Newspaper Page Text
Viewpoints
Houston Times-Joumal
P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll Street • Perry, Ga. 31069
Phone: (912) 987-1823
Member Georgia Press Association-National Newspaper Association
Ybuf right to r*ad tMt n*w*p«p*r it prowcttd by tht Flrtt Amtndmtnt el the UMled Stetet Centtltution.
Our Qoal
The Houston Times-Journal is publishad proudly for tha citizans of
Houston and adjoining counties by Houston Publications Inc.,Perry
Qa. Our goal is to produce quality, profitable, community-oriented
newspapers that you, our readers, are proud of. We will reach that goal
through hard work, teamwork, loyalty, and a strong dedication towards
printing the truth.
Bob Tribble Daniel F. Evans Julie B. Evans Mitch Tribble
President Vlce-Preeident Treasurer Secretary
Our Staff
Brigette Loudermllk
Editor and General Manager
Eddie Byrd
Advertising Director
News: Brenda Thompson, Pauline Lewis Sports: Veto Roley
Advertising: Jimmy Simpson Composition: Stacey Shy
Classified Advertising: Melanie Bullington
Bookkeeping: Judy Hubert
Circulation: Donnie Forehand
Our Policies
•Signed Letters to the editor welcomed.
Please limit to 300 words and include address and phone number.
•Liability for an error will not exceed the cost
of space occupied by the error.
•We cannot be responsible for return of pictures or
material unless stamped return addressed envelope is included.
The Houston Times-Journal (USPS 000471) is published semi-weekly for
SIB.OO per year by Houston Publications, Inc., 807 Carroll Street, Perry,
Ga. 31069. Second Class Postage paid at Perry, Ga.,POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to the Houston Times-Journal, P.O. Drawer
M.PerryGa. 31069. ISSN:IO7S-1874
Your Opinion
Dear Editor:
First let me say I felt honored to attend the JROTC Spring Fling the
other week but what I witnessed lay heavily on my enthusiasm.
I immediately perceived numerous outstanding representations of
immaculate, well-groomed young men in every squadron except for a few
in the drill team which I perceive is not totally a fault of their, own because
I believe that ROTC should be conscientious enough to provide each team
member with a uniform that Fits making sure the entire squad looks
fantastic as well as professional.
What I am unable to totally comprehend is that of all the awards given,
the majority was obtained by the drill team. I fail to visualize that out of
the other three squads no one met criteria to obtain an award, male or
female.
And what about good conduct awards or is this of most essence for
JROTC? It appears to me that those ladies and gentlemen who have
strived to be the best they can be without obtaining any demerits
throughout the entire year should be rewarded. If this is not done then
what incentive do they have to strive for the same conduct in future years
if they continue in JROTC. Good conduct as well as good work must
always be rewarded.
I wonder if politics has already involved the lives of these fine ladies
and gentlemen. If so, then maybe the JROTC should be looked into
because the participants must be evaluated and not the family affiliations.
I fear this display will transmit a message to future participants that the
only worthy cadet must be a drill team cadet which personally, 1 find
preposterous.
A very concerned citizen,
Vickie Little
Dear Editor:
I pick up the Macon Telegraph on a regular basis and for the past two
years I have purchased the Houston Home Journal. I realize that the
Macon paper has a much larger circulation and perhaps that attributes to
the price of 35 cents per publication. I understand that your publication
may have needed to increase to cover the cost of inflation, but I object to
paying 50 cents for a paper which is smaller than the Kmart flyer inserted
in it! Please don't take advantage of a good situation! This past weekend’s
paper was meager, to say the least.
I also want you to know that I miss reading the articles written by Mr.
Bobby Tuggle. I always looked forward to them!
Diane McDowell
Dear Editor,
I am writing to comment on Brenda Thompson’s article concerning The
Jerry Springer Show and Cafe Erotica.
Brenda, you did a good job. You said just what I wanted to say but
didn't. Thank you for saying it for me and for the many others who feel
the same way.
I don't see how these young women who work at Cafe Erotica can hold
up their heads in public. How can they look their husbands and children in
the eye? Evidently money has become their God and is more important to
them than anything else.
And speaking of Cafe Erotica, lam so SICK of all their signs! I hate
to ride up 1-75 anymore because they hit you in the face every few miles.
Keep up the good work, Brenda. And thanks again for speaking up for
those of us who find there are things in life more Important than MONEY!
Joyce Giles
Deadlines For Submitting New
Articles and Photographs
5 pm Monday for
Wednesday Edition,
5 pm Thursday For
Saturday Edition
—■THE PEAf/OT GALLE.fi Y
j|| 9-
m Q/lHrm
Congress’ nose doesn’t belong in cable business
FROM TIME to time the notes
pile up pertaining to subjects that I
want to express an opinion on...but
not write a full column. The latest
batch of notes beg to be given
attention, so here goes:
* * *
I READ where congress has
passed another law that will tell the
cable television industry how much
it can charge for its services. The
FCC, which monitors the industry,
has issued regulations that, as the
story goes, run into several hundred
pages. Typical bureaucratic
stuff... Why do our congressmen get
involved in how much cable
systems charge? Isn't it a private
industry? The answer is simple:
Many people complain that rates
being charged by the cable people
are too high and since there are so
many people out there using cable
congressmen can hot dog it for
votes by saying they are cutting
cable rates while they fail miserably
to cope with the budget, national
debt and foreign affairs... Personally,
I believe my cable service is the
best bargain I have. For about 75
cents a day I have 42 channels of
cable T.V. in my home 24 hours a
day everyday of the month! What a
bargain. How can I complain that
it is too expensive? The electricity
used to operate the television set on
which I watch the cable shows
costs me more...A friend of mine
went to a new fast food restaurant
in Warner Robins to try it out a
few days ago and he told me it cost
him more for a very mediocre meal
for himself and his wife than I pay
for cable T.V. for a full month!
Brady ruling strikes at heart of unfunded mandates
States and counties might be
getting some help with unfunded
mandates if a federal judge in Mon
tana has his way.
U.S. District Judge Charles C.
Lovell ruled that the Brady Bill re
quirements that local law enforce
ment officials run background
checks on potential handgun buyers
commandeers state officials to ad
minister a federal program.
Lovell argued in his opinion that
the law required local authorities to
divert time, money and employees
to the federal program. That, he
said, could cause state and local of
ficials to increase budgets or de
crease spending on other areas.
The forcing of state officials to
administer federal programs violates
constitutional limits on federal
power, ruled Lovell.
While this ruling was on the
Brady Bill, and while the ruling is
currently limited to the district
presided over by Lovell, it could
have widespread implications for
local governments.
Local governments are con
stantly bombarded by federal re
quirements to do this or that. While
many of these federal requirements
come with money, many do not.
The national government, faced
with special interests demanding ac
tion on one hand, and a ever in
creasing budget deficit on the other,
has increasingly relied on unfunded
mandates to meet needs. Some local
Houston Times-Journal
* # *
MY COLUMN of a few weeks
ago in which I wrote "The lesson
that you cannot buy friendship,
loyalty or respect should sink in
with our leaders someday" brought
some interesting reaction...A friend
pointed out that this is a lesson
each person should learn, too, and
the earlier in life the better... Long
ago I said that if a person has one
true friend in this life he or she is
lucky. I have been blessed with
several real friends (the kind that
ask for nothing in return), most of
them now dead...A lesson I learned
late in life is how little gratitude
there is in this world and too often
the people you have done the most
for have a way of forgetting...lt is a
bitter lesson better learned early
than late.
* * *
A NEWS item said that one of the
candidates for governor of Georgia
had an adjusted gross income of
more than SI million last year yet
paid only about $126,000 income
taxes-about 12 percent...lt would
be nice if they would print his tax
return so all of us can see how to
pay so little on so.much-legally,
of course! Very few working
people pay that small a percentage
of their adjusted gross income.
* * *
THE AIR Force has made it pretty
plain that when the next base
closings occur at least one, if not
two. Air Logistics Centers will be
closed... Yet construction at all five
of the ALCs goes on
unabated... Here and at all the
others...hundreds of millions of
governments spend up to a third of
their budgets on federally mandated
programs.
The United States was founded
as a federal system. Our founders
shared a profound distrust of strong
central government, giving states
and people many powers.
To preclude the central govern
ment from taking powers that were
not mentioned by name, they in
cluded the Tenth Amendment in the
Bill of Rights: "The powers not
delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by
it to the States, are reserved to the
States, respectively, or to the peo
ple."
And, in case the federal govern
ment did not recognize the Tenth
Amendment, there was the Ninth
Amendment, "The enumeration in
the Constitution of certain rights,
shall not be construed to deny or
disparage others retained by the
people."
We are not a nation like France
or England where the central gov
ernment has strong control over the
outlying provinces. Our national
system is built on foundation of
cal and state governments.
Wednesday, May 25 1994 -Houston Times-Journal
Page 4A
dollars in new construction on at
least one base, and maybe more,
that will get the axe...l'm not the
best businessman in the world, but
if I owned a business that might
close within two years I don't
believe I would spend more money
on construction until I knew...l'm
surprised that Senator Sam and
others in congress who control the
purse strings haven't stopped all
new construction at all military
bases subject to closing until the
axe has fallen.
* * *
I'M NOT one of those people who
takes delight in bashing postal
employees. I really believe the
people who work for the post office
here do their dead level best to
provide us good service. The lady
who delivers my mail at my home
in Warner Robins is courteous,
considerate, pleasant and goes out
of her way to be
accomodating...Yet something is
wrong with the postal service... For
example, two weeks ago I received
two copies of a weekly newspaper
mailed less than a mile from where
I live the same day. One issue was
dated the same week I received it.
The other issue was dated three
weeks earlier. Sometimes I receive
a full month (4 copies) of the
newspaper in the same mail...lt
seems to me that when they started
routing local mail through the
regional centers (Macon in this
instance) dependable delivery
declined... Because of this, the
Postmaster General is proposing
that different rates be charged for
one or two day delivery of first
So strong was the tear ot a
strong central government, that our
founders acted under a confederation
system of government for almost a
decade after independence. It was
only when that form of government
proved inadequate to protect internal
trade and protect against external
enemies did we strengthen our na
tional government.
Although we gave the national
government several new powers
with the Constitution, we did not
make the states subservient to the
national government. Rather, they
were given certain co-govemmental
rights. There were even powers re
served to the states, and forbidden to
*Welc<yme&
*7(o4* Aette* 7* 74e Sdttwi.
'PfazA# ftclcOieAA,
Editor
Houston Times-Joumal
P.O. Drawer M
Perry, GA, 31069
class mail... His reasoning seems to
be that if service isn't what it used
to be, admit it and charge extra for
what we used to take for granted.
* * *
I WORRY about this country's
national debt. You get the
impression about every four years
that our president and members of
congress do. Like indigestion, their
worries go away after a lot of talk
and doing nothing about it. The
debt continues to soar. Pretty close
to $4 trillion now. And growing
rapidly... Higher interest rates are in
the news. Just a one percent
increase in interest on the national
debt will cost us something like
S4OO million a year in additional
interest on the debt... Already interes
payments on the national debt are
approaching half the annual federal
budget... How long before interest
will equal the entire income of the
federal government? Before
President Clinton ends his present
term in office an additional $1
trillion will be added to the national
debt. How long before this will
force the nation into bankruptcy?
Will something be done to turn it
around? Since in Washington
where most politicians are
concerned only with the next
election the answer has to be no.
the national government.
We have lost a lot of the
sovereignty of local governments,
particularly through recent U.S.
Supreme Court decisions. Now, the
U.S. Congress has decided to ride
roughshod over the rights of states
to decide their own destinies and
priorities, and force them to fund
federal programs and priorities.
In order for our system of gov
ernment to work, the federal gov
ernment must respect the
sovereignty of local government.
Unfunded mandates show no such
respect
Let’s hope the ruling sticks
through the appeals process.