From You
Aug 6, 2003
Letters
NEEDED: A PICKUP
A foster child is returning to her home. She is anxious to decorate her room and sleep in her own bed. However, there is no bed for her to sleep on. Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services can purchase the bed, but we have no vehicles, no way to deliver the bed. We need a pick-up.
A family is in need of a washer and dryer. Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services is able to find someone to generously donate a good washer and dryer, but has no way of delivering it. We need a pick-up.
We get a donation of a sleeper sofa and chairs to be placed in our visitation rooms. The only problem is we have no means of getting them to our office, because we need a pick- up truck.
The central theme here is that Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services receives many generous donations from the Athens community. Our only problem is that we do not have a way to deliver these items to needy families. If you own a pick-up truck and would be willing to volunteer as a driver or just to allow its use by Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services, please call Nancy Garcia at 227-7010.
Gwen O'Looney
Athens
POINTS OF CLARIFICATION
Jon Wilson here. Former bass player for 3 O'Clock Sandbox. I enjoyed the recent article about my old band. But, I would like to clarify a few points about my dubious character:
1. My "flip-out" at the Yuletide bash was not the result of partying too hard. It was the result of partying way, way too hard for about two straight years. Basically, it was an alcohol and out-of-control diabetes freak-out complicated by emotional issues with my ex-girlfriend and childhood that were not dealt with properly as an adult.
2. My intentions of moving back to Athens were put on hold due to lack of money. As for unanswered emails, that is an outright lie. I have never received one email from Todd or Shannon. As for phone calls, I received a few, returned a few, and made a few myself, but general effective communication was not happening from either parties. I am not the bearer of the full load of guilt on that one.
3. I do not like it better in Albany. Don't ever try and spread that lie.
4. 3 O'Clock Sandbox's biggest fan was always 3 O'Clock Sandbox and that was the only fan I needed. My split from this band had nothing to do with the band, but only to do with my unhealthy lifestyle and the problems I created because of it. I learned the very hardest way how completely emotionally fragile I am, but that is a lesson that must be learned. I was weak, alcoholic, sick in mind, sick in body.
Anyways, I just wanted to say hello to Athens and my old bandmates especially. I miss all of you guys and hope to see you one day when I have the nerve to show my face in Athens again. Right now I don't, but I hope people can forgive and move on after a supposedly good friend and bandmate has a "flip out." My deepest apologies to all I have hurt.
Until then, Jdub says Three,
Jonathan H. Wilson
Albany
SEND A MESSAGE
Two simple questions: What would Athens be without UGA? What would UGA be without a library? Think about it. Let's go people! Where's the outrage? We need to catch the person or people responsible for this fire. Then, the authorities MUST prosecute the arsonist(s) to the fullest extent of the law. The message MUST be sent that attacks on our community's foundations will not be tolerated.
Louis Hajosy
Athens
CHEATIN' HEART
A Response To A Republican Confession [Letters, July 30]: You appear to equate flaming liberal with welfare cheat. If by extension you mean to insinuate that liberals countenance welfare cheating, you are wrong.
Yes, I have heard of black inner city welfare queens, who rip the government off for thousands, if not millions of dollars. I have read of a black pimp driving up to a welfare office, in a Cadillac, to pick up a welfare check. I have heard of the black woman who, upon finding that a sofa cost more than she could afford, told the salesman, "Well, I'm fixin' to have me another baby, so's I can get me some mo' money from the guvment, then I can buy it." I have heard a white woman relate how she stood behind a black woman at a grocery checkout, and the black woman had a cart overfull of expensive cuts of meat, for which she gave welfare scrip, while the white woman paid cash for a package of hotdogs. I have heard that there are white people who will refuse welfare to which they are entitled because they look upon such assistance as being a n-word way of doing.
Although you do not specify the people of whom you are writing as being black, the implication is certainly there. And one might consider that this fraud and graft and cheating could not take place except for black welfare workers who allow such to be done. However, although it may have been on a smaller scale, I have known at least one situation where white welfare workers allowed white recipients to fudge on their benefits.
It is not welfare that is wrong; it is the abuse thereof. It is certainly a sadness and a shame that some who are truly in need receive less than some who exaggerate their need by prevarication and dishonesty. Such cupidity and culpability is in no way excusable, but is it not a mark of human nature to get away with as much as you are allowed to get away with? Here again, read welfare workers either looking the other way or else actively participating in the wrong.
Your letter and my response seem to identify this situation as being primarily a matter of lazy, shiftless blacks taking unfair advantage of the system. But suppose you felt that society had not allowed you to realize your full potential, might you not have the attitude that society owed you?
Furthermore, if you read Gogol and Tolstoy you will find references to Russian serfs as being shiftless and lazy. You will discover accounts of bureaucratic ineptitude or bureaucratic malfeasance resulting in people receiving more than is deserved.
In brief, taking advantage of a poorly managed, or wrongly administered, social program has been a fact back over hundreds of years, in many countries, among many different ethnic groups, so it is not something extensive to black people, at all.
Amanda Bugger
Athens
A foster child is returning to her home. She is anxious to decorate her room and sleep in her own bed. However, there is no bed for her to sleep on. Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services can purchase the bed, but we have no vehicles, no way to deliver the bed. We need a pick-up.
A family is in need of a washer and dryer. Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services is able to find someone to generously donate a good washer and dryer, but has no way of delivering it. We need a pick-up.
We get a donation of a sleeper sofa and chairs to be placed in our visitation rooms. The only problem is we have no means of getting them to our office, because we need a pick- up truck.
The central theme here is that Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services receives many generous donations from the Athens community. Our only problem is that we do not have a way to deliver these items to needy families. If you own a pick-up truck and would be willing to volunteer as a driver or just to allow its use by Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services, please call Nancy Garcia at 227-7010.
Gwen O'Looney
Athens
POINTS OF CLARIFICATION
Jon Wilson here. Former bass player for 3 O'Clock Sandbox. I enjoyed the recent article about my old band. But, I would like to clarify a few points about my dubious character:
1. My "flip-out" at the Yuletide bash was not the result of partying too hard. It was the result of partying way, way too hard for about two straight years. Basically, it was an alcohol and out-of-control diabetes freak-out complicated by emotional issues with my ex-girlfriend and childhood that were not dealt with properly as an adult.
2. My intentions of moving back to Athens were put on hold due to lack of money. As for unanswered emails, that is an outright lie. I have never received one email from Todd or Shannon. As for phone calls, I received a few, returned a few, and made a few myself, but general effective communication was not happening from either parties. I am not the bearer of the full load of guilt on that one.
3. I do not like it better in Albany. Don't ever try and spread that lie.
4. 3 O'Clock Sandbox's biggest fan was always 3 O'Clock Sandbox and that was the only fan I needed. My split from this band had nothing to do with the band, but only to do with my unhealthy lifestyle and the problems I created because of it. I learned the very hardest way how completely emotionally fragile I am, but that is a lesson that must be learned. I was weak, alcoholic, sick in mind, sick in body.
Anyways, I just wanted to say hello to Athens and my old bandmates especially. I miss all of you guys and hope to see you one day when I have the nerve to show my face in Athens again. Right now I don't, but I hope people can forgive and move on after a supposedly good friend and bandmate has a "flip out." My deepest apologies to all I have hurt.
Until then, Jdub says Three,
Jonathan H. Wilson
Albany
SEND A MESSAGE
Two simple questions: What would Athens be without UGA? What would UGA be without a library? Think about it. Let's go people! Where's the outrage? We need to catch the person or people responsible for this fire. Then, the authorities MUST prosecute the arsonist(s) to the fullest extent of the law. The message MUST be sent that attacks on our community's foundations will not be tolerated.
Louis Hajosy
Athens
CHEATIN' HEART
A Response To A Republican Confession [Letters, July 30]: You appear to equate flaming liberal with welfare cheat. If by extension you mean to insinuate that liberals countenance welfare cheating, you are wrong.
Yes, I have heard of black inner city welfare queens, who rip the government off for thousands, if not millions of dollars. I have read of a black pimp driving up to a welfare office, in a Cadillac, to pick up a welfare check. I have heard of the black woman who, upon finding that a sofa cost more than she could afford, told the salesman, "Well, I'm fixin' to have me another baby, so's I can get me some mo' money from the guvment, then I can buy it." I have heard a white woman relate how she stood behind a black woman at a grocery checkout, and the black woman had a cart overfull of expensive cuts of meat, for which she gave welfare scrip, while the white woman paid cash for a package of hotdogs. I have heard that there are white people who will refuse welfare to which they are entitled because they look upon such assistance as being a n-word way of doing.
Although you do not specify the people of whom you are writing as being black, the implication is certainly there. And one might consider that this fraud and graft and cheating could not take place except for black welfare workers who allow such to be done. However, although it may have been on a smaller scale, I have known at least one situation where white welfare workers allowed white recipients to fudge on their benefits.
It is not welfare that is wrong; it is the abuse thereof. It is certainly a sadness and a shame that some who are truly in need receive less than some who exaggerate their need by prevarication and dishonesty. Such cupidity and culpability is in no way excusable, but is it not a mark of human nature to get away with as much as you are allowed to get away with? Here again, read welfare workers either looking the other way or else actively participating in the wrong.
Your letter and my response seem to identify this situation as being primarily a matter of lazy, shiftless blacks taking unfair advantage of the system. But suppose you felt that society had not allowed you to realize your full potential, might you not have the attitude that society owed you?
Furthermore, if you read Gogol and Tolstoy you will find references to Russian serfs as being shiftless and lazy. You will discover accounts of bureaucratic ineptitude or bureaucratic malfeasance resulting in people receiving more than is deserved.
In brief, taking advantage of a poorly managed, or wrongly administered, social program has been a fact back over hundreds of years, in many countries, among many different ethnic groups, so it is not something extensive to black people, at all.
Amanda Bugger
Athens
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