Opinion

UGA ATHLETICS Stetson Bennett’s first step should be to apologize for his recent arrest because how he handles the Texas incident will define his future.

UGA ATHLETICS Stetson Bennett’s first step should be to apologize for his recent arrest because how he handles the Texas incident will define his future.

Opinion Column: Here’s some advice for my friend Stetson Bennett IV

Dink NeSmith
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Fame and fortune come with a cost. As a celebrity, when you are placed on a pedestal, encased in glass, your private and public lives are in full view.    Sunday morning in Dallas, Stetson Fleming Bennett IV learned a most unfortunate lesson, thanks to his stardom and poor decision making.
Twice each month, first-time DUI offenders are court-ordered to provide community service by picking up litter along Oglethorpe County’s streets and roads. On Jan. 28, six offenders gathered 180 pounds of debris along a half-mile stretch of Woodlawn Street in Crawford. Loading the orange bags is Will Eberhart, who supervises the detail for the Oglethorpe County Public Works Department. TAYLER EBERHART/FOR THE OGLETHORPE ECHO

Twice each month, first-time DUI offenders are court-ordered to provide community service by picking up litter along Oglethorpe County’s streets and roads. On Jan. 28, six offenders gathered 180 pounds of debris along a half-mile stretch of Woodlawn Street in Crawford. Loading the orange bags is Will Eberhart, who supervises the detail for the Oglethorpe County Public Works Department. TAYLER EBERHART/FOR THE OGLETHORPE ECHO

Editorial: Too many litterbugs

News Staff
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
If you are old enough, flash back to 1970.     Remember the TV commercial with a Native American paddling past the litter polluting a stream? The tear cascading down his check was a powerful reminder that it’s up to all of us to keep America beautiful.
Lexington officials are working to resolve issues with a property owner whose downtown buildings have fallen into disrepair. (Photo/Dink NeSmith)

Lexington officials are working to resolve issues with a property owner whose downtown buildings have fallen into disrepair. (Photo/Dink NeSmith)

Editorial: A welcome surge in civic pride

News Staff
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Right or wrong, people do “judge a book by its cover.”   They also judge communities by what they see. Think about passersby when they travel on Highway 78, which is also the main street of Crawford and Lexington.
Gridiron savvy is in Stetson Bennett IV’s DNA. Stetson’s grandfather Buddy, holding him in the family photo inset, was a stellar, scrambling quarterback at Jesup High School and the University of South Carolina. Buddy Bennett died in 2016, but he would have loved being in New York to see his grandson honored as one of the four Heisman Trophy finalists. The 2022 honorees are (from left) Bennett, TCU’s Max Duggan, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Southern Cal’s Caleb Williams. (TODD VAN EMST)

Gridiron savvy is in Stetson Bennett IV’s DNA. Stetson’s grandfather Buddy, holding him in the family photo inset, was a stellar, scrambling quarterback at Jesup High School and the University of South Carolina. Buddy Bennett died in 2016, but he would have loved being in New York to see his grandson honored as one of the four Heisman Trophy finalists. The 2022 honorees are (from left) Bennett, TCU’s Max Duggan, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Southern Cal’s Caleb Williams. (TODD VAN EMST)

Opinion Column: ‘Stetson Bennett is the American Dream’

Dink NeSmith
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Before you go there about sour grapes, stop.    This isn’t about Stetson Bennett not winning the Heisman Trophy. Instead, it’s about the magical story of an undersized and misjudged walk-on quarterback who was voted to be among the four best college football players in America.
The Oglethorpe Echo

The Oglethorpe Echo

Editorial: You are why

News Staff
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Fourteen months ago, the newspaper you’re holding in your hands and reading was destined to die. That’s right. Your then-148-year-old newspaper was about to vanish.  But it didn’t.     Why?   The Oglethorpe community wanted its newspaper to keep on keeping on.

Column: Environmental ignorance isn't 'bliss'

Dink NeSmith
Monday, December 12, 2022
True or false: “Ignorance is bliss”?   If that was true, I was blissfully ignorant — nestled in my Strand Theater seat — watching cowboy-and-Indian movies during my boyhood Saturdays. And how many times, in backyard play, did you choose to be a cowboy rather than an Indian?

Editorial: December Thumbs Up and Downs

News Staff
Monday, December 12, 2022
The Thanksgiving Day turkey is long gone, and December is in full swing. Blink and Christmas will be past, too. As we move toward 2023, we offer these thumbs up or down to express our opinions: THUMBS DOWN Mail delivery in Oglethorpe County has been through a major change the past few weeks.
An inflatable Santa in U.S. military camouflage is part of the Christmas display in Wayne Loggans’ yard on North Street in Crawford. Loggans and his wife Tammy decorate their yard every year. (LJ Jackson/The Oglethorpe Echo)

An inflatable Santa in U.S. military camouflage is part of the Christmas display in Wayne Loggans’ yard on North Street in Crawford. Loggans and his wife Tammy decorate their yard every year. (LJ Jackson/The Oglethorpe Echo)

Editorial: Christmas celebrations underway in Oglethorpe

News Staff
Thursday, December 1, 2022
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas   Everywhere you go   Take a look at the five and ten, it’s glistening once again   With candy canes and silver lanes that glow”   The old-timey five-and-ten stores are gone, but look around Oglethorpe County.
Farmers have discovered that South Georgia’s mild climate is suitable for growing sweet, easy-to-peel Satsuma oranges. Our three trees have thrived next to a pine plantation. (Dink NeSmith/The Oglethorpe Echo)

Farmers have discovered that South Georgia’s mild climate is suitable for growing sweet, easy-to-peel Satsuma oranges. Our three trees have thrived next to a pine plantation. (Dink NeSmith/The Oglethorpe Echo)

Opinion Column: Picking oranges plucks story from Great Depression

Dink NeSmith
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Circa 1935.   Soup kitchens.   Bread lines.   Unemployment almost 25%.   The Great Depression had America’s stomach gnawing on its backbone. Jobs were hard to come by, but the two youthful brothers always found work.