RAINER'S RAMBLINGS
By RAINER ARNOLD Union Sentinel Publisher

The recent notoriety in Towns County and Hiawassee, our next door neighbor, has created a lot of attention for all of us in north Georgia. Actually, my ex-father-in-law told me many years ago that one can find a silver lining to all bad things.

Well, I remembered that and started to think about the good things that this bad press can bring not only for Towns County but for Union County as well. And, believe it, I came up with some things and I will share them with you.

First, I think all those people that hear about these incidents in Towns County will be curious as to what this place looks like. So, tourism will increase. The overflow or by-product will be that the tourists also come to Union County and see how beautiful our area really is and then come back.

Another by product will be that people here will see that no one really can get away with things no matter who you are and maybe they will try to do better and not break the law.

On a personal note, I also am aware that people in small towns love a little gossip. These recent Towns County issues has been great for those people who love to gossip. I mean the rumors I have heard about what all else is going on and what all else will happen are really phenomenal. I mean people could write a book about all the rumors that have been circulating in Union and Towns counties.

And now that we know that there are people in public office and in private business that break the law, maybe the new people coming into those offices or start up a business will think twice before they do something wrong.

Also, it might spill over into other areas of business or government employees and this whole area will go back to where it was 30-40 years ago and as one person noted, "This ino longer is like Andy Griffin's Mayberry." Just think as a result of all this, maybe we can go back to being like Mayberry.