According to Sparta Ishmaelite editor Chuck Reynolds, “dwelling on the past, dooms you to re-living it.” I agree. Unfortunately our community seems content re-living the past, resisting attempts to learn from it.
Passionately sharing his story: “… Born and raised here. I remember what it used to be like. I witnessed the transformation… Hancock County and Sparta going from a thriving community with businesses and industry to the ghost town today…”
I remember downtown Sparta/Hancock County’s thriving economy built on enslavement, oppression and exploitation of African-American citizens well into the 20th century.
Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities” begins: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…in short, the period was so far like the present period...”
My best memories are Deacon Brown’s Sunday School, Miss Lilly’s candy store and playing softball. These hopeful memories are tainted with the humiliating conditions of segregation.
My worst memories are Dr. Green’s colored waiting room, colored bathrooms, sharecropping and adolescences using my mother’s first name. I remember legal segregation, separate and unequal schools, and taxation without representation.
We can’t change the past, we can learn from it by telling the whole story. The conditions I describe were legally sanctioned. Segregation was wrong. Stop pretending it wasn’t so bad, that I didn’t mind; it was my God given place.
Dickens concludes “A Tale of Two Cities,” “I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long, long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time…gradually… wearing out.”
Recent activism signals the “wearing out” of the old system. What happens when it does? We have an unprecedented opportunity to create “the beloved community;” a community built on equity and fairness.
What are we waiting for? Let’s get started. We have work to do.
Jeanette Vaughn Waddell
Sparta
Letters
Learn from the past to create a better tomorrow
- Letters
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Foster families play a vital role
May is National Foster Care Month, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the Foster Parents of Baldwin County for the work they do caring for Georgia’s children and families.
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Thank you for sponsoring Weight Loss Challenge
I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize and submit kudos to our caring Milledgeville businesses that sponsored the recently completed “2012 Weight Loss Challenge.”
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Texting while driving bans are dangerous
State laws that ban texting while driving cause more accidents, and should be modified to encourage safety.
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Thank you for support with fundraisers
It is with a very grateful heart that we welcome God's precious gift and answered prayer to us in the person of Willoughby Tatum (Willough) Bracewell.
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Creekside child’s home should be investigated, too
I’ve been watching, listening and reading the news about the incident with the 6-year-old at Creekside school and wish to speak in the defense of the school officials and the police department.
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Voices for Progress set for May 2
Next month, beginning May 2, we will have an opportunity to come together and work as a community in an effort to continue moving Milledgeville-Baldwin County forward.
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HOPE scholarship revisions were not practical
Recent revisions made to the HOPE scholarship are not practical.
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Act in the best interest of Salecia Johnson
As a parent, as a grandparent raising a child; I feel an urgent need to address this latest issue now placing Milledgeville in the national spotlight again — an important issue — and my interest is, indeed, the best interest of the child: 6-year-old first grader Salecia Johnson.
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Many Easter symbols have pagan origins
Eggs, rabbits and hot cross buns are Easter symbols familiar to us all, yet many of us might be shocked or surprised at the real origin and meaning of many of our allegedly “Christian” Easter customs.
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Thank you to the anonymous angels helping
I wish to thank the anonymous Angels who assisted my Mom (Helen Moore) in the Big Lots/Family Dollar parking lot around noon Sunday, March 11, 2012.
- More Letters Headlines
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Foster families play a vital role
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