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4A ♦ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2006 Mmxsian djounral OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Don Moncrief Managing Editor Does Air Force need this space? The Air Force announced last week it has entered its profile on MySpace. com. While this may seem like the perfect marketing strategy considering the site has close to 98 million registered users, we hope it doesn’t backfire. According to a report, MySpace reaches 49 percent of all Internet users between the ages of 18- 24. On it, users can chat with old friends, make new friends, post blogs, pho tos and vid eos and store their own profile. The Air Force for its part will, according to Col. Brian Madtes, Air Force Recruiting Service’s Strategic Communications director, use the site to “get the word out to the public about the amazing things people are doing in the Air Force.” That’s all well and good and here’s hop ing they pick up some quality recruits and make the service even better. The problem we see is MySpace has also gained national publicity as report edly being the No. 1 site for sexual preda tors. Some of the postings have also been challenged - once again on national TV - as being questionable for a supposedly “PG” rated website. The last thing we want to see is all the good the Air Force does being negated because of someone in the same vein as John Mark Karr. The above are obviously like night and day but it’s also not outside the realm of possibility for the media to send a men tal image they’re related. For instance, picture this: A CNN cor respondent comes on and starts talking about the FBI arresting a. suspect in a rape/murder. Then they start talking about how the two met on MySpace.com - a scenario that has reportedly hap pened numerous times already. Then they flash a picture of the website on the screen and it will undoubtedly probably be the one where the Air Force logo is prominently displayed. Or, imagine this. Someone reads about the same incident in a national paper. They ask their friend or neighbor had they heard about it, to which conversa tion ensues and ultimately ends with: “Doesn’t the Air Force advertise on there?” All we’re saying is it could happen and we wonder if the risk justifies the gains. Letter to the Eduor Meeting turns frustrating For me, as a mental health advocate, last night’s meet ing at NAMI-Central Ga (Warner Robins) on mental health issues was more frustrating than anything else. The meeting was well planned and set up by local NAMI officers and staff who did a fine job moderating and han dling questions. The crowd was big - maybe 125+ people. Commissioners, legislators, candidates etc. were there along with consumers, family members of the mentally ill and NAMI members. After some introductory words by representatives from NAMI’s Atlanta office, the main speakers were DHR Commissioner BJ Walker and MHDDAD director Gwen Skinner. Various questions were posed to them and the answers went like this: They maintain that mental health funds have not been cut, only rearranged. They maintain that funds to Phoenix Center have not been cut, but it just appears that way because money was moved from See LETTER, page 6A Julie B. Evans Vice President Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus The problem we see is MySpace has also gained national publicity as reportedly being the No. 1 site for sexual predators. Some ol the postings have also been challenged - once again on national TV - as being questionable for a supposedly "PG" rated website. Walking, talking and squawking Do you remember in the rural south when so many walked? My brother, David, and I used to walk from our home on Swift Street to downtown Perry - perhaps to sell boiled peanuts or just to visit with Mr. Ed and Mr. Glea at the “feed store”. I used to walk to school. Started in the first grade. And to “Seabie Hickson Field” to play ‘pick-up’ baseball. I could go on and on. Now, when I go from my law office to Carroll Street (one block), I ride. Even the poor in this country don’t walk much. Some of the wealthy do, for exercise. Trying to knock off some of the fat from eating rich foods. ■ Writing of walking, I was recently in the great American city, Chicago. On a very pleasant summer morn ing, my friends, Alan Stalvey, Warren Thompkins and I walked all over the downtown, along the river down to Lake Michigan, and by the new build ing that Donald Trump is erecting which is supposed to be the second tall est building in the world! Chicago is a great city for walking. Our Atlanta has got to be one of the worst. You can’t get up a good head of steam before you are cut off by an interstate or highway and you have no place to walk. ■ Let me weigh-in on something I know little about (not unusual for • me!). A walking or jogging trail through Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon? They’ve got to be kidding! Frankly, if there was a proposal to put a jogging trail through Evergreen Cemetery in Perry, I wouldn’t like it! Would you? Again, I don’t know all of the facts, but I do know the proposal sounds like - well, a Macon proposal. TALKING Doddridge K. (“Dot”) Roughton died TVAE WQpe FOR PEACE IMTHEWPPIE EA6T (Wt?T _ _ ' ! l( r'| ncwt&wf ok...i*u i >6nd | W Vo"' (Voo NfvMfc tt/ WSRS . MBCRE.TORS SYNDICATE. ~ Muslims response - Part one As promised, I met recently with a group of Muslims and asked them your questions. To their credit, they were not shy, reticent or unwilling to answer. They said they were eager to set the record straight. You may not be satisfied with some of the answers I wasn’t, either but I am convinced that what this group said, they believe. More than 200 of you wrote and gave me in excess of 500 questions. (I quit counting after that.) At least a third of the questions concerned the percep tion that Muslims are not speaking out against the violence being committed in the name of Islam. The second most frequently asked question was whether or not they could be loyal to the United States and still be true to their faith. More on those issues later. If I was expecting a group of fire-eat ing, sign-waving, “Death to the Great Satan” Muslims, I didn’t get them. I sat down with an employee of General Electric, a wholesale rug merchant, an information technology consultant whose partner is a Christian from Jerusalem, another IT professional and the head of the Islamic Speakers Bureau. The group consisted of four men and one woman. Three were con verts to Islam one black, one white and one Lebanese. One was a natural ized citizen from Syria, and the other from Egypt. We began with Mansour Ansari, the rug merchant, saying that Islam is not a monolithic faith and that Muslims have divergent views of the faith, from both a cultural standpoint and by the way some choose to interpret the Qur’an, the book of sacred writings that Muslims believe was revealed to OPINION last week. His funeral service is today. Dot was a character with character. Not a perfect man, but a very good one. A “man’s man”, if you will. Dot did so much, for so many, for so long. Perry will never see another one like Dot. And, yes, Johnny Cash’s song, “A Boy Named Sue”, does come to mind as we remember this Perry icon. God Bless you, Dot. ■ Back to walking (and jogging). My daughter, Wendy Way, and her friend, Melissa Sparrow, have proposed put ting a jogging trail in the new State Park south of Perry. It wouldn’t cost much and it would probably be much used. I hope our capable State Senator, Ross Tolleson, will think well of this. Ross can get it done if he thinks it’s a good idea. ■ Ralph Dorsett is home from the hospital, convalescing. I have had the privilege of visiting with Ralph, a cou ple of times. I told him, and it’s the absolute truth: “I never met a person who didn’t like Ralph.” One of my favorite high-school memories is of going to the cattle show in Albany, with Ralph’s driving Mr. Marvin’s truck and with our calves in the back. Ralph was a senior, and I was in the ninth grade. I really thought Ralph was something - and, I still do. God bless Ralph and Joan. the prophet Muhammad by God, via the Angel Gabriel. Anthony Costa, of Cartersville, and a number of other readers wanted to know why Sunni and Shiites don’t get along. Why are they always fighting with each other? Soumaya Khalifa, the executive director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau, says that there is no difference between the two sects. She says she wasn’t even aware she was Sunni until recently. “No Muslim approaches another Muslim and asks ‘Are you Sunni or Shiite?”’ Khalifia says. (It turned out that all the panel ists were Sunni.) Amin Tomeh, the IT consultant, says that from a religious standpoint both Sunnis and Shiites believe in one God and that the Prophet Muhammad is his messenger. It is the radical ele ment of both groups that promote the animosity. Ansari says one way that Arab politicians and Muslim leaders main tain political power is to encourage Muslims to fight among themselves. He says about 2 percent of the Muslims who are Sunnis and 2 percent of the Muslims who are Shiites try to divide the other 96 percent. Ansari cites our own War Between the States in which Christians fought against Christians as an example. The war was not about M Larry Walker Columnist lwalker@whgb-law.com Dick Yarbrough Columnist yarb24oo@bellsouth.net HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL SQUAWKING Webster’s defines squawking as “a noisy complaint”. This is the part I shouldn’t do - but, it’s the fun part. ■ Perry’s Chamber of Commerce has sponsored the Georgia Congressional Luncheon for the past three years, including last week when more than 1,100 attended. Quite an honor. But, if we are to have it, again, two sugges tions: faster food service and encour age the non-Congressional program participants to leave the politicking to the elected officials. And, remind them that this is supposed to be a bi-partisan gathering. ■ Why would a very high rank ing City of Perry official say that he “expects no development in south Houston County” when, at the same time, the city is negotiating with sev eral large property owners on the pos sibility of furnishing sewer service to their properties? Perhaps he was mis quoted, or perhaps his quote was taken out of context. I hope so, as I’ve heard from several who were upset by his statement. ■ How long has Houston Lake Road improvements been in the works? How long have the contractor(s) been work ing on the job? Frankly, it is ridiculous ly slow. Tommy Stalnaker, Houston County Public Works Director, says the problem is “too few contractors and too much available work”. Perhaps some one should tell the road builder that the Empire State Building was built in less than 400 days. CONCLUSION I do more squawking and talking than I do walking. I need to change my priorities. Unfortunately, I’m not the only one. religion, he says; it was about politics and control. The group says much of the discord in the Muslim world originates from the Wahibist philosophy, a very fun damental school of thought that has its base in Saudi Arabia. One of its disciples is Osama bin Laden. They say the alliance between the Saudi ruling class and Wahibists is one of mutual convenience. Thanks to Saudi oil money, the fundamentalists have the means to export their hard-line philosophy beyond Saudi Arabia and for the most part leave the Saudi rul ing family free to rule as they please. Interestingly, all of the panelists con sider Wahibists a “fringe group” that loses as many adherents as it gains. I’m not convinced. Spencer Connerat Jr. of Savannah, and several other readers wanted to know about how mosques are orga nized in the United States, and how decisions are made. The answer is that all mosques are locally operated. There is no hierarchy. No centralized organization. For example, the Pope is acknowl edged as the head of the Catholic Church, but there is no equivalent authority among Muslims. Each local mosque makes its own decisions. An hour into the discussion, we were just getting warmed up. Next week, I will tell you what Muslims say about women’s rights, the State of Israel, infidels, terrorism and leaving the faith. I think you will be surprised at their answers. I was. Stay tuned. You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb24oo(ajbellsouth.net, P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139, or Web site: www.dickyarbrough.com.