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Page 4A 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 Houston Pubtlcstions, Inc., 807 Csrroll Street, Perry, Gs. 3lo6#.Seeond Close Postsge psld st 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. Your opinions are important to the community—write a letter and share your view 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. Our Goal 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 Member Georgia Press Association-National Newspaper Association "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, <>r of the press, or the right of the people peaceably i.-.'-i b!- ; t:,,| •, ~. ' '' , 0 f grievances. Your right to road thm newspaper is protected by the f irst Amendment o! the United States Constitution. .<#,*•» . 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