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♦ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2006
Houston ©aili? .journal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Honoring Herman Ragin
The history of public education in
Houston County is a long one, and
- truth be told - was not always what
it should have been.
Starting with small community schools
and academies for some, and little or no
opportunity for others, the system has
grown and changed, making progress with
the times and weathering many changes.
The latest of the challenges is rapid growth.
Earlier challenges included coming to terms
with the fundamental unfairness of unequal
educational opportunity.
In that respect, we all owe a debt of grati
tude to those who prevailed as educators
regardless of
the hand they
were dealt,
and brought
us forward.
There are
many heroes
in this his
tory. Herman
C. Ragin Sr.
is one who
stands out.
A native
of Houston
County, who
graduated
from the Perry
Training
School in 1945.
In those days,
the school was
near the loca
tion where
Ace Hardware
now stands,
under the firm
leadership of
Principal A.D. Redmond.
Herman Ragin gives his principal much
credit for his later success and his prepared
ness when he went on to attend college on
an athletic scholarship and earned both his
bachelor’s degree and a masters in educa
tion administration.
He returned home in the early 1950 s to
become the head football and basketball
coach and athletic director, science, biol
ogy and physics at the Houston County
Training School, which was still in its old
location with A.D. Redmond at the helm.
Speaking of the football team, the Indians,
Ragin says, “We didn’t lose many games
and we got to the playoffs yearly.”
He also worked with others to construct a
field to play on.
Later, Ragin went on to be principal of
Kings Chapel Elementary School, where he
served until his retirment in 1980.
He influenced and encouraged many
young people over the years, setting high
standards, and setting an example of char
acter and dignity.
Many in the community will be pleased
to learn that Herman C. Ragin, Sr. will be
honored in January at a special ceremony.
The old Perry Elementary School Complex
adjoining the Board of Education building
on Main Street will be named the Herman
Ragin Center.
It is an honor richly deserved.
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Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Starting with small
community schools
and academies lor
some, and little or no
opportunity lor
others, the system has
grown and changed,
making progress
with the times and
weathering many
changes. The latest
of the challenges is
rapid growth. Earlier
challenges included
coming to terms
with the fundamental
unfairness of unequal
educational opportunity.
An easy promise to keep
Lots of promises I’ve made have
been difficult to keep. Sometimes
they are easy. Such is the case
with the article I wrote for the Nov. 3
edition of this paper. I promised to give
my readers the results of my election
picks. Let me report to you, with some
pride, that, assuming Jim Marshall’s
apparent victory is upheld, I scored 100
percent. Daddy would be proud. But,
he would also point out to me that I
wrote my own test, and that it wasn’t
that hard of an exam. Let’s see.
In the governor’s race, I picked
Sonny Perdue to win. Unfortunately,
for me I couldn’t leave well enough
alone, and I wrote “. . . he squeaks
through with 50 percent plus”. What
Sonny did to Mark Taylor. I wouldn’t
exactly call “squeaking through”.
I picked Casey Cagle to defeat Jim
Martin, Thurbert Baker to “wax”
Perry McGuire, Karen Handel to
defeat Gail Buckner (thank goodness!),
and with Larry O’Neal. Johnny
Floyd and Jay Walker to win. That’s
seven rather easy races to call. In
other words, on my own test, I “fixed
it” so that I would, at a minimum, get
70 percent or a low C. Less than that
and Cohen could really be rough. Still,
pride necessitates that I write of my
other three picks. Jim Marshall over
Mac Collins. I called it a “squeaker”
and indeed it was, or is. I wrote that
Carol Hunstein would defeat "what’s
his name”. Actually, his name was
Wiggins and Justice Hunstein won,
despite literally millions of dollars from
outside our state being used against
her. And what about Tommy Irvin’s
AT A CMANGE 1M
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James Baker, the Desert Storm legacy
Iraqis haven’t forgotten the after
math of Desert Storm. With
Saddam’s troops forced to retreat
from Kuwait, Shia Arabs through
out southern Iraq rose up against
Saddam’s tyranny. Kurds in the north
also rebelled. Many Sunnis in Baghdad
anticipated the end of Saddam’s
“Tikiriti” despotism. Numerous Iraqis
tell me post-Desert Storm they antici
pated liberation. Instead, they got a
dose of so-called Realpolitik - mass
murder and a return to dictatorship.
In 1991, Saddam did not fall. His
Republican Guards attacked the Shia
towns and massacred their inhabit
ants. At least 50,000 Iraqis were mur
dered by Saddam’s defeated army.
In April 2003, America toppled
Saddam. This aftermath promised
something better than tyranny and
mass murder. Still, many Iraqis doubt
ed America’s commitment to sticking
with them through the trials of escap
ing a terrible past and building a better
future. Pundits can point to Vietnam
and Somalia as American bug-outs (al-
Qaeda alludes to both), but the failure
to act after Desert Storm - the failure
to act in the face of mass murder - is by
far the most pertinent to Iraqis.
An Iraqi cultural adviser I worked
with in 2004 insisted Iraqi doubts
about long-haul American commit
ment were an immense political prob
lem. He was a Shia, and he himself
vacillated between pessimism and opti
mism. During one late-night discus
sion (we were standing in front of a
shower-trailer), the personal anguish
of 1991 was particularly evident. But
he was upbeat the day he returned
from a week-long visit with his brother
in southern Iraq. ’“They think you
(America) may stay this time,” he told
me.
What the translator meant was “stay
long enough.” America never intended
OPINION
Larry
Walker
Columnist
lwalkef@whgb-lawcom
big victory against Gary Black? I said
Johnny’s margin would be “thin”. In
fact, it was a ‘Beginner’s Jenny Craig
Margin’-fat.
I did so well picking, I would like
to continue. Can’t leave well enough
alone.
Biggest Winner: Houston County.
Had Mark Taylor been elected
Governor, he would have tried to pun
ish our county. I know. He tried to
do that, through me, several years
ago and several times when Sonny
switched parties and was a Republican
State Senator.
Biggest Surprise: Tommy Irvin
carried Houston County with 52 per
cent of the vote. Who would have
believed Tommy would carry this
Republican County, and with all the
vocal and active help that Gary Black
had? Not me, and not many, if any.
Biggest Factor Before This
Election: Casey Cagle’s defeat of
Ralph Reed in the primary. Had Reed
won, Sonny would have had a very “big
load” to carry in the general election.
More importantly, he would have had
four years of turmoil if Reed had won,
and as Reed tried to position himself
Austin
Bay
Columnist
Creators Syndicate
to stay.
America’s post-9/11 strategy has
been to help foster nation-states where
the consent of the governed creates
legitimacy and where terrorists are
prosecuted, not promoted.
In an essay I wrote for the Dec. 9,
2002, issue of The Weekly Standard, I
outlined the rough path to that “end
state” in Iraq:
“Pity Gen. Tommy Franks or, for
that matter, any American military
commander tasked with overseeing
a post-Saddam Baghdad. For in that
amorphous, dicey phase the Pentagon
calls ‘war termination’ ... U.S. and
allied forces liberating Iraq will
attempt - more or less simultaneously
- to end combat operations, cork pub
lic passions, disarm Iraqi battalions,
bury the dead, generate electricity,
pump potable water, bring law out of
embittering lawlessness, empty jails
of political prisoners, pack jails with
criminals, turn armed partisans into
peaceful citizens, re-arm local cops
who were once enemy infantry, shoot
terrorists, thwart chiselers, carpetbag
gers and black-marketeers, fix sewers,
feed refugees, patch potholes and get
trash trucks rolling, and accomplish
all this under the lidless gaze of Peter
Jennings and Al-Jazeera.”
In summer 2003, Paul Bremer and
his Coalition Provisional Authority
weren’t prepared to handle the situa
tion that marathon sentence describes.
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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
to run for Georgia’s Governor in 2010.
In other words, Reed would have been
trying to help Reed and not Sonny.
Second Biggest Factor Before
This Election: Cathy Cox’s defeat at
the hands of Mark Taylor. Cox would
have been a more formidable opponent
for Sonny than was Taylor. I do not
think she would have won, but she
would have been stronger. So, Sonny
got two breaks: Cagle’s defeat of Reed
and Taylor’s defeat of Cox.
Biggest Failed Attempt: The
Democrat’s efforts to paint Perdue as a
crook. Taylor should have spent all the
time and money he did on attacking
Sonny’s integrity by telling Georgians
what he intended to do, if elected.
Those who know Sonny, know that he
is a man of great integrity.
Biggest Commonality Of All
Voters: Sickness with negative cam
paigning. The most frequent refrain:
“I’m glad it’s over”. Can the mud
slinging get any worse?
■ ■■
I made another prediction in my
Nov. 10 column. Shall I quote it? Yes, I
will. “The Dawgs will upset either the
Tigers or the Jackets . . .” Pretty good,
eh? Let me change it: “The Dawgs will
upset both the Tigers and the Jackets”.
Have I gone too far?
Next week: Favorite books of favor
ite people. Email me your choice(s),
and I will consider using you and yours
in my next column.
However, by mid-2004 the U.S. military
had hammered out a sound security
and recovery plan. The campaign plan
met guidelines promulgated in U.N.
Security Council Resolution 1546. This
resolution is no top-secret document
- it’s on the U.N. website.
“Phased withdrawal” of coalition
forces has always been the goal. The
issue is a realistic “when.”
The Iraqi government confronts
extraordinary challenges. Are there
rotten Iraqi military units? Yes - but
there are also some very good ones.
Do Iran and Syria support terrorists
and militias? Yes. The dictators want
the world to conclude that democracy
is culturally and politically alien to
the Middle East. They want the world
to conclude, like British and French
imperialists did in 1919, that Arabs
can’t handle democracy.
But despite the public stumbles and
bloody learning curve, Maliki’s govern
ment says otherwise.
Enter the James Baker and Lee
Hamilton-led Iraq Study Group. It’s
my bet that it will produce nothing
original in terms of strategic and oper
ational thinking. It may well produce
a set of policy recommendations palat
able to Democrats and Republicans
- in other words, consensus political
cover that allows the sober and wise
to continue to support Iraq’s war for
freedom and modernity.
James Baker was secretary of state
in 1991, when the Iraqi people were
consigned to the depredations of their
tyrant. Baker needs to remember that,
if he - an old master of Realpolitik
- counsels a policy that leads to any
thing less than victory.
To find out more about Austin Bay,
and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate Web page at
www.creators.com.