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4A ♦ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2006 Jftousttm J3a%lourttal 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.