Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. MARCH 4, 2009
mion
Editorial Views
Harper Was In Right
Place At Right Time
Susan Harper was in the right place at the
right time.
She began her tenure as director of the
Commerce Public Library just as libraries
across the country were starting to change
dramatically with new technology, and she
effectively led the Commerce facility as it
responded.
The 1995 library had no computers, no
books on tape (DVDs were not around) and
no Internet service. Today, at the point of
her retirement, in addition to the traditional
books, the library is a center for access to the
Internet — for research, job searches, amuse
ment and communication. As technology
has evolved, the importance of the library has
increased, and the Commerce Public Library
has largely met those challenges.
The mission of the library has not changed
so much as expanded. The library remains a
key component of community education and
information, and its usage has grown more
rapidly than the area's population. Much of
that is due to changes that took place under
Harper's 13 years as director.
More children, teenagers and adults come
to the library regularly for a multitude of rea
sons, from the aforementioned purposes to
exercise programs for children to art exhibits
in the meeting room to library-sponsored
book groups and writing groups. Managing
a library also means making sure leaks in
the roof are fixed, the plumbing works and
spending stays within budget. It requires try
ing to best utilize limited resources to keep
the facility viable to people of all ages in a
multitude of areas that were unforeseen a
generation ago.
Through it all, Harper persisted with infi
nite enthusiasm and optimism as an advocate
for libraries, books, reading, writing and
service to the community. None of that will
change with her retirement, but Commerce
library patrons know that their library is a
better, friendlier facility today for the service
of Susan Harper.
Parties Reverse
Positions On ‘Pork*
The nation's two political parties have
reversed positions.
The Democrats, who under former President
George W. Bush complained (correctly) about
excessive spending, are now at the trough.
Their "stimulus" plan and the $410 billion
spending package approved by the House
of Representatives last week are loaded with
pork, earmarks and pet projects.
The Republicans, who had eight years at
the trough and whose deficits helped push
America into the recession, now bristle (justi
fiably) with anger at the Democrats' excesses
with the taxpayers' money.
For elected officials, it's a matter of percep
tion. Pork is unhealthy only when it's on the
other party's plate.
Sadly for the republic, there is little real dif
ference in fiscal philosophy between the two
political parties, and that bodes ill for the
hope of any longtime solution to very serious
economic problems.
In this climate, President Barack Obama
proposes to cut the deficit in half by the
end of his term of office. One might wonder
where he plans to find a Congress that will
go along with such a notion. Certainly not in
Washington, DC.
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
JUSTIN POOLE 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 Jefferson, Georgia
30549.
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.
haven't been able to find a job, so I'
begun looking for someone to sue.
The Unexpected Letter
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
In the wonderful
book Cry The Beloved
Country by Alan Paton,
the old Zulu parson,
the Rev. Stephen
Kumalo, and his wife
receive a letter. It was
brought by a local
child from the nearby
general store and bore
a return address in
Johannesburg, 400
miles away. The Kumalos knew a few
people in Johannesburg but they knew
this letter was from none of them. The
letter was such a worry that they let it
lie on the kitchen table for quite some
time before opening it.
Someone said the most exciting
sound in the world is a knock on
the front door, but I don't agree.
Knocks on the front door come from
Jehovah's Witnesses and itinerant
salesmen. No, the most exciting thing
in life is an unexpected letter.
Some months ago I received a let
ter from the wife of a friend of mine
in Atlanta. I hadn't seen the man in
several years and barely knew his wife.
It was her name of the return address
and it was addressed to me only, not
to my wife and me. I immediately
thought: "Harold has died and his
wife is letting me know." Like the Rev.
Kumalo, I pondered the letter a long
time before opening it. It turned out
that Harold was celebrating his seven
tieth birthday and his wife was invit
ing his friends to a surprise birthday
party.
The absolutely most exciting let
ter I ever received was the one that
informed me of my grade on the
Professional Engineer's exam. The test
takes eight hours. It is a killer. And it
takes the examiners months to grade
all the tests. Suddenly, out of the blue,
came the letter. Who wrote the book
BY WILLIS COOK
that ended with a
man confronting a
door, behind which
was either a beauti
ful woman or a tiger?
Anyway, that's how I
felt. Standing beside
the mailbox I tried
holding the letter up
to the sun to see my
grade without open
ing the envelope. And
when I eventually did open it I found
that I had passed the test with a grade
of 87.
You'd think I would learn eventually
that such letters don't always portend
disaster, but no: last week I received
another unexpected letter, from my
sister in Houston. Ditter is quite
computer-literate and our normal
mode of communication is by e-mail.
What, I wondered, did she have to
say that required a letter? She and
her husband have no children, so it
wasn't a sad tale of a child gone astray.
The only other person she could be
writing about, I thought, was her hus
band. You know how brothers-in-law
are, and I decided that Grady had left
Ditter to join a hippie commune in
Tijuana. Well, it was so obvious, and
now I realized that I had seen it com
ing for years.
So I opened the letter and found
a check for $250 which represented
my portion of the final disbursement
from my deceased mother's estate,
which, of course, couldn't be sent
my e-mail. Okay, so Grady's not in
Tijuana — yet. It's still in the back of
his mind and when I receive the next
letter, I'll be ready.
Willis Cook is a retired electrical engi
neer who was born in New Orleans and
grew up in the Mississippi Delta. He lives
on Varner Road in Franklin County.
BY SUSAN HARPER
A Few
Facts t A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
Susan Harper is taking a week
off to celebrate her retirement
as director of the Commerce
Public Library.
Her column will resume next
week.
One Of Those Days
A Commerce police car blocks the lower
end of Lakeview Drive Sunday. A pine tree
fell across a power line.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Praise For Judge Robert Adamson
Editor:
On behalf of the State Bar of Georgia,
I extend congratulations and thanks to
Judge Robert Adamson on his retire
ment from active service as Superior
Court judge in the Piedmont Judicial
Circuit.
Judge Adamson has served the people
of Banks, Barrow and Jackson counties
exceptionally well during his years as a
Superior Court judge. The well-being of
Georgia's justice system depends upon
the service of public-minded lawyers
like Judge Adamson. His distinguished
performance as a public servant inspires
the members of the legal profession.
Judge Adamson's colleagues of the
State Bar wish him well in his new
status as a senior judge. We are grate
ful for his distinguished service to the
public and to the principle that fair and
impartial courts are essential to the
rule of law.
Jeffrey O. Bramlett, President
State Bar of Georgia
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
Not Yet Ready
To Go Off The
Electric Grid
I learned something Sunday
night.
Trying to cook pasta over a
one-burner Coleman stove by
the light of a 40-year-old pro
pane camp lantern proved to
me I'm not ready to go off the
grid.
Not even for 24 hours.
"I can't believe I ever read by
that light," I told my cat. Furby
and I were alone for the adven
ture, Barbara having driven off
in the early snow for Atlanta.
Furby declined to comment.
Our power went off some
where around 4:00 and was off
about five hours. Amazingly,
that's the longest it's been off in
Commerce in years.
I felt pretty good about living
in Commerce Sunday night.
I listened to my scanner as
fire departments all over the
area were dispatched to help
clear roads from fallen trees.
City public works and electric
employees worked all day and
well into the night, and fire
men were often summoned to
two or three different locations
at one time. Police went from
accident to accident, stopping
occasionally to block off a road
because of downed trees or an
accident ahead. While most
of us sat at home and watched
nature's display, a lot of people
worked through it on our
behalf.
I went out a couple of times
for photos. Mostly, though, I
listened to our public workers
being summoned, kept the bird
feeder stocked and tried to pre
vent the cat from escaping into
the Great White Adventure. I
stalked about the house, auto
matically flipping light switches
on as I entered dark rooms.
I'd deluded myself into think
ing I was prepared for a few
days without electricity. Six can
isters of propane, a one-burner
stove, a lantern and a little fire
wood seemed sufficient.
Not anymore.
I'm not among those who
believe in a Great Cataclysm
— possibly stemming from the
economic crisis — will result in
the end of society as we know
it as energy, transportation and
food systems break down, forc
ing us all to cook supper over
grills made from old 55-gallon
drums. I'm pretty much a pessi
mist, just not that much of one.
On the other hand, as a
former Boy Scout, it seemed
prudent to be at least a little
prepared to cope for a few days
without electricity. I'm spoiled
after going how many years —
decades? — without a power
outage of 24 hours.
More AA batteries, a better
auxiliary stove and at least new
mantles on the Zebco (surely
the only Zebco lantern still in
existence) lantern — possibly
a new one. A larger supply of
firewood, more gas in the tank
when bad weather seems immi
nent. Gas for the chain saw too.
Lessons learned. And lessons
remembered. There are always
folks out there working to keep
us safe, even in snowstorms.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com