Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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 706-613-1223 1791 Hwy. 29 N. Athens, GA Beside All Season / Black Color $10.99 $15.99 & For E 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. 50% OFF retail prices ALL CONTAINER PLANTS trees • shrubs • perennials • 1 to 40 gallon sizes 10,000s of plants, 100s of varieties All Pre-dug balled & burlapped trees and shrubs COMPLETE LIQUIDATION SALE ALL WILL GO HURRY TO GET THE PLANTS YOU WANT before we close the container-growing division of our business NO CREDIT CARDS Northeast Georgia's largest nursery open to the public Growing Since 1981 www.PmebushNursery.com 3332 Hwy. 106 between Neese & Ila • Madison County Check our Web site for directions M-F 8-5; Sat. 9-4 • 706-789-2344 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 24 Hour Obituary News Compliments of Sihuitt cFunenal f/Conic, S/nc. “Locally Owned and Operated Since 1905” 47 Franklin Springs St. RoystorU}^3066^^^^^^^^l706)24jtf234 We Buy All Gold & Silver .(jaine,snide 770-532-2592 1020 Jesse Jewell Pkwy. • Gainesville, GA Mon. - Thurs. 10-6:30 • Fri. - Sat. 10-7 Including: • Class Rings • Wedding Band , • Coins • Broken Jewelry • Dental Gold ]W’ a fb "A Family Restaurant" 1990 Main St. Comer 706-783-5145 NH 7uT 0Ur XLG Cheese S8.99 All You Can Eat Pizza and Salad 5 b Uc ^ $4.99 Lunch & Dinner enu liter Mention this ad! H • H Concrete Construction Residential and Commercial Serving Madison County for 66 years Specializing in all concrete needs: • Decorative Stamp • Stain • Repairs • All Flatwork and driveways 706-795-5388 • 706-296-0464 Frank Hall