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4A ♦ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 Houston J9ml£r HJmmml OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans Managing Editor Editor Emeritus Are tax cuts on the way? Don’t you just love election years? How about all the things candidates plan to do for us when they are elected or reelected? Regardless of who is elected governor this year, things look bright er on the tax front. Gov. Sonny Perdue plans to eliminate the state income tax on senior retirees. Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor has come right back with a proposal to eliminate the state prop erty tax on homeowners. And consider this: There still are six weeks left before the election. Perhaps before then we will get more promises of less state taxes. Attendance is important You can’t educate children unless they attend classes. Absenteeism always has been a problem and the state of Georgia has put teeth into efforts to reduce student absenteeism. The Houston County Attendance Protocol Committee is taking aggressive steps to address the problem of attendance locally. Left alone, some parents will permit their children to skip school anytime they want to. It is unfortunate that there must be a law with teeth in it to make sure these tru ants wind up in the classroom where they can be exposed to an education, whether they absorb anything or not. The number of students in Houston County schools who have missed 18 days or more has been reduced by 48 percent since the Attendance Protocol Committee tackled the problem in early 2005. Unusual efforts are being made to moti vate students in middle and high schools to attend classes regularly. We commend our local committee mem bers for the aggressive work being done to reduce the number of truants as much as possible. As we said, young people must be in class to learn and any effort that is made to get them there is worth it. Worth Repeating “Let me conjure you, in the name of our common Country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as you regard the Military and National character of America, to express your utmost horror and detestation of the Man who wish es, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our Country, and who wickedly at- tempts to open the flood Gates of Civil discord, and deluge our rising Empire in Blood. You will defeat the insidious designs of our Enemies, who are compelled to resort from open force to secret Artifice. You will give one more distinguished proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue, rising supe rior to the pressure of the most complicated sufferings; And you will, by the dignity of your Conduct, afford occa sion for Posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to Mankind, “had this day been wanting, the World had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attain” George Washington , /7J2-/799 Ist President of the United States (VA) HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. All letters printed in The Home Journal will appear with the writer’s name and hometown - we do not publish anonymous letters. The news paper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Letter writers are asked to submit no more than one letter per person per week. We cannot guarantee that a letter will be printed on a specific date. The Home Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters to the editor are published in the order they are received as space permits. A Journal employee will call to verify the author of each letter. There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E-mail it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The Houston Home Journal at P.O. Box 1910, Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at 1210 Washington St. in Perry - between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Regardless of who is elected governor this year, things look brighter on the tax front. Gas is down, OPEC is up ... Will we be duped again? I don’t like receiving something I did not order through the mail with the sender expecting me to pay for it. I throw the item and the request for money into the trash can. ■ ■■ Gasoline prices are getting down close to $2 a gallon and there is excite ment throughout the land. Our brains get numb in a hurry. ■ ■■ A spokesman for the OPEC nations made the claim that only 18 percent of the world’s oil reserves have been tapped, letting us know there is no reason to change from fossil fuels to alternatives. It sounds like a move to sucker Americans into turning their backs on types of fuels that might free us from the grip OPEC nations have on us. We’ll probably buy into it. ■ ■■ All those pharmaceutical company ads pushing new and expensive pre scription drugs advise us to “ask your doctor” about them, as if we all can just dial up our doctor for this infor mation. It isn’t that easy and, besides, doctors prefer to do the prescribing instead of having patients telling them what drugs they want. ■ ■■ The FTC would do doctors and their patients a favor if they would ban those ads from television screens. They are "No income tax for seniors would work out fine. Most of us don't have any income!" The horror of the children's sermon I rarely, if ever, panic. I accomplish this by avoiding sit uations where hysterical anxiety is a behavioral option. That’s why I sleep 10-12 hours a day. It’s hard to get into a fussy frenzy when you’re snoozing. But lately, I have found myself in a frequent scenario that causes frightful horror. The root of this angst is the chil dren’s sermon. Some of you may go to churches that do this. During the worship service, they call all the kids down to the front and a person sits all the children facing the congregation and delivers a kiddie flavored mini-sermon. For the sake of comedy, they often ask the children questions. My old est son, 4, loves the children’s ser mon. He sprints down to the front. But he doesn’t seem to realize it’s a group activity. He answers all the ques tions. With a Tiger Woods-like focus, he blocks out the congregation, all the other children, the fact that he’s wear ing clothes, and acts as though it’s just he and the person delivering the kiddie sermon, casually discussing a lesson from the Bible. This brings about great torment to my precious nerves. When he’s within arm’s reach, I can at least put my hand over his mouth when he starts to say “My daddy spanked me because I said...” Four pews away, I have no such recourse. I’m powerless and petri fied - half my face in a grin because I OPINION not educational. They just pique the interest of viewers. And make many people believe they can diagnose them selves with illnesses they don’t have. ■ ■■ What’s wrong with advanced practice nurses writing prescriptions without a doctor looking over their shoulders? PAs do it all the time, whether a doctor is present or not. ■ ■■ What’s wrong with you folks who keep saying that Islam isn’t a peaceful religion? Those people we see on televi sion cutting heads off prisoners surely can’t be Muslims. It probably is some dastardly trick by infidels. ■ ■■ Why in the world are the political opinions of actors and musicians with a little celebrity made to sound impor tant? Most of them are semi-literate and certainly not experts in political science. At least, no more so than you and I. Yet when one of them sounds off their opinions are spread by the media as if they were gospel. In my opinion, we could wisely ignore what they say. expect him to say something funny, the other half quivering in distress, ashen in unease. Here’s an example of what a typical children’s sermon is like when my son is around: Adult giving the children’s sermon: “Do any of you know who Lazarus is?” My son raises his hand and stands up. Adult: “Yes. Do you know who Lazarus is?” My son: “My dog Bubby is in heav en.” Adult: “Well, I’m sorry to hear that.” My son: “Why?” Adult: “Well, I’m sorry he’s not alive.” My son: “I’m not. My daddy said there are other dogs up there too, and they run all the time, and Bubby likes it up there.” Adult: “Well, we’re glad to hear that. Do you know who Lazarus is?” My son (without hesitation): “He’s the blue Power Ranger that I bought - :V wk in Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox.net Len Robbins Columnist airpub@planttel.net ■ ■■ The Centers for Disease Control says that Americans are losing the battle with obesity. That’s hard to disagree with. Just look around - or down at your own tummy - and usually there is plenty of evidence to back up that conclusion. What are we going to do about it? We’re going to talk about it and some of us will make resolutions, but the trend for decades has been toward more and more obesity. There is no reason to believe this trend will not continue. We are a land of plenty and we love to indulge in it. ■ ■■ The state came out with a new tag - white letters on blue background - and it was met with disdain. County names also were left off. Immediately, it was stated that the new tag was offered for public comment, and we can expect another prototype that is differ ent before long. I hope that the new tags, whatever they look like, will con tinue to include the names of counties. It is interesting to tell where vehicles are from when traveling, especially when out of state. ■ ■■ The mayor of New York City has come up with another way to add to the number of people being paid for doing nothing by the government. He wants to pay “poor people” for going to a doctor or keeping children in school. It sounds like a great socialist program that left wingers have overlooked. Believe it or not, New York’s mayor is a billionaire Republican. at the dollar store.” Adult: “Actually, Lazarus was a beg gar, and, hey, you can sit down now.” My son sits down. Adult: “And also please take your finger out of that boy’s ear.” He complies. Adult: “Do any of you know what a beggar is?” Big mistake. My son raises his hand and stands up. Adult: “Yes. Do you know what a beggar is?” My son: “If I got a shovel and started digging, and I digged for 10 whole min utes, I’d be in China.” Adult: “Okay, does anyone else know what a beggar is?” Another child gives an appropriate answer. Adult: “Yes, and there’s a story in the book of Luke about Lazarus and a rich man who was dressed in purple and lived in luxury. You can sit down now.” My son sits down again. Adult: “Both the beggar and the rich man eventually died, and...” My son: “Did they go to heaven, like my dog Bubby?” Adult: “Well, yes, but only one of them. Do you know which one?” My son: “We went to the beach and I found a crab and he started digging and I think he was trying to go to China, and then there was this tiger...” Adult (loudly): “Let us pray...” And I do - hard. I thank God it’s over... until next Sunday. HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL