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j^^EniTomAT ♦ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2007 4A Daniel F. Evans President Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President A true pioneer Webster’s Dictionary defines a pioneer as: “One who is among the first in a new field of enterprise, exploration, colonization, research, et cetera.” Throughout our history, pioneers have been viewed as individuals - oftentimes among a group of likeminded people - critical to our nation’s suc cess. They helped forge our country from shore to shore. They spearheaded breakthroughs in industry, medicine and more. It is a long but select list that’s been built over hundreds of years. Today we add one name to its contents: Davis Cosey. For years we’ve complained of being held cap tive to foreign oil, those cries seemingly falling on deaf ears in Washington. But here in Houston County, one man - along with those he would say have been critical in his ability to accomplish what he has - said “no more.” Like the pioneers of old, he sat out on a journey, a journey that today has led to the establishment of an alternative fuel source for us. He has placed the key in our hand for a brighter future, a future where we no longer have to be held ransom by the price of a barrel of oil. And further, we should mention that Cosey has gone far and beyond that of a normal pioneer. As founder of the Friends of Perry Animal Shelter non-profit charity, he has pioneered efforts to not only keep the shelter up and running but to build a much-needed new facility down the road. As pioneers go, we can look back through our history and say: “How would we ever have sur vived and thrived without them.” So to Davis Cosey - and all those behind the scenes with him - we can only say a big Thank you” and add we hope you continue to blaze new trails for our sake. History is yours for the making. Letters to the editor Build the infrastructure first An interesting comment about traffic. A word to the wise, BUILD the infrastructure FIRST and then add the stores, homes etc. I lived in Warner Robins for most of my life (a great place to live and my folks still live there) and have moved to North Georgia. The good folks in Forsyth County (Cumming) fell under the spell and excitement of rapid growth, new stores, and the ever-present lure of more money for the tax coffers, etc., just like what is hap pening in Houston County. Well, one thing was wrong. They neglected the infrastructure and now they are paying dearly! The crime has increased, trash on the roads is deplorable, traffic is unbelievable, over seven new schools are being “hurried up" built to handle the influx of “unexpected" children moving into the area and the cost of living is inching upward every day. It seems every vacant lot is being turned into a shopping center or some sort of business and real tors are building six homes per acre. Clear land and centuries old forests are being clear-cut and paved over at an alarming rate. Does any county need five Wal-Marts within a nine-mile radius? These things are causing land prices to skyrocket out of sight. Is that what the citizens of Warner Robins want? When I moved here seven years ago, I could travel the 10 miles to the center of town (and not a very big one I might add) within eight-12 minutes. Now, I am lucky if I can make it in 20-30 minutes. So, make sure to put your ducks in order to be sure the roads can handle the traffic, there is plenty of water, the See FIRST, page 6A HOW TO SUBMIT: There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E mail it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to Houston Home Journal at 1210 Washington St., Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at the same location between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Letters should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and .telephone number (the last two not printed). The newspaper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus Don Moncrief Managing Editor “He has placed the key in our hand for a brighter future, a future where we no longer have to be held ransom by the price of a barrel of oil.” Blindness makes other things clearer Last week was supposed to be something special. I had an open calendar. No doctor’s appointments. No blood tests. No follow-ups. Just a week without any appointments. I planned to attend the Georgia National Fair. But it was not to be that way. Far from it. During the weekend I woke up one morning blind in my left eye. All I saw was black. What happened? Two days earlier a routine examination did not find anything wrong with the eye. I went to bed with normal eyesight. I woke up the following morning and sight in the eye was completely gone. I learned Monday that the retina in my left eye was detached. Tuesday morning I had surgery to reattach it. I understand that time is of the essence in such situations. I have known many people with detached retinas. It didn’t sound like a big thing. I never had walked in their moccasins. The fact that this sounded like a minor problem to someone who never had experienced it reminded me The end of the affair The pain, wreckage wrought by infidelity Somebody reading this is cheat ing on their spouse or thinking about it. The odds are with me on that state ment. Recognizing the fact that at any given moment there are people wres tling with issues in their marriage, a gentleman in Toronto, Canada, oper ates a website where affair-minded people can connect. He recently gained attention because his company posted a billboard that says, “Life is short, have an affair.” The man behind it all claims, “I don’t condemn and I don’t condone.” And, in a remarkable statement of hypocrisy, he also says that he set up his website to give people who want to cheat on their spouses “an honest and open forum” to meet people with whom they can. (Perhaps later he can start a web site for people who want to be honest and open with their spouses.) The entire premise of the company is outrageous ... and dangerous. In fact, I’m so outraged by it that I thought I would write a scathing cri tique of the man, the website and the message. But I chose a different route because it occurred to me that my mes sage would be expected and perhaps a bit too predictable. So, I decided to let someone who had an affair tell her story. Hopefully, it will strip away some of the mystique and glamour from what many perceive as being harmless and perhaps even romantic. Here is what she wrote: When I heard about this matchmak ing website for currently married peo ple, it turned my stomach. Obviously, it will bother a lot of people from a moral sense, or just because it seems to Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox.net of Dr. Wimpy Spears’ favorite saying. He said that minor surgery was sur gery on someone else. On numerous occasions since he said that to me I have learned the truth in that state ment. A 2 1/2 hour operation was “success ful”, according to the surgeon. Sight is supposed to come back slowly over a period of months and will be, according to the doctor, “not as good as it used to be, but better than being blind.” This was another time that I have benefitted from remarkable modem medicine. There is no limit to my admiration for doctors who acquire the knowledge and skills to perform such an operation as this, as well as many Randy Hicks Columnist Georgia Family Council violate common decency. I don’t really feel I have a moral platform to preach from - it is upsetting because I know first-hand the kind of awful pain that affairs bring. Many times in life, we hurt people we care about. Often, this is uninten tional. Sometimes it may be due to oversight or just selfish acts - but this site ... this is pre-meditated pain for people in our lives. I know most people who end up hav ing affairs don’t think all that much about it ahead of time - they just go with a feeling or an impulse - or maybe they are just trying to meet a need that isn’t being met in their current relationship. And somehow we allow ourselves to cross over a line, all the while jus tifying to ourselves that it’ll be brief, no big deal, no one will find out and therefore no harm done. That’s what I thought. And then I lost everything. Spouses almost always find out. And affairs never end well. There are many reasons why. If it’s just about the physical stuff, then it’s really not worth the risk anyway. Usually at least one party will want more - and then it gets complicated. Then there’s the constant paranoia. The panic attacks that set in any time the spouse needs to borrow your * W■■ PJ * • §1 HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL others, including those on the heart. I am old enough to remember when a person with a detached retina had to live with blindness in the eye. I remem ber when a heart attack meant sure death and heart blockages led to heart attacks, because there was no way to open the arteries. Now we assume that such problems are normal and correcting them is routine. Friends and acquaintances have been asking me what happened to cause the retina to become detached. I don’t have any idea. It just happened. And that could be frightening, because if it can happen so unexpectedly one time, can - or will - it happen again on another eye? We are fortunate to live in a time when medical knowledge and skills have advanced so much and we can benefit from them. I received treatment almost imme diately. I began thinking about how good our health system is, compared to government medicine in places See EVANS, page phone. And then there are the moments of looking at your spouse, or your kids for that matter, knowing what you did - even when they don’t know - and feeling the abject guilt of utter betrayal for such banal and selfish reasons. Ask yourself this: would this “rela tionship” or physical encounter with a stranger from a website be worth risk ing everything? My marriage, my kids, my relatives, my job, my finances? Because it is very likely to cost you all that and more. And then there’s the question of basic humanity. My guess is that if one spouse is thinking of having an affair, it’s because there’s something going on: an inadequacy in the marriage, some pain they are responding to, deeper issues at play. My advice: this is the worst way to deal with those things. At a minimum, it will take the focus off of what may be legitimate problems and will put the focus squarely on the infidelity. If there are problems in the marriage, there is one decent way to deal with your spouse - honestly. How hollow and how deeply sad is the reality that my life will never be the same. I have lost my husband, his wonderful family, our common friends, all the dreams we had, the chance to actually deal head on with our prob lems and come out stronger. I have even lost a sense of my own self. And for what? A temporary physi cal release? An emotional connection I was lacking in marriage? I have forever wounded so many people - obviously my ex. All of our family and friends and the community who supported us. I even hurt the other party in the See HICKS, page fA