Note: This column was written and posted prior to the incident at Campbell C ounty High School.

Everyone is reminded of the Veterans Day Ceremony at the Veterans Monument this Friday at 1600 hours (4:00 PM). Congressman Lincoln Davis will be the keynote speaker and we expect several other officials and guests here for the program that will be highlighted with the unveiling of the name of Barton Siler who was killed in Iraq..

The Jellico Veterans Committee again requests that businesses and residences be sure to fly the Flag on Friday in honor of SSgt Siler, all veterans, living and dead, as well as all of our active and reserve military forces.

(That sure was a great "welcome home" given by Knoxville Radio Station WBIR upon the return of members of our area's 278th Armored Calvary Regiment as well as all other returning service men and women. If anyone doubts the commitment of our area to what is presently taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan I hope they were listening to FM 107.7 that day. As caller after caller to the station reported, it sure brought massive amounts of chill bumps to listeners.)

I was recently contacted by Dixie Hamblin, plant manager of the Williamsburg plant, Southeastern Kentucky Rehabilitation Industries (SEKRI). That firm has a plant at our Jellico Industrial Park and according to Ms. Hamblin, is interested in the possibility of expanding the work force at our plant by possibly 100-200 jobs. I of course informed her that we welcome any increase in the number of jobs that might occur here and I also put her in touch with our Campbell County Executive Jerry Cross and his administrative assistant Jay Willoughby. Both pledged all support possible from Campbell County in carrying through on any plans developed by SEKRI. And Hamblin met with Cross, Willoughby and Councilman Jim Dobson last Monday.

I also invited her and any other SEKRI officials to attend a meeting of the City Council to discuss the proposal.

Dwight Osborn has some ideas for Jellico and has been searching the Internet for possible funding for those ideas. He recently located the availability of a grant for the establishment of a farmer's market. We wanted to try that once before but simply did not have the funds with which to do the things that needed to be done to ever get it off the ground.

Mitch Loomis of the East Tennessee Development District has met with me concerning Dwight's idea and will submit a preliminary proposal that will hopefully lead to its funding.

I often get inquiries as to what is happening with the annexation issue brought about by the development of the Urban Growth Plan that is a requirement for every town, city and county within the State of Tennessee. The plan was developed here - as they were all over the state - under the provisions of Tennessee Public Law 1101.. Any town, city or county failing to develop an acceptable plan for any possible annexation was to lose its eligibility for grant funds which most must have to operate their public services.

We developed our Jellico plan and the City Council approved it. The plan was sent to the Campbell County wide PL 1101 Committee that reviewed it along with the Campbell County plan and plans from Lafollette, Jacksboro, Caryville, and Lake City (that has part of its incorporated area lying within Campbell County). The Committee approved the overall plan and then forwarded it to the Campbell County Commission that in turn approved it and forwarded it to the office of the Tennessee Secretary of State. That state office also gave it the stamp of approval - in effect granting it the force of Tennessee state law..

However the law also requires that certain services be provided to any annexed area within a reasonable period of time.. And many municipalities and counties all over Tennessee have been undergoing studies to determine the feasibility of providing such services - just as we have here.

The law also requires public hearing(s) before annexation can take place although the City Council has the authority to implement annexation with a four vote majority for approval following the hearing(s) -if the services can be provided. (Under our Jellico City Charter the Mayor does not have a vote on the issue. But I have always expressed my support for annexation -but only if it is economically feasible and will not put a burden upon our city taxpayers.)

Providing sewer lines, fire hydrants (possibly requiring larger water lines), street lights, regular police patrols, fire protection, etc. will be very, very expensive and none of us want to bite off more than we can chew. Preliminary studies have indicated that the amount of property tax collected from annexed areas would provide only a drop in the bucket toward the initial costs of providing those and other services (which can be assisted to some degree through receipt of grants since we are still eligible for them through our compliance with Public Law 1101.)

But the biggest problem by far that we would be taking on would be the paving and upkeep of all of the roads and streets that would be located in the annexed areas since the expense would be extremely high. We hear constant complaints from some residents of those areas pertaining to the roads and in my personal opinion, we do not need to take on the responsibility for them and have those complaints directed toward us.

In any case, no action will take place without the required public hearing(s) and any hearing(s) will be announced well in advance - if and when the Council should ever decide to proceed with any annexation plans. But I strongly recommend that the Council work closely with developer Mike Ross to annex Rarity Mountain Development at the earliest possible date.

I have just lost a very good friend and one of my all-time favorite teachers (and I have many) with the passing of Marjorie Johnson. Marjorie had a sense of humor that could light up any crowd and she was always in demand to serve as Master of Ceremonies - a task in which she was downright hilarious. For sure, JHS Alumni Assemblies will never be the same without her..

But I did not always expect us to be such good friends. As I have written and related many times in the past, I remember in the sixth grade that I heard all about how tough she was as a seventh grade teacher and how she had the audacity to require all of her students to memorize and recite the "Gettysburg Address" in front of the entire class before they could qualify for promotion to the eighth grade. That was a totally unreasonable requirement in my estimation.

I didn't know anybody in Gettysburg -wherever that was - so I sure didn't need to know an address there. I didn't want to memorize something I had never heard of, and I was totally scared to death of the idea of having to get up in front of a class and tell them where somebody lived. So I entered her class with somewhat of a belligerent mood. Ignorance is said to be bliss and as I have also stated before, if that is true - I was a very happy young man..

The time came in the school year during our studies of American history that we were assigned to begin committing the address to our memories. Somewhere in the process I learned that Gettysburg is a small town in Pennsylvania that at that time, had the exact population of present day Jellico, (Gettysburg had 2,440 folks during the Civil War and we have 2,447). The largest battle ever fought on the North American continent occurred there where over 51,000 casualties were suffered on that battlefield and it was the turning point of the Civil War that preserved our nation.

I also learned that a broken hearted President Abraham Lincoln had his spirit revived by the Union Army's victory there July 1,2,3, 1863.. And I further learned that the battlefield was made into a national cemetery; was dedicated on November 19, 1863, and had our country's top orator, Edward Everett, there who spoke for over two hours during the dedication ceremony. President Lincoln was asked to speak almost as an after thought and his talk lasted for only two minutes which shocked most in the huge crowd. But that talk to many historians and literary critics (and to me) is the most beautiful and meaningful thing ever written in the English language.. In just a very few words he summed up exactly what our country is and what it should always continue to be - a bastion of freedom and the last great governmental hope for the world.

As time went by I began to understand more and more what that truly amazing very brief speech has meant in the history of civilization. And I still remember the words to his Address just as I did the day I stood before the entire class with trembling knees and dry lips and recited them.

A few years ago Jenny and I visited the battlefield at Gettysburg as I had done on another occasion. But on that particular visit, I had the great pleasure of entering the house where Lincoln spent the night prior to the dedication ceremony to include the actual room and bed where he sat on the bed and made his final touches. It was an awesome feeling and my thoughts immediately returned to that day in Marjorie's seventh grade classroom when I made my first very inauspicious public recitation of any note.. And although I sometimes can't remember what I ate for breakfast (or even if I ate breakfast), I silently recited the entire Address in that room just to prove to myself that I did still remember every word.

So Marjorie you did make a very favorable impression upon a very unlikely scholar in a way that you probably never dreamed. And this is quoted in your memory with my deepest gratitude:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of the field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that this government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth.     President Abraham Lincoln

That speech will probably never again be equaled in meaning and/or sheer beauty of the language. Like the situation that existed then, our current War on Terrorism could almost be substituted in the address to replace The Battle of Gettysburg.. Lincoln refused to yield and stayed the course during the darkest hours - just as President Bush has so far stayed the course.

And I will never think of Marjorie Johnson that I don't think of The Gettysburg Address. And I will never think of The Gettysburg Address that I don't think of Marjorie Johnson. Such has been her influence upon my life - and the lives of a lot of her other equally grateful students.

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