Sam Burnham, Curator
​@C_SamBurnham

Gallup's most admired polls have been talked about a lot in recent days. There has been a lot of to-do over former President Obama being named Most Admired Man while Hillary Clinton was named Most Admired Woman. This has really had me thinking about admiration and how why we admire people. 

First, I have to address one thing. The vote tallying process. This actually gave me a little more faith in America. The thought that Presidents Obama and Trump are the most admired men in America was a little disappointing. Then seeing that Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey are the three most admired women, I'm noticing a pattern here. But then look at the numbers. President Obama picked up 17% of the vote and President Trump 14%. So the two "most admired" men didn't get 1/3 of the vote combined. Pope Francis came in third with 3%. And folks gripe about the Electoral College. Among the women, Clinton topped the list at 9%, Michelle Obama received 7%, and Winfrey 4%.  

Why this predictable list? Why is it that polarized politics drive politicians toward the top of the list? And is it really accurate to describe such paltry support as being "most admired?"

Forget it. We can do better and should. 

Here's a (ruthlessly abridged) list of folks we admire in 2017:

You've probably heard this name here before. You've definitely seen the "G.M.P." ad on the right. I got to know Brandon on Twitter. I've been impressed with him from day one. It's one thing to sit here at the keyboard and type about Agrarian ideals. It's another thing to leave the city and carry your educated self to South Georgia and live them. 

Brandon has taken up poultry and hog farming, not for the riches and glamour of it, but because he believes in it. There have been times when he has wondered if it is worth it. There have been issues with getting fair prices for his quality products. Some of his customers might not be quite as honest as they should have been. I know that he has had second, third, and 142nd thoughts about finding something with better pay or benefits. The lure of better compensation back in town has closed many a family farm. But he is following a passion, a calling. That is something that should be admired.

Right now journalism itself is in the news a lot. The bickering over "fake news" and truth has Americans polarized as much as the politics being covered. I first met Celeste when I was invited to join her Breakroom panel on her radio show On Second Thought. I want to mention her here because of what she has done off the air as much as on.

​Her recently released book We Need to Talk has taken her across the country speaking and appearing on shows such as Today. It is one of those "overnight success" stories that really takes about 20 years of torture for the person who finally succeeds. The book is an effort to get us to talk to each other, to listen to each other, and to stop yelling at each other in disagreement. She and I disagree on many issues - sometimes vehemently. But we can discuss the issues without disrespect or disdain. That is what she is trying to say with the book, as well as the show, especially the Breakroom.

What the casual listener might miss is that she has been very successful as a single mom. It can be hard to put food on the table and a roof over heads. It is even harder when you're doing that alone. Throw in the recent revelations of her working conditions while at The Takeaway with John Hockenberry and we see just how much she has overcome to get to where she is.

Definitely worthy of admiration.

Jon Jackson ain't from Milledgeville. But he got there as quick as he could. That road was neither easy nor short. 

Jackson served a combined 6 tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment. He came out of those experiences with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. If that wasn't enough, his perfectly human reaction to those experiences led to his life falling apart. He was pushed to the brink of suicide.

But Jon didn't take his own life. He took a different path which he describes in his TED Talk given earlier this year. He went on to found Stag Vets, a non-profit that provides therapy and support to veterans and others suffering from PTSD. His base of operations is Comfort Farms, named for his friend, Captain Kyle Comfort, who was killed in action in 2010.

Jackson is an advocated of his "Georgia Model" of agriculture - small local farmers producing food, sustaining themselves and their communities. This was actually the model first proposed for Georgia by James Oglethorpe in the 1730's. The model allows vets to reconnect with the world in a healthy manner. This not only provides a supply for the local food movement, it is saving lives, saving families, and building community, 

Public education gets a bad rap these days. Some of it is earned by the red tape and bureaucracy that government agencies generate but that only gets between kids and a quality education. There are thousands upon thousands of good teachers in this nation that are fighting the good fight, leading the charge to educate our kids.  

Sheila Jane has been in that fight. This dynamic educator started out her career hopeful only to receive more pink slips than many teachers ever have jobs to begin with. She had to voluntarily walk away from another school because staying would have compromised her personal standards of excellence. Through challenges, both personal and professional, she has endured. Her positive attitude and passion for her avocation has led her to create her to being an advocate for teachers nationwide. 

​Through her website, SheilaJaneTeaching and its accompanying social media outlets, she has provided true professional development and encouragement for those in one of America's most underappreciated professions - teachers. Having been through her share of negative, she knows what teachers are facing and helps them see that it isn't just them. 

With teachers like Sheila, we have hope for the future of education in this country. 

This is the most personal choice on this list. John isn't just someone I've gotten to know. I've known him all my life. I grew up with his youngest son, my best friend since my earliest years. In those golden years of my youth I was either at my house, at his house or somewhere in transit between the two. 

I started this post by bemoaning the typical choice of elected officials. And there are those in Northwest Georgia who would suggest that John run for office. I personally don't like that idea. First, he's way too honest of a man to get involved in such garbage. Second, and most importantly, I think it would hinder him in all the work that he does. 

I'd make a list of the civic and community organizations that he is involved in but I'd miss at least a few. He's been involved in the economic development of Rome's historic downtown. He has helped raise money and support for numerous charities. He has assisted a program that mentors at-risk high school students and helps them find a future in a career. If you see something good happening to people in Rome, Georgia, he probably had a hand in it somehow. 

He accomplished all this by having a retirement of significance. After retiring from the Georgia Power Company he set out to find things to do. His love of people and his community has driven him to turn philanthropy into a second career. And he has done all of this while maintaining family ties in Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Vermont. And somehow along the way he even taught us all to water ski.

If there is no other reason to list him here it is that he has won every award imaginable except this list, a Nobel Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The biggest clue that he deserves the awards is that they don't matter to him - the service does. His reward is a better community.

And that is the definition of admirable.

And so we close 2017 with our list of our "Most Admired." We hope that this list finds you well and looking for these sorts of admiration in your own life. 

​Happy New Year from ABG.

By Leigha Burnham, Managing Editor

I shared earlier this month one of my favorite things for Christmas, Hubbard's Mulled Cider. As the holiday draws closer (less than 10 days to go), things can get a little harried and hurried. You should certainly take a moment to yourself and enjoy the season....and there is no better way to slow down than to sip a cup of this delicious holiday drink! 

I first had this cider at a faculty Christmas party and it was prepared by our agricultural science teacher, Melissa Hubbard of Gordon County, Georgia. She willingly gave me the recipe and shared how it had been passed down in her family for years. The fact that the recipe has a strong history makes it even better. So, here is the recipe and preparation techniques for the drink...and you could always add a splash of something to warm your insides even more, if desired.

2 gallon pot
1 small simmer pot
4 tea bags
4-5 cinnamon sticks (NOT powdered cinnamon)
1 container of pineapple juice, 2 quart
1 large frozen orange juice concentrate
1 regular frozen lemonade concentrate
Whole orange, to slice
Water

​Fill the small simmer pot with water and bring to a boil. Lower the temperature, add the cinnamon sticks and tea bags, and steep them until you have a nice tea brew. Set aside.

In the large pot, add pineapple juice, orange juice concentrate, and the lemon juice concentrate and dissolve the concentrates over a low-medium temperature, stirring consistently. Once concentrates are nicely dissolved, add the "cinnamon tea" that you steeped earlier. You can leave the sticks in the pot for a bit, but certainly you need to remove the tea bags at this point.

Add water until the pot is full and simmer about 30-45 minutes. I do suggest removing the cinnamon sticks...if you leave them in the mixture for too long, they will give off too much of a "wood" taste and this will ruin your cider. Add some sliced orange for garnish. Serve immediately. You can freeze any leftovers to thaw and warm for another chilly day!

One of my favorite ways to serve this cider is in my prettiest tea cups or Christmas china. Serving in a beautiful mug or cup will only add to the experience. Merry Christmas!

By Sam Burnham
@C_SamBurnham

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The outcome of the special election for the open Alabama Senate seat is the talk of the nation. The deeply red state is sending a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1992. When taken on face value alone, that is a shocking revelation that would cause unprecedented amounts of head scratching. Is Alabama changing? Is it "leaving the Stone Age?" Is it "joining the 21st Century?"

Reality is much more complex and requires you to understand Alabama, the voters, the candidates, and the times we live in. Having lived there for 4 years myself and having spent most of the rest of my life within 20 miles of the state, let me share some thoughts.

Like much of the rest of the nation, Alabama has it's struggle between urban and rural. with a few exceptions in the "Black Belt" region, you can look at a color coded electoral map of the state and find Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and the college towns of Tuscaloosa and Auburn. Alabama is a largely rural state. It is small towns, farmland, schools with 400 kids counting K-12. It is state of churchgoers. It's a state of families with values that are rarely represented on TV or in movies. This isn't about them not joining the 21st century - it's about them not joining the 21st Century being marketed on Madison Avenue or along the Miracle Mile or on Hollywood Boulevard. "Leaving the Stone Age" is a "dog whistle", as the liberals put it, meaning to become liberal or begin to support the Democratic party. As much as Alyssa Milano and Corey Booker might want to believe otherwise, this isn't what happened in Alabama last night.

When you look at Doug Jones you see a politician who may not fit well into a typical Alabama Senate race. He would normally be a sacrificial lamb type that the Democratic Party put up to ensure a Republican didn't run unopposed. There is nothing glaringly wrong with him. There were no criminal or moral accusations against him. He gained convictions against former Klansmen in the 16th Baptist Church bombing. By all accounts he is just an average Democrat - a decent human with only his political beliefs to detract from his election success.

Roy Moore is a what you would get if the circus train derailed and crashed into the tent with all three rings going at the same time. He is someone who should have never been elevated past his local judicial seat in Gadsden. However, because he, like many in Congress today, was able to build a base that saw him as a strident defender of a besieged populace, he was able to go much further than his competency could support. He was vocal, abrasive, and didn't care who he offended in the process of defending Southern evangelicals and many of those folks love him for that.

Between those small liberal patches built in urban areas or around university campuses and the Moore base, you find folks who don't like Moore's rhetoric or the political stances of Doug Jones. Most of these people really found Moore distasteful long before any accusations of impropriety, before anyone knew he was banned from the mall, before he said he’d never heard of a popular mom and pop restaurant in his hometown. They could see through the facade of an attention junkie and didn't elect him as governor. Yesterday they did't elect him to the Senate. People who voted for "not Hillary Clinton" in 2016 voted for "not Roy Moore" yesterday - either by ballot or omission.

Now we come to the chorus of the outsiders - including Canadians singing songs trying to lecture Alabamians on the lessons of the Good Book. Alabama still doesn't need them around. A state which prides itself with the motto "We Dare Defend Our Rights" is much more liable to take such scoldings as a challenge. Calling the people dumb or backwards can trigger them to action, owning the label and doing the exact opposite of what carpetbaggers and foreigners urge them to do. And that is one reason Moore was so close.

Here are some takeaways.

- The margin of victory was smaller than the number of write-ins. These were conscience votes. These were normally Republican, or at least Conservative, voters who refused to vote for Moore. No one had any reason to protest Doug Jones from the left.

- This is a partial term. This race was to choose a successor to Jeff Sessions and finish he term through 2020. Had Moore won, he would have needed to be "primaried" to be dislodged. The Alabama GOP can now anoint a candidate, just someone who is not a circus train wreck in the middle of a circus, to dislodge Jones handily in 2020. Then everything goes back to normal.

- The final numbers may have this outcome be within 1%. This is a dead heat that shows that Alabamians, as a whole are split over which is worse - allegations of sexual misconduct or support for abortion. That was the moral choice that these voters felt torn between. A race between a seedy pro-life wildman and a otherwise normal pro-choice candidate was a dead heat. That is the state of politics in Alabama in 2017.

- The hordes currently tweeting congratulatory statements such as "I knew you could do it" as if the state was a train trying to get over a mountain to finally elect a Democrat are how we wound up with Trump. Quit sending Alabama backhanded compliments. They didn't elect Doug Jones to impress you or gain your favor. They know how you really feel about them, regardless of what happened yesterday. And trust me, the feeling is quite mutual.

For the next 3 years the right to represent the State of Alabama in the Senate belongs to Doug Jones, and fairly won. The hope of Democrats lies in him convincing most of the people of the state that he represents their values in Washington. If, a big IF to be certain, he can, he will have a shot in 2020. If he is just another liberal face in the crowd, he'll be back in Mountain Brook three years from today with some stories for his grandkids.
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