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Page 4 — Wednesday, December 16, 2009, The Millen News
Opinions, yours and ours
The Chatter Box
By Deborah Bennett
The Millen News will be closed for Christmas noon, Wednes
day, Dec. 23. through Friday. Dec. 25. We will be closed for
New Year’s Thursday. Dec. 31. and Friday, Jan. 1.
Items for inclusion in the Dec. 30 edition should be submit
ted by 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23. Items for inclusion in the
Jan. 6 edition should be submitted by 10 a.m. Wednesday,
Dec. 30.
We appreciate your cooperation in observing our holiday
deadlines.
I wish to extend my condolences to the families of Don
Rich and Doris Rabitsch both of whom died unexpectedly last
week.
Don, as most of you know, was Jenkins County’s tax asses
sor/appraiser. I knew Don through the tax office and found
that he was always courteous and helpful when I had ques
tions. He will be missed on both personal and professional
levels by those who knew him.
I have known “Miss Doris” a long time as she was a fre
quent visitor to The Millen News through the years with gar
den club news. I will miss seeing her and receiving calls from
her.
Happy birthday this week to: Janice Pennington, Ed Davis,
Richard McNeely, Dallas Suggs, Dean Bassett, Myra S.
Herrington, Rodney Smith, Morah Johnson, Cindy Linder,
Anna Kate Waters and Bill Wilson.
Celebrating wedding anniversaries are: Mr. and Mrs. Ed
Davis.
Military Active Duty List: PV2 Brianna Joiner, U.S.Army
National Guard, Ft. Benning, GA; PV2 Jeremy Johnson, U.S.
Army, 59 th Quartermaster Company, Ft. Carson, Colorado;
Ronnie Perryman, Charlie Troop, 108 th Calvary Division, 4 th
Platoon, Afghanistan; Lance Cpl. Adam Lanier, U.S. Ma
rines, 8 th & I Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.; E-4 Sr. Air
man Roy Davis, U.S. Air Force, RAF Molesworth, United
Kingdom; Lance Cpl. Patrick Barnette, U.S. Marines,
Baharia, Iraq; Sgt. Adam Demshar, 44th Signal Battalion,
Baghdad, Iraq; Cpl. Lee Ogden, U.S. Marines, Camp
Pendleton, CA; E5 Petty Officer 2 nd Class Eric B. Kelsey,
U.S. Navy, NSA Naples, Italy; Senior Airman Charles F.
Woods, Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta, GA; Stuart Burrus,
U.S. Air Force, Osan AFB, Korea; SPC 4 Travis D. Motes,
1st Calvary Division, T. Hood, Texas; Capt. Donald Slade
Burke, 735th Air Mobility Squadron Detachment 1 Com
mander, Richmond Royal Australian AFB, Richmond, Aus
tralia; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard III, 48th Brigade, 118th
Field Artillery, Iraq; Petty Officer 3rd Class Jamie A. Yager,
U.S. Navy, Marine Corps Base Hawaii; Petty Chief Officer
Andy D. Crosby, U.S. Navy, Elroy Destroyer, Norfolk, Va.;
Stephanie Crosby, R.N., U.S. Navy, Lafayette Destroyer;
Jimmy Cooper, U.S. Army National Guard, 878th Engineer
ing Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf; 1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd
Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Iraq; SPC.
Daniel Stuart, 18thMEDCOM, 121 General Hospital, Seoul,
Korea; Jeffrey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3 59/
E-Division, A-Gang, Norfolk, Va.; Cpl. Larry Lamont Clark,
U.S. Marine Corp, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp
Lejeune, N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S.
Kitty Hawk, Persian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army,
Ft. Stewart, Hinesville, Ga., Mission Kuwait; Arnold R.
Mosley, 2nd Lt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and
Debra A. Mosley, Tech. Sgt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB,
Texas; and SPC Charles “C.J.” Amerson, U.S. Army, Camp
Adder, Iraq.
Letters policy
Letters to the editor of The Millen News are welcomed and
encouraged. These are pages of opinions, yours and ours.
The unsigned editorials generally appearing on the left side of
the editorial page represent the opinion of the newspaper and not
that of any one person on our staff. Personal columns represent
the opinions of the writers whose names appear on them and are
not to be considered the opinion of this newspaper, its manage
ment or owners. Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the
newspaper’s readers.
The Millen News reserves the right to edit any and all portions
of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters must
include the signature, address and phone number of the writer to
allow our staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should be lim
ited to 400 words.
The deadline for letters is Friday at noon. You can email letters
to themillennews@yahoo.com.
Chartered 1903
The Millen News is published weekly by Chalker
Publishing Company, 601 E. 6th St., Waynesboro, Ga.
The Millen News
856 East Cotton Ave. • Millen, Ga. 30442
Phone: (478) 982-5460 • FAX: (478) 982-1785
Periodical postage paid at Millen, Georgia.
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The Millen News
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Walter Harrison
Editor 1946-1985
Frank M. Edenfield
Editor
1985-1998
Roy F. Chalker Jr Publisher
Bonnie K. Taylor General Manager
Deborah Bennett Editor
Lavonna Drawdy Advertising Composition
Subscription Rates (Includes tax):
In Jenkins County $23.00
Elsewhere in Georgia $33.00
Outside of Georgia $39.00
Don Lively
DIVINE INTERVENTION
I’m in agony.
My compulsion has gotten the best of me.
I know better than to do this. I’ve been somewhat clean and
sober for months.
But I’m only human and today I fell off the wagon.
I’ve overdosed on divinity.
Not the kind we learn about in Sunday School.
I’m referring to the insidious, addictive, evil substance that
takes control of me every year about this time.
White divinity. Ninety-nine percent pure, unadulterated cane
sugar with a few chunks of pecan (that’s PEA like black-eyed
and CAN like tin for our Yankee readers) thrown in for crunch
purposes.
There’s a reason it’s called divinity.
It’s Heaven on Earth.
Sadly, it was the one thing that Mama was never able to make.
So, years ago, when I needed my fix, I learned to rely on Aunt
Alice who made some of the best I ever tasted. These days my
neighbor Miss Joanne’s ranks blue ribbon too.
Divinity is one of the reasons I‘ll be digging in the closet for
my fat clothes come January.
I love the Holidays.
I love the feel in the air. The festive nature. The smell of fresh
cut Christmas trees. Picking out just the right gift. Christmas
music, though I wish it didn’t start right after Labor Day.
I love it all, but especially, of course, the food.
The Holiday Season is the only time that I allow myself to
overindulge without guilt. Too understand that you need to know
how the Holidays work to me.
Sometime around Halloween I make an subconscious deci
sion that the Holidays have begun. After all, somebody has to
eat all of that left over trick or treat candy. Then comes Thanks
giving and Christmas with the multiple gorge fests that quite
rightly accompany them. Then, on December 31st I vow to
myself that beginning the next day, NO MORE. The Holidays
are over. Get back to eating semi healthy. Of course that all
goes out the window about thirty seconds into the New Year
when somebody has popped open a bottle of champagne and
trays of snacks are being passed around. Okay, so perhaps the
Holidays are not quite over after all. One thing leads to another
and, before I know it, it’s Memorial Day. After all, doesn’t the
lauding of our fighting forces merit eating ourselves into a stu
por just like the other Holidays?
About then is when it happens.
Letter to the Editor—
Dear Editor,
On Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, I was invited to attend the North
Jenkins County Volunteer Fire Department Christmas dinner.
During the evening, I was honored with an award. I became
emotional (because my late brother was a volunteer firefighter)
and was unable to adequately express my feelings to the group
so am now writing this letter.
I would like to say now what I should have said Tuesday night.
It is each firefighter in Jenkins County (and everywhere) that
should be honored rather than me. I wish to thank all firefighters
for their dedication to helping others, many of whom are volun
teers, while expecting nothing in return. My contribution to the
fire department feels so insignificant when compared to the train
ing, hours, danger and commitment of each of them. I apologize
to all who were in attendance last Tuesday night for not thanking
them.
Respectfully,
Connie Fields
Visit us online
at
www.themillennews.com
I wake up from the months long calorie induced semi coma
and realize that it’s less than a month till the annual family beach
trip and that I have to lose some tonnage before I strike the shore.
My extended Holiday Season comes to a screeching halt and
for a few short months the guilt returns along with the spinach
salads.
Being back in the South, where every woman and most of the
men, can cook like Paula Deen, makes it even worse.
With all due respect to my adopted homeland of thirty years,
folks Out West can’t hold a whisk to Southern Holiday cuisine,
so the years I didn’t travel home for Christmas things were a
little easier.
One year I was invited to Christmas dinner with some friends.
I knew from past experience that the lady of the house, who would
prepare the meal, was, frankly, a terrible cook. I’d dined with
them a few times before and was not able to come up with a
single reason that I couldn’t join them that year. So, bravely, I
crossed my fingers, gritted my teeth and went in.
Inexplicably, I was asked to say the blessing.
“Don, would you please give thanks for the meal?”
I doubted that the Lord wanted to be responsible for what we
were about to receive so I half jokingly suggested that we start a
new tradition.
“Why don’t we wait till after we’ve eaten so that we can be
more honest and accurate with our entreaties to Him.”
Needless to say, my attempt at humor missed the mark and I
was never invited back.
Now THAT was something to be thankful for.
Not all of the western cooks were that bad and in fact, many of
the ladies I worked with took pity on my bachelorhood and plied
me with Holiday treats aplenty.
Cookies. Pies. Cakes. Candy.
The stand alone, without a doubt best was the fudge made by
my friend Debbie in our dispatch. I got a double batch several
years in a row till she up and got married.
Her fudge wasn’t divinity but it was divine. Mouthwatering.
I’d say grace over it any time.
Resistance to such delights is futile.
So, bring on the Holidays.
No lettuce till May.
Amen.
Don Lively is a retired police officer and freelance writer. He
lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don at Livelycolo@aol.com.
edition should be submitted no later
than 10AM. Wed.. Dec. 23.
Items for inclusion in the Jan. 6
edition should be submitted no later
than 10AM. Wed.. Dec. 30.
jjolttiap Seablnies
The Millen News will be closed for the
Christmas Holidays
Wed., Dec. 23, Noon-Fri., Dec. 25
and for New Years
Thurs., Dec. 31,2009 thru
Fri., Jan. 1,2010
Items for inclusion in the Dec. 30