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4A Muusttm OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher • I •Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans Managing Editor Editor Emeritus Let's bring them down to earth A congressman reportedly said it would be hard to pursue legal action against disgraced Congressman Mark Foley because Foley had not actually had sex with one of the high school students/congressio nal pages he was caught dealing inappropri ately with. Only in their world. Only in their world can you get away with sending sexually suggestive e-mails and propositioning minors. Only in their world can you so confuse your colleagues by simply saying: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” (Clinton’s grand jury tes timony in rela tion to Monica Lewinsky) Only in their world can you do everything imaginable - but not one thing specifi cally - and use the defense: “I did not have sexual rela tions with that woYnan,” (Clinton-Lewinsky again) and the end result be: “OK, good enough for me.” Moving back to present day - only in their world can you use the defense: “I was sexu ally molested as a child” and gain sympa thy. Only in their world. Not ours. In ours we would have been fired instantly. In our world we would be in jail - right now! In our world we would be watched, tracked and branded - and rightly so - for the rest of our existence. That’s our world, not theirs. What we need is a mechanism for once they’re in office, seeing as they refuse to do anything about it themselves, an indepen dent ethics commission. It’s the only way we’ll ever get them out of their world and into ours. Grass not growing under their feet Perry residents. You might want to attend some of the future work ses sions of the city council. You have more at stake than you might realize. In case you caught a glimpse of things to come in Thursday’s paperthe approval of a landscaping amendment that sets stan dards for gazebos, signs, decorative paving, street trees, hedges, shrubs, grass and vines - you know a bit about what we mean. That in itself isn’t all that troublesome, it’s the vision for the future. In the end it will no doubt leave a more beautiful Perry but getting there is going to involve - require - you and you might want to have a say in how you get there. Letter to the Editor Bill would help elders Elder abuse is a crime, but that doesn’t stop some peo ple from abusing, neglecting and exploiting older persons and disabled adults. During fiscal year 2006, the Division of Aging Services’ Adult Protective Services Central Intake investigated nearly 7,000 APS referrals. A bill currently before Congress would help Georgia tremendously. With the addition of federal resources, APS could hire more caseworkers, provide specialized expert training workshops and education and strengthen partnerships and initiatives in law enforcement, forensics and banking institutions. The bill would provide federal leadership and funding for APS programs to meet the challenges of identifying and protecting adults with disabilities and vulnerable seniors. It would provide funding for research and train ing, and strengthen protections for nursing home and other long-term care residents. We support this much needed federal legislation to fund APS programs so our See LETTER, page 6A In ours we would have been lired instantly. In our world we would be in jail-right now! In our world we would be watched, tracked and branded - and rightly so - lor the rest of our existence. Conquest, wap, famine and death The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are beings men tioned in the sixth chapter of Revelations, New Testament of the Bible. The horsemen represent Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. As old as the Bible. As new as Fox News or CNN. When I was just a lad, perhaps not even ten years old, I awoke one night and was unable to walk. My parents were convinced I had Polio. What it was, we never knew, but fortunately it wasn’t that dreaded disease, polio. Were my parents justified in suspect ing polio? You bet, for during those times it was a scourge on the world. From the Bible to the 2006 night ly news, predictions of conquest and death and awful calamities have been and are being predicted. Sometimes the warnings and prophecies have been fulfilled. Most often, not. And, never have dire warnings reached the levels that we see, and hear, today. Why so much negative prediction? Why so much bad news? My opinion? Because it sells. It keeps us watching and watching and watching. Remember the 2000 computers fail ures scare? What was it called? Y2K? How much money was spent to keep planes from crashing and checks being written and generally keeping the gov ernment and businesses operating? Millions and billions. How many com puters crashed? I never heard of a one. Haw WfPPEHB)?) * «4 (w \t \£ritAl 1 11 glUfc ■■■T' 1 1,1 ' " r AMWIfcONFOOD (p® [ WRL-rTSCfWK) frill in umsoTW* liiEp C2OO6CREATORS SYNDICATE INC Urging candidates to go positive There are two questions most fre quently posed to me by my loyal readers. The first one is that it is amazing that anyone with half the sense of a nanny goat would take any thing I say seriously. (Wait. That’s not a question. Sorry.) Let’s try the one about “Why are political campaigns always so nega tive.” Readers tell me they are frus trated that candidates can’t talk about positive issues, but only try to tear down their opponents. Georgians would like to see a posi tive and uplifting political campaign for a change. A good place to start would be the race between incumbent Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and his opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor. Both men have solid records of accomplishment on which to run. There is no reason for them to attack each other. If they would avoid the negative approach, not only would that be welcomed by the voters, but the candidates could save themselves some big bucks because they could jettison all the political consultants who make a living dishing up political doo-doo for their clients to sling at each other. The consultants could then go do some thing meaningful with their lives, like pulling wings off of flies. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see both candidates take the high ground for the remainder of the gubernatorial contest in Georgia? Gov. Perdue could run an ad saluting Mark Taylor for his untiring efforts to improve' the quality of life for Georgia farmers and all the Dairy Queen own- OPINION Did you? Must have been the most successful effort at prevention in the history of our country. What about the Bird Flu? Did you get a shot? Probably not. None avail able. Still, how concerned should we be? Less than 250 people, worldwide, have been affected (about one-half died), and most of the infected people worked with sick birds. Then there is Mad Cow Disease. Are you at risk? Apparent less risk here than with the birds. There have been 195 cases reported, globally, with only two - that’s right, two - in the United States. Divide 300 million into 2 and see what the odds are of you contract ing this disease. My calculator says zero percent. West Nile Virus. Not to worry, too much. Only 10% of the people who con tract the disease actually get sick. Even those who get ill, it’s generally not life-threatening. Severe forms of the virus affect fewer than 1% of infected people. 7Y WTO CUT'S B no | f VOTE 1 THESE TtfN6S ALUM.. J IJPtYMY fffiEND&r Wr WE HAVe AKI6HT \ O s' MfrowimmUO r IT rl —— ers in the state by religiously eating eight meals a day, seven days a week. Perdue could say how impressed he is that the Big Guy cannot only inhale a super-sized double cheeseburger in a single bite, he could eat a horse in full gallop. Taylor could respond by thanking Perdue for the kind words and praising him for being the only governor in the nation last year to give an elephant a physical, drastically reducing the number of health benefit claims filed by elephants in our state. Gov. Perdue could emphasize in his campaign messages that Mark Taylor has made an outstanding lieutenant governor and that it is a shame no one has noticed, since the job of lieuten ant governor is about as meaningful as female appendages on a boar hog. Taylor could then create an ad saying how inspiring it has been to have an athlete as the state’s chief executive, and how well the governor has per formed his duties over the past four years, despite the fact he played too many football games without his hel met on. Taylor could applaud Perdue’s finan cial shrewdness by asking how the governor got a retroactive SIOO,OOO Li M 1H w * Larry Walker Columnist lwalker@whgb-law.com I 0 * v ' Dick Yarbrough Columnist yarb24oo@bellsouth.net HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Then there is the Weather. Almost always, today, reported as “severe weather”. For examples, “We are expecting a major thunderstorm of two inches, this afternoon. Take extreme caution. Stay tuned for further severe weather reports”. Are there serious concerns? Certainly. North Korea. Iraq. Iran. Terrorists. Global Warming. Etc., etc. But the point is: Keep it in perspective. Remember Gettysburg where there were 50,000 casualties in three days of fighting. And, Antietam where about 25.000 died on September 17, 1862. And what about the Great Depression? Or the Black Plague? Bad things happen. Man survives. People go on. Keep it in perspective. Don’t be duped by television advertis ers. Don’t let severe weather warnings of two inches of rain keep you glued to the television. On the other hand, if four seals are opened and four horsemen appear - white, red, black and pale - you best be very concerned. You will be justified in your concerns. Much more so than when Bill O’Reilly rails us with his latest prediction (thought up by his writers) of what is likely to cause the demise of this country and man kind as we know it. And, by the way, stay tuned for the latest on the Whooping Cough sickness that is likely to sweep our country most any day now. [ i wiw web m? I < la* sen OTtNGfc IfPT? m TMS MONEY.' O\ J o fj ' ——■ tax break after he bought some swamp land in Florida. Perdue could say mod estly, “It was nothing, really. All you have to do is have some friends tiptoe a little special-interest bill through the General Assembly when nobody is paying attention, which is most of the time and be governor.” Taylor could reply that he would like to do neat stuff like that, too, if he is elected governor, assuming that his daddy will continue to give him his weekly allowance. Gov. Perdue could issue a state ment begging Lt. Gov. Taylor not to involve national Democrats includ ing Howard “Yah! Yah!” Dean, Teddy Kennedy and President Peanut in the campaign. Their enormous popu larity in Georgia would most certain ly wreck his chances for re-election. Taylor could say he has never heard of those people, but that he definitely plans to call on his good friend and primary opponent, Secretary of State Cathy Cox, for help if he can find out where she is hiding. I could go on, but you get the idea. A positive political campaign. No more mudslinging. No more attack ads. This might trigger a whole new trend in politics: Voters demanding of the can didates that if they can’t say something nice about their opponent, say nothing at all. Granted, candidates have always managed to say nothing at all in their campaigns, but at least this way they would be positive when they did it. You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb24oo@bellsouth.net, P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139, or Web site: www.dickyarbrough.com.