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♦ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2005
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President,
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans Rex Gambill
Vice President Managing Editor
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Unification Is Not Easy
The difficulty that the Vision 2020 members -
county commissioners and the cities of Warner
Robins, Perry and Centerville - are having arriv
ing at a unified animal control ordinance can tell
us something about the difficulty of combining
services that many people believe overlap and
would be more efficient as one entity.
Each political subdivision has its own animal
control ordinance. Apparently most of the people
living in these jurisdictions are happy with the
ordinances that presently exist.
However, it makes sense to have one ordinance
that would apply throughout Houston County,
including the cities.
After the Vision 2020 group offered a proposed
ordinance to the county and cities all of them
rejected it. They said “send it back to 2020” for
more work.
If what appears to be such a simple thing as a
dog ordinance runs into opposition throughout
the county imagine how difficult it is to bring
unity on really important issues.
The main sticking point seems to be how many
animals one household can have and how large a
lot the number would apply to.
Some people aren’t satisfied with one or two
pets. They want a house full. Some people don’t
like their neighbors having several dogs and cats
and consider the animals an encroachment on
their privacy.
To people involved this is an emotional issue.
The elected officials are sensitive to voters who
get upset. So it is easier to hold onto the status
quo, which is not causing any real uproar, than to
make changes that will upset people.
Perhaps a countywide animal control ordinance
can be hammered out. It certainly will not please
everyone. But, let’s face it, such an ordinance is
needed.
Experiment Worth Watching
County public school system, as has been
reported, is purchasing 63,000 laptop computers
to be given to all teachers and students in high
school and middle schools in the county.
Not unexpectedly, there are parents and others
who don’t like the idea. They say that students
can learn better without leaning on computers.
Advocates of computers say that students will be
able to do their work quicker, easier and better.
Who knows who is right?
Perhaps the biggest concern among many tax
payers in Cobb County is how many computers
will be lost, destroyed or stolen. Considering that
many of the students probably have no regard for
personal property or other human beings, there is
good reason to believe that computers will disap
pear by the hundreds in a short time.
It will be interesting to follow developments in
this experiment.
The new youth craze: Self mutilation is showing up everywhere
Have you heard of “cut
ting”? If you’re a parent,
you’d better read up.
“Cutting” refers to self
mutilation - using knives,
razor blades or even safety
pins to deliberately harm
one’s own body - and it’s
spreading to a school near
you.
Actresses Angelina Jolie
and Christina Ricci did it. So
did Courtney Love and the
late Princess Diana. On the
Internet, there are scores of
Web sites (with titles such as
“Blood Red,” “Razor Blade
Kisses” and “The Cutting
World”) featuring “famous
self-injurers,” photos of
teenagers’ self-inflicted
wounds and descriptions of
their techniques. The
destructive practice has
been depicted in films tar
geting young girls and teens
(such as “Thirteen”). There
is even a new genre of music
- “emo” - associated with
Send your Letters to the Editor to:
The Houston Home journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
m a- ■to
Michelle Malkin
Columnist
Creators Syndicate
promoting the cutting cul
ture.
In Britain, health care
researchers estimate that
one in 10 teenagers engages
in addictive self injury.
According to psychiatrist
Gary Litovitz, medical direc
tor of Dominion Hospital in
Falls Church, Va., the grow
ing trend here in America
'Smoke-free' Georgia gening closer each day
Georgia probably will be a
“smoke-free” state soon,
thanks to the legislature
and Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Good? Bad? Indifferent?
It depends on where you
stand. Or, in other words,
whether you smoke or you
do not smoke.
The original bill in the
Senate would outlaw smok
ing in virtually all enclosed
public areas in the state,
including bars and restau
rants, including anywhere
within 25 feet of doorways.
That’s a big order.
The original bill is the
brainchild of Sen. Dan
Thomas, a practicing physi
cian from Rome. He says it
is intended to save lives.
The bill will have tough
sledding in the House, but it
seems that the skids have
been greased ' for more
restriction on smoking in
our state.
Smoking bans are the “in”
thing throughout the coun
try. Even New York City
passed one. Georgia proba
bly will not be far behind.
Some cities in Georgia
Waiting to XL ...
So I'm not that fat anymore
Hey, I lost 70 pounds.
So far.
Usually I don’t use this
space to blab about myself,
and personal accomplish
ments, and stuff going on in
my life. But I figured it’s
about the time of year when
a lot of folks who told every
one “My diet starts Jan. 1”
have long since abandoned
their halfhearted attempt at
weight control.
I’m here to tell you that it
can be done. If you’re seri
ous, you won’t give up.
• • •
Like everyone in my fami
ly, I have never been
described as “thin.” I was
probably in the best of
health in my senior year of
high school, when I weighed
165 pounds. For somebody
who’s 5-foot-9, that’s at the
high end of “normal” based
on a calculation of body
mass index.
But that was half my life
ago. I put on the customary
pounds any college fresh
man does, and have gradual
ly been putting on weight
ever since.
Family members started
telling me they were con
cerned, and it finally sank
in. If I didn’t do something,
I was going to be miserable
for the rest of my life, and
die earlier than I should.
• • •
I have long been skeptical
of fad diets like the grape
fruit diet, the Atkins diet,
cabbage soup diet. I even
once hurt a coworker’s feel
ings because I declined to be
has alarmed school guidance
counselors around the coun
try.
It’s not just delinquents
and social misfits who are
doing it. A concerned parent
sent me the following letter
recently:
“I just found out this week
that my 14-year-old daugh
ter is a ‘cutter.’ She has a 4.0
average, eighth grade, goes
to a good school, and is well
liked by all who know her.
She is popular, has two
homes (mine and her dad’s)
with supportive, loving fam
ilies in each. Her own
friends cut, too: four of them
that I know of now between
the ages of 11 and 14 ... (a)s
do her two cousins, ages 11
and 15.
“My daughter cuts herself
with a safety pin. I found
this out on her own personal
Web site, which I discovered
she had been hiding on a
hidden account she used at
s as
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Foy Evans
Columnist
foyevans 19@cox .net
already have strict smoking
laws.
Smokers are outraged.
Their civil rights are being
violated. Some contend they
should be able to smoke
wherever and whenever
they please. This attitude on
the part of inconsiderate
smokers has had a lot to do
with the efforts to curb
them.
Smoking doesn’t bother
me. Not as long as someone
else does the smoking. And
not if they do it where I do
her Atkins cheerleader. I
believed then, as I believe
now, that the motivation to
“get fit” must come from
within. Others can’t goad
you into adopting a healthi
er lifestyle. It’s too much
work. You have to want it.
Me, I went a long time
where I just didn’t care. So
many other things were
more important - work,
family, hobbies ... even
other bad habits.
Some of these things are
still more important. But for
me, the challenge was, and
is, learning how to strike a
balance between health and
other responsibilities. It
took me a while to realize,
but my health is a responsi
bility of mine.
• • •
So how did I do it?
First, I cut my food por
tions back. Way back. Like, a
small bowl of salad for sup
per, or celery and carrots
dipped in “lite” blue cheese
dressing. I even started
using a small plate for my
meals, to help me keep from
overeating.
After about a month, I had
had moderate success. But I
knew in my heart that if I
didn’t take up exercise, it
would be slow going and I
would probably get discour
aged. And I knew that if I
didn’t exercise, I wasn’t
really doing myself any
good.
So I took up walking.
There is a “loop” in my
neighborhood that is exactly
half a mile around. I started
another relative’s home. She
had links to Web rings about
cutting, suicide and broken
hearts as well as images and
poetry. Her friends all fea
ture cutting/suicide links,
icons and song lyrics as well.
“The counselor at her
school told me this: At her
middle school, ‘7O percent of
the kids here cut or know
someone who does. It’s cool,
a trend, and acceptable.
Boys do it as well but are
more public about it. ...
you’re not even the First par
ent this week: you’re the
third, and just today a girl
received stitches in the hos
pital for cutting herself so
bad.’”
While many public schools
deny the problem exists,
public health advocacy
groups are warning medical
professionals of the cutting
craze - and have even
declared March 1 “Self
Injury Awareness Day.”
not have to inhale their sec
ondhand smoke.
The only time I lit up a
cigarette, everything I ate
for two weeks tasted like
tobacco. I decided then and
there that I preferred the
taste of food over tobacco.
I am not one of those who
believe that smokers should
be protected from them
selves. They are adults (or
they should be). Let them
make the decision for them
selves.
They should know that
smoking can kill them.
Everybody should know
that. It can be emphysema.
It can be cancer. But smok
ing over a long period of
time makes the odds great
that the wonderful cash
crop, so important to many
Georgia growers, will get
you.
Smokers like smoking.
Some can’t wait to light up a
cigarette as soon as they eat
a meal, or take a drink. They
should be permitted to do
so.
They have rights. But peo
ple who do not smoke have
Jm *
Rex Gambill
Managing Editor
rgambill@evansnewspapers.com
walking this loop in the
evenings back in October.
Not just walking, but fast
walking. It took me a while
to “master” this approach. I
had to learn to take average
strides, but very quickly.
The idea is not to stretch my
legs so much as to get my
heart pumping.
At first, I could just walk
the half mile, or one lap
around the loop. Now, I take
four laps (or two miles), and
sometimes five. It takes me
nine or 10 minutes to do one
lap.
Somebody asked me why I
don’t get a treadmill for
this. First of all, they cost
too much. But the real rea
son is that I fear it’s too easy
to get off a treadmill. When
you’re walking around your
neighborhood, you can’t just
get off. You have to walk
home.
• • •
I didn’t start on Jan. 1. It
has taken me five or six
This madness would not
be as popular as it is among
young people if not for the
glamorizing endorsement of
nitwit celebrities such as
twentysomething actress
Christina Ricci. Several of
the Web sites I researched
highlighted the same quotes
from Ricci describing her
experiences with self-injury:
In an Us magazine inter
view, for example, Ricci
blabbed about various scars
on her hands and arms: “I
wanted to see if I can handle
pain. It’s sort of an experi
ment to see if I can handle
pain.” In another interview,
she described putting ciga
rettes out on her arm and
answered questions about
whether it hurt: “No. You
get this endorphin rush. You
can actually faint from pain.
It takes a second, a little
sting, and then it’s like you
really don’t feel anything.
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
rights, too. And among
those rights is not to be
exposed to used tobacco
smoke.
One of my pet peeves is
going into a restaurant, ask
ing for a seat in the non
smoking area, and finding
out that the table six feet
away is in the smoking area.
Many restaurants do not
believe that smoke will drift
across a room.
I have mentioned before
that I had two uncles who
died from emphysema. They
coughed and wheezed to get
their breath for years. But
both of them smoked until
the day they died. Smoking
was that important. And it
is just as important to many
smokers today.
I don’t believe that they
should be denied their pleas
ure, regardless of the conse
quences. Just don’t take me
along.
I look forward to a
“smoke-free” Georgia. Some
of my friends do not. But
history is working against
them.
months to lose this weight.
And I’m not through. I’m
only eight pounds away
from 200. I can do that in
two weeks, if history is any
indication. After that, who
knows?
People keep asking me
what my goal is. I guess my
goal is to get to a point
where I’m happy with my
weight. I don’t expect I’ll
ever be rail-thin, but I’d like
not to be “obese” ever again.
Right now, I’m motivated,
and I’m going to take advan
tage of it.
• • •
For the past several years,
I have had to shop in the
“big men’s” department of
the store. It’s been a long
time since “XL” was my
shirt size.
Last week, I bagged up all
those XXL and XXXL shirts,
and all those size-44 pants I
used to wear. They’re going
to the Salvation Army. I
won’t need them anymore.
It’s calming actually.”
And in Rolling Stone,
Ricci prattled about scratch
ing her forearms with her
nails and soda can tops: “It’s
like having a drink. But it’s
quicker. You know how your
brain shuts down from pain?
The pain would be so bad, it
would force my body to slow
down, and I wouldn’t be as
anxious. It made me calm.”
It may be all fun and
games for a Hollywood star
let like Ricci, but her mind
less stunts have inspired
countless young girls to
carve themselves into a
bloody stupor. Hollyweird
strikes again.
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
malkin@comcast.net.