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Viewpoints Our Views HB 489 is good What started as a very good idea, House Bill 489, has ended in a series of meetings and frustration for some local governments. One of the major issues involved is. turf who will be responsible for deliver ing the service, and thus the gov ernment of record for that area. Since we advanced from commu nities to towns and counties, there have been turf battles. In Georgia, we handled that problem for 150 years by simply creating another county. We were so good at it, we created 159 counties, second only to Texas in the United States in num ber. We also created many small king doms where someone is king. This may be a county sheriff, a mayor, a county commissioner, perhaps even a tax commissioner. Whoever is the powerful political force in the com munity is veiy reluctant to give any ground to otners for fear of losing position. Even with the problems created in Houston County among the various governments, the exercise of attempting to consolidate service areas is a good one. With a little fine tuning. House Bill 489 will benefit the residents of the state. Not down for the count Lately, I had gotten somewhat confused and disillusioned about my diabetes. I had a period when my blood sugar was all over the chart. I was starving and wanted things to eat I knew I could not have (and, yes, I stuck to my diet regardless of Toney Jolley naff how starved I felt). I was feeling poorly. I went to see my primary physician and his attitude kinda made me feel silly for coming into the office with my concerns. I called an Endocrinologist for an appointment after that visit. Recently, 1 went for more testing on my diabetes as requested by the Endocrinol ogist. I didn't have a great time with the tests. However, I have learned more about this disease from him, and his patience and understanding were great. No rush ing me. Complete attention to each of my questions. One thing, and this one was interesting 1 have a lot of skin tags on my arms and neck. These skin tags “told" my Endocrinologist that I have had a problem with my insulin for a while. Secondly. I have some thickening and some darken ing of skin in certain areas (my neck being one such area) that also indicates an insulin problem. He checked my feet. (A nurse at the Diabetes Management Class 1 attend at Perry Hospital told me a good doctor will always thoroughly inspect the feet.) He said 1 do have some loss of circulation to my feet, thus a lessened sense of feeling especially in the areas of thick skin, i.e.. heels. That could explained why my feet fall asleep so often and because of the loss of circulation, my heels tend to split some. The specialist encouraged me to contin ue my diabetic diet and losing weight. He stressed the diet is actually the way peo ple are supposed to eat no fast food, high fat foods, or high sugar foods. He said to add in at least 30 minutes of walk ing a day everyday. He said once the test results are in, we See TEST, Page BA AbM Home MmM P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll St. • Perry. Oa. 31080 email homeJmChom.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 Alline Kent Sports Pauline Lewis Lifestyles Rob Mead News and Circulation Charlotte Perkins News and Composition Paula Zimmerman Bookkeeping w Sometimes work seems more like a prison cell One of my long-time friends is Maggie Thompson. Although I’ve never met Maggie. I fed as if we've known each other for years. She has been at several confer ences my wife has attended, and Maggie and I exchange stories via email regularly. Frequently. Maggie shares something really sharp. She shared this little thought with me a few days ago: In prison you spend the majority of your time in an B'xlO’ cell. At work you spend most of your time in a 6’xß’cubicle. In prison you get three meals a day. At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it. In prison you get time off for good behavior. At work you get ~Th£ Pewtsr Gau£RV ©Amn 99 1 Poor, honest women need support group There’s an organization, associ ation or support group for just about every ailment, disorder and disadvantage except the one I per sonally suffer from, so I’m looking for fellow female victims. Want to know if you're eligible to join my group? Well, just answer the following questions. 1. Have you ever in your life been surprised to learn that it’s payday? (As in “Oh. my goodness, is it really the end of the month so soon?") 2. Do you think that the term “financial straits" means: (a) having to dip into your cap ital? (b) having to take some money from savings? (c) having to take all the nick els, dimes and quarters from the teapot you hid them in, and being really pleased to discover that you've got $7.35. 3. Is your idea of a major finan cial crisis (a) losing $50,000 in the stock market, (b) having to cash in some bonds, (c) having to put your car in the shop? If you answered “Whoever heard of such a thing as not knowing when it’s payday?” to the first question, and (c) to 2 and 3, you can join me in “Poor but Hon est Women" Or maybe we should call it “Coalition for Financially Our Policies Unsigned appearing in larger type on this page tinder 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. Signed 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 Wed.. Sept. 1, 1099 41 Johnson 11 ■■■in ■■ name rewarded for good behavior with more work. In prison a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you. At work you must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself. In prison you can watch TV and play games. At work you get fired for watching TV and playing Charlotte Perkins Hume Staff Challenged Females." Maybe we can drive our falling apart cars to some central loca tion on the 14th and 30th of each month, share our peanut butter sandwiches and hard luck stories, and discuss paycheck-to-pay check strategies, like buying gas a gallon at a time. I’ll even wear my T-shirt that says, “I'm a liberal arts graduate. Would you like fries with that?” Think how supportive we could be to one another. We could give each pep talks and tell each other the reasons for our ongoing finan cial stress. Me? I’ve got all kinds of good reasons for honest poverty. I'm female. I’m old as the hills. I'm on my own. Nobody warned me when 1 was young that majoring in Eng lish was about as practiced as majoring in medieval tapestry weaving. And in addition to the basic unfairness of life, I’ve had a life long inclination to do what I like doing, so I've wound up working of space occupied by the error. Wr 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. . w|' in one of the poorest paying pro fessions on earth. Besides, 1 had to have a root canal last fall. Do you know how many days a newspaper reporter has to work to pay for a root canal? There’s also the “Lady Bounti ful" problem. I'm used to being poor, but I've never mastered “cheap." I tip everybody whose income depends in part on tips. I am constitutionally unable to turn down church folks selling tickets for barbecued chicken and firefighters standing with those boots in their hands, asking for money to help Jerry's kids. If you're eligible for my support group, you've probably got some good reasons, too. Maybe you’ve given half your pay to an ortho dontist for the last three years. Maybe you have a car which start ed dying before you got it paid for. Maybe you don’t have health insurance and you're living on fishsticks and tater tots for the next year because you went to the emergency room with a chest pain that turned out to be indigestion and it cost you $950 anyway. Or maybe you got paid yester day, and after paying your bills, you’ve got $62.34 to get by on for the next two weeks. Hey, give me a call! We need to get organized and pay our dues before Christmas arrives and demolishes us all. ■mL j Houston Horn Journal games. In prison you get your own toilet. At work you have to share. In prison they allow your family and friends to visit. At work you cannot even speak to your family and friends on the phone. In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required. At work you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners. In prison you spend most of your life looking through the bars from the inside wanting to get out. At work you spend your time wanting to get out and inside bars. In prison you can join many pro grams which you can leave at any time. At work there are some pro grams you can never get out of. In prison there are occasionally war dens who are sadistic. At work we always have managers. ••• Many of you commented about the older than dirt quiz last week, some even admitted they are as old as I am. Two questions seemed to stump more than others. One referred to Beanie and Cecil. That one caught me. They were part of the Fran. Kookla and Ollie cast. The other was Black Jack gum. This brand came in a blue package with a black oval logo in the center. It was liquorice flavored. One other thing. The list at the lower left of this page includes everyone who works for this news paper. Don’t see a name you expect? They don’t work here. Bob Tribble Home Journal President Nothing like Friday night ball Without a doubt, the fall of the year is definitely my favorite time. The trees begin to turn, the weather begins to cool (thank goodness) and foot balls begin to fill the air. Alter a long, hot summer, these things are much looked forward to. In my book, there is no bet ter place to spend a Friday night than at a high school football game. It seems that in our town, and most of those towns where we publish news papers, a lot of life revolves around the high school football teams. The atmosphere at these games is one of excitement as the band plays, the cheerlead ers get everyone into the right spirit, and the team takes the field. There is nothing like high school football on a Friday night. Next in my book is college football. Sitting in a large stadi um on a nice fall Saturday afternoon watching your favorite college, team is a real treat. The tailgate gatherings, either before or after the game, add more enjoyment. Then, there is professional football. There was az time when I thought if professional football was on television, it was a sin not to watch the game. Those thoughts have changed through the years with so many games now on television during prime time. High school football rank ings came out last week for Georgia. Manchester, where I graduated, is the third place pic k in Class AA. The number one team in AA is Carrollton, the 1998 AA champions. Mitchell-Baker, which Man chester slid by during the 1998 state playoffs, is the second ranked team. Washington County, class AA state winners in 1996 and 1997, rank fifth. Brooks Coun ty, which beat Manchester for the Class A state title in 1994, is ranked seventh in the pre season polls. In the Class AAA rankings. Peach County is in the number nine spot, while in Class A, Dooly County was picked as the fifth best team and Twiggs County tied with Bowden for the 10th spot. There have been many funny See BALL, 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 (USPS 000471) is published weekly for $21.40 per year (Including sales tax) by Houston Publications Inc., 807 Car roll St., 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. 1^ L Ik ,: r ; A -,