Opinion

By Mike Ruffin

You are probably reading this during the week before Election Day. (I am aware that with early and mail-in voting, we actually have an Election Season now. I am also aware that the presidential election may not be decided for a while. Or maybe we will know the winner when we go to bed on November 3. I’m further aware that one Georgia Senate race will almost certainly go to a runoff.)

Now that the election will soon be over or eventually will be over, I’d like to offer a few thoughts and one prayer on the subject.
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Eric Trump raised eyebrows recently when he alleged COVID-19 would “disappear after the election”. His argument was ‘they’ have used the virus to put a stop to his father’s huge campaign rallies.

That idea is a little far-fetched. Trump still draws huge crowds to his rallies and his supporters stage gigantic boat parades to show their allegiance. But, Eric Trump’s instinct is correct in that COVID-19 is just as much a political issue as it is a medical one. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

Well, here we are, three weeks from Election Day. We’re in the stretch drive. It’s a sprint to the finish. This one’s for all the marbles. (Apply other cliches as you see fit.)

I guess we think every election is potentially world-altering. Maybe they all are. There’s no doubt that events would have unfolded differently had any election gone the other way. I mean, imagine if the two most recent presidential elections in which the winner got the most electoral votes but not the most popular votes had been won by Gore rather than Bush and by Clinton rather than Trump. Some of us think things would have been better, others of us think they would have been worse, but I’m sure we all agree they would have been different—and drastically different at that.
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By Walter Geiger
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We buried my Daddy the other day. He now rests with his parents in a beautiful, historic cemetery within a stone’s throw of the Wilmington River in Thunderbolt, Ga. I am the eldest of his four children and his namesake. It is a name I carry proudly.

Daddy was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1926. My grandfather, Bernard Geiger, brought his wife Bertha and young son Walter to America before Daddy’s first birthday. The young family entered legally through Ellis Island. Bernard was a ‘wurster’ - maker of liver- wurst, bratwurst and the like - and a skilled meat cutter. He had a job lined up and a sponsor when he fled Europe which was still recovering from World War I. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

I turned sixty-two years old on September 24. My college students think that makes me ancient. Some of you think I’m still young. Those of you were also born in 1958 are probably thinking, “Yeah, me too.” To my contemporaries, I say, “I’m glad we made it.” I also say, “I wish we all had.”

Anyway, turning sixty-two is no big deal.

Then again it is. For one thing, I’m now old enough to retire. I’m not going to retire, but I could if I needed or wanted to do so. I feel a sense of accomplishment in this. I’ve worked my whole life. It’s nice to know I could stop.
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Forty years ago, I was a young man, and the world was a very different place. [Full Story »] 

By Kay S. Pedrotti
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This is a column I never thought I would be writing. Not because I am afraid or appalled, but because the subject creates in my mind such a contradictory mixture of heartache, cheering, conflicting emotions, unconditional love, and even hope. [Full Story »] 

Some of you remember my father, the late great Champ Ruffin. He died in 1979, so he’s been gone a long time. But his lessons endure. And he taught me a valuable lesson about voting.

What was that lesson? It was simple: I must vote. “Exercise your right to vote,” he’d say, “because if you don’t, they’ll take it away.” I think he told me that every time an election day rolled around. By the time I turned eighteen in 1976, I was both sick of hearing that I needed to vote and excited about finally getting to do so.
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I and a handful of others relived a period that saw this region come face-to-face with pure evil last week as a television crew from Jupiter Entertainment came to town to shoot an episode of the popular ‘Snapped’ series on the Donald Clark murder.

This was not like HBO’s crew that shot ‘Sharp Objects’ or the throngs of folks from Marvel Studios who were in the area shooting ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’.
This was shot by a cameraman and a sound technician, two hip young guys, in the foyer of an Airbnb in a housing development on Hwy. 36 not far from the Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Center. The hipsters were shocked to learn Georgia’s death row and supermax prison were right down the street and, not too long ago, a murder occurred right around the corner from where they were working. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

A man named Jacob is one of the lead characters in the biblical book of Genesis, and he’s a fascinating one. He and his brother were twin sons born to a woman named Rebekah, who was married to Abraham’s son Isaac.

While Rebekah was pregnant with the boys, she was having so much difficulty that she asked the Lord what was going on. The Lord told her that two nations were struggling within her, which explained a lot. The competition continued as they were being born—Esau was born first, but Jacob was holding onto his brother’s heel. Thus he received the name Jacob, which means “heel-grabber” or “supplanter.”
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By Walter Geiger

Our public schools have opened and, much to the chagrin of the naysayers, the world did not come to an end. Yes, there have been some positive cases and some quarantines imposed but our school systems had contingencies in place and, thus far, they have worked.

School board members, superintendents and other administrators were in an unenviable position. They knew students were lagging without face-to-face instruction. Many school families, and more than a handful of teachers, had limited online access which rendered remote learning useless in their homes.

Remote learning also requires an engaged parent in the home cracking the figurative whip to keep students in line. Many homes do not have that parent. In many, that person is a grandparent generationally unfamiliar with online instruction. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

The people of Israel were in a precarious situation when the prophet Elijah came on the scene in the eighth century bc. King Ahab had married a Phoenician princess named Jezebel, who worshiped the fertility god and goddess Baal and Asherah. She put her money where her mouth was, providing room and board for 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.

In a riveting scene, Elijah defeated the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah in a showdown on Mount Carmel. The two sides had agreed that whichever deity rained down fire from heaven to consume a sacrifice was indeed God. Elijah, being a polite prophet, let the other prophets go first. After Baal and Asherah spent a few hours trying and failing to find a match, God sent fire from heaven.
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By Walter Geiger
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I broke quarantine over the weekend and went to Athens to help the youngest move into her new apartment. She will be a junior at UGA this fall and we couldn’t be prouder of her and her big sister.

We caught a break this time around. The new apartment is on the ground floor and her patio door was actually a roll-up type garage door. That meant no elevators, no steps and no hallways. We walked around a corner of the building from the parking lot and right inside.

Never had college moving been so good. Previous moves to and in Athens for her and her sister involved trips to the tops of high rise housing units carrying bulky items like futons and dorm refrigerators. This trip was a rare little slice of moving heaven. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

I’m sure you join me in appreciating those who are on the front lines of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

When we think about the front line warriors fighting the pandemic, medical professionals probably come to mind first. We are grateful for the doctors, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and lab technicians who deal directly with sick people. We appreciate the support staff who help with the process. We are grateful for Emergency Medical Technicians who treat and transport people in medical crisis.
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