The Piedmont Chronicles: July 31, 2013 Edition

Greetings! Hope everyone is well. Some of my About Covington to Madison readers may be checking in to make sure that they didn't miss the latest edition of the aforementioned magazine. No, you haven't. As I was recently informed by my esteemed editor, the August edition was cancelled due to a variety of reasons, namely the fact that many advertisers were on vacation and unable to get their Ads in. Not to fear, good readers, the September edition is in the works and will be hitting mailboxes and points of circulation the 3rd or 4th week of August. So keep an eye out for that.

My next installment in About Covington to Madison will be a little different from my past works. As some of you may know, I am a very big fan of UGA football. In this next edition I'll be doing a preseason write-up of the 2013 Georgia Bulldogs complete with an overview of the team; analysis of offense, defense and special teams; and my prediction for this year's version of the Dawgs. I'm pretty excited about it and hope you will be too. GO DAWGS!!! G.A.T.A!

I suppose I should have put a "gone fishing" sign up at the ole webpage or something. Between work, going on vacation, and getting ready for a music show (our first in several months), I haven't posted here since the first part of the month. I'm looking forward to getting back on track. 

Requiescat in Pace

Buster Chadwick

Some of you may remember my write-up of the life and times of Mr. Buster Chadwick. For those of you  who haven't read it, please do so here. We lost Mr. Buster back in June of this year. He was good man, and I was very saddened to hear of his passing. My thoughts and prayers are still with his widow, Ms. Linda, and the rest of his family. I think what I posted on my Facebook page after I heard the news sums it up pretty good:

Heaven just got a great guitar player and singer. RIP, Mr. Buster Chadwick. It was a distinct privilege to get to know you and have the opportunity to write about your very interesting life story last year. You were a great man and musician and the world will be poorer without you. Thoughts and prayers go out to Ms. Linda and the rest of the family.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Buster. I'm a better man for having gotten to know you. And it was a distinct honor and privilege to be able to write about your life story. 

Charles Wilborn 

The city of Covington, GA, and the entire world for that matter, lost a great one with the passing of Charles Wilborn. Mr. Charles, as he was referred to by many, was a good, Christian man who loved people and loved to serve. A Covington Councilman for 14 years, he also served on various other boards and authorities in Newton Co in addition to working as a substitute teacher for many years. I'll never forget the first time I met Mr. Charles. Even though I knew who he was, I had never actually met him until my brother introduced me to him sometime around the year 2000 or 2001. I was completely taken by his kindness and humility. He was very special - as good as they come in this world. I wish I would have gotten to know him better, and even though I didn't really know him all that well, I sure will miss him.

Talkin' Southern

A article came out awhile back that highlighted something that we all know - different people in different parts of the country talk differently.  This is a really good read, though. And we can all take an opportunity to laugh at how silly people talk in other parts of the country (here's looking at you Northeast and Midwest). A

Businessinsider.com

lot of this we already know, but it's still a lot of fun to read. Here's a sampling:

• In the south we say the word caramel with three syllables, pretty much the rest of the country says with two. 
• In the South we call it slaw. The rest of the country only uses the word coleslaw. 
• We all know about this one: We say "y'all" when referring to a group of people here in the South. There's a buffer around the South in which they say "you all." Up North and in other far away places, they say actually say "you guys." Wow...they're so strange and funny.
• What sounds sillier? Saying "soda" like the Northeast, or "pop" like they do in the Midwest? We'll just call it a draw. And contrary to popular belief, most Southerners I know don't call all soft drinks "coke." We just call them soft drinks... 
• And we all know that when the sun shines while it's raining out then it means that the devil is beating his wife, right? Well, apparently the rest of the country doesn't say that. Most places don't have a term for it all. But in the upper Midwest, Northeast, and South Florida, they call it a "sunshower." Is that not the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? 

And there's several other good ones as well. But I must admit, I was a little disappointed that they didn't cover the phenomenon known as the "pin-pen merger." That one is so cool because the entire South says both words the same way except for Savannah, New Orleans, and South Florida. The rest of the country pronounces the two words differently except for a small area around Bakersfield, CA. Pretty neat stuff.  

Fighting Like Cats and Dogs

A new book is out that every Damn Good Dog will want to own. From the "Mayor of Dawgtown" and one of the Godfathers of UGA football blogging, T. Kyle King has released his first book, Fighting Like Cats and Dogs. This book gives a detailed history of one of the greatest non-conference rivalries in college football,

Georgia vs. Clemson. From the book's Facebook page:

Fighting Like Cats and Dogs is T. Kyle King's definitive game-by-game account of the historic college football rivalry between the Clemson Tigers and the Georgia Bulldogs.

I would give more information but I don't have a copy yet. That will all change in a couple of weeks when Kyle will be doing a book signing at Dawg-Eared Books over in McDonough, GA on August 17th from 1-3PM. It'll be a great way to pick up a copy and to have the author sign it.

Kyle is a true UGA football historian, a superb writer, and I don't know if there is a more loyal and passionate Dawg anywhere in the great state of Georgia. I can't wait to get my hands on this book. It should be a fantastic read.

Well, that will about do it. So keep an eye out for my next column in About Covington to Madison in about three weeks or so. And check back here often as I'm planning on rolling out a good bit of online-only content. Until next time.

Independence Day

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

^ An Appeal to Heaven: “What is my Remedy against a Robber, that so broke into my House? Appeal to the Law for Justice. But perhaps Justice is denied, or I am crippled and cannot stir, robbed and have not the means to do it. If God has taken away all means of seeking remedy, there is nothing left but patience. But my Son, when able, may seek the Relief of the Law, which I am denied: He or his Son may renew his Appeal, till he recover his Right. But the Conquered, or their Children, have no Court, no Arbitrator on Earth to appeal to. Then they may appeal, as Jephtha did, to Heaven, and repeat their Appeal, till they have recovered the native Right of their Ancestors, which was to have such a Legislative over them, as the Majority should approve, and freely acquiesce in.”

*  Columbia - the feminine personification of the Republic. Also, the symbol for Libertas, the goddess of freedom and liberty.