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4A ♦ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2007 Daniel F. Evans President Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President A bad grade for Georgia In the early part of the 19th century, Central State Hospital in Milledgeville provided a rural environment for people of various mental disabili ties. It was then the only men tal institution in Georgia and, as the state popula tion grew, Central State became overcrowded, and eventually a psychiatric night mare. There was a move toward decentralization of services with other hospitals being built, and toward taking patients out of the mental institutions and placing them in group homes, nursing homes, and back to community. These were moves in the right direction, but mental healthcare in Georgia is still racked with serious problems. Taking the mentally ill out of institutional care is great for those well enough to adapt to it, and when sufficient community services are available. It fails when adequate community care - treatment, housing, medicine, and so on - are not available. Long-term hospitalization will always be needed for some with mental illness. Failed community placements of seriously mentally ill patients released from Georgia’s state psychiatric hospitals when they are still too sick to be in the community are common. Shrinking hospital services plus shrinking com munity services has resulted in too many men tally ill people in jails and prisons. For these and other reasons, The National Alliance for the Mentally 111 has given Georgia a grade of D in the areas of infrastructure, infor mation access, services, and recovery sup ports. The same report ranks Georgia as 44th in per capita mental health spending. Overall, Georgia’s public mental health ser vices are reaching less than one-third of those estimated to have a serious mental illness. They don’t have enough staff or funding to do the job. These are issues of concern to all Georgians not just during Mental Illness Awareness Week this past week (Oct. 7-13) but in the weeks, years and decades to come. Letters to the editor Something wrong about Oaky hearing There is something wrong about the upcoming hear ing for the approval/disapproval of a waste treatment plant at Oaky Woods. Have our local, Republican state representatives done all they can to buy some of this land back from the devel opers? What about our local city and county leaders? Are they trying to reverse this shameful exploitation of what in all fairness should become a state park for all of us? Is local apathy going to allow the destruction of this great natural wildlife area? Let’s ask our local leaders what they have done to save something vital to Middle Georgia’s recre ational interests and quality of life. This is our last chance. Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins 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 newspa per 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 “Failed community placements of seriously mentally ill patients released from Georgia’s state psychiatric hospitals when they are still too sick to be in the community are common.” editori/T Too many candidates, debates Let’s face it: There are just too many boring presidential debates with boring presidential candidates this go-round. First off, could we please see at least one debate in which the moderator or questioners don’t try to dominate the airtime? Seeing an endless sea of middle-age to darn-near-dead white men on a stage is bad enough, but having to listen to the “journalists” interact as if it were a talk show makes these debates excruciatingly painful to watch. Second, isn’t it time everyone owns up to the fact that - had he not been labeled “a nut” by the establishment early on - Ron Paul is by far the most interesting candidate in the entire GOP field? Don’t these other guys get it that repeating the same old tired phrases about “economic growth” and “free markets” is just driving their most conservative base into fits of rage? I have never seen a bigger cast of one-inch deep characters in my life as we have in both parties this time. Hillary is so far ahead that it makes no sense for her to throw even a five-yard pass, much less a Hail Mary. Barack Obama seems so wrapped up in his charisma that he’s lost the concept of having any real substance. For my money, Joe Biden has been the only one on the Democratic side willing to take a few risks or venture into any degree of opposing viewpoints. As for Fred Thompson, will some one please give this guy a test and see if he’s alive? Don’t get me wrong: I like Thompson personally, but mut- Corps Lake Water Release Plan A good marriage is good medicine By STEPHEN DANIELS, Georgia Family Council You’ve probably heard that joke about the two men who were talking when one asks, “Is it true that married people live longer than nonmarried people?” His friend replies, “No, it just seems longer.” Humor surrounding married life often evokes laughter because those of us who are married know that it isn’t always easy. But the answer to the inquirer’s question in reality is an emphatic “yes.” Married people actually do live longer, because when compared to their nonmarried friends, they live healthier lives. I was reminded of this point the other day when I read a newspaper article with the headline “Married couples are healthier and live longer - and so do their children.” Ironically, that story was followed the next day by the head line “Study ties marital strife, heart disease.” Two days, two articles, two head lines, both clearly converging to make the same point - a healthy marriage equates to a healthier life. The first story reported that a study in the United Kingdom found that the mortality rate for those who are mar ried is much lower than those who are single. In fact, the mortality rate for single men between the ages of 30 and 59 was two-and-a-half times higher than those who were married. Single, divorced and widowed women also had higher mortality rates. Widowed men and single mothers were found to suf fer from the highest number of chronic conditions. Matt Towery Columnist Morris News Service tering semi-Reaganesque terms such as “indexing for inflation” is so out of date that the bored audience is left in the dark as to what he’s trying to say. As for the Mitt and Rudy show, what a battle over nothing. Romney looks like the Ultra Brite toothpaste pitchman, and Rudy looks like a character out of the Harry Potter series. They split hairs, as they all propose basically the same policies and dodge their pasts, either personal or political. And here’s the real kicker: Our sur veys show that virtually no one is watching these little gems. So all the rooms filled with spinmeisters and all the column inches wasted on these non-debate debates are a relative waste of time. So here’s the bottom line, candidates and pundits. We all started this presi dential season way too early. Think about it. John McCain has crashed, burned and come back to life at least twice before the first primary. This isn’t a race for the nomination as much as it’s a battle to see who will still be alive by the time the caucuses and pri maries are held! But these findings are nothing new. There are piles of studies that tell us about the health benefits of marriage. For example, the CDC reported a few years ago from their study of more than 127,000 adults that “married persons were healthier for nearly every measure of health” compared to those who were divorced, widowed, never-married or cohabiting. The skeptic may say that this data simply reflects the fact that healthier people tend to get married, or that just having someone else in the house to look out for you results in better health. But studies have even shown that people who are sick and then get married live longer than those who are sick and don’t. And other research, including the CDC study, has found that simply living with someone else does not confer the same health benefits of being married. People who five together without tying the knot mirror their single and divorced piers because they don’t reduce the unhealthy behaviors that married people do. Marriage carries with it a motivation and incentive to take better care of our selves because our commitments extend beyond our own needs to our spouse and children. They depend on our well being too. Speaking for my own gender, marriage settles men down and pro vides a caring partner who monitors his health, watches what he eats and makes sure he sees a doctor once in awhile. This would explain why I have abandoned my habit of eating a hotdog every day for lunch, like I did in college. That decision alone may add 10 years to my life. ()nr rofce ran make a (f/j/amun HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL As for the issues - the boneheaded Republicans (for the most part) won’t admit that Iraq is a huge mess and that even most Republicans want us to accelerate the removal of troops. The Democrats, on the other hand, have to take a virtual blood oath of complete withdrawal to gain the approval of their base. When it comes to the economy, it’s clear none of the candidates has a clue. The Democrats want to “tax the rich,” but by their definition, Oprah Winfrey and a regular working couple earning a decent wage are treated one and the same. And why are we even having debates, primary or general, when we all know that Hillary will likely out perform any of these guys in a “fancy speak” contest? The Republicans clearly don’t realize that many in their base, particularly in “red” southern and southwestern states, are suffering from the results of their beloved free trade and a housing market that continues to head south. They spout off the right words, but it’s clear that they are just the same old “steady as she goes” GOB beholden to huge corporations and their longtime “establishment” ways. Get it clear, you guys: People don’t like your president or your party. They think you sold us out to globalism and cronyism. Repeating the same junk we have heard the last six years won’t cut it. So here’s a challenge to all “debat ers” in these snore-a-thons. See TOWERY,page 6A The second stud}' I read about adds a ne'tfr layer to this whole discussion, because it points out an important qual ifier to the mountain of evidence that marriage equals better health. The study of more than 9,000 British civil servants, most of whom were mar ried, found that those with bad close relationships were 34 percent more likely to suffer heart trouble, including a heart attack. Apparently an unhappy marriage can affect the heart in more than one way. So what does all of this tell us? Clearly our marriage, for better or for worse, can have a profound effect on the qual ity of our physical health. It also punc tuates an important point. We’ve all heard for years about the importance of exercising our bodies so that we can be healthy and stay fit. Quite frankly, I’ve been a little lax in the area of disciplined exercise. For now, with three small children, things like wrestling with my kids, pulling them in the wagon or chasing them across the yard will have to do. We exercise so that our bodies do not weaken or waste away. The same is true for marriage. Without deliberate acts of love and respect, a marriage can weaken too. The creeping separateness that can come from years of unhealed hurts or unspoken words will take its toll over time. But unlike when our bodies deterio rate from lack of exercise, a marriage that breaks down can leave a house hold full of broken hearts - and years of unhealthy emotional heartache and pain. See DANIELS, page 6A