Newspaper Page Text
BELIEF
♦ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2007
4A
Daniel F. Evans
President
< Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Guest editorial
By NICK WHITE
Public Defender, Houston County
Television almost never gets it right. A drama
called “100 Centre Street” focused on pub
lic defenders fighting shady prosecutors bent
on convicting innocent defendants. “Law and
Order” portrays prosecutors as saints, defen
dants as always guilty and their attorneys as
smarmy characters driven to help their clients
beat the system. While entertaining, such shows
tend to improperly shape public perceptions. I’ve
practiced law for 15 years and I’ve never met a
prosecutor that I believed was knowingly trying
to convict innocent people.
My entire career has been devoted to defend
ing the accused and I’ve never once tried to help
a client beat the system. The “system” is the law
and the law is there for the benefit of us all. So,
as the new Public Defender of Houston County
allow me to state my personal views on legal
defense and the system that i serve.
I like law and order. I like safe streets. I want
law enforcement to be diligent. When an offi
cer has reasonable suspicion that a crime was
committed I want him to stop and question the
suspect. If that officer has probable cause that
a crime was committed or that evidence is pos
sessed I want him to make an arrest or search
for such evidence. I want prosecutors to pursue
their cases without fear or favor. I want judges to
apply the law as fairly for the alleged victim as
they do for the accused.
When an accused pleads guilty or is found
guilty by a jury, I want judges to sentence appro
priately.
But law and order not only means streets safe
from crime but also streets safe from mob rule
or government tyranny. Judges must carefully
scrutinize the actions of officers. When an offi
cer is found to have detained or searched with
out objective reasonable suspicion or probable
cause the judge should admonish that officer
and render the fruits of his illegality unusable by
the prosecution.
An officer that acts as a law unto himself,
whether motivated by ill will or good intentions,
is scarier to me and more dangerous to the
free fabric of society than an individual suspect
- even when that suspect is factually guilty. I
want public defenders to boldly defend their
clients without apology. I want judges to apply
the law as fairly for the accused as they do for
the alleged victim. When the State fails to prove
its case beyond a reasonable doubt, I want the
accused to walk from the courtroom a free man.
All of that is law and order too.
The United States is one of the greatest exper
iments in history. As Americans we are both part
of “the people” and individuals. As members of
the whole we expect government to protect soci
ety. As individuals we demand that government
be limited so as not to undermine our freedoms.
It’s a difficult balance but a testament to our
forefathers and the men and women who have
fought and died for our country that we have a
constitution that provides for both protection and
freedom.
Our constitution grants the government the
police powers to enforce the laws of society for
the protection of the whole. That same constitu
tion contains a Bill of Rights, over a third of which
guarantees the right to a fair fight should the
government accuse any one of us of a crime.
See GUEST, page BA.
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, GA31069,
or drop it off at the same location between 8 a.m. and 5
p.m. Monday through Friday. Letters should not exceed
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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
What'cha been reading lately?
It’s very early Monday morning,
Oct. 8, and I am thinking about
what I’ll write this week. I’ve
read several interesting articles the
last few days, and I want to share some
of them and some of my thoughts with
you. Here goes.
■ David Brooks’ op-ed piece titled
The Republican Collapse in the Oct. 5
New York Times was a perspicacious
and yet cerebral piece about President
Bush’s attempt to spread democracy in
the Middle East. Let’s see what Brooks
had to say, in part:
“ . . . But the temperamental con
servative is suspicious of rapid reform,
believing that efforts to quickly trans
form anything will have, as Burke
wrote, ‘pleasing commencements’ but
‘lamentable conclusions’ . . . over the
past six years, the Bush administration
has operated on the assumption that if
you change the political institutions in
Iraq, the society will follow.
“But the Burkean conservative
believes that society is an organism;
that custom, tradition and habit are
the prime movers of that organism;
and that successful government insti
tutions grow gradually from each
nation’s unique network of moral and
social restraints.”
I believe that what all of this says is
that we’ve been trying to impose ‘our
way of life’ on the Iranian people with
out taking into account the uniqueness
of the Iranian people’s culture.
■ Speaking of President George
Bush, there is a plethora of articles
about the 2008 Presidential election -
yes, even though it’s over a year off.
I’m not particularly impressed with
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Sometimes you wonder: What were they thinking?
Sometimes you wonder what people
are thinking about when they do some
things:
■ The chambers of commerce of
Warner Robins and Perry will not be
combined and, in my opinion, the deci
sion is a good one. Perry and Warner
Robins need their own chambers. The
two chambers have been working
together harmoniously for several years
and the close relationship can continue.
Each city needs a chamber responsive to
the specific needs of their communities.
In my opinion, the opportunity exists
for creation of an organization, based
on Vision 2020, with representatives
from the two chambers brainstorming
ways they can work together for our
county. Vision 2020 is serving the local
governments well and a similar group
could do the same for the chambers
of commerce. Failure to combine the
two organizations should not be looked
upon as a defeat, but rather as an
opportunity for them to set ambitious
goals for the future jointly.
■ I was a charter member of the
Warner Robins Chamber of Commerce
and served as its president. If I had been
voting this time I would have voted for
the two chambers to remain separate
to fulfill their missions. Combining the
two, while sounding good, could have
been less effective. In a way it would be
like mixin water and oil.
■ Chrysler Corp. is struggling for
survival, just as other American auto
manufacturers are. I have trouble com
prehending what workers are think-
Larry
Walker
Columnist
lwalker@whgb-law.com
any of the candidates - Republican
or Democratic. I do kind’ve like for
mer governor Mike Huckabee from
Arkansas, but I doubt he’ll “make the
cut”.
None of the candidates seem to
have an abundance of what I think is
the most important quality our next
President should possess: wisdom.
Do you think any of the candidates
are wise? I don’t, either. At least, to
me, they don’t show it. In fact, can you
name a ‘wise leader’ in Washington? I
can’t. I wish Sam Nunn, or someone of
his ilk, would get into the race.
But Sam, an independent Democrat,
is too conservative to get the
Democratic nomination and the path
to the Presidency as an independent
candidate is ‘nigh unto impossible’.
■ While on the subject of wisdom,
let me commend Foy Evans for his
last Saturday’s column, Modern Math,
other timely topics. Foy, as he usually
does, really got it right about the peri
odic, ill-founded ways that “progressive
educators” come up with-new ways to
teach English and Math.
Let me lift two sentences that I par
ticularly liked from Foy’s article:
“Modern Math was the most convo
luted and ridiculous way to solve prob-
Foy
Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
ing about when they strike and make
demands that prevent their company
from becoming competitive with foreign
companies. Don’t they understand that
their demands, which keep American
car manufacturers from being competi
tive price-wise with foreign companies,
will result in their jobs going overseas
sometime in the future?
■ I would feel silly walking around in
circles holding a sign proclaiming that I
am on strike. And stupid, too.
■ It doesn’t seem to bother Democratic
members of congress when terror
ists capture, torture and decapitate
American soldiers. But they just can’t
stand the thought of our government
using harsh tactics to get valuable,
life-saving information from terrorists.
What is wrong with them? I’m for
using whatever tactics are necessary
and to heck with playing politics with so
much at stake. They just love to blame
President Bush of “torturing” these
enemies who would kill any of us in a
second.
It would be nice if these members
of congress thought about our country
ahead of politics. And former president
a.
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HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
lems that ever has been devised.”
and,
“ . . . why the educators . . . believe
that every few years they must screw
things up with cockamamie ideas that
never seem to work . ..”
In Foy’s article, he cited the merits
of regular arithmetic, multiplication
tables and real English, including pho
nics. I heartily agree. And, what about
diagraming sentences? That’s where I
really learned the differences in nouns,
pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, preposi
tions, etc.
Sadly, I believe that Foy and I are
waging a losing battle with the new
eubonics, computer talk short-cuts,
etc. Still, I believe Foy is right. So,
right (write) on, Foy!
■ Lastly, let me commend to you an
article given to me by Chuck Byrd that
appeared in the September 2007 maga
zine, Precision Shooting by Thomas K.
Tate titled, “The Doughboy General
- Courtney H. Hodges - 1887 - 1966.”
General Courtney H. Hodges was
born in Perry on Jan. 5, 1887 and
graduated from Perry High School in
1903.
Let me share a few sentences from
this article that should impress you
about this great American:
“Credited for having captured more
ground than any other American in
history, Hodges was not one to take
credit for himself, never sought the
lime-light, and gave few interviews.”
“He was everything his associate and
trap shooting ‘buddy’, General George
S. Patton was not. It is doubtful if
the two were friends; Patton was too
See WALKER, page SA
Jimmy Carter should keep his mouth
shut on the subject.
■ The dangerous brown spider has
shown up at our house and neighbor
hood in big numbers. They seem to
be resistant to sprays that kill other
spiders.
■ I met a man a few days ago who
moved to Centerville early this year.
He said he was from New England
and when he retired he never wanted
to shovel snow again. He and his wife
moved to Arizona because of its reputa
tion as a good place for retirees. They
didn’t like it.
So they moved to retirement mecca in
Florida. It took only a couple of years to
decide that was not where they wanted
to spend the rest of their lives. He said,
“Middle Georgia beats them all. It is
beautiful country. Cost of living is rea
sonable. People are friendly. We won’t
be moving again.”
■ Did you realize that hundreds of
families have moved to Houston County
from Florida in recent years? They say
they prefer retirement here over much
touted Florida. The ones I have met are
valuable additions to our county.
■ Someone hung a noose on the office
door of a Negro professor at Columbia
University. Keep in mind that this is
not in Georgia and not in the south. It
is at left-wing, Iran-loving Columbia
University in New York City. From my
experience, I have seen more evidence
of racism above the Mason-Dixon Line
than I have below it. I have lived both
places.