Houston home journal. (Perry, Ga.) 1999-2006, July 10, 2003, Image 4

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Newspaper Page Text4A ► THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2003 If 3Huusttm 3Konu' d (Life JJmmral OPINION Daniel F. Evans President, Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Rex Gambill Vice President Managing Editor Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus Foster parents need a tarn deal Some things are priceless, and the service fos ter parents provide is a very good example. There’s no way to compensate anyone fully for providing a neglected or abused child with a home and loving care, and there’s also no amount of money that can cover the emotional risk foster parents take when they become attached to a child who is eventually going to be reunited with his or her birth family. On the practical side, however, Georgia’s poli cy makers need to remember that foster par ents are providing a vital service in caring for children in state custody, and that without these willing volunteers, those same at-risk children would have be housed in institutions at far greater cost and disruption to their lives, and with far less personal attention. Some rewards - perhaps the best ones - are intangible. First Lady Mary Perdue, who has fostered eight infants herself, has heightened public awareness of the role that foster parents serve in meeting the needs of children in state care. Gov. Sonny Perdue took an important step in giving foster parents more recognition and respect when he signed legislation in May that gives Georgia’s foster parents a right to be heard when decisions are made regarding the placement of the children they have been caring for. We hope that the next step will be to begin a study of the per diem reimbursement rates to determine if foster parents are losing money by caring for kids in crisis and if more good par ents would be willing to open their hearts and their homes to children if doing so did not involve dipping so deep into their own family’s budgets. HOW TO SUBMIT UTTERS We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 250 words and must include the writer's name, address and tele phone number. All letters printed in The Home Journal will appear with the writer’s name and hometown - we do not publish anonymous letters. The newspaper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of gram mar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Letter writers are asked to submit no more than one letter per person per week. We cannot guarantee that a let ter will be printed on a specific date. The Home Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters to the editor are published in the order they are received as space per mits. A Journal employee will call to verify the author of each Mpl letter. H There are three ways to submit letters to the editor: -~Jil / SiJ? E-mail them to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The Houston Home Journal at PO. Box 1910, Perry, GA / / 31069, or drop it off at one of our two convenient locations LJ -1210 Washington St. in Perry, or 2060 Watson Blvd. in j 7 Warner Robins - between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. /J c; Monday through Friday. W 5 J Liberia needs America to punish armed thugs, restore peace Enter Liberia? For the United States, that’s a snap, militarily. Here’s a possible military entrance: Special operations forces in Liberia conduct a quick survey of landing sites. They attempt to identify poten tial resistance, paying particu lar attention to armed gangs and militias. Reconnaissance jets and unmanned aircraft, like the Predator, watch the jungle as assault ships arrive off the coast. Helicopters and amphibi ous vehicles shuttle Marines from the ships into the capital, Monrovia. Marine Harrier jumpjets cover the deployment. The Marines have a complex task. They must be poised for combat and yet simultaneously demonstrate to a frightened populace that they intend to secure peace. The jarheads arrive in bulletproof vests, but they also distribute candy. Given Liberia’s violent anar chy, this entrance might include Austin Bay Military Affairs Creators Syndicate a U.S. attack on the gangs who serve as Liberian President and Chief Gangster Charles Taylor’s first-line muscle. The Pentagon could call this attack a “pre emptive strike to protect peace keepers.” It would demonstrate American capabilities to the armed punks who the rape, tor ture and murder the unarmed and helpless on a daily basis. Suddenly, their merciless cruel- Convertibles not as safe STRANGE: The federal gov ernment mandates new safety features on automobiles almost annually. Crumbling front ends. Air bags side and front. Stronger accident-resistant doors, side panels. And roofs. Something new all the time. Yet convertibles have almost none of those safety features and they’re getting popular again, apparently with approval of the same people who demand so many safety features on regular passenger cars. • • • I MISSED something July 4.1 did not eat any hot dogs. I had to get by on a fried pork chop, fresh peas, fresh squash and onions, fresh tomatoes, Vidalia onions and a homemade blue berry muffin. Things are tough all over. • • • I ALSO MISSED the fire works both nights. Can’t stay awake that late. This time of year I go to sleep before it gets dark. But I get up before most people are stirring. It all began when I used to go to work at 5 in the morning. Besides, I like Georgians face bloody battle Georgians are facing a fero cious and dangerous war in the very near future. The bloody battle will not be fought in the mountains of Afghanistan or the unforgiving deserts of Iraq. The enemy thrives in wet condi tions and heat, both of which Georgia has in abundance. Ladies and gentlemen, arm yourselves because swarms of mosquitoes are headed your way. Mosquitoes have become more than just an irritating bug that leaves an itchy bump on the skin of its victim. According to an article in Time magazine, the numbers of humans infect ed with the West Nile Virus have risen dramatically since 1999 when the virus first showed up in America. In 1999, only 7 people were killed by the disease carrying insects. Last year, 284 Americans died with the West Nile Virus. Here is an interesting fact about these bloodsuckers that are attempting to take away the summer we all so richly deserve - the male mosquito is com pletely innocent. I can hear the ladies now: “Give me break. Males are never completely innocent!” It is a scientific fact that male mosquitoes are perfectly con tent with sipping on plant nec tars and other high-sugar juices. The females, however, need your blood and they will not be denied. In order to properly nourish their eggs, female mosquitoes need to have human or animal blood. It seems that our blood is an excellent source of protein. Hey, I’m not trying to start a gender war; I’m just giving you the facts. Make no mistake - the females are highly skilled flying surgeons that collect your blood ty has consequences. This entrance is an intricate ballet no other nation can stage with such speed and high likeli hood of success. It’s “hyperpow er” on display. American troops can conduct these tricky opera tions in the world’s hard cor ners because they train con stantly and American taxpayers buy the expensive ships, air craft, intelligence systems and weapons long-range operations demand. So America can handle the entrance. The determinative issues with Liberia are (1) why do we go and (2) how do we leave? One reason we go is Liberia’s American historical connec tions. The American Colonization Society landed freed U.S. slaves at the present site of Monrovia in 1822. In 1847, the settlers established Africa’s first independent republic. The freed slaves became the ruling class in flit if Foy Evans Columnist foye vans 19@cox. net to see the sunrise much more than I like the evenings. • • • PRESIDENT Bush probably is going to send American troops to Liberia in Africa in an attempt to quell a civil war. I doubt that he has much support in this country for such a ven ture. If he believes this will win him support from black voters in the next presidential election he is whistling Dixie. People fear this could become another Somalia, which was an embar k * \ tßßsSj spoilt; mmm ■pr .jjAk Steve Tesseniar Columnist writeronstorm@aol.com in a highly efficient way. Your skin is pierced with her sharp cutting instruments called stylets. She then injects saliva filled with anti-clogging chemicals into your bloodstream. This keeps your blood flowing steadi ly. It is also responsible for the itchy feeling you get when you discover the mosquito bite. The female mosquito then drinks your blood through a i y j s I ~. - jH Liberia and thoroughly con trolled “tribal Liberians” until 1980. That’s when the “current cri sis” began, as Master Sgt. Samuel Doe (with the support of his Krahn tribe) overthrew the “Americo-Liberian” regime. Doe put his Krahn compatriots in key positions. In 1989, Charles Taylor, a former Doe compatriot, rebelled, drawing on the Gio and Mano tribes for support. One of Taylor’s allies, Prince Johnson, turned on Taylor, starting a three-way fight for power. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sent in peace keepers, with Nigeria leading the operation. In 1990, Johnson killed Doe, recording the murder on video tape. The next seven years fea tured warlord chaos, frustrated peacekeepers and flopped peace plans. Taylor emerged as the kingpin in an interim governing council. In 1997, Taylor was rassment to our country. • • • WHAT happened to the drought that had everyone so worried only six months ago? Already this year our rainfall is almost 10 inches above normal. Weather runs in cycles and it is something we should remember when we become frantic if it swings in either direction. The same probably can be said of the scare tactics being used by some environmentalists about global warming. • • • MOST PEOPLE don’t know what the gnat line is. Especially newcomers from other parts of the country. The gnat line is just north of Macon, where they are not annoyed by the pesky things. We live below the gnat line and gnats are coming out strong this year. They don’t bite, like mosquitoes, but they are annoying. You can recognize someone who has grown up below the gnat line when you see them sticking out their lower lips and blowing air up over their face to get rid of gnats. straw-like device called a labrum. Isn’t that a lovely thought? So what do experts recom mend we do to survive this assault? Minimize time outdoors from dusk to dawn. In other words stay inside and hide like some kind of wimp. Wear long sleeves and long pants. “Yes Mildred, I know that it is 110 degrees outside. We may die of heat stroke, but at least those lunatic mosqui toes can’t get to us. Hey, don’t forget your football helmet with the mosquito webbing sewn into the face mask.” Purchase a thousand-dollar mosquito magnet. These devices emit carbon dioxide, which is exactly what draws the female mosquito to humans in the first place. When the blood suckers arrive at the magnet they get a big surprise - the moisture is literally sucked right out of them. Yummy, dehy drated mosquitoes. I derive a sick kind of pleasure knowing elected president in an election Jimmy Carter declared “fair.” Since then, Taylor’s deals with diamond and arms smug glers have involved Liberia in Sierra Leone’s misery as well as shenanigans in the Ivory Coast. An anti-Taylor rebellion broke out in 2000. In 2002, Taylor declared a state of emergency. Liberia disintegrated into war ring chunks. The United Nations and United States both believe removing Taylor from power sets the stage for political stabi lization. Taylor says he’ll go, but he might return. Even if he leaves, Liberia’s problems are overwhelming. Corruption and gangsterism exacerbate tribal frictions in what was essentially a petty West African coastal empire. The instant upside to inter vention is saving thousands of innocent lives. That’s another reason to intervene. Liberia, however, is a “fake THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL • • • MOSQUITOES have enjoyed the great wet weather of the past six months. They are plentiful. Their bites drive me up the wall and I itch for weeks. In my case, it seems that they really thrive on the spray I buy to keep them away. I’m told that only the female mosquito bites. The biggest and meanest mos quitoes I have seen were at Fort Stewart, near Savannah, where I spent several summers attend ing CMTC camp before World War 11. It was the memory of being bitten by those mosqui toes that sent me to the Navy recruiting office the day after Pearl Harbor. • • • THE PRICE of cigarettes has gone up 25 cents. Now we don’t have to worry about young people smoking. Keeping cigarettes out of their mouths allegedly is the reason for the price increase. Who actually believes 25 cents a pack is going to keep a single young person from smoking if they want to? Hopefully, the new tax will help the state pay its bills. that our adversaries die a cruel and horrible death. I know I need counseling. Meanwhile, the experts are still debating whether this contraption actu ally reduces the number of bites suffered by humans. So, Houston County resi dents, don your polyester pants and your long-sleeved sweat shirts and head out into the sweltering Georgia heat. Oh yeah, don’t forget your jumbo sized can of “Off” and the foot ball helmet with mosquito net ting. Stop complaining and look at it this way - It’s the fastest growing diet plan in America. Just listen to Bubba from some where well south of Perry - “Puttin’ all them long clothes on and running from them there mosquitoes in this heat has caused me to drop five pounds off my beer gut. If the mosquito diet plan can work for me it can work for you, too.” Steve Tesseniar is principal of Russell Elementary School. His column appears every Thursday. state” in utter disorder. Fixing it requires sustained presence. There’s the crux of the “exit” issue - who stays to build? ECOWAS is 16 poor African nations - aid recipients, not donors. The best non-govern mental relief and development organizations are already over taxed. The African, European and American consensus seems to be to use American forces to stop Liberia’s killers. The Bush administration needs to use this crisis as an opportunity to pur sue a grander political consen sus: America will stop the killers, but other nations must supply the builders. France crabs about American “hyperpower,” though hyper power puts Marines in Monrovia. What Liberia needs is “hammer power” - long-term developmental support. That’s difficult, and it’s expensive. Still, it’s the only way to make any entrance worth the effort.