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FEBRUARY 2021
Legally Brief With Kevin Patrick Automobile accidents | Daycare injuries | wrongful death
Snack Bags for the Georgia Center for Child advocacy HOW WE ARE WARMING HEARTS THIS VALENTINE'S DAY
Every few months, I get a phone call that sends me on a snack mission. My 5-year- old son Michael knows that this is the signal to hop in the car, and once he’s buckled in, we make our way to the local Costco. There, Michael takes me aisle by aisle and points out all the snacks that are popular with kids. By the time we get to the checkout, our cart is loaded with juice boxes, chocolate bars, and bags of gummy bears, chips, and Pirate’s Booty. These missions aren’t about good health, and they aren’t about our family, either. Those calls I get come from the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy (GCCA), a local organization that helps kids going through incredibly hard times. My office is their go-to source for snack bags. When the call comes in, our whole team comes together to pack as many bags as the group needs to stay stocked.
Then, we work with Sharon, Cathy, and Celina to pack the bags assembly-line style. When we’re finished, we have a huge stash of ready-to-eat snacks for the GCCA to pick up. Packing these snack bags is just a small thing, but it warms my heart to think that they’ll provide some comfort to kids who really need it. If I’m having a bad day, sometimes eating my favorite “junk food” is enough to lift my mood. I hope the same is true for them! One of the reasons I love working with the GCCA is that they’re always looking for those small opportunities to make life better for the children they help. For example, when kids visit the center, they can choose a teddy bear or other stuffed animal to take home with them. And when my team visits, the staff members are always happy to take us on a tour. That compassion and kindness is inspiring, and it makes me feel good about supporting their mission. Going forward, my team is going to continue making snack bags for GCCA whenever I get a phone call, but we’re also planning to take other opportunities to give back. Every quarter this year, our team will get together and choose a new nonprofit to support. I chose GCCA this time around, but over the next nine months, Sharon, Cathy, and Celina will each get a turn. I’m already looking forward to finding out which charities they’ll pick!
This Valentine’s Day, I have a challenge for you: Don’t just share the love with your partner or even your own family. If you have the means, look for ways you can give back and bring joy to someone else in the community, too. Sincerely Yours,
"ONE OF THE REASONS I LOVE WORKING WITH THE GCCA IS THAT THEY'RE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THOSE SMALL OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR THE CHILDREN THEY HELP.
After Michael and I check out with our full cart, we drive to the office, carry our bounty inside, and lay it all out on a table.
This publication is for informational purposes only, and no legal advice is intended.
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It’s in the Cards
WHY VALENTINE’S DAY IS THE ULTIMATE CARD HOLIDAY
This may be the first year in a long time that kids don’t pass out Valentine’s Day cards at school. Going into the new year, the seasonal section of most stores is lined with cards featuring fun characters from superheroes to unicorns. Handing out cards is now a well-loved tradition, but have you ever wondered how Valentine’s Day became one of the biggest card- giving holidays of the year? Like many holiday traditions, the convention of handing out Valentine’s Day cards goes back centuries. During the 1700s, it became fashionable to trade Valentine’s Day cards with a short poem or verse. The popularity of swapping cards only increased throughout the 1800s. Sometimes, people would go as far as to paint or draw spring-like images on the cards. They were much more elaborate than what we typically see today, though they were still usually very small.
But where did those folks get the idea? People of that era were likely inspired by stories that go back even further. There are legends that the originator of this holiday tradition was Saint Valentine himself. One story says that on the night before he was set to be executed, Valentine wrote a small letter to a jailer’s daughter. He ended the note with “Your alentine.” It’s unknown whether that story is true, but to 18th century Europeans and Americans, it was inspiring! So inspiring, in fact, that the entire Valentine’s Day industry began to gain traction. A guidebook called “The Young Man’s Valentine” was published in 1797 to help suitors garner the attention of their love interests through the written word. Eventually, books aimed at women were also published, including “The Lady’s Own Valentine Writer,” which served much the same goal.
These publications, along with young people writing notes to one another every February, have made Valentine’s Day cards an ingrained tradition, and now people can’t get enough of them!
The Man With No Middle Name
When he was a boy, Kevin Patrick visited the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum in Independence, Missouri. He walked through the quiet rooms, browsing the president’s personal papers, examining his family genealogy, and staring wide-eyed at his office and gravesite. Among other treasures, the museum had collected a charred piece of wood from the original White House, which the British burned in 1812. According to the note on the exhibit, Truman had displayed his prize in the Oval Office. Awed by this and other pieces of the past, future history major Kevin decided that Truman was his favorite president. “I realized I admired him as a president and as a person,” Kevin recalls, “He just has this overall humility; he was down to earth and just a good, decent man.” Though President Truman is best remembered for his role in the dramatic ending of WWII, his story had humble beginnings. He grew up as a Midwestern farm boy without a college degree or even a middle name. (The famous “S.” doesn’t stand for anything — it’s a symbolic reference to his two grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.) Then, Truman tried
to make hats for a living and failed. Still, through a combination of hard work and grit, he eventually entered politics and became president of the United States. “I’ve always been impressed by how Truman
stepped into President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s shoes and faced the challenges of World War II head on,” Kevin says. “After the war, he took the huge step of signing the Marshall Plan, which sent $400 million in emergency aid to Western Europe. That did wonders for the region’s economic recovery and got people back on their feet.” At home, Truman also signed a landmark executive order in 1948 that ended discrimination in the U.S. military "on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin.” It was a big step forward for equality in this country and one of the things that impressed Kevin most. This Presidents Day, consider picking up a copy of “The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World” by A.J. Baime to learn more about Kevin’s favorite president. There’s more to him than you might think!
You can always reach Kevin directly at 404.566.8964 or Kevin@PatrickTrialLaw.com. (If you ever need it, his cell phone is 404.409.3160.)
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Will You Time Travel With Us? Welcome to Feb. 12, 1733: The Day Georgia Was Founded
The year is 1733, and Georgia is already late to the party. At that point in history, settlers from overseas had landed up and down the East Coast and established 12 of the 13 American colonies. Georgia was the final piece of the pre-Revolutionary War puzzle, but in January, it was just a twinkle in British soldier James Oglethorpe’s eye. Oglethorpe had a pretty progressive vision for the colony. Back in England, he was an activist who crusaded for prison reform, and he wanted to start a colony in part to give his home country’s “worthy poor” a chance at a life free of hardship. He envisioned Georgia as a colony of farmers, merchants, and artists without class distinctions keeping them apart. Its motto was Non sibi sed aliis — Latin for “Not for self, but for others.” After years of planning, Georgia’s puzzle piece finally fell into place on Feb. 12, 1733. That was the day Oglethorpe and a group of 114 colonists set foot on the shore of the Savannah River after a two- month journey from England by ship. Legend has it they climbed up a nearby 40-foot bluff, surveyed the land below, and decided to plant their flag. The colony of Georgia was officially founded! It took almost 66 more years for Georgia to become a state. In that time, our little “colony that could” survived the Revolutionary War (including the famous Siege of Savannah in 1779) and multiple Spanish colonial invasions. What a wild ride!
Today, Georgia is a beautiful state we’re proud to call home. While it’s fun to time travel back in history to those early days — especially a date as historic as the founding, which happened this very month — we wouldn’t trade modern Georgia for the world.
To read more about our state’s history, visit GeorgiaEncyclopedia.org.
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Butter and Herb Baked Oysters
Ingredients • Rock salt or uncooked rice (to coat your baking sheet) • 1 dozen fresh oysters, scrubbed and shucked • 1 stick butter, softened and divided into 8 tbsp • 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs Directions 1. Preheat oven to 425 F. 2. On a rimmed baking sheet, spread out a layer of rock salt or uncooked rice. 3. Arrange oysters on the baking sheet, meat side up. 4. In a skillet over medium heat, melt half of the butter. Add breadcrumbs and sauté until brown.
• 2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped • 1 tbsp lemon juice • 1 tsp lemon zest • Lemon wedges and chopped parsley for garnish
5. In a small bowl, combine remaining butter, chives, lemon juice, and zest. 6. Top each oyster with a teaspoon of chive mixture and a sprinkle of sautéed breadcrumbs. 7. Bake for 8–10 minutes and serve garnished with lemon wedges and chopped parsley. Inspired by TheSpruceEats.com
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The Benefits of Spending Time in the Mountains Inside This Issue 1 KPL Shares Love Snack by Snack 2 What’s the Deal With Valentine’s Day Cards? President Truman: The Man With No Middle Name 3 A Time Travel Trip to Colonial Georgia Butter and Herb Baked Oysters 4 Can Mountain Air Actually Improve Your Health?
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In the famous Swiss novel "Heidi,” a little girl recovers from her fragile health — both physically and mentally — by spending time in the mountains. There are plenty of anecdotal stories about the medicinal effects of mountain air, but how much is supported by research? Here's what there is evidence for so far: CLEANER, POLLUTION-FREE AIR One basic but important benefit of getting to a higher altitude is the escape from city pollution. It may surprise some city dwellers that air pollution is linked to asthma attacks for those with sensitive lungs and also to more serious conditions. Research suggests that prolonged exposure to air pollution may lead to chronic illnesses such as cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and other lung diseases.
Even more interesting, mountain air may passively improve your weight loss journey as well.
NATURAL WEIGHT LOSS One German study followed 20 obese men who lived in an
environmental research station below the highest peak in the country. The subjects reached the peak effortlessly by railway or cable car, and they were allowed to eat as much as they liked. By the end of the week, however, each had lost an average of 1.5 kilograms or 3.3 pounds. Two factors are thought to have contributed to the weight loss: A naturally decreased appetite from the altitude (the men ate nearly 700 fewer calories than usual) and an increased metabolic rate. While there is still more to learn about the potential benefits of spending time in the mountains, these three studies give the greenlight for more high-altitude adventures.
Up in the mountains, you’ll likely be able to breathe a little easier.
REDUCED RISK OF OBESITY AND HEART DISEASE People who spend more time at high altitudes may also experience a decreased appetite and lower risk of obesity. One study from 2017 even found that living at a higher elevation is associated with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that include high blood pressure, excess body fat, and abnormal cholesterol.
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