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Page 4 — Wednesday, August 25, 2021 The Millen News Opinions, yours and ours from the Editor’s Desk Joe Brady Millen News Editor My mother is infa mous! I have never shared this story with you and for that I am sor ry because the tale of my mama and the bull will go down in history. For those of you who know Mary Alyce personally, you can appreciate this. I’m not the only one of my family plagued by animals out to get me. Many years ago when I was a child and we had moved out to the farm my parents did the whole Mr. Green Jeans thing. They planted com, soybeans, and Mama’s prized vegetable garden. Now I don’t remember that first garden much. What I do re member vividly was the day the cows broke through the fence and decided to partake of Mama’s okra, butter beans, squash, and tomatoes. The entire herd was frolicking in her garden by the time we noticed a heifer walk past the window. Angrily, Mama stormed to the door only to find fifty head of cows roaming freely. Before I knew it she was headed to the bedroom. Uh-oh. My sister and I knew where she was going. You see, Granny had taught Mama how to shoot and to sink acoms floating in the pond when she was just a small child in Emmalane. Mama could shoot straight as long as she didn’t have to shoot too far. Under the bed was Daddy’s shotgun and as she came down the hall cocking that gun Tracey and I moved out of the way. We could hear our sweet Mama cussing her way to the door. For those of you who remember L.P. Mons, she was acting just like him. Her granddaddy would have been so proud. Now Mama had angrily loaded that gun with birdshot, her idea, in the angry red haze of intense madness, was to pepper those cows and get them out of her garden. If she fired straight up in the air, she would accomplish just that. As she stood on the porch and placed her finger on the trigger, Tracey and I stood in the door way, our fingers plugging our ears in anticipation of the loud boom. Immediately after that, we heard a sucking sound, like when you pull your foot out of thick mud. Y’all know what I’m talking about. Mama achieved her goal, the cows scattered. All was right in the world once again. She set about cooking supper in anticipation of Daddy coming home from work. “Alyce, what have you done?” Daddy asked when he walked through the door. He truly was all knowing! How did he know Mama had done anything I wondered? She began retelling the story. “But I fired in the air Danny! I just wanted to scare them,” she explained. “Then explain this,” Daddy stated as they walked outside. In the edge of the pasture was the prized bull. You see, my Mama, the Annie Oakley that she was, had not fired into the air, she had fired that gun over the herd. The birdshot never scattered. “In the morning, if there are more cows down, you’re gone.” Daddy prom ised. Mama sat up all night, imagining cows lying everywhere. Luckily, the bull was the only casualty. But several days later, as she was being honored by the Masonic lodge for an excellent cooked supper of steak and potatoes somebody bellowed from the group, “moooo!” What is the moral of this story? Heck if I know. Beware of a Mons with a gun? That Womack temper strikes again? Or maybe, don’t get between Mary Alyce and her vegetables? That’s all for now, take care! Letters to the editor of The Millen News are welcomed and encouraged. These are pages of opinion, yours and ours. 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 stalf to authenticate its origin. Letters should be limited to 400 words and should be typewritten and double-spaced or neatly printed by hand. Deadline for letters to the editor is noon on Fridays. Email Letters to the Editor to: the- millennews@gmail.com Chartered 1903 The Millen News is published weekly by The Millen News 856 Cotton Ave. • Millen, Ga. 30442 Phone: (478) 982-5460 • FAX: (478) 982-1785 Periodical postage paid at Millen, Georgia. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: 856 Cotton Ave. Suite A • Millen, Ga. 30442 Roy Chalker Joe Brady SamEades... Debra Hearn. Owner Publisher/Editor ...Advertising Sales Layout and Design Subscription Rates (Includes tax): 6 Months In Jenkins County $ 14.00 1 Year In Jenkins County $26.00 2 Years In Jenkins County $46.00 Elsewhere in Georgia $33.00 Outside of Georgia $39.00 They Need Us We Need Them (Part 2) Pastor Brad Asbury pastorbradasbury@gmail.com Last week, our school sys tem had to make the compli cated decision to close the schools after just a few weeks into the new year. Most kids, including my own, had settled into the routine of a new year. Teachers were starting to work through getting to know their new students, giving tests, and was moving to the everyday nonn. Unfortunately, the year came to a screeching halt with the unfortunate five letter word that has haunted us for numer ous months, COVID! Covid has left leaders of our school system, businesses, churches, and many others with the constant question of, “What do we do?” As it has been with Covid since March of 2020, we wonder if there is a “right” response, and we are often left wondering if every response is wrong. I can imag ine for Tara Cooper and the Jenkins County Board of Edu cation, the decision to close was extremely hard to make. One think I have learned in my 4 14 years in Jenkins County is our school system loves our students and they truly want the best for each student. As a parent, I am grateful for their leadership. I am thankful for the constant work of the administration, teachers, and many other staff that serve Jenkins County. Do they make mistakes? Of course, yet we all do. Are they perfect? No, and they never will be; neither will we. And while parents and family play an integral role in the education of their children; we need quality educators who will daily go the extra mile for our kids. At every level, we have this; and our community needs this. However, they need us too. They need us to walk alongside them and encourage them. It is easy for us to say, “what we would do if we were in leader ship.” Yet, if we are honest, if we were in their shoes, we would not do much different. Social media is an easy plat form to voice our complaints, yet they do not need our com plaints they need our prayers and our encouragement. Paul said it best in the Scrip- hires when he taught us very simply, “In all things, give thanks.” Giving thanks hap pens in both the good seasons and in the bad seasons. A thankful heart prevents a com plaining heart. Give thanks today for our board, adminis tration, and teachers who are looking out for the safety and well-being of our students. We need this. Yet, at the same time, ensure that you are being sensitive to how hard this is on many parents and caregivers to no longer have the school for education, lunch, etc., even if it is only absent for a short time. School will go back soon. We look forward to seeing the buses down our streets again. We look forward to seeing the kids off to school again. Until then pray for an end to this virus. Encourage parents, teachers, and school leader ship; be there for the kids who now have “nothing” to do for a couple ofweeks. This has been a tough season that has lasted for nearly two years; let us hold on a little longer and see this thing finally end! Unearthing Camp Lawton Dr. Ryan McNutt, Ph.D, FSAScot, R.RA. “Cotton to Cannons” In my previous column I mentioned the global implica tions of good rail networks for the men bivouacked at Lawton and promised to explain it. In short, the rail networks that linked Lawton to Savannah, Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Caro lina stretched across the At lantic Ocean, past the Union blockade, and into the markets of Great Britain and France. Speculators and private in dustry consistently ran cotton along the rails past Lawton to the wharfs of Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington, where blockade runners trans formed the exported cotton into imported goods; cognac, brandy, corset stays, silks, ce ramics, toiletry items, buttons, cloth, and so on. Anything in demand was brought in, in cluding of course munitions. However, munitions and war related material made up a small portion of the blockade runner cargo. In fact, it wasn’t until 1864 that the Confederacy mandated a certain percentage of aprivate blockade runner’s cargo be reserved for war es sential, government cargo such as iron, powder, arms, shoes, and medicine like quinine, ether, and opiates. The cargo brought through these merchants then filtered its way through markets to our individuals at Lawton. Ceramics, bottles, tobacco pipes, and buckles and uniform accoutrements in small num bers at Lawton show a clear British origin, likely coming in through blockade runners, and then being either privately purchased, or purchased by the Confederate government, stored in depots and arsenals (like the one in Augusta) and disseminated to troops. However, one of the side ef fects of this commerce was the monopolization of the railroads by private individuals and con sortiums for the movement of their cotton gold to ports, and their imports from ports to markets for distribution. The Confederacy never national ized, monopolized, or seized railroads for transport of cargo; despite hav- ing the legal LAWTON power to do page 6 I shared inspiration with my staff about how wonderful it would be if, instead of criticiz ing, people asked what they could do to help. The point of the presentation was to “Be the good.” We don’t know what’s going on in other’s lives. Have empathy. Show grace. Ask how you can help. Support each other in the community, support our schools, support the administra tors, support our staff, and sup port these kids. Ask questions. Be the good. I visited the Hope Chest spon sored by Fostering Bulloch and found a whole lotta folks “being the good”! I was drawn in by an advertisement for a shoe drive in Statesboro, thinking that would be great for Millen, too. I was £a<}le Notes -Tara Cooper, Jenkins County School Superintendent quickly assured that Fostering Bulloch would help. I made the trip over and was blessed. My stars! They truly helped. Coach Yaughn worked in the school system when I was in high school, so I know him. His son has spoken at Millen Rotary Club before, so I also know him. They do amazing work for Bulloch County and define “Be the good.” I was able to meet Coach’s wife and all of the wonderful volunteers on “their comer” in Statesboro. They all were so eager to offer shoes, coats, backpacks, and shirts, shorts, and pants of vary ing sizes. So much so that my car was packed! I am so excited to have necessities for any students in need. We welcome donations of clothing items and school supplies at the Board of Educa tion office. We also encourage anyone to come by if you have a need. Our conference room is full! Also, If you know of a fam ily in need, please let us know! There are always needs in a school system, but we are fill ing them! There are also things you can do on your own for our community. Mentor a child in your neighborhood: call and check in, encourage them, take them to sporting events, or help them with homework. Our fam ily mentors other families. All some of them need are a source of encouragement and support. If every person showed compas sion for a few others in a tangible way, pretty soon we would have a different pandemic: care. I would love to hear more about how we can help each other in Millen rather than be divisive or critical, especially from those that are concerned persons or groups in the com munity. We are too small not to work together. If you have ideas, email me at tcooper@jchs.com. I am hopeful. I am resting on the fact that weeping may endure for the night, but joy WILL come in the morning. I have faith that better days are coming. Thank you to those that have shown such concern and support for our school system. We see you. COMMUNICATION We strive to make your experiecne with us personal. 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