Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4A FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2004 |f iduustcm dHmiu' |f Cure .ijinmml OPINION Daniel F. Evans President, Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Rex Gambill Vice President Managing Editor Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus The Humanitarian Thing To Do An earthquake of almost unmatched power created a tsunami in the Indian Ocean last week, resulting in devastation in several countries and more than 70,000 deaths and still counting. The damage is unbelievable. The suffering is heart wrenching. The need for help appears almost unlimited. The United States is sending help in many forms. So are countries all over the world. It is the humanitarian thing to do. Some of the countries, where the tsunami created damage that will require years to repair, will need financial help for decades. A suggestion has been made that the United States should change its priorities and send foreign aid money that is going to countries that really do not need to the countries that suffered so much damage last week. It won’t happen. We will send help. We will be generous. But our country will continue to send billions of dollars this year and every year to countries that have their hands out because they can get it, not because they real ly need it. We agree that money going to these coun tries should be diverted to the countries that are suffering and will need help for many years to get back on their feet. That would be a wise and humanitarian action. Turning The Calendar The last page in this year’s calendar will be turned tonight, making way for a new calen dar untarnished and waiting to become part of history. The past year has been eventful. It has brought some joy and much sadness to our nation and the world. As long as there is war and our courageous warriors are dying we cannot rejoice. So the new year will bring hope, but any joy must be tempered with restraint. We have high hopes for resolution of the war and dilemma in Iraq, for peace to return to the world, for harmony among nations and individuals, for new dreams to be realized. The turning of a calendar from one year to the next is merely formality, but it always is an occasion for people to take stock and direct their attention and hopes toward better days ahead. As we wish everyone a happy new year, we share in this dream of better days ahead. Send your Letters to the Editor to: The Houston Home journal P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or Email: hhj@evansnewspapeis.com Translating some auld lang syne language “HUMANS NEED FAN TASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.” - Death (Terry Pratchett, “Hogfather”) Tomorrow, for good luck in the coming year, I intend to dance in the street with a squid on my head. My mom says I’m nuts. I say someone who thinks it’s bad luck to wash clothes on New Year’s Day should n’t point fingers, even at the fellow with the cephalopod on his noggin. Not that she’s alone in her superstition. Far from it. How many of the follow- ing have you heard this week? Eat your black-eyed peas (for luck). Eat your greens (for wealth.) Want your good fortune to roll over into 2005? Leave your Christmas lights on through this last night of the old year and into the new. ’O4 not so good to you? Better turn those buggers off beforehand, then. Ready for a fresh start? Change into yellow under wear at midnight. I first heard that one a couple of days ago, and I’m still not sure what it’s sup posed to mean. And I have to wonder how many parties at which such Thinking of 'O4 on the cusp of 'OS Do-Tricks is sick. Jerry is gone. Bobby is not really well. The “Texas boys” are not what they were in the summer of ’63. But, nothing or nobody is. Right? Still, I am confused. Sometimes my question is “why?” and sometimes “what?” Often the answer is “I don’t understand.” I write this a few days before Christmas for publi cation on the last day of this year. Appropriately, it is reflective - isn’t that what we do on the last day of the year? Let’s look. The left wants to take Jesus out of the “holiday season.” Not only do they “want to,” they are succeed ing. The right is opposed to Santa Claus. Too secular. It appears to me that while the left couldn’t elect a presi dent, it (or they) are having more luck with their holiday initiatives than is the right. The vast majority want Christmas and Santa, but increasingly, the “vast majority” is often ignored. “Political correctness” (and I gag as I write) is impor tant. Celebrex, Bextal, Vioxx and Aleve are removed or under scrutiny. Doctors Homeland insecurity: the year in review 2004 was a good year for terrorists, violent gang members, law-breakers and fraud artists seeking haven in America. Let’s reminisce: The rise of MS-13. The savage El Salvador-based gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), has now penetrat ed more than a dozen states. In May, a Fairfax, Va., teenager had his fingers chopped off in an MS-13 machete attack. In November, Washington, D.C.-area police received warning that MS-13 is plot ting to ambush and kill them when they respond to service calls. Active in alien, drug and weapons smug gling, MS-13 members in America have been tied to numerous killings, rob beries, carjackings, extor tions and rapes. The gang has also been linked to efforts to help al Qaeda infil trate the U.S.-Mexico bor der. The path of least resist ance. Border Patrol officers and local investigative jour nalists in the Southwest reported on increasing num bers of Middle Eastern males entering illegally from Mexico. Muslim prayer books and Arabic diaries were discovered on “Terrorist Alley” in south ern Arizona. Suspected al Qaeda operative Adnan Shukrijumah, a fugitive Saudi pilot who reportedly met with MS-13 earlier this year, is believed to be in Mexico. In April, a suspected al Qaeda agent arrested in Queens, N.Y., revealed a scheme to smuggle terror ists across the U.S.-Mexico border. In July, two alert Border Patrol agents appre hended Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed at Jon Suggs Staff Writer jsuggs@evansnewspapers.com an Underoo switcheroo will be practical. Maybe I’m just not on the right invite lists. But wherever I am, I’m sure it will be accepted that it’s good luck to kiss your lap . w Larry Walker Columnist lwalker@whgbc.com withdraw prescriptions. Millions suffer - more so than they have done in years. My opinion - my reflection or prediction - is that experts will recant and most of these drugs will eventually return to the marketplace. In the mean time, mass tort lawyers “lick their chops” and prepare their lethal paperwork. Politically, the country is pretty much evenly divided. Many on the right preen and strut. The left whines and complains. Not nearly enough think about “the common good” and uniting behind our just-elected pres ident. If you think I’m exag JSm wSt V ' 5L M Michelle Malkin Columnist Creators Syndicate McAllen (Texas) airport. She was carrying an altered South African passport, muddy jeans and dirty shoes. She confessed to hav ing entered the country ille gally by crossing the Rio Grande River. Court docu ments showed that she was on a government watch list and had entered the United States up to 250 times. JOCS CREATORS SYNDICATE. INC (£ COT*' 11 j beloved as the clock strikes 12. No beloved? Best make a resolution to change that, pal. You don’t want to spend the rest of the year that way, do you? Ultimately that’s what a lot of these assorted silli nesses amount to: setting the tone for a new year, even if it’s done by harkening back to some very old tradi tions. For example, the black eyed pea eating might stem from hard times in Southern cities razed during the Civil War. Supposedly in their desperation folks took to eating the little legumes - previously reserved for live stock - as a last resort, and gerating, read the letters to the editors and watch the so-called experts - the talk ing television heads. But, cooperation and working together doesn’t sell, does it? Iraq is rapidly becoming to this country what Vietnam was in the ’6os and ’7os. Should we pull out, or should we bomb the place to smithereens? My prediction: this will ultimately be the choices. An enigma or a Hobson’s choice. Neither answer will be the correct one. I don’t envy our presi dent in having to make the decision. In the first grade, Miss Frances Couey popped us with her pencil. In the eighth, Mr. J. T. Moss thumped us on the head with his huge thumb. And, in high school, Mr. E. H. Cheek introduced us to “John Henry” - his oak pad dle. None of these three excellent teachers could make it today. The ACLU would see to that. When are we going to buck-up and retake our schools from the bullies and the thugs? Ray Charles sang "... cot ton is down to a quarter a pound, and I’m busted ...”. Upon news of Ahmed’s arrest, intelligence experts reported that suspected ter ror agents are acquiring passports from South Africa and other non-suspect coun tries; flying to the al Qaeda coddling “tri-border area” in South America; learning Spanish; traveling to Mexico; and doing the back stroke into America. Lawmakers in Texas warned that the feds are arresting and then releasing thousands of other suspect ed terrorists classified as “Other Than Mexicans” because of lack of jail space. President Bush said “fam ily values don’t stop at the Rio Grande.” I repeat: Neither do the Islamofascists. Bungling Washington bureaucrats. In the skies, federal air marshals contin ue to be hampered by direc tor Thomas Quinn’s moron ic “professional” dress code then when the new year dawned brightly, that mea ger meal got the credit. If that’s true - and I heard from somebody who heard from somebody who maybe probably has a historian in the family, so it must be, right? - at least there’s some sense to the tradition. I like sense with my super stitions. For that reason, I’ll heed my mom’s washing ban: while it’s wise to avoid washing anyone out of the family, it’s just as well to avoid the wash altogether for a day. And if, by coincidence, I eat some peas and greens tomorrow, they’re just good for me anyway, right? Yep. These all make sense THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL Many American and Georgia farmers are “bust ed.” If you don’t believe it, ride through our agricultur al region of southwest Georgia. Many have held on for years by “farming the government,” but that’s about over. Hopefully, our own senator, Saxby Chambliss, in his new role as chairman of the Senate Agricultural Committee, might be able to offer some new common-sense solu tions. Well, I’ve touched on the “faith-based” controversy, the drugs scare, the recent presidential election, the war in Iraq, school disci pline, and the plight of agri culture. I’d have to say, a pretty bleak report. And I do it from a warm house in an economically blessed coun try and with wonderful friends and family. So much to be thankful for. And I am. Still, I am concerned and confused in these complex times. And my questions remain: “What and why?” And often I simply do not understand. (no athletic socks or jeans allowed). Although he no longer oversees transporta tion security, underper formin’ Norman Mineta remains in charge of the Department of Transportation, where he maintains an absolutist opposition to homeland defense profiling. And kow towing to civil liberties Chicken Littles and Muslim lobbyists, the Bush adminis tration canceled the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System out of fear of privacy and discrimination lawsuits. In July, the Department of Homeland Security rebuked Border Patrol agents in Southern California for con ducting interior enforce ment sweeps because they did not bow down to the “sensitivities” of open-bor ders radicals. In September, DHS Border Security See MALKIN, page 5A - of a sort - once you look at ’em. Even the squid. Really. The eight arms represent the points of a compass and how the next year spreads out like a fresh map before us, while the two tentacles stand for past and present, the little suckers upon them a sign that sometimes we just need to get a grip. That bit of ink running down my forehead? Just a reminder that into every life a little darkness sometimes falls. And the whole deal with dancing in the street? It’s been a good year, folks. My best to each of you in the one around the corner.