Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4A ♦ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2006 Maustati Hailtj OPINION Daniel F. Evans President Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Group Marketing Don Moncrief Managing Editor Perry's sign of the times Perry’s mayor and city council stirred the pot at their meeting this week, tackling two interesting and, possibly, controversial issues. They are going to outlaw knee-high adver tising signs that many businesses and entre preneurs stick in the ground along roads. They should be complimented for recog nizing the existence of this nuisance, which detracts from the attractiveness of the city, and that they are willing to do something about it. Refusing to allow any exceptions, even for churches and city government, shows cour- age and wis dom. Whether politicians during an elec tion can be for bidden to put out their signs may be subject for debate. Councilman Joe Kusar, an outspoken critic of these ugly signs, says “there’s a lot of ways to communicate” without permitting them cluttering the side of roads. Perhaps this could be catching and Houston County, Centerville and Warner Robins will follow suit. There are plenty of these knee high advertising signs in high traffic areas. Perry city officials showed that they are serious about enforcing this ban by appoint ing a code enforcement officer to enforce all the city’s codes and get rid of such unsightly things as broken down cars. Perry also has put itself at the forefront in this county of incorporating impact fees into the city’s comprehensive plan. There is a vocal group of advocates who have said the county, as well as the three cities, should implement impact fees to help offset the cost of new infrastructure that is needed to serve new subdivisions. On the other hand, developers are strongly opposed to impact fees, claiming that they would put a damper on home sales and, con sequently, the prosperity in our county that is fueled by the subdivisions. By hiring a consulting firm to guide them the Perry officials have shown that they are serious. Debate on this issue is sure to follow. Letter to ire Editor Lacking health care Gov. Sonny Perdue is thinking of abolishing health insurance for retired state employees or raising their rates. Now this would not matter if like every other indus tralized nation in the world we had a national health care system like Senator Clinton tried to give us in the ’9os. Americans fail to realize all the benefits of such a sys tem. It would eliminate billions of dollars in billing and personnel costs. We would be a healthier nation because of annual health checks and free drugs. People would live longer and require long term care at later ages. Our workforce would be more productive and happier. We already have to pay for all the poor folks who use our expensive emergency rooms instead of seeing their local GP Illegal undocumented aliens receive free healthcare at public expense so that their illegal employers can reap higher profits. We are subsidizing developers and refusing to implement impact fees because most don’t understand all the unfairness associated with local gov ernments. Ignorance is not bliss. Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins Worth Repeating “There’s no way we’re going to have low cost health insurance in a world of high cost medicine.”. Willis David Gradisonjr. U. S. Congressman (Republican, OH) Send your Letters to the Editor to:' The Houston Home Journal P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com Audrey Evans Vice President Marketi ng/Advertisi ng Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus Refusing to allow any exceptions, even for churches and city government, shows courage and wisdom. Whether politicians during an election can be forbidden to put out their signs may be subject for debate. Holiday is hard on a guy's inertia Inertia is the law of physics that says a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion will stay in motion unless it is acted on by an outside force. It’s a wonderful word. Thanksgiving threatened to inter fere with my favorite type of inertia, though. I had hoped to stay at rest, but all around me people were moving nearly as much as that blasted battery operated bunny. I’m thankful I still managed to relax amid all the activity. You see, Thanksgiving is the one time of year when our children and grandchildren converge on our house, participate in cooking and eating, stake out a bed or sofa or floor to sleep on, and engage in play, conversation and general confusion. Did I mention eating? Despite all the people (only my son was absent), I am usually able to take it slow for those few days. Any change in my physical state is usually the pinch I feel as my pants tighten on my belly after I’ve tried the pecan pie, the chocolate pecan pie, the chocolate chip pie and the sugar-free peanut butter pie. Such relaxing Thanksgivings are becoming a thing of the past, however. A year ago, our kids took up saws and drills and helped rebuild the steps lead ing to our back decks. This year, after hearing that my wife and I had gotten estimates for some home repairs, they said: “Hey, we can do that ourselves. It can be this year’s Thanksgiving ~,THE DAY OF INFAMY-' 12 (g> lorv- CREATORS SYNDICATEINC Saying thanks to aH who have helped you I lost a hero last week, and learned a hard lesson in the process. Dr. Bill Inman died at the age of 82. Bill was a physician in Brunswick. To be as prominent and as respected as he was in the community, he had as little ego as any doctor I’ve ever known. If you ever saw the Marcus Welby character on television, you saw Bill Inman, only he was not an actor. He was the real McCoy a kind and gentle man with a wonderful sense of humor and someone who treated everyone with respect, regardless of their station. He made my world better by being here. The unforgivable thing is that I never told him. Shame on me. I am not going to let that happen again. And don’t you, either. There are a lot of people still around to whom you and I owe a great deal for the impact they have had on our lives. Maybe it is a teacher. Or a neighbor. Or a relative. A friend. Your minister. A co-worker or a classmate. Don’t wait until they are gone to suddenly remem ber what they did for you and how you wish you had told them while they were still alive. Call them up. Write them a note. Go see them. Sure, it may take a few minutes out of your busy schedule, but you wouldn’t be where you are without their help. I’ll start it off by thanking my broth er, Bob. It is appropriate since he is cel ebrating a birthday this week. I won’t divulge his age except to say that he OPINION REMEMBER.,. Glynn Moore Columnist Morris News Service project.” I was doubtful. Do-it-yourself is a foreign language to me. I figure that professionals perform home repairs for a reason: They know what they’re doing. I, on the other hand, wasn’t even clear what soffits and fascias were, didn’t know where half my tools were in the disaster I call a garage, and envisioned our entire family becoming crippled by falls, nails and blades. Did our homeowners’ insurance cover such madness? Wasn’t inertia better than injury? Let’s just hire the job out, I suggested. I was outvoted. Now that it’s all over, we still have our limbs and fingers intact, the house looks much better, and I can tell a soffit from a fascia. Not that I did much of the actual work, you understand. I was there the entire time, but most of my con tributions to the repairs were along the lines of “I’m not sure” and “that sounds about right” and “I’ll go look for that.” While the neighbors were holed Dick Yarbrough Columnist yarb24oo@bellsouth.net is nine years older than me, and I am older than dirt. I will always be grateful to him for many things, including that his hand writing was identical to our mother’s. When I got in trouble at school and had to bring a note home this was in the days before students discovered they could sue teachers for trying to enforce discipline I would beg him to sign the note instead of having to show it to my parents. He would do so only after a lecture and a promise that I would not misbehave in class again a vow that I gladly made and which lasted until the next misdeed and the next appeal for a v signature. This is probably the only dishonest thing he ever did, and I am sure God has for given him for helping his little brother out of some hellish situations. That he even speaks to me today is a miracle of biblical proportions. He once caught me in the backseat of his car while en route with his date to a drive-in movie (I just wanted to see if he was really the Mr. Goody Two-Shoes ...THE OTHER DAY OF INFAMY/ ifi m 1 x - HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL up in their houses remembering the Mayflower, most of the 15 people at our house were creating a racket with table saw, circular saw, chain saw, hammer, paint roller, caulking gun and anything else they could operate under the influ ence of turkey. Our children led the fight as we washed dirt and mold off the house, scraped away paint that had seen bet ter days and popped open cans of primer, paint and wood stain. I climbed a ladder to rise above the work, but instead found myself cutting back trees near the house with a chain saw, all the while wondering where inertia had gone horribly wrong. The grandchildren washed windows, raked leaves in the yard and dragged away the gigantic limbs I had cut down to a pile for burning. Every few hours, we would go indoors to make another dent in the supply of Thanksgiving leftovers. By midday Saturday, every board was in place and every molecule of paint dry. As JoAn looked at our new old house, we realized that we had perfected the art of child-rearing: Start with good kids. Send them out into the world to learn more than we know. Invite them home for a big meal that will give them excess energy and guilt. Then, just sit back and enjoy a heap ing helping of inertia. our parents thought he was), and later I stowed away in the trunk of the car as he and his buddies were preparing to head to Florida. In neither case was he real happy. Go figure. Bob has been a major influence in my life. He set a high bar in the business world president of a publishing company in Chicago which spurred me to work hard in my own career. But he is more than a successful business man. He is a good man. Today, he is the chaplain at Grown Ministries, a financial counseling firm headquarted in Gainesville. He just keeps setting the bar higher. I love and admire my brother very much, but I have never told him because I have been too busy straining at gnats. But no more. Now he knows what he means to me. Sadly it took the death of Bill Inman to remind me to tell him. Now, it is your turn. There is some body who has made a big difference in your life, and you need to let that person know. And, for goodness sakes, don’t wait. Life is short. Besides, what a great gift to give during this special time of year. You don’t have to wrap it or pay for it on the installment plan, and it doesn’t need batteries. You can’t beat that with a stick. You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb24oo(a>bellsouth.net, P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or Web site: www.dickyarbrough.com.