Newspaper Page Text
The Summeruille News
The Official Legal Oi'gan of Chattooga County Georgia
W1N5’1‘0NE.E5PY......_.......................... PUBLISHER
TOMBEROLES ovi 55 e EDITOR.
BUDDY ROBERTS ............... ASSOCIATE NEWSEDITOR
BUBBDY ROBERTS. ..... ... 000,000 ... SPORTSEDITOR
W1LL1AMT.E5PY................ ADVERTISING MANAGER
DAVIBDE.ESPY . ..............i040.. GENERAL MANAGER
GREGESPY ....................... PRODUCTION MANAGER
— SUBSCRIPTION RATES —
Within Chattooga County . .........810.60
A . g Out-of-County Rates Available On Request
S o@'“ " : A 1993 Published Every Thursday By
Jw LN @m 2 Better ESPY PUBLISHING CO., INC.
q ‘E* ‘.fl . Newspapers Second Class Postage Paid .
: ,":f o* \ Contest At Summerville GA 30747
OC|A“\ Winner Publication Number SECD 525560
i Opinions Expressed By
Editorial Columnists Are Not
Necessarily Those of This Newspaper
Espy Publishin% Company, Inc. will not be liable for any error in an advertisement to any
greater extent than the cost of the space the item occupies. Classified advertising rate is 15¢
per word, minimum $3.00. Card of 'lPhanks. Memoriams, etc. same as classified advertising.
Display rates given upon request.
Address all mail to: THE SUMMERVILLE NEWS, P. O. Box 310, Summerville GA 30747
TELEPHONE (706) 857-2494
Thursday, February 17, 1994
Our Opinion
DA’s Reasons Legitimate
The case against a former City of Sum
merville employee charged with stealing a
huge sum of money from the town’s cof
fers wasn't presented to the February
term of the Chattooga County Grand
Jury.
Reasons for waiting to present the case
to the August term of the grand jury for
consideration of an indictment will
strengthen the prosecution’s case, accor
ding to the district attorney.
The reasons- are legitimate although
most people would have preferred action
by the current grand jury. When convic
tions often hinge on technical matters and
small items of evidence, it is wise to make
Get Well Soon, Mayor
It was shocking to learn that Mayor
Sewell Cash of Summerville had to
undergo five heart bypasses recently.
The surgery came unexpectedly for the
mayor, his family, and his many friends
and supporters.
At this writing, Mayor Cash appears to
Ault Takes Timely Action
Commissioner Allen Ault of the
Georgia Department of Corrections took
quick, appropriate action in resolving pro
blems related to the escape of an inmate
from Hays Correctional Institution this
past November.
We wouldn’t attempt to judge those in
dividuals who were fired or demoted since
their appeals process is still under way.
But based on the information given to the
news media by Ault and his office, it seems
that the commissioner took proper correc
tive actions in a timely manner.
Suspended Licenses
Tonight, someone’s child will die. Each
year thousands of young people die
needlessly —the victims of drinking and
driving.
Why does this happen in such an ad
vanced society?
Perhaps it’s because of the invincibili
ty and immortality of youth — at 18 or 19
we all thought we would live forever. Car
crashes happened to others, certainly not
to us.
Or perhaps it’s because of the message
we're sending our young people. Under
Georgia law it's illegal to drink if you're
under 21. Sounds good. Fatalities among
young drivers have decreased significant
ly since this law was enacted. But oddly
enough, there is no deterrent for those
under 21 not to drink and drive.
Studies have consistently shown that
young people’s driving abilities are
negatively impacted up to five times as
severely as adults who consume the same
amount of alcohol. Yet our drunk driving
laws place 18-to-21-year-olds in the same
category as adults who drink and drive.
And. like adults, no mechanism exists to
automatically suspend the under-age
drinker’s license on the first offense.
Few possessions are as important to
most young people as a driver’s license. A
driver’s license for most young people
marks a right of passage from being a
child to becoming an adult — a passage
with recognized responsibilities — one of
sure “all the ducks are in a row” before
proceeding rather than satisfying public
demands for immediate action.
The district attorney did seem to clear
up two major questions about the case,
however. No one else appears to have been
involved in the theft and he is satisfied
with the progress of the police investiga
tion into the case.
We are confident that the “‘other” in
vestigation into some activities by one or
more council members and a city employee
will also be completed in time for con
sideration by the August term grand jury.
The quicker that both matters are
resolved, the better.
be improving. We pray for his speedy
recovery and quick return to Summer
ville’s city government. It needs a strong
hand at the helm and he can provide that
leadership.
Get well soon.
It is praiseworthy that the commis
sioner also allowed Warden Chuck Burden
to remain at Hays and gave him authori
ty to correct any remaining problems left
over from the department’s own internal
investigation of the matter.
We are confident that the commis
sioner and Burden looked at all sides of the
issue following the investigation and did
what they felt was best for the communi
ty, the institution, the prison staff, and the
inmates.
which should be the responsibility not to
drink and drive.
Revoking a driver’s license on-the-spot
is the single biggest deterrent to under-age
drinking and driving. Focus groups have
consistently demonstrated that young
people relate much more readily to losing
their license than being involved in an ac
cident, or much worse, dying in a crash.
On-the-spot confiscation of a driver’s
license seems to be a small price to pay to
save young lives and to protect our
families from under-age drivers who drink.
Everyone concerned about the lives of
young drivers should contact their state
senators and representatives to voice their
support for a law that suspends the license
of anyone under 21 who drinks and drives.
e
Blaming
o
Pencils Next?
The Left has taken over the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in
Atlanta. They plan to use the CDC as the
latest bunker from which to launch
assaults on the Second Amendment.
Guns a health risk?
No more so than pencils are a risk for
misspelled words.
It’s how you use them that matters,
not the fact they exist. ,
‘ mi : -~
Ve e e A
e ITION, AND SHE ITH HER HUSBAND
//?/y“ = WANTS TO REPRE AND
Y = 4, TAMERI ‘
-/ ’/ — Q /:o em. ‘.
—1 75 e P -
2l\ ek . 7.8 G —
< ./// ,’/;,,’/zgy.f ) =55 i e
P)= 2. YNI \ = iP —
o w.%‘k’/;’/{Z//’/:’,Z‘;’j?—é%i N&\ < @ao «;/{Z}” q
iy "v'f—i’.-f"i,,f;,-,'// ety vk : it/ 74 0 1P N
. ~v,y A 2 /,4/6“4€ 3 | 7 /,,7/% "b.’/fl I 7,// /
i e: A & i o
nr (;6\»‘“’*‘2%\.\'l GERRNY ¢\ >S4V /) /%M A 7
800 =V W
= J"/"”/‘,’q‘ S ,'? fA : A.:"l'lli v f / ’//»,' Ve u,‘,,éiéfvgéf“ /// é/’
N7,el s il Rl Fég;‘sssss:‘::;;;x. e
A ";f/ %;;, /| ?}\ } !!!!5-5;::'::5::, sw ‘
o// f " A 5 | -'.;.".‘;'fz_::h"" R "/’
T ‘////j% it " - “i\‘.‘.:;‘;;;‘::;'rf" '
e/;/ 5 ’v'z,// "7N " "'l\::: d 5 "'.'ff:::--..';" w
foiit i3sr b i : \\la‘;:'.:‘... Wi
eIBSI & 4 e e
0 Zisbs ~’2 'l o ":’l’ - v,j;';';’:if‘,j' B G
-'@ A e , e
), i, et S2N W W
;B — ~AJ‘-/, a ““\\\'\ ‘2,“ 4'.-:;(\'
4 =2 MR gx‘\:‘ g
By
g Viewpoint
By Tommy Toles, Editor
W ‘
Porches And Swings
FRONT PORCHES, screened-in por
ches, and swings seem to be making a
comeback.
When 1 was growing up, almost
everybody’s house had a wide front porch
and a swing, along with some more
wooden porch furniture. The back porch
was usually screened to keep out the bugs.
* * ¥
BY THE TIME I got old enough to
buy a house, carports were the rage and
front porches were out. Swings disap
peared, except for the kind held up by two
A-frames connected with a pole. When air
conditioning came in, out went screened
porches.
I enjoy air conditioning as much as
anyone, probably more than most.
* * *
BUT NOTHING beats sitting on a
screened porch in the spring and fall, and
even in the summer if it’s shaded by trees.
Cooling breezes waft through as you sit on
a swing gliding back and forth in the
twilight, watching lightning bugs illumine
the night sky, and bats zipping after
insects.
You can sit on a front porch and shell
Mike Steed
-/
Not Gentle, Kind
FORMER PRESIDENT George Bush
had a vision, or at least a campaign slogan,
of a “Kinder, Gentler America.” What do
you suppose happened to his notion?
Today we are literally inundated with
news of events that are anything but
kinder and gentler. The floggings of
Rodney King and Reginald Denney were
neither kind nor gentle. And the media
served them up to us week after week as
we tried to watch the evening news.
Then there are the PC Warriors, the
devotees of political correctness. The space
ship carrying these nuts has finally turn
ed around and headed back toward outer
space but not until they made nearly all
of us mad while demonstrating they are
severely humor impaired. Like a bad sinus
infection, some of the PC crowd is still
among us.
* * *
LUDLOW PORCH and his kinder,
gentler radio talk show has been moved to
higher frequencies where I can’t find him.
Now there’s Rush Limbaugh who,
although he is right, is hardly kind or
gentle. :
Nothing feels right anymore. Think
about it. There is tremendous violence on
the streets. There is violence on the televi
sion and in the movies. Kids are taking
guns to school. North Korea is making an
atom bomb and all hell is breaking loose
in Bosnia. Meanwhile, we are “‘building
down” (please note the oxymoron) our na
tion’s defenses.
* * *
WE HAVE a president who is recom
mending a completely new health care
system. His plan has the potential to
change the nature of our democracy more
green beans or shuck roasting ears — we
called them roast-nears — for supper. Or
you can pile wood for the stove or fireplace
on a porch to keep it nearby and out of the
weather. I always enjoyed sitting in a
rocker and propping my feet up on the
banisters, shelling peanuts or capping
freshly picked strawberries.
* * *
PORCHES ARE good for storing
things under, if they are high enough. You
can’t do that in town. The neighbors might
get upset. But you can do it in the coun
try, where everybody ought to be from.
A few years ago, designs for houses
began featuring wrap-around porches and
screened porches instead of patios or tiny
porches. That's a big step in the right
direction.
* * *
THE ONLY house I ever built had a
long front porch and another screened
porch, with a swing. If I ever build another
one, which is unlikely, drop by and prop
up your feet on the banisters or watch the
lightning bugs from the swing. It’ll soothe
your soul.
than any other social idea ever conceived
by an American. And what does he do with
this monumental upheaval program? He
turns it over to a woman lawyer none of
us ever voted for.
We have rolled over for the largest tax
increase in the history of the world. We see
a society in which nearly everyone is “con
frontational.”
* * *
AND IF WE didn’t have enough to
worry about with these things, there is a
guy gaining a following in Russia named
Vladimir Zhirinovsky who makes Adolph
Hitler look like Mr. Rogers.
The news is a never ending, repetitious
pounding of the same disgusting stories
over and over. It's just like suffering
through a ‘“Gangsta Rap”’ song.
I don’t know about you, but I've heard
all I ever care to hear about the Bobbits
and the Menendez brothers. All we have
learned from the four (so far) trials of the
Bobbitts and the Menendez boys is that
our jury system is a sucker for a victim.
The defense for each of them: “I was abus
ed.”
* * *
ANOTHER continuing story is the
saga of Tonya Harding. Allegedly, she
wanted to be a ‘lead pipe cinch” to win in
the Olympics. Now she is implicated in the
cruel plot which resulted in her competitor,
Nancy Kerrigan, suffering a severe blow
to the knee. Oh yes, Tonya was abused by
her mother and her ex-husband.
Just go out and do anything your heart
desires, commit any crime and you can
beat the rap if your defense is, “I was
abused.” :
see MIKE STEED, page 5-A
By Thomas Sowell
L
® o
Liberal Ideals Vs. Reality
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Just a week before the grand
unveiling of the mammoth Clinton administration health
plan, stories began to come out about the rising prices in
the cable TV industry as a result of government regula
tions designed to lower the prices there. Yet, no matter
how often government programs produce the opposite
result from what was promised, there are those who believe
that Washington will get it right the next time.
What happened in cable television is relevant to the
new health-care legislation in another way: What the cable
TV customer received for his money declined as the
government regulated how much the cable companies
could charge. These companies simply stopped providing
as many channels in their basic package and started sell
ing some of the channels separately.
While cable TV is a modern, high-tech service, the
economic principles involved in the deterioration of pro
ducts and services under price controls are much older
than cable TV or television itself. s BV
Price controls have caused quality deterioration in
apartment buildings under rent control from Hong Kong
to the Bronx, and price controls in general have caused
shortages from the days of the Roman Empire to the days
of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe. The only thing sur
prising is that people are still surprised when it happens
to cable TV — and cannot see that it is going to happen
to medical care as well under federal price controls.
The puzzle as to why people are forever being surpris
ed by the consequences of price control, when those con
sequences have been the same for centuries on end, is on
ly part of a larger puzzle. Why do people judge govern
ment programs by their promises and judge the
marketplace by its actual performance, and especially by
its limitations? : :
Many people believe in the United Nations or the public
schools, not because of what they actually do, but because
of what they represent as ideals.
Generation after generation of American students may
be miseducated, but ‘““the public school” as an ideal keeps
many people mesmerized.
As for the United Nations, you’d be hard pressed to
find a more corrupt, hypocritical, meddling and bungling
organization. yet this actual U. N. is not what people talk
about. It is the ideal United Nations, as it exists in peo
ple’s minds, which has become a sacred institution, which
we are forever being urged to “‘strengthen” — that is, to
provide with more of the American taxpayers’ money and
more American soldiers’ blood.
It’s the same story with “multiculturalism.” If you
want to see what actual multiculturalism is, you need look
no further than the Balkans, Northern Ireland and
Lebanon. But the multiculturalism people talk about is not
that bitter reality but the rosy ideal of multiculturalism.
Ideal multiculturalism is supposed to make everybody get
along with everybody. It is only in reality that you see peo
ple polarized wherever it is tried.
The triumph of the ideal despite the failure of the reali
ty lfee.ps socialism alive among intellectuals and piecemeal
sqcialism, in the form of particular government projects,
alive among politicians. ;
The collapse of centrally planned economies in Eastern
Europe has made hardly a dent on the zeal of the in
telligentsia for government planning. The anointed are
sure that they can produce well-planned government pro-
Jects, energy policy, and health care. For those living in
the world of the ideal, who cares about reality?
; Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at Stanford Universi
ty’s Hoover Institution. His column appears in The Jour
nal occasionally.
— The Atlanta Journal
w& /] {/ |
Q\ { vy |
: Z @‘\\\ v:TJ‘;\' 2
ARE ! Z ) 4V
CeaEmiat & 4
;F:m‘ ) fl;a L ‘ J
).< VI \\"3
“Can You Impeach ’
A First Lady?" .