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PAGE 4A-THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. JANUARY 2, 2020 Opinions 2020 and inner clock vertigo I have inner clock vertigo today. I blinked and 20 years of the new century went by. My inner Rip Van Winkle has woken to two kids, one in high school, and gray in his hair. But I was just in col lege, right? What is this trick on me? What is your deal, Father Time? Do you relate? We are now in the third decade of the 2000s, having raced through the “aughts” (what do you call those first 10 years?), the “2010s (twenty tens)” — seriously, what do you call that second decade? — and now we enter a clearly identifiable decade, “the 20s.” We still attach the word “roaring” to the 1920s, those days prior to the Great Depression. But what will the 2020s be? Roaring? Per haps, but I hope “roaring” is not the word we use. I fear what “roaring” would mean now. I have some ideas. OK, multiple refs’ whistles are blow ing. The inner coach in my amygdala has just raced down the sideline to signal for a timeout in the brain. His team of typing fingers is about to run an ill-advised play. The fingers want to go dark on you. They want to spell out all my trepidations about the future and what a new decade could bring. But the coach says, “No! Get a hold of yourselves! Get your tails off the field! Take a knee around me!” He screams about positivity and tells those fingers that this New Year’s stuff is supposed to be about hope, about reso lutions to be our best selves, about fresh starts. We enter the post holiday weeks with the weather cold and days short, but we know the weather will warm up and spring will arrive. “Get your spirits up. In the Meantime zach@ mainstreet news.com By Zach Mitcham boys!” Maybe the players take heed and run back out there fired up to give their best. Or. maybe the players roll their eyes and do their own thing once again. Isn’t this the constant inner war in all of us. the pos itive outlook battling with the negative? And aren’t most of these battles cen tered on time itself, such as why can’t I go back and change that? Or, what will my future look like if I do this now? Or, how do I prepare my children for the future, and what is that future going to look like? Time is so powerful, so present, yet we often ignore it, too, choosing to look away. Still, it’s the daily companion. It’s the first thing we hear in the morning and the last thing we check at night. It’s the measure of all life. It’s a work day or a school day or a night’s sleep. It’s the ro tation of seasons and clothes we wear. It’s a thing we wish to preserve but never can. It’s the possession we seem to own in mo ments, but then realize eventually that it owns us. not the other way around. Time is numbers and math. Consider death at 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100. Those numbers present such different assump tions about the lives lived and manner of death. Time is simultaneously infinite and finite. It seems linear but could even curl in ways we can’t comprehend, which is a beautiful mystery. That’s because it exists out there separately from the confines of our brains, which can’t comprehend deep time. Time can be the root cause of psycho logical dysfunction. It can confound us and make us feel completely alone with the ticking of a clock dripping like water torture. Or, time can be the biggest gift we know if we find a way to accept its limits. It can be the thing that makes us remember to remember in the moment — that this is special. I am thinking about all this with the ver tigo of 2020 vision. I am amazed by time. Where did it go? What will it be? Why does it move at irregular rhythms, some times so fast, sometimes so slow, which mostly depends on how old you are, right? Our relationship to its movement alters with time, which is just another one of its tricks. But at least today we have a name for a definitive decade, the ‘20s. I don’t know what to call the previous 20 years. No de cade name seems right. Will we simply settle on the “turn of the century?” Sounds about right, I guess. Only time will tell. Happy New Year. Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal. He can be reached at zach @ mainstreetnews. com. The media and Richard Jewell Clint Eastwood’s latest movie initially drew rave reviews but in the end fizzled out of the gate at the box office after a sparring match took place between the film’s content and various media outlets. It’s ironic because one of the main cul prits the movie wanted to portray was the media, especially The Atlanta Jour nal-Constitution. It remains to be seen how many, if any, Oscar and Golden Globe nominations the movie receives but that is not what the main issue is here. No doubt any of us who lived in Geor gia in 1996 know Jewell’s story. He was working as part of a security detail when he discovered a suspicious backpack during the Olympic Games. Jewell re ported the discovery and was credited with saving several lives. Immediately after the bombing Jewell was hailed the hero he truly was. How ever, the FBI began to look at Jewell as someone who may have planted the bomb in an attempt to seek fame and glory and a possible prime job in law en forcement. Federal law enforcement was also portrayed in a negative light in East wood’s new film for obvious reasons. The news of Jewell suddenly being a suspect was front page news across the country (the world actually) and his life. View pchris bridges@gmail. com By Chris Bridges as well as that of his mother, became a true living nightmare of which none of us can truly comprehend. A now famous headline that appeared in our state’s largest newspaper declared he was a suspect. Of course as it turned out Jewell was not responsible for plant ing the bomb. Yet even with the real bomber Eric Ru dolph now serving a life sentence as a re sult of that crime (and others) it wouldn’t take too much effort to find someone who would tell you Jewell was the one who was really guilty. Rudolph was an extreme anti-abortionist who had placed bombs at various clinics in his one-man crusade against doctors and medical per sonnel who performed legal abortions. For Jewell, however, once a seed of that nature is planted in people’s mind it is often difficult to remove. His life was ruined. During the time he was a “sus pect” every detail of his life, both profes sional and personal, became front page news and covered on local and cable news shows. The spotlight was so bright that no one can really imagine what that was like. None of us would want that kind of scru tiny over every detail of our lives. Jewell sued several media outlets and many settled. They didn’t admit guilt per say but rather than spend more money defending themselves they simply of fered to settle. The AJC was the exception as the pa per said it did nothing to defame Jewell. The owners, publishers and editor said Jewell was a suspect and that is what they reported. In huge stories of this nature the best defense is always the truth. However, many contend that the media’s portray al of Jewell was so vicious that it led to an early death for the man who was only in his 40s when he passed away. Jewell also had medical issues but you cannot deny the stress he was under from this See Jewell, page 5A If you thought 2019 was a year of dis dainfulness and discernment in politics and media reporting, then you had better hold on to something because of what the year 2020 is about to dump upon us. While the United States is financially enjoying the best of times in several de cades right now, expect the Democrats to give a different story. They will argue the opposite even though we have low em ployment, a strong economy supported by the financial market standings and we are spending more on updating and re building our military. The left continues its lean toward so cialism and pushing the American voters to support higher taxes, free college, free medical care and an erosion of our rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. We can expect continued attacks on the First and Second amendments by lim iting free speech and pushing new gun control laws. The left hates Donald Trump and wants to remove him from office. The right doesn’t always like Trump but ap pears to be supportive of his repeat can didacy while wanting to win the House and keep the Senate right of center. “The swamp” would like for everyone to be quieter so it can return to business as normal, stuffing pockets, calling in fa vors and telling our government what to do. Here’s a list of what to expect in the A preview of 2020 From the Right ejterrell65@ gmail.com By Jimmy Terrell New Year! Topping the list will be final prepara tions for the 2020 presidential elections. Both parties will spend hundreds of mil lions of dollars in a fight for the right to occupy the Capitol in Washington. Not only do the parties want the White House, both houses in Congress have also been targeted. Next will be the formal impeachment of President Donald Trump. The House doesn’t seem to know what to do next and many think the House will simply sit on what it has done, hoping that will cause Trump voters to desert the Republican ticket at the ballot box. The Senate hasn’t tipped its hand and appears to be waiting for the Democrat- ic-controlled House to make the first move. The two articles of impeachment could very well still be on Speaker Nan cy Pelosi’s desk in November without any formal action being taken by the Senate. We can expect nothing less from the national news media than what we re ceived last year. The gift box will include fake news, he said-she said finger point ing, accusations and political bias. Regardless of who holds the majori ty in Congress, both parties need to be concerned about North Korea and China situations. Kim Jong-un. North Korea’s leader, has demonstrated that he is not the most trustworthy person holding the keys to rockets and nuclear weapons. His people are starving by all accounts and he con tinues to rattle his small but significant sword. Jobs, cost-of-living indexes and pros perity depend heavily of our tariffs and trade with foreign countries. It would benefit all Americans to see an agree ment worked out on trade tariffs, espe cially with China. Russia remains an enemy and we could very well be in the early stage stages of another Cold War. Russian President Vladimir Putin, a holdover from the pre vious Cold War, does not like being in second or third place and he is willing to more than rattle a bigger sword. Russia is flexing its military muscle in places not seen before and is developing new military arms and weapons. See Terrell, page 5A My View ron@ mainstreet news.com By Ron Bridgeman Trump has been consistent, give him that Donald Trump has been exactly as adver tised, I would venture. He has been crude, rude and concerned only with his pleasure or satisfaction. The recent impeachment of him by the U.S. House was nearly foreordained when he was elected president. Trump was so dif ferent from other presidents his impeach ment became a necessity if we take our Constitution at all seriously. (Aside: It should tell anyone paying at tention that Trump loves the electoral col lege, one of many compromises required to pass the Constitution, because it made him president and denigrates the impeachment process, which also is a part of the Consti tution.) Trump always has been a blusterer and bloviator, spouting off about subjects he does not know but pretends he does. He al ways has been prone to extreme language and opinions of himself. Long before he was a presidential candidate, he offered contradictory and often false comments about other political figures. After three years as president, he still makes derogato ry remarks about Bill and Hillary Clinton, who attended one of his weddings. (Seri ously, couldn’t he pick a less obvious tar get.) He was a Democrat (largely because everyone in New York was) for a decade or two. Yes, some of us have wanted him im peached, and assumed he eventually would be, since before he was inaugurated. Yes, it has been completely political. Yes, Trump made it inevitable with his actions. If he were not in the position he occupies, his ranting could, and should, be ignored. He would be the small, weak man he al ways has been - if not for his position. Trump has now reached the point where few people pay much attention to what he says. Trump created his impeachment. We always should remember - and say to his supporters - he asked for a political favor and help from a foreign country and with held money for that country that had been approved Congress. He was not “fighting” corruption. He was seeking personal help. He did that. He was not held at gunpoint and forced to say those things. He did it. Impeachment then became a necessity - much as I hate to say it - and inevitable. His contradictory comments are ample evidence of his inability or unwillingness to recognize reality. When he was a real estate guy trying to make this or that deal by bul lying and lying, we could ignore him. He should be ignored now and he largely is by other countries’ leaders. See Bridgeman, page 5A 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 FRANK GILLISPIE (deceased), Founder of The Journal. JERE AYERS (deceased), former owner of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $45/year -$40/ seniors POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: 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)