Newspaper Page Text
♦ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2007
4A
Jioustatt djouraal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Group Marketing
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
A doer of the word
St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach
the Gospel at all times and when nec
essary, use words.”
St. Francis probably would have hit it off
with Frank Shelton, a man who has never
preached a sermon in words, but exemplifies
the Gospel message to love thy neighbor.
This soft-spoken, practical, behind-the
scenes worker moves from one project to
another, putting his money where his mouth
is, making things happen, looking for ways
to help “the least of these.”
And he gets things done.
Most recently, he has been the driving
force behind
the construc
tion of Grace
Village, which
will be a
life -chang
ing home for
people who
need a second
chance.
But that’s
just one of
many big proj
ects Shelton
has taken on
in the Perry community.
His generosity is legendary and he has
been a quiet force for loving kindness in
this community for years, donating money,
donating land and donating countless hours
of hard work.
On Thursday, the Perry Area Chamber of
Commerce presented Frank Shelton with
Perry’s most prestigious honor, the Seabie
Hickson award for community service.
We’re glad they did.
We’re also glad that Frank Shelton is part
of this community, steadily and quietly
working to make it a better place.
Get a grip, folks
At last week’s Perry Planning
Commission meeting, a group of peo
ple from Washington Street turned
out to object to a playhouse and they won.
It just doesn’t seem like something that
would happen in Perry.
The playhouse, a charming structure in a
Victorian style, only needs a coat of paint to
blend right into the neighborhood, and the
owner had said he would be doing that.
We’ve taken a look. It’s not an eyesore,
and would barely be noticed by people driv
ing through the historic neighborhood. We’d
say it even adds some charm and personal
ity and those who noticed it would probably
smile.
We respect all the effort and good inten
tions going into preserving those areas of
Perry that have historic character, but wag
ing war against a children’s playhouse is a
little much. Neighborhoods, no matter how
historical, are meant to be friendly places
where kids grow up with happy memories,
and Washington Street has quite a variety
of architectural styles already.
Let’s not get so carried away with his
toric perfectionism that we disappoint chil
dren. That’s not what neighborhoods are all
about, except perhaps in the most conform
ist subdivisions.
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.
Audrey Evans
Vice President
Marketing!Advertising
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
His generosity
is legendary and he
has been a quiet force
for loving kindness
in this community for
years, donating money,
donating land and
donating countless
hours of hard work.
Education did wonders for me
When you are young time seems
to stand still. Are we there
yet? When will 1 be old enough
to go to school? When will I be old
enough to drive a car? Will the week
end ever come?
Hours seem like days. Days seem like
months. A year is forever.
It is different as the sand in the hour
glass runs down. Once you grow old
days seem like minutes. Something
that happened last year seems like it
happened only a few days ago.
There doesn’t seem to be a happy
medium. Life from the perspective of a
child stretches out forever.
I remember when a cousin was going
to get married. I was 16 at the time.
I met his fiance, who was 23, and
returned home and told my mother I
didn’t understand why my cousin was
marrying such an old woman.
As you reach an age when you know
time will run out, it seems as if life is
coming at you at breakneck speed.
Some of my friends from World War
II and the Korean War era remember
exploits from so many years ago as
if they were yesterday. We may have
trouble remembering names and events
that occurred recently, but memories
do come back vividly.
All this comes to mind as I remember
that it was exactly 61 years ago this
month that I was placed on inactive
status by the United States Navy, after
four years of active duty. It was the
_ NORTH KQRSA
, '' si ffetME(3&TTdl<3«9TßAl(3WT...Wg:Gi\;£You
WTaND ITOLOYOO Wel
Obama: Wasting his own breath
I have good news for everyone
offended by the description of Sen.
Barack Obama as “articulate.” He
has quickly shed any claim to that
label. Indeed, Obama’s remarks this
week about American troops killed in
Iraq were a bumbling, incoherent mess.
You may now refer to him officially as
the Inarticulate Barack Obama. (As for
judging his current level of cleanliness
and brightness, you know that’s Joe
Biden’s milieu.)
At one of his opening presidential
campaign events on the lowa State
University campus this weekend,
Obama pandered energetically to the
anti-war crowd. With his smooth voice
rising and thousands of fans goading
him on, he proclaimed: “We ended
up launching a war that should have
never been authorized, and should
have never been waged, and to which
we have now spent S4OO billion and
have seen over 3,000 lives of the brav
est young Americans wasted.”
Yes, “wasted.” Squandered. Pointless.
Down the drain. Meaningless. Video
footage of the speech shows Sen.
Obama delivering his scripted words
carefully and confidently. No umms or
ahhs or pauses as he argued that each
and every member of the military who
volunteered to serve and died in Iraq
“wasted” his/her life.
This revealing slip of Obama’s tongue
and mind -- or “Obamanation,” as
conservative blogger Scott Johnson at
Power Line (powerlineblog.com) calls
it - did not play well among countless
service members and their families
who actually support their mission and
sacrifice. Who repeatedly volunteer to
go back even after the war has taken
a turn for the worse. Who believe their
work enhances their children’s and
OPINION
end of one adventure and phase of my
life and the beginning of an uncertain
future.
Those of us entering the real world
after the war were products of the
Great Depression. We were eager to
start new lives and fulfill our dreams.
Probably one of the finest things our
government did at that time was cre
ate the GI Bill of Rights. This made
it possible for veterans who wanted to
further their educations to do so.
I know that I could not have attend
ed law school if the GI Bill had not pro
vided the money. My life would have
been drastically different without the
education waiting for me as I got out
of uniform.
All around me were young men eager
ly taking advantage of the educational
opportunity the GI Bill offered.
My class at the University of Georgia
included young men who soon became
political, professional and business
leaders in our state.
There was Carl Sanders, who became
governor. Three members of the class
became Georgia Supreme Court jus-
our children’s safety. Who risk their
lives purposefully and of their own free
will. Despite every best effort of the
Democrats, media and anti-war move
ment to infantilize or demonize them,
their voices are heard.
Listen to the father of Marine Sgt.
Joshua J. Frazier, who was killed by
a sniper in Iraq last week on his third
tour of duty: “He believed in the United
States and believed what he was doing
was right. He gave his life for what he
thought was the right thing to do,”
Rick Frazier said.
Remember the words of Marine Cpl.
Jeffrey B. Starr, who died in a 2005
firefight in Ramadi: “Obviously if you
are reading this then I have died in
Iraq ... I don’t regret going, everybody
dies but few get to do it for something
as important as freedom. It may seem
confusing why we are in Iraq, it’s not
to me. I’m here helping these people,
so that they can live the way we live.
Not have to worry about tyrants or
vicious dictators. To do what they want
with their lives. To me that is why I
died. Others have died for my freedom,
now this is my mark.”
Several days after taking flak for
his disparaging comments dishonoring
such heroism, Obama blubbered about
what he really meant.
‘T was actually upset with myself
when I said that, because I never use
Foy
Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
Mm -* ■
Michelle
Malkin
Columnist
malkln@comcast.net
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
tices. Two of them became Chief
Justices. Two members of the class
became lieutenant governors.
Others went on to distinguished legal
careers. Some went into business and
rose to positions of power.
I doubt there ever has been a law
school class comparable to that one.
Some of us were single. Several were
married and had families. All of us
were eager to get an education and go
to work.
Often I think what might have hap
pened to that generation without the
support and opportunity the GI Bill
gave us. I imagine that we would have
done all right, blit those who rose to
such heights in government and busi
ness probably never would have been
able to do so.
Somehow, I find myself getting
around to education often when I
write. It is because I know first hand
what education did for me.
Had my widowed mother not been
so stubborn in her determination that
I finish high school and attend college
I easily could have wound up sacking
groceries or flipping hamburgers.
Not many days go by that I do not
think of the sacrifices she made for my
sisters and me to make it possible for
us to continue in school through the
depression. .
I often wonder how she did it. She
was my Steel Magnolia long before
someone coined the name.
that term,” he told the Des Moines
Register. Well, then what dastardly sab
oteur slipped it into his well-rehearsed
stump speech? What supernatural
force produced the guttural noise that
glided effortlessly from his voicebox
through his lips and pronounced the
term “wasted”?
“What I would say - and meant to
say - is that their service hasn’t been
honored,” Obama told The New York
Times and other reporters in Nashua,
N.H., “because our civilian strategy
has not honored their courage and
bravery, and we have put them in a
situation in which it is hard for them
to succeed.” As opposed to pulling out
precipitously?
Obama offered the standard “sorry
if-I-offended-anyone” disclaimer: “ . .
. I would absolutely apologize if any
of them felt that in some ways it had
diminished the enormous courage and
sacrifice that they’d shown. You know,
and if you look at all the other speeches
that I’ve made, that is always the start
ing point in my view of this war.”
Except on the first day of the big
gest campaign of his life, that wasn’t
the starting point. The starting point
of his discussion on the troops in Iraq
began with the letter “w” and ended
with “-asted.”
“Even as I said it,” Obama claims, “I
realized I had misspoken.”
So what, one wonders, prevented him
from immediately correcting himself
there on stage, as thousands cheered
the term he now says he immediately
regretted?
Words fail.
Michelle Malkin is author of
“Unhinged: Exposing Liberals
Gone Wild.” Her e-mail address is
writemalkin(fi gmail.com