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Viewpoints Our Views It is time... It is time for the following things to occur: • It is time for the three incorpo rated cities and the county govern ment to quit talking and start work ing on the services plan which must be submitted to the state within weeks. Yes, they have been working, but much of the work has been talk, posturing, position statements and bickering. Meetings have been held without all parties invited. The deadline approaches with little resolved. • It is time for Perry to take a vig orous approach to expansion, espe cially to the northeast, before the city of Warner Robins surrounds Peny just as it did Centerville. Warner Robins has taken a very aggressive stance concerning annexation, and now has crossed Ga. 96, headed south toward Mossy Creek. • It is time for the incorporated cities and county government to agree on service delivery to save tax payers money due to dual service deliveries. Viewing ‘chick movies Sunday afternoon, I went to see “Run away Bride. This new movie stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. It was charming, but is not a sequel to their earlier movie, “Pretty Woman.” Runaway Bride" was funny. Scene after scene produced laughter. It was so funny even my husband laughed. He was a hard sell to get to go to see this movie. Why? "Runaway Bride" is a “chick flick.” Yes, he said it was a “chick flick." Romance and comedy rule. No one dies. Guts are not lying around. No guns. No sex. Nothing blows up. What remains are humorous situations and hints of romance to delight moviegoers. Everyone wonders whether the heroine would make it to the altar for her next attempt at mar riage. My daughter went with us to see “Run away Bride." She laughed as hard as we did. She said she was glad to go with us because her husband would not go see it. (Nothing gets blown up.) My son chose not to see the “chick flick." Instead, he went to see “The Blair Witch Project." He said that movie was really scary (and he rarely gets scared). Mike said he heard the hype that thfe movie drew on Torey Joßey Home Journal stnrr real life. However, near the end he began to question the whole thing. My son said if something was coming to kill him, and it had already killed several others, he was sure he would not be carrying a cam era around to film it. Now 1 know I am far from a “profes sional movie critic." However, I know what I like, and if my family agrees with me, then 1 am pretty sure I can tell if a movie is good or not. 1 do not care if the critics like or dislike a movie. I have often seen a movie the critics rave about and have come away with the feeling that either I missed something or maybe they did not really see the movie. Why? Because it was awful something I would not even rec ommend renting for a dollar. I have seen movies 1 adored only to have the critics pan them. I do have a few tricks when choosing a movie. I listen to people (real people like neighbors and friends) who have seen the movie. 1 see how long it runs in the the- See JOLLEY, Page 5A Houston Homs Jqupml P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll St. • Perry. Ga. 31069 email homfj rnC hom. net (912) 987-1823 (voice) • (912) 988-1181 (fax) Bob Tribble President Jj Johnson Editor and General Manager Ellen T. Green Advertising Director Phil Clark Sports Joan Dorsett Lifestyles Torey Jolley News and Classified Alllne Kent Sports Pauline Lewis Lifestyles Rob Mead News and Circulation Charlotte Perkins News and Composition Paula Zimmerman Bookkeeping ran Heat wave triggers air-conditioning memories The recent heat wave has most folk my age remembering how they lived before air condi tioning became common in both offices and at home. I remember the first night I slept with air conditioning, my first ride in an air-conditioned vehicle, and when I began to sleep with air conditioning on a regular basis. That first night with air con ditioning came when I was about eight. My parents had loaded us up for our annual vacation, which usually was a trip to middle and western Ten nessee to visit my mom’s fami ly. We'd have a night or two with each sibling, and then head back home. Uncle Carnie was a lifer in ~Thc Pcamut GaimrV raytoons@hom.net ©A4H444 " 99 Mayor faces lesson in county politics I opened up my daily paper the other morning, read for a few minutes and started laugh ing. There was a big story about Warner Robins Mayor Donald Walker’s latest suggestion for improving government, and I was trying to imagine him explaining it a group of south Houston County farmers. This time Mayor Walker wants to abolish county gov ernment and divide service delivery in Houston County up between Perry, Centerville and Warner Robins. (I promise you that I read this in print in a real newspaper - namely, The Macon Telegraph. ) My guess is that Mayor Walk er didn’t really mean that he wants to abolish county opera tions like the entire county school system, the health department, DFACS, the Sher iffs office or all those folks who run the county courthouse and jail . He probably just wants to abolish the Board of Commis sioners so he can write the H 8489 strategy all by himself. And, of course, he could speed up the process of urban izing Warner Robins by eating up half the county in one bite instead of taking lots of little bites through annexation. If Mayor Walker had his druthers. Warner Robins would probably meet Perry at the Perry Park way. Our Policies Unsigned editorials appearing in larger type on this page under the label Our Views reflect the posi tion of the Houston Home Journal. Signed columns and letters on this page (and elsewhere In this news paper) reflect the opinions of the writers and not nec essarily those of this newspaper. Stgned letters to the editor are welcomed. Please limit letters to 300 words and include addresses and a telephone number for verification purposes. Letters are not published without verification. Letters should be sent to P.O. Drawer M, Perry, Ga., 31069 or brought to the newspaper office at 807 Carroll St.. Perry Our liability for an error will not exceed the cost Page 4A Wsd., Aug. 4. 1699 Jj Johnson Home Journal Editor Uncle Sam's army. He was a motor pool mechanic of signifi cant skill, and spent time in Europe, Korea and Southeast Asia before his enlistments were complete. This particular trip included a visit with Uncle Carnie, Aunt Colie, and cousins Judy and Charlie. My uncle had managed Charlotte Perkins Home Journal Staff Getting serious, though , the good mayor apparently doesn’t have a clue how difficult it would be to carry off such a plan. He would have a much better chance if he tried seces sion, or took a history lesson from Fort Valley and set up his own county. In the first place, even if the Georgia legislature agreed with the plan and the three remain ing “government entities" in Houston County got their heads together on such an unlikely venture as dividing the county up into three "service areas", there would still be huge questions to answer. Would these county folks be taxed without representation, or would they be annexed against their will? What Mayor Walker may not realize is that unincorporated folk people who live in Hayneville, Grova nia, Elko and Henderson (and all acres in-between) are not all waiting breathlessly to become of space occupied by the error. We cannot be responsible for the return of pictures or submitted materials unless a stamped, return address envelope is included. Our Goal The Houston Home 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 this goal through hard work, teamwork, loyalty and a strong dedication toward printing the truth. Member of Georgia Press Association and Nation al Newspaper Association. u. .. i. La IcAffti < ■ p part of Perry, Centerville or* Warner Robins. Moreover, they would not Just stand by and watch it all happen. No matter how far apart they live, county fdlks in middle Georgia can pull togeth er in record time if somebody starts changing things without consulting them. Just check with Georgia EPD or DOT if you doubt that. Nobody can mobilize faster or flex more political muscle in a hurry than a group of farmers and other county-dwellers. They can learn about a plan on Tuesday, have 2.000 signatures on a petition on Thursday and be in court and on television by the following Monday. These are citizens who expect to participate in decisions which have an impact on their lives, and expect to be listened to when they speak up. That’s exactly what happens when they attend a Houston County Commission meeting, and there’s no reason at all to think that they’d be willing to give up being at the very heart of coun ty government in order be on th e fringes of a city "service deliv ery area." If Mayor Walker were a coun ty commissioner instead of a mayor, he’d already know that. a mfr- £ I Houston Home Journal to rent an off-base second floor walkup apartment in Clarkesville, Tenn. Nearby Fort Campbell was his assignment at the time. Because the apartment had minimal air flow, and because he was able to swap some off hours mechanicing for a win dow unit, he had air condition ing. Rather, the family had one window unit in one room. That's all. The rest of the apart ment was sweltering. Cots and pallets covered the available floor space in what once was the family living room. The four moved into the air-conditioned front room for the summer seeking relief from the heat. As guests of the fami ly, we joined them seven of us sleeping in the same room. Yes, seven in one room is a crowd, but air conditioning is a drawing card. The tiny window unit roared and clanked through the night. Sometimes it seemed as if the unit had become an airplane racing along a runway. The unit did spit out cool air, and even with the noise, sleeping conditions were better than in the rest of the very hot apartment. Soon after we returned home, my mom and I got our first ride in an air-conditioned auto. Church members were proud of the brick three-bed room home they provided for their minister and placed a sign See JOHNSON, Page 5A Bob Tribble Home Journal President Clinton holds ace in hole on taxes The U.S. House of Represen tatives has passed a $792 bil lion tax cut which will reduce federal taxes by 10 percent during the next 10 years. The tax cut will also increase the deduction for married cou ples and cut the capital gains rate, among other things. The bill passed largely along party lines, 223-208. This bill would gradually eliminate the federal estate tax over a 10-year period and would permit buyers of long term nursing home insurance to deduct the entire amount paid for premiums. Business tax records would include corporate deductions for research, tax credits for companies which hire welfare clients, expanded educational tax breaks, and a partial tax write off for Medicare recipients for their prescription drugs. Tax reduction legislation with the same price tag. but with different features, passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 57- 43 late last week. This measure would reduce the tax rate on the low end bracket from 15 percent to 15 percent. This bill has no provisions for a further cut in capital gains, would raise the limits which individuals could put into retirement accounts, would ease the marriage tax penalty and would reduce the estate tax. At presstime, representa tives of the House and Senate were working to reach a com promise on the matter perhaps before the end of this week. Republicans in both chambers recognize the differences must be worked out for a final bill to go to both houses. With a sum mer break just days away, the negotiations continue. In the House-passed bill is a provision to cut the capital gains tax rate for lower income persons from the present 10 percent for higher income tax payers. The proposed Senate bill does not include further reductions in capital gains. Republicans do not plan to send a compromised measure to the White House until after Labor Day in order to avoid handing Bill Clinton an oppor tunity to stage a veto ceremony when the Congress is in recess. See TRIBBLE. Page 5A “Congress shall make no law respecting an estab lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Your right to read this news paper is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution The Houston Home Journal (ÜBPS 000471) is published weekly for $21.40 per year (including sales tax) by Houston Publications Inc., 807 Car roll Bt., Perry, Ga., 31069. Periodicals Class Postage paid at Perry, Ga. POSTMASTER ; Send address changes to the Houston Home Journal, P.O. Drawer M. Perry, Ga. 31069. ISSN; 1075-1874. In ' 1 <l* \ |HK.7 H f