Newspaper Page Text
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♦ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2006
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
There couldn't be a better
time to volunteer
Gov. Sonny Perdue announced last
week the availability of SIOO,OOO
Challenge Grants to communities
in Georgia to implement volunteer recruit
ment and management programs.
According to a release from the gover
nor’s office, each community is required
to match grant funding with local
ly raised funds, dollar for dollar, bring
ing the leveraged amount to $200,000.
The intent of the program, according to
the release, is to channel “the generos
ity and spirit of volunteerism exhibited all
over Georgia,”
Perdue said.
To that end,
it is designed
to recognize
those local
governments
that partner
with commu
nity agencies
to engage vol
unteer citi
zens in ser
vice. That vol
unteerism can
run the gamut
of schools to
local agencies
to individuals.
Last year,
grants went
to: Columbus,
Cordele, Eatonton, Forsyth County,
Harlem, Macon, Milledgeville,
Rome, Savannah, Statesboro,
Thomas County and Wayne County.
Obviously, that means Houston County was
absent from the list and it’s our sincere
desire that our local officials can/would
make this an agenda item.
It’s a win-win situation, helping our
friends and neighbors in the short-term
while rewarding those efforts in the long.
Letter to the edttor
2006 election is critical
To Conservative Voters:
As we approach November’s elections, Democrats are
making hay over the idea that they might gain a major
ity in the House and Senate. They’re also counting on
Christians and Conservatives to sit this one out. After
all, this is “just” the mid-term election.
Don’t be fooled, friends. This will be our country’s most
important election of the decade.
For Democrats, gone are the days of thinking men such
as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F.
Kennedy. Men of honor, integrity and dignity are being
replaced by such people as Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi
and Ted Kennedy. When Bill Clinton gained office, a once
great party was found rooting in the philosophical pig pen
of twisted truths, slander, misinformation, exploitation,
and lies. The cornerstone of their platform became the
Clever Lie.
I’m a veteran of the Vietnam War, so you know Fve
had my share of disappointment with politicians. But I
have never, in 50 years as a voter, heard such consistent
lying as is coming from Democrats. The party, which once
prided itself as gentlemanly loyal opposition, can only be
classified today as immoral and amoral in character. The
Clintons led the way in making a mockery of our nation’s
presidency, leading their party into the use of deception
and double-speak to attain their obstructionist goals.
Today’s Republican Party consists of very few true con
servatives. As thoughtful voters, it behooves us to learn
all we can about the candidates of both parties. Ever
lingering are problems of the Iraq War, open borders and
over-spending, cancers to our survival as a free people.
Yet the lack of character of today’s politicians, men and
women seeking the power of public office, frightens me
more than those three major problems. Republicans
have proven a disappointment by failing to address these
problems decisively. But if we replace them with the likes
of Dean, Pelosi or Kennedy, we’d be replacing ants with
termites.
Hope remains that we can still change our present situ
ation. We’ve all felt frustrated by some aspect of this pres
ent administration, but we must admit we haven’t been
attacked on our home soil since 9/11, and many plots
against us have been thwarted by alert agents of our gov
ernment. I, for one, am proud of that five-year record.
It will soon be time for us to take that faith and hope
in our future to the polls and to carefully cast our bal
lots. We must seek out men with the moral compass and
mental fortitude to lead us out of our present very serious
dilemma.
Don’t sit on your hands! Do get out and vote!
Richard W. Stachorek, Perry
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Last year, grants went
to: Columbus, Cordele,
Eatonton, Forsyth
County, Harlem, Macon,
Milledgeville, Rome,
Savannah, Statesboro,
Thomas County and
Wayne County.
Obviously, that means
Houston County was
absent from the list and
ft's our sincere desire
that our local officials
can/would make this an
agenda item.
Will health care be rationed?
In recent years I have jokingly men
tioned to my friends that the solu
tion to the soaring cost of Social
Security and Medicare is to stop spend
ing so much money on old people.
I know that I have been a tremen
dous financial burden on the health
program since I passed my 80th birth
day.
The costs of all those visits to doc
tors’ offices and hospitals along with
the endless tests and surgeries are
astronomical, in my view.
All of us, as we grow old, demand
more and more medical care. And noth
ing is cheap.
Medicare can handle the costs today
because there are enough young people
paying into the system to take care of
those of us who are putting a strain on
the system.
But, statistically, Social Security will
have too few young people providing
payments for old people before long.
Congress already has slipped in pro
jected premium increases for Part B of
Medicare to help offset the avalanche
of elderly coming into the system each
year.
There is some sentiment that all the
tests and treatments being given to
us are too expensive for the benefits.
Sometimes they permit us to live a
little longer. Often, the most expensive
treatments are given when a person is
terminally ill and offer no life-extend
ing benefits.
This is something that is being talk
ed about today in some circles and will
be a part of national debate when the
The Democrats: Passion without a plan
I hate doing early-morning radio
interviews. A phone ringing before
daylight and jarring you out of sleep
isn’t the best way to sharpen your wits
to go on the air minutes later.
Last week, an interview about the
midterm congressional elections ended
by asking me yes or no: “Will the
Democrats take control of the House
of Representatives in Washington this
coming election?”
I said yes, but that was without hav
ing had my first cup of coffee. I later
reconsidered my answer.
Conventional wisdom among poll
sters and others is that the Democrats
are heavily favored to take over the
House. But why? They don’t seem to be
offering any policy solutions that excite
anyone. They’re what the Republicans
were for decades before they retook the
House in 1994 - rock-throwers.
From the 1960 s through the 1980 s,
the GOP offered no appealing alterna
tive legislation or leadership to counter
the Democrats.
Republican House members most
ly were a scattered and disorganized
group with no direction.
When they finally righted their ship,
they sailed right over the Democrats
and haven’t looked back.
At least until recently. Now they’re
wavering. They failed miserably to
reform the tax system and curb ille
gal immigration. The budget deficit is
through the roof.
But are the Democrats qualified
to lead? If they win, the new House
speaker would be Nancy Pelosi of
California. I once interviewed her for
a book I was writing about women’s
rise to prominence - “Powerchicks:
How Women Will Dominate America.”
OPINION
burden of old people on young people
reaches a critical point.
This topic already is getting atten
tion in Great Britain, which provided
national health i > .urance, something
being advocated in this country by
many politicians.
The National Institute for Health and
Clinical Excellence in Great Britain has
said that “doctors should be entitled
to withhold treatment for smokers,
drinkers or the seriously overweight
if that treatment should not be cost
effective.”
The Institute also said that age
should be taken into account, if it
affected the chances that treatment
will work. It was pointed out that
“the older we get, the longer we take
to heal, the tougher it is to survive an
operation and the more likely we are to
be overweight.”
Already the HHS is rationing health
care in Great Britain. Some obese
patients have been denied hip and
knee replacements. There is talk about
considering age as another factor in
making this decision.
Pressure is mounting in Great
Britain to ration all health care for the
She was dynamic and personable, and
remains so.
She seemed to know where she was
headed. She told me that women in
Congress had to be willing to slug it
out in the political trenches in order to
rise to prominence.
She was right and proved it herself,
and that’s great. The problem is that
she represents a California congres
sional district that’s as liberal as they
come, including on issues of national
and international scope.
So the Democrats have no workable
policy message and a leader whose con
stituents chain her to positions on the
left fringe of American politics. How is
that an attractive alternative for the
significant number of Americans who
are disenchanted with President Bush,
and who, for the most part, couldn’t
identify current House Speaker Dennis
Hastert of Illinois in a two-man police
lineup?
Democrats and many others believe
the issue is Iraq. But when surveys bur
row past the fact that most Americans
disapprove of the war, and ask how
strongly the war really affects people
and whether they believe we should
leave Iraq, overall public sentiment is
not so clear.
Further, domestic issues that seemed
to be hurting the Republicans - rising
ffik are
Foy
Evans
Columnist
loyevansl9@cox.net
Matt
Towery
Columnist
Morris News Service
-r ■ • • -q
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
elderly. Consideration is being given
to the fact that by extending an old
person’s life a few years it will increase
the cost of keeping that person alive
substantially.
It must pointed out that this line of
reasoning is not being received with
applause. But it is on the table and, in
some instances, some treatments have
been withheld for obvious reasons.
Is it possible that in a few years there
will be serious dialogue in this coun
try on what to do about providing old
people with expensive treatments that
extend life only minimally?
Until now every effort has been made
to increase the life span of Americans.
Remarkable improvements in medi
cal treatments and medicines have
increased the life span of Americans
considerably in recent years.
When I was a boy someone 60 years
old was old. When President Franklin
D. Roosevelt gave us Social Security he
set the retirement age at 65 because
so few men or women in this country
lived much longer.
Now we are told that 75 is yes
terday’s 60. We know that enough
people are living long enough to
make survival of Social Security in its
present form only a matter of time.
I look at myself and know that, except
for the miracles of modern science, I
would not be writing this column.
I appreciate it. But will the time
come when the national dialogue that
is beginning in Great Britain extend to
this country?
And what will be the outcome?
■I
energy prices, general inflation and
overall economic sluggishness - are
now beginning to disappear from the
political radar screen.
When the Democrats’ best pitch less
than two months before the election
is whether the president’s 9/11 com
memoration speech was “too politi
cal,” it starts to dawn on you that the
minority party has a goal, but no plan
to attain it.
Have the Republicans blown it over
the last few years? Absolutely. They
passed a Medicare drug bill that is an
absurd entitlement.
They’ve lost the handle on immigra
tion and taxes and federal spending.
The list goes on.
But when the caffeine from that first
cup of coffee finally hit me the morning
of my recent radio interview, I realized
that the salient question before the
American people in November will or
should be, “Do you want a Speaker
Pelosi?”
That realization forced me to recon
sider my blurry-eyed snap response to
the interviewer’s question.
Hopefully my listeners were drowsy
enough themselves that they didn’t
catch my words!
Matt Touiery served as the chairman
of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s
political organization from 1992 until
Gingrich left Congress. He is a for
mer Georgia state representative, the
author of several books and currently
heads the polling and political infor
mation firm, Insider Advantage. To
find out more about Matthew Towery
and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate website at www.
creators.com.