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LOCALS PLAN PROTESTS OF TRUMP-DOGE CUTS

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The Trump Administration's dramatic cuts to federal agencies, programs, and personnel have sparked some Americans to gather in protest in cities across the nation, and now the protests are coming to Tifton today and on Saturday.

Some Tifton residents say they plan to gather from 3-6 p.m. today (Friday) at the Veterans Administration (VA) Clinic on 1824 N. Ridge Ave. in Tifton to protest the cuts by the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk.

A plan to eliminate 80,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs is causing backlash from lawmakers, veterans groups, and others who say veterans and their families will be the ones harmed. The planned layoffs are in addition to the 2,400 VA jobs eliminated in recent weeks.

"We are protesting personnel cuts in the VA being made without consideration of what that person's responsibilities are. We feel that it will gut the services the VA provides to veterans," said Liz Carson Keith of Tifton.

"I am a widow of two veterans. My last husband suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and the VA services helped him to function successfully. Veterans have paid for these services with their sweat and blood. The country owes them a fully functioning Veteran's Administration," Keith said.

She said the protest is not being held by "an established group, just a group of friends who are alarmed by what is happening. We are asking people who are like-minded to join us."

Congressman Austin Scott, R-Tifton, is also the focus of planned protests. Some folks intend to gather outside Scott's Downtown Tifton office at 11 a.m. Saturday to "highlight concerns regarding specific issues, such as attacks on democracy, workers’ rights, corporate greed, and social justice," organizers said.

Imoni Smith, one of the organizers, is a Tift County High graduate who attended Georgia State University. On social media, she called upon folks to "say no to Trump, Elon Musk, and Austin Scott! They push policies that hurt our communities, especially South Georgia! Musk bankrolls extremists, Trump spreads hate, and Scott votes against our rights and Medicaid!"

Republican officials say there have been no votes this year in Washington to cut Medicaid.

“I supported the continuing resolution to keep our government open," said Congressman Scott. "Our fiscal year starts Oct. 1, and we need to immediately start the appropriations process for the next fiscal year so we don’t end up in this situation again."

Scott also said that “DOGE's recent requests for federal employees should have been coordinated with the agencies before they were issued. I fully support those agencies working with DOGE to improve efficiency and eliminate tax-dollar waste.”

A group in Warner Robins also plans to gather at 10 a.m. Monday outside Scott's district office there. His congressional district includes the Warner Robins area.

Middle Georgians for Hope, Joy and Democracy is organizing what they are calling their own town hall because they say Scott has not held one in a decade. Organizers expressed concern about DOGE's reductions and potential Department of Defense cuts that could affect Robins Air Force Base, which is a major employer.

Scott responded that "for over 14 years, I have continually met with constituents, local advocacy groups, and industries about their concerns and priorities, and I will continue to do so both here in Georgia and D.C. I'm proud to represent more than 750,000 Georgians, and every constituent has the right to share their concerns with me through my office."

'WILD CHICKEN' ON FITZGERALD'S WEEKEND MENU

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

Fitzgerald hosts the annual Wild Chicken Festival again this weekend in the Ben Hill County seat.

Burmese chickens are a fixture of the Fitzgerald landscape, and the Wild Chicken Festival honors those unique residents that have been local attractions since the 1960s.

The celebration of Fitzgerald’s Famous Wild Burmese Chickens is free in the town's downtown historic district. Events include a 5K walk/run, a crowing contest, live music, arts, crafts, food, and more.

The festival kicks off tonight (Friday) with a street dance featuring Derrick Dove & The Peacekeepers from 7-10 p.m. in Fitzgerald's White Swan Parking Lot.

On Saturday, the Run for the Roost 5K gets underway at 8 a.m., and the festival officially opens at 9 a.m. in downtown Fitzgerald.

Activities during the day include an Antique Tractor Show, the 4th Annual Crowing Contest, an Artisan Market, and live entertainment by Anna Beth Gay, Donavan Thompson, and Cade Beecher.

And of course, numerous vendors will offer food, beverages, and craft items.

The weekend concludes Sunday night with a 7 p.m. performance by Jimmy Fortune at Fitzgerald's Grand Theatre. Fortune was a longtime member of the Statler Brothers.

TCHS COACH BLACKSHEAR ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Tift County Staff Reports

Tift County High School boys' head basketball Coach Tommy Blackshear has announced his retirement, ending his 40-year coaching career where it began.

Blackshear began coaching in 1985, coming to Tift County High to assist Head Coach Emmett Bowers. Blackshear succeeded Bowers as head coach in 1988. After taking the team to the state tournament a couple of times, Blackshear led TCHS to a state championship in 1996 with a 29-1 record.

He coached the Blue Devils until 2003 and later coached at Cook County High in Adel, where he took both the Cook boys' and girls' basketball teams to state several times, and then focused on coaching the Cook Middle School teams.

In 2020, Blackshear returned to Tift County High as head coach, amassing an 80-51 record, a region title, and an elite eight appearance. The Blue Devils finished second in Region 1-6A during the past season.

LEGISLATURE CONSIDERS 'DIGNITY PAY,' DIGITAL LICENSES, STATE BREAD

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The General Assembly has passed the halfway point of this year's session and among the bills pending are:

• Senate Bill 55: "Dignity and Pay Act"

The bill requires community rehabilitation programs to pay their disabled workers at or above the minimum wage by 2027.

Currently, Section 14(c) of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers, after receiving a certificate from the Wage and Hour Division, to pay sub-minimum wages to workers with disabilities whose earning or productive capacity is impaired.

The practice began in the 1930s to provide employment opportunities to disabled workers. The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities said the lowest wage currently being reported for such workers in the state is 22 cents an hour.

State Senate Bill 55 cleared one step Wednesday when it was unanimously passed by a House committee.

• House Bill 296: Digital Drivers' Licenses

The bill would require police to accept official digital versions of drivers’ licenses during traffic stops.

Bill sponsors say approximately 450,000 Georgians already use an official Georgia drivers’ license in Apple or Google wallets and accepted by the Transportation Security Administration at airports. 

Allowing an official digital license would allow police to check it without having to return to their cruisers. All police would need to have a smartphone equipped to validate a digital license. A standard physical license would still be able to be used.

The digital license could only be accepted by police and federal authorities, and could not be used for identification in other venues.

House Bill 296 has passed the House by a wide bipartisan majority; on Monday, a Senate committee decided to move the bill forward.

• Proposed Fiscal Year 2026 State Budget

The House has OK'd the $37.7 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Among items in the budget are $250 million for prison upgrades – including more staffing and salary increases – and $98.4 million for Gov. Brian P. Kemp’s proposed K-12 education budget to bolster student mental health services, and $28 million for districts with economically disadvantaged students.

The proposed budget is currently going through revisions and a final version will ultimately need to be agreed upon by both houses.

• House Bill 14: State Bread

The bill would designate cornbread as Georgia's official state bread.

"Cornbread enjoys a singular stature in Georgia history and culture that is rivaled only by its undeniable appeal as a versatile and satisfying food," the bill states.

It notes that the "colorful history and traditions of the State of Georgia are inextricably associated with the food traditions of corn, and among the many legacies of this proud heritage is the delicious bread known as cornbread."

The Senate Committee on Economic Development and Tourism is considering the legislation.

'SUMMIT FOR CHILDREN' ADDRESSES CHILD WELFARE

By BONNIE SAYLES

Tifton Grapevine

The Alliance for Children is holding a Summit for Children on April 10 in Tifton, Executive Director Cindy Evers-Peake told Tifton Rotary Club Wednesday.

The summit will be 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m., April 10 at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center. 

“Once a year we host a training summit for child welfare professionals in the area,” Evers-Peake said. Attendees include law enforcement, education leaders, social workers, lawyers, and medical professionals. Many receive continuing education credit for attending the summit.

Past speakers include Collins Tuohy, the adoptive sister of NFL player Michael Oher of “The Blind Side" fame; FBI and GBI investigators; and Matthew Sandusky, founder of Peaceful Hearts Foundation and adopted son of convicted Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky.

This year, Evers-Peake said, the summit will bring Judge Robert Lung, who will speak on “Human Trafficking, Trauma, Resiliency, and Evidence-Based Hope.” Also, Dr. Emmanual Pena, a child abuse pediatrician from Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, will talk about skull fractures, brain injuries, and diagnosing broken bones in children.

“All of us should know, if they don’t cruise, they don’t bruise,” Evers-Peake said. “If there is a three-month-old with a broken bone, that needs to be looked at. If you have a two-month-old with a concussion, there needs to be a deeper look at what happened to this child.” 

She said one section of the summit will deal with the phenomenon of clergy or staff who abuse children in the church. Some Southern Baptist churches fought investigations that revealed troubling statistics within churches. Attorney William McMurray will present a program called Breaking the Sacred Silence.

“He will talk about what that journey looked like” investigating child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in South Carolina, Evers-Peake said.

David Pittman will talk about being molested by someone in church music ministry, who is currently serving in a church in the local area, Evers-Peake said.

“Your community of faith is supposed to be somewhere that is sacred and that is safe,” she said. “A lot of times they’re not.”

She said Northside Baptist and First Baptist churches have criminal background checks of all people who work with children, as do most churches. 

Evers-Peake started the nonprofit Alliance for Children in August 2021. “We serve children who fall through the bureaucratic cracks,” she said. “We do things for children that no other entity can do.” 

For information, visit www.alliance4childrenga.org, email alliance4childrensouthga@gmail.com or call 229-392-2387.

UGA PRESS PUBLISHES TIFTON NATIVE'S BOOK ON HOW EXTENSION SERVICES AIDED RURAL WOMEN

Tifton Grapevine Staff Reports

A Tifton native's recent book, published by the University of Georgia Press, focuses on how rural white and black women in Alabama and Florida used the Cooperative Extension Service’s home demonstration programming between 1914-1929 as a means to earn extra income.

"The Proof Is in the Dough: Rural Southern Women, Extension, and Making Money" by Dr. Kathryn L. Beasley has been getting rave reviews since its publication in January. It has been called "one of seven books to read in 2025," and The Library Journal said the book is an "excellent examination" of how "agricultural and home-economics education programs improved lives" of rural residents.

"Beasley’s knowledgeable work recreates the nature of homespun and small-scale economics in the Southern countryside, indicating where gender, race, and economics collided in the rural South," The Library Journal wrote.

Beasley credits growing up in Tifton alongside the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H helped fuel her later interest in agricultural and rural history. Her father, Dr. John Beasley, is a retired peanut agronomist at the University of Georgia.

A graduate of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Beasley received degrees in history from Valdosta State University and her Ph.D. in history from Florida State University.

She is a recipient of the Southern Association for Women Historians’ A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize for the best article in the field of Southern women’s history, with articles published in the Alabama Review, Florida Historical Quarterly, the Journal of the NACAA, Peanut Science, and the White House Quarterly.

The book is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, and is at the Tifton-Tift County Public Library, as well as other libraries around the country.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY: 

Letters must address local issues only. All letters are subject to editing for brevity, for libelous statements, and for egregious language. 

Include your name, phone number ,and address for verification purposes. Email letters to: IHeardIt@tiftongrapevine.com

THANKS FOR RECENT COLUMN ON

KNOWING YOUR TOWN BY WALKING IT

To the Editor:

I loved your piece on walking. I was the same way in my youth. I figured out all my problems walking. It was my meditation and my exercise and my peace. 

When I was a cop, I kept the windows of my patrol car down, even in summer, to hear and feel my town around me. But every night, I would park and embark on foot patrol, shaking doors, checking locks, etc. I knew my two towns. The day town and the night town. Because I didn’t just glide through them in my police cruiser; I walked them. Felt, saw, heard, and smelled every inch of my little town. 

I can’t walk far anymore. I have Parkinson’s, and it clenches my ankle with a painful dystonia.

But as I drive by the walkers in our town, I suppose they wish they had a car to get around. And I wish I could walk this town, and know it as only walkers do. 

Thanks for a beautiful, thought-provoking essay. 

Vince Watkins

Tifton

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YOUR GUIDE

TO ACTIVITIES

THIS WEEKEND

IN THE GREATER TIFTAREA

Today, Friday, March 14, is National Potato Chip Day, celebrating America’s No. 1 snack food. Potato chips are a predominant part of the snack food market in English-speaking countries, especially in America, where it was said to be invented in 1853 by George "Crum" Speck, a black chef in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. They were initially called "Saratoga Chips" and were first served at Moon's Lake House, a high-end restaurant where Speck worked. Mass production of potato chips began in 1921 in the United States. America's top brand, Lay's, was introduced in 1932.

FRIDAY, MARCH 14

• "Deadly Devotion" – A Wiregrass Murder Mystery, participants solve a "murder," timed tickets begin at 4 p.m., Ga. Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
• St. Patrick's Day Sip & Stroll, 5-7:30 p.m., Downtown Sylvester
• Wild Chicken Festival Street Dance, featuring Derrick Dove & the Peacekeepers, 7 p.m., White Swan Parking Lot, Fitzgerald
• Berrien County Roundup Rodeo, 7:30 p.m., Saddle Club Lane, Nashville

SATURDAY, MARCH 15

• Annual Rummage Sale, 7 a.m.-noon, Our Divine Saviour Catholic Church activity building, corner of Tift Avenue and 12th Street, Tifton
• Run for the Roost, 5K & 1-mile fun run, 8 a.m., Main Street, Fitzgerald
• Wild Chicken Festival, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Downtown Fitzgerald
• Weed Wrangle, invasive species removal day, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Ga. Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
• "Deadly Devotion" – A Wiregrass Murder Mystery, participants solve a "murder," timed tickets begin at 4 p.m., Ga. Museum of Agriculture, Tifton
• 20th Annual Hearts & Diamonds Gala, a fundraiser for Tift Regional Medical Center Foundation, 6:30 p.m., UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center, Tifton
• Berrien County Roundup Rodeo, 7:30 p.m., Saddle Club Lane, Nashville

SUNDAY, MARCH 16

• Jimmy Fortune in concert, a member of the Statler Brothers, 7 p.m., Grand Theatre, Fitzgerald

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Meet "Mighty Max." This handsome black, brown, and white pup has been roaming a neighborhood, looking for a place to call home. He is friendly and sweet. Come visit Mighty Max and see other pets available for adoption at the Tift County Animal Shelter on Highway 125 South, open between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For additional information, call 229-382-PETS (7387).