By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
This particular meeting with Mayor Ronnie turned out to be a stark study in contrast with respect to the Athens of the mid-19th century and the Athens of today. Lining the shelves just outside of Mayor Ronnie’s office are those old, large, leather-bound, ledger-style volumes that were used to record the minutes of meetings of all kinds. The spines of some of them are cracked, and they must be and are handled with care. He brought one of them to show me, and we both remarked at how amazing people’s handwriting was back then. The term “scribe” is appropriate when it comes to these works of handwriting art.
Mayor Ronnie had attended a Child Care Conference entitled “The Measure of Tomorrow” sponsored by Athens State University on Friday, September 13. Kids have always been a part of his heart and career, having spent several years with DHR, along with having been a teacher before he went to Vietnam. “It was a wonderful group of people,” he told me. The subtitle of the conference was “I See You,” and the focus was early childhood education. New Athens State University President, Dr. Catherine Wehlberg, addressed the group and said, “At Athens State, we are committed to fostering an environment of learning and innovation and we hope that this gathering will provide valuable insights, spark meaningful discussions, and inspire actionable solutions that will benefit the children, families, and communities of Alabama.” According to the mayor, that is exactly what happened.
On Tuesday, we had a chance to experience the fact that what used to be considered science fiction is not only here now, it is one of the degrees that has become recently available at Athens State: cyber security. The Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon cutting at the Athens State University campus that was attended by Athens City Schools Superintendent, Beth Patton, and Dr. Wehlberg was on hand along with Adam Lewis, who is in charge of the new lab. He and his staff will teach students how to prevent cyber-crooks from infiltrating our privacy, stealing our money, identities, and the innocence of our kids. For their demonstration, they created a “cat-napping” (pun intended) of a cat by the name of Gato, which is Spanish for “cat.” Gato’s whereabouts and plight even ended up involving police in London, and Mayor Ronnie found the lab chairs used to fight online crime to be especially comfortable. “It takes a special kind of person to do this kind of work, just like the dispatchers who work with first responders,” he said. Earlier this summer, when he was at the League of Municipalities Conference that also dealt with cyber-crime, and he said, “This stuff is real, and it is scary.” We were both glad that a whole new generation is going to have the opportunity to get training that will keep people cyber-safe.
Later on Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Ronnie joined several others in McCandless Hall for the annual celebration of Constitution Day, which was sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mayor Ronnie gave some remarks and the keynote speech was delivered by Col. (R) and former Alabama State Senator Phil Williams. It had been a full week, and we were only two days into it, and as always, we prayed, and then it was time for Ronnie to roll.
By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
September 20, 2024
