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Wednesday, August 24,1994, Houston Times-Joumal
Viewpoints
Houston Times-Journal
P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll Street • Perry, Ga. 31069
Phone: (912) 987-1823
Th« Houston Timoo-Journol (USPS 000471) lo published semi-weekly lor *IB.OO per yesr by
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Perry, Gs.,POSTMASTER: Send sddress changes to the Houston Times-Joumol, P.O. Drawer
M.PerryGs. 31069. ISSN:IO7S-1874
Bob Tribble Daniel F. Evans Julie B. Evans Mitch Tribble
President Vice-President Treasurer Secretary
Jim Kerce
Editor and General Manager
Eddie Byrd
Advertising Manager
News: Jimmy Simpson, Pauline Lewis Sports: Veto Roley Composition:
Melanie Bullington Classified Advertising: Melanie Bullington Bookkeeping:
Judy Morrow
Your Opinion
Welcome back Jim & Bobby
Editor,
Welcome Back!
Well, hello, Jim and Bobby, it’s so good to have you back where you
belong. You have been gone too long and many have missed your articles.
The Houston Home Journal was an important part of Perry and
Houston County history for many years. 1 was saddened to see the name
dropped with the recent merger. With no disrespect for The Perry Times
and its staff, I would like to see the name changed to The Houston Home
Journal.
Sincerely,
Charles I. Shelton
Recent return keys interest
Jim:
I was delighted to learn you arc back with the Home Journal. It has
been good therapy for me since moving to Waynesboro to know what was
going on in dear ole Perry. I have missed all my friends so very much....
I was about to cancel my subscription. Now that you are back, I’ll keep
looking forward to keeping up with the news.
I miss Jim Shipley’s column. He is one of my favorite people, and I
miss him.
Best wishes to you and yours.
Most sincerely,
Lois Medlock
Waynesboro, Ga.
Health care 'bad medicine'
Dear Editor:
Hillary Health Care is bad medicine. With half the world trying to get
rid of socialized medicine, we are the only nation trying to adopt it. At
least, those who believe in Bill Clinton are attempting to do so. But in
all the discussions about government medicine, we never hear of examples
of any place it has ever worked, anywhere. You would think the system’s
proponents could cite some instances to support their plan.
Certainly the Canadian system does not work. In fact, Canadians are not
guaranteed medical care. Any American citizen desiring to cross the
Canadian border to receive treatment at a Canadian hospital is put in line
in front of the Canadian citizens. The reason for this: Americans pay cash
for services received at Canadian hospitals and the bankrupt hospitals there
are eager to take in all the American dollars they can. They forgot to tell
you about this didn’t they? The law of supply and demand remains in
effect, despite the efforts of liberal planners to repeal it. Altruistic
socialism gives way to free market forces. Does this attitude of the
Canadian government tell you something about the general philosophy of
the relationship between the individual and his or her government?
Canadians also continue to flock in increasing numbers to U.S. hospitals
for treatment, walking away from so-called “free” Canadian hospitals,
gladly willing to pay for efficient and quality treatment in this country.
These people must be wondering where they will go if the U.S. goes
socialist. They also must be wondering about the Amerian mentality of
looking to the government for medical care.
The most disturbing aspect of this entire debate is the fact that millions
of Americans continue to exhibit a blind faith in the ability of government
to solve complex problems and to run entire industries efficiently.
Americans appear to be afraid of freedom. Although freedom is not free,
socialism is infinitely more expensive. Piecemeal socialism has made
slaves of us all. We should always remember: the only source of money
for government is your pockets. Everything the government has, it steals
from you. There is no corporate tax; all taxes are factored into the price
of the product. You pay it all. Please do not fall for the government’s
shell game.
Another thing: can you find any Constitutional justification for
governmental meddling in medicine? I can’t. And what kind of medical
expertise do Slick Willie and his cohorts have to offer? Not much, I’m
afraid. And when the program fails, how do we dump it? Government
programs tend to stay with us for the duration. And wait until Bill sends
you the bill.
Sincerely,
Marshall Miller,
Stonemountain, Ga.
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.<#,*•» .
f" - fit H
Pictured above Is the entire Houston County School
Bus fleet posing on the east side of the old Perry High
School sometime between 1937 and 1943, although
we aren’t sure, We believe standing (left to right) by
their “new" Fords and Chevrolets are: #9 Buddy Jones
of Lake Joy, #l4 W. Emmlt Rape of Centerville. #ls
Gordon Scarborough, Sr. of Centerville, #l6 unknown
Houston County School Superintendent, #176 Robert
Thompson, Perry. We believe some of the others are
THE PEANUT GflLlEߣl —.—: -
/f'Al AFRAID HE'S RIGHTS
giggle / MS. STERHAPPLE. STATE j J£
LAW /MANDATES THAT HE / V.
I REMAIN SILENT FOR ONLY / .§
\ A MOMENT EACH DAY, y \
'SCHOOL DATE
TEACHERS CHALLENGE /AOMENT OF SILENCE
Why take on health care, when U.S.
can't handle what it's doing now?
President Bill Clinton is asking
a lot from the American people
when he asks us to support federal
ized health care.
Over the past two weeks, I've
been trying to set forth a very im
portant reason why we should deny
him this request —the loss of indi
vidual liberty which this nation was
built on. There are two other very
important reasons that we should
deny federal control over health
care.
I make these two final argu
ments as somebody who has been,
and may wind up again, on the bot
tom when it comes to health care.
When I was unemployed or un
deremployed, I did not have health
care. Working at a series of tempo
rary jobs, and being unemployed
between jobs, I've went over a year
without health insurance. I know
what it is like to not have health
insurance, to have to pick your
hospitals with care.
1 also have a brother who re
cently came down with lupus. The
disease made its presence known
through a stroke. He was one
month away from having health
coverage through his job. There
was a three month period where he
worked where he did not qualify for
health insurance. In one month, he
racked up well over $25,000 in
medical bills.
First, and lost in the debate, we
do have a national system of health
care. No hospital can legally turn
away people ii) need of treatment.
We also have, throughout the
land, public hospitals which are re
quired, by law, to take in patients
regardless of ability to pay. Almost
every county in the United States
has public clinics where citizens
can get reduced or free preventative
medical help and advice.
We have, in the United States,
Medicaid for the old, SSI for those
who can't work, churches and other
religious groups for the faithful and
V.A. hospitals for those who served
in the Armed Forces.
Please, at this point, don't get
me wrong. I am not saying that
these facilities designed to provide a
Perry scrapbook
Those Were The Days’
|ZI Veto I
Roley I
. P Staff Writer I
safety net provide the best of care—
they don't I am not saying that ev
eryone who needs these facilities is
able to use them —they aren't, since
sometimes a person earns just over
the cutoff point, a facility does not
offer what it is legally responsible
to offer or a person does not know
about it.
All I am saying is that we do
have a national health care system
that covers, or is supposed to cover
everybody. We do need to work at
that system, and improve that sys
tem; but, it is there.
Secondly, should not allow
the federal government to take over
all of health care until it proves it
is able to handle what little portion
of health care it currently has.
Except for a few showcase facili
ties, which mainly treat VIPs such
as congressmen, generals and presi
dents, the federal system is one
unmitigated disaster of misman
agement and poor service.
Take, for instance, the V.A.
hospitals. Only those veterans
without any type of insurance
whatsoever will step foot into a
V.A. hospital. Those hospitals are
legendary for their poor quality.
As I have said before, my
brother learned he had lupus in
January. Because of the severity of
the disease, he was out of work for
several months and applied for SSI.
SSI lost his application. We
learned about this mistake after
numerous calls. The first applica
tion was Filed in February; but, was
lost by May.
It has been about three months
since he filed a second application
with SSI. We don't know if they
have lost it, again. We don’t know
because we can't get the case worker
assigned to the case to return our
Houston Times-Joumal
listed below, but don’t know which Is which and would
like your help: 8.8. Abrams of Grovanla, Horace
Braddock of Perry, Emmlt Brunson of Elko, G. W. Hicks
of Perry, E. E. Peed of Cllnchfleld, Jim Culler of Perry,
George Perdue of Bonaire, and someone from
Henderson. Are we correct? Do you know who the
others are? Can you help? Call Gordon Scarborough,
Jr. at 987-4300 In Perry to Identify these people.
(Photo courtesy of Gordon Scarborough)
calls. When we call him, he is al
ways gone—even when it appears
that someone has went to call him
to the phone.
Because of the delay in getting
SSI, my brother, who has bills to
pay, went back to work while he
was still taking treatment for lupus,
while he should have been recover
ing. Because he went to work too
soon, he couldn't handle the stress
of his job, with one of the symp
toms of lupus being high blood
pressure. Because he couldn't handle
the pressure, he had to quit his job,
and take a less stressful position at
lower wages and benefits.
It would be one thing for SSI to
turn my brother down for benefits,
although he needs them very much.
However, they have lost his appli
cation at least once. There is no
telling where that second applica
tion has gone. I can understand mis
takes, but then you expedite the
matter the second time around.
What has happened to my brother
speaks of either an uncaring attitude
in SSI, or gross incompetence. I
only hope it is incompetence.
As I have written before, there is
nothing that can get so bad that
government can't make it worse.
The federal government can't even
handle what they are doing now,
and they expect us to allow them
take over the whole show? We
would be crazy to let them.
Just how well run will the new
government hospitals be? Will they
mimic the showplace hospitals for
the VIPs, which will always be
there, or will they mimic the worst
of the V.A. system hospitals? I can
almost guarantee you that there will
be few showcase hospitals treating
everyday people.
And, just what are you going to
do when you are told by a clerk that
the paperwork was lost on that
heart bypass surgery that you
needed? Take a deep breath and hope
that you don’t have the minor heart
attack that will kill you because it
will clog the one remaining artery
you have open?
No, the very last thing we need
is government run health care.
B ° b I
Tribble I
A real man ...
In the fall of 1949 the Lavonia
High School football team travelled
15 miles up Ga. Highway 17 to
Toccoa to Purple Hurricanes.
Lavonia was a Class C school and
Toccoa was playing in Class A.
Lavonia was a town of 2,000 and
Toccoa 9,000.
The reason the small school of
Lovania had the much larger Purple
Hurricanes on schedule was due to
the fact that the Lavonia Bulldog
coach was Doc Ayers, who grew up
and played his high school football
in Toccoa. Coach Ayers also had
scheduled teams like Franklin, N.C.
and Gainesville, believe it or not.
Needless to say we lost to
Toccoa and Franklin by a close
score, x and were routed by the
Gainesville Red Elephants. The
Gainesville game was one of those
that by halftime most of us were
praying that the stadium lights
would go out.
Coach Ayers without a doubt
was the best football coach I ever
had the privelege of playing under.
He could have a freshman on a
football team such as me fired up
enough before a ball game to tear
down the goal post when we hit the
field. The only other coach that I
ever played for that even came close
to Coach Ayers as a motivator was
Coach Johnny Griffith who was at
South Georgia College during the
early 1950’5. Coach Ayers went on
to coach at Georgia for several
years, and Coach Griffith was head
coach there for a short time
seceding Wally Butts.
When we went up to Toccoa to
take on the task of upsetting the
Hurricanes, we went up early and
stayed for several hours at the
home(s) of Coach Ayers’ kin. I
haven’t figured out yet why that
was done since we were a 20
minute maximum drive away. And
I don’t think it helped a thing
because during those pre-game
hours most of the talk among us,
especially the younger players,
centered on the powerful Hurricane
team and individual players.
I played tackle on this Bulldog
team that went 7-3 with our only
three losses being to the senior
houses mentioned. Back in those
days you could come back for a year
and play football, and fortunately
Boggolow Smith had returned for
another year and was the number
one tackle ahead of me.
Remember, we only had 150-160
kids in high school, with around
25-30 of them on the football team,
so it didn’t take much to be on the
second string.
One of the players for the
Toccoa team that was more
frequently mentioned was Paul
Anderson who was on the roster at
well over 300 pounds. Boggolow
weighed around 180 and my weight
was 150, so Anderson weighed as
much as both of us put together.
Anderson had developed the
reputation of controlling one side of
the line all by himself, and that
night we found out it wasn’t just
talk. Thank goodness he didn’t
waylay Boggolow so my action
Please see TRIBBLE, page 5A