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The Summerville News
The Official Legal Organ of Chattooga County Georgia
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Address All Mail to: THE SUMMERVILLE NEWS, P. O. Box 310, Summerville, Ga. 30747
Editorials
Don’t Stop Now
We want to congratulate the Chat
tooga County Board of Education and the
school superintendent on finally naming a
stay-in-school coordinator.
He is Clarence Gilley, a veteran
educator who has all the qualifications to
make the new position an effective force
for change in the schools and community.
The appointment is a positive step in
the right direction.
However, we are disturbed by increas
ingly frequent comments by local
educators that the stay-in-school program
is expected to last for only one year. It is
Tax Reassessment Due?
Chattooga County's tax digest has
been factored twice in the last three years.
It was raised by 15 percent in 1985 and
seven percent this year for a total of 22
percent.
Other counties have had their digests
factored by even greater percentages this
year and in past years. But fortunately, we
have only Chattooga County to consider
and not other areas.
While factoring does technically raise
a digest to the state-mandated 40 percent
of true market value, it is also unfair to
many individual property owners whose
property may, in fact, already be assess
ed at an actual 40 percent. Factoring
Searels Recognized
Chattooga County continues to receive
positive recognition through the ac
complishments of its residents and former
citizens.
The latest is Stacy Searels of Trion,
who has been selected as a pre-season All-
American by both Playboy magazine and
by Street and Smith College Football
Magazine. Southern Living also named
Searels to its All-South team.
Odds are that the 278-lb. offensive
tackle will be named to several post-season
All-American teams and go on to be
drafted by a professional football team. He
has the talent, size and determination to
make it big in pro ball.
Playboy praised Searels for providing
“much of the blocking for Bo Jackson and
Brent Fullwood’ while Southern Living
said “‘it is no happenstance that Auburn
has produced two All-American running
GUEST EDITORIAL
Hang Lonetree
Somehow, the conviction of Marine
Sgt. Clayton Lonetree for aiding the
Soviets is not as monumental as it ap
pears. Oh no, we would never condone
helping our enemies. Our views are quite
the contrary.
The punishment of 30 years in prison
with a possible parole in 10 is too light.
Hanging is more suitable for treason.
However, the trial is mockery when you
consider how much “free” information the
Soviets are able to glean from the nightly
news as well as other media.
Libraries are filled with sensitive
military material. Newsmen, print and
broadcast, openly blab any items they find
of interest. Just this weekend, network
television explained in detail how our new
MX missiles were malfunctioning. A
diagram of the design was flashed on the
DAVID T. ESPY, JR.
GENERAL MANAGER
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evident that Chattooga didn’t reach the
dubious distinction of having the highest
dropout rate in the state overnight and it
won't be solved in one year.
Unless statistics are juggled.
The problem probably won't be effec
tively resolved for-at least 10 years, and
perhaps a generation. The one-year pro
gram is an excellent step in the right direc
tion, as we indicated, but we can't stop
with that one step.
That is, if we really are concerned about
our children and our county’s future.
doesn’'t have much effect on property
assessed at a much lower amount, say 20
percent.
With the problems the county has had
with its digest during the last three or four
years and with the digest being factored
for two out of three years, it may be time
to consider a massive countywide
reassessment program.
Otherwise, variations caused by factor
ing will continue to increase and in
dividuals will continue to be treated
unfairly.
It would be costly but can we afford
not to take that step?
backs, one of them a Heisman Trophy win
ner, in the past two years. Tip a helmet to
Searels who has trip-' amered defensive
linemen for both seas .. And rarely is a
hand laid on his roommate, quarterback
Jeff Burger.”
Two of Searels’ biggest games at
Auburn have been, as you might expect,
beating the University of Alabama and
playing against the University of Georgia.
Last year, he graded 87 percent against
the Bulldogs.
Trion has a special right to be proud of
Searels and to claim him as its own. But
so does all of Chattooga County.
We hope he has an injury-free season
(after his current hand injury heals) and
rates at the top for pro teams in the draft
next year. He's an excellent player and a
fine representative of the best Chattooga
has to offer.
screen and the commentator explained
how the missile probably wouldn’t be able
to hit their targets in the USSR.
Jeepers. With such friends, our enemies
need little help. The problem of tossing
around defense data is commonplace. Fre
quently, you can hear Congressmen and
Senators leaking information that really
shouldn’t be common knowledge.
We are glad the government took ac
tion against Lonetree. Matters of national
security cannot be taken lightly. But, we
don’t need to lull ourselves into thinking
the courts are our only recourse in tighten
ing the thousands of loose lips. Simply jail
ing the Lonetrees won't slow the flow of
free information to our adversaries. As
Pogo said, ‘“We have met the enemy and
he is us.”
— The Jesup Press-Sentinel
TOMMY TOLES
EDITOR
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1.7 Viewpoint
F By Tommy Toles, Editor
LAA———_——
$l4O Per Barrel 0il?
PERSIAN GULF oil costs around S2O
a barrel, right?
Not according to a Texas oilman.
Frank Pitts says the real cost of Persian
oil is around $l4O a barrel.
“According to former Navy Secty.
John Lehman, our military commitment to
defend the Persian Gulf oil supply lines
costs S4O-billion per year,” said Pitts.
“Divide that by the more than 330-million
barrels we imported from the Middle East
last year, then add in the sl9 to S2O pur
chase price and you get $l4O per barrel.”
* * *
OF COURSE, Pitts, owner of a Texas
oil company, could be expected to oppose
the importation of oil from the Middle
East. And he resorts to the tired, old tac
tic of demanding ‘‘protection’ from
foreign oil producers. Mideastern strategy
is to capture most of the U. S. oil market
“by making domestic oil exploration
‘uneconomic,” ' Pitts contends.
Pitts is angry about lower oil prices so
he wants the federal government to adopt
variable oil import tariffs ‘‘to protect
American producers from price manipula
tions . .
* * *
BUT PITTS IS correct that new oil ex
ploration has been dried up in the United
States. We are using up oil that has
already been discovered but we are not
replacing it with new reserves.
U. S. oil can be produced for less than
On The Funny Side
By Gary Solomon
Insights And Ironies
INSIGHTS and ironies from my wife's
recent outpatient surgery at the
hospital . . .
We don't tell many folks about the
surgery because we're basically private
people and don’'t want anyone worrying
unnecessarily about us. Upon arriving at
the short-stay unit, however, we discover
that nearly every pink-lady on duty is a
friend from church. Our pastor also hap
pens to be there, and you know how hard
it is to keep a secret from ministers. All
is lost.
* * *
AFTER CHECKING in and watching
my wife being wheeled down the hall
toward the operating room, I take a seat
in the waiting room next to a table of
magazines. I pick up a copy of McCall's to
help pass the time. The first article adver
tised on the cover in bright red letters is
one titled, ‘‘Surgery Women Should Con
sider with Caution.” I put it down without
even looking inside. I don’t want to know.
The surgery goes quickly and easily.
An hour later I'm sitting beside my wife
in the recovery room. She is thirsty, as is
another patient in the room with her. They
both ask for and receive a Coke. With the
two cola giants battling to have their pro
ducts served exclusively in establishments
across the country, I halfway expect the
hospital attendant to ask, ‘‘ls Pepsi
okay?'' like they do at Burger King. She
S3O per barrel “if government would
remove the stumbling blocks,” Pitts said.
In that respect, Pitts is absolutely right.
The federal government has been
pussyfooting around the issue of domestic
oil exploration because it fears the political
power of neanderthal environmentalist
groups that go beserk whenever an oil rig
is erected.
* * *
WHILE NO reasonable person wants
our environment despoiled, the delays in
finding and then using new field of oil have
become obstructionist, expensive and
dangerous to our national security. All
because of the radical ‘“‘environmentalist’’
movement of the 1960 s and 19705.
Our domestic oil industry needs to be
revived. Pitts is correct in that respect.
For security reasons, we shouldn’t depend
on oil from the Middle East. But instead
of imposing tariffs which, after all, would
be paid by everyone who drives a car and
not by the Mideast oil producers
themeslves, we need to reorient national
policy toward a free market system. We
need to remove unneeded and obstruc
tionist laws and regulations from the
books and open up currently off-limit areas
in our country for exploration and
development.
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OTHERWISE, $l4O per barrel oil may
be the least of our worries.
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doesn’t, though. Apparently she's seen too
many patients rip out their stitches
screaming, ‘‘No, Pepsi is NOT okay! I
want COKE!”
* * *
WHILE I'M gone to get the car, the
nurse tells my wife that she recognizes me
from somewhere. I swell with pride upon
hearing the story later, pleased to know
that my photo and column in the
newspaper each week are gaining
attention. ;
“Does he sell insurance?”’ the nurse
asks. PSSSSSS, comes the sound of an in
flated ego springing a major leak. First,
from an earlier story about childhood vaca
tions, I'm known as the guy who threw up
on his brother. Then I'm mistaken for the
new minister of a local church. Now an in
surance salesman. It's getting worse every
day.
* * *
THE PRINTED instructions given pa
tients who are anesthetized during surgery
state, “‘Don’t do anything that requires
mental alertness for 24 hours afterwards.”
In reading this to a spouse who is a little
on edge after surgery, never — even in jest
— quip, ‘“Nothing to worry about there.
You don’t ever do anything that requires
mental alertness anyway.” Such com
ments are rarely received in the spirit in
which they are offered.
see ON THE FUNNY SIDE, page 19-A
Guest Column
By Sen. Paul Coverdale
Likes Teacher Test
BY FAR the most controversial provision of Georgia’'s
Quality Basic Education Act is the requirement that
veteran teachers, as well as beginning teachers, pass a test
demonstrating basic knowledge of their subject areas.
The GAE (Georgia Association of Educators) has op
posed the testing of veteran teachers for several reasons,
among them the following:
* * *
(1) TEACHERS are professionals, like doctors and
lawyers, and should not have to pass a test after they have
been certified.
(2) A written test alone cannot evaluate a person’s com
petence as a teacher.
(3) Because a much larger percentage of black teachers
have failed the test than white teachers, the test must be
racially biased.
* * *
IT IS CERTAINLY understandable that the GAE
views this issue from the perspective of its members and
tries to protect their interests. However, it is my belief
that requiring veteran teachers to demonstrate basic
knowledge of their subject areas is a perfectly reasonable
policy, and the objections of the GAE are not well found
ed. Let's take a closer look at those arguments.
(1) Once certified, teachers should not have to be re
tested; other professionals such as doctors and lawyers
don’t have to take tests after being admitted to practice.
* * *
IT IS TRUE that most other professionals are not
tested once certified or admitted to practice, but there is
a very important distinction to be made between these pro
fessions and teaching. Whereas doctors and lawyers are
generally selected by their clients, students are assigned
to their teachers. While a client can change attorneys if
he believes the one he first chose is incompetent, a stu
dent has no such opportunity. If the teacher is incompe
tent, the student is simply stuck with him (her).
(2) A written test is not job-related.
* * *
IT IS TRUE that passing a written test will not prove
that someone is a good teacher — but, it is also true that
failure to pass a basic skills test is most likely a good in
dicator that someone is NOT a good teacher.
It makes little difference how personable a teacher is
or how well he (she) relates to students — if he doesn’t
know his (her) subject area, he (she) has very little of value
to communicate.
(3) Six percent of veteran black teachers and only one
percent of veteran white teachers failed the competency
tests; those tests must be racially biased.
* * *
THIS IS a sensitive issue and deserves careful ex
amination, but I believe if all of the facts and statistics
are studied, the charge of bias does not hold up.
Of 23,000 veteran teachers who have taken the com
petency tests, only 327 have failed — that’s less than 2
percent.
Of the 327 who failed, 244 were black and 68 were white
(15 were of other racial backgrounds), but keep in mind
that over 4,000 black teachers passed the test. How can
a test be biased against a group of people if 94 percent
of that group passes the test? Isn't it just as plausable
that 6 percent of the black teachers and 1 percent of the
white teachers simply didn’t have a proper knowledge of
their subject areas?
* * *
MY CONSTITUENTS and people throughout the
state have let me know that they are tired of having an
inferior education system. While they are willing to pay
for genuine improvements in the schoolg, they expect
results — and, they don’t believe that simply increasing
salaries or building new buildings will produce the desired
results.
Anyone familiar with the plight of major league
baseball in Atlanta knows that producing a winning team
takes more than paying the players higher salaries or
bringing in new managers. It takes quality players.
* *
THE SAME is true of education. Only quality teachers
with support from administrators, the parents, and the
community can produce quality schools.
As the teacher competency tests have helped
demonstrate, the vast majority of Georgia's teachers are
competent and deserve to be compensated properly. And,
we need proper compensation to attract other competent
teachers. But, we also need to use whatever means we can
to identify incompetent teachers and remove them from
see GUEST COLUMN, page 19-A