Newspaper Page Text
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♦ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2006
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Group Marketing
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Shop Houston County first
There are only 27 shopping
I 1 days left until Christmas.
VJr Yes, it’s that time of year again.
The mne when merchant shops are filled to
the brim with holiday shoppers.
Over the past handful of years, internet
professionals (and some maybe not so pro
fessional using the same delivery system)
have tried - and to a certain extent suc
ceeded - in making it oh so convenient to
shop on line.
The Home Shopping Network has made it
its livelihood for a number of years, pedal
ing merchandise on TV and just 20 minutes
north, Macon
has ... well to
be honest, a
great selection
of shops.
But, so
does Houston
County and
that’s our
challenge to
you this shop-
ping year: Try
Houston County first.
We’re asking everybody to shop our home
town/your hometown before looking else
where.
Our bet is you won’t find a better selection
and you can and will find anything you’re
after.
You’ll save on gas. You’ll save on postage.
And, more importantly, you’ll put money
back into the community where it in turn
can only make us stronger.
Just be quick because now there are only
26 days, 10 hours, 32 minutes, 14 seconds
... and counting ... until Christmas.
Letter to the Ejhtor
Who adjusts the lights?
Who is responsible for adjusting the traffic lights in
downtown Perry? Drive downtown at 12:30 p.m. or at
5:30 p.m. during the week and you will see a small traf
fic jam. The erratic lights are the cause of this problem.
Washington Street is the worst of all streets. Four-way
stop signs would be quicker and safer.
These downtown traffic lights have never worked cor
rectly. When they are adjusted, the adjustments only
work for a short time. Is the equipment substandard? Are
the technicians making the adjustments, qualifed?
An unrelated item is the new Hwy. 41/Meeting Street
design. The dual stop signs at the Main Street intersec
tion are an accident waiting to happen. The lanes are also
too narrow. Try turning right onto Meeting Street from
Main Street, when a vehicle is in the Meeting Street left
turn lane. A much simpler design would be safer.
Greg Carroll, Perry
Worth Repeating
“In the Plymouth Colony there were a series of tasks
that had to be performed every day for the survival and
benefit of the community. The workload was shared by all
citizens. One Christmas some of the younger men decided
not to work on religious grounds believing that their
religious interpretation forbad work on Christmas. They
were excused, but soon the Governor discovered that all
the young men in question were playing and sporting in
the street. It is against my conscience that you should
play whilst others were at work: and that if you had any
devotion to the day, you should show it at home in the
exercises of religion, and not in the streets with pasttime
and frolicks.”
William Bradford, 1590-1657
Pilgrim Father & Governor of Plymouth Colony
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Audrey Evans
Vice President
Marketing!Advertising
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
You'll save on gas. You'll
save on postage. And,
more importantly, you'll
put money back Into the
community where It In
turn can only make us
stronger.
Salary increase is worth it
Public response to the proposal to
increase the salary of the mayor
of Warner Robins to SIOO,OOO a
year has been surprisingly mild.
In a community where there is out
rage over a small increase in taxes, it
is enlightening to see acceptance of
doubling the mayor’s salary by most of
the people I have talked with as “long
overdue.”
The most frequent comment I have
heard is, “The job is worth it.”
And I agree.
The mayor of Warner Robins is the
chief executive officer. He runs the city
on a day to day basis. It is a full time
job. The pay never has been commen
surate with what the mayor has to do.
Mayor Donald Walker, who would
benefit from the increase in pay if he
wins another term in office, was the
sole member of the governing body to
vote against asking the legislature to
increase the mayor’s pay. He said that
he is serving to “give back” to a com
munity that has been good to him and
his family.
When I became mayor of Warner
Robins 30 years ago the pay was
$19,500 a year. It was low for a full
time executive, but I sought the office
because I wanted to continue to be
involved in a city that I had been
privileged to see grow up since 1948.
City managers in nearby cities earn
SIOO,OOO or more. Warner Robins’
mayor fulfills all the responsibilities
of a city manager and also must carry
out all the political responsibilities of
a mayor.
One reservation that I have had
in the past with regard to a high
salary for a mayor is that the office
might wind up being filled by someone
"Every year my wife decides not to be wasteful,
and I always get a waist-full of turkey sandwiches!"
Looking at Iraq's war of perception
In 1980, Washington Post reporter
Janet Cooke wrote a story titled
“Jimmy’s World,” the startling tale
of an 8-year-old “third-generation her
oin addict” living in Washington, D.C.
Cooke’s expose’ captured several
volatile issues in one tear-drenched
package. “Jimmy’s World” had drugs,
race, poverty, “fast money and the good
life.”
In 1981, Cooke won the coveted
Pulitzer Prize for journalism.
Fine and dandy - except she should
have won the Pulitzer for fiction.
“Jimmy’s World” was a complete
crock. Little Heroin Jimmy didn’t
exist. The Washington Post, its pub
lisher, Donald Graham, and Cooke’s
editor, Bob Woodward, were all duly
embarrassed when Cooke’s fraud was
exposed. Her Pulitzer was withdrawn.
Woodward (of Watergate fame)
admitted he failed to confirm the
story. “I believed it; we published it,”
Woodward said.
In 1973, The National News Council
was created to serve as an “indepen
dent forum” for encouraging respon
sible journalism and investigating
allegations of press misconduct. My
mentor, Norman Isaacs (a Pulitzer
Prize-winning editor), served as coun
cil chairman for five years. Major press
organizations -- especially The New
York Times - dismissed the National
News Council as superfluous, arguing
it had a “chilling effect” on aggres
sive reporting. The council published a
OPINION
who wanted it for the money, someone
whose background and experience did
not qualify him for the job.
However, it is about time for Warner
Robins to make it worthwhile for indi
viduals with good incomes to seek the
office of mayor. It should pay enough
to attract men or women with manage
rial, as well as political, skills.
It can be up to the voters to decide if
candidates are qualified or unqualified
and which candidates will be worth the
price being offered for their services.
■ ■■
Who can you trust with your tax
money? Certainly not the people respon
sible for running the Guantanamo Bay
military detention center.
This story will blow your mind. A
prisoner needs a heart catherization.
He is seeking a court order for treat
ment in the U.S. or Pakistan. So far not
so bad, though not great.
But here’s where our tax dollars
go astray. The military has prepared
for his catherization at the detention
center. To be prepared for any con
tingency, the military has spent more
than $400,000 flying in a 24-member
team of cardiac specialists.
Imagine that.
More than $400,000 to be sure the
thorough study of Cooke’s debacle an
examination that was ignored by the
great press powers. Shortly thereafter,
in 1983, the council shut down, due to
lack of support.
We now move from Jimmy’s World to
Capt. Jamil Hussein.
Now, if I were “writing hot” - writing
for sensational effect -1 would have led
with the alleged Jamil’s blazing claim:
that six Iraqi Sunnis were dragged
from a mosque in Baghdad last week,
doused with kerosene and burned to
death by a Shia mob. Four mosques
were also (allegedly) burned.
The Associated Press ran the dous
ing story on Nov. 24, and the story was
repeated worldwide. (I read it online
in the International Herald Tribune,
a publication owned by The New York
Times.)
Sensational, “headline-generating”
elements absolutely jam the story:
gruesome savagery, mob action, chaos
in Iraq.
The AP identified “Police Captain
Jamil Hussein” as its source for the
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Foy
Evans
Columnist
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Austin
Bay
Columnist
Creators Syndiccate
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
prisoner gets the best of care. How can
anyone say this is sensible? Who’s in
charge of the asylum?
I’m afraid I would not trust the peo
ple in charge of the military detention
center at Gitmo with any of my money.
Oh yes, it is your money and mine that
they are throwing away, already.
■ ■■
The popularity of gift cards is grow
ing. I have received some in the past
and they have come in handy at some
of my favorite restaurants.
There is something everyone pur
chasing a gift card should remember,
and those who receive them should,
too.
Businesses that sell gift cards get
100 percent of the value of the cards.
However, some businesses arrogantly
reduce the value of gift cards as time
goes by. A SIOO gift card from most
businesses can be used for SIOO of gifts
any time. Some businesses reduce the
value of gift cards by a certain percent
age as the months pass after they are
bought. They still keep all the money
they received for the cards. Some com
panies even have an expiration date for
the use of gift cards.
So the purchaser and receiver should
be aware of this possibility. The simple
solution to this problem is never to
purchase a gift card from a business
that does not guarantee the card is
worth 100 percent of the purchase
price, without reservations.
I’m fortunate. I never have received
a gift card that caused any problem.
I have friends who have not been so
lucky.
story, with a second source identified
as “a Sunni elder.”
On Nov. 25, the press office of Multi-
National Corps-Iraq (MNCI) published
press release No. 20061125-09 (see
mnf-iraq.com). The MNCI stated that
investigation showed only one mosque
had been attacked and found no evi
dence to support the story of the six
immolated Sunnis.
The U.S.-based Website Flopping Aces
(floppingaces.net) has published an
email from MNCI to the AP that states
“no one below the level of chief is
authorized to be an Iraqi police spokes
person.” The email also addresses the
story of the Sunnis being burned alive:
“... neither we nor Baghdad Police
had any reports of such an incident
after investigating it and could find
no one to corroborate the story. ... We
can tell you definitively that the pri
mary source of this story, police Capt.
Jamil Hussein, is not a Baghdad police
officer or an Ministry of the Interior
employee.” The letter is attributed to
U.S. Navy Lt. Michael Dean.
I contacted CENTCOM’s Baghdad
press office and received an email con
firming that Hussein is not a police
man nor does he work for Iraq’s MOI.
Flopping Aces noted that the AP has
quoted “Jamil Hussein” in at least
eight stories since April 2006.
So who is Jamil?
At this point we really don’t know.
The AP hasn’t provided definitive
See BAY,page 6A