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PAGE 4A-THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 28. 2019
Opinions
Thankful it’s not Ann from the warranty department
I’m not a fan of Black Friday, that pur
chasing chaos that officially launches in
the wee hours Friday morning with the
inevitable, subsequent headlines of crazy
shoppers somewhere pushing, punching
and pepper spraying their way to electron
ic-bargain nirvana. No, I like this Thurs
day instead, the fact that on Thanksgiving
we focus on what we have, not what we
could have. I like that we get together with
family without any gift pressure.
Here is some of my gratitude — things
light and serious, important and not so im
portant.
I am thankful for:
•every call on my cell phone that is
not “Ann from the warranty department.”
How did Ann get my number? Does she
have yours? Warranty department, what
the heck does that mean, just some ran
dom warranty department? Is Ann harass
ing the rest of Madison County or just me?
•socks that don’t have a big-toe jail-
break — also socks at Christmas, honest
ly, no sarcasm. It’s simple and they will
be needed. I’m also thankful for socks that
don’t feel too tight on my feet inside of
my shoes. Does the fact that I’m including
socks so early in this column signal any
thing about where I am on life’s timeline?
I fear it does.
•my little, inner, one-note (B-flat?) elf-
friend “Tinnitus.” He’s always keeping me
company. (What’s the proper emoji for
sarcasm?)
•prints of old photos. I need to get more
made. This digital record keeping can’t be
fully trusted.
•modern dentistry. Without it, I would
be the poster boy for Colgate if they de
cided to go dark with their advertising.
Imagine me beaming with rotten-toothy
happiness and “Dueling Banjos” in the
background.
•those little green, breath mint squares.
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach Mitcham
I drink lots of coffee. Those squares are a
new addiction.
•the Sunday mornings when my cell
phone gives me my average daily usage
for the week and it somehow doesn’t seem
like hard proof of mental illness. (This is
not most weeks.)
•the initial moment after completing a
tedious task — the grass cutting, the leaf
raking (still not done), the clothes pile
tackled at the foot of the bed or the sink
emptied of dirty dishes.
•a laugh from my children, pretty much
any laugh over anything, whether it in
volves me or not. Hearing this from an
other room always makes me feel good.
•good talks with my friend and co-work
er Margie Richards.
•Becky Delay’s always cheerful de
meanor at the office.
•a room of friends in the back office at
the MainStreet headquarters in Jefferson
where all the production is done for five
papers. We have regular Tuesday pro
gramming to lighten the stressful work
load on that production day. For instance,
there’s “Pantry 3:15” when sports guy
Charles Phelps, who is known as “Pantry”
because his desk is like a Golden Pantry
with all of his fruits and stuff, is asked a
trivia question at 3:15 p.m. by Ben Munro
and Pantry has one minute to respond. We
act as if this is a radio segment. And I do
the intro and outro music, fading in “Un
der the Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Pep
pers. It’s all goofy, but fun. We have “Kyle
versus Zebras” in which Kyle Funderburk
is asked to go off for one minute on some
bad call he’s seen in the previous week.
•the good friends I’ve made over the
years, whether we’re in touch or not.
•my parents and my sister ( and her fam
ily). There’s so much I could write here.
I’ll just say I’m really lucky and I don’t
take this for granted.
•my mother-and-father-in-law. Ditto to
what I just said. Too much to detail in this
column. There’s a long list I could make
about them and what they mean to us.
•marrying a truly kind-hearted person,
•our daughter, Addie, and our son, Noah.
Life is profoundly altered with children. I
don’t know how to be a parent. I just try
to do what seems best and learn as I go.
And it’s going fast, too fast. I appreciate
every morning I wake and get to spend
time with them. I see them and want time
to slow down a little bit. But time doesn’t
take requests.
•all the people who read our work and
who invest in local journalism. This work
life of mine doesn’t exist without you.
I hope you have a good Thanksgiv
ing... Oh, and if the turkey slumber wears
off and the adrenaline kicks in at 3 a.m.
Friday in some electronics section where
a crazy-eyed bargain shopper is ready
to fight you over an Xbox or some other
fractionally priced gadget, here’s the deal:
don’t make news. You’ll be grateful for
that. I will. too.
And I’ll try to keep my cool when Ann
from the warranty department buzzes me
yet again.. .Ann, stop!
Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison
County Journal. He can be reached at
zach @ mainstreetnews. com.
A fascinating race for U.S. Senate just to our west
Georgia voters will have plenty to sort
out during 2020 as both of our US Senate
seats will be on the ballot.
David Perdue is up for re-election and
with Georgia Democrats believing they
can turn the state blue next year this race
will be followed closely along with the
open seat left by the retiring U.S. Senator
Johnny Isakson. Perdue has several Dem
ocrats wanting to face him and he has
even drawn some challengers from within
the Republican Party.
An interesting development has come
about in the process for Governor Brian
Kemp to name a replacement for Isak
son until November 2020 when he or she
will have to face a special election with
all candidates listed together on the ballot
(Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, in
dependents, etc.)
Reports indicate President Trump wants
Kemp to name Congressman Doug Col
lins to the position. The governor, how
ever, reportedly wants to name a woman
My
View
pchris
bridges@gmail.
com
By Chris Bridges
or minority to the position in an effort to
help when the general election in 2020
arrives.
As fascinating as this race will be the
one to really watch (popcorn in hand) will
be to our west in Alabama. Doug Jones is
up for re-election after stunning many in
2018 when he was elected as a Democrat.
Of course, it’s probably safe to say had
Republican voters in Alabama nominated
anyone but Roy Moore for the general
election that a Democrat would not hold
M
this seat. Even with all the issues sur
rounding Moore he still almost won.
Moore is back again for the 2020 race
but he is going to have a hard time get
ting to the general election this go around.
For one. you have to think that Alabama
GOP voters realize that the Republican
candidate will in all likelihood win if it is
someone besides Moore.
Second there are some very strong Re
publican candidates who are on the cam
paign trail in the primary. Former US
Senator Jeff Sessions (who served as At
torney General for a while for President
Trump) is in the race. Former Auburn
football coach Tommy Tuberville is also
running and has huge recognition in the
state of Alabama.
John Merrill, Alabama’s Secretary of
State, is also running along with former
state representative and current congress
man Bradley Byrne. State representative
See Bridges, page 5A
Letters to the Editor:
Why worry about the rain on the toxic railroad ties?
Dear Editor:
It’s Saturday, Nov. 23. It’s raining. With
the lack of rain we’ve had, this should be
welcome news. Unfortunately, there’s
something different about this rain and
it’s something we should all be concerned
about. This rain is pouring over the Geor
gia Renewable Power (GRP) plant in Col
bert.
It’s covering and running down the piles
of toxic railroad ties stacked there. It’s fill
ing the new ditch that they dug along the
railroad track spur where they unload those
ties. It’s soaking the piles of chipped ties
and draining off the paved debris-covered
tie chipping area.
You probably don’t need to ask where all
this rainwater is going. The answer is right
in front of our eyes. It’s going out of the
plant area. It’s going into any nearby creek.
It’s soaking into the ground and will even
tually pollute the water there. It’s an oily,
unnatural mix of whatever chemicals can
be found in a railroad tie. There are now
thousands of these railroad ties at the plant
waiting to be chipped. More are arriving
almost every day. Now every time it rains
this runoff scenario will repeat itself. If you
doubt this observation, just take the time
to ride by the plant. Park your vehicle on
the road in a safe location. Get out and take
a good look at what’s going on there. It
doesn’t take a scientist to see that this can
not be good for any of us. GRP is profiting
at our expense and will continue to do so
unless we do something to stop it. If we
don’t take action now the damage will be
irreversible.
Please plan to attend the Madison Coun
ty Clean Power Coalition meeting Dec. 5.
from 7 to 8:30 pm at the Madison County
High School cafeteria. The purpose is to
provide the public with information regard
ing the health and environmental impact of
the GRP plant. Three area scientists will
address the meeting followed by a question
and answer secession. Information on what
you can do help change the way GRP oper
ates will be available at the meeting.
Let’s join together and make sure that
we can welcome the rain without worrying
about where it’s going.
Sincerely,
Drago Tesanovich
My
View
angie@
mainstreet
news.com
By Angela Gary
Celebrating
Christmas at
Stone Mountain
Strolling through a walkway of magical
lights synced to festive music, taking a train
ride around the mountain singing our favor
ite Christmas carols, posing for photos with
some of our favorite Christmas characters
and, of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus and the
highlight of the visit, the parade featuring
the Snow Angel.
It’s a family tradition to visit Stone
Mountain Park to kick off the Christmas
season and we did just that when the park
opened for the holiday season on Nov. 16.
Stone Mountain Christmas will be featured
through Jan. 5 with all of the special holiday
events.
My nephew, Grayson, and I got the show
schedule before the park opened and tried
to fit as many of the Christmas events into
our visit as possible. We did a great job and
enjoyed some of our favorites as well as
checking out a few new ones. Our recom
mendations are:
•The Polar Express 4-D Experience, We
enjoy this every year. It’s a 15-minute movie
that gives you the highlights, in 4-D, of the
Polar Express.
•A Holiday Cabaret is a great show that
features Christmas stories, songs and com
edy.
•At A Wish For Snow, you can meet the
Snow Angel for a photo and learn the story
of Angelina.
•Visits with Mrs. Claus, Santa, Rudolph,
Clarice and Bumble are fun for all ages. I
know I enjoy posing for a photo with Santa
every year!
•The Snow Angel Christmas Parade and
Christmas Lighting Ceremony was a high
light for us this year. It’s a great parade with
both Santa and the Snow Angel making an
appearance. Performers for the other shows
are also in the parade.
•You can’t go to Stone Mountain without
taking a ride, or hike, to the top of the moun
tain. We took the Summit Skyride this time
and enjoyed the amazing views.
•The Musical Frosted Forest was a first
for us and we loved all of the lights and the
festive music.
•The evening always ends with the Snow
Angel making it snow and with a fireworks
finale.
•We didn’t stay long enough to enjoy
Snow Mountain on this visit but plan to re
turn and check it out.
I have been visiting Stone Mountain since
I was a child. I love all of the seasons but
there really is something magical about vis
iting at Christmas. I am so thankful I was
able to share the experience with my young
est nephew. It’s great to carry on a family
tradition.
Angela Gary is an editor with MainStreet
Newspapers Inc. She can be reached at an-
gela @ mainstreetnews. 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: 800-795-2581
E-mail: zach@mainstreetnews.com
ZACH MITCHAM, Editor
MARGIE RICHARDS. Reporter/Office Manager
MIKE BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
Is GRP a good neighbor?
Dear Editor: Georgia Renewable Power
presented themselves as a good neighbor
as the company got the approval to operate
a biomass power plant in our county. Since
beginning operation they have not been trans
parent or truthful with us at this point. I be
lieve that GRP can be a good neighbor if they
do the following:
GRP should stop burning railroad crossties
and bum clean biomass as initially promised
There should be an announcement in our
local newspaper about plans for changes and
permits to plant operations.
County leadership and the citizens should
be given adequate time to review and discuss
with GRP any plans for change in plant op
erations.
GRP needs to be honest with citizens about
health problems that may arise from changes
in operation.
GRP should reduce plant noise to allow
neighbors to live peacefully.
GRP should mitigate the economic and
other related costs to affected neighbors for
damages to them and their environment
They should pay their bills on time.
To date GRP has not shown to be what I
call a good neighbor.
Sincerely.
Conolus Scott Jr.
FRANK GILLISPIE (deceased), Founder of The Journal.
JERE AYERS (deceased), former owner
of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News
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THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
P.O. Box 658, Danielsville, Ga. 30633
A publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc.
- The Official Legal Organ of Madison County, Georgia
- Periodicals postage paid at Danielsville, Georgia 30633
(USPS 011-097; ISSN 1074987X)