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♦ SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 2005
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President,
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Rev. Salter's Death Great Loss
Warner Robins and Houston County lost a great leader
with the death of the Rev. Rastus Salter, pastor of Second
Baptist Church.
His leadership in religious, moral and community
affairs extended over a period of seven decades. The
courage displayed during the formative stages of the city
of Warner Robins helped direct the course the city would
take as it grew from a small village to a large city.
Salter’s influence extended far beyond the walls of
Second Baptist Church. Political, civic and community
leaders called on him for advice and support in pursuit of
their goals.
Second Baptist Church was one of the smaller church
es in Warner Robins when he became pastor. Growth of
the church through the years eventually resulted in one
of the largest congregations in the county.
The outpouring of love and affection from people of all
walks of life and all religions in Houston County since his
death testifies to the influence and respect earned
through so many years of service.
It is appropriate that he lived long enough to see the
opening of the magnificent Second Baptist Church sanc
tuary a few months ago.
The Rev. Rastus Salter will be remembered as one of
the architects of the small city of Warner Robins through
the years of growing pains when he had a leadership role
as a moral conscience for the community.
Talton Goes To Atlanta
Willie Talton, the first black Republican to be elected to
the Georgia House of Representatives since
Reconstruction, will be sworn in Monday.
The chief deputy for the Houston County Sheriff's
Office will, in our opinion, be a worthy representative of
the people who live in the district that he represents.
Wisely, Willie Talton and Sheriff Cullen Talton worked
things out so that there could be no criticism resulting
from him leaving his job to spend two or three months In
Atlanta for the legislative session. He will take annual
leave and, if it turns out he does not have enough days of
annual leave, he will be on leave without pay.
We could anticipate unwarranted criticism from some
quarters if they had not told the public in advance that he
will not be “double-dipping” during the session.
Willie Talton has been a dedicated, faithful public ser
vant for more than 30 years in law enforcement. He
deserves our support and confidence as he takes on his
new responsibility.
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lime for a new year's accounting, er, counting
“May your coming year be
filled with magic and dreams
and good madness. I hope you
read some fine books and kiss
someone who thinks you’re
wonderful, and don’t forget to
make some art - write or draw
or build or sing or live as only
you can. And I hope, somewhere
in the next year, you surprise
yourself.”
- Neil Gaiman
Ah, another year.
Judging from the flock of jog
ging-suited folks heading for
the gym these days, it’s time for
resolutions again.
Me?
I long ago made and kept a
commitment to avoid that
resolving door.
So, what do I do at the start
of each new year?
Well, first I clean up after the
party the night before.
(Relative to this: Anyone
know a good way to get squid
ink out of carpet?)
And then I usually continue
Rex Gambill
Managing Editor
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
ISSHL,
■
Jon Suggs
Staff Writer
jsuggs@evansnewspapers.com
the kind of year-end reflection
that starts settling upon me in
the last week of the year, the
dead time between Boxing Day
and New Year’s Eve.
During that period this year,
I came upon another one of
those pass-along e-mail things
to make you think about your
life and the lives of your friends
or, at the very least, kill half an
hour of your day.
You have to ask, 'How cheap is cheap?'
A spokesman for AAA
credited the record number
of motorists who traveled
during the Christmas and
New Year’s holidays with
“cheaper gasoline.” How
easy we can be lulled into
false presumptions.
Gasoline may be “cheaper”
now than a month or so ago,
but a year ago we were cry
ing out in anguish because
prices were “so high.”
Actually we’re paying some
thing like 50 cents a gallon
more than a year ago, but
apparently it doesn’t take
long for us to adjust ,to any
condition, however painful
it may be at first.
• • •
A report is critical of the
lack of equity in school fund
ing in Georgia. The state
has a school financing for
mula that is out of whack. It
really defies logic. Gov.
Sonny Perdue says he wants
to fix it. We hope he can and
will. Fifty-one smaller coun
ties are suing the state over
this inequity. In my opinion,
the state should not favor
one school system over
A salute to the IISS Abraham Lincoln
Greetings, America-haters.
Do you think you could stop
raving against our “war crim
inals” and “killing machines”
- and you, Teddy Kennedy,
could you stop panting over
those Abu Ghraib photos - for
a moment and join me in
praise for our military’s com
passion and innovation?
At the drop of a hat, the
USS Abraham Lincoln
Carrier Strike Group sped
from Hong Kong to help sur
vivors of the tsunami disaster
in southern Asia. How are the
unmatched speed, range and
overall mobility of the
American super carrier possi
ble? Twin nuclear reactors.
Believe it or not, the USS
Abraham Lincoln has been
banned from docking at cer
tain politically correct ports
because of its reactors. For
the moment, global envi
ronuts have stopped attack
ing the aircraft carrier over
the nuke issue. But you can
count on the eco-Luddites
returning to their hysterical
protests as soon as all the aid
has been delivered.
Too much of the world, and
too many here at home, take
the amazing capabilities of
Typically, I give these pass
alongs passing attention, but
this one fascinated me, being
somewhat different than any
thing to previously come across
my cyber-desk.
It was just a list of activities,
with simple instructions: bold
what you’ve done and de-bold
what you haven’t.
Despite some misgivings -
including wondering whether
“de-bold” was really a word -1
found myself bolding (and, fre
quently, de-bolding) as I read
through, also correcting the
occasional spelling or gram
matical error as I went.
(Habit.)
The list contained 280 items
when it reached me.
Of those, I was able to bold
67, with five maybes.
Not so good?
Well, some of these things are
pretty rare and/or weird:
70. pretended to be a super
hero
189. been elected to public
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Foy Evans
Columnist
foye vans 19@cox.net
another when it comes to
divvying up money on a per
student basis. Children in
the least affluent counties
deserve equal treatment by
the state. If voters in local
governments want to put
more into their school sys
tems that is another thing.
• • •
One person’s tragedy can
become another’s windfall.
That’s how it was when part
of Florida was devastated by
hurricanes last fall. Georgia
benefited in three ways: (1)
Hr jSSfe-,
'fU v ST'
vil •
Michelle Malkin
Columnist
Creators Syndicate
ships like the Abraham
Lincoln for granted. The car
rier’s 1,092-foot flight deck
outperforms some of the best
commercial airports, launch
ing and recovering up to 90
aircraft on hundreds of flights
every day, according to the
Navy. Eight steam turbine
generators produce enough
electrical power to serve a
small city. The ship carries
approximately 3 million gal
lons of fuel, and can stock
food and supplies for 90 days.
Oh, and those much
maligned nuclear reactors
help turn seawater into more
than 400,000 gallons of fresh
water daily - clean, safe water
desperately needed by sur
vivors. Sailors aboard the
USS Abraham Lincoln have
reportedly even stopped tak
ing showers to make every
last drop of fresh water avail
able to tsunami survivors for
drinking.
One of the most touching
series of photos available at
the Navy’s Web site features
Culinary Specialist 3rd Class
Joshua Savoy and Culinary
Specialist 3rd Class Davy
Send your Letters to the Editor to:
Hie Houston Home Journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Petty, Ga 31069 or Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
office
Or difficult:
67. bench-pressed your own
weight
Illegal:
56. stolen a sign
Others are, for me, unlikely:
90. gotten married
Or impossible:
204. given birth
While some are pretty easy:
89. played D&D for more
than six hours straight
Typical session, really.
171. had your picture in
the newspaper
Yep. Once a week.
218. gotten hate mail for
something you published
It happens. (Though thank
fully not as often as fan mail.)
262. stayed up for more
than 24 hours straight
Well, who hasn’t? Now, 40
hours, that’s tricky.
And then there are those
that get me back to the point of
this rambling, the ones that
make me think I haven’t really
Floridians took refuge in
Georgia, (2) some of them
decided to move to Georgia
permanently and (3)
tourism in Georgia boomed
as many people made this
their destination instead of
Florida. All in all, it resulted
in record tourism revenue
for Georgia.
• • •
Are you as tired of the
women who lost loved ones
in the 9/11 tragedy in New
York as I am? All of them
have my sympathy. The fed
eral government and sympa
thizers from all over the
country put up millions of
dollars to be divided among
them. They lobbied
Congress into passing (too
hastily, I fear) a law creating
another layer of bureaucra
cy to fight terrorism. Their
orchestrated demands all
over the television spectrum
stampeded members of
Congress into acting before
thinking. The chance of the
new bureaucracy, costing
billions of dollars and
employing thousands of peo
ple, could do more harm
Nugent preparing loaves of
bread in the aircraft carrier’s
bakery for tsunami victims.
The bakery produces between
600-800 loaves a day. Here are
two fine, young American
sailors - representative of
thousands of Americans in
uniform like them - lending
their skills to help the suffer
ing.
Where are the politicians
who will wave Spc. Joshua
Savoy and Spc. Davy
Nugent’s pictures before the
TV cameras? Who will make
them household names?
Aboard the carrier, every
last crewmember - from med
ical personnel to engineers to
bakers - is pitching in to help
with the relief effort. The
crew of about 6,000 has
deployed at least 10 of its 17
helicopters to deliver supplies
and aid to tsunami victims on
the coast. Surgical teams
from the carrier have set up
triage sites on Sultan
Iskandar Muda Air Force
Base in Banda Aceh, and are
working with teams from
Carrier Air Wing Two and the
International Organization
for Migration.
I would be remiss in not
mentioning the rest of the
strike group and their lead
ers: the San Diego-based
cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67),
commanded by Capt. Joe
Harriss and the destroyer
USS Benfold (DDG 65), com
manded by Cmdr. Don
Hornbeck; the Everett,
Wash.-based destroyer USS
Shoup (DDG 86), led by Cmdr.
Alexander T. Casimes; the
Pearl Harbor-based attack
submarine USS Louisville
(SSN 724), under the com
mand of Cmdr. David Kirk;
done nearly so much as I’d like
to yet in this life:
5. been inside the Great
Pyramid
15. seen the Northern Lights
46. visited the birthplace of
your ancestors
100. ridden a gondola in
Venice
226. realized halfway
through this list that you
need to get out and do more
Yep.
Definitely #226.
Good choice on the part of
the person who added that one.
Which brings me to the final
instruction:
Add three to the list.
I’m not sure whether that’s
meant to be three general
items or three “I’ve done this
and you probably haven’t” sort
of things.
Judging the entries from the
last person to pass this on -
writer and paleontologist
Caitlfn R. Kieman - I’d guess
the latter.
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
than good. They have to
understand that they are
not the smartest women in
the world ... just unfortu
nate women who suffered a
great loss.
* • •
When does pork not be
pork? As we know, pork is
not pork when government
money is spent on our
favorite projects. It is pork
when the money is spent
somewhere else. Battle lines
are being drawn over the Air
Force’s plan to cut back on
the number of Raptor fight
ers it will buy from
Lockheed in Atlanta. Buying
more fighters than the mili
tary wants is not pork
because it will help
Georgia’s economy. Sen.
Saxby Chambliss says he is
going to see that more gov
ernment money goes to
Georgia farmers. To farmers
that is not pork. City folks,
who don’t understand or
have sympathy for the chal
lenges farmers face, consid
er it pork. Perception is
everything.
the Bremerton, Wash.-based
fast combat support ship USS
Rainier (AOE 7); Strike
Fighter Squadron (VFA) 2;
Strike Fighter Squadron
(VFA) 151; Strike Fighter
Squadron (VFA) 137; and
Strike Fighter Squadron
(VFA) 82.
You should also know that
the members of the USS
Abraham Lincoln Carrier
Strike Group are no strangers
to humanitarian missions. In
October 1993, Abraham
Lincoln took off from the
Arabian Gulf (where it was
supporting the U.N.-sanc
tioned enforcement of the no
fly zone over southern Iraq)
for Somalia. The carrier flew
patrols over Mogadishu and
surrounding areas for four
months, backing U.N. ground
troops during Operation
Continue Hope.
How’s that for “stingy”?
I wish I had room to print
the name of every sailor, pilot,
rescue swimmer, technician
and engineer who serves in
this strike group - and on
every other American ship,
plane and helicopter on its
way to help the tsunami vic
tims. You deserve to be seen
and known and thanked and
remembered. You make
America proud.
At the United Nations,
saluting our troops is called
jingoism. Where I’m from, it’s
called gratitude.
Michelle Malkin is author
of “Invasion: How America
Still Welcomes Terrorists,
Criminals, and Other Foreign
Menaces to Our Shores”
(Regnery). Malkin’s e-mail
address is
malk in @comcast. net.
She added:
278. skinned a lion
279. officially named and
described a new species and
genus of animal or plant
280. excavated a dinosaur
skeleton.
Showoff.
So, what does
writer/poet/madman Suggs ad
to the list?
281. served as prophet in
a cephalopod religion
282. driven 30 miles or
more just to buy donuts
283. flown in a stunt
plane
How about you?
For a copy, zap me an e-mail.
I’ll even attach a personal
note.
That way, if nothing else, you
can bold this:
270: wrote a fan letter to a
celebrity and gotten a response
that wasn’t a form letter
Veiy minor celebrity, mind.
Still, technicalities count.
Get counting.