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The Summeruille News
The Official Legal Organ of Chattooga County, Georgia
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Our Opinion
Missing Mayor Woods
Chattooga County lost a true civic, busi
ness, community, church and political leader
this week when former Trion Mayor J. C.
“Jake” Woods died. He was 86.
He worked for Riegel Textile Corp. for
more than 50 years, serving as the company’s
office manager.
Mayor Woods was a Trion Town coun
cilman for 13 years and then mayor for 24
more years before retiring.
During that time, he got the town on a
solid financial basis, building up reserves that
are now serving the community.
He spent about as much time at Town
Hall as he did in his Riegel office before re
tirement. He loved Trion.
Mayor Woods was a firm leader who
planned well. When he was mayor, there was
no doubt about who was in charge at Coun
cil meetings. However, he gave everyone a
chance to comment even if the outcome was
a foregone conclusion.
He was a deacon at the First Baptist
Church at Trion, as well as a member of the
Few Changes In 15 Years
About 15 years ago, the dropout rate at
Chattooga High School was the highest in
Georgia at 11.6 percent.
It was 11.6 percent during the 1998-99-
school term.
Not much has changed.
However, the dropout rate was 7.8 per
cent in 1997-1998. Who knows why the rate
dipped that year?
Educators and administrators offer all
sorts of reasons and/or excuses for the high
dropout rates.
Some are on target, such as uncaring,
irresponsible, uninvolved parents who see no
need for their children to graduate from high
school.
Others are off-base, such as the claim
that the percentage or number of reduced
and free lunches is always a consistent pre
dictive indicator of poor student perfor
mance. That’s not necessarily true. More than
one high school with 100 percent of the stu
dents receiving reduced or free lunches has
posted impressive academic gains and gradu
ation rates.
Aside from lousy parents, other reasons
exist for the high — and constantly fluctuat
ing — dropout rates. These are just a few:
1. The failure to teach children to read
and to enjoy reading.
2. Education gimmicks, trendiness and
fads that use students as guinea pigs.
3. Dewey’s discredited “learning by do
ing” methodology, combined with the lack of
memorization demanded in subjects such as
math.
4. Not properly teaching students to
understand basic math.
5. Insufficient and/or inconsistent dis
ciplining of students, which would force them
to use good manners and respect the author
ity of school staff members. Unfortunately,
too, teachers and principals are fearful of us
ing the “board of education” for fear of being
Fry And Die
Cold-blooded, convicted murderers will
go nighty-night with a nice, comfortable in
jection of lethal drugs after May 1, based on
a bill zipping through the Georgia Legisla
ture.
The state is fearful that the U.S. Su
preme Court will strike down use of the elec
tric chair as an execution method by declar
ing it “cruel and unusual” punishment.
If that happens, it will be the first time
that the High Court has made such a ruling
since the electric chair was invented as a
more humane way to execute killers. It re
placed hangings in many states,
Isn’t it amazing how the federal courts
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Opinions Expressed By Editorial Columnists Are
Not Necessarily Those of This Newspaper
Quarter Century Club. He had actively served
on the regional Coosa Valley Area Planning
Commission, as it was known at the time.
But many, many people will remember
him by his annual phone calls to them on their
birthday. There is no way of estimating how
many hundreds or thousands of individuals
he contacted every year to offer his congratu
lations.
Mayor Woods was devastated by the
death of his beloved wife, the former Laura
Nell Hammond, several years ago. But it didn’t
stop him from remaining active in his town.
It was only when his deteriorating health
prevented him from making his phone calls
and visits that he was forced to slow down.
He had many friends, even those who
sometimes disagreed with him politically.
Mayor Woods had a charming personality that
hid a steel-trap mind.
How we all shall miss him in the years
ahead. There will never be another of his cali
ber to come along in Trion during this new
century.
charged with child abuse or sued for all they
have by a nitwit parent whose child “can never
be wrong.”
6. Out-of-school suspension, which does
nothing but let students wander around, get
ting into more mischief.
7. “Alternative schools” that appear to be
little more than “holding pens.”
8. The feudal-era effort to limit teachers
to those who have had rather useless “meth
odology” courses. That requirement effectively
prevents retired judges, lawyers, historians,
archaeologists, physicists, computer experts,
engineers and those in other careers from
teaching after retirement. That is, unless they
return to school to take such useless courses.
9. Education schools turning out more
mediocre teachers.
10. Teacher school graduates who avoid
majoring in the harder science and math
courses.
11. Federal requirements that students
with learning or physical handicaps be
“mainstreamed” into regular classroom set
tings. That’s a disservice to those students and
to those without handicaps.
12. Too much state control and too little
paliental, local school and local system con
trol.
We could go on, but it is clear that fun
damental reasons exist for poor student per
formance and a high dropout rate.
Not much has changed in some 15 years.
It isn’t likely to change in the next 15 years in
Chattooga County unless parents demand
improvements.
That would take a miracle.
Draft Dodger
Draft dodger President Rodham Clinton
has pardoned a draft dodger who fled to En
gland in 1961.
Oh hum. So what else is new?
keep finding little nuggets in the U.S. Consti
tution that didn’t exist when it was written?
State Senator Waymond “Sonny” Hug
gins, D-LaFayette, had the right idea when he
said murderers ought to die in the same man
ner that they killed their victims. Of course,
that will never happen. Unfortunately.
There’s really no need to abolish use of
the electric chair, even if a little fire flies off
the forehead of an occasional murderer. That
has happened in Florida but never in Geor
gia.
If you cause people to die,
It is clear you should fry.
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Tidbits
THE POSSIBILITY that Chattooga
County could acquire Riegel Spring in the
eastern part of the county is great news not
only for residents in the area that might one
day have county water instead of wells that
are increasingly going bad, but to future resi
dents.
It is forward-looking moves such as this
that will help Chattooga County control its
own destiny. Water will increasingly be a valu
able commodity as time goes by and states vie
for industrial expansion that requires water.
Right now, Alabama, Georgia and
Florida have been discussing the amount of
water taken from rivers before it flows into
their states. Many times it seems as the dis
cussion would break down into lawsuits.
The problem with Riegel Spring is that
itis located near Floyd Countyand could have
been gobbled up by an industry or Floyd
County itself to provide water for its residents.
It is important that the county own that
spring for any future expansion of water into
rural areas. It is critical, especially for the east
side of Taylor Ridge.
The needs that Chattooga County would
have on the spring would be drinking water,
not industrial expansion. That’s important
because there would be less discharge from
the spring which would affect the depth of the
spring very little.
I hope that the county can acquire the
spring. The benefits would be well worth the
Joseph Perkins .
»
Democratiec Meddling
In Republican Polities
I HAVE NEVER seen so many of my
dyed-in-the-wool Democrat friends so stoked
over a candidate. But it’s not Al Gore or Bill
Bradley for whom they have this political ad
miration. It's John McCain, the Republican
presidential hopeful.
Of course, my Dem pals have absolutely
no intention of voting for McCain come the
November general election. But they sure as
heck will cross over and vote for the GOP
spoiler in states that hold open primaries, as
they did in New Hampshire earlier this month,
as they did in South Carolina last weekend,
and as they plan to do here in California on
March 7.
It's not that the Democrats think that
McCain would make a tolerable president if
their party’s standard-bearer (which looks to
be Gore at the moment) falls short of the
White House. In fact, they abhor the Grand
Canyon Stater’s socially conservative views.
For instance, McCain is pro-life. And no
less than liberal Democrat Barbara Boxer,
California’s junior senator, authored an opin
ion-page column in The San Diego Union-Tri
bune this week in which she directly warned
her fellow Dems that “if any of the Republi
cans win the White House,” including McCain,
“he would try to outlaw abortion.”
McCain is also unsympathetic to the gay
“rights” agenda. He opposes same-sex mar
riages (as evidenced by his 1996 vote in favor
of the “Defense of Marriage Act,” which the
American Civil Liberties Union described as
effort.
It is a positive step in the future of the
county. We hope that the purchase becomes
areality.
. % W
BERRY COLLEGE will host their bi
ennial Southern Women Writers Conference
on April 13 through 15. .
The event has scheduled some very tal
ented writers.
Lee Smith, author of nine novels and two
short story collections is on tap to participate.
So is Jill McCorkle, author of five novels and
two short story collections.
Others coming are Matraca Berg, a
songwriter who penned the song “Strawberry
Wine” for Dena Carter; Lorraine Johnson-
Coleman a native Georgia author; Nikki
Giovanni, a nationally-known poet; Marshall
Chapman, a singer-songwriter whose record
ings span two decades along with numerous
others.
Matraca and Chapman have collabo
rated to present a performance of “Good O’
Girls” based on the novels of Lee Smith. They
will be joined by Smith and McCorkle for the
performance on Friday night.
Registration must be made and paid by
April 1. Conference space is limited.
To register on-line check the college’s
web site www.berry.edu and go to the confer
ence section.
a “deplorable act of hostility”) and gay adop
tions. He also supports the “don’t ask, don’t
tell” policy for gays in the military, which is
anatherna to the Democratic Party faithful.
* * *
SO WHY THEN are so many Demo
crats casting votes for McCain in Republican
primaries? Simple. Because they think that
their party has a better chance of retaining the
White House if McCain emerges as the GOP’s
presidential nominee rather than George W.
Bush.
And even if the Democrats are unable
to tilt enough open Republican primaries in
McCain’s favor to deliver him the GOP nomi
nation, they will be delighted, nonetheless, if
they force the Texas governor to punch him
self out before he goes toe-to-toe with their
nominee, presumably Gore, in the fall.
That’s why even in states where primary
voters must be registered in a party in order
to have their vote count toward selecting del
egates, Democrats are climbing aboard the
McCain bandwagon.
In fact, The New York Times reported
last week that election officials in Massachu
setts have been flooded with calls from Demo
crats who want to change their party affilia
tion to vote for McCain in the com
monwealth’s Republican primary, to then re
register as Democrats immediately afterward.
William F. Galvin, secretary of the com
monwealth of Massachusetts, apparently gets
see JOSEPH PERKINS, page 5-A
Steed o &
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Who Wants To Divorce
e o ® @
A Multi-Millionaire?
FOX TELEVISION thoughtfully planned the divorce
just as carefully as they did the wedding broadcast live from
Las Vegas. An easy annulment was part of the deal. All I can
say about this whole sorry enterprise is tacky, tacky, tacky.
I'm surprised Fox didn’t have cameras along for a spe
cial show titled, “Who Wants To See The Honeymoon of a
Multi-Millionaire?” Fans would have been disappointed.
Darva Conger regretted her indiscretion of marrying Rick
Rockwell immediately upon being chosen. During their sepa
rate but equal honeymoon, she discovered that, in fact, Rick
Rockwell is a doofus.
Upon the discovery that Rockwell has had a restraining
order placed against him by a former fiancé’ and is barely
qualified economically, the press jumped on this story with
both feet. Properly so. Such “reality” TV should be exposed
as being, well, tasteless at best. Television ratings notwith
standing, love should enter into the act of marriage before
people get married. I'm glad the annulment is right around
the corner.
* * *
ONE OF MY all-time least favorite performers has
messed in his hat and pulled it down over his ears. The pub
licity uproar couldn’t happen to a more deserving person, the
one, the only, Jerry Lewis.
The non-funny comedian told an astonished audience
in Aspen, Colo., that he doesn’t like female comics. Here is
what he said: “I don't like any female comedians.” When asked
if he liked Lucille Ball he said, “No. A woman doing comedy
doesn’t offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have
trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that
brings babies in the world.”
For his punishment, I have this image of Jerry Lewis
having to endure a lap dance by Rosie O’Donnell.
Personally, I think most women are hilarious — comic
or not.
* * *
I HAVE NOTHING against farmers. I admire their
chosen life, responsible risk-takers with weather and pesti
lence always questionable. It’s an admirable life’s work.
It is not, however, sacred. It is not more deserving of
government allotments, protective tariffs, price supports and
all the other programs than say, a garment manufacturer or
a printer. I'll be for tax breaks for farmers when I'm offered
tax relief for my business. But that’s another column.
What gets my goat now is a group of more than 4,000
tobacco farmers in 14 states are suing tobacco companies —
as if they need any more misery. “Why?” you ask. Here’s the
fun part. The farmers are suing the tobacco companies alleg
ing they are buying less leaf tobacco from them and more
from foreign sources.
Am I missing something? Are we really a free society?
Is it written that R. J. Reynolds or Brown and Williamson are
required to buy only from those 4,000 farmers and not per
mitted to reduce the quantity they buy? If this suit is not tossed
out as frivolous I've got some ex-customers I'm going to sue.
* * *
FINALLY, Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy has
gone beyond the pale in pettiness. He rammed a bill through
the Georgia House requiring that private schools in Georgia
who have enrolled any students from outside the state or the
county they are in will not be allowed to compete in the same
athletic classifications as they have previously. An example,
if Atlanta Christian Academy played football in Class A and
happened to beat Speaker Murphy’s home town school, the
Bremen Blue Devils, then from now on they will have to com
pete as a Class AA school.
What a waste of the legislators’ time. Only 45 of them
had the...nerve... to vote against the measure. Here’s the mes
sage this silly bill sends: Footbali is more important than aca
demics. Will he next want to do something to equalize the
academic results coming out of private schools versus public
schools? Mr. Speaker, please don't taint your great legacy with
such as this.
I guess a Class AAAA private school will have to com
pete in the Western Division of the NFL. They could prob
ably take the Falcons.
(Mike Steed writes a syndicated column. His e-mail
address is msteed@steedco.com) :
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