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Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not. - Jeremiah 50:2
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2019 winner: Best Serious Column - Don Daniel
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
One thing you can
count on in this life
W hen we bought our home three years ago I was
excited to find that there was a pool table in
the basement.
I played a good bit of billiards at Allens
Bar and Grill in Athens when I was a college “student” and
wanted to sharpen my skills against my kids. But my oldest
two never developed much love for the game. That’s probably
because I smoked them so badly.
But now, with the oldest two off in Athens themselves,
8-year-old Ford has discovered the pool table.
“Day-day, can we play pool?!?” he asks almost nightly.
It’s not exactly riveting competition to play pool with an
8-year-old. He can’t really slide the stick along his extended
thumb like adults do. He tried to swing it with two hands like
a spear, with poor results. Finally, I taught him to just slide the
stick on the table with one hand. He’s getting the hang of it.
He resisted using a “bridge” until I assured him that it was not
a weak cop-out, but an allowed part of the game. Sometimes
he even wins, when I scratch on the 8 ball, of course.
One problem with almost every basement pool table is try
ing to hit with a wall behind you. So finally I went online and
ordered some 3-foot “kids” pool sticks.
They arrived on Tuesday night and I handed Ford the box
for him to open. He struggled with it and finally asked for
help. I pulled the sticks out and we admired them through
the plastic. Next we started trying to pull the plastic off. It
wasn’t easy either. He yanked from his end. I yanked from
mine. Frustrated, I let my end go to get some scissors. That
sent the sharp end of the stick flying into his eye. Uh oh. Ford
went to the ground crying, holding his little hands over his
eyes. I felt terrible.
Our youngest child can be dramatic.
But until he could stop crying long
enough for me to make sure his eye was
OK and that he could see, I was pretty
worried.
Mama made a cold compress to put
on his eye, and I breathed a sigh of relief
that there appeared to be no serious
damage.
“You’re probably gonna have a
black eye tomorrow, buddy” she
told him.
“I hate pool!” he shouted. “I never
want to play again!”
OK, well, there was no serious PHYSICAL damage anyway.
After that brief brush with crisis, I thought about the
helplessness and fear I felt watching my son cry in pain. And
then I thought about our friends Vem and Joy Sanders. Most
everybody in Monroe County knows that their little 9-year-
old daughter Madeline died after a 3-year battle with brain
cancer. If a little eye bruise panicked this old dad, I cannot
imagine the suffering of watching a child face a terminal ill
ness over 3 years. The countless visits to doctors and hospi
tals. The grim prognosis. The widening circle of health issues.
The financial pressures.
I am no expert on suffering. My parents’ divorce, the failure
of a printing business and the 2016 Tennessee-UGA game
are the only serious trials I have had in my brief life so far.
But I know there are more to come. Small towns and espe
cially our churches are pretty good at rallying to friends who
suffer. It’s encouraging to see so many people helping and
ministering to suffering families. While we can relieve suffer
ing, we are powerless to end suffering.
In one of the most infamous examples of suffering, Job lost
his children, his wealth and his health. He was suffering so
badly that pus oozed out all over his skin. Thankfully Job had
3 friends who arrived to comfort him. To their credit, they
said nothing for the first 7 days. They just sat with Job. A si
lent witness to his pain. A statement that they were with him.
But as often happens, they got sideways when they began
to talk. They wound up giving long speeches theorizing
about how Job may have angered God. God finally gave the 3
friends a resounding rebuke for their performances.
“You have not spoken of me the thing that is right,” said the
Lord.
See ON THE PORCH . Page 5A
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
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ISIS
REECE’S PIECES by Steve Reece
Sometimes you just need to hunker down
B ack on Nov. 22,1992, Bobby
Perkins, who lives out on
Dames Ferry Road, wit
nessed the biggest tornado
he’d ever seen. He was relaxing
on his front porch swing when I
stopped by to talk to him about it
recently and didn’t get up when I
pulled up in the yard. “What is it?”
He’s a pretty good guy but he just
tries to appear unfriendly. I told him
I was interested in the storm shelter
he built just after that big storm so
many years ago and what prompted
him to build such a structure.
Old Bobby stood up and pointed
across his yard, “I was renting a
trailer right out there while I was
building this house. And, uh, me
and the wife and the boy
there, he came into the
trailer and said, ‘What’s that
noise?’
“I went to the door and
there was the biggest tor
nado you have ever seen
coming across yonder.
It came across behind
the BP over there, came
across the chicken
houses on Edge Road.
It just picked them up and flattened
them out. Chickens everywhere.
And we didn’t know which way to
go. I said doggone; I don’t know
which way to go.
“So, we got in the car and took
a right. If we had taken a left, we
would’ve been all right, but we run
right into it about a mile down the
road and it totaled the car out with
us in it. It just slammed trees down
on us. It slammed a tree down on
us and totaled the car. Glass every
where. It’s a wonder it didn’t kill us.”
I told Bobby he should’ve taken a
right instead of a left.
“I didn’t know which way to go. It
was scary. It went over it and tore a
house up, up there somewhere. Then
it went through the Piedmont Res
ervation, up there across the river in
Bobby Perkins keeping a lookout.
Jones County; it looked like a giant
lawnmower cut down all them pine
trees up there. It was a big
of tornado. It went on up to
Oconee and picked a house
up with a man and woman in
it and threw it out in the lake.
Killed both.
“That’s why I built that
shelter out yonder. But I
didn’t do that until ‘98.”
Bobby’s little storm
shelter is an impressive
bunker just the right
size for him and his wife Carol Ann,
but it ain’t nothing like the under
ground shelter that was repurposed
from a previous US Army Base in
South Dakota outfitted with 575
concrete and steel bunkers. That
shelter can house 5,000 people with
a supply of food, water, fuel, and
hygienic supplies for a year or more.
If the zombies are still pounding on
the door after that, I guess you can
forget it. If there are any spots left,
you can lease one with a $25,000
upfront deposit and $1000 a year for
99 years. The company that leases
the 80’ x 26 Zi bunkers capable of
supporting up to 24 people says that
only the prepared will survive.
During the Cold War, the U.S.
government built a secret under
ground facility beneath the beautiful
Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia to
house members of Congress and
their staff during the aftermath of
a nuclear holocaust. The govern
ment never acknowledged its
existence but kept it well stocked
with supplies from 1961 until
1992. Of course, if a congressman
happened to be on the golf course
when a bomb was dropped, I
guess he was out of luck. Today,
for $39 you can take a tour of the
massive bunker that fortunately
never had to be used.
If you’re a billionaire “prep-
per” (what people who prepare
for doomsday are called) you can
wait out the zombie Apocalypse
in real luxury style. While the rest of
the world is burning to the ground,
the superrich can simply retreat
into what’s known as “Doomsday
Luxury bunkers.” These bunkers are
designed with military-style defense
fortification that is guaranteed to
protect the chosen few and their val
ued items. In Kansas, there is what
is known as the Survival Condo that
goes beneath topsoil for 15 stories.
It features a community swimming
pool, a rock-climbing wall, a store,
and even a dog park. Penthouse
units start at $4 million, full-floor
units run $3 million while half-floor
spaces cost a mere $1.5 million. The
property owners like to brag that
the structure has the protection of a
nuclear hardened bunker with the
facilities of a luxury condo. Nice. But
where’s the sunlight? Where do we
fish?
I’ve lived with the threat of a
nuclear holocaust since my birth as
most of you reading this also have. I
don’t have a lot of protection in my
little house on the edge of the woods
on Lee King Road. I suppose I’ll just
have to put my head between my
legs and... well, you know the rest.
Steve Reece is a writer for the Report
er and a known crime fighter. Email
him at stevereece@gmail.com.
CAROLYN S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
Ever consider you’re in a royal family?
A fter a lifetime of prepa
ration, Prince Charles
became King of the Brit
ish throne after the
passing of his mother, Queen
Elizabeth. All of his life, he
knew the day would come
when he would step into his
kingly role.
Have you ever thought
about what it would
be like to be a king or
a member of a royal
family? What does the
Bible say about royalty
and kingship? If you are a saved, born
again child of God, I Peter 2:9 declares
that you are now a member of a royal
priesthood, and Revelation 1:6 says
that Christ has “made us kings and
priests unto God.”
In Rev. 5:9-10, we read once again
about the kings and priests of the
LORD: “You (Jesus) are worthy to
take the scroll, and to open its seals;
For you were slain, and
have redeemed us to
God by your blood out of
every tribe and tongue and
people and nation, and
have made us kings and
priests to our God; And we
shall reign on the earth.”
When Jesus returns
to this earth to estab
lish His 1000 year mil
lennial rule, He’s com
ing back as King of
Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev.ll:15).
And His faithful, redeemed servants
are coming back with Him! They will
serve Jesus in the awesome capacity of
helping to administer God’s Kingdom
rule over the kingdoms of the earth.
The redeemed of God are to be
preparing now for their future assign
ments in the Kingdom of God. Those
who have been faithful in service and
devotion to God will someday hear
Jesus say, “Well done, thou good and
faithful servant: thou hast been faith
ful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many things: enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:21).
If you have made Jesus the Savior
and Lord of your life, now is the time
to prepare for the larger responsibili
ties that He will entrust to the faithful.
Are you ready to reign as a king and
priest? It’s a humbling thought, but
one we need to contemplate.
Carolyn Martel of Forsyth is the re
tired long-time advertising manager for
the Reporter. Email her at carolynmar-
tell@bellsouth.net.