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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 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 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 f \w vr jf u a ilf J/jf '***s&* 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. iflf s§! |li|§p ■ ap| 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.