Newspaper Page Text
♦ TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2006
4A
Muuatou ©uil\3 .IJmmtttl
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans
Managing Editor Editor Emeritus
Is it time for the draft?
Democratic Representative Charlie Rangel
will be chairman of the House Ways and
Means Committee when Congress convenes
next January.
He has revealed that the first bill he
intends to introduce will call for reinstating
the universal military draft.
Rangel, a Vietnam War veteran, has con
tended for a long time that elected officials
would not rush into wars if their own sons
or daughters were likely to wind up in the
line of fire on the battlefield.
He probably has a good point there.
In our opinion, one of the biggest mistakes
this country has made was eliminating
the military
draft after the
Vietnam War.
While the all
volunteer mil
itary has been
efficient and
effective, it
also has been
alarmingly
expensive and
has, in a way,
isolated many
Americans
from a feeling
that they are
part of any
armed conflict.
We would like to see universal service,
with the following caveats:
• The purpose of the draft would be,
primarily, for military service, for a period
of two years.
• There would be no exceptions to serv
ing. Anyone - male or female - who was
a conscientious objector still would have
to serve in some form of government pro
gram which would provide them with the
same strict discipline as military service.
Something like the Peace Corps would not
be acceptable.
We believe that this country would be
a better place to live if a universal draft
had been in effect during the past three
decades.
Millions of young men and women are
growing up today without any real disci
pline or purpose. Millions are drifting into
deplorable lifestyles.
We have seen boys enter the military and
we have seen them come out as men, real
men.
Young women, too, would benefit from
compulsory service of some kind with the
same standards of discipline as the mili
tary.
We hope that members of Congress will
take Rep. Rangel’s proposal seriously. It
could put our country back on the right track
by providing millions of rudderless young
men and women with a new outlook on life.
And it would, as Rep. Rangel says, make
our leaders more cautious when it comes
to getting involved in war if their sons and
daughters’ lives were on the line.
Worth Repeating
“When you’re spending 24 billion dollars in pork barrel
transportation projects how can you go to the American
people and talk about tax increases.”
John McCain 111
U. S. Senator (Republican, AZ)
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 Daily 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 Daily Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters
to the editor are published in the order they are received as
space permits. There are three ways to submit a letter to the
editor: E-mail it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The
Houston Daily 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.
While the
all-vohinteer military
has been efficient
and effective, it also
has been alarmingly
expensive and has, in
a way, isolated many
Americans from a
feeling that they are
part of any armed
conflict.
Times change for better, worse
The world has changed. No get
ting around that. It is different
than it was when my generation
was growing up, and it is different than
a few generations that have followed
me. In a lot of ways ... some obvious,
some subtle.
Nobody was in any particular hurry
back then. They had their work to do
and somehow it was done and there
was time for visits with neighbors and
neighborhood get-togethers and family
fun.
Who has time for all that today?
I remember the long, hot summer
days when the kids in the neighbor
hood turned an open field into a base
ball diamond and played from early
morning until dark, barely taking time
out to eat lunch. (What has happened
to real neighborhoods?)
We children always seemed to have
enough to do without the benefit of
blaring radios or television or expen
sive planned recreation programs.
We even did something that seems to
have gone out of style ... we read a lot
and enjoyed doing it.
■ ■■
You hardly ever hear anyone saying
the little slogans everyone seemed to
live by anymore.
You would be laughed right out
of town if you said something like
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness” now
adays.
Everybody knows in our enlightened
time that anybody who is “with it”
abhors bathing and haircuts and shav
ing.
And we were reminded often
that “pretty is as pretty does.”
How long since you heard
such an absurd thing?
Things are beautiful now, baby, but it
has nothing at all to do with your con
duct ... as a matter of fact, somebody
eventually may come up with a more
appropriate saying such as “pretty is as
pretty doesn’t.”
As outdated as the horse and buggy
is, another saying that we heard often
and lived by, whether we liked it or
not ...’’Children should be seen and
not heard.” Now everything is “for the
■ ■■
"Lord, watch over our loved ones this Thanksgiving...
Concepts that could revolutionize your marriage
The concept of unconditional love
is easy to understand if not so
easy to practice in our relation
ships. To some degree, it’s something
we all long for - to be loved by another
person even when our shortcomings
are exposed. We simply long to be loved
fully even when we’re fully known, or
when we don’t deserve it.
Respect is another matter altogether.
I suspect most view respect as some
thing that is earned, not simply given.
But Dr. Emerson Eggerichs - backed
up by psychological studies - asserts
that unconditional respect is just as
important to a man as unconditional
love is to a woman. He also says that
our failure to understand these deep
but different needs of men and women
is what often leads to disharmony even
in marriages where both spouses truly
care and are willing to work on their
relationship.
Intuition and our own personal expe
riences, of course, make it quite obvious
to us that both men and women desire
both love and respect and not either
one exclusively. But Eggerichs says
that, generally speaking, love matters
more to women and respect matters
more to men.
On the issue of men and respect,
Dr. Eggerichs, who holds a PhD in
child and family ecology from Michigan
State University, sites a national study
that surveyed four hundred men,
giving them a choice between going
through two different negative expe
riences. The men were asked which
would they be most willing to endure
if they were forced between choose one
of the following: a) to be left alone and
unloved in the world, or b) to feel inad
equate and disrespected by everyone.
Seventy-four percent of these men said
they’d prefer (a) - being left alone and
unloved.
Eggerichs argues that it’s often our
OPINION
Foy
Evans
Columnist
(oyevansl9@cox net
children” and, too often, children can
be heard over everything else.
Everybody who knows anything now
is completely aware that it warps a
child's personality to tell him or her
to be quiet ... If you are any kind of
parent at all now you must encourage
children to express themselves, speak
up and do “their thing” and you should
not interfere with this free expression
of their personalities and, too often, let
them rule the roost, lest you ruin their
lives forever.
■ ■■
We grew up eating such food as peas
and cornbread and sweet taters and
pork chops because they were all that
was available and because it “stuck to
your ribs.” (No fast food restaurants
then.)
Now we learn that this “soul food” is
bad for our cholesterol and, goodness
knows, whatever else.
We of my generation still prefer such
plain food to anything else because it is
what we became used to as a child, and
to be completely honest it tastes bet
ter. (I have difficulty enjoying gourmet
food prepared by a chef.)
We went to tiny school houses with
wood floors soaked in oil and often two
or three grades in one classroom.
We learned all about the three R’s
... and we were taught penmanship
because it was a matter of pride to
know how to write well ... We were
drilled on the basics of the English
language. It was good reason to be
punished if you murdered the English
language in your school work or in the
way you talked.
We know better than to follow such
outdated and old fashioned ways today,
Randy
Hicks
Columnist
Georgia Family Council
failure to understand a woman’s deep
need for love and a man’s deep need for
respect that leads to what he calls “The
Crazy Cycle.” The Crazy Cycle works
like this:
In his book, Love & Respect, Dr.
Eggerichs highlights six areas of key
importance to each spouse. First, for
husbands, show you love her by meet
ing these needs:
■ Closeness - She wants to be close.
“Your wife will feel loved when you
move toward her and let her know you
want to be close with a look, a touch,
or a smile.” She’ll feel loved when you
enter into her world, initiate meaning
ful conversations and make time with
her a priority.
■ Openness - She wants you to open
up to her, to talk about your day, your
thoughts and your future together.
Understanding - She wants you to
listen and reflect back what she’s feel
ing; she doesn’t want you to fix her.
She also wants to know she’s appreci
ated for her efforts on behalf of your
marriage and family.
■ Peacemaking - When you’re wrong,
she wants you to admit it and say, “I’m
sorry.”
■ Loyalty - Nothing creates greater
insecurity and distrust than a per
ceived (or real) lack of commitment.
She needs to know that you’re protect
ing your marriage and putting her and
the family first.
■ Esteem - She wants you to honor
and cherish her. Demonstrate your
S'
a
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
because there have been many decades
of progress since then and everyone
knows that the way we were taught
failed to prepare us to make out in the
world.
I’ll tell you a story about a pre-plan
ning session attended by teachers in
one of Atlanta’s suburbs, as repeated
by one of the teachers who was there.
According to this teacher, they were
told that if a child spoke up and said
something like, “I ain’t got nothing
to write with but I don’t want no blue
pencil,” don’t correct the child’s gram
mar ... remember that the child is com
municating, baby, and communicating
is the main thing.
Fortunately, Houston County’s
schools are not that progressive.
■ ■■
I speak of the “good old days” with
nostalgia but I do not wish that I could
live them again.
I know that I have it better today
than ever before and anyone who says
he would prefer to go back to the days
before we had air conditioning and
central heat ... paved roads and good
automobiles ... and airplanes ... and
electric refrigerators and food freezers
... and many other conveniences we
have today ...has to be kidding.
But I do miss the good old slogans
most of us were brought up by... and
I miss the simple determination to
make the most of what we had at our
disposal ... appreciation for the little
that we had.
It causes sadness to see so many
people today with so much and still
unhappy.
Our forefathers were so grateful to
survive a year in this new country that
they declared a Day of Thanksgiving
... Our blessings are so many today
that we should make every day a day of
thanksgiving ... not just one Thursday
in November.
Never in the history of mankind
have so many people had it so good and
been so dissatisfied at the same time.
They are the unhappy ones.
The happy people are those who
realize how well off they are ... and are
grateful!
admiration, look for opportunities to
praise her, and never embarrass her in
front of the kids or anyone else.
Dr. Eggerichs suggests that women
need to demonstrate respect for their
husbands by being sensitive to the fol
lowing six areas of need:
■ Conquest - Like you, he wants
to know that he’s appreciated for his
desire to work and achieve. Express
gratitude for his efforts and sacrifice.
This is especially important when work
may not be going well.
■ Hierarchy - He wants to feel that
you appreciate his desire to provide for
and protect you and the family, to the
point of giving his life. And he wants
to feel he is worthy of being “looked
up to.”
■ Authority - Your husband wants
to know that you appreciate his desire
to serve and to lead. Tell him you are
thankful for his strength and are glad
to be able to lean on him. Praise his
good decisions and be gracious if he
makes a bad one.
■ Insight - Tell your husband you
appreciate his desire to analyze and
counsel when he sees a problem. Most
likely, his tendency is to “fix” things.
Don’t criticize that, just let him know
up front you simply need a listening
ear. But, recognize his problem-solving
tendency as the male brand of empa
thy.
■ Relationship - Appreciate his
desire for shoulder-to-shoulder friend
ship; tell him you like him and show
it; realize he sometimes just wants you
to be with him, not conversing, just
watching him work, joining him in a
project, or sitting together sharing an
experience.
■ Sexuality - Your husband wants
to know you appreciate his desire for
sexual intimacy. You can show this by
responding to him sexually more often,
and initiating sex periodically.