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PACE 4A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2008 Editor: Angela Gary Phone: 706-367-2490 E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com Website: www.banksnewsTODAY.com Opinions “Where the press is free and every tnan able to read, all is safe.” — Thomas Jefferson The funny things kids say... M y 6-year-old nephew, Jake, had an upset stomach a few nights ago. He loves honey but ate a little too much of it—without a biscuit or anything to soak it up. He hurried to the bathroom and I could tell that he was sick at his stomach. “Go get Nanny,” he yelled. “She will know what to do. She was a doctor in the old times.” I stopped to laugh before I hurried off to get her. Wonder how he got a thought like that in his head. Must be because we all want Mama when we are sick. I know Daddy and I want her as soon as we feel a little under the weather. My sister also calls to describe ailments she has or her sons and husband has and asks Mama what to do for them. Another time Jake had me laughing came after I spent the night with him. I got up the next morning and asked him what he usually had for breakfast. He said, “Mama’s homemade biscuits.” I laughed my way into the kitchen and asked my sister why she told Jake her canned biscuits were homemade biscuits. She laughed too and insisted that she had never told Jake she made homemade biscuits. I’m sure for every story I share, anyone out there with a kid can share two or three more. Children are such a blessing and they provide us with so much laughter and happiness. A stressful day disappears as soon as your precious young one gives us a hug. As I recently celebrated another birthday, I spent more time than usual giving God thanks for my blessings. My young nephews, Jake, who keeps us laughing, and Grayson, who isn’t talking yet but can make us laugh just by looking at his smiling face, are two blessings I give thanks for every day. A healthy, happy child is a blessing and I am thank ful for the two we have in our family. I am also so thankful for my health. It may be easy for some to take their health for granted, but not me. I always thank God for my health, and I do so even more than usual, when I add another year to my age. I may groan about how I can’t get around like I used to, but I don’t have any serious medical problems and I am so thankful for that. This past birthday, I celebrated the passage for more than one week. I was out of town for my birth date, so I had to stretch out the gatherings with fam ily and friends over more than one week. It made me even more thankful for the many friends and wonderful family members who I have. Other blessings I have include a job to go to every day; a house to live in; and more than enough food and clothing. Life is good. angela gary Angela Gary is associate editor of The Jackson Herald and editor of The Banks County News. E-mail comments about this column to AngieEditor@aol.com. The Banks County News Founded 1968 The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga. Mike Buffington. Scott Buffington . Angela Gary Chris Bridges . . . Sharon Hogan. . . Anelia Chambers Suzanne Reed... Co-Publisher . Co-Publisher Editor Sports Editor .... Reporter . Receptionist 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 MainStreetNewspapers, Inc., P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 www.banksnewsTODAY.com Subscription in county $19.75 Subscription in state $38.85 Subscription out of state $44.20 Military with APO address $42.20 Senior citizens get a $2 discount Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga. Postmaster, send address changes to: Subscriptions, The Banks County News, P.O. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547 Member: Georgia Press Association Georgia Sports Writers Association National Newspaper Association Learning the importance of a weather siren T here’s something you should know if you find yourself in Columbus, Ga. at noon on a Saturday — that noise is not an air raid at the nearby Ft. Benning. Instead, that deafening noise — heard throughout most of the city — is the weekly severe weather warning siren. Around here, we don’t hear a weather siren on a regular basis — regardless of the weather condi tions. But in Columbus, it’s a part of the city much like the Aflac building, the Hooch (Chattahoochee River) and scrambled dogs. My family moved to Columbus from Texas 15 years ago, when I was a sophomore in high school. I remember walking up to my new high school to register for class when I saw that sign — “Fallout shelter.” Living in the suburbs of Houston, we didn’t have a need for fallout shelters. And besides, we were so close to the Gulf that no one in Southeast Texas could have a true basement. Did our move to the city next to Ft. Benning — the world’s larg est military base — threaten our lives? Do schools in Georgia have bomb drills like we had fire drills in Texas? A few days later, I heard that noise. It starts as a faint, but notice able sound, and soon becomes a noise that is unavoidable. It sounds like a weather siren — but there are no clouds in the sky. Could some thing be happening on the base? I quickly learned that panic isn’t necessary — that noise is Columbus’ weather siren. Later, that noise would become my alarm clock for those lazy Saturday morn ings that I didn’t want to get out of bed. When you’re teenager with a late-night job, a blaring noise provided by the city certainly starts the senses. That siren would also prove to be a lifesaver. One late afternoon, as some ominous-looking clouds rolled into the area — and the sky turned green — the siren was activated. I didn’t realize it at the time, but those clouds were funnel clouds — and they were heading in our direc tion. But, like a deer caught in the headlines, I kept staring at the clouds. I had never seen anything like it. With the siren blaring and the clouds a short distance from our apartment, my sister was doing her best to get me to take shelter in a bathroom. I’m lucky that my stupid ity (and curiosity) didn’t cost me my life. But the funnel clouds continued to my high school, which was next to our apartment complex. There, our baseball team and its rival team ran into the school when the siren sounded. It was just a few seconds later that the small tornado touched down on the baseball field, ripping most of the equipment to shreds. The play ers survived, but few openly talked about the fear of huddling together in the school as they heard the destruction outside. Years later, while attending a cal culus class at UGA, a siren started. It was already a nasty weather day — the sky was black, it was rain ing and thunder was heard in the distance. And, now, there was siren making a lot of noise outside the building. There were more than 200 stu dents in that classroom — and seven of us had panicked looks on our faces. Do we take shelter? Do we interrupt the professor in mid-sentence and run? Do we really care about a tangent line when there’s a siren telling us something is horribly wrong? And so, we sat there — listening to the siren with our eyes concen trating on the professor, who contin ued the lecture. It turned out that siren was a part of a statewide drill. There was no real threat. Hopefully, whoever flipped the switch on the siren that day in Athens realized that wasn’t the best time to test the system. So, if it’s noon on Saturday and you’re in Columbus — don’t freak out about the noise. But any other time and any other city might be cause for concern. Kerri Testement is news editor of The Braselton News, a sister publi cation of The Banks County News. E-mail comments about this column to kerri @ mainstreetnews. com. 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. Fetters 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, RO. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547. E-mailed letters will be accepted, but we must have a contact phone number and address. Fetters that are libelous will not be printed. Fetters 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 concerning the City of Maysville should go to staff report er Justin Poole at 706-367-2348. 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 throughout the week and can be accessed on the Internet at www.banksnewsTODAY.com. Voter turnout should be much higher T here will be several hundred people who go to the polls in Banks County for the upcom ing July 15 election and I salute each one of you. However, for each one of you who cast a vote in the primary election, there will be so many more people who don’t. Believe it or not there will be people who don’t even know an election is tak ing place Tuesday. I know, I know. How could that be, you ask. Personally, I haven’t a clue. With candidates placing their signs all over the county and placing ads in this publication and through other ven ues I can’t imagine someone — any one — not know ing what is taking place next Tuesday. Yet, I know there will be people who could not tell you next Tuesday was primary election day if you offered them a crisp, new $100 bill. What a shame. When you think about what the sacri fice our servicemen and servicewomen are making today you have to cringe at that notion. Yet, I know it exists. I know people who couldn’t tell you the first thing about this upcoming election. You know them too. The bad thing is they aren’t living in a cave. They actu ally have access to television, radio and newspapers. Many probably even have ways to log onto the Internet. Yet, they remain uninformed on the voting process. Some never even bother to register to vote. I’ve heard all kinds of excuses through the years. Some include: •I don’t care about voting. •I don’t want to be called for jury duty. •I don’t have time to keep up with elections. •They are all crooks. •My vote doesn’t matter. •They don’t care about my concerns. •They aren’t going to do what they say so why bother. Excuses, every one of them and quite frankly not very good ones in my book. A different kind of apathy can be seen by those who actually take the time to register to vote once upon a time but then never bother to visit their respective polling location. Some go so long with out voting in an election their names get dropped from the voter lists. It’s easier than ever to vote these days. You can always vote by absentee ballot. We now have advance voting where you can vote the week before the election takes place. There’s still the old fashion 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. block of time on elec tion day. So many options, so many oppor tunities to do our patriotic duty yet so many of us do not. It’s enough to make Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and John Adams all turn over in the their graves. What have we come to when we won’t even take a few minutes every few months to vote on those who represent us at the local, state and national levels? What does it say about us when most couldn’t tell you who is running even if the keys to a new house were on the line. I hope one day things will be differ ent. I hope one day when I arrive at my polling place the line will be so long I have to prepare myself for a multi-hour wait. Despite the fact I have an overall lack of patience, this would be one time I would force myself to stand there and enjoy every minute of being in line. Afterall, what is more American than voting in an open election? Unless a miracle happens and the voter turnout happens to be in the 90 percent range Tuesday I am not going to be happy. (I realize we should strive for 100 percent, but hey I will take 90 to start with.) As you stay away from the polls Tuesday think about those who are fighting to give us the right to vote. Aren’t they worth it? Chris Bridges is a reporter for The Banks County News. Contact him 706-367-2745 or e-mail comments to chris@mainstreetnews.com.