Editorial: Turnout puts to rest voter suppression lies

When candidates and political parties have little to boast about, when they are at a lost for anything real or positive to latch onto, they resort to what they consider their next big weapon: lies. It is a poor reflection on us all.

Sadly, too many of us easily fall for deceitful claims, including vicious ones and tall tales fashioned to destroy reputations. Even major organizations fall hook, line and sinker for bogus claims at times.

Take Major League Baseball, for example. It yanked its annual all-star game out of Atlanta this past summer when the president and his foot soldiers in Georgia accused the state of attempting to keep minorities from participating in elections by making it difficult for them to vote. Moving the game to Denver cost the state’s economy millions of dollars, and all because of a politically inspired lie.

President Biden even went so far as to insult Georgia and all who call the state home by announcing to the world that the Peach State was taking a giant leap into the Jim Crow era with the passage of Jim Crow voting laws. With a lie, he deliberately cast Georgia in a bad light both nationally and internationally.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock sided with the president and immediately began working toward federal legislation that would trump his own state’s efforts to bring order to voting. The state’s goal is and has always been to ensure clean elections.

Readers learned in Monday’s editorial that all the trumpeting by Biden, Warnock and others was based on pure rubbish. The editorial quoted information from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

According to Raffensperger, during the five days of early voting in the runoff election between Democrat Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, 1,712,651 Georgians cast a vote. The total rises to 1,852,593 when adding absentee and military voting. That’s more than 26% of the state’s registered electorate.

Not bad for one week. Not bad at all, especially in view of all the untruths pouring out of Washington about how Georgia’s refined voting laws are obstructive to balloting.

Biden and those who swallowed his groundless and demeaning accusations owe Georgia and all Georgians an apology. Don’t hold your breath, though. If the runoff election favors Walker, expect the losing side to bash Georgia with the same old lie.

Editorial: Take steps to safely bring your Christmas tree home

There are many scents associated with Christmas, but perhaps the most potent is the smell of a live tree. Fully decorated and placed in your home next to a crackling fire with gifts underneath, the Christmas tree is am indelible sign of the holiday season.

While the scene of a tree in your den or living room is serene, transporting that tree from the lot to your home can be a headache.

“Nothing will make you say, ‘bah humbug’ faster than losing the tree you just bought on the drive home,” said Montrae Waiters, spokeswoman for AAA—The Auto Club Group. “If not properly secured, a tree can damage your vehicle or worse, fly off and become a danger to other drivers. Before you purchase your tree, please make sure to research the proper way to transport it or ask a professional to secure it for you.”

In a previous AAA study, nearly 1 in 5 real Christmas tree buyers reported having a tree fall off or out of their vehicle when trying to get it home. While it is best to transport the tree on top of a vehicle equipped with a roof rack, a pickup truck, SUV, van or minivan can work just as well.

Here are tips from AAA on how to safely transport your Christmas tree from the lot to your home:

• Come prepared: Bring strong rope or nylon ratchet straps, an old blanket and gloves.

• Wrap and cover it: Once you have found the perfect tree, have the lot wrap it in netting before loading it. Loose branches can also be secured with rope or twine to help protect the tree from damage.

• Protect your vehicle: Before loading the tree, cover the roof with an old blanket to prevent scratches to the paint and protect the car from any damage.

• Trunk first: Place the tree on the roof rack or in the bed of the truck with the tree trunk facing the front of the car. If the vehicle does not have a roof rack and is large enough — place the tree inside.

• Secure it: Tie down the tree at its bottom, center and top using strong rope or nylon ratchet straps. Avoid using the nylon offered by many tree lots. Use fixed vehicle tie-down points and loop the rope or strap around the tree trunk above a branch to prevent any side-to-side or front-to-rear movement

• Tug test: Once tied down, give the tree several strong tugs from various angles to make sure it is secured in place and will not come loose.

• Nice and easy: Drive slowly and take back roads if possible. Higher speeds can create significant airflow that can damage your tree or challenge even the best tie-down methods.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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