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Houston Times-Journal
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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The Houston Times-Journal is published proudly for the citizens of
Houston and adjoining counties by Houston Publications Inc., Perry
Ga. 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 Vice-President Treasurer Secretary
Our Staff
Jim Kerce
Editor and General Manager
Eddie Byrd
Advertising Director
News: Jimmy Simpson, Pauline Lewis Sports: Veto Roley
Composition: Melanie Bullington
Classified Advertising: Melanie Bullington
Bookkeeping: Judy Morrow
Circulation: Donnie Forehand
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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.
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Your Opinion
Society needs second look
Dear Editor:
Please allow me to address the abortion doctors and the women who do
not want their babies, may they know that God hates what you are doing.
You are murdering His little ones. He tells us in the Holy Bible, “thou
shall not murder’'. You are working against God’s Holy Will, and you
will not escape the judgement that will befall you, and your vast fortunes
built up here will not spend in hell.
Many people are very disturbed over dance halls that are allowing nude
dancing. The environment we have today is not what we need to bring up
our children. We voters need to vote for the best men who fear God rather
than vote for the party. Our morals are crumbling and it is high time for
us to stop in our tracks and beg God to help us to straighten them out or
we shall suffer the consequences.
Yours truly,
Geo. R. Hunt
Flood made people believe
Dear Editor,
My views on The Flood: Let’s look at it from a negative and a
positive point of view.
The negative side of the situation is the loss of life, property, hurt
pride, anxiety, etc.
The positive side is the fact that it brought a lot of people together that
other wise wouldn’t have been around to help people that they otherwise
wouldn’t have. My heart was filled with pride to see how people came
from all around to help flood victims.
However, it shouldn’t take a tragedy or an emergency to bring people
together to help one another, because in each life some rain must fall.
This could have very well been the end of time as we know it. 1 feel
that this is a sign from God, we should all stand back and take a long hard
look at our lives and thank God that he wasn’t ready for us yet.
I also feel that this is a warning for all of us. While all the rain was
falling, I was thinking “It’s the Lord’s work”, and after the rains I felt the
same way. We place too much value on material things which we can’t
take with us.
1 know that we as a people can treat our fellow man with dignity,
respect, and a little human compassion. The world is full of problems, I
know that we can’t solve them all, but we can all do our part towards
decreasing them in whatever manner we can.
Help someone feel good today won’t you?
Linda McKenzie
United States facing difficult task in modern world after simple beginning
What has happened in the United
States?
Until recently, we seemed to be
a nation that could do no wrong.
We went from a society on the edge
of the wilderness, barely hanging
on to independence, to a nation that
conquered a continent and put a man
on the moon.
We look around and we see a na
tion that is first among the world's
economies, that is the only world
superpower, that barely feels severe
floods, earthquakes and other disas
ters. We are a nation that has no
other rivals.
But, we also seem to be a nation
that can do no right.
Recently, the Family Research
Council did a project comparing
1944 New York with 1994 New
York. Here is what Gary Bauer,
president of the Family Research
Council, says about those findings:
SVeto I
Roley I
Staff Writer I
"In 1944, New York City had
150,000 more inhabitants than it
does in 1994. Yet, 97 percent of all
children born in 1944 were mem
bers of two-parent families. In
1944, only 50 percent go home to
households headed by a mother and
a father.
"In 1944, a total of 40 people
died of gunshot wounds. In 1994,
40 people arc shot and killed every
10 days.
"In 1944, 100 babies were sent
to orphanages. In 1994, thousands
of babies arc abandoned, some
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Passing the torch is never an easy task in life
It’s been more than five years
since I’ve been at the news desk on
a regular basis, but I can honestly
say that I missed the opportunity to
pass along the news as it came my
way.
A lot has changed since my
departure. One of the biggest being
the merging of two publications
into one...
I’ll be the first to admit, I’d
journey to the racks every
Wednesday to grab up both, The
Perry Times and The Houston
Home-Journal, to see which would
have the “scoop” on the other.
But I’ll have to give both papers
credit-- they both did an exceptional
job of keeping the city’s residents
informed...
Love it, or hate it, we now have
What ever happened yesteryear's golden oldies?
ARE YOU old enough to
remember when:
•Gross meant 12 times 12...n0t
the description of something
repulsive?
•Young people were taught to do
simple math in their heads instead
of having to turn to a calculator for
the simplest act of addition,
subtraction, multiplication or
division?
•You could tell the difference
between a boy and a girl by the
length of their hair?
•The last time the United States
got involved in a war...and won it?
•Before TV...when radio was king
and you had to use your
imagination as you listened to such
programs as Jack Benny, Fibber
McGee and Molly, The Shadow,
Fred Allen and the memorable
Invasion of Earth by Martians that
frightened the entire nation?
•Football was a really tough game
played by 11 men on each team
going both ways with no
substitutions except for injuries?
•There was just one All-American
football team each season?
•Basketball players were short
enough they had to throw the ball
up to score a basket instead of
dropping it in?
merely deposited in trash cans and
restrooms.
"What happened to New York
between 1944 and 1994?" asks
Bauer.
It couldn't be the increased stress
of city life. After all, New York has
lost—again, lost—lso,ooo people
over the past 50 years. There are
fewer people, and better services,
today than there were 50 years ago.
Yet, New York was a better city, it
seems, 50 years ago than today.
It couldn't be a lack of freedom.
One of the things that we might
have forgotten is the social climate
of the 19405. There was white
America and black America. Not
only were these two societies kept
apart by social approbation; but,
also by law.
It is true today that we have not
eliminated many of the social barri
ers between the two races; but, we
Houston Times-Journal
Page 4A
only one publication. And I’ll be
the first (or maybe the thousandth)
to say that it’s about time...
Some have expressed
dissappointment concerning the
lack of local news coverage in
recent months. While we realize
that we can’t please everyone, we
are striving to constantly make
improvements to this newspaper.
As always, with change comes
new ideas. When Jim Kerce left this
newspaper a few months ago,
former HHJ news editor Brigette
Loudermilk slapped in and gave it
her best shot. Now, once again, the
tide has changed. She’s on her way
to Florida, and Jim’s on his way
back to Perry.
Jim will return with an
abundance of ideas. A lot of the
•The United States gorvemment
balanced the budget?
•Japanese cars were called “tin
cans” and Japanese radios were a
joke?
•We were all just plain
Americans...not hyphenated
Americnas?
• The word “gay” meant
happy...not homosexual?
•A lady wouldn’t be seen in public
unless she was dressed to the hilt,
high heels and all?
•Gentlemen always opened the
door of a car or room for a
lady...and stood back to let her enter
or leave a room first?
•Women in the workplace were a
rarity...the arrival of “Rosie the
Riveter” to help build airplanes to
win World War II?
•No self-respecting man would be
caught dead doing housework?
•A well-rounded, somewhat plump
woman was the ideal...not
broomstick thin?
•Some people thought the moon
was made of cheese...and that there
actually was a “man in the moon”?
•Criminals were not pampered?
•Alleged childhood molestation or
abuse were not used...and
accepted...as legal defenses for
adults committing crimes, even
have eliminated the legal barriers.
And, many of the barriers that seem
to exist today are more economic
barriers, barriers that have existed
between the rich and the poor for
ages, than racial barriers.
And, at the same time, it isn't
poverty. The world hasn't changed
much since Jesus walked the world
2,000 years ago and said, "The poor
you have with you always."
Poverty was a fact of life no less in
1944 than it was in 1994. Also, in
1944 many were limited in their
ability to break the poverty cycle
by laws that restricted their access
to the free market. It wasn't
poverty.
Then what is it that has changed
in the last 50 years? I think we
have lost our national faith.
And, this goes deeper than los
ing our faith in God, although that
was the basis of our national faith.
Wednesday, July 27,1994 H Houston Times-Journal
familiarity our reading audience
once enjoyed will, undoubtedly,
return to these pages on a regular
basis.
I, myself, am looking forward to
continuing the friendly
community/newspaper relationship
I once enjoyed while News Editor
of The Perry Times. I really
enjoyed the opportunities presented
to me early in my career, and look
forward to the additional ones that
will hopefully come my way in the
years ahead.
Change is always difficult. I
found that out while renovating my
wife’s beauty shop, Graffiti Hair
Salon, with a good friend, Lamar
Beamon, over the course of about
three weeks.
I don’t expect there’ll be as
murders?
•There were no interstate
highways?
•Businesses could operate without
computers...and often with less
people?
•Baseball players played the game
because they loved it and did it
better than those multi-million
dollar primadonnas now in the big
leagues?
•Discipline in the schools was
taken for granted and parents backed
up the teachers and principals?
•People could associate with their
friends and acquaintences without
congress passing laws telling them
they had to add others they did not
know and didn’t want to socialize
with or go to prison?
•News media struggled endlessly
to present the news accurately and
fairly...instead of printing anything
that can sell a paper or get a viewer,
regardless of how inaccurate and
tasteless?
•Airplanes were novelties...not the
most preferred form of
transportation?
•The wonderful, remarkable Model
T Ford?
•We got our water from a
well...and went to the bathroom in
an outhouse popularly referred to as
We've lost our faith in our ability
to succeed.
We were the nation chosen by
God to bring his Kingdom into the
world. We were, in our mythology,
the New Israel, chosen to live as
the example of a nation governed
by the rules of God. It was our
Manifest Destiny to conquer for
God.
What this meant in practical
terms is that we could not fail,
since God would not allow his peo
ple to fail. As a nation, and in our
communities, we took on the im
possible, and we succeeded, since
part of success is believing that it
can and will be done. After all, "If
God be for us, who can be against
us."
Not only would God not allow
his New Israel to fail; but, tomor
row would be greater than today,
since God would bless his people,
~Jimmy L
m sri
many aches and pains involved
around the newspaper office, but
I’m sure there will be a lot of new
looks many of you will favor when
Jim’s “renovation” has been
completed.
In the meantime, I would ask
that all of our readers give credit
where credit is due-- Thanks,
Brigette, for a job well done! We’ll
miss ya!
a “Chic Sale”?
•Children used their imagination
and played games with each
other...and governments didn’t
spend bundles of money providing
them with organized recreation?
•There were no government
giveaway programs.. .and people
were too proud to accept a handout
without doing some kind of work
for it?
•Doctors made house calls...and
medical care was affordable?
•Children were expected to be
“seen and not heard”?
•Americans were proud they were
born in a country whose
constitution guaranteed them that
everyone was equal...before there
were so many laws making some
people more equal than the rest of
us?
•Businesses were permitted to hire
workers based on competence and
qualifications. ..not based on
arbitrary racial quotas?
his nation. There was hope founded
in faith.
Being a nation chosen by God
required a special citizenry, a citi
zenry that took personal responsi
bility. The citizens of the New
Israel took their responsibility to
God and to their neighbors seri
ously.
There is a lot said today about
our people's tendency to do every
thing but take responsibility for
mistakes, for wrongs. If you can't
claim your mistakes, it is hard to
claim your successes.
What is wrong with America?
We have lost our faith. We have
not replaced it with anything posi
tive. Like air rushing into a vac
uum, the negative has come in, fill
ing our nation. For' America to
grow strong again, we must regain
our faith.