Augusta will not have a Veterans’ Day Parade this year. Instead, one float will be moved to various locations at which celebrants may ride by and blow their horns in salute to the men and women who preserved our freedoms since 1776.
There is a rumor Mayor Hardie Davis may be somewhere around for the event, but as in the past, he may be dressed in his usual desert camo outfit which makes him invisible to all but a few who claim to have seen him vigorously celebrating our veterans at all such past events.
Apparently figuring his camo clothing might not offer enough cover, Davis reached out to a former military man who tried to discredit me while making the faint-hearted Davis, who was afraid to ride in a car with city emblems on it and wanted a personal armed guard to protect his unimportant self, sound like a hero of the Battle of the Bulge.
The former military man, hoping to smooth Davis’ feathers and frighten the little lady writer, emailed a copy of last week’s column to other military men excoriating it as “inaccurate” and “irresponsible.”
A previous critic of Davis’ failure to give needed attention to the event to honor our veterans has suddenly decided our mayor is really a staunch supporter of all things military and wishes to have never spoken to this writer about her concerns. The critic turned brother-in-arms with Fighting Hardie Davis is ready to charge up the hill with him now. I suspect some people fired a few shots across the former critic’s bow causing a swift change of direction.
Anyway, as usual Davis is given credit for something he actually had little to do with, and he is perceived by some to be a political power broker who can crush dreams such as the Veterans’ Cemetery to be located in Augusta. Some people even believe Davis was instrumental in the years of efforts to establish the cemetery. While Davis hopes to one day be a political power, his road appears long, and it has not started in Augusta. Of course, given the state of the Democrat Party, who can doubt anyone might rise through the muck.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 has mutated again and is now solely responsible for there not being a parade this year. Pay no attention to those early reports of incompetency in the Mayor’s Office being to blame. Oh, you can forget the excuses also out of the Mayor’s Office for that now non-existent incompetency. But COVID? Let’s see. There are ballgames, there have been several parades already accomplished without being super spreaders. Concerts are slated. The Common is frequently packed for events. No matter. COVID stopped the parade. We must accept. We must adapt. We must mask. We must vaccinate. We must believe. We must allow our children to be indoctrinated and not educated. It is now the American way. If we object, the Department of “Justice” will bring the full force and power of the Federal Bureau of Investigation down upon us.
Aren’t Democrats wonderful? And they are ever so supportive of our military. Sure, they are. You remember Vietnam and Afghanistan, right. Hey, I know. Let’s have a parade to honor our brave veterans. I’m sure the Democrat mayor, Democrat sheriff and Democrat commission majority will jump right in to support it. Aren’t you?
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As You May Remember from Last Week’s Column…
“Augusta’s Veterans Day Parade is in jeopardy this year because Mayor Hardie Davis failed to respond to a request for support and permission to conduct the CSRA Augusta Veteran’s Day Parade.
“On July 6, Retired Sgt. First Class Rebecca Shores, secretary of the veterans’ organization, emailed Davis a letter requesting permission to conduct the parade on Thursday, Nov. 11, in Augusta from 10 a.m. to 11 am. Shores also emailed the mayor a parade permit application for the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, an entry form, a copy of a written plan for the parade and an invitation to lead the parade’s non-military section.
“Last Tuesday, Shores emailed the mayor again stating that the parade committee had not received any information.
“’Is the city of Augusta going to have a Veterans Day Parade this year?”’ Shores asked.
“Shortly thereafter, she received this reply:
“Thank you for contacting the Office of the Mayor. Would you please re-submit the paperwork requesting a parade? The staff person who handled these matters has transitioned from the Mayor’s Office.
“Shores said she doesn’t see the parade committee getting everything together in time for the parade with less than a month left or getting enough volunteer police officers to help which she went on to explain.”
Shores also said, “I’ve been working with this parade for five years, and the mayor always tells us he’ll be there. He never shows up.”
A Battalion to the Rescue
Tuesday afternoon, Dr. James Brady, Georgia commander of the Order of World Wars, emailed LTC David Titus, LTC Gary Engen and copied BG Welton Chase Jr. and CDR Earl Richardson the following comments and a copy of the column:
“Significant reverberations from the inaccurate and irresponsible story below. The Mayor’s Office is justifiably upset over the dispersions, half-truths, and outright slanders in the article. Mayor Davis called me within the last hour, justifiably hurt, and I indicated we would act immediately to set the record straight. When the dust settles, we need to get to the bottom of where this story came from.”
“Honk to Let Our Veterans Know …”
Shortly after Dr. Brady’s email about the mayor being justifiably hurt Tuesday, the CSRA Augusta Veterans Day Parade sent this email:
“To all the wonderful Supporters,
Due to the continued COVID-19 restrictions, the annual parade will be a “Drive By Salute to Veterans” again this year. We feel the need to have some type of event, or the Parade will be forever lost. We are asking all American Legion Posts and Veteran Organizations to participate.
You are welcome to join us at one or all locations. Parking will be limited. Display your own Drive by or take the few moments at 11 am on 11 November to remember our veterans.
11 November 2021, The Parade Committee will once again assembly the POW/MIA Float Display.
The Float will be parked at the
“Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) Ceremony” held at
The All-Wars Memorial on:
10 am to 11:30 am
Olde Town Augusta, GA
Broad Street Median Between 3rd and 4th Streets
The POW/MIA Float will be moved to American Legion Post 505. Located at
1678 15th St, Augusta, GA from 1pm to 2pm.
Then moved to American Legion Post 178 on 3219 Richmond Hill Road to set from 3 pm to 4 pm.
Then move the Float to Highland Ave. across from American Legion Post 205 from 6 pm to 7 pm.
We hope this display will allow the public to drive by and honk to let our veterans know they are remembered on this day. Please send pictures you may take as you ‘Drive by Salute to Veterans’ and/or your event. We will also attempt a live feed on the Facebook page: CSRA Augusta Veterans Day parade.”
Policies, Procedures and Prolixity
Fire Chief Antonio Burden came before a commission committee Tuesday to update members on his plans to rewrite the fire department’s policies and procedures, and the short version of the update was, “I’m working on it.”
The Fire Department’s policy on entering homes during emergencies became a hot topic after a woman died inside her home in April waiting for help while firefighters milled around outside for 15 minutes waiting for a sheriff’s deputy to arrive although a Gold Cross EMS dispatcher told them early on they had permission to go inside.
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Hunters’ Paradise; Wildlife Lost
City officials tasked earlier with researching Augusta resident William Quackenbush’s request for permission to hunt on city property in the Phinizy Swamp area came back Tuesday with answers and more than Quackenbush asked for.
Lee Taylor, DNR game management regional supervisor, said they could add a third of the wastewater treatment land to the existing Phinizy Wildlife Management area. Taylor said DNR would develop a MOU between the state and Richmond County that would allow archery hunting only for deer, turkey and small game.
Commissioner Brandon Garrett asked Quackenbush whether he thought that was a good way to go.
“I’d just like to get it recommended, so I can go home,” Quackenbush said.
So that was all well and good until Taylor said they could also possibly have a limited alligator hunting season on small county ponds and lakes.
“We remove on average 15 to 20 nuisance alligators in Richmond and Burke counties a year,” he said.
It would be a reduced hunting season of two to three weeks that would probably take care of the alligators and reduce the administrative burden, Taylor said.
Commissioner John Clarke said he wouldn’t approve either for personal reasons, but that he certainly wouldn’t begin to approve adding in the mayor’s fishing hole, Lake Olmstead and the Gordon Highway ponds for alligator hunting to the public.
“You’re just opening up a recipe for disaster,” he said. “I mean you really are.”
Garrett said the main area in question is surrounded by Phinizy which is already hunted regularly and that the mayor’s pond fits right in with that.
“Lake Olmstead might be a matter for discussion internally,” Garrett said.
The Augusta Utilities Department is opposed to hunting on the land it bought for a constructed wetland treatment system.
The Aftermath
I’m still mourning over the jet crashing in our front yard early Tuesday before daylight a week ago and the deaths of the pilot and copilot and the losses their families are coping with. I can’t go to sleep until 5 a.m. I’m not afraid of dying. That’s not it. I now just so vividly realize how not in control of anything we really are. Not anything really for more than a heartbeat. I think that’s why I can’t sleep.
I’m also in mourning for the devastation of our beautiful tree-lined driveway, not that that means anything to anybody else. At first, I refused to look at it. I refused to look when I had to drive out to go somewhere. But Thursday I went down and took some pictures, and it was even more horrible than I’d thought. Trees that weren’t knocked down or cut in half are hacked up and gashed and will die for sure. While I was taking pictures, I found a piece of some internal part of the plane lying in the driveway. I took a picture of it to put on my Facebook page. It’s all so sad.
Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
