Newspaper Page Text
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♦ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2008
OPINION
Change for the better?
Lucy: Do you think anybody ever
really changes ?
Linus: I’ve changed a lot in the last
year.
Lucy: I mean for the better.
- Charles Schultz (1922-2000)
Indeed, things have changed
a lot in 2008. We’ve gotten a
new President - at least a new
President-elect. It happens at least
every four years, and sometimes eight.
But, it happens.
Still, this time it’s different. For the
first time in our country’s history, we
have a black President - except, he’s
one-half white. So, does that make him
white and one-half black or black and
one-half white? Really, does it matter?
It doesn’t. Obviously, it’s change and,
in part, reflects our country’s growing
diversity (it also reflects our President
elect’s tremendous presence, youth,
intelligence, and what I would call
“smoothness”).
Actually, we’ve always been a diverse
country - just look at the lists of the
forefathers who came through Ellis
Island. True, I guess there weren’t
that many “blacks” passing by the
Statue of Liberty. I guess most of their
forefathers were brought over on slave
ships and off-loaded at Charleston;
Savannah, or maybe even Boston.
Not only do we have a new soon-to
be President, we also find ourselves
in perhaps the worst economic times
since the Great Depression. Many peo
ple’s “portfolios” have declined, dra
matically, and their net-worths have
dropped precipitously.
And yet, there does not seem to be
“Now some states and cities want to be bailed out...
They must really believe in Santa Claus!"
Up in 'arms' over sleep; 'Genie' doesn't pay off
Yo Adrian!
Is this a sign of getting old?
I can’t remember this hap
pening at all over the course of the past
50 years and now it’s happened to me
twice in the same year.
In fact my wife started it. Her first
episode - and I guess “only” episode
as far as I know (but are more yet to
come) - occurred over a year ago.
I’m kind of thankful, actually. If she
hadn’t encountered it first and showed
me what to do, I don’t know what
shape I would have been in the first
time it happened to me. Or Monday
night when it happened again.
Let me flash back so you’ll know
what’s going on.
Me (some time in 2007): “What’s
wrong?”
Her lying on her stomach in bed, and
with her hands (fists) resting neatly
under her chin, arms tucked in by her
side, (I guess the closest thing to it is
the way people position their arms and
hands when they’re about to fall off
the back of a boat to go scuba diving:
“I can’t move my arms.”
“What’d you mean you can’t move
your arms?”
“They’re asleep.”
“They’re asleep!”
“I can’t get up.”
I laugh.
Then it begins. She starts rocking
from side to side, side to side - tries it
front to back when she meets no suc
cess - attempting to dislodge thejn;
subsequently wake them.
It’s funny. No, downright hilarious.
I’m rolling. I’m rolling now just
thinking about it. She was a helpless
little whale on the beach trying so
desperately to get back into the water.
(It was all too perfect. She couldn’t
outrun me and even if she did, it would
be awhile before she could do anything
with those spaghetti noodles.)
Larry
Walker
Columnist
lwalker@whgb-law.com
the suffering that many experienced
and all have read about that took place
during the 19305.
My Daddy was born in 1917 and
Mother in 1920. Both would have
been teenagers at the height of the
Depression. Interestingly, I never
heard either complain or lament this
time in their lives. Maybe they weren’t
used to much (unlike teens, today) and
didn’t expect much.
And, at least as to Daddy, the farm
the he lived on with his parents sup
plied almost all of their essential netjds.
It could be that even though there was
great change in our country, there
wasn’t great change in their lives.
Still, Daddy did and Mother has
experienced great change. Let’s look
and you decide whether or not it was
for the better.
I’d start with the automobile - not
it’s invention, but its mass production
by Mr. Ford. I’ve been told that when
Daddy started teaching school (around
1938?), he bought a new, black Ford
auto. And, Mother’s father was the
Chevrolet dealer in Perry. Everybody
(at least every family) got a car. Roads
improved. Businesses served the trav
eling public. Interstates were built.
Businesses on the old two-lanes went
Don
Moncrief
Managing Editor
donm@evansnewspapers.com
“Not so funny now,” I remember
her saying when it first happened to
me. She even went so far as to throw
insults: “Rock the boat. Don’t rock the
boat, baby.” Humming the theme song
to Rocky.
The seesaw song:
“Wally went walking in the wind one
day
“he was feeling lonely there was no
one out to play
“he looked so sad he wished the wind
would blow away
“all of the troubles that he had that
day
. “See saw
“teeter-totter tilt
“some folks smile some other folks
frown
“see saw
“teeter-totter tilt
“one goes up
“the other goes down”
Me, grumbling: “Glad to see you’re
getting some real good use out of
that pre-k teaching experience.” Then:
“Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Owwwww,” as the
“tinglifes” begin.
“Cry baby.”
I don’t get it. I never sleep on my
stomach. Never on my back (I snore
I’m told). Always left or right to keep
my snoz open. So how in the world did
I end up in that condition twice now
within a year?
Is it really something associated with
getting old? Is this a scene that plays
out every morning around the world?
Hundreds? Thousands? Millions of old
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out. People were freed from the mores
of family and hometown. Great change?
Yes. For the better? You decide.
Then, came the television. Originally,
it was a black and white world. And,
white (good) almost always won-out
over black (evil). Then, television
changed. It became technically better
and black and white became color. It
all ran together. It also became the
guide for many children’s conduct -
the television became their parent(s),
so to speak. What they learned about
life, they learned from the t.v. Not the
church or the school or their parent(s),
but from television. For the better? You
decide.
And now, we have the internet.
Instant communication. Immediate
information (accuracy not necessarily
a requirement). Total knowledge is not
always good. Inaccurate knowledge or
information is hardly ever good. But,
change it is and changing more rapidly
every day.
The above paragraph on the internet
is short - shorter than the ones on the
automobile and the television. The
reason: I think I can see the effect cars
and TV have had on our society. As to
the internet, it’s only just begun. Who
knows? And, where is it all going?
Lots of change - in the last year and
in the last 75 years. There is more to
come. Yes, we can and will change. But,
as Lucy would say, is it for the better?
Only time will tell.
Next week: Some changes I know that
have been good.
people flapping around in their bed
as if the tide went out too soon? (Can
you see it?) Or is it a set up? We’ve got
one of those big pizza things - those
things you take them out of the oven
with, whatever they’re called. (I was a
dishwasher at Pizza Hut, not a cook.)
Is she flipping me over like a pancake?
Kidding aside (or not) I have a real
added danger with her. I have found
that making too much commotion on
the bed in the middle of the night is
liable to get you either punched or foot
pushed off.
Taking out the short lamp table next
to my side with my face would only
compound our now “rocky” relation
ship.
• ••
Different topic.
“Ahem. I don’t mean to pry, but
you’ve got a little something right
tViprp M
Me: “Where?”
“Right there. Just on your nose
there.”
Me: “Hmm.” I reach up and remove
a tiny blue (or red) speck.
I firmly believe I’ll have that conver
sation one day.
My wife, God love her (and He does),
got tired of all those women jumping
out of nowhere and swooning all over
me (like on the TV commercials), so
she took away my Axe body wash.
.Instead she bought me some Dial
for Men “Ultimate Clean” with “Blue/
Grit” body wash.
It is just full of the aforementioned
blue and red specks. The big problem:
They don’t dissolve. Ever.
We now have Lake LaBLUEna beach
forming in our bathtub and when I get
out I look like Gary Glitter (a British
pop star for those unfamiliar).
And feel like the sandman.
No wonder they call it Proctor and
“Gamble”.
"One voice can make a difference"
Victimized for one; the ‘victim’
for the other
Twice Monday the members of the Warner
Robins City Council had to have felt like they
had been victimized.
The first came during the Redevelopment
Agency meeting in which they learned land in
the area of Duke Avenue and Prince Street,
land they had about a month ago promised to
a local medical professional wanting to estab
lish his practice, had already been obligated to
Georgia Military College for expansion.
The prior obligation had apparently occurred
when the DDA, which has since been disband
ed, existed.
“Had we known about it,” said Councilman
Clifford Holmes to plenty of agreement from
the rest. “We would have never done what we
did.” (Note: Stay tuned as they now try to find
a compromise/solution to fit the needs of both
GMC and the doctor.)
Later on, during the work session, it was
brought to their attention by Mayor Donald
Walker: “We don’t sell gas pipe.” That in regard
to their decision, also about a month back,
to sell the pipe to the Board of Education for
use on Veterans High School. The city - the
councilmen - in exchange agreed (voted) to
run/install it.
It was pointed out by Walker that the city
didn’t sell the pipe but provided it as incentive
to hopefully earn the client’s business as a
tradeoff.
Again the council members looked around at
each other in puzzlement.
“We didn’t know that either,” was on every
face. (Note: Stay tuned to this too as Walker
has asked them to reconsider their action
- subsequently reverse it, is his desire.)
This is a worrisome situation. You could tell
the councilmen were troubled by it. They were
not provided the information they needed ahead
of time to make informed decisions. Decisions
that affect how many thousands?
And we’re not criticizing the mayor here (even
though hesaid he knew about both). In hisdefense,
See VICTIM, page yA
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Wholesole power cost adjustment* a
miscarriage of justice?
There is one statement neither a single or married man
normally looks forward to hearing from that special
lady in their life. It goes something like, “Honey, I’m late.”
The first thing the man hopes is she means she is late
getting ready for a night on the town or something along
those lines.
Let me tell you about my electric bill. Hold on and let me
explain the connection between my comments above and
my electric bill.
See LETTER, page yA
Letters to the editor
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