Newspaper Page Text
♦ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10,2007
4A
Jkmsttm journal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Group Marketing
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Kids shouldn't be the losers
It comes as gloomy news that Georgia’s
Department of Community Health is
having to put a freeze on enrolling new
children in the Peach Care health insurance
program.
The program provides comprehensive
healthcare coverage for children living in
households at or below 235 percent of the
federal poverty level. An example of eligibil
ity would be a family of four with an income
of $47,000 a year. About 26,000 children in
Georgia are benefiting from this program.
We now face the problem of a federal
shortfall of sl3l million in funding. There
was a tempo
rary fix by the
U.S. Congress
in late 2006,
which is keep
ing the pro
gram going
through
next month,
but Georgia
remains one
of 14 states
which faces an
immediate and
critical lack
of funds for
this program
if the federal
government
does not come
through with
the necessary
funding
Gov. Sonny Perdue has gone to Washington
to testify about regarding our concern for
our children, and members of our state
delegation are working hard to find a solu
tion.
We hope, for the sake of Georgia’s working
families, that they will find a solution. The
losers in a battle over funds should never be
children.
Letter to the Editor
Oaky Woods neglect
I am thoroughly ticked off. Once again another beauti
ful woodland environment is neglected by its proprietors
and abused by its visitors.
I am talking about the section of Oaky Woods Wildlife
Management Area that is located north of Robins Air
Force Base between the water treatment plant and the
Ocmulgee River.
In these woods I have enjoyed many hours of peaceful
walking down dirt roads and trails, which weave through
and around the retention ponds and wetland areas. 1 have
watched otters, alligator and heron. I saw my first Ibis
and Anhinga there. I found my first archeological site
there, though it was deemed un-noteworthy.
This is where the Eechiconnie Creek and Ocmulgee
River meet. This is where white heron nest. This is where
history ad pre-history can be found. This is where pretty
wild flowers and sweet blackberries grow.
For years I have shared and respected this land along
side rattlesnake and wild boar. I have practiced my pho
tography on sunrises and sunsets, taken my children
fishing when they were young and spent my quiet time
with God in these woods. Now these woods have fallen
into disrepair. How can that be? How can a natural envi
ronment not be able to take care of itself? I will tell you.
Forest fires kill plant life. Tire tracks scar land where
birds once nested. Plastic bottles, shot gun shells and
broken glass deface landscapes. People, disrespectful,
negligent, uncaring people create the disrepair.
One of the original homesteads of Houston County was
located in these woods. It was burned down. The sign at
the entrance, which displayed maps and regulations was
recently knocked over, dragged away and burned. In its
place used condoms and beer bottles were left. The gate
that closed at 10 pm was smashed years ago.
Nothing here is repaired. A few pink wetland cloth
strips have been hung here and there. Duck boxes are
vandalized. Anything can become target practice. The
remnants of yellow tape can be found dangling in trees
where erosion from dirt bikes and four wheelers is eating
away at the roads. No road has been repaired in many
years.
I have contacted both Oaky Woods Wildlife Management
and the State Environmental Department. Both admit
the land’s ownership and therefore stewardship is in
limbo at this time. Mean while the area has been taken
over by local rednecks and hunters who do not have its
best interest at heart.
I highly recommend, no I beg you to go visit these
woods. Bring your binoculars, walking shoes and a water
bottle. See how beautiful they can be and maybe together
we can find a way to save them. You may be their last
hope.
Brenda L Sapp, Warner Robins
Audrey Evans
Vice President
Marketing!Advertising
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
The program provides
comprehensive
healthcare
coverage for children
living in households at
or below 235 percent
of the federal poverty
level. An example of
eligibility would be a
family of four with an
income of $47,000 a
year. About 26,000
children in Georgia are
benefiting from this
program.
We had a lot going for us
Maybe we had just run of some
thing to talk about. And maybe
we were onto something.
Anyway, we began discussing the
tools that people need in pursuit of
their goals in life.
There was the carpenter with his
saw and hammer.
The dentist with his drill.
The surgeon with scalpel.
The lawyer with a library of law
books.
The list went on and on. We dis
cussed only the basic tools of various
trades, but we got the jist of things.
Then someone asked, “What are the
tools that everyone, regardless of trade
or profession of goal in life, need?"
We agreed that the answer was what
we used to call the three Rs: readin’,
writin’ and ‘rithmatic. (Reading, writ
ing and arithmetic)
Everyone agreed that these three
tools are essential to getting ahead in
life in this country. Without any one of
the three Rs a person can pretty well
look forward to a life flipping ham
burgers.
I was in the first grade of school
exactly 80 years ago. School rooms
were bare and we sat in old fashioned
chairs that went out of style years ago.
We did not gather around tables and
work together. Each of us was on his
or her own.
Our classrooms were nothing like
those you see today. We did not have the
many enhancements used to get atten
tion or instruct. I am overwhelmed
when I see youngsters’ classrooms
today and ways that teachers have to
inspire their students.
We just got the basics. From the
beginning there was phonics. Learn
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The left's definition of a hero'
Angry, left-wing Washington Post
blogger William Arkin considers
American troops in Iraq who
believe in their mission “mercenaries”
who are “naive” and should be thank
ful they haven’t been spit upon yet.
Curdled Democrat Sen. John Kerry
thinks those soldiers, who volunteer
for service, didn’t “make an effort to be
smart” and are “stuck in Iraq” because
of their intellectual deficiencies. At the
last anti-war spasm in Washington, lib
eral peace-lovers vandalized a military
recruitment office - repeating an act
of destruction taken by rock-wielding
thugs across college campuses and at
ROTC headquarters nationwide.
So, who inspires these troop-bash
ers? Whose courage do they cheer?
Whom do they call “hero”?
Not the American soldier on the bat
tlefield, willingly and freely putting his
life on the line for his beliefs, his fam
ily, our country, security and freedom.
No, their idea of a military hero is
Army Lt. Ehren Watada. Did Watada
take a bullet for his comrades? Rescue
innocent civilians from insurgent
forces? Throw himself on a grenade?
Ambush a terrorist sniper nest? No.
Watada’s the soldier who went on
trial this week for defying orders to be
deployed to Iraq - after volunteering
for duty. For those deficient in English,
here’s the meaning of volunteer: “To
perform or offer to perform a service of
one’s own free will.” Hundreds of anti
war groupies, including actor Sean
Penn, showed up to cheer Watada.
Watada was scheduled to leave Fort
Lewis, Wash., for his first tour of duty
in Iraq last summer. Instead of get
ting on the bus with his fellow sol-
OPINION
the sound of letter and combination
of letters and you an pretty well fig
ure out words and tad. All the world
opens up to anyone yith good reading
skills.
I don’t know if here are public
schools today that »ach pure pho
nics. There may not b any. I do know
parents who are concened enough to
pay good money for suh programs as
“Hooked On Phonics” ■> be sure their
children really don’t hag to memorize
words.
Young people today knw more than
we did. They may or may not be
smarter. But they certaily are more
worldly wise.
But I wager that all of m classmates
could read with greater i.cility than
most of their counterparts oday.
For some reason educator never are
satisfied with the way thing are done
in the classroom. (Teachers ave to do
it the way some bureaucrat smewhere
says things should be done.)
Eighty years ago I was tauht pho
nics. Reading always has ben easy
for me. That opened the way o glean
knowledge from many sources It also
paved the way for a lifetime ci enjoy
able reading, for pleasure and iiprove
ment.
Educators were not satisfied. iy the
time my sister, who was two ’ears
diers, he announced he would not go
and denounced the war as “unjust”
and “illegal.” He was the only mili
tary officer to refuse deployment to
Iraq with Fort Lewis’ 4,000-member
Stryker Brigade. The anti-war propa
ganda machine kicked into full gear for
Watada, with coordinated press confer
ences in Tacoma, Wash., and Honolulu,
where Watada grew up.
Some of Watada’s hometown neigh
bors are sick of his intellectual dis
ingenuousness. Writing in Watada’s
hometown newspaper, the Honolulu
Advertiser, retired Col. Thomas D.
Farrell, who served as an Army intel
ligence officer in Iraq in 2005-2006,
retorted:
“How can anyone seriously claim
that our military involvement in Iraq
is illegal when both Congress and the
U.N. have taken the steps to authorize
it, and allow it to continue to this day?
Lt. Watada argues that he has the right
to make his own personal assessment,
notwithstanding whatever Congress
and the U.N. may do. If he’s right, why
not make our personal assessments
about how fast is safe to drive, or how
much tax is our fair share? The answer
is obvious: Anarchy would prevail, and
the rule of law - the basis of all real
Foy
Evans
Columnist
loyevansl9@cox.net
Jaß
SH:
Michelie
Malkin
Columnist
malkin@comcast.net
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
younger than me, entered school they
had abandoned phonics. She had to
look at words and memorize them. She
knew the word “cat”, for example, by
the way those three letters looked. Not
by the sound. She is now 84 years old
and still has trouble looking up in the
dictionary a word she hears but does
not see.
Another change was on the horizon.
Two years later another sister became
a first grader. She benefited from the
fact that already they had gone back to
teaching phonics.
For the intervening 80 years meth
ods of teaching have changed back
and forth. How can anyone forget the
disaster of 40 years ago when the rage
in education was Roberts English and
Modern Math. Both were disasters
and deprived thousands of children in
Houston County alone the solid funda
mentals in these two important fields.
Some things appear basic and fun
damental to me. But you can count on
someone in an ivory tower somewhere
in the educational bureaucracy to dic
tate experiments that are doomed to
failure.
As for the two Rs, other than read
ing, we learned the multiplication
tables and, unlike so many high school
graduates I run across today, could
make change without a calculator or
cash register.
As for writing, there was the Palmer
method, where we practiced to make
our handwriting clear and personal.
From what I see of young people today
apparently years ago a decision was
made that being able to write legibly
and attractively were a waste of time.
For enduring educational benefits
you just can’t beat the three Rs.
freedom - wouldjease to exist.”
The only thing ilegal here is Watada’s
willful refusal to ibey orders. Watada
is just the latest in a line of losers
abandoning their nen, their mission
and the rule of law The left calls this
“dissent.” The rest »f us call it what it
is: Desertion.
Many military observers say they
smelled a rat when Ley first heard of
Watada’s story. Watadi graduated from
Hawai’i Pacific Uni\ersity in 2003,
joined the Army shorty after, went to
Officer Candidate Schorl and incurred
a three-year obligation Wrote Navy
Officer Robert Webster:
“This guy graduated from college
and then joined the A,my, going to
Officer Candidate school, after we had
already started the Iraq campaign just
to claim it was an ‘illegal’ war when
his unit is called to go. Smells funny to
me. In my mind, either the Army gave
a commission to an idiot mt aware of
current events or he planted this all
along.”
Soldiers making calculate! political
statements against their own troops?
Wouldn’t be the first time - cough,
cough, John Kerry. Idiot or schemer,
Watada deserves a stiff, strong pen
alty for his lawlessness. An excellent
proposal put forth at the militiry blog
Op-For (op-for.com):
“Relieve him of operational duties
and send him to work at Walter Reed,
to handle the in- and out-processing of
wounded veterans.”
Yes, where the real heroes are.
Michelle Malkin is author of
“Unhinged: Exposing Liberals
Gone Wild.” Her e-mail address is
writemalkin@gmail.com.