Precise Words

Lifelong Republican Steve Schmidt on MSNBC:

"Donald Trump has been the worst president this country has ever had. And I don't say that hyperbolically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And he has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a Trump presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness.

"When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don't use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We've never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.

"It's just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman. Well, he's the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he's brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale. And let's be clear. This isn't happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you're the most likely to die from this disease. We're the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk."

(Hat tip to Carl Wolfson.)

Gleaning Facebook: Haircut

I finally broke down and allowed my baby girl to sculpt my wild head of hair... she conferred with youTube and got a five-minute cosmetology degree and ta-dah! Photographic evidence shows my life was endangered only briefly.

Susan Barnes Babb

That look of sheer terror!

Alice Jeffries Keel
Good job!

Susan Barnes Babb
You know, just a little more combing the sweepover to the right, some orange hair dye, and you'll look kinda like your favorite President! Oh, please don't delete me from your friends! Couldn't help it. I'm going to hell for this one!

Susan Barnes Babb
In case you're not sure how to maintain the look! (You really are one of my favorite people!)

Claudia Kennedy
Looks great! I hope you tipped her well! My husband hasn’t gone to a barber since we met in 1993. I think I outta send him a bill. I also do my own hair and have since I was 17.

Susan Barnes Babb

I'm impressed! Great job, Lillian!

Robin Haynes McCullough

Nice haircut!  I am getting ready to give Andy a trim. I cut my own last month.

Cindy Smith

Way to go Lillian!!!! 

Gleaning Facebook: Rome's "Central Park" Illustrated

It will come as no surprise to my friends that I love the centerfold of the new Chamber of Commerce magazine Bridges. It is a beautiful panoramic view of Rome from an unusual perspective - probably a camera on a drone over the flag atop Jackson Hill. Fully half of the photograph is a section of what I like to call Rome's "Central Park". I wish we'd had this photo during our battle to save "Central Park" five years ago and before. How thankful I am that that battle was eventually won, and ALL that greenspace you see here in the very heart of our city is now preserved for our posterity in this river city.

What I call Rome's Central Park is

• the Riverwalk and RidgeFerry Park along the Oostanaula River,

• the Jackson Hill and Blossom Hill public property along Dogwood Drive, Vaughn Road, and Reservoir Street.

• and the 80 acres of Burwell Creek, Burwell Forest, and the City Duck Pond.

Together those properties give Rome an amazing greenspace full of wildlife and botanical beauty just blocks from Broad Street and along the Turner McCall and Riverside Parkway thoroughfares.

We the People of Rome are the stewards of this property during our lifetimes and through our city commissioners must direct its careful development for educational, recreational, and environmental use by ourselves and those who come after us. I hope I live to see well-designed bike and pedestrian boardwalks, trails, and observation stations/platforms connecting Jackson Hill to Ridge Ferry through the Burwell area. 

Comments

Howard Smith
I call it Terrell Territory

Betty Smith Franklin
done.

Michael J. Burton
Oh me of little faith. Didn’t think this was possible since big money wanted to develop this. Ya da man well worth your fight 

Joe Cook
Terrell Shaw, thank you for leading this effort. Last weekend, I cycled the PATH Foundation's South River and Arabia Mountain trails which included several boardwalks over wetlands. WoW! What great trails those are! We need to get serious about developing similar trails through the Burwell Creek wetlands. Here's some video of one of the boardwalks!

(Terrell: Sorry - I couldn't get the video to work from Blogger.)

Rosemary Chubb Shropshire
Awesome 

Ann Gore
Thank you Terrell and Sheila for working so hard to save this beautiful green space!! Love Rome!!

Terrell Shaw
It took a crowd of folks — thanks to the scores of folks who stepped up on short notice to make a big difference.

Gleaning Facebook: We Need Comprehensive Police Reform

Sheila and I reminding folks on Turner McCall Boulevard of the
names of some of the recent victims of racism.

I know this is just a minor part of my neighbor Russell's excellent post, but it is a long time firm belief of mine so just a note of emphasis: There should be NO PRIVATE PRISONS EVER!!!! Making it PROFITABLE to lock someone up in a republic is obscene. There are politicians who get campaign donations from prison companies--- [https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php...] --- VOMIT!!!! The stupidity and immorality of Capital-R-Republican fondness for privatizing basic governmental functions is plain.

 From Russell Cook's Facebook:

Alright y’all. I haven’t been on social media much lately, and certainly haven’t thought that my voice was the one thing missing from a national conversation on race and police violence. However, judging from what’s coming out of the keyboards of some folks I see on here, there might be a use in hearing it from as many people as possible, as often as possible. After all of the upheaval of the past couple of weeks, a police officer in Atlanta saw fit, in the moment, to shoot a man twice in the back as he ran away. Shooting someone in the back is murder, no matter how you try to justify it. They knew who he was. They had his car. They had run his ID and talked to him for half an hour. Whatever happened, he was no mortal danger to the officer or to anyone else, even if he did grab and discharge a non-lethal taser in his struggle to get away.

But police work is dangerous, right? Every car pulled over is a potential cop killer, right? But how many actually are? It’s easy to find out. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, police work is in the top 20 or so for dangerous jobs in the U.S., at 108 fatalities last year. That’s 6 or 7 fatalities per 100,000 officers. But that’s a fraction of the fatalities of another public servant: Sanitation Workers have 35 or so fatalities per 100,000. Read that again. You are three or four times as likely to be killed in the line of duty as a Garbageman than as a Cop. Farmers, Truck Drivers, even Landscapers are much more likely to die in the line of duty than the Police. And roughly half of those on-the-job police deaths come from traffic accidents, not from a bad guy with a gun.

There is a significant danger associated with police work though: Police violence, that is, violence by the police, is a leading cause of death of young American men, and black men are roughly twice as likely as white men to be killed by the police. Over the course of a lifetime, roughly 1 in 1000 black men can expect to be killed by law enforcement. This data comes from the National Academy of Sciences. 1 in 1000 is 100 in 100,000, which is a higher rate of death than the most dangerous occupations, Logging and Commercial Fishing. So, if being a black man in the United States were a chosen occupation, it would be among the most dangerous occupations one could choose, with this danger solely based on your chance of being killed by law enforcement. Think about that. When a policeman shoots to kill, (and they are not trained to shoot in any other way) is that fear reasonable and justified? Oftentimes not, based on the numbers. If you are a black man, do you have reason to fear for your life when the police show up, no matter your situation? Absolutely.

None of this is opinion. This is all fact, easily found in govt. data. So, here's the opinion: does the police force as we know it really protect and serve? If so, what are they protecting? Who are they serving? In my very limited, and mostly benign experience with law enforcement, there seems to be too much emphasis on enforcement, with not enough emphasis on the actual law. The assumption seems to be that if the officer is wrong, it’ll come out in court…months later, after thousands spent on legal fees, assuming you can afford it, and many cannot. That may have something to do with the fact that we have only 5% of the world’s population, but 20% of the world’s prison population. California is doing the right thing by ending for-profit prisons. We need comprehensive police reform to go with it.

Comment

Keith M. Padgett
When I was doing my MS in Florida, we toured GEO Groups headquarters. Just being in that building made me sick to my stomach and so angry. And the dismissive answers they gave to questions just infuriated me. 

Gleaning Facebook: Central Park Centerfold

 It will come as no surprise to my friends that I love the centerfold of the new Chamber of Commerce magazine Bridges. It is a beautiful panoramic view of Rome from an unusual perspective - probably a camera on a drone over the flag atop Jackson Hill. Fully half of the photograph is a section of what I like to call Rome's "Central Park". I wish we'd had this photo during our battle to save "Central Park" five years ago and before. How thankful I am that that battle was eventually won, and ALL that greenspace you see here in the very heart of our city is now preserved for our posterity in this river city.

What I call Rome's Central Park is 
• the Riverwalk and RidgeFerry Park along the Oostanaula River, 
• the Jackson Hill and Blossom Hill public property along Dogwood Drive, Vaughn Road, and Reservoir Street.
• and the 80 acres of Burwell Creek, Burwell Forest, and the City Duck Pond.

Together those properties give Rome an amazing greenspace full of wildlife and botanical beauty just blocks from Broad Street and along the Turner McCall and Riverside Parkway thoroughfares.

We the People of Rome are the stewards of this property during our lifetimes and through our city commissioners must direct its careful development for educational, recreational, and environmental use by ourselves and those who come after us. I hope I live to see well-designed bike and pedestrian boardwalks, trails, and observation stations/platforms connecting Jackson Hill to Ridge Ferry through the Burwell area. 

Howard Smith

I call it Terrell Territory

Michael J. Burton

Oh me of little faith. Didn’t think this was possible since big money wanted to develop this. Ya da man well worth your fight

Joe Cook

Terrell Shaw, thank you for leading this effort. Last weekend, I cycled the PATH Foundation's South River and Arabia Mountain trails which included several boardwalks over wetlands. WoW! What great trails those are! We need to get serious about developing similar trails through the Burwell Creek wetlands. Here's some video of one of the boardwalks!

Ann Gore

Thank you Terrell and Sheila for working so hard to save this beautiful green space!! Love Rome!!

Terrell Shaw

it took a crowd of folks — thanks to the scores of folks who stepped up on short notice to make a big difference.

Gleaning Facebook: End Private Prisons!

I know this is just a minor part of my neighbor Russell's excellent post, but it is a long time firm belief of mine so just a note of emphasis: There should be NO PRIVATE PRISONS EVER!!!! Making it PROFITABLE to lock someone up in a republic is obscene. There are politicians who get campaign donations from prison companies--- [https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php...] --- VOMIT!!!! The stupidity and immorality of Capital-R-Republican fondness for privatizing basic governmental functions is plain.

From a Facebook post by Russell Cook:

Alright y’all. I haven’t been on social media much lately, and certainly haven’t thought that my voice was the one thing missing from a national conversation on race and police violence. However, judging from what’s coming out of the keyboards of some folks I see on here, there might be a use in hearing it from as many people as possible, as often as possible. After all of the upheaval of the past couple of weeks, a police officer in Atlanta saw fit, in the moment, to shoot a man twice in the back as he ran away. Shooting someone in the back is murder, no matter how you try to justify it. They knew who he was. They had his car. They had run his ID and talked to him for half an hour. Whatever happened, he was no mortal danger to the officer or to anyone else, even if he did grab and discharge a non-lethal taser in his struggle to get away.

But police work is dangerous, right? Every car pulled over is a potential cop killer, right? But how many actually are? It’s easy to find out. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, police work is in the top 20 or so for dangerous jobs in the U.S., at 108 fatalities last year. That’s 6 or 7 fatalities per 100,000 officers. But that’s a fraction of the fatalities of another public servant: Sanitation Workers have 35 or so fatalities per 100,000. Read that again. You are three or four times as likely to be killed in the line of duty as a Garbageman than as a Cop. Farmers, Truck Drivers, even Landscapers are much more likely to die in the line of duty than the Police. And roughly half of those on-the-job police deaths come from traffic accidents, not from a bad guy with a gun.

There is a significant danger associated with police work though: Police violence, that is, violence by the police, is a leading cause of death of young American men, and black men are roughly twice as likely as white men to be killed by the police. Over the course of a lifetime, roughly 1 in 1000 black men can expect to be killed by law enforcement. This data comes from the National Academy of Sciences. 1 in 1000 is 100 in 100,000, which is a higher rate of death than the most dangerous occupations, Logging and Commercial Fishing. So, if being a black man in the United States were a chosen occupation, it would be among the most dangerous occupations one could choose, with this danger solely based on your chance of being killed by law enforcement. Think about that. When a policeman shoots to kill, (and they are not trained to shoot in any other way) is that fear reasonable and justified? Oftentimes not, based on the numbers. If you are a black man, do you have reason to fear for your life when the police show up, no matter your situation? Absolutely.

None of this is opinion. This is all fact, easily found in govt. data. So, here's the opinion: does the police force as we know it really protect and serve? If so, what are they protecting? Who are they serving? In my very limited, and mostly benign experience with law enforcement, there seems to be too much emphasis on enforcement, with not enough emphasis on the actual law. The assumption seems to be that if the officer is wrong, it’ll come out in court…months later, after thousands spent on legal fees, assuming you can afford it, and many cannot. That may have something to do with the fact that we have only 5% of the world’s population, but 20% of the world’s prison population. California is doing the right thing by ending for-profit prisons. We need comprehensive police reform to go with it.

There's another man

Sheila admitted to me this morning that she has developed an affection for another man. 

This is upsetting. 

The cad’s name is Mark Cochran, our fellow member of Trinity United Methodist Church and newly minted Rome City Commissioner. Yesterday Sheila attended a special community meeting at the City Auditorium to discuss the fate of the Bedford Forrest monument that originally sat in the middle of Broad Street and now resides in the city cemetery at Myrtle Hill. Mark Cochran was a part of the panel of commissioners who spoke.

So perhaps you think it’s Cochran’s boyish good looks, his work to refurbish buildings on Broad, his complete rebuilding of a gorgeous old home on Clocktower Hill, his determination to dispel rumors and report the truth during the reactions in our city to the racist murders of 2020, or his leadership in the meeting Thursday. 

Nope. 

She does admire those things but the little hearts throbbing in her eyes are spurred by something else.

You see, Sheila has noticed that many folks under the age of forty have decided to just delete random hard consonants in the middles of words, The glaring example is the word “important”. Some millennials and other young folk in our culture have decided, inexplicably, to pronounce it without the first “t”: “impor-ent”. This has become a major pet peeve for Sheila.

BUT Mark enunciates that word correctly and has thus won my wife's heart.

As we approach our 49th anniversary of wedded bliss Sheila has fallen for another man.

I am in despair.

Gleaning Facebook: Feral Kitties

These beautiful kitties want to adopt responsible people. They are not picky; two of their siblings have adopted John Paul Schulz & Dekie Hicks!

Joey Jones
Where are these located

Monica Sheppard
Oh how I wish!!! But I’ve been adopted by too many precious faces already.

Nena Dake
I think they have adopted you!

Terrell Shaw
AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!

Terrell Shaw
Nena, we foisted one off on... I mean we are down to two: the orange tabby and the shy dark gray and white one.

Nena Dake
Here they are with their siblings.
All soft and adorable and very smart. Dekie has one of her kitties already reading on the computer

Ellice Curry-Tucker
All the ones who have adopted me are currently fighting....so....I’m afraid I’ll just have to admire their photos. 4 is too many! 5 would be disaster it’s!! Lol

Katie S. Kimbrough
They’re cute!

John Paul Schulz
It looks like that one is kin to our Trouble. He is a wonderful young and loving kitty.

Terrell Shaw
This one adopted Kelly and Joey for his/her humans today. Two more..

Terrell Shaw

Terrell Shaw

Susan Barnes Babb
We have two already, but these kitties are tempting!

Rebecca Odom
Susan Barnes Babb do it!

Susan Barnes Babb
Rebecca Odom I can bring it to SC!

Debbie Reece Grigsby
If you run out if kittens, my great niece Olivia found this sweet kitten on Veteran’s Hwy today. She looking for a home for this tiny baby.

Dekie Hicks
I hope they all adopt good hoomans! Trouble and Mr. Bolt are growing fast, and are quite the entertainment. Their new cat condo arrives tomorrow.

Carl Sharpe-Ehui
Any females left?

Terrell Shaw
I don't know the sex of either of the two kittens that remain. Sorry.

Jessie Reed
My son, Iam, has been begging for one. Let me talk to Rob... maybe if I show him these pictures maybe he’ll cave. 

Debbie Reece Grigsby
Looks like my great niece found the kitten a home! Yeah! 

Jane Nelson Risdon
Sigh. Wish I could have ome.

Dee Brenner Belk
Are any of these still available

Gleaning Facebook: We Matter

Headed there now... come join us!

We Matter: A Peaceful Protest

"We Matter: A Peaceful Protest" this afternoon in #RomeGeorgia. Great job, Rome! Way to show up and stand up!! Peaceful and powerful..

Matter: A Peaceful Protest" in #RomeGeorgia. Great job, Rome! Way to show up and stand up!! Peaceful and powerful..

Wonderful, diverse turnout this afternoon at "We Matter: A Peaceful Protest" in #RomeGeorgia. Great job, Rome! Peaceful and powerful...

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