Rose Hill, est.1852, Lockerly Arboretum, Milledgeville, Georgia
For over four years I’ve worked from a home office. There are a lot of great things about working from home: laundry gets done, soup simmers for lunch, no one walks by and distracts you from the task at hand, and the dress code is pretty flexible. There are still deadlines, meetings, and convincing the printer to print, but working from home has been a really good situation for me.
I’m still working from a house, but not the one I live in. Just as Life Is a Verb Camp approached, the place where I hoped to figure out the questions to finding a job for life after fighting Plant Washington, I was offered a job.
Now I’m working from an above ground basement office in a fabulous Greek Revival house built in 1852, Rose Hill, surrounded by Lockerly Arboretum, a public garden in Milledgeville, Georgia, as the Executive Director.
I’m no less committed to stopping Plant Washington, but due to the determination and success of FACE and our partners, the demise of the ill-fated coal plant is now a matter of time. No one who opposes Plant Washington is letting their guard down, but the writing is on the wall and our work locally will continue as it always has.
Being an environmental activist in a small community has been one of the most difficult, and exciting, things that I have ever happened upon. I knew if we won, one outcome would be working myself out of a job that had changed my life for the better.
I didn’t make a habit of inviting people to come see me in my home office, but I’d be glad for anyone to stop by and see the house where I am working in now.
Little Free Library Ribbon Cutting, 511 West Church Street, Sandersville, Georgia
About two years ago my friends the Digh/Ptak family built a Little Free Library and placed it in front of their home in Asheville. A Little Free Library (LFL) is simply a place where books are made available for anyone to take a book to read or leave a book for someone else to read. You don’t even have to ask if it is ok to leave a book, you just put it in the library!
A LFL can be sponsored by a family like mine, a business, church, civic group, Scout troop, or a group of friends and neighbors. Most are located outside in a water-resistant box/container where there are lots of people throughout the day. Occasionally they are located inside a business too.
The cost is minimal. Registering a Little Free Library and getting your official Little Free Library sign requires a one-time cost of $35. They’ll send you some helpful information to spread the word about your LFL, and once you have yours ready, you can make it official and be placed on the LFL map and list of locations. My LFL is number 16,856, so there were 16,855 Little Free Libraries before me! LFL is non-profit organization and can be found at littlefreelibrary.org
So why is my LFL made out of an old newspaper box? Unfortunately I was not able to convince my husband to build one for me because he seems to be busy helping me with other things on a list that never ends. Last summer when a bike tour of Little Free Libraries in the Mercer area in Macon was announced, my determination to have at least one LFL in Washington County took off again.
After searching the web I found some old newspaper boxes repurposed into libraries. No building required! The Sandersville Progress didn’t have any boxes to offer, but after several phone calls I was able to get some from the Augusta Chronicle.
Little Free Library, Washington County, GA
Once I got the boxes back to Sandersville, the real work began to make Little Free Libraries a community project. Washington County Machine Shop made some repairs so the boxes would be more weather resistant. Once I retrieved the shored up boxes, I got local businesses to help make Washington County’s first LFL happen.
ACE Hardware supplied me with paint, Brooker Business Products contributed a custom stamp for library books that reads “Little Free Library Washington, GA.” Katlyn Norwood painted to lettering on the box, and Smith Farm Supply donated a fence pole for me to secure the box in my front yard.
Charles Lee was willing to bend the rules for Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cuttings since this is the first official Little Free Library in our county. Bob West and his crew were kind enough to get my front yard “ribbon cutting” ready. Neil Pittman at the Country Buffet and Judy Page contributed food for everyone who attended the ribbon cutting.
On Monday, October 27 community leaders, friends, and neighbors gathered to celebrate Washington County’s first Little Free Library at my house on West Church Street. The books inside Washington County’s first LFL were donated by Jeanne Roughton, Susan Garrett, and my friend in the Monticello area Susan Joris. They range from classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and early reader books for young children, to adult murder-mysteries.
In the next few weeks Little Free Libraries will be popping up all over Washington County. The Beauty Junction on South Harris Street has put one out with children’s books. Washington EMC employees had a design contest for the one they will put on the front porch of their office in Sandersville. The Pendry family will have one on West Church St near the city cemetery soon. The Progress has found a newspaper box this fall to contribute and that one will be decorated and placed in front of Susan Lewis’ office on the Square. The fellows at ACE Hardware plan to build one and place it at their store, and Clayton Sheppard is going to try and make space inside JP’s Kwick Shop for a LFL that Warthen residents want to sponsor.
I am really appreciative of the help and support local businesses and friends have given to bringing Little Free Libraries to Washington County. I have one newspaper box left that I will give to someone who wants to decorate, register, and sponsor a Little Free Library in our county. If you want to get your name in the hat email me with your contact information, who will sponsor the LFL (your family, a Sunday School class, etc), and where you will place it. The other Washington County Little Free Library “librarians” will select a winner.
The deadline for your nomination is Friday, November 21. The winner will be chosen and announced in early December. Email me at [email protected] with your nomination.
I’m lucky pirates like cashmere. My grandson Chase was able to pause his swashbuckling long enough to model a scarf I have listed in my Etsy store, The Sassy Gal.
Earlier this week Fox News’ Kimberly Guilfoyle urged young women to skip the voting booth and spend time on Match.com because they don’t pay bills, have mortgages, or apparently, any semblance of a life beyond fussing with clothes, hair, and chasing men. Guilfoyle and others in this segment don’t urge young men to skip voting.
As a stark contrast, Chevrolet is running an ad during the World Series featuring 13 year old pitcher Mo’ne Davis. The poised and talented pitcher begins the ad by saying, “Dear America” and closes it with, “Sincerely, Your Daughter, Mo’ne Davis.”
Which message do you want the young women of America to hear?
I had no idea what the response would be to launching a Go Fund Me campaign asking people to help me go to a camp for grown ups. The time was just too ripe for me to get to this camp led by Patti Digh, and so I decided to be my own advocate. I’ve asked people to sign comments to support clean air and water, marriage equality, access to health care, and other issues, but IU’ve never done a “help me personally” type of ask.
This has been a humbling experience for many reasons. I’ve not told my story for myself, and for that purpose alone the experience is valuable. As a participant in other campaigns I have been amazed at people stepping up because there was value in the need and ask. I wasn’t sure that would happen for me, and every time it did I had to catch my breath.
I’ve got a lot to do between now and the time I leave for Life Is A Verb Camp 2014. Right now I am letting such unexpected generosity soak in. I am appreciative of the what everyone did to make this happen, from sharing the link to the campaign to actually typing in a donation amount.
This Thanksgiving, lots of Macy’s employees will be curtailing their time with family because the department store chain will open its doors on Thanksgiving evening at 6:00 pm, two hours earlier than it unlocked the doors last year.
Black Friday isn’t on Friday any more. The Thanksgiving holiday has become an almost weeklong slug fest among major retailers.
If you don’t want retailers to open their doors on Thanksgiving, the choice is simple-put another log on fire and stay home.
Most readers of Rural and Progressive have followed the work I have been lucky enough to be part of to stop a proposed coal plant in my rural Georgia community. None of us knew what was ahead almost seven years ago when we came together to speak up for the health of our community except that it would require strong backs, patience, strong partnerships, and grit.
The ugly part of this work has been the tearing apart of decades-long friendships and splintering of families. Sometimes when people stand up for what they believe is right, no matter how difficult that may be, communities become divided.
Four years ago I made what was probably the hardest decision I have made since I heard the announcement for coal-fired Plant Washington: I stood my ground for my values and integrity when I was asked to sit on my hands. Given the choice of sitting in silence and keeping my job, or speaking up for what I believe in, I chose my values and beliefs.
I took on a job that, if we won, would put me out of a job. Fighting Plant Washington full-time required a commitment to a much smaller paycheck, and sometimes no paycheck at all. Environmental activists don’t get rich fighting the fossil fuel industry.
Plant Washington opponents won’t stop until the project is cancelled, but the writing on the wall is in all capital letters for this coal plant. That means it is time for me to figure out what I will do next.
The scars and experience I’ve accumulated can’t be boxed up and put away. The challenge now is finding a way to put them to work for a community or organization that needs an advocate/activist to help in their work.
Can I find a way to cobble together work that will pay my bills without requiring me to move away from my family? What could that work be? Where do I look and how do I do that with clarity and focus? Who might help me and how do I make the right ask?
At 53 years old, I am ready to go to a sleep over camp for the first time in my life-
a “camp for grown ups.” Life is a Verb, a three day camp/workshop/retreat will challenge me to find the questions I need to ask, and begin to work towards the answers.
Patti Digh wrote this about the camp she is leading, “Camp is a place where people of all walks of life come together to explore what it means to be fully human and what it means to live life fully, as an active and not a passive, verb. To live, and live fully. To love, and love well. To let go, and let go deeply.”
As an advocate I’m not used to asking for myself, but I am trying to let go of that stumbling block now. I set up a Go Fund Me account because I simply am not able to cover the costs of going to camp and finding a sustainable way to what is next for me.
My goal is to cover the costs of camp and traveling back and forth. I’ll arrive there ready to do the work at hand and maximize every minute. What I learn will help me step into the unknown that is knocking on my door.
My life has truly been an action packed adventure since I stepped into a huge unknown almost seven years ago. Now I have skills and experience I want to share with people and communities who have challenges of their own. What I have learned is meant to benefit others, not be put on a shelf and collect dust.
I’ll write about my adventures at Rural and Progressive as I prepare to leave and when I return (letting go for me also includes less time with electronics).
I hope you’ll support my first-ever camp experience with a donation. Any amount will help send a 53 year old advocate/activist to camp for the first time.
Tonight President Obama will address the nation about ISIS and any actions that we may take in response to the horrific murders of Americans and innocent civilians at the hands of terrorists.
Tomorrow there will be an observance in my community, and many others, to honor the thousands of lives lost to hate and terrorism, and to support the families and friends who knew someone they loved would never return home again.
Since September 11, 2001 we as a country have talked a lot about being kinder to one another and being a better country. Yet 13 years later this is what consumes us as a country:
fighting about allowing two consenting adults of the same-sex to legally marry each
failing to take care of the thousands of veterans who have defended our country, many of whom returned with horrible wounds from the Middle East since September 2001
allowing private corporations to decided which forms of legal birth control they will cover for employees through company based health insurance because some corporations should have the same privileges as churches
granting corporations the same rights as citizens so businesses can pour money into elections and our representatives’ pockets
making it harder for citizens to exercise their right to vote
subsidizing corporations with huge tax breaks while their employees working full-time never earn enough to break the poverty barrier
denying the hard facts of science because profits should come before cleaning up the mess we’ve made of the entire planet
deporting children
complaining about failing schools while slashing teacher pay and testing our children to death
sitting by silently while racism and sexism are displayed proudly
being sure we can take our assault rifles into the grocery store
we pay for and support violence on playing fields, in the movies we watch, video games we buy, music we listen to, and television shows we watch, but we react with horror when students are sprayed with bullets in their classrooms, women are drug from elevators by their hair, students are bullied, children and women are raped as well as being forced into prostitution
too many among us are convinced that their brand of faith should be followed above all others, and if necessary the rights of other citizens should be denied because they choose to worship differently, or not at all
We absolutely should remember and honor the victims of September 11th’s violence. I’m just not convinced we are a country that is a better reflection of the democratic values and freedoms which terrorists intended to destroy 13 years ago.
There’s no doubt that money follows power. When your primary measure for the most important appointments is “who has money and who will give it to me” then you have a government like Nathan Deal’s, which is dominated by a few major donors instead of reflecting the diversity of Georgia’s citizens.
Last week the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that, “Three powerful Georgia boards help to bankroll Gov. Nathan Deal.” The three boards reviewed include Washington County’s own Tarbutton family.
As noted by the AJC, Ben Tarbutton, III, often referred to in conversation as Ben III by people in Washington County, currently sits on the Georgia University System Board of Regents . Ben III is a former Chair of the Board of Regents and was appointed by Gov Deal for a second term in 2013. He will sit on that Board until 2020. The AJC reports that Ben Tarbutton, III has donated $158,100 to Deal’s campaign since 2009.
The AJC quoted Ben III describing his donations as part of “modern day politics.”
During Ben III’s first term on the Regent’s Board he was joined by Dean Alford, who holds a no-bid contract to build a coal-fired coal plant in Washington County called Plant Washington.
Alford’s second wife, Debbie Dlugolenski Alford, was appointed to lead the Georgia Lottery in October 2012. The AJC reported that Ms Alford was the sole finalist for the job. She had no previous experience running a lottery. One Lottery Board member, Frances Rogers, resigned because she thought Gov Deal had interfered in the process for selecting someone to lead the Lottery.
Just a few months after Debbie Alford was appointed to lead the Lottery, Benjamin R Tarbutton (Benjie to folks in Washington County) was appointed to the Georgia Lottery Board. I don’t know if Benjie filled the seat held by Ms Rogers. Benjie is Ben III’s cousin.
Benjie’s father is Hugh Tarbutton, Sr. Hugh Sr. was re-appointed to the Georgia Ports Authority two years ago by Gov Deal. He had served 20 years on the Ports Authority Board but former Gov Sonny Perdue wouldn’t extend his term. Hugh Sr. has donated $157, 200 to Deal’s campaign according to the AJC’s infographic and he is back on the Ports Authority Board. (Hugh Sr. has a son who is also named Hugh, hence the use of Sr. here.)
It gets even cozier.
The Tarbuttons own Sandersville Railroad, a short-line railroad, that would move hundreds of cars of coal every week to Alford’s proposed Plant Washington, if the plant is ever built. They also own B-H Transfer, a trucking company based in Washington County. The Tarbuttons have a vested interest in transportation, and Georgia’s ports are tied to transportation.
Plant Washington will also require thousands of acres of land. The proposed plant site include large tracts of land owned by Hugh Tarbutton, Sr. A few tracts of Plant Washington land that don’t belong to Hugh Sr. are connected to Washington Timberland, LLC. That LLC is registered to Dean Alford. According to county tax records (Tuesday, August 26, 2014), property taxes due in December 2013 by Dean Alford’s LLC are still unpaid, and are subject to auction next month at the Washington County courthouse.
People may think Atlanta is the center of power in Georgia, but it seems to tilt towards Washington County and the checkbooks of a few campaign donors.
We paddled to Factory Shoals last Saturday, where the Alcovy River joins Lake Jackson. Chase shouted, “Awesome! Do it again” after he managed to tip himself and his grandfather out of their canoe at the bottom of the rapids.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution and Raw Story are reporting that a Texas woman visiting Helen, GA was killed by a stray bullet outside a bar over the weekend. According to Raw Story, 53-year-old Glenn Patrick Lampien, from Jasper, GA was outside the Old Heidelberg bar and restaurant on Helen’s crowded Main Street when he accidentally shot himself.
Police arrived after a call was placed concerning gunshots to discover that a woman across the street had been struck by Lampien’s bullet. She didn’t respond to first aid and was pronounced dead at the scene. Lampien will be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Georgia’s HB 60, known as Georgia’s “Guns Everywhere” law, went into effect less than two months ago. This bill, which drew strong opposition from law enforcement officials and ministers, allows guns in public places including bars, government buildings, TSA lines at Atlanta’s Jackson Hartsfield airports, and schools.
Businesses may prohibit guns by posting a sign stating that they do not want guns brought into their establishment. What HB 60 doesn’t do is restrict law enforcement officers from going into an establishment that prohibits guns. HB 60 does stop police officers from asking to see a permit unless a crime is being committed. At that point asking to see a gun license is moot, isn’t it?
I talked with several local businesses I frequent, or used to, about HB 60, and was stunned to find out that they know very little, if anything, about HB 60. Some owner/managers said they thought it fell apart during the session because it was so “crazy.”
“Crazy” is a law now, and a woman from Texas who visited our state is going home in a coffin as a result of Governor Deal and the Georgia General Assembly’s insistence that we need guns everywhere.
Shepard Smith isn’t the only one making completely inappropriate comments at Fox News this week. Yesterday psychiatrist Dr Keith Ablow, a member of the cable channel’s “Medical A- Team” said First Lady Michelle Obama isn’t qualified to advocate for improved children’s nutrition because she needs to “drop a few” pounds.
This is wrong on so many levels, but I’m short on time.
Ablow is another man criticizing a woman and her intellect by saying her weight makes her unfit (no pun intended) to advocate for better nutrition. (I guess a Harvard law school degree and being a concerned parent aren’t enough to understand the basics of nutrition and exercise.)
Albow’s larger mistake, literally, is to criticize an obviously fit women while his own gut strains against his shirt buttons and spills over his belt.
The women surrounding him aren’t any better about Ms Obama’s nutrition advocacy. One complains that the First Lady sounds like a duchess (is that code for she speaks like Kate Middleton?) while another envies Ms Obama’s “booty.”
The Friday Photo
August 8, 2014 This looks like a lot meetings do, with PowerPoint presentations and charts that are hard to read from the back of the room. It was the first public meeting held by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to discuss how Georgia will meet the EPA’s carbon pollution rule. Georgia’s Plant Scherer is the biggest carbon spewing coal plant in the country, so the task ahead of the state’s regulatory agency is steep. They didn’t seem very enthusiastic.
For those of us who have spent years advocating for reducing carbon pollution, yesterday was no ordinary meeting. The rules of the game are changing, literally.
We’ve been very much out of our regular routine at work and home due to an illness in our family. The dogs couldn’t believe it when David left late Sunday afternoon to spend another night in his mother’s hospital room.
My mother-in-law is much improved, but will be staying in the hospital’s extended care area for a while.
We’re wading into whatever the new normal will be for us now. What passed as routine for us 10 days ago is gone forever.
About two years ago a woman newly relocated to Sandersville from New York State readily made friends with a group of women who like to begin their day with a 5:45 aerobics classes.
Just a few months after settling in arthritis problems flared up and she required a second hip replacement. She was determined to cook and freeze food so her family wouldn’t have to care for her and cook.
We told her not to bother but she looked puzzled. Our collective response was, “In the South you don’t cook when there is a serious illness or death in your family. We’ll bring you meals. That’s what we do for each other.”
This Southern tradition continues with my family this week. Within just a few hours of letting people know there is an illness in our family (manageable but disrupting our regular routines) I got a message asking when we needed food, and for how many people.
Last night my father-in-law went home to fresh vegetables and homemade chicken and dumplings for dinner from a much-loved family friend, Joy Pendry. She insisted that all I need to do is raise my hand again if we need help.
Jody Hice and Mike Collins, the Republican candidates vying for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, expound on the rights of citizens above big government. Eager supporters of both campaigns have let their enthusiasm trample the property rights of private citizens.
Both campaigns have placed signs on private property belonging to my family without our permission. We destroyed the one belonging to Hice before I could get a picture, but I found another one just like it, in the public right of way on Hwy 15, where it doesn’t belong either.
Both campaigns are doing more than wasting donor dollars on signs that will be thrown away as soon as they are found on our property; they are trespassing.
If someone says, “I went to UGA” or any large college or university, most people can readily identify something about that school (football, agriculture, technology, etc). When someone asks an alum of a Quaker school where they went to school, sometimes the person asking the question looks kind of lost if they follow-up and ask what type of school that is and the answer is a simple, “Quaker”. (I have on a few occasions extolled about one benefit of being an alum of a Quaker school is the lifetime supply of free oatmeal. I should not prey on the innocent.)
Quakers are not Shakers (but they can and do shake things up sometimes), or Mennonites, or Amish. Quakers are Quakers just like Methodists are Methodists. They come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and varieties. Flaming Liberals-yep. Middle of the Road-got plenty of those. Conservative- there are some of those too.
If you are wondering who Quakers are and what they do, The Huffington Post ran an article in June, “4 Things We Can All Learn from One of America’s Oldest Religious Communities” which does a good job of explaining some of the ways Quakers work together as a faith community (and as a result in their communities beyond their church).
There is a new family living in Ragsdale House, where the President lives at my Quaker college alma mater, Guilford College. The search to hire our ninth president was unusually transparent when compared to how many schools hire their administrative leaders. When the College announced that Jane K Fernandes had accepted the offer to join the Guilford community, there was a huge outpouring of genuine and heartfelt excitement. Jane said she truly felt called to Guilford, and her passion for the values of Quakers, a Quaker-based education, and Guilford are palpable.
I’ve been at a loss as to what I can sew for my grandson. This week I realized I could make a pair of cargo shorts for him. His mother told me if I got Star Wars fabric he would never take them off. We’ll know soon how the Young Jedi Knight likes them.
ups.” 
