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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2006 4A Mansion IDailtj .IJourtmi OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Managing Editor An unusual approach A school district in Texas, taking note of the killings at some schools, is trying to prepare students for such a crisis. Students - boys and girls - are being told not to sit on their hands if a gunman invades their classroom. Fight back, they are told. Not everyone agrees with this advice. A major in the British Army reserve is teaching students at the suburban Fort Worth school. He says that hiding under a desk waiting for rescue is not a recipe for success. Considering the fact that most gunmen who have invaded schools shot students and/ or faculty without giving them a chance, the British major is try ing to instill a fight-back attitude in the students and faculty. It is in direct contrast to the advice nor mally given to students. Critics of this kind of self-defense say that it could result in someone being killed. The record on school invasions by gunmen - some students themselves, some from the outside - indicates that students are at risk of being shot from the moment the school is invaded. Why not be prepared to Fight back as a group? Someone could get hurt. But a swarm of students could overpower the gunman and, perhaps, save lives. Students are being advised by the major to pick up anything available and throw at the gunman and make as much noise as pos sible and “take him down.” Most important of all, he advises, is not to comply with the gunman’s orders. Is it a good idea? We’ll leave it to others to determine if this radical approach is right or wrong. It cer tainly calls for a change that is contrary to current thinking. Will other school districts in Texas or elsewhere follow the lead of the Fort Worth school district? It will be interesting to learn whether this advice to “Fight back” is embraced else where. Letters to the Editor Military Day needed Something I hadn’t thought of before was pointed out to me by the wife of my grandson, a captain in the U. S. Army, and who has recently returned from Iraq. It’s very nice that there is a Military Day at the Georgia National Fair each year, (at which time the military mem ber enters free), but why aren’t military members and their families given a discount every day? They certainly serve every day. I am a senior citizen, who enjoys a $1 discount each time I attend. I would much rather that dollar be passed on to our military members each year. I wonder how many other senior citizens feel the same way. Thank you from a proud grandmother, Carmen Lyons, Perry Missing the boat Did your editors not miss one in that letter when they let pass, “After all, humans as all other mammals, have the ‘genetic drive’ to ’appropriate.’” In this usage don’t we mean procreate? Of course, later on he mentions Democrats so there is a possibility appropriate is apt since they love to appropriate-your income, your savings, your property, et cetera. John Boyd, Warner Robins Send your Letters to the Editor to: The Houston Daily Journal P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus It Is In direct contrast to the advice normally given to students. Critics of this kind ol self-defense say that it could result in someone being killed. County growth shows no end Houston County’s building boom continues. It may have slowed down a bit with spec houses and older houses moving more slowly. But, overall, the rising interest rates have not dulled the enthusiasm of people looking for new homes. Subdivisions galore dot the country side. Plans for more are on the drawing boards. Clearly developers are of the opinion that the frenetic buying binge that has been going on the past few years has not peaked. There are skeptics who point to the past when building booms peaked, the bubble burst and builders and finan cial institutions took a bath. They are predicting that the end of the present overwhelming demand for new homes is nearing its end. I seriously doubt it. In my opinion, the years ahead look more promising for the housing mar ket than the last few years. Our county, which has grown in population dra matically since the year 2000, could be in for a surge of major proportions. This is the kind of news that the board of education and the elected officials responsible for new schools and infrastructure might fear, because of the financial strain it could put on them. More houses mean more children. More children - already putting a strain on the school system - mean more schools. More homes and more subdivisions create traffic problems and the demand for large sums of money to provide The seven dwarfs?^ V Are you reading The comics page? Jz' No, just keeping up with \ _ \ the Governor's race. Rethinking the climb up the corporate ladder Sometime last year, the New York Times featured a front-page story that said many women at elite colleges were setting a course for moth erhood. The news was met with some i collective hand wringing among the older generation of feminists, many of whom have argued that self-realiza tion for women can only come in the market place. In fact, one aging feminist, retired professor Linda Hirshman, recently garnered some national attention by stating that highly educated women who chose to stay at home to raise chil dren are harming society. She went so far as to say that “...measured against time-tested [utilitarian] strategies, the expensively educated upper-class moms will be leading lesser lives.” In response to Hirshman, Jennifer Roback Morse (a highly educated mom in her own right and a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University) asked these questions: “We educated, competent women do have a choice. Will I place my intellect at the service of an employer and my ego? Or will I place my intellect and energy at the service of my family and my com munity?” In recent years, technology and new business practices have added even more choices, making it possible for some moms - and dads - to work from home in order to be more available for their families. But still there is no getting away from the difficult task of setting priorities. Even stay-at-home moms have to fight the pressure to be involved in “one more volunteer proj ect” that takes them away from their families because they “are not work ing,” after all. It’s fairly obvious that the so-called “mommy wars” are not likely to end anytime soon. Frankly, that is probably a good thing. A healthy tension on such matters may prove to be constructive because it pushes us to deal with deeper questions related to meaning and relationships. But let’s turn our attention to fathers, like me. We need to be asking ourselves a number of questions about our commitment to work and family. We too must wrestle with ways to keep family first, not career, and fight the sometimes subtle impulse to sacrifice family for career. One problem is that we men, like our female counterparts, can do a remarkable job of rationalizing behav ior and decisions that might actually OPINION roads and other infrastructure. Not all good news - a boom in the housing market - is necessarily good news to those who have a hard time finding money to keep up with demands. We have asked each other for years, “Where are all the people coming from?” They’re coming from all over, I guess. Certainly Houston County has acquired a reputation for having outstanding public schools and a low crime rate. Word gets around. If this alone is reason to expect con tinuation of the explosion in popula tion, then the time could be near for the bubble to burst, or at least spring a leak. I can look ahead and see where there is possibility for unprecedented growth in population in the next few years, and so far the cause has been overlooked. A recent news release revealed that within the next five or six years approx imately 12,000 employees at Robins AFB will be eligible for retirement. Most of them now live in Houston County. Some will return to ancestral be destructive. Like a politician who “spins” information and words to suit his political ambitions, we spin our working decisions in a way that sounds reasonable and even noble. This may manifest itself in our leaving most of the parenting duties to our wives while appeasing the conscience by claiming the irreplaceable role of breadwinner. “You take care of the kids; I’ll bring in the money.” We can make longer hours and work aholic tendencies sound remarkably heroic. “I’m doing this for you and the kids.” This is often true. But quite often it’s something entirely different, having more to do with the accumulation of stuff (or toys, if you will) than provid ing what’s really needed for the family. Sadly, the extra cars, boats and four wheelers, if not managed within family priorities, may only serve to keep the family busy, not connected. “I just want you and the kids to have the best.” Again, when tied to putting away money for education and mak ing sure the kids have clothes, this is noble. But we must ask ourselves if our efforts in the workplace are tied to feeding our family or feeding our ego. Status - often derived from job titles, the size of a home, the model of a car or the brand of clothing - can be a subtle motivator that leaves us with lots of cool stuff...and a lot of strained relationships. The competitive nature of most men can drive them to climb the corporate ladder, discontented with each rung they reach because the suc cess doesn’t bring fulfillment. “How can you say that I’m not car ing about the family? I’m working all these hours so we can live in this nice house and do fun things.” That sounds nice, but there’s plenty of evidence that it’s not the “stuff” that a wife wants or needs. In fact, as has been reported previously, University of Virginia soci ologists Bradford Wilcox and Steven Nock released the results of a study earlier this year that revealed what Byf jn Foy Evans Columnist loyevansl9@cox net IS Randy Hicks Columnist Georgia Family Council HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL places they call “home”. Some will retire to the mountains, the beach or a lake. But most, having lived here most of their working lives, will stay here in retirement. We already have a large retirement community - military and civilian - and it should grow dramati cally when all those workers retire. Who will replace them? A younger work force, surely And, in my opinion, most of them will want to live close to their work, which translates into Houston County Thousands of new hires at the Base will need housing and should create a demand never seen here before. The table is set for expansion all over Houston County during the coming decade. The challenge, in my opinion, will be meeting the demand for new housing. There can be no doubt that thousands of families, becoming part of the work force at the Base, will be in the market for homes. Looking at the future for our county from this perspective, we can see an economic boom. And we can see chal lenges of a magnitude never encoun tered before. Our governments in the county have recently been preparing a document for the state on projected growth. If the eligibility for retirement of so many Base employees over such a short peri od of time has not been taken into consideration it might be wise to take another look at projections. The changes we have seen during the past decade could be dwarfed by what lies ahead. women really want. What do they want? Wilcox and Nock reported that the most important deter minant of women’s marital happiness is the emotional engagement of their husbands. It’s not about even division of housework and career-related work; it’s about affection, understanding and quality time. Engaged husbands are what wives want. Engaged fathers are what chil dren want and need. I’ve said this on more than one other occasion in this column - research reveals that chil dren with uninvolved fathers are much more likely to experience emotional and social harms than children with involved fathers. So, let me state this simply: working ridiculous hours to make ends meet is sometimes required and may be, under certain circumstances, the right thing to do. But when it’s done for the sim ple reason of attaining more stuff and a gaining a promotion for promotion’s sake, we may actually be undermining the health of the very family for whom we claim to be working. The size of paycheck is not a mea sure of a father’s worth or perfor mance. It should not become too great of a source of pride or of failure. But that’s not to say that having a steady job with steady pay is unimportant. Study after study has revealed that, generally speaking, a wife places a high value on security and that her sense of security is derived, in no small part, on financial stability. In this age of telecommuting, flex work time, job sharing and other inno vative work environments, families have more choices than ever before to craft an environment that allows for family togetherness. Families may find alternative ways to make ends meet and to save for the future that provides for the balance I’ve described. It may or may not involve the wife working or the husband declining the next pro motion. But it most certainly should involve asking the question about what kind of family they want to have - and what tough decisions will enable that outcome. Georgia Family Council is a non-prof it organization that works to strength en and defend the family in Georgia by impacting communities, shaping laws and influencing culture. For more information, go to www.georgiafam ily.org, (770) 242-0001, gregg@gafam. org.