The Forsyth County news. (Cumming, Ga.) 19??-current, November 29, 1995, WEDNESDAY EDITION, Page PAGE 15A, Image 15

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OpEd Maybe giving away some of those toys are the answer ‘Us the season to buy toys, and there’s lots of news about “danger ous toys”. I watched some “expert” on T.V. the other night, demonstrat ing how various toys could be dan gerous to kids, and the more I watched, the more 1 wondered how some of us ever grew up! Of course I know there are exceptions, but most of us managed to survive childhood without getting bopped or otherwise impaired by any number of toys that safety experts would shudder at today. Does anyone remember stilts, or tom-walkers? I’m not even going to explain these, for fear some child reading this will try to fashion some and break bones and sue me! That, incidentally, is probably why all the precautions today. Litigation is a way of life. When we were kids, and got hurt, it was usually our own fault, like carelessness, or using the toy the wrong way, and no one even thought of suing the company that made the toy! Those of you who remember stilts and tom-walkers can explain them to your own kids if you want to, or grand-kids, but look out because they might sue YOU! 8010 paddles were mainstays of our playtime, and I didn’t actually hit my sister with the paddle or the ball, but managed to come close enough to make her squeal, which was sufficient. 1 even had a sling shot, and only used it on tin cans and stuff like that. I know my Mama KNEW where I was and what I was doing, at least when I was young enough to maybe get in trouble with a toy. We were taught the right and wrong of things, including play. Of course we didn’t Balanced budget will be beneficial to Georgians After the Senate recessed for the Thanksgiving holiday, U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell (R-GA) returned home to Georgia amid growing opti mism that the nation will have a bal anced budget in seven years, trigger ing colossal economic growth in Georgia and elsewhere across the country. “For Georgians, the benefits of a balanced budget are mind boggling” Sen. Coverdell said. “It’s estimated Georgians will save $2,602 each year on the average mortgage, $653 on the average 10-year student loan and see the cost of state and local government reduced by $212 per household due to a drop in interest rates.” (Source: Citizens for a Sound Economy, 11/20/95) “Economists forecast that inter est rates will tumble as much as 2.7 percent when Congress achieves and the President approves a seven-year balanced budget plan. Those lower interest rates would lessen the cost of borrowing for consumers and state and local governments,” he said. (Source: DRI/McGraw-Hill study, October 1995) On Friday, the Senate approved the Balanced Budget Act of 1995, which achieves a zero deficit by 2002. In addition, the legislation reforms welfare, saves Medicare from bankruptcy and returns $245 billion to American families through tax cuts. The President has threat ened to veto the balanced budget bill. “The only think standing between America and a balanced budget is President Bill Clinton,” Senator Coverdell said. “The fight is far from over. Georgians must call on the President to keep his word and sign this seven-year bal anced budget bill. Many naysayers said it couldn’t be done, but this new Majority has proven we can balance our budgets, control spending and return those resources to where they belong with our families and our communities,” said Sen. Coverdell. Sen. Coverdell said he is more opti mistic than ever that the 104th Congress will be remembered in the history books as the first Congress, since 1969, to successfully produce and then move a true balanced bud get through the process. “We will succeed because the American people are behind us,” he said. “Americans support our efforts because they understand the very I-|l J °y° e Ijwy Jordan J have the variety of toys, nor were they as sophisticated as today’s, but there was always the possibility of harm, if you didn’t have common sense or watchful adults. After watching that guy on T.V., I’m being very careful choosing toys for the grandchildren. I’ve about decided just to give them containers. You mean your grandchildren don’t prefer playing with the boxes? Most of our younger grandchildren enjoy opening presents more than anything, so I could wrap up lots of empty boxes and they’d have a ball! That and a bag of gummy bears, or gummy worms, and they’d be satis fied, and I wouldn’t be broke, OR get sued! Unless those gummy bears caused a problem! Hmmmmm, maybe just the boxes then. Just kid ding, children, just kidding! One of the primary dangers to a lot of kids today is stumbling over the abundance of toys they already have, to get to the Christmas tree and unwrap more! I have a sugges tion. Why not give some of those old, useable toys to some of the charitable organizations collecting them this season? Your children might enjoy picking out some to give, and, what do you know, there they are, learning what the season is all about! integrity and preservation of this union is at stake. Our success will determine whether we move forward as the superpower we are or leave behind a crippled nation for the next generations of Americans,” he said. In addition to tax cuts, Sen. Coverdell said middle-income American families who most need economic relief will get additional benefits through a decrease in inter est rates. He outlined how an aver age Georgia family would fare as a result of balancing our budget. Savings Mortgages and More Affordable Housing: In Georgia, the average mortgage is $96,354, according to the Federal Housing Finance Board. With a 2.7 percent drop in interest rates, the average Georgia mortgage holder would save $2,602 on interest payments for each year of a fixed-rate, 30-year mort gage. Federal Reserve Board Governor Lawrence Lindsay pre dicts that with a balanced budget in the year 2002, “You’ll have the 5-1/4 percent mortgages our parents got.” Therefore, as the cost of borrowing drops, housing will become more affordable. Make College Education More Affordable: The U.S. Department of Education says the size of the average student loan in Georgia is $3,263. A 2.7 percent drop in inter est rates would mean that a Georgia student would save $653 over the life of the average 10-year loan. If that student takes out more than one loan for college, his or her savings would be even greater. Savings for Georgia Taxpayers: Lower interest rates would lessen the cost of borrowing for Georgia state and local govern ments, which have combined an out standing debt of $20.7 billion, according to 1995 figures from the Tax Foundation. A 2.7 percent reduction in interest rates could reduce Georgia’s state and local gov ernment borrowing costs by $559 million. If this were passed on to Georgia’s taxpayers, it would result in a $212 tax cut per household. “While the benefits of a balanced budget are enormous, conversely, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has warned of the serious adverse consequences should we fail to balance our budgets and reduce our nearly $5 trillion debt.” Sen. Coverdell said. “We must not fail.” The Beatles: a good little rock-n-roll band It was around 1964, and I was around nine years old. We stood near the T.V. in the den as my father looked at me with a woeful expres sion and half begged, half demanded that I have the bangs cut back away from my face. I felt tom, trapped, as I searched for a response that was both noncommittal and respectful at the same time. How could I possibly comply? I was in the grips of Beatlemania, and all the potions in his big black doctor’s bag could not have cured me. My son, now eighteen, watched a little of the recent “Beatles Anthology” T.V. show with me last week. What was so great about them, he asked. Why were all those girls screaming so? In an age when there must be a blue million rock groups, their sounds as varied as a songbird’s warble to a train wreck’s metallic peal, he cannot comprehend Beatlemania. In his short time rock ers have gone near naked, adorned themselves with body paint, grown shaggy locks or shaved their nog gins, bit the heads off live bats, and peed on the audience. Even country acts have the star flying through the Family is chief educator of children The older I get, the more I think about the “good old days”. These mythical days are always better in some fashion than today, and actual ly can only be characterized as good in comparison to the present. Almost always the good old days contained amazingly low prices on everything. For me the good old days extend back into the late 1950’5. I reminiscence about gaso line at 29 cents a gallon, and movies for 50 cents. I remember dates that including a meal and a movie, only cost $2.50. I remember in the early days of my married life going to the supermarket and buying a weeks worth of groceries for $lO. Oh, the good old days! They were really something. I recollect new cars sell ing for under $3000.1 remember my parent’s home which they built for $13,000 and financed at four percent interest. A new pair of Converse All-Star basketball shoes could be purchased for only $9.99. Of course wages were also very low. I recall working for area farmer* at a dollar per hour. I remember the Beatles and their first Ed Sullivan appear ance. I remember the pin up girls of the late 50’s and 60’s which were then considered taboo and were rele gated to the all male domain of workshop walls. I can still recall my cheeks burning when I first saw such pictures, and the guilt I felt later at having looked. I even remember pot bellied coal burning stoves which filled our house with scents and heat. I remember the very day that television entered our home for the first time. I can also remember the day that our house became air con ditioned. I did not leave the house all day except to go outside and come back in to see how much cool er it was inside. My parents then instituted the rule, “If you’re going out, stay out.” They always added, “We’re not paying to air condition the outdoors.” Of course the good old days were filled with cars and more cars. I remember ‘55 Chevy’s, and ‘57 Belair’s, and of course the new 1951 green Buick my Dad bought with the hydromatic drive. I can almost chart my personal history through automobiles of the past. I recall the sleek 1963 Chevrolet Impalas, and the ‘64 Mustangs, and the hot ‘65 GTO’s, and the Plymouth Hemi heads Road Runners and the Barracuda’s and the Dodge Chargers. The price tag on all these cars was under $4,000. I remember when our Presidents’ private lives remained private, and when democracy and Christianity were held to be as sacred and important. I remember when schools and teachers were respected. I remember being taught how the policeman was our friend and could be trusted. I recall going outside to spot Sputnik in the evening sky thinking that a whole new era was beginning. I also remember being issued dog tags in the 6th grade and having nuclear bomb drills in the event of a com munist attack. I remember when the slogan “better dead than red” was popular. I remember when prayer in school wasn’t controversial, but common. I remember when minis ters were highly respected people who always received the finest baked goods on their frequent visits to our house. Of course the good old air on hidden wires and smashing guitars onstage. How can I explain the wildly rebellious nature of four guys from Liverpool combing their hair straight down into their faces? How could he ever comprehend the uncontrollable, uninhibited hysteria on the part of thousands of teenage girls when John, Paul and George joined in high-pitched harmony over the word, “oooooooooooooh?” Frankly, I’m not entirely sure I understand it myself, and I certainly did not get it at the time. I don’t think any of us did. We just liked the music, liked the look, liked the atti tude. The girls were infatuated with four boys unlike any from back home, hair and accents and all. And the boys longed to make the girls lose their composure over us the way they did over them. Even today, when my son Kyle asked why the girls were screaming, I could almost hear the unspoken rest of the ques tion: “And how can I make girls act that way?” The songs, at first, were pretty innocuous: “I Want to Hold Your Hand”; “She Loves You”; “1 Saw Her Standing There.” It was feel days were at best filled with mixed blessings. Yet, the older 1 get, the more fondly I find myself remem bering those days. Today is a great time to be alive. There’s no question about that. We live in relative comfort and wealth in our society. My children have never known a home without televi sion, video recorders, air condition ing, and carpet on the floors. But as John F. Kennedy once said, “The nation cannot afford to be materially rich, and morally poor.” For all our affluence our society is experiencing a dramatic and potentially fatal decline in public and private morali ty. This descent has been well docu mented, and while our political lead ers are all paying lip service to the need to strengthen public morality, government is not the answer to the FORSYTH COUNTY, GEORGIA at POOLES MILL SHOALS 91 Riverfront Acres in 18 Tracts from 2.5 to 8 Acres Each ✓ Every tract has river frontage with noisy shoals ✓ Majestic mountain views near historical covered bridge ✓ County water ✓ Natural gas ✓ Densely wooded with big hardwoods and pines - OWNER FINANCING AVAILABLE - 25% down, balance over 7 years, monthly payments. LOCATION: Take Ga. 400 North to Exit #l3, turn left, stay on Bethelview/141 and cross Hwy. 20. Follow and bear left to Hurt Bridge Rd. Cross over Heardsville Rd. and continue. Auction signs will identify property on left. 808 TUCKER 808 TUCKER E 3 ASSOCIATES! ] m P.O. BOX 181 ■ ROME, GEORGIA 30162 ■ PHONE: 706-295-5768 ■ FAX: 706-295-3088 FOBSYTH COUNTY NEWS Wdn—d»y, November 29. 1995 good music, from a time when there was still plenty of roll in rock-and roll. But the Beatles invaded America as we were on the cusp of change. The next six years would deliver complex transitions, and their music followed suit. I can recall feel ing very uncool for my inability to interpret some of their lyrics. I hoped my perplexity over such passages as “I am the Eggman, I am the Eggman, I am the Walrus, coo-coo-ca-chew,” would never be discovered. Some attributed all kinds of sym bolism and hidden meaning to the Beatles’ music of the late ‘6os, even playing it backward and claiming to hear shocking messages. I just flat didn’t get it. Imagine my relief to have heard the voices of the Fab Four last week explaining that those songs were more or less just abstract, loose collages of impressions, not artfully coded packages full of deep meaning. Reminds me of a story about William Faulkner lecturing a college class on his short story, “The Bear.” Some student got up and gave a long-winded dissertation about the symbolism of the story, with all the characters and all the events repre problem. Yes, government can get tough on crime, and reform the wel fare system, and pass laws in an effort to stem the rising tide of indi viduals who somehow grew up without a moral compass to guide them. However, the real hope for stemming this tide of immorality is the family. The family is the most funda mental building block of society. While this statement is a truism, it is a truism that is not acted upon any more. As families go, there goes the nation. Divorce, illegitimacy, single parent homes, absent fathers and child abuse are the leading causes of crime, poverty, illiteracy, and an unnatural dependency on govern ment. Unless individuals belong to a meaningful family structure, they become moral aliens exploiting oth- |g§ Walker Bramblett senting something other than what they were, and asked the great writer if that wasn’t what he had intended. Faulkner, leaning on the podium, is said to have taken a pull on his pipe and replied, “Nope, son, I was just writing a story about a man hunting a bear.” The big message I took from the T.V. show was that it was talent that propelled the Beatles, not genius, not some mysterious agenda to change the world. As with so many who attain greatness, we tried to attribute to them more than was there. But what was there was nevertheless considerable. Paul McCartney said they were just a good little rock-and roll band, nothing more, nothing less. While his humility is admirable, they were a bit more significant than that. But he’s pretty close to the mark. Danner^n^^i LZMTiI ers and society in general to meet their needs. The family is the chief educator of children. The family is the major transmitter of values and morals and faith. The family is the depository of moral wisdom, love and discipline in our society. If the family is bankrupt, so is our society. Individuals must assume their right ful roles within the family if the i moral crisis of our day is to be solved. PAGE 15A