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DECEMBER 20, 2019
AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
AUGUSTARX.COM
#105 IN A SERIES
Who is this?
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hat is your vision for 2020? Let’s hope it’s 20/20, but what about your vision for the coming year in non-vision-related matters? Some people call them New Year’s resolutions, but all too often they’ve gone down in flames by mid-January (if not the 2nd or 3rd of the month). Maybe it’s better to simply call them goals for the coming year. True, that might give the weak among us all the room we need to procrastinate — “I know it’s late November 2020, but my goal was for the year, and there are still four weeks left in the year. So calm down!” — but the flip side of the coin is that a long-term goal takes into account the realities of life: there will be delays. There will be setbacks. One step forward, two — correction — one pound lost, two pounds gained. Unfortunately, setbacks are often the reason well-intentioned resolutions come off the rails. We all need to expect setbacks and remember that in the long run, they are completely unimportant as long as we stay on track. For example, let’s say someone’s goal is to lose 20 pounds by this time next year. If they reach their goal, who cares if there was that one week in May when the scale went back up by three pounds? Answer: nobody. It’s 100% irrelevant. Like a come-from-behind win, overcoming the obstacles and hiccups makes the victory that much sweeter. Want some ideas for salubrious 2020 goals? Flip this paper over and see the back page. +
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by guest columnist Wayne Thigpen
he humble mosquito is a summer nuisance driving us out of our gardens and off our porches. Pesky, we say of them. As many of you know, that’s far from all, however. Through two members of its roughly 3,500 species — Anopheles and Aedes, respectively — the mosquito is a carrier of malaria and yellow fever organisms, making it the biggest killer of humans in history, more so than all wars or any other mechanism. (We’ll have to wait and see if global warming surpasses the mosquito’s deadly record.) Our profiled physician, U.S. Army Col. William C. Gorgas, earned a magnificent reputation battling mosquitoes and their dread diseases. He saved thousands of lives in Cuba and Panama, beginning in about 1901, and untold millions since. Plus, he had a street named in his honor at the U.S. Army’s Augusta Arsenal, now Augusta University. Perhaps some of you have seen the sign off Arsenal Avenue. Born Please see WHO IS THIS? page 4