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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2016
Editorial
Views
No place
for language
of hatred
On page 5 of this newspaper, you
will see a letter to the editor from a
local Presbyterian minister, and a
rabbi and an imam, who are both
from Athens. It’s in response to the
Orlando terror attack and calls for
solidarity among persons of faith.
It also asks us to consider the
implications of the “violence of
words” that is so prevalent in Ameri
ca today and calls for people of faith
to speak out against the language
of hate.
We are in the midst of a presi
dential campaign where the pre
sumed Republican nominee — and
the potential next president of the
United States — has attracted a huge
following in part by using such lan
guage to appeal to frustrated, angry
and fearful Americans. Donald
Trump is not the originator of such
language — it’s being used all across
America, usually nuanced, but hate
speech just the same, but when a
leading public figure repeatedly uses
language to denigrate virtually every
minority, words and phrases that
do not appear in polite company
become part of the public lexicon
and the evening news broadcast.
Such language is inappropriate for
a presidential candidate, but also
for any American who professes to
believe in God, whether he or she
be Christian, Jew or Muslim.
Those words, to some, give
license to prejudicial action, even
violence, based on race, gender,
sexual orientation, political affilia
tion or religion. They exacerbate
existing tensions, become obstacles
to understanding, unity and com
passion, and they fertilize the “us
versus them” mentality that perme
ates our current political culture.
The strength of America comes
from people, who though diverse
in every conceivable way, are
nonetheless united as Americans
— citizens of equal standing under
the law and in the eyes of one
another. When the language of
hate becomes acceptable by our
politicians or in our own conver
sations and attitudes, we sow the
seeds of our nation’s destruction.
The right to voice hateful words
and notions is guaranteed by the
First Amendment to the U.S. Con
stitution, but when that kind of
language becomes widely accept
ed we become little better than
the warring factions that arise in
the Middle East, Africa or Eastern
Europe where blood is regularly
shed over differences of religion or
ethnicity.
America was founded on the
notion that all people are equal
(notwithstanding the issue of slav
ery at the time). Let our words and
speech demonstrate that we still
adhere to that principle and let us
reject those who use the language
of hatred and prejudice to inflame
our passions and divide us for their
own purposes.
Unless otherwise noted, all editorials
are written by Mark Beardsley. He can
be reached at mark@mainstreetnews.
com.
The Commerce News
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MIKE BUFFINGTON CoPublisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
Mark Beardsley. Editor
THE COMMERCE NEWS is the legal or
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A bridge for Richard Chambers
Next time you go to Banks Crossing on U.S.
441, you will cross over the Richard Chambers
Bridge. The 441 bridge was rededicated last Sat
urday morning in honor of a man who served
his community with energy and distinction in a
number of capacities.
I got to know Richard when our yards
abutted during the 70s and up to the mid-80s. I
still have blueberry bushes grown from roots he
cut for me from his big garden at his residence
on Lakeview Drive across from what is now
Commerce Primary School.
In a brief ceremony Saturday morning,
Jimmy Hooper, chairman of the Banks County
Board of Commissioners, likened Richard to
the Energizer Bunny made famous pushing
Energizer batteries. It was an apt comparison.
Chambers was the most energetic person I ever
met, and most of his energy was directed at ser
vice to others. Like the Energizer Bunny Richard
never stopped.
From a column I wrote after Richard died in
2011: “The first thing you noticed about Richard
was that he had more energy than a classroom
of toddlers after a sugar snack, and he applied
that energy to everything — as an elementary
school teacher, then principal, as associate
superintendent of schools, as principal of Banks
County High School.”
It was not unusual to see Richard cutting the
elementary school’s grass on his riding mower.
He did whatever needed to be done.
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
By Mark Beardsley
The Commerce Lions Club initiated the
bridge-naming project. They got support from
the Banks County Board of Commissioners,
whose members had their own reason for hon
oring Richard — he served as the Banks County
High School principal for a number of years and
served that school with the same energy with
which he did everything else.
He was also a faithful, energetic Lion. He
initiated the aluminum can recycling project to
aid the Lions Club’s sight conservation efforts.
He could be seen visiting restaurants or the
Deer Trail Country Club to collect cans, or
picking cans up alongside roads. He’d crush
them under his carport and take them to the
Athens Recycling Center on behalf of the Lions
Club, the proceeds going to buy glasses for
people who could not afford glasses. He could
be counted on to be out front when the Lions
Club did its regular litter removal projects on
Maysville Road.
After he retired, Richard served as a mentor,
including a stint helping two Russian-speaking
immigrant children learn English. It’s hard to
imagine him in a recliner, because he was in
perpetual motion. Equally perpetual was his
cheerful demeanor—if he ever had a bad day
he never showed it.
Richard and his wife, Anna, both served
with Habitat for Humanity. Richard served on
the Commerce Library Board and in his spare
time wrote a book detailing all the cemeteries in
Banks County.
Richard died suddenly from a fall on icy
pavement. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.
I think of him when I walk by his house on my
regular walks — during which I pick up alumi
num cans for the Commerce Lions Club, a
passive salute to a friend, a former neighbor and
a man who epitomized the word “service” in so
many different ways.
I don’t typically give much thought to the
names I see on roads and bridges, but from
now on, whenever I drive across Interstate 85
on U.S. 441 and see the sign, “Richard Cham
bers Bridge,” I’ll flash back to various memories
of a remarkable man whose tireless work made
a difference in the lives of so many people. I’m
sure those memories will make me smile.
Mark Beardsley is the editor of The Com
merce News. He lives in Commerce.
A Father's Day afterglow
I used to tell my dad that I was going to get a
t-shirt made, with “THANK YOU, DAD!” written
across the back, because I was forever saying
those words to him after he’d done something
for me — sort of calling them over my shoulder
as I walked away—and he was forever doing
things for me.
It was “Thank you, Dad” for giving me a
lawnmower, for example, and then for showing
me how to put the right gasoline mixture in it,
and how to start it without screwing up my bad
shoulder, and then for not laughing at me when
I couldn’t start it anyway and for not saying
a word when he caught me swearing a blue
streak as I kept trying and trying to start it.
What does it take to be a dad? I thought about
that when I was visiting my son Dan and watch
ing him with his two little boys. He’s been a stay-
at-home dad for three years, and says he’s loved
it. And I felt, as I watched the three of them, that
he was conscious of being a role model: aware
that he was raising boys to become men.
Dan’s an actor and a musician. He embarked
on those career paths at the ages of 10 and 12,
respectively. He loves to cook, and entered his
first recipe contest at the age of 11 with a recipe
for Jalapeno Chicken, which I copied down and
still use. He’s a big guy with a deep, resonant
voice, and he has a band, which will someday
perhaps, seem cool to his boys. But the reason I
A Few
Facts, A
Lot of
By Susan Harper
think he’s a great role model for his sons is that
he is unapologetically his own self.
That’s how my dad was, too. His interests,
his passions in life, were aviation, gardening,
and classical music — not, perhaps, ideal for
my brother, who didn’t get taken to a baseball
game until our uncle took him when he was 16.
And yet my brother’s passions in life turned out
to be painting, poetry and writing. So perhaps
what we need from our dads is for them to be
themselves, and be open with us, so that we
can know them and learn about the things they
love.
As a parent, I wasn’t even thinking about rais
ing boys to become men. I was thinking about
raising children to be good people: concerned
about others, willing to take risks, able to love,
thankful for blessings, aware of beauty loving
to laugh. They are all of that and much, much
more, but when they tell me on Mothers Day
that they were lucky to have me for a mom, I
know that I was the lucky one.
I do wish I’d gotten that t-shirt and surprised
my dad, because it would have made him
laugh. I go down to the cemetery now and
thank him: for teaching me how to fix things,
build things, plant things; for not treating me
“like a girl.” For taking me on trips with him
when I was little, and knowing how to take care
of me even though I was a girl. For sharing
with me his knowledge of the stars and con
stellations, azaleas, Beethoven, and opera—for
spangling my life with such riches. They not
only last, but shine more brightly with every
passing year.
So to all you dads out there, I would say that
nothing you do with or for your children is ever
wasted (although it might seem so sometimes).
Everything you do is really all about love,
wrapped in generosity patience, and hope. You
have the toughest, best, and most important job
in the world: parenthood. God, I’m sure, can
relate.
Susan Harpe■ is a retired editor, lecturer, and
local library director who currently serves on
the Jackson County and Piedmont Regional
library boards.
Searching for middle ground
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading
Ernest Hemingway’s classic, “For Whom the
Bell Tolls.”
The story is a narrative of American volunteer
Robert Jordan, who travels to Spain to fight in a
Republican guerilla unit during the Spanish Civil
War. The events and characters are fictional, but
based on real events surrounding the conflict
that engulfed the Iberian peninsula in the late
1930s.
The novel presents a fascinating exploration
of the themes of death, sacrifice, duty and
camaraderie. But I found Hemingway’s motifs
around political ideology and bigotry to be
relatable to the partisan climate today in Amer
ica. As I dove deeper into the novel, I began to
research the Spanish Civil War - a topic largely
ignored by my prep and college history classes.
I find the conflict fascinating because it pri
marily arose purely out of differences in political
ideology. The war was fought between Republi
cans loyal to the leftist democratic government
and Nationalists - fascist rebels who aimed to
overthrow the government in a conservative
counter-revolution.
Populism was rampant in Spain in the 1800s
and early 1900s. Partisan rhetoric grew even
greater after World War I and the Great Depres
sion. A secular government clashed with the
Catholic church, while rampant income inequal
ity and classism led to civil unrest among the
working class. Outside influences were also a
factor. The rise of fascist governments in Ger
many and Italy and the Bolshevik revolution
in Russia poured gasoline on a flame already
Writers
In
Rotation
By Cameron Whitlock
burning out of control.
Finally a coup led by general and future dic
tator Francisco Franco led to an almost “down-
the-middle” division of the Spanish military
along ideological lines.
The people fighting one another were broth
ers and sisters, cousins and in-laws, friends and
co-workers. Yet, the Guerra Civil was a bloody
massacre on both sides, with POWs being tor
tured and entire villages of civilians executed in
grotesque ways.
The more I read about the war, the more par
allels I began to draw between 1930s Spain and
the current political climate in the U.S. It often
seems that our society could easily collapse
under the weight of partisan division.
Our politicians refuse to compromise on any
issue and rarely pass legislation of benefit to all
Americans. The extreme rhetoric on both sides
has led to an intense populist movement - giv
ing rise to a fervent support of nationalist (and
fascist) Donald Trump, and democratic socialist
Bernie Sanders.
Those populist voices are amplified by the
wide-reach anonymity and of the web, allowing
partisans to verbally abuse dissenters with little
to no repercussion. The right has moved farther
to the right - doubling down on racist rhetoric,
religiosity and hawkish interventionism. The
left has moved farther left - advocating wealth
redistribution and creating a toxic climate of
social justice, where free speech is sometimes
trampled in the name of victimization. And
the American who employs a nuanced view
on individual topics is likely ostracized by both
sides.
Is the hate Americans seem to have for one
another real, or an exaggeration embodied by
confirmation-biased news sources and social
media comment sections? It’s hard to say.
But I believe the more divided we become,
the more each side will dehumanize the other.
Our division is more likely to lead to violent pro
tests than an all out civil war.
However, I do not believe this partisan
schism is sustainable. Compromise is key to a
civilized society - even if it’s simply acknowledg
ing the humanity of the other side.
Spain failed to do so, and suffered geatly.
As Hemingway wrote, “To be bigoted you
have to be absolutely sure that you are right and
nothing makes that surety and righteousness
like continence. Continence is the foe of here
sy”
Cameron Whitlock is a reporter for Main-
Street Newspapers. Originally from Banks
County, he lives in Athens.
