Publisher’s Point

from Athens Now 9-18-2020

Horse Whispering

Publisher / Editor Ali Turner

Copy Editor Yvonne Dempsey Sales & Distribution Degan Wilder Graphic Design Jonathan Hamilton

Web Design Teddy Wolcott Contributing Writers D. A. Slinkard Lisa Philippart Leigh Patterson Sandra Thompson Anna Hamilton Deb Kitchenmaster Nick Thomas Eric Betts Roy Williams Jackie Warner Tim Lambert Charles Joseph Mae Lewis

Publisher’s Point . . . . . . . . 3 What Makes Ronnie Roll . . . 5 All Things Soldier . . . . . . . 6 Chronicles Of Charles . . . . . 7 Calendar Of Events . . . . . 8 Slinkard on Success . . . . . . 9 From The Vets' Museum . . . 10 PlayAction Sports . . . . . . . . 11 Clean and Green . . . . . . . 12 Cooking With Anna . . . . 13 Cover Stories . . . . . . . 15 & 17 Health And Fitness . . . . . . 16 Lifelong Learning . . . . . . 18 View From The Bridge . . . . 19 Horse Whispering . . . . . . 20 Mental Health Minute . . . 21 Alternative Approach . . . 22 Special Feature . . . . . . . 24

Jexit, Lexit, Blexit, What’s Nexit?

To say that 2020 is one of the most unusual years in Ameri can history—political and otherwise-- is an understate ment, and there are a number of things that have developed that I would have previously thought to be highly improb able, if not impossible. Three groups of people who have traditionally identified them selves politically as Democrats are “exiting, stage left” (as 1960’s iconic HannaBarbera cartoon character Snagglepuss used to say) from the Democratic Party, and are planning on voting for President Donald Trump on November 3. They are Jews, Latinos, and Blacks, and their numbers are grow ing every day. Because theatre has long been used to tell stories and express political narratives of every persuasion, “exit ing stage left” in this context packs an ironic punch. In the verbiage of the theatre world: “Stage left is considered the open side of the stage, so, for example, if you want to give the impression that someone is exiting the stage and will keep going, like off into the distance, toward open pos sibility, etc., you'll have them exit stage left.” So, even though from the perspective of the actor as he or she is fac ing the audience, moving off toward the actor’s left actu ally serves to illustrate moving toward the right from the audience’s side of the stage. Moving on, here is a more pragmatic perusal of the facts. All three people groups, as is the case with many people groups, pos sess as a part of their cultural story irrefutable evidence of oppression. All have been owned by others, oppressed by others, and killed by oth ers. Some of those offenses have occurred on American soil, and in the case of all three groups, throughout his tory those things occurred at biblical levels outside of our

Candace Owens, Founder of Blexit

borders. Enter the Democratic Party, the so-called party of com passion, the party that is a voice for the oppressed, the party that lifts up the down trodden, and the party of social justice, economic justice, reproductive justice, histori cal justice, ecological justice, gender assignment justice, gender re-assignment justice, marital justice, and whatever justice the previously men tioned quests for justice may have missed. This is the party that promised to bring eco nomic justice by using the promise of a guaranteed in come in exchange for removing men from their families through The Great Society of Lyndon Baines Johnson. This is the party that wants the taxpayer to pay for the dismemberment and death of pre-born children, and makes

sure that their highly lucrative death camps are located in African-American neighborhoods. This would be a dream come true for Margaret Sanger, who did not attempt to hide that one of her goals was to eliminate black people. The Lexit movement has as its slogan, “Leaving the Democratic Plantation of Enslavement.” They also say that they want to help Latinos leave the liberal left and embrace conservatism and conservative values. Jexit says, “Our mission is to educate Jews about this dangerous shift in Democrat policy, its voices, its spokespersons, and its clear shifting away from support of Israel.” They believe that the Democratic Party has turned its back on Israel, America’s strongest ally. They say further, “We cannot be complicit in this dangerous trend; Israel’s very existence depends on us.” And as for Blexit, its founder, Candice Owens, states, “Blexit is the black exit from the Democratic Party. It’s the black exit from permanent victimhood, the black exit from the false idea that we are somehow separate from the rest of America.” The deal-breaker for several young people was reading and comparing the respective party platforms. One of them doesn’t make a great deal of sense, and they came to that conclusion on their own. Something is making the aforementioned groups long to be a part of something that is embodied in the last stanza of the national anthem: “the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” And, they want to be able to do it without being owned by anyone. My question is, “Who’s nexit?”