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Perspectives
Unity through prayer can make it happen
How appropriate I thought.
The sign at Byron Middle School
read: Together we can make it
happen.
That thought stuck with me
after the prayer walk at the
schools for the rest of the day.
There was a decent crowd in
Byron and in Fort Valley but
there should have been more.
Perhaps had the walk been more
widely publicized than just the
week before and if churches in
Peach County had been more
apprised of what was taking
place. Still the mission was
accomplished.
Things do happen when
people gather to pray, especially
in mass.
Hans in Fort Valley, according
to Dot Hudson, are planning on
the walk a
I BLOOD WANTED DONORS
&
'99 raytonns9hom.nct
When right was right and wrong was wrong
With so much media
devoted to the shootings in
Littleton, Colorado and
elsewhere, the issues involved
public education appear to
to one - student safety. Yet,
issues confronting todays’ school
administrators are
and extend well beyond
concept of physical safety.
Right out of the box, there is
growing question regarding the
purpose of government schools.
Once thought to be the
education of a new generation
elevate the welfare of
country, public education
been torn in a myriad
directions from
babysitting for busy parents
de facto detention facilities
troubled youth to guinea pigs
social experimentation. For the
most part, the purpose of
particular school will
greatly depending on
students, location, funding,
political leaders.
Putting aside the
(which is no small issue),
is the question of
From the days of paddlings
rapped knuckles to
promotion, the method
education has been anything
consistent. Teachers have
themselves on a
perpetual pendulum from cop
villain. The result has been
routing adoption of broad
arbitrary rules designed
eliminate any discretion in
The Meeting Place
I Peach County Commission - - every second
Tuesday of month, 1st floor annex, Public Meeting
Room, Peach County Courthouse, 6 p.m.
Fort Valley City Council - -every third Thursday of
; month, courtroom at City Hal, 6:30 p.m.
Board of Education - -every first Tuesday of
month in board office. Vineville, 6:00 p.m.
Byron City Council - • every first Monday of
month at oid school, 6:00 p.m.
Utility Com missi on - - every second Monday of
month, courtroom at City Hal, 7:30 p.m.
Hospital Authority - - every fourth Thursday of
month in hospital conference room, 9:00 a.m.
PC Water A Sewer Authority- first Thursday of
month, 2 p.m. in new courthouse annex, Fort Valley, or
the Byron Depot
PC Tax - first Thursday of month, 6
p.m., 1st floor annex, Courthouse, Public Meeting Rm.
PC Development Authority • second Thursday of
month, 8 a.m., Chamber of Com m erce office, Vineville
St, Fort VaMey.
- C|« luftrr Crtbmu, Wednesday, August 25, 1909
occurrence, about every nine
weeks, I think she said.
It is a start and I believe we
will see a difference in the
atmosphere of the schools. God¬
fearing, Bible believing
Christians should have taken a
stand years ago when the Bible
was being taken out of our
schools. Then perhaps we would
not have fallen so far into the
immoral pit we find ourselves in
today. When I see some of the
things in society I compare it to
what was happening in Sodom
and Gomorrah in the Bible. The
wickedness, the immorality, the
filthiness.
But it is too late to change
what Madeline O’Hair did and
we must go forward, joining our
hands in unison in prayer.
We all can continue to pray in
I - #
Kandy w
Political analyst Evans
effort to convert teachers into
little more than rule
implementers without regard to
the individual students or their
needs. The message is simple: if
there is a rule, enforce it; if not,
do not worry about it.
Of course, with such an
approach, schools and their
students have gotten the worst
of all worlds. First, they live
with unfair intolerance. The
rules are without exception
regardless of the circumstances
involved. It is the -antithesis of
the kind of individualism that
characterizes a free society as
opposed to any other. Second,
and oddly enough, they live
with unacceptable tolerance. If
there is no rule, then it must be
okay. And, as youth almost
inherently requires, there is the
constant search for the
boundaries normally created by
the rules. These searches
typically continue until rules
are created, disaster strikes, or
maturity eventually
materializes.
One solution is returning to
the good old fashioned school
days where ‘right was right and
Wht leaker -tribune
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The Leader-Tribune Staff
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Jerry Murtagh Staff Reporter
Stacey Shy Office Manager
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Gary Foskey Assistant Pressman
Denise Jackson Circulation
Joyce Matthews Columnist
t
Day At A time
Vicky
Whitehead
the privacy of our homes and at
our churches for our schools, but
the prayer walks brings all of us
together for a common cause in a
public setting. You find people of
all denominations and people
from various churches joining
together.
And the result is powerful. I
was touched as we were walking
around the schools by the spirit
which was present. It was a
sweet spirit and I hated for it to
end as the group dispersed to
return to their Saturday
routines.
We prayed, we sang, we
walked and fellow shipped. I met
some new people, saw others I
associate with on a regular basis
and I took my daughter along.
She was not too happy about
all the walking and actually sat
for a while with Joyce Matthews
in front of the middle school.
Still, she knows how I feel about
prayer and that this was an
important step for our
community. She has witnessed
the power of prayer in our lives
and her life and knows what can
be accomplished when people
pray.
And God gave me strength for
the morning because I did not get
tired from the walking. A
blessing in itself since tiredness
tries to rob me of energy right
now.
I believe God will bless those
who showed to
When your mind retires
before your body expires
As we grow older our
seem to fail us more often
sometimes we do some
silly things. Things like
out of church and heading in
wrong was wrong.’ The problem
for schools today is that no one
can agree on what is right or
wrong. Indeed, many of the most
useful tools for answering
questions concerning right and
wrong are simply not available
to teachers, and principals, and
administrators. In fact,
reference can result in
discipline, litigation, and
termination.
Imagine all of this, and the
topics of math scores, reading
skills, computer literacy and the
like have yet to come up. But
then, the tough issues are rarely
(and never auickly) addressed.
It is easy to look to technology to
improve the safety of schools
with metal detectors and
surveillance cameras. And,
improving school safety is
something on which everyone
can agree.
School is back and the process
starts again. There are a few
more rules and a few more
safety measures. Yet, for the
vast majority of Georgia’s
schoolchildren, nothing has
really changed. Same song, next
verse.
Wfje leaker -®rU>ttne
Editorial Opinion... Yours and ours
t i
From where I sit
■
VS.-.'?'.;
tfob Tribble
Things like going to the grocery
store and forgetting the most
important item you went for.
Things like forgetting people’s
names that you certainly should
know.
A long time local resident who
lived to make it into his 80’s had
a favorite saying that one time or
another he probably relayed to
most everyone he met. Brooks
Robertson use to say, “It ain’t
going to get no better,” reffering
to our memories. The longer we
live, the more we full well realize
how right Brooks was.
When walking back to the office
one day from lunch I noticed Fire
Chief Ted Rogers come out of a
store across the street. Ted
walked up the street in the same
direction I was going as we spoke
a few words back and forth. As
we walked along, Ted suddenly
stopped, looked around and
realized he had walked right past
his pickup truck that was parked
in front of the business he had
come out of. As he turned and
walked back towards his truck
he exclaimed “I forgot, I had
truck painted the other day.”
Just for the record so you city
folks won’t worry, Ted retired as
fire chief recently.
Frances and I were talking the
other day about my mother, Mrs.
Effie Tribble. Mrs. Effie worked
at the newspaper parttime
answering the phone and billing
the class ads until well past 80.
One day she came home from the
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matter anyone
or what they say, you can not
keep God out of the schools or
anywhere else for that matter.
You can format the
circumstances and control the
a situations but those of us who
have a personal relationship with
our creator can communicate
with Him, anytime of the day
and anywhere even if only in
silent prayer.
I was excited about the
possibilities of the prayer walk
after another experience with one
in another county.
A few weeks ago Bleckley
County held a prayer walk, prior
to opening day, in which the
school system actually
participated indirectly. The
school cafeterias were opened
and that is where everyone met.
Prayer requests from people were
written on sheets of construction
paper and placed in designated
locations. The group went to
those locations to pray for the
request. They walked and prayed
outside and inside the schools.
At the high school in Cochran,
close to 250 people showed up to
pray for that school and there
were about 350 at the primary
school. The . school
superintendent Buster Evans
wrote a column after the walk,
about how he was
everyone
for praying for the schools. He
said that after the prayer walk,
opening day of school was one of
the smoothest ever! There was a
sense of inspiration that echoed
throughout our facilities chi that
first day,” he wrote.
Knowing Buster somewhat, I
could pick up my phone, call him
and ask him to pray for me or
with me and I have no doubt he
would. Thank God, I do know
people like that.
Already we have had trouble
in the high school - prior to the
prayer walk. It can only get
worse unless we take a stand.
We’ve made a start, taken the
first step. It is up to us to
continue the process and the
prayers. Our school system —
teachers, staff, adminstrators
and especially our students - will
be the better for it. And I believe
we will experience a difference.
The difference that is made when
together in prayer, we can make
it happen.
u If my people, who are called
by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek
my face, and turn from their
wicked ways; then will 1 hear
from heaven, and will forgive
their sin and will heal their
land.”- 2 Chronicles, 7:14.
grocery store and put light bulbs
in the refrigerator. Frances found
them there when we went by for
a visit.
But then, it’s not always the
older folks who do some pretty
silly things. Mitch, Patty and
another couple were fishing one
day. They had caught a nice
string of fish and had them tied
on a rope, they thought, to the
dock. Suddenly Mitch looks
down, sees the mess of fish on
the rope swimming away and
hollers, “Get those fish. Get,
those fish.” Patty, being a pretty
good swimmer, jumps in the
lake, bottom first, without
hesitation and retrieves the
catch. Boy were those fish good,
it was later reported.
And then there is the story
about a local pastor, rather new
in town, who carries his young
son to the city lake fishing while
ne reads the paper. After a few
casts, John, we will call him,
loses his new lure. There it is
floating around in the middle of
the small lake. Guess who dives
into the lake and swims out to
the middle to save that $7.00
lure? You are right, the 40 year
old pastor. So in case you saw
someone you might have thought
was the new pastor of a local
Baptist Church swimming in the
city lake, illegally I might add,
you were right. That was
absolutely him.
friend Norman Carter
QLTLGOAL;
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i
published the following poem
entitled, “A Little Mixed Up,” in
his Pobiddy Joke Book. It was
given to him by Mrs. A.P.
Persons.
“Just a line to say I’m living,
that I’m not among the dead. I’m
getting more forgetful and mixed
up in the head. I’m right used to
my arthritis, to my dentures I’m
resigned. I can manage my
bifocals, but 0 God, I miss my
mind. Sometimes I can’t
remember standing at the
bottom of the stairs. Did I just go
up for something or just come
down from them? And before the
fridge so often my poor mind fills
with doubt, have I just put food
away or have I come to take it
out? There are times when it is
dark with my nightcap on my
head, I don’t know if I’m retiring
or just getting out of bed. So if it’s
my time to write you, there’s no
need for getting sore. 1 may think
that I have written and don’t
want to be a bore.
Please remember that I love
you and wish that you were hear.
B jt now it’s nearly mail time so I
must say goodbye my dear.
There I stand beside the mailbox
with my face so very red. Instead
of mailing you my letter, I
opened it instead.”
Finally, you know for sure you
are getting older when, your
mind retires before your body
expires. Have a great day!