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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008
Editor: Angela Gary
Phone: 706-367-2490
E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com
Website: www.mainstreetnews.com
Opinions
“Where the press is free and every man
able to read, all is safe.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Today's toys lack
imagination
M y daughter loves her little, red wagon.
It’s one of those vintage wagons made
with metal — not plastic — and no
additional frills.
My grandfather restored that wagon — now almost
60 years old — especially for Katie, now 20 months
old. She doesn’t know it, but previous genera
tions have happily enjoyed being
pulled along a sidewalk in the
same wagon, too.
That wagon is one of the few
multi-generational items in our
family available to Katie.
My mom has a no-frills wood
en highchair — also restored by
my grandfather — sitting in her
kitchen in Columbus. The first
time we sat Katie in that high-
chair, we took countless photos.
It marked the time when a third
generation sat in that chair.
And there is also an old child-sized rocking chair
sitting somewhere in my mother’s attic. That chair,
too, has been enjoyed for more than six decades.
The days of passing down toys or other objects
from one generation to another seem to be fading.
Most of that may be due to the inferior quality of
toys for this generation than in previous generations.
Of all of the countless items in Katie’s toy chest and
bedroom, I don’t think many of them will survive
another year — much less another generation.
And nowadays toys just seem more complex than
just a generation ago.
Katie recently received a plastic kitchen play set.
It features most of the items seen a typical kitchen
— a microwave, forks, spoons, dishes, glasses and
a cell phone.
A cell phone?
Do kids need a cell phone for their toy kitchen
when it seems like they are featured on every other
toy?
Katie has an Elmo doll with a cell phone in his
pocket. She has a talking alphabet toy, also with a
cell phone. And she probably has at least three other
toy cell phones she has received as gifts.
But don’t get me wrong — that little girl loves her
cell phones.
Perhaps it’s because she sees her mommy and
daddy on a cell phone. She seems to think they are
our “toys,” and wants to play with them, too.
And the crazy thing is, she has learned how to
make calls on our cell phones. She has also figured
out a bunch of features on my cell phone that I didn’t
know even existed. Smart kid.
Like so many other kids, Katie is more easily
entertained with today’s complex toys — the ones
with too many annoying sounds, lights and move
ments.
But I still want her to play with those older toys —
the ones that don’t provide all of the entertainment
for her and still require her to use her imagination.
Kerri Testement is news editor of The Braselton
News, a sister publication of The Banks County
News. Her e-mail address is kerri@mainstreetnews.
com.
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher (Editorial)
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher (Advertising)
Angela Gary Editor
Chris Bridges Sports Editor
Sharon Hogan Reporter
Anelia Chambers Receptionist
Suzanne Reed Church News
Phones (all 706 area code):
Angela Gary Phone 367-2490
Angela Gary Fax 367-9355
Homer Office Phone 677-3491
Homer Office Fax 677-3263
(SCED 547160)
Published weekly by
MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.,
P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
Subscription in county $19.75
Subscription in state $38.85
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Will rebranding work?
R ebranding is the latest buzz
word in political campaigns.
Everywhere you look, some
politician or politician’s spouse is gear
ing up to play the rebranding game.
They try to change who they are and
reinvent what they’ve said. They’re
hoping voters have forgotten the old
brand and will only remember the new
trademark on Election Day.
Michelle Obama has lined up talk
shows across the country to endure
dumb interviews in which she tries
to prove she would be just another
Princeton-educated first lady instead
of an angry black activist in the White
House.
John McCain is trying to back away
from his image as a George W. Bush
add-on. Before that, he was the un
Bush. Now McCain is trying to take a
position between the Bush battler and
the Gore greenie.
Watch Barack Obama try to modify
his image by picking a moderate white
guy, possibly a Southerner, as his run
ning mate. He’s also changed churches.
Be careful, Sen. Obama, you can take
rebranding too far. Remember New
Coke and the Ford Edsel?
Georgia’s own Sonny Perdue may be
attempting the most dramatic rebrand
ing on today’s political stage. You have
to wonder why. He is not seeking re
election to a third term because the
law prohibits it. The General Assembly
dislikes Sonny too much to reward him
with a crack at four more years. So why
is Sonny suddenly so busy?
Why is he off in his helicopter just
about every morning with a fistful of
new promises and policies that should
have been taken up six years ago?
Sounds like a candidate for something,
right?
When he first ran in 2002, Perdue
promised to upgrade public educa-
tion and “return
local control” to
schools. Instead,
schools deterio
rated steadily, and
“local control”
turned out to be
another way of
saying “cut, cut,
cut.” Perdue has
cut schools’ funds
every year he has
been in office,
with reductions
now totaling $1.5 billion. Nearly 100
school districts across the state have
had to raise local property taxes to
make up for the loss of state funds.
Local systems have been forced to
abolish “frill” education programs for
students. French and fine arts are just
too expensive for Bubba’s kids, right,
folks? Now, near the end of his reign,
Perdue pledges to fix the schools. It’s
part of his great rebranding plan.
With less than two years left in
office, Perdue has rolled out a gigan
tic transportation program that entails
more than simply slapping another
lane of asphalt on overbuilt interstate
highways. Perdue’s transportation plan
would not be completed until he is long
gone from the Gold Dome. The next
governor would be saddled not only
with implementing the plan but with
financing it too.
The Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber
of Commerce recently pointed out
that Perdue has virtually wiped out
the state’s bonding capacity for roads.
Georgia’s debt service exceeds $1 bil
lion for the first time in history, and it
promises to grow greater by the year
even without Perdue’s master transpor
tation plan. But two weeks ago, Perdue
saw the light. He unveiled a transporta
tion proposal to undo Democrats’ old
wrongs and oversights.
When he ran for governor, Sonny
painted himself as an expert on the
problems of indigent, troubled chil
dren. He assailed Gov. Roy Barnes for
declaring blithely on TV, “Children die
every day.”
Georgia’s program for troubled chil
dren is still a mess, producing a scan
dalous tragedy at least once a month.
At a recent press conference at which
he tried to explain away more children
dying while in state custody, an angry,
red-faced Perdue declared:
“If the expectation is that we as a
state are going to keep every crimi
nal out there from harming or killing
their child, that’s probably an unrealis
tic expectation.” Still, the new Perdue
promised new reform.
Now, tell us again, Gov. Sonny, how
you derided Barnes for saying pretty
much the same thing you did last
week — unattended kids, trapped in
a nightmarish prison atmosphere, lose
their lives from time to time.
Oh, there’s one more thing that needs
emergency attention. Georgia’s mental
health program is at its lowest ebb
since the 1950s. Nearly 60 years ago,
Gov. Ernest Vandiver received wide
praise for cleaning up Georgia’s “snake
pit” mental hospitals. He also initiated
plans to establish a model system of
mental health treatment.
In time, that system collapsed, but
the new Sonny recently promised to
repair it. The rebranded Sonny is sud
denly everywhere promising every
thing, just like in 2002. You have to
wonder whether Georgians will believe
him this time.
You can reach Bill Shipp at P.O. Box
2520, Kennesaw, GA 30156, e-mail:
shipp1@bellsouth.net, or Web address:
billshipponline.com.
bill
shipp
Letters to the editor policy given
The Banks County News has estab
lished a policy on printing Letters to
the Editor.
We must have an original copy of
all letters that are submitted to us for
publication.
Members of our staff will not type
out or hand-write letters for people
who stop by the office and ask them
to do so.
Letters to the Editor must also be
signed with the address and phone
number of the person who wrote
them.
The address and phone number
will be for our verification purposes
only and will not be printed unless
the writer requests it. Mail to,
The Banks County News, P.O. Box
920, Homer, Ga. 30547.
E-mailed letters will be accepted,
but we must have a contact phone
number and address. Letters that are
libelous will not be printed.
Letters may also be edited to meet
space requirements. Anyone with
questions on the policy is asked to
contact editor Angela Gary at
AngieEditor@aol.com or by calling
706-367-2490.
News department contact numbers
Anyone with general story ideas,
complaints or comments about the
news department is asked to call edi
tor Angela Gary at 706-367-2490.
She can also be reached by e-mail
at AngieEditor@aol.com.
Anyone with comments, questions
or suggestions relating to the coun
ty board of commissioners, county
government, county board of educa
tion and crime and courts is asked to
contact staff reporter Chris Bridges
at 706-367-2745 or by e-mail at
chris@mainstreetnews.com.
Bridges also is sports edi
tor of the paper and covers local
high school, middle school and
recreation sports.
Anyone with comments, ques
tions or suggestions relating to
Alto, Lula, Baldwin and Gillsville,
should contact Sharon Hogan at
706-367-5233 or by e-mail at
sharon@mainstreetnews.com.
Calls for information about the
church page should go to Suzanne
Reed at 706-677-3491. Church
news may also be e-mailed to
churchnews@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News website
is updated each Thursday and can
be accessed on the Internet at
www.mainstreetnews.com.
Would trade
curls for
straight hair
W hy is it that you always want
what you don’t have. Women,
and even some men, spend
lots of money each year having smelly
chemicals put on their hair just so it will be
bouncy, curly and full of body. Not me, I
have what I refer to as “natural fuzz.”
Just look at my mother and you will see
where it came from. It is actually why I think
so many people think
we look like twins.
They see the black
fuzz around our head
and never actually
look at our faces.
Anyway back to my
curls, I was born with
them. My childhood
photographs look like
Shirley Temple or
Little Orphan Annie,
except I had dark
black ringlets instead
of their blond or red
ones. It was uncontrollable. My poor mother
tried her best to pull a brush through the wild
tangles, but it was hopeless.
Since I’ve taken over trying to control my
hair, I haven’t used a brush. I don’t even own
one. I just pull a pick through my curls best
I can. It takes about five minutes to fix my
hair. There’s no point in trying to control it.
My hair is actually a lot straighter than it was
when I was younger.
I really want long, straight silky hair that
swings from side to side of my head. I want
to braid my hair and wear it in a long pony
tail. No matter how long my hair is, as soon
as I pull it up, it curls up into a tight little
ball. No swinging my pony-tail from side
to side.
There are ways to straighten curly hair but
I’m just not talented enough to do it myself.
I guess it comes from years of not even try
ing with my hair. My beautician, the talented
Robin Roberts, can have my hair straight in
just a few minutes by “blowing it out.” I just
can’t pull it off in my own bathroom.
I actually didn’t know Robin could make
my hair straight until just a few years ago.
I read about a “blow out” in some fancy
fashion magazine. I went to Chicago with
a friend who was on a business trip. While
my friend was in class one day, I made an
appointment and went to this fancy salon.
I ended up paying a lot of money for what
Robin could do in Homer. She also does it a
lot better and doesn’t charge near as much as
the big city salon.
I did have quite an experience in the salon.
I called and made the appointment and got
the address for the building. I took a taxi
over and was sure I was at the wrong place.
It didn’t look like any beauty shop I had ever
seen. It was a huge, brick skyscraper. There
were no signs in front telling what businesses
were located inside. I went to the lobby and
found a security guard sitting at a desk. I told
her that I had a hair appointment and she had
me sign in and get a visitor’s name tag. She
then sent me up the 15th floor. I got off of the
elevator and entered into another world.
As soon as I walked into the salon, some
one rushed over and handed me a robe and
told me where to change. I nervously said
I was just getting my hair styled and that I
didn’t need to take my clothes off for that.
She assured me that everyone changed into
a robe and directed me into the tiny cubicle
to change.
As soon as I came out tugging the thin
robe around me, another lady hurried over
and offered me a cappuccino while I waited.
I got more nervous by the minute. I was
sure I looked like a country hick sitting in
the fancy salon.
A hyper older man was my “stylist.” He
was very nice and tried to put me at ease. I
was on my way with straight hair in no time
at all. Like I said, it cost a lot more than it
should have but I kept telling myself I was
on vacation and it was special treat.
When I got back home, I told Robin
about it and she said she could do that any
time. Sure enough, she “blows out” my hair
straight every time she cuts it. I don’t get the
robe though but I get to tease her and ask
where it is and whether she has any cappuc
cino for me.
I was reading another fashion magazine
recently and saw an article on “thermal con
ditioning.” It costs $300-$1,000 and makes
your hair straight forever. This is certainly
intriguing but probably not a good idea for
me. I’m sure that as soon as my hair was
straight, I would be trying to figure out
how to get it curly again.
angela
gary
Angela Gary is editor of The Banks
County News and associate editor of The
Jackson Herald. She can be reached at
AngieEditor@aol.com.