Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A
& EDITORIALS
Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not. - Jeremiah 50:2
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 winner: Editorial Page excellen
2019, 2018 winner: Best Headline Writing
2019 winner: Best Community Service
2019 winner: Best Layout and Design
2019 winner: Best Serious Column - Don Daniel
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
Time to get it on
"Y A yell I finally got COVID.
A / It happened in December. One minute I’m
1/ \i at the SEC Championship game sick of los-
T ▼ ing. The next minute I’m sick of — well, it felt
to me like a normal winter cold. Head congestion. No fever.
Low energy. Just a normal cold. After a few days it moved to
my chest, as it always does. Then it goes away.
And as normal, I kept going to work. I
shook Gov. Brian Kemp’s hand at a fun
draiser at Jim Cole’s house that Friday.
Then the next day, on Saturday, sud
denly my food tasted like.. .well it didn’t
taste at all. And that’s when I knew I had
COVID.
My wife found some COVID tests at
Walmart and stuck it way up my nose. It
was the first time I have ever been tested
for COVID.
Frankly I’m glad to get it over with.
I’m sure you COVIDLANS will swear
the only reason my bout was so mild is because I’m so
handsome, thin and in great shape. Just kidding. You’ll say
it’s because I had one vaccine. Yes one. Maybe you’re right.
In the panic of August 2021, when a lot of people were get
ting seriously ill with COVID, I got one vaccine.
Or maybe it’s because I took a few doses of Ivermectin.
You know, the horse de-wormer many of you mocked that
seems to help people with COVID.
But one thing I do believe is that having had the virus is
much better protection than the vaccine. Even the CDC
admits this now. Grudgingly. Those grubby, greedy vac
cine hucksters. Did you know Pfizer has 700 lobbyists in
D.C.? 700! And that doesn’t include Dr. Fauci and all the
CDC employees who boost the company’s bottom line
by demanding you vaccinate while deriding cheap, tested
remedies that seem to help.
My friend Rod Callahan had an interesting observation
today at the Forsyth Kiwanis Club. He’s a member of the
board of the Monroe County Pregnancy Center. That, by
the way, is a great resource for our community and they
have a new home on N. Lee Street next to Remax. Anyway,
Rod said they had a lengthy board meeting last month
with six members present. Two were vaccinated. Four had
already had COVID. After the meeting one of the board
members broke a fever and came down with COVID.
Guess who else got it and got it bad? Yes the vaccinated pair.
They had it worse off than the unvaccinated ones who had
natural immunity. One was even hospitalized, but is thank
fully OK.
I know I’m a broken record here. But I’m still stunned
what we’ve been through the past two years. Our govern
ment officials have panicked and terrified the American
people using a bad respiratory virus. We shut everything
down, something we’ve never done before. We’ve taken
away people’s livelihoods and their freedoms, all to “fight”
a virus. And yet everything the government has insisted
upon, vaccines, masking and social distancing, have done
nothing to “stop” the virus. In many cases, they’ve made it
worse. And yet millions of Americans still live in fear, wear
ing their N-95 masks and hazmat suits, getting their 10th
booster shots and staying in their basements. Meanwhile
our children are suffering untold emotional and psycho
logical damage and we are neutering our people, teaching
them not to take risks or live life, but just to be afraid.
Alas, I have travelled, and we have it much, much better
than many states. With their Democrat governor, North
Carolina is particularly obnoxious about masking and
vaccinating and whatever means of force they can impose
upon their people.
But I want to implore you again, dear reader, to push
back. Freedom lost is not easily regained. Don’t comply with
COVID rules. Don’t live in fear. You’re Americans! We’re
the ones who defeated the mighty Redcoats, who saved the
planet from the Nazis, and first who landed on the moon
and brought freedom and prosperity to the world. Now we
face an internal enemy. You know who they are. You know
what they are trying to do. Don’t sit there. Fight back. Fight
for your kids. Fight for your futures. Whether it’s Biden or
Fauci or Abrams, never back down from the communists
trying to rule you, to subjugate you, who want you poor,
broke or dead.
1
^*■9. ’ TrT '
k'J
is published every week by The Monroe County Reporter Inc.
Will Davis, President • Robert M. Williams Jr., Vice President
Cheryl S. Williams, Secretary-T reasurer
REECE’S PIECES by Steve Reece
Smile for the selfie, dating to 1839
WP
VV::
ether they admit it
or not, a lot of people
seem to be mighty
pleased with their
appearance. This is evidenced by the
vast number of selfies I see posted
daily. Of course, there’s nothing
wrong with snapping a group shot
selfie when your friends and family
are gathered around one of those
large tables at Sol Tacos & Tequila
on your birthday night. Those are
treasured moments that should be
posted for the world to see. Espe
cially when the Taco Team shows up
to sing a rousing chorus of “Happy
Birthday” while you’re wearing a
sombrero which is surely embar
rassing enough to be put on
anyone’s Instagram account.
Some social media selfie
posters will go to great
lengths to draw attention to
their well-timed poses. Sadly,
sometimes these stunts lead
to tragic ends. For instance,
a 29-year-old pilot of a
Cessna 150 and his musi
cian passenger were happily
smiling into the lens just before they
crashed into the middle of a Colo
rado wheatfield on a dark cloudy
night. It was noted the pilot had
activated the flash which may have
improved the photograph but did
little to help his navigational skills.
You know how annoying that post-
camera-flash blue dot in the middle
of your vision can be. NTSB investi
gators said the camera didn’t capture
the looks on their faces during the
crash itself.
And it’s also never a good idea
to take a selfie outside during a
thunderstorm as a man from Wales
would tell you if he could. But he
can’t. His selfie-stick acted as a light
ning rod during his perfect pose not
only ending his life but also ruining
the shot. Some people have become
quite famous for traveling the world
posting pictures taken in extremely
hazardous conditions or danger
ous places. Recently a social media
influencer died at the young age of
32 after she tragically slipped and fell
from a Hong Kong waterfall.
Fortunately, most people have
survived the art of taking a selfie.
Like the San Diego man who lived
after being hospitalized for
five days after he took a selfie
with a rattlesnake which
smiled for the camera then
decided to bite the man.
Adding to this lucky list is
a woman who was gored
by a buffalo while taking a
well-posed selfie with the
herd gently grazing in the
background. I can only as
sume she was so fixated on putting
the proper pout on her lips that she
didn’t notice a one-ton beast charg
ing up behind her. She was treated
for her injuries and released.
In 2014 which is known as the
“year of the selfie” the United States
Department of Transportation es
timated 33,000 people were injured
while using a cellphone while driv
ing. People are charging down the
road talking, listening, texting, and
taking selfies. An insurance group
survey discovered that 4% of all
drivers admit to taking selfies while
driving. I would bet those are also
the drivers who focus the rearview
mirror on themselves as opposed to
the road behind.
Around 100 million selfies are
taken around the globe every day
with 82 percent of people between
19 and 34 taking them. Some of
them are posting up to 8 selfies a
day. Many admit every third photo
they take is a selfie. Selfitis is the
word used for this compulsive need
to take a picture of your face. That
seems to fit.
Although it may seem like a recent
development, the selfie trend began
in 1839 when a Philadelphia ama
teur chemist who was also a photog
raphy enthusiast, Robert Cornelius,
set up his camera in the back of a
chandelier store then ran into the
frame for the first ever selfie. Dur
ing the Gemini 12 mission in 1966,
astronaut Buzz Aldrin took a famous
picture of himself while floating
around in space. The first ever selfie
beyond earth’s gravitational pull.
Since then, NASA’s Anne McClain
took a 2018 selfie from 418 km
above the earth while on a space-
walk. The most popular location to
take a selfie is standing in front of
the Eiffel tower.
An Australian man was celebrat
ing his 21st birthday in 2002 when
he got drunk and coined the word
“selfie”. After posting a photo of a
stitched-up lip, he added the cap
tion, “sorry about the focus, it was
a selfie”. Only twelve years later it
was named Word of the Year by the
Oxford Dictionary.
The monkey selfie pictured above
is from a series of images taken by
a female Celebes crested macaque
named Naruto in 2011 using a
camera left behind by a nature
photographer. We can publish this
photo freely because the courts have
determined a monkey cannot hold
a copyright and placed the image in
the public domain.
I’m looking forward to seeing
y’all’s smiling faces on Facebook on
“National Selfie Day” on June 21,
also the first day of summer. But
you won’t be seeing my monkey face
smiling in the sun; someone might
be using those photos for some se
cretive face recognition technology.
Steve Reece is a writer for the
Reporter and a known crime fighter.
Email him at stevereece@gmail.com.
OUR STAFF
CAROLYN S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
Will Davis
Publisher/Editor
publisher@mymcr.net
Tammy Rafferzeder
Business Manager
business@mymcr.net
Steve Reece
Reporter
stevereece@g ma i I .co m
Donna Wilson
Advertising Manager
ads@mymcr.net
Diane Glidewell
Community Editor
news@mymcr.net
Amy Haisten
Creative Director
mymcrgraphics@gmail.com
Official Organ of Monroe
County and the City of Forsyth
50 N. Jackson St., PO Box 795 • Forsyth,
GA 31029 • Periodicals Postage Paid at
Forsyth, GA 31029- 994-2358
SUBSCRIPTION RATE: In County: $50 • Out of County: $60 • Single Copy: $2
Deadlines noon on Friday prior to issue. Comments featured on opinion pages are the creation of
the writers, the do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Reporter management.
Publication No. USPS 997-840
Ignore skeptics and be different
S even years ago, I wrote an
article titled: “Pursue Your
Dreams.” I recalled my article
after seeing a recent Facebook
post by Wes Cone. Cone
posted, “I turn 29 years old
today and have had so many
heartfelt conversations, it got
me to thinking. Here’s my
story on how I turned
minimum wage into a
15 million dollar busi
ness under the age of 30.”
Then, Cone went on to list Ten Tips
For Success.
CONE AND his family live in
Forsyth. He is the owner of Big
Peach Car Wash and the owner and
founder of Secure Self Storage in
Forsyth. He is also a Partner and Fi
nancial Advisor at Piedmont Capitol
Management. As a teenager, he
worked tirelessly as a bag boy at
Publix earning minimum wage.
Cone encountered many chal
lenges on his road to success,
but he chose to meet them
head-on and never gave up
on following his dreams.
MANY WELL known people
have demonstrated the same resolve
as Cone, when it came to pursuing
their dreams. As an inventor, Thom
as Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful
attempts at inventing the light bulb.
When a reporter asked, “How did
it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison
replied, “I didn’t fail a thousand
times. The light bulb was an inven
tion with 1,000 steps.” Walt Disney
was fired by a newspaper editor
because “he lacked imagination and
had no good ideas.” In 1954, Jimmy
Denny, manager of the Grand Ole
Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one
performance. He told Presley, “You
ain’t goin nowhere, son. You ought
to go back to drivin a truck.”
INCLUDED IN the 10 Tips For
See SKEPTICS - Page6A