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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 3. 2008
mion
Editorial Views
City Grateful For Aid
In Its Time Of Need
The tornado that dipped out of the heavy
clouds last Tuesday afternoon sent a shock
wave through Commerce and in the few
seconds it was on the ground it destroyed a
couple of structures, damaged scores more
and toppled countless trees. But, as almost
everyone around the area hit observed, "it
could have been a lot worse."
As is the case with most disasters, this one
had the proverbial silver lining — in the form
of an instant response from the entire com
munity to the area hit by the twister.
City police, fire and rescue units were on
the scene in minutes, and even though the
city's utility buildings off Homer Road were
damaged (one was destroyed), its utility
crews were quickly on the job. Local church
es sprung into action to provide emergency
shelter and food.
Virtually every law enforcement and fire
department in Jackson County rushed to
the scene. The Banks County Sheriffs Office
arrived. The Jackson County EMS, the county
public works department and the Jackson
County Correctional Institute scrambled
into action. Georgia Disaster Relief was on
the scene before 5:00 Tuesday afternoon.
The first order of business was to check for
deaths or serious injuries. Then the repair
and cleanup began.
Commerce workers set aside the policy of
not entering private property to remove trees
from yards and houses so residents could get
in and out. Groups and individuals brought
chain saws to cut away fallen trees and
limbs, the Commerce Fire Department began
installing tarpaulins over holes in roofs and
city and county workers hauled truckload
after truckload of debris away. Local churches
continue to match volunteer skills with repair
needs to patch roofs and remove debris.
The inevitable side effect of a catastrophe
is to bring a community together — remem
ber after 9-11 when America was united, if
only for a few weeks. The Aug. 26 tornado
is a reminder that when disaster arrives, we
will not be alone. Whether a tornado hits
in Commerce or Braselton, a serious com
mercial fire occurs in Jefferson or Banks
Crossing, the local governments will respond
at all levels and citizens will rally to aid and
comfort the victims.
Bad things often bring out the best in
people. The residents of Commerce, particu
larly those of the area hit by the storm, were
blessed by the overwhelming response from
local governments, utility workers, fire and
police departments and volunteers. Without
their skill and dedication, it truly would have
been much worse.
Editorials, unless otherwise noted, are writ
ten by Mark Beardsley. He can be reached at
mark@mainstreetnews. com
The President is staying away from the
Republican Convention.
Some people believe he should've done
the same thing eight years ago
Words Are Coin Of The Realm
My dad has always
been an original, and
one of the ways this
is reflected is in his
speech, especially at
home, where he is a
great inventor of, well,
"neologisms" is the
fancy word for what
he comes up with:
new ways of express
ing things. And I'm
here to tell you, they really liven up
the joint!
Here's an example: About six weeks
ago, Dad fell and fractured a vertebra,
as Mother did a year or so ago. Like
her, he has to use a walker during the
recovery phase. Unlike her, he doesn't
call it a walker. He has christened it a
scootercycle.
This, of course, is a far more descrip
tive word. After all, it doesn't walk; it
has wheels. And it not only aids but
also speeds his progress. But it's better
than merely descriptive. "Walker" has
accrued some less-than-exciting asso
ciations, over time. It now conjures
up mental images of age and growing
infirmity. Scootercycle has no such
baggage; it's a word that zips along,
and offers the notion of speed, the
feeling of the wind in your hair.
As a child, I was unaware that Dad
was so inventive with language. I
thought everyone said the same things
he did, until puzzled looks from peo
ple outside our family circle gradually
enlightened me. By trial and error I
figured out which of his expressions
were unique to him, and I quit using
them in the wider world. But I felt the
loss pretty keenly. Who wants to say
"Yes" or "Yes indeed" when you could
be saying the far more emphatic and
interesting "Yessirree Bob Emery!"? As
for "Magic arrooballoo!" — which was
A Few
Facts t A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
the way he explained
doing something
amazing, like pull
ing rodeo tickets out
of his inside jacket
/ jt pocket so we could
K go see Roy Rogers
■™ in person — I only
found a replacement
when I heard the word
"Shazam!" This was
the name of a wizard
in the Captain Marvel comics; young
Billy Batson uttered it whenever he
wanted to turn into Captain Marvel.
William Shakespeare, almost four
centuries after his death, is still reck
oned to have had the largest vocabu
lary (32,000 words) of anyone who
ever lived. One contributing factor
was the rate at which he coined words,
many of which we still use today.
Watchdog, leapfrog, lackluster, circum
stantial, dwindle, domineering, sacri
ficial, softhearted, monumental, sanc
timonious — these are just a few of
the words he invented. If you've ever
talked about pomp and circumstance
or strange bedfellows, a spotless repu
tation, rhyme or reason, or someone
being eaten out of house and home,
you've been quoting the Bard.
He was a playwright, so his words
were written down and passed around.
My dad is less famous, but he's doing
his bit to brighten up the language,
as perhaps we all should. I think the
thing I did in childhood that made
him proudest was bestow a new
name on a pancake turner. I called it
a flanhapper, and I believe when Dad
heard that, he thought to himself,
"Well, she's on her way. Yessirree Bob
Emery!"
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library She lives in
Commerce.
LETTERS POLICY
The Commerce News reserves space on its
opinion page for readers to express their views
on current issues. The News welcomes com
ments in response to events in the news and to
editorials or columns expressing opinions.
Send letters to: Letters to the Editor, The
Commerce News, P.O. Box 459, Commerce,
GA, 30529, or email them at commercenews@
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and have a phone number for verification.
They should be of general interest to the
public.
The Commerce News
ESTABLISHED IN 1875
USPS 125-320
1672 South Broad Street
Commerce, Georgia 30529
MIKE BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
MARK BEARDSLEY..Editor/General Manager
BRANDON REED Sports Editor
TERESA MARSHALL Office Manager
MERRILL BAGWELL Cartoonist
THE COMMERCE NEWS is the legal organ of
the city of Commerce and is published every
Wednesday by MainStreet Newspapers Inc.
Periodical postage paid at Commerce, Georgia
30529.
Subscription Rates Per Year: Jackson, Banks
and Madison counties, $19.75; State of
Georgia, $38.85; out-of-state, $44.50. Most
rates discounted $2 for senior citizens.
POSTMASTER send address changes to THE
COMMERCE NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA,
30549.
A Family Tradition Of T-Shirts
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
T-shirts offer unique
ways to make state
ments, show your
team spirit, advertise
a recent trip, pro
mote a candidate, and
announce an accom
plishment like running
in a 5K race. I love
my T-shirt collection
because the shirts rep
resent something from
the list above (except running in a 5K
race).
While my dad and stepmother were
living in Germany, I spent a summer
with them traveling to 11 countries.
This was one of the most memorable
experiences of my life. During my
travels, purchasing a T-shirt represent
ing all the places I visited was a huge
highlight. T-shirts are an inexpensive
way to keep a memory alive.
Two weeks ago, I introduced my 8
year-old to the importance of purchas
ing a T-shirt to represent accomplish
ments. While on our annual mother-
daughter camp-out at Athens YMCA
in Tallulah Falls, we hiked the Tallulah
Gorge.
Let me clarify the word hike. In the
brochure and map that explains hik
ing down to the gorge floor, the sec
tion we chose to travel down is classi
fied as "very strenuous." However, we
BYTRICIA MASSEY
felt very confident in
our hiking abilities.
After traveling down
1,300 stairs, crossing
a suspension bridge,
walking across rocks,
y slipping down the
A sides of mountains,
twisting ankles and
sweating, we made it
to the bottom of the
gorge and enjoyed
sliding down a huge sliding rock. We
made it and we didn't think the hike
was all that strenuous.
Then it was time to hike out of the
gorge. Because there is not a trail from
sliding rock to the beginning of the
staircase, we had a hard time finding
our way back. "I don't remember this
tree." "Does this rock look familiar?"
"Did we pass all this poison oak?"
"Look there's a yellow jackets nest!"
"These rocks form a cave. Do you
think Sasquatch lives in it?" We began
to get nervous as we traveled back.
We eventually found the staircase and
struggled up the 1,300 steps.
Our legs were unsteady, lungs were
inflated to capacity and our hearts
were pounding. One time my friend
said, "I think I'm having a heart
attack." And I announced that my left
Please Turn to Page 5A
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Each Disaster
Prepares Us
For The Next
I write this column late —
laboring early on Labor Day —
as Hurricane Gustav approaches
the Louisiana coast. By the time
you read this, Gustav will be a
tropical storm and we'll know
whether it was just another hur
ricane or whether it was on the
scale of Katrina.
With Commerce (and many,
many friends) having just dealt
with its mini-disaster, and
with Katrina still fresh in the
memory, I've a lot more inter
est in seeing how the Louisiana
and federal governments would
handle a second huge catastro
phe on the Gulf Coast.
The response to Katrina was
as big a disaster as the storm.
FEMA and the Bush adminis
tration were caught napping.
Gustav, on the other hand,
stood to give both of those
groups a chance to show
what they've learned, how
they're better organized, better
equipped — and that they care.
There is a political element
too. Naturally. With Gustav
arriving around New Orleans
as Republicans were conven
ing for their convention in
Minneapolis, there was a lot of
political ground to be gained,
or possibly lost, depending
upon how successful the Bush
administration handled the
crisis. A strong showing could
have erased a lot of the ill will
generated by the television
images from a drowning New
Orleans — and blunt Barack
Obama's criticism of the Bush
administration on that point.
That reason alone would give
Washington every incentive for
a massive response.
In advance of the storm
and knowing nothing about
how bad it might be, it seems
impossible that the state and
federal governments would not
be prepared. The experience of
the level of disaster of Katrina
and the incompetence and
confusion of the governments'
response gave us a textbook for
improvement. Katrina and Rita
exposed weaknesses at all levels
of government.
Likewise, the strong govern
ment response here to the Aug.
26 tornado is owed, in part,
to past experience. In the late
1980s, a similar tornado (some
said "wind shear"), with most of
the damage taking place along
Scott Street and the Wilson
Drive areas. That led to an
extensive city right of way clear
ing program that resulted in
fewer utility outages last week
(and in other storms since).
The emergency preparedness
spawned by 9-11 brought local
police and fire units into better
coordination, not to mention
city governments. Weaknesses
exposed in New York City by
the terrorist attacks were the
grounds for better communica
tions and organization nation
wide, which paid off in a small
way here last week.
There will be other storms,
other disasters. Each should bet
ter prepare us for the next. And
Hanna lurks, you know.
Mark Beardsley is editor of
The Commerce News. He can be
reached at mark@mainstreetnews.