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PAGE 4A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 3. 2009
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
Has it only been
eight years?
Has it only been eight years? The dastardly
attack on the World Trade Center and the pen
tagon, and the planned attack on our national
capital occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, eight short
years ago. How then have we already forgotten
the lessons of that day?
For a few weeks we came together as a nation.
We embraced each other and urged each other
to keep our spirits up. We swore that we would
never let such an attack happen again.
There was a sudden demand for U.S. flags.
Stores ran out of flags and citizens were rushing
about trying to find a flag to display as a mark of
their loyalty to our nation.
As an officer in the local camp of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans, I help manage an informa
tion booth at the Comer fair every year. While
supplying the booth with patriotic merchandise,
U.S. and Confederate, I had developed sources
that I used to obtain a supply of flags. Our booth
did a brisk business that year. Everyone wanted
a flag to display at their homes, on their cars and
on their lapels.
Then there was the music. Lee Greenwood's
“Proud To Be An American” was the song of
the year. There was a song about the eagle taking
flight. Dozens of other songs in both country and
rock performers proclaimed our defiance of the
terrorist who would dare attack our society and
our nation. We as a people stood arm and arm to
defend our nation from further attacks.
But it took less than eight years to forget all
that. There are places in America today where
you will be severely criticized if you show the
flag. People who exercise their constitutional
rights of free speech, freedom to assemble and
present grievances to our legislators called “un-
American” People who show signs of patriotism
are dubbed right wing radicals. Even those brave
Americans who risk their fives to gather the
intelligence we needed to protect ourselves from
terrorist attacks are now being threatened with
prosecution as common criminals.
It is hard to believe that we lost our patriotic
fervor in less than eight years. It is as though
9/11 never happened, or that in some way we are
to blame for the criminal attacks against our citi
zens. The solidarity we found in the weeks that
followed the attacks has crumbled into shouting
matches, insults and personal attacks on anyone
who disagrees with any subject. And the insults
fly from both sides of the political spectrum.
For a brief moment, the actions of international
terrorists brought us together as a nation. We
had an opportunity to emerge stronger, more
united and determined to serve our nation and
each other. But we let it slip away. Today, just
eight years later, our nation is split by partisan
hatred and intolerance. There are a few voices
still crying in the wilderness seeking reconcili
ation between the factors, but they are few and
far between.
It is a sad thing to see.
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison
County Journal. His e-mail address is frank-
giUispie671@msn.com. His website can be
accessed at http://frankgillispie.tripod.com/
The Madison
County Journal
(Merged with The Danielsville Monitor
and The Comer News, January 2006)
P.O. Box 658
Hwy. 29 South
Danielsville, Georgia 30633
Phone: 706-795-2567
Fax: 706-795-2765
Email: zach@mainstreetnews.com
ZACH MITCHAM, Editor
MARGIE RICHARDS, Reporter/Office Manager
BEN MUNRO, Reporter/ Sports Editor
MIKE BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
FRANK GILLISPIE, Founder of The Journal.
Jere Ayers (deceased) former owner
of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News
Periodical postage paid at Danielsville, Georgia 30633
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
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A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Got a ticket to the ‘World Wife Carrying Championship?’
I searched for something
a little light-hearted to write
about this week. Sometimes all
the heavy issues of the day are
hard to stomach and it’s much
more preferable to look for
things that makes us chuckle.
Have you ever heard of
the “Wife Carrying World
Championship?” In the town
of Sonkajarvi in Finland,
men jump over logs, leap into
mudpits and sprint around a
250-meter obstacle course
with their wives over their
shoulders. I looked at this
online and saw that there is
also an “opening ceremony”
for the event. Imagine being
summoned to give the speech
for that ceremony. Standing
at the podium, your wife on
your shoulder, “Dear sirs, as
we leap the logs and hurl our
loving matrimonial bond into
the mudpit, let us not drop our
good ladies on their noggins.”
Another truly bizarre activ
ity you can find on Youtube
is known as cheese rolling.
Apparently, every May 22
in Gloucester, England, on
Cooper’s Hill, a wheel of
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach Mitcham
cheese weighing eight pounds
is rolled down the very steep
grass hill. And dozens of
contestants chase the cheese,
though the hill is too steep
for them to keep their feet.
They roll and flip head over
heel. They land on each other
and break bones. They have
apparently been doing this for
hundreds of years. Spain may
have the running of the bulls,
but England has the running
(and flipping) for cheese.
Closer to home in central
Kentucky is an event known as
the “Great Outhouse Blowout
and Race.” OK, “outhouse
blowout” — that has real
potential. Apparently, teams
pay a fee to build their own
outhouse then race down a
100-yard stretch. Usain Bolt
may be the fastest man on
earth in the 100, but is he
the fastest man pulling an
outhouse in the 100? I don’t
think so. While I’ve heard of
running to the outhouse, I’ve
never heard of running with an
outhouse. Gives new meaning
to porta-potty.
OK, back to Finland. I guess
after the wife carrying, the
Finns have to relax in a boil
ing-hot sauna. Welcome to the
“World Sauna Championship”
in Heinola, Finland, where men
and women see who can sit in
a sauna the longest. The start
ing temperature in the men’s
competition is 230 degrees.
Every 30 seconds a half liter
of water is poured on the stove.
And the winner is the last per
son to walk out without help.
Though the Japanese are really
into this event, it’s the Finns
who dominate. I wonder if this
sport’s creator saw a lobster in
a boiling pot, and felt, well,
jealous.
In Longview, Texas, there’s
the “Hands on a Hard Body
Contest,” which sounds suspi
cious, but is actually an endur
ance test in which people try to
keep their hand on a truck lon
ger than anyone else. People
stand in the sun and rain with
one hand on the body of a
new Nissan Frontier truck. The
record is 92 hours and 40 min
utes. And the winner gets the
truck.
Some other strange competi
tions include the “Interstate
Mullet Toss,” which has noth
ing to do with bad hairdos,
the “Milk Carton Derby,” the
“Fruitcake Toss,” the “Rock
Paper Scissors International
World Championships,”
the “Cup Stacking
Championships,” the “Summer
Redneck Games” (right here
in Georgia), the “Polar Bear
Plunge” and the “Running of
the Rodents.”
I guess I’ll just stick with
football as my sport of choice.
I’m sure my wife would love
to soar headfirst with me into
a mudpit. But she’d have to
carry the World Wife Carrying
Championship trophy — and
me — home.
Zach Mitcham is editor of
The Madison County Journal.
Our school leadership ‘needs improvement’
As the election for gover
nor drew closer in 2002, the
Republican challenger Sonny
Perdue was beating up on
Democratic incumbent Roy
Barnes with anything he
could find.
One of the blunt instruments
with which Perdue clobbered
Barnes was the state’s last-
place ranking on SAT college
board scores: “Georgia’s bet
ter than that, that’s unaccept
able, those are not the kind
of results that we want, Roy
Barnes, and Georgia’s going
to do better because they’re
going to elect new leadership
that will work with educators
to make sure that we do bet
ter.”
He later added: “I’ve told
you before, the SAT is the
gold standard. It’s just not
Republicans who think the
SAT is the standard. Other
states recognize that.”
Perdue and state school
Supt. Kathy Cox are now in
their seventh year in office
as the persons responsible for
the state’s direction in educa
tion. How is Georgia faring,
as measured by Perdue’s “gold
standard” of SAT scores?
Unfortunately for the state,
our schools are not doing very
well. In 2003, during the first
year of the Perdue-Cox reign,
Georgia again ranked 50th in
average SAT score. In 2004,
the state skyrocketed all the
way to 49th (thank goodness
for South Carolina). But by
The Capitol
Report
tcrawford@
capitol
impact.net.
By Tom Crawford
2005, Georgia had slipped
back into a tie with South
Carolina for last place.
That ranking has since
improved slightly, with
Georgia currently in 47th
place. The state’s average
SAT score still ranks below
the national average, however,
and that score has been declin
ing in recent years.
Students can score a maxi
mum of 2400 on the SAT col
lege board. The average SAT
score for Georgia students was
1477 in 2006, 1472 in 2007,
1466 in 2008 and 1460 in the
latest numbers released last
week.
During the past academic
year, students in the Southern
states of Alabama, Mississippi,
Arkansas, Florida, North
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia,
Texas, and Kentucky all had
higher average SAT scores
than Georgia.
Even California, which is
facing bankruptcy because
of multi-billion-dollar bud
get deficits, did better than
Georgia in the national SAT
rankings.
That doesn’t look much
like progress to me - it looks
instead like Perdue’s vaunted
“gold standard” is getting a lit
tle more tarnished every year.
During the same period when
the state’s SAT scores were
steadily declining, Perdue and
the General Assembly were
cutting a total of nearly $2 bil
lion in state formula funding
to local school systems. Do
you think there’s a connection
there?
Perdue cannot run for another
term as governor so there will
be a new chief executive in
2011. Whether that governor
does any better than Perdue
at addressing the education
issue, of course, remains to
be seen.
Cox, on the other hand, can
legally run for a third term as
school superintendent and, as
far as I can tell, plans to do
just that.
Does she deserve another
term as the head of public
education?
It’s hard to argue in her
favor, in part because she
never raised any public objec
tions or protests to Perdue’s
continued cutbacks in spend
ing on schools. She could not
have stopped those spending
cutbacks, but she at least could
have sent the signal that she
would stand up for Georgia’s
public school students. She
chose not to do that.
It was also Cox who caused
much embarrassment for the
state by attempting to remove
from the science curriculum
all references to evolution,
the “Big Bang” and other
scientific theories that upset
the Christian fundamentalist
wing of her Republican Party.
One of Cox’s top aides at
the Department of Education,
while being questioned in a
school funding lawsuit, tes
tified that high school stu
dents didn’t really need to take
any science or social studies
courses to get an “adequate”
education.
“I think you can do without
science,” the Cox aide said.
Cox and her husband have
also filed for personal bank
ruptcy and were faced with
having their home foreclosed.
Should a person with that kind
of financial record be running
a state agency with a $5.5 bil
lion budget?
Under the standards of the No
Child Left Behind law, schools
that don’t make adequate year
ly progress in upgrading stu
dent performance are placed
on the “Needs Improvement”
list.
Perdue and Cox would
appear to be two names that
belong on that list.
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@ capito-
limpact.net.
Letter to the Editor
Thanks to those who helped with Lutz family benefit
Dear Editor:
We would like to formally
express our sincere thanks to
all of the volunteers that gra
ciously gave their time and
resources, which in turn made
the Lutz Family Barbecue
Benefit a very successful fund
raising event.
Special thanks to: Danny
Morris, Danielsville Volunteer
Fire Department, Hull
Volunteer Fire Department,
Madison County Sheriff’s
Office, Madison County
District Attorney’s Office,
Fox’s Pizza Den, Girl Scouts,
Cycle World of Athens, First
Madison Bank, Steve Kimbel,
Crista Burdette, Chase
Burdette, Mike Youngblood,
Anthony Dove, Sue Carithers,
Charles Temple, Mark Perry,
Tony Mattox, Jimmy Patton,
Doug Martin, Gary Foster,
Tim and Cherri Wyatt and
Family, Missy Collier, Louise
Watson, Kristie Cross, Casey
Luke, Melissa Williams, Lilly
Berryman, Rita Sorrow, Tracy
Craig, Linda Fortson, Ann
Brooks, Christy Wilbanks, Lisa
Hendricks, Mary Sue Geiger,
Misty Geiger, Jennifer Fogel,
Joe Geiger, Mike Newell,
Linda Collier, Alan Lapczynski,
Andy Booth, Dawn Puntervold,
Renee Botelho, Tracy Dean,
Marsha Jackson, Lacey
Hughes, Stan Jones, Pepper
Jones, Eva Brown, Jim Brown,
Arthur Hurst, Kelly Caldwell,
Donnie Scott, Tony Dipietro,
June Starkey and Son, and to
all ticket sellers and other vol
unteers that we failed to men
tion.
We would also like to thank
Steve Waller and Family,
Donnie Clack, owner of Lanier
Speedway, all of the officials
at Lanier Speedway, Melissa
Williams, Doug Martin, Josh
Smith and Jeff Vaughn for their
participation and contributions
with the giveaway.
We apologize to anyone we
failed to mention who volun
teered. Without all of your help,
neither benefit would have been
possible. It is a special and
wonderful thing to see a com
munity come together to help a
family in their time of need.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Webb
Willie Wilbanks
David Geiger