Witness

I graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which will not open for business next month after 156 years. Don't get me started. One summer in the self-centered sixties, students and faculty at Antioch, boys, girls, poets, playwrights, and physicists got together and built an amphitheater on campus with bags of cement, construction blocks, wheelbarrows, and shovels. Maybe you saw the movie Witness and remember the Barn Raising and thought just for a moment there might be something special about being Amish. Or maybe you live in Pine Lake, Georgia. Last Saturday, in an outpouring of communitas, private citizens of Pine Lake built a new playground for its children, with equipment provided by Kaboom, the culmination of a lengthy organizational and fund raising effort. Handy Ann and Andy assembled and shoveled and hauled. Cooks provided good eats. At the end of the day, participants resembled the shift-change at the coal mine. Look at some of these great pictures, and read some of these experiences and observations:

It took the mind a few beats to take it all in: the masses of intensely motivated people hard at their tasks, the piles and stacks of materials, the seemingly unending number of separate projects and respective teams all working apace toward the mutually hoped for outcome. The sign-in table was located, t-shirt and bandana procured and soon the mind became focused and a workng part of one of the production teams, hard at work on assembling apparatus. Memories of Santa nights past (place tab A into tab B, etc) accompanied the translation of assembly instructions. Work. Good work done together with neighbors and friends. The day wore on as did the old muscles. Most of all, at the ending ceremony, there was a palpable sense of the joy in community. Our community. Place. Who we are. It was a beautiful moment which further defined the lives we live together.--Jonny Hibbert

I sit here in awe, just awe, of all that was accomplished today. I am simply amazed. I know that there were months of planning and fundraising and then a very hectic month of finalizing and revising plans, but the effort today just astounded me. This was not a small, core group, this was a huge part of the village out on the beach for an amazing playground-raising. My kids are in your debt. The future kids of Pine Lake are in your debt. What a truly amazing gift you have given us!

I cannot adequately express my gratitude to all the volunteers. Please, stop me and tell me your playground story. What you learned, who you met, what you think.--Gwyneth

In an enterprise culminating in a 200+ volunteer one-day-only Build,
it's impossible to name all the "unsung heroes," if such a
melodramatic phrase is even apt. Regardless, there is one resident
that I'd like to name: Jonny Coe. In my mind, he represents what
happens when adults figure out how to play well with others.
Eighteen people helped Jonny make the new site happen, not including
the grading professionals he hired to match the necessary specs, not
including the day and a half he took of from work to oversee the site....
In the end, Pine Lake has a playground that is scenic and
partly shaded and an uninterrupted stretch of beach. In no way
do I intend to minimize the efforts of Beth, Kris, Allison,
Miranda, and JJ for conceiving and executing this amazing result. I
thank them and I thank all the core volunteers that spent months
making this happen. I know they will continue to be thanked.--Melanie

Photos for Pine Lake Witness provided by Gwyneth.

Photos by Gwyneth

Photos by Jonny Hibbert

Photos by Kevin Liske

Photos by Lawrence Andrade

Video by Rob Butera

Witness by adding your comments.

Dog-Fight III

From: A Concerned Citizen:
I was just out loading up for work and there were four dogs on the front porch. These appear to be the same pack that have killed the 10+ cats in the past 2 months. Will someone remind me again why nothing can be done? It is getting closer & closer to dawn. Will it take a child or elderly to be harmed before action is taken?

From: Paw Paw Bill
I regret to say that I believe it will take a violent and ugly incident to wake up the irresponsible dog owners and their misguided apologists. If you have any thoughts about preventing such a shameful outcome, I welcome knowing them. I will be on your side. At city council meetings or wherever.

From: Another Concerned Citizen
I commend your news writing and enjoy your presence on my screen when the occasion arises that you write here. Thank you for your ongoing outpouring of interesting news.

I feel quite certain that these dogs are NOT Pine Lake citizens. Dogs easily range in and out of Pine Lake. I have noticed strays wandering past my door as well. We live in a county where dogs are not cared for or prized for their ultimate value. We live in a county where even the humans live like poorly kept dogs, in many cases.

Please don't disparage your neighbors in Pine Lake, without knowing that the offending pack is from within our borders. This county, in the span of my lifetime, has gone to the dogs in more ways than one.
Blessings.

From: Paw Paw Bill
Thank you for your comments and for your readership of my blog. If you read some of my older entries, you will see that the subject of dogs is one that always generates strong reaction, almost never in support of my opinions. It is the one subject about which I sincerely hope I am always wrong, but the experiences of a lifetime make me believe that I am not.

Indeed I have not checked the citizenship of any stray dogs in Pine Lake. Nonetheless, I am keenly aware of resistance to any attempt to restrain, leash, or even enforce ownership of otherwise domestic animals. I have personally had occasions when I could not and would not take my grandson to the lake because someone had large and aggressive dogs running loose on the beach. Our community needs to come together and control the dogs, no matter to whom they do or don't belong.

From: Pine Lake City Official:
I was informed by the one of our police officers that there are 4 animal control officers for the entire county and they only work daylight hours. I want to encourage everyone to take the high road and call 911 or animal control when you have an animal problem. We have to attempt all legal and ethical avenues or the system will stop working entirely. The direct number for animal control is 404 294-3090. Please call 911 and give it a chance. If that doesn’t work we’ll try to figure out something else to do.

Pine Lake, Ga., Population 621

Pine Lake sounds like someplace snuggled up against the hills of Habersham or the valleys of Hall. Well, not exactly. Instead, it is in the flatlands of DeKalb, triangulated by Rockbridge Rd., Harriston Rd., and Memorial Dr., surrounded by Stone Mountain mailing addresses. The city has an area of only two-tenths of a square mile, five percent of which is the lake. But it is a real, certified, official city with a mayor, city council, city manager, and police department.

According to the 2000 census, the population of Pine Lake was 621, consisting of 321 households, of which 18 percent included children, 26 percent were married couples, 12 percent had a female householder with no husband present, and 56 percent were non-families. The median age was 38 years. The median income per household was $41,029, and the median income for a family was $35,313. Per capita income was $21,529. . The racial makeup was 74 percent White, 17 percent African American.

The Census, which is required by the United States Constitution, does not know how to tell you this, but Pine Lake is a haven for artists, writers, musicians, school teachers, social workers, single moms, Heather’s two mommies, old hippies and descendants of old hippies. Last weekend, a band played at the gazebo on Saturday afternoon to support the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace. That evening residents brought Asian, African, European, and South American dishes to a pot luck International Dinner at the Beach House. Then on Sunday an artists market and show was held at lakeside.

Many people who live in Pine Lake think it is a pretty special place. There is the lake, of course, and adjacent open space, flocks of Canada Geese, ducks, turtles, and other wildlife. But what is really special about Pine Lake is the people who make it home. And what is the attraction? No secret. Two words. Affordable housing.

Recently Pine Lake established an Architectural Review Board, after declaring a moratorium on new home construction. "Development is coming like a tsunami," said Melanie Hammet, singer/songwriter and elected member of the city council and ex officio member of ARB. “Pine Lake is a lakefront community seven miles from Emory village that needs to GET REAL.” ”If houses are going to get built and development is going to happen,” she says she wants “small, great-quality, environmentally sensible, community-minded, context-sensitive homes.” To that end, the Pine Lake ARB has adopted regulations to control the footprint (the percentage of the lot occupied by the building) of newly constructed houses, limited them to one and a half stories, and prohibited certain building materials, such as vinyl siding.

Before the ARB, some houses were built that dwarfed existing homes in Pine Lake and sold for seven, eight, or ten times the annual incomes of those Pine Lake residents reported by the 2000 Census. Some developers, builders, and their friends have even stated with a straight face that they contribute to diversity by building houses for more upper income families, an under-represented demographic in Pine Lake. You just never know when Pine Lake will get slapped with a law suit because it does not have enough families who can afford to provide their children private educations far away from the DeKalb County Public Schools.

(Originally posted 9-21-07)

Copyright 2007 by William C. Cotter