Opinion

COVID-19 and coronavirus.

Two months ago, few, if any, us had heard those two words. The virus came upon us quickly. I would say we, as a nation, reacted pretty fast. We were scared not to.

The first real models we saw predicted 2.2 million Americans would die. Draconian measures were taken and they were called for or, at least, it seemed at the time they were called for. The models were, thankfully, wrong. Revisions were made and by late March the death toll prediction had dropped to 100,000-240,000 which is still a scary number.

At this writing, the US. death toll is officially reported at 65,735.
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By Will Davis, Publisher
Monroe County Reporter

The line at Dickey’s Peaches was 50 deep on Sunday, so my 6-year-old and I picked strawberries while we waited for the line to go down.

“Where can we go that has lots of berries left?” I asked the basket lady.

“Nowhere,” she replied, “the whole field has been picked clean.”

Indeed it had. Middle Georgians have apparently had enough quarantine. Since studies have shown the virus is very hard to catch in the sunshine, they made a wise choice. We gathered about 4 pounds and then headed to our reward — the best homemade strawberry ice cream.

Dickey’s hires mostly Mary Persons kids, so I knew about all of them.

“You should have been here yesterday,” one friend told me. “You would have had a story.”

She said a woman berated co-owner Cynde Dickey for having the temerity to be open during the “pandemic”.

Then on Monday we got take out from our friends at El Dorado in Forsyth.

“Are you doing dine in?” I asked.

“Well, we were going to,” he said sheepishly. “But this woman started ripping us to pieces about it and we decided not to. Yet.” Probably the same woman. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

One of the interesting things about living in these days of COVID-19 is how our commitment to being apart has brought us together. We have come together in our commitment to stay apart.

Many of us—not all of us, sadly, but many of us—have done everything we can to keep a safe distance from others and to take whatever other steps, such as wearing a mask, that we can take to stop the spread of COVID-19. We have tried to listen to the medical experts and to follow their guidance. We have tried to filter out the noise put out by the politicians so we can concentrate on the information provided by the scientists and doctors.

We have banded together in our efforts to stay apart. It’s been a challenge, but we needed to do it to flatten the curve, to limit the spread of this deadly disease.

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By Walter Geiger

A review of issues of the Barnesville News-Gazette from October, 1918 revealed an epidemic of Spanish flu was plaguing the area to the extent classes at Gordon Institute were suspended. There were also multiple obituaries at the time listing flu or pneumonia arising from the flu as the cause of death.

Here is the Oct. 17, 1918 front page report of the suspension of classes at Gordon in the flowery, run-on sentence writing style of the era:

Gordon Institute suspended last Friday for two weeks on account of the influenza epidemic which has the country in its grip, the announcement of the suspension coming somewhat as a surprise to the citizens of the community. The students assembled at school that morning and the announcement was made by Dr. E.T. Holmes, president.

The suspension was largely a precautionary measure. There had, however, been a number of cases of the disease here among the students and among the people of the city. Dr. Holmes was receiving daily inquiries from the parents scattered over the state and nearly all of them expressed anxiety over the situation. After fully considering the matter Dr. Holmes and the school authorities decided that the wisest course lay in suspending and thus avoiding what might perhaps result in disaster, which move is heartily commended by the patrons of the school and the citizens generally.

Dr. Holmes hopes to resume operations within two weeks at the outside, but this will depend, of course, on the course of events. It is sincerely hoped that Gordon and Barnesville will escape the serious epidemic which has prevailed in many other places.
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By Mike Ruffin

I’m a words guy. Math isn’t my strong suit, despite the best efforts of Mrs. Pitts, Mrs. Fambro, Mrs. Heinz, Mr. Myles, Mrs. Easton, and Mrs. Byars. Lord knows they tried.

(Full disclosure: my math grades were fine. Math just didn’t become part of the fabric of my being as reading and writing did.)

But even with my limited mathematical prowess, I know that fifty is greater than forty. (Feel free to check my math, but I’m pretty confident about this.)

I bring this up because we have just exited the season of Lent, which lasts forty days, and have entered the season of Easter, which lasts fifty days. The Easter season begins on Easter Sunday and ends fifty days later on Pentecost (which means “Fiftieth”) Sunday. So after mourning our mortality and repenting of our sins for forty days, we celebrate resurrection and new life for fifty days.
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By Walter Geiger

For about 25 years, I have watched the Palm Sunday worship service at my church from the choir loft. This year I watched it via video stream on my iMac. All involved did the best they could. They gave it their best shot but it just wasn’t the same.

When you get right down to it, nothing is really the same.

There is no school; no high school, middle school or recreational sports. There was no NCAA basketball tournament, no Masters and the pro baseball season has been delayed which also puts off the annual disappointment for Braves fans at the end of it.

Kids who should be in school are at home. Many parents are likewise at home, having been laid off, furloughed or instructed to work from there. Those kids can’t be taken to the movies or out to eat. This has had one positive effect, I have seen more kids playing outside in the past few weeks than I have in a very long time. Hopefully, they will grow to like that and not be so dependent on electronics for entertainment.
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Modern Bible translations note that the Gospel of Mark probably originally ended at 16:8. Manuscript evidence indicates that the material found in Mark 16:9-20 was probably added a few decades after the Gospel was produced. Most of what’s in those verses is found in the other Gospels.

But Mark 16:18 has something than none of the other Gospels have. It says of believers in Jesus, “They will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them.” Some of us might be glad to know that verse isn’t part of the original Gospel. We might say, “Well, that’s not really part of the Bible, so I can ignore it.”
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By Walter Geiger

We are in the midst of a pandemic. Coronavirus kills! It will continue to kill. There is only so much we, as individuals, can do.

Yes, we can wash our hands until they are red and raw. Yes, we can stay away from school, church, sporting events, weddings and funerals but, when it comes to actually dealing with this virus, we are at the mercy of government in its various manifestations. Expect even more draconian measures this week - namely a shelter in place order for all Georgians. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

Many Christians observe the forty days (not counting Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday as the season of Lent. The name “Lent” comes from an old word meaning “to lengthen,” and, since the days get longer in the spring, it came to name that season. Lent is a season of repentance that is often accompanied by fasting.

It being that time of year, I’ve been thinking about what I need to repent of. (Some of you will say that I need to repent of ending that sentence with a participle. I’m sorry, but “about that of which I need to repent” is too highfalutin for my taste.)

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By Walter Geiger

The old man walked out onto the railroad tracks where so much history has been made and observed. The trestle over River Road seemed a little worse for wear than it had on his last visit over 40 years prior. He took his time crossing on the creosote railroad ties that he had scampered across in his youth. The asphalt below seemed a much more perilous plunge.

He was accompanied by his youngest daughter now one amongst the legions of beautiful coeds the town is famous for. They stopped and turned to the east and looked over the expanse of Oconee Hill Cemetery. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

As I hope you know, the Georgia Presidential Primary election will take place on Tuesday, March 24. Advance in-person voting is now underway.

The primary (pardon the pun) piece of advice I’d like to offer is this: Vote!

But I do have some more advice.

And all the people said, “Of course you do!”

If you plan to vote in the Republican Presidential Primary, you will have only one name on your ballot: Donald Trump. He is, as you are probably aware, the incumbent. So if you’re going to vote in the Republican primary, you’ll vote for Trump.
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Editor’s note:
This column was written by Bill Torpy and published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on ajc.com on Feb. 19. Torpy is a highly-respected roving reporter/opinion columnist for the Atlanta newspaper and its online platforms. This is his long view of the happenings within the Griffin Judicial Circuit, which includes our neighbors in Pike, Spalding, Upson and Fayette counties, over the years. His views are his - not ours - and received the approval of the AJC editorial board.

What do you think? Is Torpy on target or is he way off base? You may respond via a letter to the editor or by commenting on our website at barnesville.com.

By Bill Torpy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ten years ago, I headed south to the Griffin Judicial Circuit to cover a brewing scandal in which two of the district’s four Superior Court judges had to resign suddenly in disgrace.

The sordid escapade centered around a bitter court case and the proclivities of two veteran judges, to wit: Judge Johnnie Caldwell was accused of repeatedly harassing a woman lawyer with crude sexual comments. I mean really raunchy stuff that would make a salty bailiff blush.

And then Judge Paschal English — who was beloved as “Pappy” on the TV show “Survivor” — pulled the rip cord after it was revealed he was having a fling with a public defender who routinely appeared in his courtroom. A cop caught them having sex in a car.

The small-town ties, the conflicts, the secretive doings and the raging gossip all turned this circuit, which includes Fayette, Spalding, Pike and Upson counties, into a version of another old TV show: “Laugh-in.”

Well, they’re not done in the Griffin Circuit, not by a long shot.

In 2010, Superior Court Judge Mack Crawford, a former state legislator and mule dealer (No, I am not joking) was appointed by the governor after the other two judges were bounced. This month, Crawford tendered his resignation in a sweet plea deal that let him largely off the hook and leaves the door open for him to get back on the bench.

What was Judge Crawford pleading to? Well, he was charged with stealing $15,675 that was lying around in the court’s registry and using the money to pay off some debts. He repaid the money once the GBI started snooping around but was still charged with a felony in late 2018. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

Sometime in the fifth century BC, not too many years after Jewish exiles returned to Judah from Babylon and several hundred years before Jesus was born, a preacher delivered a message preserved for us in the fifty-eighth chapter of the biblical book of Isaiah.
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By Mike Ruffin

A few days ago, Debra and I had the privilege of joining our beloved friends, college roommates, and fellow travelers Randy and Jennie Berry at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur to hear Jimmy Webb talk about and play and sing some of the wonderful songs he’s written during the course of his career.

And boy howdy, has Webb written some great songs.

He wrote three of Glen Campbell’s biggest hits: “Wichita Lineman,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” and my favorite Campbell recording, “Galveston.” He also wrote the Fifth Dimension’s hit “Up, Up, and Away,” Brooklyn Bridge’s “The Worst that Could Happen,” and Art Garfunkel’s “All I Know.” That list barely scratches the surface of the pile of songs Webb has written.
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