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6A ♦ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2007 One favor please - say a prayer for little Abby Smith If you have tuned in to see who is going to get sledge-ham mered this week, the answer is no one. Politicians of all types and persuasions are getting a pass. Hollywood draws a bye as well. You will find no barbs aimed at cat lovers, the blowhard City of Atlanta or air heads who insist on talking on their cell phones j f' WE*? '%.* PIS Dick Yarbrough Columnist yarb24oo@bellsouth.net in the checkout line at the grocery store. Even my liberal friends can exhale for the moment. Instead, I am going to ask for a favor. First, a little background: A cou ple of years ago I met a beautiful young lady named Abby Smith. Perhaps the cutest 2-year-old I Sinking SCHIP: vote a defining moment On Thursday, the House of Representatives will vote on a measure to override President Bush’s veto of a massive govern ment-subsidized health insurance entitlement expansion plan. I agree with the Democrats on one thing: This is indeed a “defining moment.” The left-wing elite is in high dudgeon over conser vatives who have dared to question the wisdom of extending the State Children ’ s Health Insurance Program to middle-class families, adults and even illegal aliens to the tune of $35 billion funding depen dent on saddling millions of smokers with regressive taxes and maintaining their nicotine addictions. Liberal columnists E.J. Dionne and Paul Krugman decried Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn and other opponents as “meanies and hypocrites” who are “slim ing” children. Classless comedienne and “View” television show co-host Joy Behar took to the airwaves to condemn me as a “self ish (expletive)” for chal lenging Harry Reid’s use of an SCHIP expansion poster family, the Frosts of Baltimore, last week. Cable TV Bush-basher Keith Olbermann paraded the Frost parents on televi sion and coaxed them into displaying photos of their children in their hospital LETTER From page 4A and wants to give something back to it. Tommy will work to ensure a safer city for all citizens, especially in the neighborhoods, continued programs for seniors and expanded opportunities for WALKER From page 4A for Grillmaster which is being played on the radio during Georgia’s football games. I was glad to do it for Brad and Randy - and for free. Wouldn’t you do it if they had named a sand wich for you? Go out to a Grillmaster’s and order a Larry Walker Sandwich. Tell ‘em Larry sent you! So many scientific and technological advances. Maybe someone will learn how to can this wonderful weather so that we could have it year ‘round. But, I guess we would get tired of it. And, that, too, is no bull! PANSIES FOR SALE Landscapers <i Hume Gardeners Majestic Giants & Other Varieties Lewis Farms Nursery 830 Hwy. 26 Elko, GA Call Tim Lewis at (478) 954-1507 ever laid eyes on. Curls galore, eyes as blue as the Caribbean and a smile that would melt the polar cap. It was love at first sight for me, although I’m not sure I knocked her socks off. A little too old and too wrinkled for her tastes. A couple of weeks later Abby suddenly and inexplicably began falling down a lot. Her parents took her to the pediatrician, think ing that perhaps she had an inner ear infection. That is when the bottom fell out of their lives. Further tests revealed she had a brain tumor. A cancerous tumor, as it turned out. Surgeons removed it immediately. Thus began a myriad of problems that no one should have to endure, particularly an innocent child. Abby temporarily lost her eyesight. She was unable to speak for a long period of time. As these conditions began to improve, new complications JHg beds after a hor rible car accident while they castigated conserva tives for “distrac tion” tech niques. Never mind that Michelle Malkin Columnist malkin@comcast.net the president’s veto does not affect families like the Frosts covered by existing policies. But here’s what the hys terical tantrum-throwers really don’t want to reckon with: The Frost parents’ sta tus as two property-owning, three vehicle-driving, “inter mittent” and “part-time” workers raises fundamental policy questions about which families should benefit from government-subsidized health insurance in the first place - and whether even better-off families than the Frosts should be added to the public health insurance dole. Did you know that the vast majority of SCHIP programs currently in place do not have assets tests? What if I told you I drove a Volvo SUV a Chevrolet Suburban, and a Ford F 250 Pickup work truck? What if I told you, further, that I owned a large home and commercial property worth at least $400,000 in total - property for which I paid a total of $215,000? our youth. He believes that Warner Robins is going in the right direction under Mayor (Donald) Walker and he will work to see progress con tinue. People who know Tommy know that he is an honest man and would be an excellent addition to our city council. DAVID OVERTON JEWELERS We Buy Gold Scrap!! Bring It In And Let Us Weigh It. 905 Downtown Carroll St. • Perry 478-987-1392 ■it' :HP f 7; : f-jj ss' f ' ’ft '4 ffy *** ■fck -.m 5522 X What if I told you, in addi tion, that I was resourceful enough to cobble together financing (through scholar ships and other means) for private school education for four children? What if I told you that neither I nor my spouse was employed full time? Would you consider my fam ily “exactly the kind” and “precisely the type” of fam ily that should benefit from SCHIP - which was intend ed for the “working poor,” but has become the nose of the middle-class entitlement camel in the nation’s health care tent? That’s what Harry Reid and his socialized health care minions are telling us. And now they demand that we shut up lest we be accused of “Swiftboating” innocent children. Are Democrats capable of defending their reckless, inequitable agenda without tot-sized human shields? Apparently not. In advance of the override vote, they simply switched flak jack ets and brought out a 2- year-old child with a heart defect, Bethany Wilkerson of Florida, to lobby for the override. But like the Frost children, little Bethany would have been covered regardless of the entitlement expansion veto. The Democrats may believe their Romper Room politics are working. And some queasy Republicans Residents of Post 4 can count on Tommy U, look after them and all the citizens of Warner Robins. You don’t have to know Tommy 40 years to know he’s a man of his word and is the kind of person our city could use more of for continued progress. James L. (Paul) Shealy, Warner Robins •Jewelry Repair & Cleaning •Watch Repair , c . Hours: •Engraving Mon . . F ri. •Appraisals 9:3oam-s:3opm •Estate Jewelry Sat ‘ 1 9:3oam-2pm •Class Rings OPINION appeared. The ups and downs of the past two years have been a roller coaster of emotions for her family and for the rest of us who have been pulling for her recovery. Just when it looked as though things might be getting better, bad news has hit again. Now Abby is facing new and inoperable tumors on her spine. Frankly, things don’t look good at the moment. Experts are talk ing about what to try next: clinical trials, radiation, combinations of drugs. In my opinion, it is time for a miracle. This is where the favor comes in. Please pray for Abby. It doesn’t matter what kind pf faith you practice, whether you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Shintoist, or whatever. Dr. Gil Watson, the World’s Greatest Preacher, has assured me that God listens to all prayers, even from sinners like me. may be tempted to abandon fiscal conservatism for elec toral expediency. But a majority of Americans polled by USA Today/Gallup this week - 52 percent - agree with President Bush that most benefits should go to children in families earn ing less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level - about $41,000 for a family of four. The polls showed that “only 40 percent say benefits should go to families earn ing up to $62,000, as the bill written by Democrats and some Republicans would allow.” Defining moment indeed: Who represents the truly needy? Who represents responsible taxpayers? Who represents future genera tions, who would be forced to send their hard-earned money to fund this hugetas tic middle-class entitlement explosion? The GOP is already respon sible for passing the obscene Medicare prescription drug entitlement expansion - the largest in the program’s his tory and the true costs of which were suppressed until after it became law. If Republicans don’t have the guts to torpedo the Democrats’ SCHIP Trojan Horse permanently, they deserve to lose their seats. Michelle Malkin is author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com. 154049 Join us for Customer Appreciation Day We’re saying “Thank You” to our customers with • Hourly Prize Drawings • Grand Prize Drawing L $325 Shell Gas Card *3o*l i Besides, wouldn’t it be nice if we could forget for just a moment all the issues that divide us? This is no time to split hairs about what we believe or don’t believe, or to argue about who is right and who is wrong. This is the time to pray for a miracle for Abby Smith. Last year I asked you to write the men and women of Georgia’s 48th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, and the response was in the thousands. Now I am asking you for another good deed. Pray for this young lady and tell everybody you know to pray for her as well, and tell them to pass the word along to everybody they know. I know from my mail that you have shared my opinions with friends around the country and around the world. Do it again. Please. I don’t understand why bad things happen to good people like Abby and her parents, but if it 1 asrNa.r" jjßyrei H TSgk ’-J] jss h , 1 ■ J 2nd Annual Breast Cancer Survivor Appreciation Day! October x 26 y 2007\ 10am to 4pm Malissa Magyar, Amoena rep., will be available for fittings, along with Stephanie Nauss and Melissa Scarborough. Call now to reserve your time. Make your appointment for your one-on-one fitting during the month of October and receive a FREE Amoena® - Breast Cancer pin as our gift to you. A BOLAND PROSiTrHETr l(£ & A QRTrHQTie; QiNiVißi w 110 Osigian Blvd., Watmer Robins, GA • 478-953-2922 THE BANK OF PERRY PERRY, GEORGIA » - * & Letters to the editor % Anarchy result of Paul’s platform Republican, U.S.presidential candidate/U.S.Rep.,R. Texas, Ron Paul is a semi-Libertarian who wants to abolish Medicare, the IRS, Medicaid, the INS, Social Security and end the war in Iraq ASAP. His platform is so impractical and radical that it’s implementation would result in anarchy. He has also stated that 9/11 could have been prevented if the federal government didn’t control who could bring firearms onto airplanes. Now that is really scary. But then his buddy, Wayne La Pierre, is with the NRA and advo cates being legally able to take your firearms anywhere in the good old USA - whether to churches, nurseries, court houses, federal buildings, military bases, hospitals, hos pices and businesses that serve alcohol. Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins Call 987-1823 to subscribe * fjfmminQ • CMonogmmming •OH ZFhintinfp • Qtfts Where Framing Is An Art 918 Carroll Street • Perry, GA 478-987-4079 mmmmmmmmmmmmammmmmimmammmmmmaamamaaamamammmmmmmmmmmmfmmmmmmmmmmmmim SUNSHINE CARPET CARE Call ‘Us’ On The Carpet ® h . saw® " "O CARPET & UPHOLSTERY 4pff| Cleaning gmlfjfm SERVING HOUSTON COUNTY Since 1988 * Dan Mason WWW.BANECLENE.COM After breast surgery Your lire, naturally. w Your life is filled with new adventures and your bra and breast forms needs change with different activities. Join us for an Amoena® Fit Event and let a certified fitter put you in the right products that fit your life right. Make Amoena® part of your life. Wednesday, October 24 ll a.m. -2 p.m. • Tornado Money Machine • Hamburgers, hot dogs & refreshments Come for the fun. We dopreciateyour business! HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL would get Muslims and Catholics and Protestants and Jews praying for her young life, she will have accomplished something not even the greatest theologians in history have been able to do unite us all in a common and good cause. Maybe if we did more of this kind of thing we could learn to hate each other less. Admittedly that is a stretch, but it is worth a try. I suspect God would be delighted to see us make an effort to get along for a change. Next week we will get back to pompous politicians, those insuf ferably rude cell phone yakkers and other assorted irritants. But for now, let’s concentrate on little Abby Smith. She needs a miracle. She needs your prayers. Pass it on. You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb24oo@bellsouth.net, P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139, or website: www.dickyarbrough.com. Dan 987-7330 W. R. 923-5655 www.bankofperry.com 1006 Main St. Perry, GA 54072 54240 5- s »W> 54828 isl mim Member FOIC