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Page 4 — Wednesday, December 30,2009, The Millen News
Opinions, yours and ours
The Chatter Box
By Deborah Bennett
As 2009 draws to a close and 2010 stretches out before
us, I have come up with the following “Wish List” for the
coming year for our community.
1. Jobs, jobs and more jobs for our citizens who have
been unemployed for so long. Our citizens want to work.
They need to work. So, jobs must be at the top of the list.
2. Completion of the Savannah River Parkway through
the City of Millen and Jenkins County. The project began
statewide in 1989, and it is long past time to bring it to
completion. Our highways and streets have been torn up
for what seems like “forever” now. Hopefully, the project
will soon be completed.
3. Completion of the City of Millen TE grant project on
Cotton Avenue. This project is actually nearing comple
tion, and the results thus far are amazing. I look forward to
seeing the finished product.
4. Rehabilitation of the lot on Winthrope Avenue that is
the site of the SOC station. The City has acquired owner
ship of the property and is in the planning stages for its
rehabilitation. Removal of this eye-sore is long overdue!
5. Development of the industrial sites of the Jenkins
County Development Authority. I know the group is work
ing diligently to bring jobs to this community, and devel
opment of these sites would certainly be a major asset to
their efforts.
6. Replacement of the Herndon bridges over the
Ogeechee River. The need for this has been proven. It is
time to do something about it.
7. Utilization of Magnolia Springs State Park to increase
tourism in our county and city.
I am sure there are many other items that could be added
to the list, but these are just a few that come to mind.
The Millen News will be closed Thursday and Friday this
week for the New Year holidays. Hope your holiday is a
safe and happy one. Happy New Year!
Happy birthday this week to: Chester Joyner, Nicole
Wilson, Sandra McNeely, Roger Green, Megan Johnson,
Debbie Davis, Rodney Garvin, Dustin Brown, Earl Jones,
A1 Jackson, Jack Kent, James Carlton Cowart and Mabelle
Wiggins.
Military Active Duty List: PY2 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.
Marines, 8 th & I Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.; E-4
Sr. Airman Roy Davis, U.S. Air Force, RAF Moles worth,
United Kingdom; Lance Cpl. Patrick Barnette, U.S. Ma
rines, Baharia, Iraq; Sgt. Adam Demshar, 44th Signal Bat
talion, 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 De
tachment 1 Commander, Richmond Royal Australian AFB,
Richmond, Australia; 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 Engineering Battalion-Augusta,
Persian Gulf ; 1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 25th Infantry Division, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart,
18th MEDCOM, 121 General Hospital, Seoul, Korea; Jef
frey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3 59/E-Divi-
sion, 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.
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And while you drive home,
you can tell me all about your
plans for the new year...
IPO] °
Don Lively
ONE MORE SOLAR ORBIT
Wow!
I can’t believe it’s happened!
I think I’ve hit the big time yall!
I’ve been taken out of context!
You know what I mean. We see it all the
time. Some politician makes a perfectly clear
statement that has only one interpretation.
Then, somebody takes offense to that state
ment and the politician’s knees go weak, his
kidneys nearly betray him, his liver becomes
a brighter shade of yellow and suddenly he’s
back on the front page or before the TV cam
eras yelling.
“I was taken out of context!”
It happens all the time, but for me, this was a first.
I wrote recently about how much I enjoy telling the stories of
the eccentric folks I meet along life’s way. I referred to an tele
vision host who claimed to interview “ the world’s most interest
ing people”. I doubted that the folks he spoke to were nearly as
entertaining as some lesser known ones I’ve ran across.
I wrote:
The spot named some supposedly remarkable folks most of
whom I can’t recall but I do remember that Barbra Streisand was
mentioned. Barbra Streisand? Really?
When my quote somehow, for reasons known only to God,
found it’s way onto a website for fans of the Hollywood diva of
old, it simply read:
The spot named some remarkable folks most of whom I can’t
recall but I do remember that Barbra Streisand was mentioned.
My original sarcasm had vanished.
That’s just one of the highlights, or lowlights, depending on
your point of view, from my 2009 in review.
There were plenty of others.
Like my little accident overseas.
I’ve never told anybody about this till now, but I think I’m
safe nearly a year later.
Technically it was a “hit and run“ but let me explain.
Last March, when I was in Great Britain, I rented a car to tour
the country. It was tiny and, of course, had the steering wheel on
the wrong side, the right. It really wasn’t that hard to learn how
to drive it, I picked that part up quickly.
The streets were another matter.
The traffic lanes were approximately the same width as the
cars with about a half inch to spare on either side.
I was driving through Salisbury, England, not lost but a mite
bewildered. I was traveling twenty miles over the speed limit in
the left lane with cars to my right, cars ahead of me and a lorry,
British for truck, right on my bumper.
I felt like a bumblebee caught among a swarm or hornets, just
hanging on for dear life!
I got a little too close to a car parked on the curb to my left,
another hazard of city driving “over there”, jam-packed streets.
The left side mirror on my car smacked the right side mirror on
a parked car knocking the unattended one completely off of it’s
door. I glanced back just in time to see the glass and plastic orb
spinning down a sidewalk, scattering Brit pedestrians in it’s swath.
I wanted to stop, I really did. But nobody else would slow
down enough.
I was trapped.
By the time I found a place to pull over I was way out in the
countryside miles from my crime scene and couldn’t have found
my way back there if Winston Churchill himself had arisen and
shown me the way.
It wasn’t my finest hour.
Need Signs or Banners?
Address Signs?
Magnetic Signs?
Promotional Products
for your business?
Printing?
Call Bonnie, 706-554-2111.
Also this year, for the first time, I was threatened with bodily
harm about something I wrote. That was a real surprise. My
stuff is supposed to be light. Humorous. Mostly uplifting. Not
offensive.
“ I’ll come up there and kick your ( posterior ), “ he shouted
into the phone.
I just laughed and hung up. Fact is, folks from his neck of the
woods have threatened me several times in my life. I emphasize
threatened. None of them have ever actually tried it.
He won’t either.
It was a great year, mostly good times, a few not so, but, I
suspect, pretty much what God intended for me.
I read 43 novels and enjoyed 41 of them.
In spite of the above described little accident I did my first real
foreign travel.
I was called Granddaddy for the first time, though, admit
tedly, nobody heard the Princess utter that sweetest name except
me.
I lost 39 pounds. I gained 35 pounds. The 35 were more en
joyable but the net result is loss, so, technically, I did follow the
doc’s orders.
I didn’t get rich but I didn’t get the swine flu either.
I watched my dream house start to materialize. This year sticks,
stones and nails. Next year home.
So, there goes 2009.
Bring on 2010.
Happy New Year.
Don Lively is a retired police officer and freelance writer. He
lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don at Livelycolo@aol.com.
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The Millen News will be
closed for New Years
Thurs., Dec. 31, 2009 thru
Fri., Jan. 1, 2010
Items for inclusion in the Jan. 6
edition should be submitted no later
than 10 AM, Wed., Dec. 30.