Newspaper Page Text
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2007
4A
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans Foy S. Evans
Vice President Editor Emeritus
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Letters to the editor
A big ‘thank you’ from the mayor
The opening weekend of our annual Christmas At The
Crossroads was a huge success. Each of the events
was well attended and enjoyed by all.
A number of people need to be thanked for all their hard
work in making the weekend so successful. Julie Evans
and Melanie Lewis put together the best parade our com
munity has ever witnessed. This was no easy task and
took weeks of preparation and planning. Our downtown
merchants followed up with many activities that made
Saturday afternoon a most enjoyable time in our beautiful
downtown.
Sunday evening's worship service at the old courthouse
was also well attended. The hundreds that gathered to take
time to remember the real meaning of the season were
blessed with a most inspirational message as well as fun
singing familiar old Christmas carols together. The lighting
of the community Christmas tree in honor of our military
and public safety personnel was recognized by all in atten
dance. The use of the portable stage from the ag center
was greatly appreciated as was Larry Wood and his work
with the sound system. The Perry Ministerial Association
is to be commended for all their hard work in putting this
significant event together for our community.
Boy Scouts and their leaders spent hours prior to the
Sunday evening service getting luminaries ready for light
ing. They are so faithful year after year in helping to make
this event unique for the City of Perry.
To the volunteers at the Perry United Methodist Church
who serve hot chocolate and cookies every year following
the Sunday evening worship service and to the children
who give meaning to the true spirit of Christmas with their
program on the steps of the church - thank you.
To the employees of the City of Perry who make all of
this come together we owe a debt of gratitude. These men
and women in the public works department and in our fire
and police departments make this event happen. Without
them there would be no Christmas at the Crossroads. They
spend many hours making sure everything is ready for the
event as well as following up after all the activities are over
to make sure things are back to normal for the community.
They are the most dedicated, hardworking men and women
I have ever been associated with and I am proud to serve
with them as we serve the citizens of our community.
Merry Christmas!
- Perry Mayor Jim Worrall
Judicial salaries: Time for Georgia to act
1 n the next session of the General Assembly, there will
Ibe many issues on which folks disagree. There is one
matter, however, on which we all agree: “justice for all”
requires better pay for judges serving in Georgia.
For the past two years, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts
has warned us of the consequences of the ever-widening
gap between the salaries of judges and those of lawyers in
the private sector, as well as senior law school professors.
In his 2005 Year-End Report on the Judiciary, Chief
Justice Roberts noted: “There will always be a substantial
difference in pay between successful government and
private-sector lawyers. But if that difference remains too
large - as it is today - the judiciary will over time cease
to be made up of a diverse group of the nation’s very best
lawyers.”
And in his Year-End Report for 2006, the chief justice
pointed to a growing trend among experienced judges
who are retiring from the bench early, then moving to more
financially lucrative work in the private sector - and away
from the increasing demands, sacrifices and risks associ
ated with judicial service.
At this point, you might be asking, so what? Why
See LETTER, page $A
More respect, less name calling
On several occasions I have begun to respond to writ
ers demanding the right of Warner Robins residents
to vote on whether or not Sunday sales of alcoholic drinks
should be permitted. Just as often, I decided not to enter
the debate.
Recent comments have been filled with such disgusting
verbiage that I must enter in “where angels fear to tread”.
To suggest that those citizens who oppose the Sunday
sale of alcoholic drinks are mentally ill as one writer did is
nauseating.
All citizens are constitutionally guaranteed the right to
petition government. Those citizens opposed to Sunday
sales were simply petitioning government as were pro
ponents of the measure. Their opposition was based
upon their moral value. Those in support of the measure
See LETTER i, page
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.
BELIEF
Come to see our mushroom
There they are, six turtle shells
on their backs and laying (or,
is it, lying?) on our kitchen
table. The largest is almost the size of a
' 10-gallon hat and the smallest is about
the size of a coffee cup.
And what we intend to do with them
is tie them together, vertically (largest
to smallest in descending size order),
and hang them in our barn out on
Highway 127. Do you think it will
make an interesting display? If so,
come by to see them.
Over to my right, on the fireplace
hearth, is a straw basket full of flint
rocks. There is nothing particularly
unique about “my rocks” except that I
thought, when I found them, that they
were pretty interesting rocks. Janice
caught my habit and she found some
of them. So, we have this basket and
several other containers full of “inter
esting” flint.
I have trouble getting rid of my
rocks, so we keep them. Maybe we
can take them out to our barn, spread
them out on a very large table, and let
disinterested people see them.
The flint rocks were found by us
while looking for Indian artifacts. And,
we do have some pretty good artifacts.
They are not “world class” like Buddy
Andrew’s collection, but they are pret
ty good.
Now, the question is how to display
the arrowheads. You have to be careful
with arrowheads because not nice peo
ple will steal them. And, then, there’s
those pieces of flint that we think were
“Indian tools”; but, we are not exactly
sure. I look in the arrowhead books
and I see similar rocks classified as
tools, but I’m still not totally positive
about “my tools”.
-—? medicmp )
Shopping habits at MLC' school mean late sleep
As the bard of retail would ask,
“What price, O hunter of bar
gains, O bidder of Black Friday,
O dropped shopper, what price will thy
pay?”
Apparently whatever they are asking.
That’s why thousands of- Americans
either queued up half a day before
stores opened or arose in the middle
of the night to be on line early the day
after Thanksgiving.
At stake were thousands of dollars
in savings on selected items, presump
tively for Christmas gifts.
A quick tour of newspaper and news
agency websites Friday revealed photos
of the hidden costs of getting a good
deal: sleeping overnight on cold con
crete; sleep deprivation with no guaran
tee of scoring a Wii or other similarly
situated gizmo; or even a slight risk of
limb as shoppers compete in the Short
Supply, Big Demand Holiday Bowl.
As an adherent of the “Have Yourself
a Merry Little Christmas” School of
Holiday Shopping Habits, I have never
really participated in Black Friday. I did
end up at a Retail Universe way sta
tion late Friday, shopping not for a gift
but rather for a necessity. The trip was
without incident. My heart was light.
Like many other in the MLC school,
I have neither the energy, organization
or foresight to rise before dawn for a
()ne voice ca/t-. make a (///fere/tee
Columnist SgagJJlf’'
lwalker@whgb-law.com
"But, you get the picture.
I'm a collector. Not a
serious collector of any
one thing, but a collector.”
Then there are my political campaign
posters and political memorabilia. I’ve
got some pretty good “stuff”. It’s inter
esting - well, at least to me it’s interest
ing. I’ve got a 1949 Herman Talmadge
for Governor poster, and an original
(first time he ran) Franklin Roosevelt
for President poster, and a match
ing Henry Wallace for Vice-President
poster. My cousin, Don Daniel, gave me
the Roosevelt and Wallace posters. I
also have an original Jimmy Carter for
President poster. I thought the Carter
poster might be valuable until I recent
ly saw an identical one in an antique
shop in Marietta selling for $75.
Then there are my books. I love my
books. When I read a book, I want to
own it. Perhaps that’s why I don’t go
more often to the library. If you give
me a book, I’ll write in the front of it
the date and your name and the cir
cumstances of the gift. When I finish
the book, likely as not, I will then write
in it as to my opinion of the book.
George y.Q.
Morris News Service
george.ayoub@morris.com
holiday bargain.
Actually, I can think of no particular
bauble or whirligig that would cause me
to set my alarm at 3:15 a.m. to shop.
Not even a white football with black
stripes. The faux leather football is a
gift from Christmas past, long past, my
past. I loved it as much as I ever loved a
Christmas gift.
I mention it here only because I know
my mother and father lost no sleep in
securing it, nor did the process by which
it was purchased matter to me when I
found it under the tree on my seventh
or eighth Christmas morning.
Please factor into this good-old-days
shtick and sob story that I am old, or
at least old enough to have grown up
without a mall. Since the days of black
and white footballs, we have become a
nation of shoppers. I make no judgment
on that; it’s only an observation. In fact,
my father toiled in retail the last eight
years of his life, so we knew full well the
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
Most often, there is a good report;
otherwise, I wouldn’t have finished it. I
never write an evaluation unless I read
every word in the book -1 don’t cheat!
I love my books, like to own them, and
like to feel and smell them. I’m a book
collector. It will probably be a problem
for my children when Janice and I are
gone in getting rid of all these books.
Recently, Janice found a giant mush
room (as big as our second largest
turtle shell) out on our farm, and on
the same day I found a giant fungus
growing on an oak tree.
Since she had the mushroom, I
refused to be outdone and got the fun
gus. We still have both of these inter
esting “conversation pieces”. Well, at
least she and I talk about them!
I have model antique cars, trucks
and tractors and a few signed baseballs
and six, or so, signed footballs. I could
go on.
But, you get the picture. I’m a collec
tor. Not a serious collector of any one
thing, but a collector. And, I think I
know why: It has to do with my child
hood and my cousin James’ stamp
collection (yes, it was world-class) and
Papa’s telling me about the rocks and
birds and our science club under the
fig tree on Swift Street. But, that’s
subject matters for future articles. For
the time being, let me say that we have
some pretty interesting stuff in our
barn on the Marshallville Road - at
least we think so.
Come by to see us, and I’ll show it to
you, including Janice’s mushroom in a
stand over the sink in the bam.
Editor’s Note: On page BA, you’ll
find some interesting letters written in
response to Larry Walker’s previous col
umn Dec. 1 on UGA’s Herschel Walker.
pressures of Christmas.
As a nation of shoppers, it only stands
to reason that we are at our best on
Black Friday and the attendant holiday
shopping season that follows.
That’s why it should neither surprise
nor concern us that shoppers camp all
night or push and shove a little to com
plete their link in the commerce chain
the day after Thanksgiving.
All of which makes us MLC shoppers
(last minute, prone to shrugging dith
erers), out of step with the rest of the
retail world. It’s a blessing and a curse.
Saving money or getting a good deal
makes my day as much as it does yours.
I sometimes wish I had some of the mer
chandising moxie, instincts and drive of
those who arrived at stores before dawn
Friday morning, credit cards at the
ready, a plan in their pocket.
The boots were an aberration. I sim
ply have very few shopping chops.
So I sleep later the day after
Thanksgiving. I wait to shop. And I will
have to be content with hanging a shin
ing star upon the highest bough because
between now and Dec. 25, inventory
and prices will never be what they were
in the wee hours of Friday morning.
George Ayoub is senior writer at The
Independent of Grand Island, Neb.
Reach him at george.ayoub@morris.
com.