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Judge Cook is thankful for
hospitality of court, county
Dear Editor:
From June 13th to June 21st, the Houston County Courthouse in
Perry, Ga., was the setting for a murder trial which, due to a change of
venue, had to be moved from Newton County-where the crime had been
committed-to Houston County. I and my staff, all became temporary
residents of Perry for the duration of this trial.
We would like to thank the people of Houston County and your public
officials for their hospitality and sincere concern for our comfort in your
community during our stay. In particular, we would like to thank the
Superior Court judges and their staffs for allowing us to use their offices
and courtroom, the Clerk of Superior Court and her staff for their
assistance in the jury selection process, and the District Attorney and his
staff for use of their resources and facilities.
Special recognition is due to the Houston County Sheriffs Office and
its officers for the tight courtroom security they provided and for their
transportation and housing of the defendant and several state witnesses who
were incarcerated on other charges. We also greatly appreciated the friendly
courtroom bailiffs who looked after our every need.
Our utmost respect, however, must go to the citizens of Houston
County who comprised the jury pool from which the trial jury of twelve
plus two alternates who were chosen. Of those individuals, we extend our
deepest and sincere thanks to those fourteen individuals who struggled with
this case for seven days and six nights while sequestered away from their
jobs and families at the New Perry Hotel. They were asked to make the
greatest sacrifice of all and served their judicial system (and fellow
Georgians) well.
In closing, allow me on behalf of the citizens of Newton County to
extend an invitation to all of the people we met along the way to visit our
community so that the hospitality we were shown might be properly
returned and rewarded.
Sincerely,
Alan A. Cook, District
Attorney Alcovy Judicial Circuit
Reader says she has found
answers in ‘our kindest city’
Dear Editor,
Could this be the answer? I just read in the July Reader’s Digest Page
53 about “Our Kindest City”. Twice in half a century, surveys acclaimed
Rochester, N.Y. as the most caring city in America.
In May 1990, my husband and I (both in our late seventies) were
traveling from South Jersey to Brantford, Ontario and decided to spend the
night in Rochester. We stopped at a Red Carpet Inn and were told there
were no available rooms in the whole city-they had been booked up in
advance because several events in the city the same weekend, the girl in
the office phoned to a town about 40 miles west and located a motel with
one vacancy and she made a reservation for us. Another girl in the office
said she was just leaving and was going that way for us to follow her and
she would take us to that motel! What a blessing for two tired senior
citizens.
“In 1831 Rev. Charles G. Finney held revival meetings in Rochester
and roughly one-tenth of the city’s population was converted to Jesus
Christ, and the impact on the life of Rochester was profound. The moral
atmosphere of the city was greatly changed”-from the book by Peter
Marshall/David Manuel authors of 'The Light and The Glory’ page 314.
Could this be the reason 163 years later that Rochester, N.Y. is “Our
Kindest City”?
I believe this is the answer! When a person really accepts Jesus Christ
as his Lord and Saviour, he gets a new want-to and shows in the way he
lives.
Sincerely,
Esther B. Milby, Perry
Houston Times-Joumal
P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll Street • Perry, Ga. 31069
Phone: (912) 987-1823
Member Georgia Press Association National Newspaper Association
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With these laws, it’s no wonder children run wild
SOMETIMES you read
something in the daily newspapers
that makes you wonder what has
happened to our world.
For example: Last week in
Cherokee County a young boy was
putting on a show at a grocery
store. Hitting his sister, being loud
and abusive to customers, shouting
at his mother. Really acting up.
His mother slapped him across the
face and told him that the way he
was acting was not the way children
should act.
When the mother left the store
with her children she was met by
police who arrested her and put her
in handcuffs. Some store employee
had reported her for child abuse.
The mother was charged with
felonious child abuse and is out of
jail on bail.
What goes on in our state?
Perhaps the mother should have
whacked the boy somewhere else on
his body. But a mother being
arrested and charged with a crime
that can carry up to five years in
prison is ridiculous.
According to news reports a law
passed by the legislature a few years
ago puts parents on the defensive
when disciplining their children.
Give them the kind of punishment
they need and deserve and you can
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The real story of the Declaration of Independence
In July 1776, John Adams wrote
a letter to his wife Abigail in
Massachusetts. He wanted her to
know about an important vote that
he’d just cast in Philadelphia as a
member of the Continental
Congress.
The subject of his letter was the
passage that day of something that
would be called the Declaration of
Independence.
Adams wrote his wife that a
single day in July 1776 would be
honored-in his words-”as the most
memorable in the history of
America.”
that’s a remarkable prediction to
make about a nation that didn’t
even exist.
Other predictions that Adams
wrote to his wife about that special
day in July 1776 were right on
target, too:
“It will be celebrated by
succeeding generations as a great
anniversary festival. It ought to be
solemnized with pomp and parades,
with shows, games, sports, guns,
bells, bonfires and
illuminations...from one end of the
continent to the other...from this
time forward...forever more.”
John Adams got only one major
detail wrong in his amazing
prediction-he had the wrong date.
He wrote his wife that he could
foresee those parades and fireworks
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Houston Times-Journal
have your children taken away from
you and you can be sent to prison.
Some law!
Perhaps the grand jury which will
be asked to indict the mother in
Cherokee County will have
sensible, old fashioned men and
women on it and they will say “no
way".
With such laws, no wonder
children feel free to do as they
please and defy their parents at will.
* * *
I LIKE a cartoon I saw last
Sunday. The lady was telling her
husband, “I wish the president
would resign and let Bill run the
country.”
* * *
ACCORDING to the Macon
newspaper one-fourth of the
families in Bibb County are
p00r... Gosh, I can remember when
90 percent of the people were poor
and this was before welfare, food
stamps, television, radio, air
conditioning, all of which are
considered essentials...l can’t recall
anyone complaining or blaming the
government or their neighbors. It
was a way of life and people
struggled the best way they could to
survive...lt was called the Great
Depression... And it developed some
strong, aggressive, right-thinking
happening every year on July 2.
That’s because it was on July 2,
1776, that the Continental
Congress, meeting in a secret
session, actually voted on the
Declaration of Independence.
However, we celebrate the Fourth
of July as opposed to July 2 for
two reasons. Most legal documents
take effect when they are signed,
which in this instance was July
Fourth. More importantly, that
was the day the delegates came out
of their secret session and shared
that incredible document with the
entire world.
The Declaration of Independence
established a social contract that
specified the proper relationship
between government and the
people.
In this country, the people count.
What’s important is the
involvement of the people in
managing their own affairs, not
governmental bodies making
decisions in secret. But, even the
best elected representatives can
forget that government is the
servant of the people.
Many of the 3.1 million
members of The American Legion
believe our own government needs
to be reminded-right now-about
how that relationship is supposed
to work, the issue is the protection
of the American flag.
Page 4A
- Wednesday, June 29,1994 “Houston Time&Journal
men and women who were the
people who fought and won World
War II for us.
* * *
A NEW wrinkle in crime
fighting? President Clinton has
been quoted as wanting a law that
would permit using racial quotas as
a defense for committing a crime.
In other words, a minority defendant
in court could claim that a
disproportionate number of
criminals who are a member of his
or her minority has been sentenced
to prison than majorities have.
Using the rationale, the courts
would have to make sure that they
sent to prison only the proper
number of criminals in each
minority-black, oriental, hispanic,
etc.-and if not enough whites
committed crimes and went to
prison it would be prejudicial to
send one of the minorities to
prison.
Quotas have been imposed in
schools. Quotas are being imposed
in many businesses under EEOC.
Why not criminal conviction quotas
too?
“Sorry, your honor, you can’t
send me to prison for killing that
store clerk because my quota has
been used up this month,” could be
a good defense.
Just five years ago, the Supreme
Court ruled that burning the
American flag is a form of political
expression protected under the First
Amendment’s free speech clause.
That decision outraged millions
of Americans who see the flag as a
sacred symbol of our country, our
values, and of the brave sacrifices
made by our men and women in
wartime.
So, we went to our elected
representatives in Congress to make
our case. Congress passed a federal
law outlawing desecration of the
flag and eight months later the
Supreme Court declared that new
law unconstitutional. A subsequent
attempt to pass a constitutional
amendment to protect the flag failed
narrowly.
Ever since, we’ve been working
throughout The American Legion at
what we call the “quiet revolution.”
And so far, 44 state legislatures
representing more than 90 percent
of the American population-have
formally passed resolutions asking
Congress to amend the
Constitution to allow the states and
the federal government to enact
laws to protect the flag from
physical desecration.
Our “quiet revolution” is
becoming louder. In the months
ahead, we will ask for your support
and your voice. You will be asked
Commentator Paul Harvey said
last week that there are enough
votes in the U.S. House of
Representatives to pass the
president’s quota agenda for crime,
but so far there are not enough
votes in the Senate.
It will be interesting to see how
THE NEWS report said that
President Clinton has “quite simply
fallen in love with Africa.” So he
has pinpointed 17 “trouble spots”
on the African continent where he
will send more of our money than
ever before...lt will be millions of
dollars, of course, each year...l just
have trouble understanding our
leaders-president and members of
congress-who keep finding new
ways and new places to send money
when every dollar of it is being
borrowed and added to a national
debt that soon will pass $4 trillion.
It just sounds almost like treason.
L
Theisen I
to join the Citizen’s Flag Alliance,
a broad-based coalition of
Americans from every part of the
country who want to see the flag
protected.
“Old Glory” is precious to me.
So is the idea that government
should be answerable to the people.
We’re hearing more these days
about the search for values in
America. If we need to find values,
we can start with the values laid
down 218 years ago in the
Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self
evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. That to secure these
rights, governments are
instituted...”
That’s still the best statement of
who we are as people, what we hold
dear, and what we will fight to
preserve.