Abide by our Facebook rules or get banned...it’s that simple

vehemently disagrees with my COLUMN from last Saturday’s Calhoun Times, and that’s perfectly okay. What a lot of people don’t understand is what a COLUMN is versus what a STORY is.

My COLUMN ( and any column: Jerry Smith, Ken Herron, Dick Yarbrough, Uncle Billy, etc.) is an opinion piece; it’s my opinion on any topic I choose it to be. Last week’s COLUMN happened to be centered around the antics of the Calhoun City Council. And my skin is thick; I can take the criticism surrounding my column. Luckily, for every one person who was upset by it, there were at least a dozen people who were thanking me for it.

Honestly, I admire Hunter for sticking up for his dad the way he did. Since Hunter might not know, I am a widow with three children, and I’d give anything if my children’s dad was still here to say or do something that is scrutinized by the public so my children would have the opportunity to go on social media and defend him. And I have a close relationship with my own father and would defend him to the end, also, which would be expected of any child and their parent, even if their parent is doing, at best, sketchy things.

But where Hunter crossed the line is when he put in his tirade, “I want to thank the “editorin-chief” for writing this as an opinion piece, for that is exactly what coverage of the City council has been in recent months; simple opinion.”

Well, Hunter, that statement is simply not factual; it was a libelous comment, or in layman’s terms, an untrue, written statement.

I have gone to great lengths to prove the accuracy of the City Council meetings stories I have written. STORIES are non-opinion pieces; I actually go to the event or meeting and cover everything that is said by recording it. As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, I then go home or back to the office and listen to the recordings and type out everything that was said. There’s nothing to make up, there’s no opinion. Because members of the City Council were getting upset at my STORIES of their meetings, they began circulating that my STORIES were not factual; so I took one other staff member to the next meeting. The following meeting, I took two staff members. The meeting after that, there were five members of a six member staff there. The reason? We all heard the same thing. I recorded the meetings. I wrote the STORIES, then I let my staff read the STORIES. And they all agree- I’ve documented everything exactly as it has happened in the meetings. Many of the more recent meetings had dozens of local residents there to witness what was said and none of them have called and complained to tell me that something I reported about the meeting they were at was inaccurate. Why is that? Because they witnessed the same thing I did.

Hunter has never been to any of the recent City Council meetings to my knowledge; he doesn’t even live in the state of Georgia from what I understand. He’s never requested any of my recordings to listen to. He can express his disappointment in my COLUMN, and defend his dad, but he can never say my STORIES are untrue or based on opinion, because they are not.

There was another person I banned from Facebook for the very same reason last week, a former Calhoun resident by the name of Tim Poarch. Mr. Poarch said something along the lines that he knows the City Council and that I wasn’t reporting it accurately. Well, Mr. Poarch is an out of state resident, also. He’s a former Calhoun Police Department employee that we covered in our paper in November 2010; you can Google the to find out all of the details.

And they are not the only people I’ve ever banned; I’ve banned dozens of people in my time here.

These two gentlemen, upset that they were banned from our page, visited one of those “My City is the Greatest” Facebook gossip pages that I am NOT a part of and trashed me; and that’s okay. What they don’t understand is, they can do that and tag me and tag the Calhoun Times and tag the Rome News Tribune and post my photo all day long. I went to bed that night, and every night since, just as I always do: on a fluffy pillow in a nice warm bed and enjoyed a nice long sleep.

So, as “Editor- inChief,” I invite anyone to visit our Facebook page and criticize and comment all they want, but follow the rules, or you will be banned. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go fix those typos on Facebook.

Brandi Moorehead Owczarz is the managing editor of the Calhoun Times and has extremely thick skin; none of this has bothered her in any way, but it has bothered some of her staff. You can email her at bowczarz@ calhountimes. com or find her on Facebook at f acebook. com/ brandi. owczarz.

I’m ashamed to say it, but I was a drug addict for 10 years. My drug was the deadliest drug known to man. It is responsible for the death of millions of people throughout the world. Many of my friends were using this drug. I started out innocently enough. I started using it occasionally when I was with friends. At first, there was no problem, I could take it or leave it. Pretty soon, my body started demanding more and more of the drug and I realized I was hooked. I was a drug addict and couldn’t stop.

Years later, I would give talks to young people about this horrible drug. I would ask them if anyone could guess what my drug was. The kids would guess every drug imaginable: cocaine, heroin, crystal meth and most of the other drugs that are addictive. No one ever guessed the correct drug. I would ask, “Would you like to see my drug? I have a sample here.” There was always a resounding “YES.” I would then pull out my cigarette and light it.

Cigarettes contain nicotine, the deadliest drug on earth. Anyone who smokes, chews or dips tobacco IS A DRUG ADDICT.

When I began smoking, a pack of cigarettes would last a week or more. Within a year’s time, I was up to a pack a day. Two years later, I was up to a pack and a half a day. Then two packs a day. My last two years of smoking, I was up to three packs a day. I had a cigarette cough, my teeth and my fingers had brown stains from the cigarette smoke. My drug addiction was so bad that I smoked in class; I couldn’t go more than 30 minutes without a cigarette. The last thing I did each night was sit in bed and have a last cigarette. The first thing I did each day was to sit up in bed and have my first cigarette of the day. In 1963, the Surgeon General came out with the warning that nicotine causes cancer and other diseases. This was the major reason I quit smoking; I didn’t want to die of cancer. Another reason I quit was when the tobacco companies raised the price of a pack of cigarettes to $.35. I said, “I will not pay $.35 for a pack of cigarettes.”

I couldn’t smoke in today’s world. Society has made smokers second-class citizens. You can’t smoke inside most buildings. You can’t smoke in restaurants. You can’t smoke in most bars. You can’t smoke in most public places.

In the winter, I see you standing out in the freezing cold, sucking on your “ciggie.” In the heat of summer, I see you standing out sucking on your “ciggie.” Why don’t you just stop? I know all of your excuses, I used every one of them myself. How can a smoking parent warn their children about drug use when they are DRUG ADDICTS THEMSELVES?

This reminds me of a song by Phil Harris in the 1940’s. It’s called “Smoke that Cigarette.” You can Google it. The chorus has these words:

“Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette, Puff, puff, puff, And if you smoke yourself to death,

Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate that you hate to make him wait,

But you just gotta have another cigarette.”