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MARCH 20 - MARCH 26, 2019
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Immigrant, former KKK member share story of unusual friendship
PHOTO BY SARAH CAMPBELL
Gail Lustig of the Newnan Coweta Humane Society plays with Sue, who has been at Coweta Animal Services for several months and will likely be visiting the governor’s mansion.
Humane Society to take shelter pets to events PHOTO BY REBECCA LEFTWICH
Chris Buckley, left, and Heval Mohamed Kelli share the story of their unusual friendship at the Wadsworth Auditorium.
BY REBECCA LEFTWICH becky@newnan.com
Nothing has the power to unite people like banana pudding. Pe o pl e a s d i f fe r e n t a s C h r i s Buckley and Heval Mohamed Kelli just have to be willing to sit down and share a meal first. “By no means do we have all the a n swers to d iv i siveness i n t h i s country, but we should not be sitting here in the 21st century talking about how hate is growing in our country,” Kelli told the audience t h at g at here d to he a r t he Sy ria n ref ugee-turned-ca rdiologist at the Wadsworth Auditorium Sunday. Kelli’s unlikely friendship with C h r i s B uc k le y – a for m er U. S . s old ier, d r u g add ic t a nd wh ite s uprem ac i st – hold s a me s s a ge New na n P resby teria n Chu rch wanted others to hear. The church worked to bring Kelli and Buckley to Newnan, which was the site of a National Socialist Movement rally and a massive counter-protest last April. Kelli is Muslim, Buckley Christian. Kelli’s high-prof ile Kurdish fa mily f led persecution in Syria for the safety of a German refugee
camp, eventually finding their way to Atlanta. Buckley f led his abusive family for the United States A rmy a fter 9/ 1 1 , ca rr ying a duffel bag full of pain and fear that morphed into hatred after he saw a close friend killed by an ISIS bullet in Afghanistan. With an initial boost from kindhearted Southerners, Kelli learned E ng l i sh a nd bega n work i ng h i s way up from dishwasher to doctor. Buck ley, on t he ot her ha nd, bega n to spira l dow nwa rd when he beca me addicted to pa i n k i llers wh i le recover i ng from i njuries sustained in a wreck that also ended his military career. Cut off from a legal supply of Percocet, he turned to meth and found brotherhood in the Ku Klux Klan. “I had two main goals: focusing on my addiction and doing something to make me feel like I was part of something,” said Buckley, who by t hen was a husba nd a nd father. After serving jail time on a drug cha rge a nd wit h his ow n fa m ily i n sh a mbles , Buck ley bega n h is own steep uphill climb with the
FRIENDSHIP • 3
BY SARAH FAY CAMPBELL sarah@newnan.com
Pets from Coweta County Animal Services will likely be traveling to the Georgia Governor’s Mansion for an adoption event at the end of March. Under an agreement approved this week by the Coweta County Board of Commissioners, animals from the shelter will be able to go to outside adoption events with volunteers from the Newnan Coweta Humane Society. The agreement allows humane society volunteers to transport shelter pets to outside adoption events, and then return them to the shelter. “The governor’s wife has i nvited some rescues to come to an adoption event at the mansion,” said Gail Lustig of Newnan Coweta Humane Society. She hopes it will be the first of many special events that shelter animals are taken to. Lustig said it’s something that the NCHS has been working toward for a few years.
The biggest issue that needed to be worked out was liability. Assista nt Cou nt y Attorney Nathan Lee put together a liability release for the agreement, said Associate County Administrator Eddie Whitlock. The county won’t have any liability for the animals when they are in the custody of the humane society, Whitlock said. The animals that are chosen to be taken to the off-site events will be carefully selected for temperament, Whitlock said. “We’re going to handpick the dogs,” said Lustig. T he ag reement w i l l give more opportunities for members of the public to “adopt some of the wonderful animals we have here,” Whitlock said. Some animals, dogs in particular, don’t do particularly well in the shelter environment, said Lt. Tom Bush, shelter supervisor. But when they’re out of t hei r ken nel s , potential adopters can see the pets be themselves. One of Lustig’s favorites at the shelter is Sue, a female Staffordshire
ter r ier who h a s been there since mid-December. “Nobody wants her,” Lustig said. In the kennel, she barks a lot, according to shelter workers. But in the play yard, she’s sweet and playful. In the play yard, “they get to be the dogs they're meant to be,” said Bush. The agreement with the county is a big step fo r N C H S , s a i d K i m McCurry. T he det a i l s of how adoptions will take place – whether NCHS will be able to adopt out the pets directly or adopters will have to return to the shelter to complete adoptions – still have to be worked out. Lustig said she is grateful to Whitlock for working with them to make the proposal a reality. “He’s been our biggest supporter with the animals,” she said. “And special thanks to Warden Bill McKenzie for his continuing support of NCHS and the shelter pets of Coweta County,” Lustig said.
Newnan fourth-grader on new season of MasterChef Junior BY REBECCA LEFTWICH becky@newnan.com
Sat u rd ay mor n i n g at t he Briggs house is nearly as busy as a weekday. Cade, 17, is away competing at a high school fishing tournament while his twin sister, Taylor – a student athletic trainer and lacrosse player – is recovering from a Friday night game and getting ready to help dad Tim and mom Ginger work on renovating their home’s front porch. It’s a project that has to be finished soon, because the family is planning a party after the twins graduate from Northgate High School in May. And then there’s Reid, age 9. He leads a whirlwind tour of his parents’ shop building, stopping long enough to pick up a favorite fishing rod, clamber up the side of a boat and cast a couple of times, imagining a prizewinning catch lurking on the cement floor. “Lemme just catch this fish
first!” he protests as his parents repeatedly remind him to finish the tour. Tim and Ginger run their family business out of the shop, which also houses Reid’s dirt bike. He grabs his helmet, wheels out his machine, cranks up and heads down the long gravel driveway until he’s almost out of earshot. At his dad’s beckoning, Reid doubles back and ends his brief ride with a respectable wheelie. Then he’s off again, to show off his fort and his rope swing. He pets his 13-year-old cat, Laci, and his dogs, Kodi and Kaci, and eventually ends up back inside. There, Reid finally settles down enough to wash up and begin prep work for his family’s evening meal. While helping prepare meals may seem like a departure for a fishing, hunting, football-loving, motorcycle-riding fourth-grader, it’s familiar work for Reid, who is particularly skilled at baking
and grilling. That’s because he is accustomed to performing similar tasks in front of Chef Gordon Ramsay as a contestant on Season 7 of MasterChef Junior. “Reid has been cooking for as long as he can remember,” Ginger said. “We have video and pictures of him helping us cook as early as age 2 or 3. Our family believes in eating meals together as much as possible, so Reid would want to help prepare them.” Last year, the then-8-year-old came home from Brooks Elementary School with an open call invitation from the show. “He told us he wanted to try it out,” Ginger said. “Because he loves to cook and loves watching cooking shows and YouTube videos about cooking, we gave it a try and the rest is history.” Reid was among just 24 contestants, seven of them from
MASTERCHEF JUNIOR • 2
PHOTO BY REBECCA LEFTWICH
Reid Briggs, 9, preps ingredients for his family’s dinner. Briggs is a contestant on Season 7 of MasterChefJunior.