Newspaper Page Text
4A
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2006
Houston BaHjjJmmral
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans
Managing Editor Editor Emeritus
Interesting campaign ahead
When does political campaigning
cross the line from “telling it like
it is” and “dirty politics”? •
It is a question that voters have to
answer during almost every political
campaign.
Candidates may enter a campaign as
gentlemen, but by the time things heat
up the rhetoric does, too.
We do not find anything objectionable
when candidates stick to the facts and
point out an opponent’s record, which
sometimes may be less than admirable.
We are turned off when candidates
stretch the truth and sometimes outright
lie about their •
opponents.
Voters need
a spirited
campaign
from candi
dates to learn
about them.
Naturally,
candidates
tell us all the
good things
about them
selves, some
times stretch
ing the truth
a little.
To balance
things off,
voters like to
learn things
about can
didates that
would affect
how they
vote and this
information
is available only from opponents.
Telling a lie about an opponent turns
us off and actually serves as a smear on
the candidate who does it.
We are entering the political season this
year. The primaries are over and candi
dates for both political parties know who
they will face in the general election in
November.
The big race in Georgia this year is for
governor. Sonny Perdue and Mark Taylor
already have begun sniping at each other
in speeches and television advertising. It
will be up to voters to sift through what
they see and hear on the tube and the
real facts. A little fudging, when talk
ing about an opponent’s record, can be
expected, but we hope that it goes no
further than that down the stretch.
The Republicans’ candidate - Gov.
Sonny Perdue —naturally will run on his
record in office. The Democrats’ candi
date - Lt. Gov, Mark Taylor - also has
a record of public service which will be
scrutinized by Perdue’s team.
Already they are accusing each other of
ethics violations, which provides some
thing for reporters to write about in this
early stage of the campaign. However,
all will be forgotten long before votes are
cast.
Significant distinctions between the
two candidates for governor will emerge
as the campaign progresses and vot
ers will have information to make an
informed decision, hopefully.
Actually, all the television advertis
ing is aimed at influencing only a small
number of voters - the independents.
Hard core Republicans and Democrats
already know how they will vote.
Most of the speeches that candidates
make all over the state will be to mem
bers of their own party and will be aimed
at shoring up the base.
Less than three months remain before
the election.
This is certain to be an interesting
year.
The big race in Georgia
this year is for
governor. Sonny Perdue
and Mark Taylor
already have begun
sniping at each other in
speeches and television
advertising. It will be up
to voters to sift through
what they see and hear
on the tube and the
real facts. A little fudg
ing, when talking about
an opponent's record,
can be expected, but
we hope that it goes no
further than that down
the stretch.
Like it or not ...
Immigrants labor on in county
Georgia has been identified as
having the fastest growing pop
ulation of illegal immigrants in
the country.
We are even told how many there
are. How in the world can government
officials or anyone - say how many
illegals there are since they operate
underground?
How many of the Hispanics doing
all the framing, brick work, concrete
finishing, yard work and many other
jobs have green cards?
How many don’t? It’s anyone’s guess,
but whether they are here legally or
illegally, if they leave, construction,
among other labor sensitive jobs, will
come to a halt in Houston County and
elsewhere.
■ ■■
Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young
made the news last week and had to
give up his cushy job with Wal-Mart,
when he said it was good that the
retailing giant has caused mom-and
pop stores to close with this statement:
“Those are the people who have been
overcharging us, selling us stale bread
and bad meat and wilted vegetables
... I think they’ve ripped off our com
munities long enough. First it was the
Jews, then it was the Koreans and now
it’s the Arabs.
Very few black people own these
stores.”
He tripped over the same kind of
prejudice and bigotry that he has been
accusing whites of for years. Of course,
he apologized when the heat was on
him, but, as I have said before, true
feelings come out in initial comments,
not contrived apologies.
J w Perdue
L * NO
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'All the marbles’ of high school football
The date was November 2, 2001.
We were in Pelham, Georgia,
for a high school football game
on a crisp, autumn evening - Clinch
County vs. Pelham with the region
championship on the line.
I remember that night like I remem
ber my 6wn smell - probably because,
for the most part, they both stink.
It was the oddest football game I’ve
ever witnessed, and I’ve seen a lot of
them.
For the past 12 years, I have been
honored to be a part of the radio crew
that brings Clinch County High foot
ball to the masses via the medium of
radio on WBTY, FM 98.7.
On that night, Clinch and Pelham
were basically playing for the region
title. They each had one more region
game on the schedule, but a win by
either pretty much assured them the
crown and a top seed heading into the
playoffs.
In the game, Clinch had 14 first
downs to Pelham’s 8; 312 offensive
yards to Pelham’s 234; scored on the
opening kickoff; led 14-0 after 16 min
utes of play; had two players rush for
over 100 yards - and lost 28-14. The
key statistic was probably that Clinch
had 137 yards in penalties to Pelham’s
60. Ouch.
When you have two players run for
over 100 yards in one game, 999 times
OPINION
Recently I mentioned that FEMA has
been paying SI,BOO a month rent in an
upscale neighborhood for a woman
since she came here after the Katrina
hurricane last year. Since I mentioned
it FEMA has shut this boondoggle
down.
■ ■■
Speaking of FEMA, couldn’t this
organization do a great job of screwing
things up if put in charge of helping
Lebanon’s displaced families get on
their feet? Imagine the red tape and
screw ups and misplaced money FEMA
could create.
On the other hand, the Hezbollah
terrorists jumped into the breach with
in one day and began giving cash to
people to rebuild their homes ... not
good news for our side.
■ ■■
Germany has refused to support the
United States in the “fight against ter
rorism” with the belief that “we are
living on an island” safe from a ter
rorist attack. Last week a home-grown
Lebanese man was arrested for mak
ing plans to blow up two commuter
out of 1,000 in high school football,
you win.
But that wasn’t the case on November
2, 2001, and the long trip back to
Homerville with my friends on the
radio crew was filled with “coulda,
shouldas, and wouldas.”
Still sore about the game' when I got
home late that night, I went inside and
grabbed a tape. For road games, my
wife sometimes records our broadcasts
so I can listen to them later and cri
tique our broadcast.
With everybody asleep in our house,
I rewound the tape, kicked back on the
couch, and started listening to our pre
game tailgate show.
During the tailgate show, we inter
view our coach, usually when he’s on
the field while the team is warming
up. But, sometimes, when we’re on
the road, the home team has a dif
ferent schedule and our sideline guy,
Eric Harris, just has to grab the coach
whenever he’s available.
Foy
Evans *
Columnist mBL
loyevansl9@cox.net
Len f
Robbins * ~ |
Columnist v ~ n
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airpub@planttel.net L .1.1 ' 11
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
trains.
Germany thought that, by stand
ing by and doing nothing, Hezbollah
would not order an attack on the
country. “We did not fight in Iraq.
And until now we assumed that if we
behaved well in the world, nothing
would happen to us,” an official said.
Do you see what I see? Leaders in
Germany were “behaving well” for
fear of being attacked by terrorists
and have learned an important lesson:
Appeasement gets you nowhere.
■ ■■
Billionaire oilman T. Bone Pickens
recently gave his alma mater -
Oklahoma State University - $165
million to rejuvenate its foundering
football program. Critics have come
out of the wood work.
They say he should have used his
money in a more humane way, such
as fighting poverty in Africa or some
where in the world. It was his money.
He earned it. How he disposes of it is
nobody else’s business, but there are
plenty of busybodies willing to sound
off
■ ■■
I never gave it much thought until
, a mother called it to my attention.
“How,” she asked, “do the school bus
drivers keep their schedules? Almost
without exception, they pull up at
pickup points almost to the minute
they are supposed to.”
It is quite an accomplishment that
thousands of parents take for granted.
I am familiar with one bus route. The
driver is right on time day after day.
And he always has a smile and a wave.
At this time, our coach was Cecil
Barber, now retired from coaching.
Coach Barber is legendary for his fire
’em-up pre-game speeches, and Eric
caught him as he had just delivered a
rousing oration to the team and was
leaving the locker room.
This is the transcript from that pre
game interview:
Eric: “Well, coach, ya’ll got another
big game tonight.”
Coach Barber: (slightly out of breath)
“Yep, this one is for all the marbles..*.
Well, really, it’s not for all the marbles
because we’ve still got another game
next week.
’But this game is one big marble, and
next week we have another big marble,
and those two marbles together are one
really big marble... and so, if we win
both marbles, then that’s for all the
marbles’ 1 ... or something like that.”
I fell off the couch, aching in laugh
ter. I rewound and listened to it about
five more times before going to sleep
that night with a big smile on my face.
In high school football, you don’t
know what’s going to happen on any
given Friday night - on the field or on
the radio broadcast.
Do yourself a favor this fall. Take
your family to a high school football
game. Whether the game is “for all the
marbles” or not, it’s a guaranteed good
time.