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In order to build those roads, more trees in the
Athens-Clarke County greenbelt would be cut
down, including trees near the Middle Oconee.
Aaother proposed connector road, along Cooks
trail—would mean that trees are cut down there,
too.
Kidd says his concern also includes how the
roads built through these areas would affect the
hydrology—that is, the way the water flows and
moves down into aquifers and into the streams
and rivers.
He points out that what's left of our forested
areas in Athens includes many of the rolling hills
and ridges which weren't prime areas to develop
initially. Now the developers are going after these
more difficult areas of the county, and Kidd is
concerned about what the grading and leveling of
the land will do to the hydrology of those areas.
On Thursday, May 26 at 7 p.m. at 120
Dougherty St, the ACC Planning Commission will
meet to discuss the connector roads and to hear
citizen input
Liz Conroy
Liz Conroy mites about environmental matters
for Flagpole.
Who Are We?
Picture Torn Existence
Franz Kafka once wrote: “A picture of my exis
tence... would show a useless wooden stake cov
ered in snow, stuck loosely at a slant in the
ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast
open plain on a dark winter's night"
That slim, melancholy writer who wrote his
dreams but never wanted them read, who, like all
good writers of whatever genre, held a mirror up
to the culture of his day, continues to be as fresh
as the morning headlines.
The alienation and angst Kafka knew so well
remain with us to this day regardless of how we
seek to hide them. Perhaps it's been a part of the
air that every generation has breathed, just part
and parcel of being alive.
But the glitz and fancy of our day can no
longer act as a narcotic to numb us into believing
that we really are alive, or that our standard of
living or way of life really is meaningful The
promises made to us by all that sparkles before
our eyes, the nice spins friends or foes put on the
words that rail from their mouths, really land us
nowhere but back upon ourselves for help and
hope.
If I were asked—and believe you me. I am
not, because people really aren't in the mood to
hear it—what the spiritual problem of our day is,
I would say that we are a people attracted to the
timid and the sensational, who live our lives vic
ariously through others because we do not know
what in the world to do with our unique exis
tence.
How many graduates this year left the halls of
learning with diploma or degree in hand, with let
ters than can now be put after their name on a
brass plate on their office door, but who really are
nothing more nor anyone other than what their
parents and our society have told them they
should be?
How many of them are claiming that their
dream has been realized? How many will wake up
one day and realize it was really only a night
mare?
life is funny that way. We spend the majority
of our lives being told who we are and whom we
should become only to realize that at our core
what we were told to be was only somebody else's
dream. We have become 'a useless wooden stake
covered in snow, stuck loosely at a slant in the
ground...."
Sameness stalks our land. It seems the
majority of us lead cookie cutter lives. Drive into
any subdivision and behold what's in front of your
eyes! The houses look the same; each lawn is
manicured to perfection; the mail boxes are the
same kind and style.
In the Hindu tradition, we might come to
Earth merely to perform a single task that is part
of the Great Work of Creation. We might be here
only to raise a window or draw a blind, to move a
flowerpot from one table to another. Whatever the
task, it adds to the richness of life and becomes a
beautiful piece in the tapestry of life.
How will we know? How can we discern what
our contribution to the Great Work realty is, espe
cially when we've been taught to judge and eval
uate one job as better than another?
Bombarded by constant gimmickry and false
advertising, listening to someone else's descrip
tion of the American dream may only serve to
keep us down and distract us from our real selves.
How lonely to be a useless wooden stake stuck at
a slant in the ground in a plowed field at the edge
of a vast open plain on a dark winter's night
Studs Terkel in his mammoth volume Working
writes about Nick Lindsay. Lindsay is a carpenter/
poet who started working steadily when he was
13. He dropped out of high school, saying, "Take
what you can stand and don't take any more than
that. It's what God put the tongue in your mouth
for. If it don't taste right, you spit it out"
Standing near the Riverside Church in New York
City, Lindsay pointed to that great church and
said, "You work like you were kneeling down. You
go into that church and there's no space between
the pews to kneel If you try to kneel down in
that church, you break your nose on the pew in
front A bunch of churches are like that Who
kneels down in that church? I'll tell you who
kneels. The person who's settin' the toilets in the
restrooms. He's got to kneel that's part of his
work. The one who nails the pews on the floor has
to kneel down. The electrician who puts the
receptacles in the walls... kneels down. Any work,
you kneel down—it's a kind of worship. It's part
of the holiness of things, work, yes. Just like
drawing breath is. It's necessary. If you don't
breathe, you're dead. It's kind of a sacrament,
too."
Absent-minded people are so abstracted from
life that they hardly know they exist, until one
fine morning they wake up to find themselves
dead.
We could wake up in the morning dead—and
without ever having touched the roots of our own
existence.
Mike Marslngill
Rev. Mike Marsingill is Pastor of Young Harris
Memorial United Methodist Churth here in Athens.
Animal Control
Last Week’s Scorecard
Athens-Clarke County Animal Control
responded to 59 calls.
3 complaints of animal cruelty
5 bite cases
3 complaints of barking dogs
5 citations for ordinance violations
40 animals impounded
35 dogs
2 cats
1 chicken
1 garter snake
1 yellow billed cuckoo
19 dogs placed
5 adopted
12 reclaimed
2 turned over to other agencies
ACC Animal Control press release for the week of
May 5 to May 11.
Bumpersticker
Of The Week
(Thanks, Iain) Fuck With Me, And You Fuck
With The Whole Trailer Park!
Keep an eye out for interesting bumperstkkers.
and send them in to editor@flogpole.cotrh Thanks.
125 EJ
PIEDMONT
COLLEGE
Demorest • Athens
1-800-277-7020
Undergraduate & Graduate Programs
www.piedmontedu
"The Liberal Arts College of Northeast Georgia ’
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MAY 18,2005 • FLAGPOLE.COM 7