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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. JUNE 4. 2009 — PAGE 5A
Opinions
Reflections
Saxby, Johnny must walk a fine line
Mr. Jere: A Madison
County Legacy
By Jennifer Lester Benson
Mr. Jere Ayers was bom in
1914. He grew up in Madison
County at the newspaper busi
ness his parents bought in 1915.
He often spoke about his earliest
memories of the newspaper ...
sitting in a fruit crate as a young
child while his mother worked
on the paper. And although he
enlisted in the Navy, traveled the
world, and even served as a state
representative, he always came
home to Madison County.
The majority of his life was
spent in service to the county. Mr. Jere helped start many organiza
tions in Madison County including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and
the Madison County Rotary Club. He was a member of the Comer
Lions Club and Free Masons for over 50 years. He was also a faith
ful member of Meadow Baptist Church. However, Mr. Jere served
this county most and best through Madison County Newspapers
Inc., which included The Danielsville Monitor and Comer News.
The newspaper was his life and, through it, he touched many lives.
He loved this county and he loved his family and his family’s
place in the county. He was very proud of their history. I remember
the first time I ever visited him at his home, which was his parents’
home in Comer. He walked me through the house as if a guide in a
museum, sharing stories about various items on display. He showed
me historical maps of the county, far different from today’s county
map. There were grandfather clocks, a baby carriage, a china cabi
net, glassware, and even a violin he played as a child. In particular,
I remember how we lingered in a room with a piano. He touched it
gently telling me about how his mother would sit at it and play. He
was the last of his family, and he spoke to me about wanting to leave
behind a legacy, an Ayers Family legacy. It is still hard for me to
believe that he is gone, but Mr. Jere has left a legacy ... in the hearts
of those who knew him and the memories he left behind.
Jennifer Lester Benson was formerly employed with Mr. Ayers at
The Comer News/Danielsville Monitor.
The nomination of the
first Hispanic to serve on
the U.S. Supreme Court,
federal appeals Judge Sonia
Sotomayor, has spawned an
ugly political brawl among
some Republicans.
Georgia’s own Newt
Gingrich was one of more
notable mud-flingers,
although he was not alone
among his colleagues. In a
Twitter message he transmit
ted in last week, Gingrich
called Sotomayor a “Latina
woman racist” who should
withdraw her name from
nomination.
Talk radio host Rush
Limbaugh, considered
by many to be the unoffi
cial head of the Republican
Party, had some equally
strong words for the New
York jurist: “Here you have
a racist. You might want to
soften that and you might
want to say a reverse racist.
And the libs of course say,
the minorities cannot be rac
ists, because they don’t have
the power to implement their
racism. Well, those days are
gone, because reverse racists
certainly do have the power
to implement their power.”
Pat Buchanan added his
two cents worth on a cable
talk show: “She is also an
affirmative action pick.”
Fox TV host Glenn Beck
offered a similar assessment:
“Hey, Hispanic chick lady!
You’re empathetic ... you’re
in!”
Georgia Senators Saxby
Chambliss and Johnny
The
Capitol
Report
By Tom Crawford
Isakson are caught in the
middle of this controversy
because they will be voting
at some point with their fel
low senators on whether to
confirm Sotomayor to that
seat on the high court. They
will be expected by many of
their Republican supporters
to try to filibuster and prevent
the Senate from even com
ing to a vote on Sotomayor’s
nomination.
Do they join the chorus
of Gingrich and Limbaugh
and make racially charged
remarks about Sotomayor,
which would please a large
segment of their party’s base?
Or do they refrain from mak
ing inflammatory comments,
which would upset that same
group of voters?
This is a sensitive issue with
implications for Republicans
both nationally and in
Georgia. Hispanics are the
fastest-growing ethnic group
right now. It is estimated
there are more than 100,000
registered voters of Latino
descent in Georgia, a number
that could exceed 150,000 by
the time we go to the polls
in 2010. If Chambliss and
Wood ..cont’dfrom 1A
That, he said, pretty much
made him a medic. He trained
at Ft. Benning, then Ft. Sam
Houston in San Antonio, TX,
and arrived at Siagon (after a
stop at Cam Rahn Bay) South
Vietnam in the middle of the Tet
Offensive. It was an auspicious
beginning of a tour of duty.
The airplane’s flight was
delayed by a rocket attack, and
when the airplane finally landed,
the attack resumed. Wood and
fellow soldiers rushed to bun
kers on the airfield, but eight
were killed when a rocket shuck
the end of one bunker.
Two minutes into Wood’s tour
of duty and eight people had
died. Welcome to Vietnam.
The survivors were put on a
Cl30 aircraft and went north to
an airfield near the demilitarized
zone and the scene was repeated,
killing 10 more soldiers. Wood
and the others were loaded into
trucks and moved into the inte
rior to Camp Eagle, which that
night was overrun by the enemy,
who killed every officer in the
camp and 14 other men.
“I’d think of all those men
who never saw the sun rise in
Vietnam," he noted.
Most of his service was in
the triple-canopy jungle where
enemy engagements were often
at a range of 8-10 feet.
“You couldn’t see nowhere in
front of you,” he said. “Ninety
percent of our contact was any
where from 10 feet to as far as
from here to that truck (maybe
50 feet). Most of the time you
didn’t aim, you just pointed and
fired you were so close.”
Wood took one serious advan
tage to Vietnam - a Christian
faith from a Holiness back
ground in which he’d seen and
experienced what he views as
miracles - the unexplained sud
den healing of his father from
cancer following the prayer of a
preacher; mended broken bones
in his brother after an auto acci
dent and a prayer session just
before surgery. He’d find more
in the jungle.
On one occasion he “heard
God” tell him to rescue a
wounded soldier in the midst
of a curtain of enemy fire. He
remembers nothing of the res
cue except, when it was over,
pointing a finger heavenward
amidst his astonished comrades.
Neither he nor the wounded man
were struck at the time.
On another occasion, a man
standing next to him had his
jugular vein severed in a rocket
attack.
“Doc, I'm seven days short,”
the victim told him. “I thought I
was going home to see my mom
and dad.”
“My hand went up and laid
there (on his neck) and the
bleeding stopped.’’ The soldier
was amazed and asked him what
he'd done.
“I didn’t do anything,” Wood
replied. “God told me to put
my hand up there and tell you
you are going home to see your
mom and dad.”
Later, doctors radioed Wood
in the field to ask what he'd
done. No one had ever seen the
victim of a severed jugular vein
survive.
But Wood should have missed
out on Hamburger Hill. He
severely injured his back falling
off a high bank under a rocket
attack that also left him deaf and
paralyzed.
“I prayed to the Lord that if
this was the way I’d be the rest
of my life to help me not be
angry about the situation,” he
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recalled.
Soon he felt like someone had
poured warm water all over him,
and he was able to relax.
“I had no fear about the rest of
my life,” he said.
Wood eventually recovered -
although he has a constant ring
ing in his ears, his ear drums are
prone to break and he battles
back issues still (along with the
effects of exposure to Agent
Orange).
When his tour of duty was 30
days from ending. Wood signed
on for a 69-day extension as a
means of getting early release
from the Army. It was during
that extension that the battle for
Hamburger Hill occurred. It was
the most intense action he saw.
Wood said.
The enemy was concealed on
the mountain, and the American
command ordered them
removed. Americans climbed
the hill, but the Vietnamese were
so well concealed at the bottom,
that troops went by them. The
enemy soon had American forc
es caught in a deadly crossfire,
shooting at them from above
and below.
Some 1,800 U.S. troops sup
ported by 10 batteries of artillery
and hundreds of airplane sorties
engaged in a 10-day, 24-hours-
a-day battle.
The terrain was jungle when
the battle started: by the end.
it was totally devoid of vegeta
tion.
Just a few days after the battle,
the Americans abandoned the
hard-won hill.
Wood returned from Vietnam
July 21, 1969, winner of six
medals, including the Bronze
Star and Silver Star. Driving
through Gainesville that same
week, he saw a flashing sign
advertising the Gainesville
Barber College.
“The Good Lord said pull in
there and see what the man has
to say.”
He started barber school the
next day. He still cuts hair at his
Ila Road, Commerce, shop.
Although haunted by the expe
rience, Wood says talking about
it helps - particularly when he’s
talking with veterans with simi
lar war experience, be it from
Vietnam or World War II.
The experience also deepened
his faith.
“God got me through that
place,” he said, “And I had a lot
of praying people here,’’
Although he never wrote home
about his combat experience.
Wood said his mother would
write letters to him describing
the date and time of battles he’d
been in.
“The Lord woke her up and
told her to pray and to call others
in the church and pray for me,"
he explained.
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Isakson join the crowd that’s
hurling insults at the judge,
or take part in an attempt to
stop a vote on her, they will
stir up the animosity of an
important bloc of voters.
They also could be set
ting themselves up for
charges of hypocrisy. Four
years ago, when George
W. Bush was president and
Republicans controlled the
Senate, the Democratic
minority attempted to block
votes by filibustering several
of Bush’s judicial nominees.
Angry Senate Republicans
like Isakson threatened to
invoke the “nuclear option”
and repeal the rule on fil
ibusters, a move that was
avoided when Democrats
and Republicans reached a
compromise on nominations.
“This is all about politics
and nothing about the sub
stance of these judges, and
that’s wrong,” Isakson said
during that 2005 controversy.
He and Chambliss demanded
“up-or-down” votes on the
Bush nominees and opposed
the idea that a presidential
nomination might be pre
vented by a filibuster.
“I cannot envision me not
agreeing to allow somebody
an up-or-down vote. The way
our country’s judicial sys
tem has always worked is to
remove the politics from the
nominee,” Chambliss said at
the time.
The Georgia senators so
far are keeping a low pro
file and doing their best to
avoid making statements that
would pour more gasoline on
the fire.
“I look forward to a thor
ough examination and debate
of her credentials and legal
views during the Senate con
firmation process.” Isakson
said diplomatically. “I believe
a qualified judge is one who
understands the value and the
strength and the power of the
Constitution of the United
States of America, who will
rule based on the law, and
who will not legislate based
on the position.”
“I have consistently stated
that Supreme Court nomi
nees must not engage in
legislating from the bench,
but must interpret the laws
as they have been passed,”
Chambliss said. “The Senate
deserves an appropriate
amount of time to review
this nominee. I look forward
to a dignified and thorough
confirmation process.”
It’s a tough situation for
the state’s two senators. They
will be under extraordinary
political pressure on this
one. No matter what they do,
they’re going to make a lot of
voters angry.
Tom Crawford is the editor
of Capitol Impact’s Georgia
Report, an Internet news ser
vice at www.gareport.com
that covers government and
politics in Georgia. He can
be reached at tcrawford@
capitolimpact.net.
Call 245-2695
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