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♦ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2006 4A Mimsttm Daily .IJmmtal OPINION Daniel F. Evans President Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Group Marketing Don Moncrief Managing Editor Our share Gov. Sonny Perdue said it: Georgia’s growing economy is not a license to boost spending. We agree. During Perdue’s watch the past four years we have seen Georgia’s lagging economy climb out of the doldrums. The economy is humming along at an impressive rate now and the state’s coffers are filling up. Under such circumstances it is the ten dency of the legislature to go on a spending spree. After all, they like to please their con stituents and they have to get elected every two years. Bringing home the bacon, as it is called, is popular with the folks back home. Many people judge politicians by how much money they can get the state to spend on them and their pet proj ects. Only last week Warner Robins city offi cials presented their wish list to members of our legislative delegation. We are sure that the Houston County commissioner, as well as city officials from Perry and Centerville, have also communicated with the legisla tors. This goes on all over the state. Nothing new about it. When times w r ere tough it was possible for the legislature and governor to keep a cap on reckless spending, even cutting back occasionally. It is different now. Everyone knows that the state is in good financial shape and it will be more difficult to keep a tight rein on spending so that surpluses can be built up. Perdue is no pushover. If members of the legislature start spending more than he considers rational he probably will use his veto pen. Not having to seek reelection (he will soon start his last four years as governor) Perdue is in a position of strength and can afford to offend some constituencies that might not agree with his ideas on spending. Republicans control both houses of the legislature, as well as the governorship, but that does not mean there will be unanimous agreement on how the state’s money should be distributed. We just hope that our county will receive what so handily and frequently is referred to as “our share”. Letter to the Editor Groups are the most discriminating, intolerant An article in the Dec. 14 Houston Daily Journal con cerning Gov. (Sonny) Purdue’s assessment of the state’s economy closed with a simple statement by the governor that “he would again push for a pair of constitutional amendments that failed to gain the needed two-thirds majority in the past session.” The article gave no indication of the intent of the two amendments; however, in his address to the state legislators gathered in Athens for the Biennial Institute he made the ridiculous statement, “we can not afford to have the state continue discriminating against organizations simply because they are faith based,” This is ridiculous because the religious groups to which he wants to funnel money are among the most discriminating and intolerant on the planet. What Perdue wants to do is to change the state constitution to allow religious groups access to the state coffers; which is, for good reason, forbidden now by the state constitution. Article I. Section 11. Paragraph VII states: “Separation of church and state. No money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, cult, or reli gious denomination or of any sectarian institution.” When the government and religion start trading money for favors and favors for money we have taken a step down the slippery slope to a theocracy. See LETTER, page 6A Audrey Evans Vice President Marketing I Advertising Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus Bringing home the bacon, as it is called, is popular with the folks back home. Many people judge politicians by how much money they can get the state to spend on them and their pet projects. We could use a little less color Christmas always has been some thing special for young people and, as we grow older, memories abound. I remember those Christmases when, after my father died, we had dinner fwe had dinner, not lunch, in the middle of the day back then) with friends and the children were then given a dime each and treated to a movie. It seems that the movies they showed on Christmas Day always appealed to children. Early in the morning we had opened our presents not many of them, but surely appreciated and enjoyed candy and fruits that we seldom saw the rest of the year. This reminds me that very few chil dren were obese back then. The fed eral government did not have to tell us what to eat or to take exercise. Almost everything we had to eat was healthy food and if we wanted to play or go anywhere we did it on our feet, which added up to plenty of exercise each day. The grammar schools I attended were two miles from my home. So was downtown Americus. I walked back and forth to school each day and thought nothing of it. The city school system did not have buses and we did not have an automobile. Americus’ downtown businesses may have been two miles away, but it did not seem so far. As a matter of fact, my friends and I ran to town, instead of walking, because we were so anxious to get there. And, if we stayed a little lon- PAST / I JUST WANT MV \ / KIDSTOHAVE A \ BETTER. EDUCATION \ THAN I HAD ? I My proposal: Christmas once a month In the past two weeks leading up to Christmas, here’s the breakdown of what has been on our family’s schedule: 5 Christmas parties 3 Christmas dinners 2 Children’s Christmas church out ings 3 other Christmas church outings 1 State Championship Football Game 3 Book signings (for my book, “The Greatest Book Ever Written About Cheese,” available at fine bookstores everywhere) 2 Birthday Parties 2 Doctor’s appointments 3 Visits from relatives , 1 family viewing of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” 1 family viewing of Daddy crying as he writes a check to pay his taxes. And that doesn’t include the work duties, Christmas shopping, eating, flat tires, more eating, hissy fits, and lunches that sap so much time from our family’s day. Simply put, there is too much going on around Christmas time for a normal person to. handle, much less a subnor mal person like myself. Why do we try to pack in all our cel ebrations into one “holiday season”? We’ve got something like 14 months in a year. Why do we insist on cramming all of this festive joy into 31 days of OPINION ger than we should have, we ran all the way home to get there before dark. The policemen all knew us. So did the Firemen. They kept an eye on us when we were in town and our parents felt good about that. Going to a movie was a treat. I was fascinated by what I saw on the screen. The movies were silent. Someone in the front of the theater would play music on a piano or organ, attempting to make the music complement what was on the screen, It was wonderful. I remember the first talking movie. There were just a couple of scenes in which A 1 Jolson sang. Everyone was fascinated and incredulous that some one could actually sing in a movie. Getting to go to a movie on Saturday was something else. Families gathered downtown on Saturdays and when our parents could spare a dime to go to a movie we went to the Rylander Theater to see our favorite cowboys beat the bad guys or the Indians. You could always tell the good guys from the bad guys by the hats they wore. Good guys wore white hats. Villains wore black hats. PRESENT / I JU6T WANT MV ) KlDBTfr HAVE AN b stressful agony? We spend the other months twiddling our thumbs, putting off our Christmas shopping, doing basically nothing. I say we utilize those lazy months of January through November to allevi ate this December holiday fury. Here’s my proposal: Celebrate Christmas every month. Hear me out. As stated, there are many months without any significant holidays. Take January, for instance. The only holidays I really celebrate in January are National Blonde Brownie Day-January 22, National Pie Day- January 23, and National Beer Can Appreciation Day-January 24 (I usu ally just take off the entire week). If we don’t have this mad Christmas blitz, then we won’t even have a need for Festival of Sleep Day on January 3 (although I’ll miss it dearly). Since Christmas is celebrated on December 25, I would suggest having Christmas every month on the 25th, 11 Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox net m " Len Robbins Columnist airpub@planttel.net HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Often when the hero and heroine were in danger the cavalry, with bugle blowing fat least the bugler was blow ing the horn, though there was no sound) would arrive just in time. I remember on several occasions staying at the theater and watching a movie several times to see if the cav alry always arrived in time. It always did. When sound Finally was added to the silent movies they were more exciting and thrilling and real, though they were in black and white and full of what we today would call “snow”. Villains from outer space threatened the world. Buck Rogers saved us and the world. Men flew around in outer space with jet packs on their backs. It didn’t matter that they were in outer space, breathing as normally as they could on Earth. We had so little entertainment that a little went a long way. We had so few toys that we invented our own toys. We thought we knew a lot, but today’s children, in addition to being spoiled and having so many toys that they don’t appreciate any of them, know much more than we did and, in my opinion, may be smarter, too. So, with Christmas only a few days away, children await the avalanche of toys and gifts that will come their way. They will look at them, maybe play with them for a little while, and then become bored. That is the tragedy of a world that is so affluent. Future i I T JUST Wfiwr ) just to make things simple. Instead of having to buy all your Christmas gifts during December, or, as I do, on December 23 at 8 p.m., with 12 months of Christmas, you would have the lei surely freedom of shopping throughout the year. I would also offer this adden dum to make it interesting: The receiv ers of your gifts wouldn’t know which Christmas date they would be receiving your gift. On July 25, you could sur prise your spouse with their Christmas gift. On March 25, one of your children gets their toy. On September 25, it’s football season, so you obviously skip that Christmas date altogether. Such a set-up would promote more family get-togethers, less financial hassle, and less eggnog-induced office party embarrassments. The only pos sible downside would be an increased workload for Santa Claus. I mentioned this proposal in my letter to Santa, and hope that he reacts favorably. If he doesn’t, I guess I won’t get that tram poline I asked for. Also, some folks say Christ wasn’t even born in December, so adding 11 more Christmas celebrations shouldn’t be a problem there. The best part is that we would be able to celebrate the birth of Christ more often, not just once a year in a material fervor. That said, maybe we should celebrate Christmas every day.