the Georgia
state government.
Transportation from Virginia to
Georgia was a problem. Four compa
nies owned the lines between Atlanta
and Saltville and guarded the use of
their lines. The state-owned Western
and Atlantic managed to send on one
occasion its locomotive “Texas” to haul
salt back to Georgia. [Earlier in the
year, the “Texas” had been involved in
the Great Locomotive Chase.]
One hundred and fifty years ago,
because the Confederate military
urgently needed cars for the transpor
tation of men and materiel, supplies
of salt in Virginia awaiting transpor
tation had a secondary importance.
As it accumulated supplies, the state
government established a system for
distributing its salt to certain classes
of Georgians. Widows of soldiers
would receive a half of a bushel free.
Families of serving soldiers could pur
chase a half bushel for a dollar. Heads
of families could purchase a half
bushel for $4.50.
Ella Lonn, whose pioneering work
on salt in the Confederacy still com
mands authority, estimated, albeit
using incomplete data, that the state
government of Georgia supplied to the
civilian population approximately six
pounds of salt per capital each year
after becoming involved in salt distri
bution.
The Georgia Department of Archives
and History holds a list for Monroe
County, dated 1862, identifying 34
widows here of deceased soldiers, 142
wives of men then in service, and
23 widows having a son or sons in
services. These were persons deemed
eligible for state salt.
That there were 34 identified wid
ows in 1862 suggests something of the
toll the war was taking.
Despite his meticulous concern
and great efforts to secure salt for
Georgians, Gov. Brown was not opti
mistic. He feared that the state’s
efforts were not enough and that only
half of the meat in the state in 1862
could be saved for future consumption
because of the scarcity of salt.