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Page 4 — Wednesday, September 16, 2009, The Millen News Opinions, yours and ours The Chatter Box By Deborah Bennett The poll question on our website last week was, “Do you be lieve it is possible for Millen and Jenkins County to recover from all of the job losses experienced in the past three years?” Responses as of Monday were: Yes - 18; No - 51; and Maybe - 12. We had one reader comment as follows: “While Millen has the factory space, the drive into Millen from most directions takes you through slum areas that would turn off any potential com pany and its management. Head out towards Dublin any day, look right or left for two miles or so and you see a bad looking area, not that the people living there don’t want to improve it, or want jobs. I don’t know. The mayor is a Millen businessman, so needless to say he wants Millen to grow. I believe the city needs to approach and offer property and tax concessions to various companies. They might be doing that already, but keeping it se cret doesn’t let the people of Millen know someone is trying, and being kept secret, they lose access to people in Millen who might know someone in the prospective company where they could use their influence. I hope for the sake of all who live here and have businesses here that something comes this way soon.” To participate in this week’s poll, go to http:// www.themillennews.com. Television commercials don’t often catch my attention, or if they do, it is because of their offensive or silly content. Recently, however, I saw one that I thought was very creative. A man and woman are shown walking into their bedroom car rying suitcases, presumably returning from vacation. The woman falls face-first on top of their bed and begins to "tell the bed” how much she missed it and that she would never again sleep in another bed. The man then does the same thing. I couldn’t help but laugh, because I know how they felt. A recent trip left me feeling the same way. Our accommoda tions were great - except for the beds. While pleasing to look at, sleeping on them was another matter. About halfway through the first night, my husband got up and attempted to sleep in the re- cliner chair, leaving me wishing I had thought of it first. Our son and daughter-in-law complained the next morning that they, too, had not slept all night in their lumpy bed. The only person who slept through the night was our eight months old granddaughter, and she can sleep anywhere. We experienced a second night of no-sleeping and were more than ready to get up and go home the next morning. A hotel/motel commercial of several years ago used the slo gan, “The lights are always on.” I now know why - no one can sleep in motel/hotel beds! Happy birthday this week to: Sara Helen Burke, Kenny Will iams, Shelby Burke, Daisy Edenfield and Vivian Davis. Celebrating wedding anniversaries are: Mr. and Mrs. John T. Herrington Jr. and Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Brown. Military Active Duty List: PV2 Brianna Joiner, U.S. Army National Guard, Ft. Leonardwood, MO; PV2 Jeremy Johnson, U.S. Army, 59 th Quartermaster Company, Ft. Carson, Colorado; Ronnie Perryman, Charlie Troop, 108 th Calvary Division, 4 th Platoon, Afghanistan; Lance Cpl. Adam Lanier, U.S. Marines, 8 th & I Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.; E-4 Sr. Airman Roy Davis, U.S. Air Force, RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom; Lance Cpl. Patrick Barnette, U.S. Marines, Baharia, Iraq; Sgt. Adam Demshar, 44th Signal Battalion, Baghdad, Iraq; Cpl. Lee Ogden, U.S. Marines, Camp Pendleton, CA; E5 Petty Officer 2 nd Class Eric B. Kelsey, U.S. Navy, NSA Naples, Italy; Senior Airman Charles F. Woods, Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta, GA; Stuart Burrus, U.S. Air Force, Osan AFB, Korea; SPC 4 Travis D. Motes, 1st Calvary Division, T. Hood, Texas; Capt. Donald Slade Burke, 735th Air Mobility Squadron Detachment 1 Commander, Richmond Royal Australian AHJ, Richmond, Australia; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard III, 48th Brigade, 118th Field Artillery, Iraq; Petty Officer 3rd Class Jamie A. Yager, U.S. Navy, Ma rine Corps Base Hawaii; Petty Chief Officer Andy D. Crosby, U.S. Navy, Elroy Destroyer, Norfolk, Va.; Stephanie Crosby, R.N., U.S. Navy, Lafayette Destroyer; Jimmy Cooper, U.S. Amry National Guard, 878th Engineering Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf ; 1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th In fantry Division, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart, 18th MEDCOM, 121 General Hospital, Seoul, Korea; Jeffrey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3 59/E-Division, A-Gang, Norfolk, Va.; Cpl. Larry Lamont Clark, U.S. Marine Corp, 2nd Marine Expedi tionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Persian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army, Ft. Stewart, Hinesville, Ga., Mission Kuwait; Arnold R. Mosley, 2nd Lt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and Debra A. Mosley, Tech. Sgt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and SPC Charles “C.J.” Amerson, U.S. Army, Camp Adder, Iraq. Chartered 1903 The Millen News is published weekly by Chalker Publishing Company, 601 E. 6th St., Waynesboro, Ga. The Millen News 856 East Cotton Ave. • Millen, Ga. 30442 Phone: (478) 982-5460 • FAX: (478) 982-1785 Periodical postage paid at Millen, Georgia. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Millen News P.O. Box 909 Millen, GA 30442 USPS No. 349-660 Walter Harrison Frank M. Edenfield Editor 1946-1985 Editor 1985-1998 Roy F. Chalker Jr Publisher Bonnie K. Taylor General Manager Deborah Bennett Editor Lavonna Drawdy Advertising Composition Subscription Rates (Includes tax): In Jenkins County $23.00 Elsewhere in Georgia $26.00 Outside of Georgia $29.50 “Better take a good look, son, cause folks ore always wonting to cut parts out of it!" 'PouxaF® Letters to Dear Editor, The following letter is not di rected at any local employees, past or present, of Regions Bank in Millen. I recently noticed a new roof being put on Regions Bank in Millen. Being an employee of Rocker Supply led me to ask the owner, King Rocker, if he was supplying the shingles for the new roof. He said no and that he had not been asked to sub mit a bid for the roof job either. I think this is an incredible and inexcusable neglect of a lo cal business; not to mention the fact that this business owner has been a life-long customer of this bank, with both business and personal accounts at Regions. Now, if Regions should have any problems with their newly installed shingles, say a leak de velops, I’m sure they’ll want immediate service from the “lo cal” folks then and maybe pur chase a whole gallon of roofing tar to fix the leak. What has happened with cor porate America? The big banks want you to think of them as your “local hometown bank”. “Bank locally,” they say. Jim Hite the Editor Regions response to this will probably be that “We have con tracts with certain businesses to do all of our work.” You fill in the blank. If Regions is going to spend money, they can spend it where they please, but stay with the people who borrow money from them and deposit their money in CDs with them. And back to Regions huge new roof. The shingles that were purchased for their roof are the same shingles that Rocker Sup ply sells locally. And the quote that Rocker Supply could have given would have easily been competitive considering the vol ume of the job. And could pos sibly have been the lowest bid, saving the bank money. Additionally, had this money been spent here, it would have “turned over” benefiting other local businesses or individuals to some degree. It’s a shame that a large bank like Regions who wants you to bank locally doesn’t spend a dime in Jenkins County where we are still #1 in the state in un employment and where just two weeks ago our “last” manufac turing facility closed its doors for good. What a wonderful time for one of our “local” banks not to spend their money “locally.” With the $3.5 billion that Re gions received in their “stimu lus package”, I think they could have afforded to give the small local business owners a micro piece of their government stimulus handout pie. After this letter to the editor is published in The Millen News I will send a copy to Dowd Ritter, Regions CEO. His re sponse, if any, should be enlight ening and maybe even interest ing. Stay tuned. Sincerely, Mike Reese Millen Dear Editor: RE: Jim Hite’s column Sept. 29. I and many others have con cerns about the health care re forms currently being proposed. In Mr. Hite’s column, he tries to trivialize our concerns with sarcasm. Mr. Hite said, “To be consistent, one who believes that government should stay out of health care must refuse Medicare”. We do not have the option of refusing Medicare. If you work, you are required to pay the Medicare Tax. Except for the past four years, I was self-employed. As a self-em ployed person, I paid 100% of my Medicare Tax and provided for my own health insurance. Soon I will be eligible for Medicare and now, here comes a proposal for everybody to have health insurance. Those who are unable to pay for their insurance will receive sub sidies from the U. S. Treasury, funded in part with $500 billion taken from Medicare. Will those of us who have paid the Medicare Tax and are now eligible for Medicare, receive $500 billion less in health care to fund other people’s health insurance? Just as we have no options in the payment of the Medicare Tax, in the future we may not have options about the health care we receive or do not re ceive. Sincerely, Roger A. Black Millen ATHLETES HAVE LOST THEIR “HUSTLE” By Jim Hite A couple of weeks ago we were listening to the Braves game on radio, and the announcers were commenting on Nate McLouth, injured at the time, and how he was a guy who worked hard and hustled every step. Don Sutton added that such hustle really stood out nowadays, adding that in days rather long past it was the guy who did not hustle who stood out. Boy, did he hit the nail on the head! Not sure when it all started. Back in the ancient days, it was said of Eddie Stanky that he couldn’t hit, couldn’t run, couldn’t field, but he could win because he hustled 100 percent of the time. Then there was Pete Rose who stood out only because he ran to first when he was walked! Then came the more lackadaisical type of player. If the ball isn’t coming to me, I won’t post up. If I’m not receiving the pass, Letters policy Letters to the editor of The Millen News are welcomed and encouraged. These are pages of opinions, yours and ours. The unsigned editorials generally appearing on the left side of the editorial page represent the opinion of the newspaper and not that of any one person on our staff. Personal columns represent the opinions of the writers whose names appear on them and are not to be considered the opinion of this newspaper, its manage ment or owners. Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s readers. The Millen News reserves the right to edit any and all portions of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters must include the signature, address and phone number of the writer to allow our staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should be lim ited to 400 words. The deadline for letters is Friday at noon. You can email letters to themillennews@yahoo.com. I jog the pattern. If I hit a grounder to the infield, I jog to first. If the ball comes to me in the outfield, I may or may not go all out to get it. I remember well when one of the all-time hustle leaders, Billy Martin, was managing, and TV cameras caught his shouting match with Reggie Jackson for Jackson’s costly lack of effort. And Leo Durocher in Nice Guys Finish Last had several scathing para graphs concerning the new players and their consistent lack of effort. All this came to mind when I found the following statistic: Every time Alex Rodriguez takes a called strike, he earns $15,856. That’s how much A-Rod earns per pitch, according to the Wall Street Journal. Just think: Six pitches and his gross income is almost $100,000. And while there is no doubt about his talent at bat and in the field, giving the proverbial 110 percent has never been his strong point. By the way, to earn the same near $100,000, Ben Roethlisberger takes 3.6 snaps. Tiger Woods shoots 11.2 holes, and LeBron James plays 21.2 minutes. As a former high school coach I can attest to the trickle-down effect. A kid who really hustled, did extra sprints, practiced on his/her own, was rare indeed. Of course that kid was the cham pion. The rest had excuses. Not going anywhere special with this. Just a comment. But the next time you attend a game, any game at any level, observe. Log on to our web site to vote in our online polls www.themillennews.com