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PAGE 4A — THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. APRIL 9. 2009 Opinions Frankly Speaking frankgillispie671@msn.com By Frank Gillispie Southern principles should be celebrated April is Southern History and Heritage month. But you would never know it if it were left up to the major media. Every other group that declares a month for their recognition gets news coverage, often extensive coverage. But not the great American South. Dixie is a unique part of this nation, with a unique history and culture. It has made major contributions to the nation and the world. Yet it is totally ignored by the media, and actually attacked by those who would destroy all evidence of its existence. Southern History and Heritage needs a month to set the record straight. We need an opportunity to correct the massive distortions of history and the key elements of our culture that those in power try to mask. You see, Dixie is the one part of America that still supports the American Revolution. Most of the rest of the nation has abandoned our founding principles. So, what are those founding principles? What kind of nation did our founders create? And, how did we lose them? A key principle of this nation was that our rights were granted by our creator, not government. That is plainly stated in the Declaration of Independence. The only power the government has is what we choose to give them. That is the way it is supposed to be. But now, government assumes that it has all power and the only rights we have is whatever gov ernment says we have. This nation was founded on the principle of per sonal responsibility. Americans were expected to be responsible for their own needs and the needs of their family. Government's only role was to prevent anyone else from interfering with our ability to take care of ourselves. But today government assumes the responsibility to provide for our every need, and insist that we turn over our personal responsibility and control to the massive government bureaucracy. Our founders gave us the right to worship God as we see fit. It specifically said that the federal govern ment is prohibited from interfering with that right. But today, if we as a community choose to have God as a part of our schools, the federal government denies us that right. And speaking of schools, a part of our personal responsibility is to provide for the education of our children. But today, government dictates every com ponent of our children's education, even to what will be taught in the history classes. You see, the conflict from the beginning was over where the responsibility for our lives lies. Are we to be allowed to mn our own lives as we see fit, or does government have the right to take that responsibility away and dictate to us how we should live? Today the all powerful government people have the upper hand. And they are determined to impose government control over everyone, especially those of us who still insist on personal freedom and per sonal responsibility. The majority of the holdouts who still insist on personal freedom and responsibility are right here in Dixie. And if we are to preserve any degree of that personal freedom, it will be Southerners who lead the resistance. So remember that April is Southern History and Heritage month. And if you still believe in the prin ciples on which this nation was founded, join us here in Dixie in the effort to take our nation back! Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frankgillispie671@ msn.com. His website can be accessed at http:// frankgillispie. tripod, com Letter to the Editor Searching for former Airborne members Dear Editor: The 82 nd Airborne Division Association is searching for former members who are not aware of our organization. Combat is not a requirement, only the wings earned. Meetings and many special events are held. For more information, contact Airborne Days, 5459 Northcutt PL, Dayton, OH 45414; email srgabn@aol.com or phone, 937-898-5977. Sincerely, Shirley R. Gossett Fayetteville, NC What holds those old voices There’s a Depression-era radio that sits on top of our bookcase. It’s about two feet tall and has an east-west, north-south dial, but you can’t pick up any station. The loose battery wires hold no charge. Sometimes I imagine being able to shake that thing awake, resusci tate the Rip Van Winkle of a radio through the wall socket. I picture the other end of the radio wave, the announcer of yesteryear breath ing into a large microphone and holding a yellowed newspaper. He reads the names of the long gone to the radio listeners. I picture the house as it was when the radio talk ed and imagine a bucket and hands busy shelling peas on the porch as the old news turns to gospel. Nowadays, we watch the Antiques Roadshow on PBS. I even flip to this without my wife in the room, which my younger self would see as a sad sight if he could get a glimpse. But it’s interesting to look at old items and hear how some one’s big elm-wood bowl used as a childhood snow sled is actually a Native American relic and worth quite a bit of money. Of course, we rely on the dol lar figure to confirm worth. Some folks spend Saturdays searching In the Meantime zach@ mainstreet news.com By Zach Mitcham for the steal, hoping some poor fool doesn’t realize the treasure he’s giving up. Who doesn’t dream of the easy buck? For a time, I was a card hunter. I had a complete 1983 Fleer set of baseball cards tucked away, believ ing the cardboard box was like a bar of gold. Who wouldn’t pay a good dollar for the set that includes Wade Boggs’ rookie card? Later, I bought a Barry Bonds rookie card, sure that I would be able to cash it in one day for a tidy profit. Of course, like the housing market. Bonds went from “prime” to “sub prime.” But my card-collecting days are long gone. The fact is. I’m not a savvy collector of anything, not someone who could turn a good profit at the flea market, not a salesman or a keen-eyed antique consumer. No, I’m more interested in the sentimental value of things. Everyone has his own personal treasures that aren’t worth much to anyone else. I have mine, too. Before long, my daughter will let go of her “Dow,” a soft pink thing she sleeps with. Of course, my wife and I won’t ever let go of it. We can’t hold on to her childhood, but we will hold that dog-eared relic. And that softness in the hands is a powerful thing to me, even now. I think of this past Father’s Day, when my mom gave me a framed copy of a poem my father had writ ten to his father on Father’s Day 1972, the year I was bom. My mom was pregnant with me when she neatly stenciled the words for my dad. He was clearly thinking about becoming a father, while wanting to let his dad know what he thought of him. My father is an accomplished writer. And he seems embarrassed to let anyone read anything that hasn’t cleared his rigorous self editing process. He throws away much more than he keeps. We never see the stuff that doesn’t cut it. I think of how the flood of 1994 wiped out my childhood home, including the basement, where my father and I tossed out stacks of his early writing, which had marinated in the flood’s sewage soup. He seemed unfazed as we dropped all that writing in trash bags. That early work was part of a process, “just practice.” His success came off his later writing. But I’m really thankful to have the old, “flawed” poem that remains in the frame, a tribute to my dad’s dad who died 20 years ago this week. The poem closes with this: “For silent years the trust of children in the passing by A faith of understanding takes us down the line which does not turn, To ask for ourselves only the wisdom of our father.” That old radio has sat silent for many years, but I look at it and think of how certain things in our lives are full of old voices. These things are not always easy to look at, but their value is not a question. Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal. Do you blog? Or maybe you twitter? (And as someone said the other day, does that make one a twit?) I don’t do either, for me it’s hard enough to write this occasional column, but evidently I'm in the minority. Blogging is a relatively new phenomenon, according to most. Everybody has an opinion and they are not afraid to share it, especially if they can remain anonymous. As for twitter - to be truthful I’m really not sure what that is. I just heard about it a few weeks ago and now it seems as if that’s all everybody's talking about. Newscasters are “twittering” with viewers; there’s supposedly even a mounting problem with jurors “twittering” with outsiders during court cases, causing some cases to be thrown out. And people are evidently blog ging and twittering about their every move - what they had for breakfast, what their day was like, what they wore, etc. Excuse me, but I just don’t think anyone wants to hear (or read) about what I had for breakfast or wore to work, etc. and I don’t feel the need to tell anyone about it. Who has time (or feels the need) to read or write about all that stuff? Are you a twit? Close to i\ i Home L By Margie Richards I grew up on the “party line” which I guess in itself could be a form of twittering or blogging, since if you weren't careful what you said, it could be broadcast faster than the speed of the internet all over the community. (Those of you who remember party lines know exactly what I mean.) As far as the written word. I've always thought that it held little value unless it had your name applied to it. For example, if you write an editorial for this news paper, you must provide your name, address and phone number for verification purposes. But you can comment all the livelong day on websites (including ours) as “anonymous.” But two commentators on CBS’s Sunday Morning this week had a different point of view. These two fellows. Josh Landis and Mitch Butler, are of the opinion that today’s news business is starting to look surprisingly like the old days. As an example, they pointed to America's first multi-page news paper, “Publick Occurrences, Both Forreign and Domestick,” which was published in Boston in 1690. It had three typed pages, with the fourth and last page left blank. According to them, this was done on purpose so readers could add their own comments about the sto ries or their own news items and pass their copy along to their neigh bors and friends. The paper was supposed to be published monthly or “if any glut of occurrences happen, oftener.” But, unfortunately, that first issue was the only “glut of occurrences” allowed to be printed. The govern ment shut it down because it con tained “reflections of a very high nature,” whatever that means, and because the publisher had failed to obtain a license. In other words, the powers that be didn't like it. It was 14 years before the next newspaper was printed and after the Revolution the advent of the primitive printing press allowed the newspaper industiy to grow, with advertisers on board to foot the bill. And their views do have some merit. For example, old issues of The Danielsville Monitor contain world and national news, and some times the latest scandal. News was often written in a manner we would consider litigious today, with details that definitely fall into the category of unverified, at best. The bulk of the paper contained numerous advertisements, along with a slew of community doings (and some gossip) from every comer of the county, usually without mention of who the author was. So here we are over 300 years later and newspapers as we know them are becoming a product of the past. But, I guess there’s also the idea that everything old is new again. As Landis and Butler pointed out, “first there were many voices, then there were a few, now there are many again” all telling their opin ions and stories, just in a new format. Only time will tell what this new age of blogging, twittering and “facebooking” and the like will bring, and whether we’ll be the bet ter, or worse, for it. Margie Richards is a reporter and office manager for The Madison County Journal, Is the drought giant really dead? Can we really declare the worst drought in at least 50 years to be over? Despite some news stories to the contrary, I think it is prema ture to be having drought obitu aries printed. I do believe that the drought has definitely been knocked out. It may not rear its ugly head again. But dead? Not so fast, my friend. Let’s look at the facts. For the years 2006-08, we were below average on rain an astonishing 44.72”. This is only 71 percent of the average for those three years. For the three years 1999-2001, we missed another 37.45” of rain. During the respite of 2002-05, we had a small surplus of about 11 inches. Weather wise By Mark Jenkins Since the real long-term drought began in 1998 we have racked up a total deficit in rain of, are you ready for this, over 71 inches. This mind-numbing figure is the true picture of where we stand in terms of rainfall numbers. Now to be fair and bal anced, we started this drought in the summer of 1998 with very wet conditions after one of the strongest El Nino episodes in modem history. But the empiri cal evidence seen as recently as last summer of dry creeks, and record low lake and river levels was an overwhelming witness of the ferocity of this drought. On the bright side, we had a fantastic March for moisture. It was our fourth wettest since 1982, and the rain was wide spread over a large part of the southeastern states. Most of Georgia had five to 10 inches for the month, with more heavy rains the first two days of April. The ground is as wet as I have seen it in maybe four years, lakes are coming up and rivers are high. We really may have turned a big corner. But this wet trend needs to continue as a regular feature for at least four or five more months before we can check the pulse of the giant drought and call for the undertaker. Drought dented? Yes. Drought dead? Not yet. Weather averages for March, 2009: Avg. low: 42. Avg. high: 62. Lowest: 17.Highest: 81. Mean: 52.1 (-1.1). Total precipitation: 7.79” (+2.74”). Total Snow: 8.1” (new all-time record). 2009 total to March 31: 14.83” (+0.20”). Mark Jenkins is the cooperative weather obser\>er for Madison County. He provides a monthly weather column to The Madison County Journal. The Madison County Journal SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Madison & surrounding counties $19.75/year State of Georgia $38.85/year Out-of-state $4450/year Military personnel with APO address $4250/year Senior rate $2 off all above rates College student discount rate $2 off all above rates POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL P.O. Box 658, Danielsville, GA 30633 A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Letter to the Editor Thankful for support from the community Dear Editor: Our family would like to thank our community. Moon’s Grove Baptist Church, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Seagraves, Mrs. Montie Burroughs, Mr. and Mrs. Keith McElroy, Ms. Anne Sisk and Mrs. Griffith and many more for the outpouring of love and sympathy shown to us in our time of bereave ment in the passing of Jeannine S. Hall. Mr. Lanier and Jeannine Hall lived on Moon’s Grove Church Road at the Old Rice Family Farm for many years and loved their neighbors, church community and friends. Mr. Hall is now resid ing in Tennille and will dearly miss his wife. She was a won derful, caring mother, sister, aunt and grandmother (Nanny) to her grandchildren. We have some of the best cooks in Madison County, we had family from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania staying with us and they just couldn’t believe how our community came to us at this time. They said in their town people were different. I’m very proud of our community and ever so glad to be living among the finest people you could ever meet. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Sincerely, Ruff and Pam Smith, Apryl Jeannine Smith and Jordan Marable, Whit and Julianne Smith and Bob, Susan and Justin Aspenleiter