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♦ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2004
(7ST If Houston Home ti
(LLije JJcrumm
OPINION
• Daniel F. Evans
President,
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Bullying Should Be Curbed
Some members of the Georgia legislature want
to expand the definition of bullying in schools to
include elementary schools, not just middle and
high schools, and permit anonymous reporting of
bullying.
The issue has come before the General
Assembly because of incidents in some of the
schools in suburban Atlanta. The problem is
growing.
There already are laws against fighting in
schools and bringing weapons to school. Bullying
is another thing. It can be insidious. Bullying can
come in many forms. It can have serious conse
quences in the lives of those who are victims of
bullies.
Young children are impressionable. They should
not be victims of insensitive bullies.
We are sure that school officials take action
when they can. However, expanding the law, as
proposed in the legislature, sounds like a good
idea.
Democratic Prmary On The Way
The Democratic Party’s primary election will be
held next Tuesday in Georgia. It will give
Georgians an opportunity to weigh in on whom
they want to oppose President George W. Bush in
the General Election next November.
It looks like Sen. John Kerry has the inside
track for the nomination, despite strenuous
efforts by Sen. John Edwards to derail his cam
paign late in the nominating process.
An interesting thing about primaries in Georgia
is that anyone who wants to say they are
Democrats can vote. That means that
Republicans can cast their ballots for the poten
tial Democratic nominees.
In some states an organized effort by members
of opposite parties has had effect on outcome of
primaries. It is doubtful that there will be any
organized effort by Republicans in Georgia to
have any effect on the outcome of the primary
this year.
After all, Sen. Kerry seems to be the popular
choice of Republicans as the candidate who will
oppose President Bush in November.
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*
Bringing Middle Georgia, China together for common cause
When you think of trade
in Middle Georgia - especial
ly agriculture trade - you
usually don’t think of
Liuchuan and Larry, or Ping
and Peggy, or even Hongyue
and Harry trading peanuts,
cotton and tobacco, but that
might be happening sooner
that we think. My friend
and colleague in the Senate,
Sam Zamarripa, a Democrat
from Atlanta, and I are
working together to come up
with a trade agreement
between China and Georgia.
Sen. Zamarripa and I believe
that over the next few years,
the volume of trade and
commerce between our
great state and one of the
largest nations in the world
will become our largest
source of revenue.
China has more than 1.7
billion people (yes, I said bil
lion) in it, and they cannot
possibly produce enough
Rex Gambill
Managing Editor
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
f
Ross Tolleson
State Senator
R-Perry
food for all of their citizens.
They have no choice but to
import peanuts, cotton,
kaolin minerals, soybeans,
and tobacco to their country.
That’s where Middle
Georgia comes in. Our
Middle and South Georgia
farmers are responsible for a
great many of those prod
ucts, and the potential is
there for us to help our
To be a single woman
By the time you read this,
HBO’s long-running show
“Sex and The City” will
have aired its final episode.
I, like many American
women, have watched and
eiy'oyed the show off and on
since its inception six years
ago. However, I take issue
with the idea that Carrie
Bradshaw and her three
girlfriends represent the
average American woman.
Look at pretty much any
article about the show or
watch most interviews with
its cast members and you’re
sure to read or hear a sound
bite about how the show
realistically represented the
sexuality and everyday life
of American women.
More likely, the show rep
resented the fantasy life of
most women. Let’s face it,
how many women do you
know who are pushing 40
that are hitting the town
every night, can afford a
closet full of Manolo
Blahniks and Prada purses,
have perfect bodies, are still
trying to decide whether to
commit to a relationship
and face the challenge of
deciding whether to live
with their rich artist
boyfriend in Paris or with
their successful business
man boyfriend in New York?
If audiences really wanted
a show that reflected the life
of the average American
woman - Carrie, Charlotte,
Miranda and Samantha
would be soccer moms or
Takes a lickin' and
keeps on tickin'
Editor:
In response to the article “How can
you mend a broken heart?” I would
like to offer my prayers for a speedy
recovery for little Brian Foskey.
You see, in 1974 I suffered from the
same heart condition that he suffers
from. I was quite sick for the first few
years of my life, and trying to diagnose
the problem with my heart in what
then seemed like the dark ages of med
icine took much longer than it does
now.
I underwent the same procedure
that Bryan did at the age of 3 at the
same hospital that he did,
although probably not by
the same doctors. Luckily
my procedure corrected my
problem and I have lived a
neighbors to the east while
keeping our farms - the
backbone of Georgia - pros
pering.
As China continues to
“westernize” they will take
advantage of what our
state’s Fortune 500 compa
nies, such as Coca-Cola,
Georgia Pacific, Home
Depot, UPS, GE Power
Systems and Delta Air
Lines, have to offer, but they
also are going to want more
and more of our “western”
foodß and fabrics, and
Georgia can provide them to
the men, women and chil
dren who want peanut but
ter, cigarettes and cotton
clothes and linens.
What’s more, the
Savannah ports are just a
“hop, skip and jump" from
Hawkinsville, Perry and
Warner Robins, and loading
our products onto ships for
delivery to China will take a
I I
Luci Joullian
Staff Writer
ljoullian@evansnewspapers.com
frazzled career women who
mostly just want to go home
and crash every night, have
a closet full of shoes from
Payless, have bodies that
aren’t so perfect anymore,
are married or in committed
relationships, and face the
challenge of deciding
whether to do the grocery
shopping at Kroger or Super
Wal-Mart.
“Sex and the City” worked
hard “at undermining the
madonna-whore complex”
that defined women as
either good or bad, Bonnie J.
Dow, a professor of women’s
studies at the University of
Georgia, was quoted in a
recent St. Louis Post-
Dispatch article. Well, I’m
not sure that turning the
madonna-whore complex
into just a plain whore com
plex is actually progress in
the feminist movement.
Of course, our society
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
normal life just as he is expected to.
I spent a great deal more time in the
hospital recovering, during which my
dad pulled me all over the hospital in a
little red wagon. To this day he still
says we must have worn out at least
three wagons - the lengths a parent
will go to for their child.
The limitations were very minor
while growing up. I was restricted
from playing any contact sports as well
due to my weakened sternum, and I
was restricted from the toys I dearly
loved while I was recovering (a hard
thing for any child to comprehend).
One toy in particular I remember
not being able to play with was my Hot
Cycle, a three-wheeled tricycle that
mere two weeks - two weeks
to reach Shanghai. Even
better than that, we can
ship our cotton, peanuts and
soybeans up the Yangtze
River to central China,
where they will reach 300
million people who are clam
oring for our homegrown
goods. It will help our econo
my and our struggling farm
ers.
I am proud of my work
with Sen. Zamarripa. In a
day and age when the-media
only reports on our disagree
ments surrounding redis
tricting, budgets and educa
tion, I want you to know
that Republicans and
Democrats do work together
for the good of the people -
in this case the people here
and abroad. A couple of
weeks ago, Sen. Zamarripa
and I welcomed some of our
new friends from the
Wanzhou District in the
Sichuan Province of China,
upholds a double standard
when it comes to sex. Men’s
sexual indiscretions are
overlooked or even reward
ed while women are vilified
for having too many part
ners or unorthodox sexual
tastes. However, celebrating
female promiscuity and call
ing it “empowerment”
might not be the best way to
resolve this double stan
dard.
These four characters
slept with virtually every
male (and a few females) in
Manhattan and failed to
make a lasting connection
with anyone until the last
season of the show (and, in
Carrie’s case, the last
episode). It’s telling to note
that the finale of the show
that has so celebrated the
fun of being single has each
of its main characters pair
ing off in committed rela
tionships and embracing
adulthood with all its banal
ity. Miranda is finally happy
with husband Steve and
baby Brady, and is even sup
porting her ailing mother
in-law; Charlotte and her
husband decide to adopt a
baby; sex-maniac Samantha
finally declares her love for
her younger boyfriend; and
Carrie decides to settle
down with terminal bache
lor Mr. Big.
One of the more though
provoking episodes of the
show aired in season two
and was called “They Shoot
Single People, Don’t They?”
and we met with them to
discuss importing our
Georgia products to China
in the near future. Sen.
Zamarripa and I are work
ing to build a true relation
ship with the leaders of the
Wanzhou District. In fact,
later this year, we are plan
ning to travel to China along
with some of our fellow sen
ators, to tour their country
and deepen our ties and
strengthen our friendship
with these terrific people.
This trade and commerce
will be good for Georgia and
good for China.
I am excited at the
prospect of giving our good
people the opportunity to
make good money on the
crops that they grow, while
at the same time, giving the
many citizens of China what
they need and want. It is a
win/win situation.
So when someone tells you
that Democrats and
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
Carrie is asked to be on the
cover of a magazine that will
feature a story on the fabu
lousness of being a 30- or 40-
something single. After par
tying too hard the night
before the photo shoot,
Carrie drags into the studio
hung over, all puffy, with
bloodshot eyes and cigarette
in mouth. When the maga
zine finally hits the news
stands, Carrie is surprised
to see that the editors have
chosen a photo of her taken
pre-makeup, wardrobe and
hairstyling and that, in the
picture, she looks hung over,
all puffy, with bloodshot
eyes and cigarette iif mouth.
The cover line was some
thing to the effect of “Single
and fabulous or single and
sad?” The jarring cover
made Carrie question
whether her lifestyle was
really making her as happy
as she had previously
thought.
This was one of the show’s
only episodes that didn’t
gloss bver real issues with
talk of shoes and cosmopoli
tans and its real theme
shined through - the dilem
ma that every woman has
with herself over the equally
viable options of being sin
gle and pursuing her own
dreams or settling down and
sharing her life with some
one else. Or, as Carrie once
pondered, “To be in a cou
ple, do you have to put your
single self on a shelf?”
was more like a three-wheeled motor
cycle rather than a trike, but I loved it
and at the time could not understand
why I could not play with it. My next
door neighbor Chad got to ride it while
I was recovering, so it was not totally
abandoned.
I still have a scar on my chest that
will be for the rest of my life
because they did not have the means to
make scars less visible as they do now.
Giving the severity of the condition
and what the doctors did for me, this is
a small price to pay endure for being
here.
Ricky Lockerman
Perry
Republicans can’t or won’t
work together, refer them to
me and my friend Sam, who
is married to a lovely young
woman named Robin Dorsey
Zamarripa. Of Hawkinsville.
In Pulaski County. A county
that I proudly represent. We
have worked well together
on this project, and I see
great things in the future. I
also think that Sam and I
will work on a great many
more projects together. We
are both freshmen, as we
were elected to the Senate in
2002. Maybe we are starting
a trend ... I’d like to think
so.
As always, I encourage
you to call me or come for a
visit. I work for you and
your concerns are my con
cerns. Until next week ...
Please feel free lo contact
Sen. Ross Tolleson at his
Atlanta office at (404)
656.0081 or via e-mail at
rtollesofp'legis.state.ga. us.