I Endorse Mike Burton for State Senate

Mike Burton is my close friend and the Education Candidate for the Georgia Senate, District 52. Mike says that when he and his brother and cousins would get into arguments as youngsters, his grandmother "Mama Brown" would say, "Boys, lets have a little 'sweet reason" here." And she would help them find a way to compromise and get along. Mike wants to bring some sweet reason to the Georgia Senate. It could sure use it!

Gleaning Facebook: BBQ & Sweet Reason

Barbecue tonight! Barbecue tonight! In Booger Hollow at the Burton Farm. Music compliments of Sweet Reason! That's right, two ol' geezers and a sweet young thing are gonna recreate some folk music from the sixties while we celebrate the campaign of Mike Burton for State Senate. Y'all come! (IF you want to bring a little slaw or chips or baked beans that'd be great but come on regardless! Lots of barbecue!

Comments:

Teresa Ware: Yee-Haw, I'll be there after all I married to one of those ol' geezers, but I'm not the sweet young thing. lol

Terrell: Don't you say that Teresa! You definitely ARE a sweet young thing!

Sheila will likely beat me for my sexist language, ...and rightly so, I hasten to add.)

From the campaign:

"Hey folks,

We have plenty of Bar-b-que for the rally tonight. The "Sweet Reason" trio will be here with great sing a long songs to get us fired up for the election. The wood is stacked for the bonfire and the weather looks ideal.  Bring jackets, flashlights and lawn chairs. Lots of halloween activities for kids.

See you at 3074 Booger Hollow Road tonight at 5:30."

Gary Greene: Have fun....I have played that gig before...

Terrell: Come on over, Gary!

Gary: I promised Debby I would come to Chieftains tonight for the stories

Terrell: Tell Debby not to forget me! Have fun.

Margaret Oren: Tell me about Chieftains now. I worked on the Archaeological dig there when I was 17. LOOOOONG time ago now, but what a greaat experience.

Gary: Well they are having Ghost stories tonight @730 here is the link M.

----------------

Great time at the Mike Burton Barbecue tonight! Good food & fellowship & singing & bonfire. Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, if you haven't already. Don't vote for gridlock, vote for reason.

Comment:

Bonnie Askew: It was really great to spend time with Mike and friends. Shows that when we focus on our similarities rather than our differences that we can enjoy fnjoy our time together.

Gleaning Facebook: Sweet Reason BBQ

 First Post

__________________________

Barbecue tonight! Barbecue tonight! In Booger Hollow at the Burton Farm. Music compliments of Sweet Reason! That's right, two ol' geezers and a sweet young thing are gonna recreate some folk music from the sixties while we celebrate the campaign of Mike Burton for State Senate. Y'all come! (IF you want to bring a little slaw or chips or baked beans that'd be great but come on regardless! Lots of barbecue!

Comments

Teresa A Ware
Yee-Haw, I'll be there after all I married to one of those ol' geezers, but I'm not the sweet young thing. lol

Terrell Shaw
Don't you say that Teresa! You definitely ARE a sweet young thing!

Terrell Shaw
(Sheila will likely beat me for my sexist language, ...and rightly so, I hasten to add.)

Terrell Shaw
From the campaign:
"Hey folks,
We have plenty of Bar-b-que for the rally tonight. The "Sweet Reason" trio will be here with great sing a long songs to get us fired up for the election. The wood is stacked for the bonfire and the weather looks ideal. Bring jackets, flashlights and lawn chairs. Lots of halloween activities for kids.
See you at 3074 Booger Hollow Road tonight at 5:30."

Gary Greene
Have fun....I have played that gig before...

Terrell Shaw
Come on over, Gary!

Gary Greene
I promised Debby I would come to Chieftains tonight for the stories

Terrell Shaw
Tell Debby not to forget me! Have fun.

Margaret Oren
Tell me about Chieftains now. I worked on the Archaeological dig there when I was 17. LOOOOONG time ago now, but what a greaat experience.

Gary Greene
Well they are having Ghost stories tonight @730 here is the link

__________________

Later Post

Great time at the Mike Burton Barbecue tonight! Good food & fellowship & singing & bonfire. Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, if you haven't already. Don't vote for gridlock, vote for reason.

Bonny Askew
It was really great to spend time with Mike and friends. Shows that when we focus on our similarities rather than our differences that we can enjoy fnjoy our time together.

Gleaning Facebook: I Voted. Did you?

Today I exercised my most precious privilege and, I think, obligation, as an American. I voted.

I was privileged to vote for these candidates that I know and have faith in: Mike Burton (State Senate), Bonny Askew (State Rep), Roy Barnes (Gov), & Joe Martin (Supt of Ed.) And three others I have met briefly and who have inspired me: Carol Porter (Lt Gov), Darryl Hicks (Labor) & Michael Thurmond (US Senate)

Comments:

Terrell: I am proud and honored to support each of these long-shot candidates in this midterm election. I ask you to join me by casting your vote, if you haven't already, on Tuesday. I hope you will vote for these fine candidates, but however you vote, please do it.

Lynne Crothers Williams: We agree on one thing--the importance of voting!!

Ruth Baird Shaw: Jim, Joan and I voted on Thursday. I did vote for Mike as I love Mike and all the Burton family. Good folks! I still grieve for Cleve and regret his untimely death.

Margaret Oren: Did Bonny Askew once teach at West Rome?

Been gone a long time. . .

Gleaning Facebook: Why Did Georgia Lead the New South?

 I asked this question on Facebook:

Why did Georgia surge ahead of most of the deep South in the last half of the twentieth century?

And then I answered my own question (followed by a couple of other commenters):

Terrell: 

From 1950 it could have been Birmingham or Charlotte or Nashville or some other southern city that led the South. Nope. It was Atlanta. 

I think one of the keys was strong, economically progressive leadership of the moderate Georgia Democratic Party. Each of the other Southern states had to endure occasional Republican administrations and their rigid doctrinaire approach to governance. Georgia Democrats were (and are) pragmatic and moderate. Governors Vandiver, Sanders, Carter, Busbee, Harris, Miller, and Barnes led from the middle where most Georgians are.

Then came 2002 and the Right Wing --- some snooping in bedrooms, some speading fear about illegal immigrants, some trying to get rid of public education, some promoting their "fair tax" that would shift the tax burden drastically to the middle and lower classes while reducing the tax on the wealthy, etc. etc. etc. These Republicans let our state fall into a near depression with reduced services, higher class sizes in schools, high unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, closed or severely limited state parks, lost opportunities for transportation projects... I could go on. 

Let's fix it. Vote Democratic.

John McClellan: 

Because of the leadership provided by people like Carl Sanders, Roy Barnes, George Busbee, Tom Murphy, Joe Frank Harris and even Zell Miller when he was governor.

Terrell: 

Tom Murphy was ornery, cantankerous, and aggravating, but we owe him a lot. Despite his rural roots, he fought to make Atlanta a world city. I never liked the idea of putting the names of living folks on highways and buildings and such, but he is very deserving of all the nameplates he garnered in Atlanta and Georgia before his death.

Cameron Smith: 

What about rappers from the dirty south?? Atl reprasintn or it could be the forward thinking policy decisions lacking in other southern metropolitan areas

Terrell: 

Definitely the rappers. 

Mike Burton for State Senate

 

 I am proud to support my lifelong friend, Mike Burton, for State Senate, District 52. If you live in Floyd County, western Gordon County, or northern Bartow County, please look beyond the big money, slick ads, and negative attacks of the other side and vote for Mike and "Sweet Reason" Mike will not represent a party, a special interest, or a rigid platform -- he will represent the people of our district. He is open, intelligent, and reasonable. Mike is the Democratic nominee. Our district is 65% Republican. In order for Mike to win he must receive the votes of a lot of Republicans. I ask my many wonderful Republican friends to please give him a fair hearing. You will not agree with him on every issue, but I believe most of you will find more to agree with him on than you will his opponent if you give him a fair hearing. Thanks!  

Gleaning Facebook: Vote for Mike Burton!

I am proud to support my lifelong friend, Mike Burton, for State Senate, District 52. If you live in Floyd County, western Gordon County, or northern Bartow County, please look beyond the big money, slick ads, and negative attacks of the other side and vote for Mike and "Sweet Reason".

Mike will not represent a party, a special interest, or a rigid platform -- he will represent the people of our district. He is open, intelligent, and reasonable. Mike is the Democratic nominee. Our district is 65% Republican. In order for Mike to win he must receive the votes of a lot of Republicans. I ask my many wonderful Republican friends to please give him a fair hearing. You will not agree with him on every issue, but I believe most of you will find more to agree with him on than you will his opponent if you give him a fair hearing. Thanks!

Comments: 

Ruth Baird Shaw:  Thanks Terry! I plan to vote for Mike. I have known Mike and his family since 1962. He is a talented and good family man...

Terrell Shaw: Thanks Mother and David!

Gleaning Facebook: Mildred's 90th

Sautee-Nacoochee Community Center was packed when we got there and Mildred was reciting her poem: "Moving, Gone Dancing".

Ron is still the kind and thoughtful guy he's always been. He had several interesting stories of trips with Mildred and Philip - to Skidaway or Ossabaw - and the wonderful influence that they had on his career. And Mildred credits Ron with supporting the creation of the gifted education program in Floyd County. I remember well the "outdoor classroom" workshop in the early seventies that Mildred and Ron led out at the trestle on Big Texas Valley Road, near Huffacre. A great day!

Dorothy was about to pull away before I realized she was there!

We had a great time visiting with Ron. Even talked some '60s girlfriends and football!

Teressa Greear Holtzclaw does not age like other mortals. 
We took along an album of pictures we took about 1980 when we twice visited the Greear homeplace in Helen. Troy Carson - TC - Holtzclaw (Teressa and Bill's son) was a toddler. On one trip we had Mildred, Joanne Brannon (now Weeks) and our late friend Sue Frazier with us. We "camped out" in the little cabin and the next day hiked up Trey Mountain on a section of the Appalachian Trail. Great memories. For the second trip Mildred gave us the loan of the cabin to share with our friends Bill and Cathy Whittle and Mike Bock. We hiked a longer section of the trail on that trip driving farther north and hiking back to Helen across Trey Mountain. 

Winifred and Richard Morrow with Mildred 

Another crowd shot -- I should have taken more. I see Delbert, Mildred's son in the background (with some food in his hands) and Ralph Shaw (long-sleeved yellow shirt). Ron Kennedy id holding the manila envelope.

Sharing a laugh with Mildred and Cindy. Cindy was a part of that wonderful class that had to put up with me for multiple years in the mid-seventies at McHenry School.

It was so good to be with Mildred and all the Greears again! A bonus was to be with Ron Kennedy for a second time in a year. (And a third time to see Ron in the last couple of years - I saw him at his Dad's funeral.) Another was seeing one of the wonderful former students Mildred and I share: Cindy Moore, who is teaching and coaching in Haralson County these days. Saw our old cohorts Ralph Shaw and Lanky Summer and Winnie Morrow and Dorothy Turner and Sandra Lightfoot... and others I am leaving out. 

Sheila and I drove Mildred home from the Sautee-Nacoochee Community Center to Greear Lane, and with Ron got to visit with Philip too for a few minutes. Phillip even sang for us: "His Eye is on the Sparrow"

I mentioned a few of the comments I have gotten. I'll copy and forward some of the pics and comments to Mildred.

Janet Hughes Smith: Terrell, Please tell Mildred that I wish her the best and a very happy birthday. She may or may not remember me. We only worked together for four years at PMS.

Betty Smith Franklin: Love to you all--many happy memories..

David Promis: Wow...I do have to behave myself...I see the Morrows every week at my neighbors abode, I know Terrell and my good friend Ann Newman Foskey is a close friend of the Greers.

 

Gleaning Facebook: Mildred Greear's Ninetieth

I posted this on this date:

(Terrell Shaw) is headed with Sheila to Sautee Nacoochee for Mildred's 90th b'day! Any formerly gifted (grin) students or Friends of Mildred Greear who'd like me to take greetings, favorite memories, or even pictures? (I could have thot of this sooner, huh?) We'll have Sheila's iPad with us, so send 'em along!

And I'd like to preserve the comments here on my blog:

Adam Stanley: is headed with Sheila to Sautee Nacoochee for Mildred's 90th b'day! Any formerly gifted (grin) students or Friends of Mildred Greear who'd like me to take greetings, favorite memories, or even pictures? (I could have thot of this sooner, huh?) We'll have Sheila's iPad with us, so send 'em along!

Kendra L. Harris: Oh my gosh... I was thinking of her just the other day.. I remember that she used to bring me clay.. I was in the hospital one time (to have surgery on my knee) and she walked in with a HUGE bag of clay.. I just loved that! She was always so cool... I remember us learning about p's and q's.. 

Please wish her well and the happiest, most joyous of birthdays for me! I will send you a pic of me and Avery to show her... and I will never forget Chrysalis..  What nice memories..

Sherry Jean Sims: Dear Mrs. Mildred. I went to school with her daughter, Teressa and knew her somewhat briefly through that, but years later, when I cut hair at Herb's Barber Shop she became one of my regular & sweetest customers! She was always bringing me in little gifts, like plants or flowers. I just loved her. Say hello for me! Although she may not remember me, I've never forgotten her! What a wonderful woman!

Suzanne Thornton Clonts: Wish her well for me.

Tracy S. Lawler: How wonderful - please send my wishes to Mildred as well!

Ruth Baird Shaw: Terry...Mildred is a lovely and talented lady. Give her my love and admiration and prayers that she have many more Happy Birthdays.

Mary Caldwell: Please do remember me to Mildred...with love and good wishes for many more.

Laurie Craw: 90, oh my! Give her my best wishes OK? Can't imagine living that long myself but I'm glad she has

Terrell Shaw: Thanks for all the comments. Roy, Philip is pretty severely handicapped but very much alive. On Saturday we managed to holler a few comments and questions to him and he responded like the old Philip. He immediately asked us about our children by name and reminisced about them and us. He is almost completely blind and severely hard of hearing, and he is beginning to have memory problems, but was pretty sharp on Saturday.

Sherry, Herb used to cut my hair when I was in high school!

I will send along all the comments to Mildred's daughter "Pete" (Margaret Oren).

Sherry Jean Sims: That must have been before my time, Terrell. I worked there in the early 80's and Herb himself was the only male in the shop. He's still in business, too, good ol' Herb. A lifelong family friend.

The New York "Mosque" Controversy II

 I do not understand why it would "disrespect" other loyal Americans for these loyal Americans, just as much victims of Al Qaeda as you or me, to build their center in lower Manhattan where our mutual enemies attacked us. Certainly Muslims in lower Manhattan are as likely as you or me, actually more so I imagine, to know workers at the World Trade Center who were killed in the attacks of 2001. Moderate Muslims are specifically targeted by Al Qaeda.

The Golden Rule is a great way to look at this. When I put myself in the place of an American Muslim I feel the incredible pain of seeing my own countrymen accepting Bin Laden's world view of a war between Americans and Islam instead of a battle against extremists who kill moderate Muslims daily. Putting myself in the place of my Muslim students, parents, and friends -- some of whom had very close relatives murdered by different terrorist, Saddam, BTW -- I would be terribly hurt and insulted and even angry.

Our allies among the Kurds, Shites, and Sunnis in Iraq and Afghanistan must wonder if we can be trusted if we treat even Muslim Americans as if they are "disrespectful" just for using a building in lower Manhattan. Our soldiers include loyal American Muslims and are fighting alongside Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq. What message are the folks so vehemently opposing the "Mosque" sending the moderates?

I say again: Bin Laden must be chuckling at his unwitting allies. I believe that the vociferous opponents of this building are helping Bin Laden estrange Muslims from America. They are helping him create extremists. If they can't support it, they should be silent, in my opinion, because, even if they were right that it would be best not built, it is counterproductive, divisive, and helps Bin Laden achieve his goals to continue to alienate our allies among the Muslims. If we agree they have the right to build it, then how does insulting them help our cause?

The better response to the announcement of the building, however, would have been: "Good for these folks! This demonstrates that America will not fall into Bin Laden's trap. We actually believe in the words of our founding documents. See OBL, you creepy medieval rabid dog, reasonable Muslims are not on your side. They believe in America and want to help lower Manhattan recover from your evil."

Gleaning Facebook: Brief Post; Not So Brief Responses

I wish I'd had the the picture above to share in the comments on this date when I posted the following short quote with no comment or picture -- 

"The stimulus did what it was supposed to do, it ended the Great Recession and it jump-started a recovery."

-- Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's and a former adviser to John McCain

The response was surprising and I got a little carried away myself:

Raymond Atkins: Terrell let's don't be muddying the waters with facts. Roy, was that today?

Adam Stanley: Kubrick faked the moon landing for NASA while he was making 2001.

Neal Brackett: I've got some ocean front property in arkansas for sale.....

Terrell Shaw: There's a Teabagger meeting coming up, Neal... I'll bet you could make a sale there. 

Adam Stanley: no teabagging allowed in this place...

Richard Dick Sapp: Joe Wilson has the correct answer

Neal Brackett: Not selling property in Alaska yet....

Ray Langley: Terrell, as I ride around I'm seeing a lot of "Now Hiring" signs. Maybe that doesn't mean recovery but it seems to be a start.

Laurie Craw: Terrell you are very brave to post information contrary to the general perceptions. This Mark Zandi you quote, is he still alive?

Richard Dick Sapp: Propaganda for the masses

Terrell Shaw: Thanks for the comment, Dickie, but give us more. Help us understand your point-of-view. I'd be interested in knowing how you'd have handled things differently in 2008-2009. The economy by every evaluation that I know of was on the brink. The American auto business was in collapse. We were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every month. Banks were failing left and right. Huge companies were going under. However you feel about the President's measures (and Bush's during his last few months) after they were implemented jobs losses lessened and eventually turned (slowly admittedly but also undeniably) and, though the recovery is far from complete, the recession ended.

Should we have just stepped back and let the economy find its bottom, then try to work our way out over next couple of decades? Are you a true believer in complete laissez-faire?

It is easy to proclaim an argument "propaganda". It is harder to support the charge with facts.

The primary argument on your side is the increased deficit spending, which is universally despised -- even by me. So go at it.

Walter Jack Gibson: Did not end the great Recession. It did not even stall it.

if socialists were in charge of the Sahara Desart there would be a lack of sand.

Terrell Shaw: Ah, another charge without evidence. Jack my friend, you are welcome to your own opinion but not your own facts.

Neal Brackett: Well w/o documentation, Zandi's comment is merely opinion or what researchers might call "anecdotal evidence".... but FB is hardly the place for large amounts of statistical analysis. We are all lobbing our own versions of horse hockey, based on the shade of glasses we happen to wear or which way the wind blows.

Terrell Shaw: I worked very hard for a change of direction in 2006 and 2008. As a result of the votes of a majority of Americans some important changes have been made. I am committed to doing whatever I can, ethically, to seeing that those efforts are given an opportunity to work. Two years is not soon enough to show a complete recovery. Jobs are still way below where we want them. There are still way too many bank failures and foreclosures. But there is clear evidence of improvement. I have posted some of that evidence several times. And everyone agrees that we cannot maintain the astronomical deficit spending for long. At some point we've got to come together enough to actually DO something about it.

If we continuously jump from one tack to another, this ship of state may never get where we want it. We have chosen a path out of this. We need to stick it out at least two more years. Two years of stalemate (or even a complete change of direction again) is NOT what we need. I hope America will stick with this pragmatic, compromising President and keep him enough help in Congress for his programs to have a chance to succeed.

So I am gonna try my best 

• NOT to "lob horse hockey", 

• to resist the natural inclination to ascribe evil intent to those who disagree, 

• to avoid ad hominum attacks

• and instead to post some real stuff to think about.

I love my country. I believe to my bones that the trend toward the concentration of wealth in a few hands is just as dangerous to freedom as the reverse. I think the corrupting influence of money, on all sides, in our political life is a danger to our freedoms.

In other words we need Georgia's motto to prevail in our national discourse: wisdom, justice, and MODERATION.

Richard Dick Sapp: Face it a majority of the public was fooled as you were. Any 5th grade knows that you can not spend more than you make. You must only vote by party, bad mistake. You are smart enough to know that the wool was pulled over your eyes. Now be objective and vote for the people that will do what is right.

Terrell Shaw: "Any 5th grader" knows that remarks like "any 5th grader knows" are not debate, they are smack talk. You still haven't given any evidence of the "wool" Mr. Sapp. 

The situation "was what it was" in 2008-2009. We could ignore it. We could try a stimulus. We could have done sumpin else. You've completed 5th grade  tell me your plan. 

Barack Obama elicited advice from ALL sides. He did not know for sure, any more than you or I did, what the best course was. All he could do was get the best advice he could and act. That's what good leaders do. 

The deficit spending has to end, but on the brink of a depression, according to many economists, is not the time for short term deficit fixes. The President did his best to make decisions that avert a depression and lead to a long-term recovery. I think he's on the right track. Wall street reform. Stabilizing the auto industry. Passing health-care reform that many (not you I suspect) believe will reduce the deficit. Stimulating the economy in a way that also improves our infrastructure -- another long-term boon.

When he began to implement these changes - the first 24 days after taking office, the economy and jobs began to improve. Not as fast as we would like but demonstrably.

You are right that the deficit is growing at an unsustainable rate. That's why the tax cuts for the rich, proposed by virtually all of the Republican candidates this year is, in my book, totally irresponsible. 

No Republican has given us a surplus in my memory. Do you remember one? Reagan's administration resulted in record deficits - the first trillion dollar one. Bush, Jr. oversaw even higher deficits. Only Clinton managed a surplus.

We know that the previous administration combined increased spending with tax cuts, especially for wealthy folks. This President has also cut taxes on 95% of us, but not on the top 5%. Wealthy Americans pay the lowest percentage taxes of my lifetime and are growing richer than ever while the Republicans scream "class warfare" and our deficit spending balloons and the nation goes to Hell in a handbasket.

Personally, I think our generation, at least those of us blessed by some financial success, should share the cost of pulling our nation out of this mess. 

There I go again. Maybe it's because I only teach fourth grade.

Neal Brackett: Reminded by the line from "Inherit the Wind" about Opinions being" bad for business"... my momma thouroughly believes this is so, and she would be giving a longer winded lecture than you posted above if I posted serious lengthy political or theological editorials... please don't take it personal if I lob a little horse hockey in fun.... promise it's clean horse hockey that hasn't touched the dirt yet (veterinary humor). I miss the friend that was on FB that leaned farther to the right than you do to the left. He seems to have dissappeared from FB, perhaps his opinions were "bad for business." ... not something that you have to worry too much about when teaching 9 and 10 year olds that are more conerned with the latest Disney film.

Terrell Shaw: Neal, if it weren't for my right-wing friends, I'd have many fewer friends. My six siblings are about as far right as you, and I love 'em every one despite their horse hockey views. 

In economic terms, at least, I am a confirmed moderate, I obstinately hold that the best answer is almost always a good ways from both extremes. Unfettered socialism is despotic. Unfettered capitalism is despotic. Both wreck havoc with liberty.

Richard Dick Sapp: The only way to changed the economy is to give tax breaks to big business to stay in the us and give jobs to Americans, Gt. Motor bailouts should never happen. Try to listen to more Grocho Marx then Karl when you fall off your limb

Terrell Shaw: I love ol' Groucho. Never been much of a fan of Karl, though. I'll try to keep ahold of the limb! 

 Like I've often said, the far right and the far left are both bad news.

Nobody liked the bailout, but w/o it, the US Auto industry would have bit the dust, I think. The bailout of Gen Motors was a one-time, last-ditch, emergency measure, and (shocker!) it actually worked! The president was wise enough to tie it to some tough requirements and follow it up with some reforms that might just help to keep us out of that position in the future. 

More good economic news today. And as Ray said above, "Now Hiring" signs are starting to sprout here and there. Things are slowly looking up.

Richard Dick Sapp: As I stated Gt. Motors was not saved, the taxpoayers own it, the czars have your account number. November is going to be a beautiful month. The moving van are head to DC to clear out the Dems office. Maybe you can get them a job in Rome. Pelosi told me she can dressup like Capt Crunch

The New York "Mosque" Controversy

Osama Bin Laden must be sitting in a cave somewhere chuckling about his unwitting allies.

The attacks of 2001 were attacks by extremists against the United States, a nation of all religions and none. In those attacks Methodists, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, atheists, Muslims, Sikhs, and more died. For the 200 years plus before that, other Americans, of all faiths and none, have died fighting for our Bill of Rights which proclaims freedom of religion.

Any American has the right to build a house of worship on land he owns if he pleases.

When I think of the sweet Muslim American kids I have taught over the years and the many fine Muslim American parents and teachers I have known, I am not bothered at all for them to build a mosque near the site where extremists of their faith tried to terrorize them and us into forsaking our freedom to worship as they and we please.

I stubbornly refuse to succumb to terrorism.

An extremist Christian terrorist set off a bomb in Centennial Park about 24 hours after I was there. I will not allow my rights as an American to be altered one iota by his terrorism. Nor will I quit visiting New York because of Bin Laden's terrorism. Nor will I change my belief in religious freedom, as Bin Laden would have me do, because of his despicable acts. I believe terrorism deserves a quick and brutal response. I  will cheerfully stand in line, shoeless, to have my belongings x-rayed before each flight. I will pay whatever taxes need to be paid so that practical safeguards can be maintained and so that terrorists can be hunted. But to alter my core values because of terrorism would be to surrender to it, period.

I will not do it.

I want Bin Laden and his ilk to see America going on about its business, refusing to be terrorized, -- ready to take safeguards, ready to punish terrorists without mercy, but otherwise -- bravely, determinedly, resolutely unaffected by terrorism.

The Case for the President

The link above (click on the picture) is to a pretty good rundown of the accomplishments of the last two years. They are impressive. Our President inherited a terrible situation on January 20, 2009. The economy was hemorrhaging jobs. According to almost every economist there was real danger of us slipping into depression. At the time virtually everyone admitted that it would be a long slog out of the recession. Well, it has been. But things turned in the right direction almost immediately under the pragmatic, calm, open-minded leadership of our President. We still have a terrible jobless rate, but we have gone from losing hundreds of thousands of jobs to gaining thousands of jobs each month. That's not enough, and would be better without the stonewalling of the GOP, but it is a huge improvement.

Yes we have terrible deficits. We have them because of the excesses of many, but a big part is the mess created by folks who want to conduct two wars and cut taxes at the same time. Letting the ridiculous tax breaks for the wealthy expire as originally planned will help the situation. The wealthy paid much higher taxes than they do now during the boom years of the fifties! (& even the roaring nineties under Clinton.)

Now is the time for level-headed folk to come forward and head off the silliness of the Sharron Angles, Christine O'Donnells, and Rand Pauls, (and Nathan Deals, and Barry Loudermilks here in Georgia) who want to blame this ongoing crisis on the very folks who are digging us, slowly but surely, out of it. The Teabaggers like Angle, et al, would remove any safety nets left for common folk, like Social Security and minimum wage.

Vote for reason. Vote for reality. Vote for hope. Vote Democratic!

Gleaning Facebook: William Few

 For Constitution Week one of Georgia's delegates to the Constitutional Convention visited our school. Some folks seemed to think William Few bears a strong resemblance to me. He even took car duty for me.

Sunday at the National Storytelling Convention

Sometimes the emcee is as entertaining as the tellers. That's how we were introduced to Kevin Kling a year ago. If Barbara McBride Smith or Ed Stivender or Gayle Ross is the emcee you look forward to their brief moments on stage.

Gay Ducey was emcee for the Sacred Telling session in the College Street Tent on Sunday morning. What a hoot! She performed the usual anti-cellphone duty to the tune of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus":

We know how much you love your cellphone,
You take it with you everywhere,
But if it rings while we are telling,
You'll be standing in the need of prayer!

Then in her best and most solemn voice she recited the rest of the usual "Thou Shalt Nots" of audience etiquette.

My Facebook friend, Suzi Whaples, was our first Sunday teller. She told a touching tale of a street person in Charleston, WV, who hung around the office building where Suzi used to work. Mary Jones was expressionless and definitely less than articulate, but Suzi made the effort of greeting her every morning and afternoon nonetheless. When the woman was suddenly killed in an accident, Suzi learned that her daily greetings were more important than she realized. "Be careful how you treat strangers," Suzi reminded us, "you might be entertaining angels, unaware."

Corinne Stavish was next. Of Jewish heritage Corinne is known for her bible stories told from the perspective of women from the Old Testament (Sarah on Friday). But this morning she spoke of her mother's creative uses of the common exclamation, "Oy veh!"
"I understood," she said, "that compassion passed directly from God to my mother." Though she also admitted that her mother "... had anger management issues of her own." Embedded in this story of her mother was a tale she borrowed from a writer named Kohn (sp), "The Princess Who Never Cried".

When Gay took the stage to introduce Bill Miller, she had to interrupt herself to turn and cough. She immediately turned back to the audience with an unwavering gaze to announce, "Don't worry -- just a hair ball."

Bill Birdsong Miller is a Mohican who grew up on a Wisconsin reservation. He sang two of his songs: "Listen to Me" and "Dark River"


Next came the inimitable, unlimitable, Kevin Kling. He told a short Ukrainian folktale called "The Mitten". Then told of some of his own childhood experiences in church. During one seemingly endless church service he noticed the long list of names under a stained-class window next to his pew and whispered to his mother to ask who those men were. "Those are the men who died in service," she replied. Kevin wondered, "The first service or the second?!!"

Abbi Patrix is this year's international teller. He's a Frenchman. He is an amazingly animated, joyful teller, whose stories give the impression of being created before you. They are more than passing strange. Unique. They include bits of chanted or sung French phrases. One was a dream/vision from the night before, or maybe moments before, about an ascension into the sky and his deposit outside the tent just before the telling. He reminds me of the lesson I try to teach my children before a performance: If you have fun on the stage, you audience will have fun too. Abbi always seem to be having great fun!

As Gay introduced the wonderful Carmen Agra Deedy, one of my very favorites (and a friend of our family friends the Jorge Gonzales family), she despensed with the usual admonitions and just just said: "Make your Mama proud."

Carmen told of her first visit to the public library in Decatur. Tersi, her older sister --- and another wonderful teller and my Facebook buddy --- took her there to be rid of her for an hour or so. (I'm sure there's another side to this Tersi!) This is the story in which Carmen describes Tersi as a "pink flamingo" in her ballet costume. She also beautifully paints the WPA murals in that library on our mental canvasses and sculpts for us a very Southern, very tough, and very loving, librarian.

Parenthetical aside: Some of my favorite folks have been librarians... Gloria & Priscilla, WC Owen, Matilda, Ms. Burge, Avis & Martha, Sadie, Libby, my buddies on the Bookmobile, even old FB friend Tony, and those whose names I can't retrieve, at the library in Griffin where we walked with my Mama in the fifties, and in the cannery-building library at Ellijay. I read all the Hardy Boy books and so was reduced to checking out Nancy Drew "for my sister".

Librarian Mary Mac explained to little Carmen that "you don't like books because it hasn't found you yet." So of course Charlotte's Web leapt off a shelf in no time, almost onto her toe, and found her, and Carmen was hooked.

I had to note this wonderful detail: "Librarians are all about precision - three-ninety-eight [quick index-finger jab accompanied by a sound-effect "pttt"] point-two"

Bil Lepp was next and chose to tell the familiar "My fourth-grade teacher was Wonder Woman". Fun all over again.
Bill Birdsong Miller was back with a few more songs: "Blessing Wind" "Blowing in the Wind" [We were invited to join in], a Jim Pepper song, and "Wild Horses".

Jay Ocallahan presented a tribute to the late Brother Blue. "Brother Blue flew above his ego."

The joyous Abbi Patrix was back to talk about the Creator and his imagination. He often accompanies his stories with a hand-held Kalimba. The Creator "... looks at man and thinks, 'I can do better!'" We must "... tune ourselves with the world."

We got our second taste of Charlotte Blake Alston -- I wish we had heard more from her -- who told a tale I have heard on Sunday morning, maybe from Jim or David, about the little girl teased about the futility of trying to toss all the stranded starfish on the beach back into the safety of the sea, "... to this one it will matter".

Bil Lepp came back on and talked of his experiences with other languages and as an exchange student in Germany. I laughed so hard I forgot to take notes.

Rafe Martin told folktales. I enjoyed them without jotting any notes.

Then here came Suzi Whaples again.
We are ready for the tears to flow as our hearts are rended as usual. She elicits tears alright!! The most tearful laughter of the festival!! She begins by discussing how language has changed since her childhood and teen years. She has learned that peddle-pushers are now capris, for example. She told of the incredulous looks she got from her granddaughters when, concerned that her granddaughters have appropriate footwear for the beach, she asked them if they were taking their thongs. With great timing she drew out this misunderstanding for several minutes ending with: "Well, if y'all feel that strongly about it, I'll leave my thongs at home, but you'll never talk your Granddad out of wearing his!"

Corinne Stavish told of her father's reaction to a neighbors petition to keep "those people" out of the neighborhood. She ended by quoting her father: "Honey, never be afraid to do the right thing. The time to be afraid is when you don't."

By this time I think Gayle Ross is the emcee. Her introduction of Andy Offut Irwin was simple: "Take cover -- incoming!!!"
Aunt Marguerite is back of course, this time with a campaign to change the Newton County High School "Lady Rams" (????) to the "Embraceable Ewes". Braswell plays cymbal in the band and uses them for an impractical joke that he thinks goes unnoticed, but he's convinced otherwise when Margueite remarks, "Braswell, that's a wonderful use of symbols."

The festival ends for those of us at the College Street tent with the grand old man of storytelling, Donald Davis. Donald talks of visiting Hugh Massey's Toggery with his mother. Her only admonition before they entered was two words: "Be Have!" Of course he didn't. After all "I was only six. I didn't have a memory yet. Didn't need one."

And it's over. We rush to the "Resource Tent" - It's only open for thirty more minutes! - and drop a hundred dollars (it's only money) for an assortment of storytelling CDs to listen to on the way home. Sheila has finally succombed to my cold and is miserable so we head back to the hotel where she collapses into bed and I go out for soup-to-go from Panera. After a long night of sleep, we have a brunch at IHOP across the street -- no diet today -- and Sheila sleeps more as I drive listening to Andy Irwin and Kathryn Windham and Kevin Kling thorugh the beautiful Tennessee countryside.

Alright, Facebook friends! I want to organize a real, big name with local talent interspersed, Northwest Georgia Storytelling Festival! I can see those beautiful white tents blooming in the pastures at Berry College, or down in Booger Hollow at the Burton Farm. Tie it to Chiaha? Or Waterfest? Maybe get the Georgia Writers group involved.

We've got Tersi & Carmen & John & Andy right there in the Atlanta area. Kennesaw has a storytelling professor! We've got Jane & Barbara & Bob (and Terrell, of course) here in Rome. Shoot, Ms. Windham and Donald Davis aren't all that far away.

Saturday at the National Storytelling Convention

Our second wonderful day with a schedule of stories from 10 a.m. till midnight including two hours each to Donald Davis and John McCutcheon!

Donald Davis described the family reunion as a "semester of eating." And when someone said what he shouldn't: "...he looked like like he'd just stepped in a hole and realized there wasn't a bottom in it," and "... I had a bite ... right there. [points to neck and pauses] ... Wouldn't go either way. [now the patented Davis neck jut and stare]"

John McCutcheon joyfully sang and sang, and had us join him often, with this encouragement: "Music has a wonderful inclusionary clause -- harmony. You have several chances to get that right, and if you don't... it's jazz."
During his "college year abroad" in Eastern Kentucky, John learned that, in the South, "...even vegetables aren't vegetarian." He finished by singing one of my very favorite American hymns, accompanying himself on his newest instrument, the the Tibetan Singing Bowl -- "How Can I Keep from Singing?"

His second set was a request time. I put in two, neither of which was chosen ("Old People in Love" and "The Wind that Shakes the Barley") but I was very happy with the hour he gave us. He sang "Cut the Cake" for someone's birthday, and spoke of his campaign to replace the dirge-like "National Birthday Anthem" with this lively alternative (Afterwards I had the chance to tell him that I am doing my part in that effort!)
And when he was interupted by the train, -- as tellers often are, especially in the Courthouse Tent where we spent the day -- he just added a train verse to the song without missing a beat.

The story of Kathryn Windham's coffin was like hearing it the first time all over again. We were reminded of the epitaph she wants: "She was twice blessed. Say she was happy. Say she knew it."
Then she turned to a long discussion of her current full-time career: "I take care of a crotchedy old woman." There followed a detailed and hilarious depiction of the challenges of living into one's nineties ... with many references to "she", the unwelcome "house guest". And another train brought the suggestion that "they could use some WD40 on those wheels!"
Our only hour with Kathryn Windham was a wonderful blessing, and we knew it.

We chose the evening concert in the Courthouse Tent, "One Clown Short of a Circus" with Bil Lepp, Kevin Kling, and Andy Offut Irwin. We got back from supper only 45 minutes early so there were no seats left except for one single seat on the very back row. So we claimed that and sat behind it on the asphalt to eat our soup and sandwiches from Atlanta Bread. We struck up a conversation with the fellow beside us who was holding three seats. He said that it was possible one of his companions would decide not to come. That how it turned out so Sheila and I both got seats after all -- one on each side of this nice couple. They live in Jonesborough and are interested in renting out their basement next year dring the festival. We traded e-mail addresses! Wouldn't it be nice to stay right there in Jonesborough!

Crazy Bil Lepp told the tale of his visit to a rodeo last year, and his participation in a Wild Cow Milking Contest. I noted his mention of "...the kind of vegan who won't even say 'Glad to meet you'..." His adventure included "...800 pounds of aggravated radical feminist bovine" and his punchline was: "Hell hath no fury like TWO women scorned!"

Frenetic Kevin Kling kept me so limp with laughter that I only managed one brief note and I don't remember the context exactly: "...brothers from other mothers and sisters of from other misters."

If you have not heard Andy Offut Irwin's Aunt Marguerite from Covington Georgia, you have missed a treat. He. has. her. down. I have Newton County roots myself. I have met that woman! She gives two examples of "The very defininition of a fool...": "some one who'd pay a dollar for a bottle of wahrter..." or "... buy a bale of pine straw in Jahrja." One of her neighbors would not go to the optician who recommended progressive lenses "... Ah'm a R'publican!"


The Midnight Cabaret was one of our favorites: Bill Harley ... and friends. Great music (What a keyboard artist is Bill's friend whose name I forget! I swear he rivals James Willis.) and some storytelling in between.
"The most radical thing in America is a longterm memory!"
He called Willy Chaflin and Barbara McBride Smith and a couple of others to the stage to help him with a hilarious "radio play". "That's like beating a dead horse of a different color!"
He talked of his father's laissez faire parenting style: "My Dad figured I was stupid enough to learn from my own mistakes." He sang his song "Daddy Played the Phonograph" and explained, "It's not enough to know how to play, you have to know how to listen too."

And he mused: "You can't see the story when you are in it."

As Bill finished up the evening he reminded us of Edgar Mitchell's awe-inspiring glimpse of the whole earth and famous exclamation: "Now I know why I have come so far."