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Our missiOn: To make the
Lexington County Chronicle
& The Dispatch-News
essential to our community.
LEXINGTON COUNTY
Our gOAl: To publish
accurate and timely news and
advertising. We are passionate
about Lexington County.
Chronicle ANd The Dispatch-News—SINCE 1870
A7 Lexington County Chronicle & The Dispatch-News
Thursday, January 19, 2012
How to vote Saturday
y
ou might think that we’re going to tell
you here in a few hundred words who
to vote for and why.
That would make it easy for voters too
lazy to figure it out for themselves.
On the other hand, our endorsement of
one of the candidates in Saturday’s GOP
presidential primary could be a curse.
We’ve seen the campaigns of many candidates aspiring to public service (and
maybe a cushy taxpayer-financed retirement one day) crash and burn because
some darn fool newspaper editor sat down
and wrote an endorsement for them.
There is an encouraging trait among
many voters to vote against anyone a
newspaper editor would endorse.
Newspaper endorsements tend to be
left-handed compliments anyway.
They tend to tell you why all the other
candidates aren’t worth a bucket of spit
and the endorsee is the only one left to
whom to entrust the office.
That’s enough to discourage any upright
citizen seeking public office.
If you need an example, witness the decision of former Utah governor and Barack
Obama ambassador to China Jon Huntsman to withdraw from the GOP race less
than 24 hours after Brand X threw him its
endorsement in Sunday’s edition.
Huntsman may not have seen that one
coming but it certainly did nothing to
make him change his mind.
We decided years ago that it was our
duty to avoid such disasters at the peril of
having you make up your own mind.
It’s unfortunate that too many of us who
CLerK oF CoUrt
grew up in the relative comfort and safety
of this wonderful country take the importance of our vote for granted.
Not so do exiles from totalitarian societies who prize the vote and their chance to
exercise it once they become citizens.
When you vote in Saturday’s primary we
trust it will be to vote for a candidate who
opposes the job-killing, anti-business, high
debt, big government, tax and spend policies of the Obama administration.
We need a candidate who has the wit
to surround himself with capable advisors
who can help us reverse the decline of our
nation into a fifth rate power.
That’s why we won’t tell you who to vote
for because we respect your ability to decide that for yourself.
[email protected]
|
Lexington yesterday
jerry bellune
[email protected]
_
CLAUdETTE hOLLIdAY | [email protected]
359-7633
the editor taLKs with yoU
| the monk’s wife
_
Funny business
Work and workers - particularly the
lazy and stupid - are almost as popular
as blonde and mother-in-law jokes.
One of my favorites: “If you don’t
think the dead can come back to life,
stick around until quitting time.”
A few others to inspire you to get up
and go to work tomorrow:
“I drink coffee at work because we
don’t take sex breaks”. This is on the
side of a cup at our office. It’s a mystery
who brought it to the office but to them
I am forever grateful.
Edgar Bergen — for you younger
folks a well-known ventriloquist who
had a highly popular radio program
back in the 1940s and 50s — once said,
“Hard work never killed anybody, but
why take a chance?
Murphy’s lAW stAtes thAt “if anything can go wrong, it will.” A realist later observed, “Murphy was an optimist.”
Conway’s Law allows that in any organization there will always be one person who knows what is going on.
This person must be fired.
Cheops Law: No project was ever
completed on time and within budget.
Humorist Robert Orben said, “Every
day I get up and look through the
Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.”
The controversial lawyer Clarence
Darrow claimed to be a friend of the
working man because “I would rather
be his friend than be one.”
lAbor leADer lAne KirKlAnD
quipped, “If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have
kept it all to themselves.”
Archie Bunker — the fictional TV
character portrayed by Carroll O’Connor
— once said, “In fifty years, he never
worked a day. To him, nine to five was
odds on a horse.”
Philosopher Bertrand Russell observed that one of the symptoms of an
approaching nervous breakdown is the
belief that one’s work is important.”
super MoDel nAoMi cAMpbell said,
“I make a lot of money, but I don’t want
to talk about that. I work very hard and
I’m worth every cent.”
Infamous Louisiana Gov. Huey Long
said, “Hard work is damn near as overrated as monogamy.”
Comic Joey Adams said, “People are
willing to do an honest day’s work. The
trouble is they want a week’s pay for it.”
Auto maker Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is
probably why so few engage in it.”
In a modest moment, heavyweight
boxing champ Muhammad Ali said: “It’s
just a job. Grass grows. Birds fly. Waves
pound the sand. I beat people up.”
Have you got a funny quote about
work or those who avoid it?
Email it to me and I’ll share it with
other Chronicle readers.
read Jerry’s success strategies at
www.jerrybellune.com
Jerry bellune
Editor Emeritus
hilda crain
vicki shealy
bill West
L
ife would have been very different for
Katharina von Bora if Martin Luther had
not begun the Reformation revolution.
Katharina was the daughter of a Saxon nobleman, Hans von Bora and wife Katharina
Haubitz of Lippendorph, Germany. At the
age of three after her mother’s death Katharina was sent to Nimbschen Cloister near
Halle, where her aunt Magdalena von Bora
lived. She received her education at the
Benedictine cloister in Brehna.
There she remained until Martin Luther
posted his 95 Thesis. Katharina soon became dissatisfied with her life at the convent and made her escape along with 11
other nuns at age eighteen. With the assistance of Martin Luther and a councilman of
Torgau the nuns were secreted out of the
convent in a fish wagon to Wittenberg.
Luther attempted to return the nuns to
their relatives, but many families refused.
Within two years all found homes, marriages, or employment nearby. Katharina lived
with the painter Lucas Cranach the elder
and his wife Barbara. She was courted by
several suitors, but married none. Katharina had her cap set for Martin and they
married when she was 26 and Martin was
41.
Katharina and Martin were given a home
as a wedding gift by John Frederick, Elector of Saxony. The ‘Black Cloister’ was the
former dormitory of Augustinian monks
studying at Wittenberg University and perfect for the Luther’s active life at the university. Katie took over the management of the
cloister. She ran the brewery, sold and bred
cattle, boarded students (sometimes as
many as 30), and operated a hospital at the
cloister when necessary in times of widespread illness. Luther called her the morning star of Wittenberg because she arose so
early every morning.
The Luthers were very happy with their
new life free from the confines of the Roman church. They raised four of their own
children, four orphans, and Katie’s nephew
Fabian. Luther died when their youngest
child was twelve years old. War broke out
and Katie then fled Wittenberg to Magdeburg and was unable to return until 1547.
When she returned the cloister and its land
had been left in ruins, but John Frederick
came to her aid.
In 1552 the Plague reached Wittenberg
and Katie once again fled, this time to Torgau where she suffered fatal injuries in a
cart accident. At age 53 Katharina Luther
died on December 20, 1552, and was buried far from her beloved husband Martin.
Faithful to the Savior to the end Katie’s dying words professed she stuck “to Christ as
a burr to cloth”.
|
PoLitiCaL hUmor
Macleod bellune
Publisher, etc.
Office Manager
Metro Editor
Senior Editor
Portrait of Katharina von Bora by
Lucas Cranach the elder
Mark bellune
Editor, etc.
Annette briggs, carol Mccombs and
elaine bennett Advertising Account Managers
Josh thorp Assistant Managing Editor/Graphics
Michael ball
Managing Editor
travis boland
Sports/News Editor
Kirsten eblin
Office Assistant
terry Ward Assistant Managing Editor/News
settinG the recorD
strAiGht
by suzAnne D. Moore
Lexington County Clerk of Court Candidate
i
would like to set the record straight regarding the recent statements in this
paper about the work attendance of
the current Clerk of Court, and the refusal of the Sheriff’s Department to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request which it is bound to do by law.
Specifically, the information pertains to
data captured from proximity cards for
the Lexington Clerk of Court. The Sheriff’s Department claims that releasing
these records, to which taxpayers and
citizens are entitled access, is tantamount
to a security issue. This is nonsense.
The prox card records will merely
show which days an employee “keyed” in
to the courthouse, and not provide any
information that would jeopardize personal security. I merely seek this information to verify attendance records that already exist, records initiated by the Deputy Clerk of Court Marsha Jones Moore.
While serving at the Courthouse, it was
my duty to keep employee time sheets.
Deputy Clerk Marsha Moore asked me to
do the same for the clerk. Ms. Moore felt
the clerk was not aware of her absences
and wanted to have a record to remind
the clerk. Informally, I kept accurate records of the absences. Rarely does an
elected official need to be monitored by
a subordinate, but in this case I did what
was requested of me and followed to the
letter what the Deputy Clerk instructed
me to do.
Since the clerk drives to work, her entrance to the underground parking garage is accessible by swiping the card.
These records, which are monitored and
stored electronically, will prove beyond a
shadow of a doubt when she entered the
building or not. The system is not used
as an attendance record, but as a garage
door opener.
In all fairness to the clerk, I sought this
information from the Sheriff as proof of
the validity of my own recordkeeping.
Accountability is a measurement. It’s not
exact, but it bears reporting, and it certainly needs to be brought to the attention of citizens whose trust is violated
whenever elected officials abuse their
offices by collecting paychecks for work
they did not do.
According to the attendance records I
kept, the Clerk of Court missed 109 days
in 2009 and 85 days in 2010, totaling
194 days missed from work, excluding
holidays. She missed 10 months from
work in a twenty-four month period. (If
the clerk showed up for ten minutes, she
was given full credit for the day. If she
was on court business away from the
courthouse, she was given credit. However, if she was on vacation in Mexico,
the Caribbean or at her Folly Beach condo she was marked absent.) As her executive assistant, I was aware of her schedule. Deputy Clerk Marsha Moore would
also alert me to the whereabouts of Ms.
Carrigg for office business.
I’m sure every tax-paying citizen would
like to have paid absences from work
which are as lengthy and frequent as Ms.
Carrigg’s, but most people do not have
the luxury of “checking out” and receiving paychecks on the taxpayer’s tab either. The Clerk of Court is an elected
official, and elected officials are responsible to the taxpayer. The Clerk of Court’s
presence and leadership should reflect a
commitment to honoring the public trust.
Her lengthy and frequent absences, and
her attempts to dodge accountability to
the citizens who elected her, reflect deficiencies in her character, and demonstrate clearly that she is unfit to serve in
public office.
Hopefully, the Sheriff will release the
information that the taxpayers and citizens are entitled to receive under the
Freedom of Information Act. I am sure
that when these records are released,
they will reflect the truthfulness and accuracy of the current clerk’s attendance,
kept at the behest of Deputy Clerk Marsha Moore. Lexington County’s people
deserve accountability and transparency
from their elected officials, and showing up every day for work is the very first
step to honoring the trust of the people.
PO Box 9, Lexington, S.C. 29071-0009
Phone 803 359-7633 • Fax: 803 359-2936
A conservAtive choice, not A liberAl echo
Member of the South Carolina Press Association
and the National Newspaper Association
Copyright 2012, Lexington Publishing Co. Inc.
E-mail opinions to [email protected]