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Viewpoints
Our
Views
Growing pains
Houston County is one of the fastest
growing counties in population in the state,
and while that’s something to be proud of, it
also creates some challenges and problems
for government officials.
Unlike the business sector, local govern
ments move in slow motion, and there’s no
help for that. Major projects nearly always
raise questions, and those questions must be
answered. Voters must be persuaded that
needs are real and immediate. Bond issues
must be passed. Sales tax referenda must be
voted on. Public notice must be given. Bids
must be made. It just takes time.
While that time is passing, the population
keeps growing along with demands for
services.
So it naturally comes about that at the
same time the plans for the new courthouse
are finally firming up, some elected officials
and their staff members are just about at
their wits’ end with overcrowded and out
dated working conditions.
District Attorney Kelly Burke and his
staff are in that position housed in offices
that all the County Commissioners agree are
inadequate, cramped and crowded.
So, Burke made a reasonable request that
his operation be moved to new offices with
a lease that would cost about $ 150 more per
month.
The County Commissioners made a rea
sonable decision not to grant the request
because (1) they don’t have the money in the
budget to cover the moving costs and other
increases in expenditure the move would
generate, and (2) the District Attorney’s
office is certainly not the only county
department housed in inadequate and
crowded facilities.
We can see the District Attorney’s point,
but we think the Commissioners were right,
and for the sake of the taxpayers, we hope
that they will hold the line on any further
leasing and relocating, and move full steam
ahead with the new Courthouse.
Post office blues
It came as good news last week that U.S.
Sen. Max Cleland has intervened on behalf
of the City of Perry, asking questions in high
places about the future of the proposed new
post office.
After a full year of waiting and wonder
ing, people in Perry are more than ready to
see some action in that vacant lot on Macon
Road.
What we’ve learned is that the contract is
being negotiated and construction should
start soon, with a target date of completion
of the building in July, 1999.
Let’s all keep a close eye on this one.
Rep. Larry Walker and Mayor Jim Worrall
are giving it their best, and if nothing is hap
pening after another month or two, it will be
time for more phone calls to Washington.
Silly season upon us
The political silly season approaches.
Already the evening television commercial
slots are filled with declarations by various
candidates, representing both political par
ties.
These candidates almost universally are
campaigning on themes of lower taxes and
more services. They promise more prisons,
better schools, safer communities and then
mention doing away with long-time sources
of revenue for local and state government.
Yes, they say they have plans to make this
work. They will reduce .government waste.
They will reign in government spending.
Simple economics holds that if you spend
more, you have to have more income.
Prisons and schools are expensive. It’s hard
to imagine how any of these candidates will
reduce government waste that much.
Houston Times-Journal
P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carrol! St. • Perry. Ga. 31069
email jjedit @hom.net
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Bob Tribble President
Jj Johnson Editor and General Manager
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r-r im
Remember the sacrifices of those who went to war
Editor:
The following arc comments made by
W.W. Rush at the Perry Memorial Gardens
on Memorial Day, 1998:
We arc gathered in this memorial gar
den today in memory and honor of multi
tudes who gave their lives in the service of
their country.
In the history of this God-given land,
more than one and a quarter million
Americans have died in the fields, on the
seas, and in the skies of battle.
The wars of this century cost over
634,000 lives, but the costliest war was the
Civil War of the last century, which alone
claimed over 622,00 lives.
It was soon after that war that ladies of
the South began honoring and decorating
the graves of both Confederate and Federal
soldiers who fell in battle.
They did this on the 30th day of May,
and called it Decoration Day. Eventually it
Yrk
One of God’s systems water flows downhill
We tend to take water for granted.
We drink it, we bathe in it, and we run
for cover when it falls from the sky.
I know in's silly, but a simple fact
about water intrigues me it always
flows downhill.
We all know that gravity pulls on
everything. Water is a liquid, so gravi
ty causes it to flow to the bottom of
whatever container holds it. If the con
tainer happens to be a valley, a river
forms, and the river always flows
downstream.
I realize thati's not a big revelation.
I became particularly intrigued with
this phenomenon, however, when I
was hiking with my wife in Gulf
Shores, Ala.
We were in a swamp, only a few
feet from the ocean. I wondered how
fresh water could exist that close to the
ocean. Why doesn’t the salt water
from the ocean “invade” the swamp?
With the soil being so sandy, why
doesn’t the water just soak into the
ground?
I spoke to a park naturalist to under
stand this reality better. I learned that
the source of most of the surface water
is springs. The water in springs, of
course, is rainwater that has filtered
down through the soil.
The hydraulic pressure that occurs
as it hits rock deeper in the ground
causes it to weep back to the surface
wherever there is a crack an
exhaust port, so to speak.
Near the ocean, salt water seeps
into the ground, too. Salty water is
more dense than fresh water, however,
so the fresh water tends to stay on the
surface.
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Page 4A
Wed„ June 3, IWti
Letters to
The Editor
P.O. Drawer M,
Perry, Ca. 31069
became the national holiday we now know
as Memorial Day, a special day of remem
bering the sacrifices of so many people
who died for our nation.
Memorial Day, a day of remembering,
and a day of honoring.
We need to remember things of great
importance which shaped our history and
even the days we live. Remember the
Alamo, remember the Maine, remember
Pearl Harbor! Those are cries we have
heard.
But we need to do more than remember
the events; we need to remember the sol-
...and He saw
it was good
Dennis Hooper,
Columnist
Most people (like me) are unaware
that salty water beneath the ground is
helping to support the fresh water they
see.
Together we looked at a map. and
the naturalist showed me the flow
from swampy areas to the lakes, from
one lake to the next via canals, and
from the final lake into the ocean.
Without the involvement of human
beings, a lake would fill to overflow
ing, spilling over into either the next
lake, the bay on the back side of the
island, or the ocean on the front side.
The erosion from the flow would
open up a creek that would remain for
awhile, providing continuous drainage
of the lake.
Over time, sand would pile up clos
ing the creek, and the level of the lake
would rise again. It might spill over
next time at a different location. In this
way, the levels of the lakes would rise
and fall, and sometimes even the size
and shape of the lakes would change.
God created animals and plants to
be resilient, able to respond to that
kind of variability. Human beings
can’t tolerate that unpredictability
when it results in the destruction of
their “stuff’.
So, people have worked to bring
stability in such things, including the
deepening of canals between lakes and
occupied by the error.
We cannot be responsible for the return of pictures or sub
mitted materials unless a stamped, return address envelope is
included
Our Goal
The Houston Times-Jouma! 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 this goal through hard
work, teamwork, loyalty and a strong dedication toward
printing the truth.
Member of Georgia Press Association and National
diers, and sailors, and airmen who were
caught up in those events.
Every one of them was flesh, and blood,
and soul, just as we are today, with minds
and hearts, and families and friends, and
hopes and dreams.
They gave up what they were, and what
they may have become, because they
answered the call of their country in time *
of danger. How indebted to them we ought
to feel!
Here, in this place where we bury our
honored dead, may we never be tempted to
think this is all that remains of them. What
they did for us, what they did for our
nation, remains with us today
Without them, we would not have the
conveniences we own, the freedoms we
share, the quality of life we enjoy, or the
nation we are. Their deeds affect us still in
every area of life, each day we live and this
we should never forget
/
&
Jjatn
the building of retaining wails and
spillways to control water flow.
Where the final lake empties into
the ocean, a channel about 30 feet
across has been cut between the ocean
and the lake. A retaining wall exists on
both sides, extending about 30 feet out
into the ocean.
Currents have washed away some
of the sand from behind the retaining
wall. A local individual explained that
there is frequent dredging of this chan
nel to both remove sand from the
channel and to replace the sand behind
the retaining wall.
Sure enough, we saw a small ves
sel, a floating “sand pumper”, docked
just beyond the channel in the lake.
The tide was rising. There was a
pretty strong flow from the ocean into
the lake. I walked along the shore of
the lake, dipping my finger into the
water occasionally to test the salinity
through a crude taste test. The further
along the lake I walked, the less salty.
Since the tide would switch in just a
few hours, this water would never
make it back through the canals into
the upstream lakes.
What a terrific system. I just marvel
at the beautiful way God allows diver
sity to exist, even with something as
simple as water flowing downhill.
(Perryan Dennis Hooper and his
wife, Donna, have recently visited
many of America's natural attractions.
His stories continue weekly in the
Times-Journal. Contact him through
the Times-Journal internet address at
jjedit@hom.net or send him mail at
P.O. Drawer M. Perry, Ga. 31069.)
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1075-1874.
They left us a rich inheritance, exam
ples of valor and value of life.
They were citizens who, having given
their word, kept it. Who, having pledged
allegiance, honored that pledge Who,upon
hearing the call to arms, fled not to a for
eign country to avoid military duty, but
responded quickly to that call
It is not that they were citizens free of
fear, or insensitive to pain, or resigned to
death. They experience fear, they suffered
pain, they hoped to live.
It is rather that they set aside those neg
ative things for the greater worth of such
life values as duty, honor, loyalty, courage,
perseverance, friendship, respect, love, and
faith in God.
How important these values were to
them! How important they should be to us
today 1
(See MEMORY, page SA)
Bob
Tribble
Times-
Journal President
What about
runoff racism?
An Associated Press story recently
asked this question in its leed paragraph
“Is it racist to require candidates to win
more than 50 percent of the vote in
Georgia’s primary elections?”
The question referred to an eight-year
old lawsuit brought by 27 black voters that
is presently before the Eleventh U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals
A ruling from the court is not expected
until after the July 21 primaries
Presently the law in all statewide gen
eral elections requires that a candidate
receive 45 percent of the vole or more to
win without a runoff.
The statewide law was reduced from a
50 percent majority plus one to the 45 per
cent this year by the Democratic con
trolled House and Senate
In district, county and city elections the
present law still requires 50 percent of the
vote. This was passed in 1964 to discour
age blacks from running for office, and to
undermine the chances of those who did
run
The suit claims that the 50 percent rule
discriminates against black candidates
who may be able to finish first with less
than a majority in a race against two or
more opponents, hut then lose to the
remaining white candidate in a runoff
U.S. District Judge Richard C.
Freeman rejected that argument in
September 1996 which prompted the
appeal. He said the black plaintiffs failed
to prove lawmakers were motivated pri
marily by race when they passed the law.
As part of the lawsuit, researchers
looked at all Georgia runoffs from 1970 to
1995. Of those, 27 runoffs were between a
black and white candidate. The study
showed 56 races in which a black candi
date finished first in the initial election bin
lost the runoff. But, there were 29 races
where the black candidate placed second
in the initial race but won the runoff
Before the majority vote rule was
passed as part of Georgia's first uniform
election code, the state’s 159 counties
made up their own rules, often to favor
powerful incumbents.
David Walbert, a well known Atlanta
attorney who represents the state in elec
tion law cases, said the majority election
rule was part of an effort to impose unifor
mity and stamp out competition rather
than discriminate against blacks.
Republicans say that Democrats tin
kered with the election rules this year
when they lowered the runoff percentage
to 45 to give themselves an advantage at
the polls in the November runoffs. They
cite the runoff in 1992 in which
Republican Paul Coverdell came from
second place to oust Democrat U.S. Sen.
Wyche Fowler as an example.
Is it racist to require candidates to win
more than 50 percent of the vote in
Georgia’s primary elections? I think not. I
believe it is only common sense to have
the top two vote gatherers go at each other
in a runoff if no one gets a majority vote
It would be undemocratic in many races
(See TRIBBLE, Page SA)