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♦ TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 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
They Should Let Sunshine In
Sunshine Week is being observed in Georgia
and throughout the country this week, and it has
nothing to do with the ball of fire in the sky.
Sunshine, in its context here, refers to open gov
ernment, which Congress and the Georgia legis
lature are busy trying to shut out from the gen
eral public.
The fight in Georgia for open records began
more than half a century ago. Progress was slow.
Fortunately, Georgia had some governors along
the way who believed that it was in the best
interest of state government to keep the public
informed and to make government meetings open
and records available to the public upon request.
The state’s open records and open meetings
laws (commonly called the Sunshine Laws)
evolved over a period of time and it has served
government and the public well.
Efforts were made in the present session of the
legislature to adopt laws that would have permit
ted government/private enterprises to be entered
into and finalized before the public had any idea
what was going on.
The excuse for this behind-the-scenes chicanery
was that it was necessary for the state to grow
industrially and to create jobs.
Sometimes jobs are less important than know
ing what your government is doing, and this may
be such an instance.
The federal government is moving toward more
secret government, using the Patriot Act as a
crutch to deny the public information about what
is going on.
We applaud members of Congress who have spo
ken out against secrecy for the sake of secrecy.
What we need is more open government, not
more secrecy.
Hopefully, this nationwide observance of
Sunshine Week will awaken citizens who have
been unaware that their rights are being taken
away from them and will spur them to let their
representatives in the legislature and Congress
know that they are not happy about it.
Get Junkers Out 01 City
The city of Warner Robins will hold an annual
drive to remove old vehicles that will no longer
run from city yards and streets next month.
Many Warner Robins neighborhoods are
plagued with unsightly broken-down vehicles,
many of them rusting away, parked in yards or
open fields.
The city is helping owners of these vehicles to
get rid of them next month.
The city has an ordinance, which requires own
ers of these junkers (if they won’t run, they qual
ify) from their property. Enforcement of this ordi
nance every day of the year would be applauded
by most citizens who take pride in how their city
looks.
For the present, we can look forward to the
drive next month and see how much better our
city looks after it is over.
Send your Letters to the Editor to:
The Houston Home journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or
Email: hhj<« evansnewspapers.com
My favorite topic for a
The sermon was called
“What’s Your Hurry?” deliv
ered by visiting minister, Dr.
Harrison Everett Breen.
His message was simple:
Slow down. Relax. Enjoy
“the simple pleasures of
life.” You won’t find the
secret of the universe “by
hurtling through it.”
At the conclusion of the
service, Aunt Bee, Andy and
Barney met Dr. Breen at the
door of the church.
“Oh, Dr. Breen, your ser
mon has such a wonderful
lesson for us,” cooed Aunt
Bee. Andy agreed, telling
Dr. Breen that he “had hit
the nail on the head.”
Barney, who has slept
through most of the sermon,
added, “Yes, sir, that’s one
subject you just can’t talk
enough about... SIN.”
“The Sermon for Today”
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Len Robbins
Columnist
airpub@planttel.net
from “The Andy Griffith
Show” leads me to my
Sermon for Today, entitled,
“Sin... What It Be?”
What I’m concerned about
is what constitutes a sin. I
know the biggies - thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not
Stemming retail rebate ripoffs
I have mentioned before
what a racket manufactur
ers of computers and com
puter-related items have by
requiring consumers to send
in coupons to receive
rebates.
The computers, software
and associated items are
advertised at an attractive
price, but you must pay a
higher price and then send
in coupons to get your
money back.
I have had experiences
where I never received my
rebates. One of the gim
micks they use is to require
you to send in the original
bar code for a product, then
come back and say you did
not send it. They have you,
because there is no way to
file for your rebate again
with an original bar code.
Sometimes they just ignore
your request for a rebate.
It happens more often
than you might imagine.
Now the Federal Trade
Commission has recognized
the fact that consumers are
being bilked out of millions
of dollars through this prac
tice. It has cracked down on
the nation’s largest retailer
of computers to require the
company to guarantee that
its customers actually
receive their rebates.
The birds, the bees and the STDs
Sex is becoming somewhat
of a problem in schools
whether people like it or
not.
Not because students
might be doing it - and they
are - but rather because of
what teachers want to say
when teaching sex educa
tion.
The battle is between
whether abstinence or pro
tection should be taught.
Many teachers promote
abstinence, hoping that in
high school the miracle will
happen that teenagers will
stop having sex. Perhaps in
some utopian future and
perhaps in Pleasantville, but
not here in the real world.
Abstinence is being taught
over protection because
abstinence is so-called “100
percent.” If someone can’t
abstain from having sex,
then the truth is it is not
100 percent and the problem
becomes that students being
taught abstinence will kind
of put protection on the
back burner.
Is abstinence really more
important then protection?
In my opinion, no. In a
world where teenagers are
being given more decisions
and responsibilities every
day, I believe that teaching
both abstinence and protec
tion is important, because
knowledge is power.
Students should be taught
about every contraceptive,
every potential hardship,
and every difficult situation
that can result from sexual
activity and promiscuity.
Sex education shouldn’t be
spoon-feeding the ideal, but
hard facts and cold reality.
Nurses, victims of STDs,
and single mothers all
should be considered as
guest speakers. The com
steal, thou shalt not covet
thy neighbor’s wife, thou
shalt honor thy father and
mother, et al. But what
about the possible sins that
aren’t definitively outlined
in the Good Book; ones that
fall in that huge valley of
gray area. Like coveting thy
neighbor’s lawnmower? Is
that a sin? Shalt thou still
honor thy father if he’s
Michael Jackson? Or if thy
mother is Michael Jackson?
And the most perplexing of
all - what shalt thou do with
church programs after thy
service is over?
That’s the one that con
tinually baffles me, along
with the one about my
neighbor’s lawnmower. Is it
a sin to throw away religious
literature? I’ve scanned the
entire books of Titus and
Philemon and can’t find
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Foy Evans
Columnist
foye vans 19@cox.net
This may eventually
change the way these com
puter items are sold. If they
really want to give a cus
tomer a rebate why not do
so at the cash register?
• • •
An effort has been under
way in Georgia to require
voters to show picture IDs at
the polls. Sounds like a good
idea. Why would anyone
object?
Strangely enough, black
leaders in the legislature are
outraged at the idea. They
say it is a form of racism?
Duh.
If everyone has to prove
his or her identity to cast a
ballot, the idea sounds race
neutral to me.
Jessica Moore
HHJ Guest Columnist
mon sense and reality
should be combined with the
biology. Teaching a person
not to do something should
always come with a lesson of
other routes someone could
take, because without
understanding the potential
consequences, we are pretty
much lost.
Abstinence is part of pre-
' p °' o si &
Sunday sermon... sin
anything that remotely
touches on the subject.
When I was in college, the
Gideons would pass out
those little Bibles about
once a month to students
walking to class. It would be
rude, and perhaps sacrilege,
not to accept them, so I
would take one whenever a
Gideon would stick one in
front of me. Four years later,
I had a closet full of those
little green Bibles. Could I
throw them away? I don’t
know. The Bible doesn’t
expressly forbid throwing
away Gideon Bibles to my
knowledge, but doing so just
didn’t feel right.
Wheft I graduated and
moved out, I just left the
Gideon Bibles in the closet -
probably yet another sin.
Now, I am faced with the
dilemma of what to do with
Of course, it would deny
one person the chance to lie
about who he or she is and
vote under someone else’s
name. I have heard that
dead people, as well as non
residents, have cast ballots
in Georgia in the past. And
race had nothing to do with
it. It was an equal opportu
nity violation of the law.
I am under the impression
this would be illegal. Am I
wrong?
• • •
You have to give the brain
trust at Wal-Mart an award
for ingenuity. A town in
Maryland has an ordinance,
which prohibits a retail
business’ building to exceed
17,000 square feet. This
would keep Wal-Mart out,
they thought, because this
was not a big enough store
for the retail behemoth. So
what is Wal-Mart going to
do? They are going to build
two stores side by side to get
around the ordinance. As
the saying goes, those folks
from Arkansas know that
there is more than one way
to skin a cat.
• • •
The Houston County
Board of Education is get
ting the jump on anyone else
who might 1 percent
sales tax through a SPLOST
vention; it is a type of pro
tection. And all of the above
should be taught with equal
detail and stress. Whether a
person decides to use brand
A or brand B should purely
be their decision, but they
should be equally educated
on both sides.
Another possibility for
educating the youth of our
community about sex comes
from the source most scared
to talk about it with their
kids - parents. Parents
above everybody else need to
step forward and teach their
kids about the birds and the
bees and the STDs. Parents
don’t have to be graphic or
tasteless, but hey, it’s a real
ity: One day a parent’s child
will have sex, and who bet
ter to ensure their child is
well informed then the par
ent?
Everything should be
taught and spelled out in
ABCs and 1235.
used church bulletins/pro
grams. I usually just fold
them and put them in my
jacket pocket. But when
every jacket I own is jam
packed with the things,
something has to be done.
As is my custom, should I
just dump all my bulletin
filled jackets in someone
else’s closet for them deal
with? Or should I simply
throw them in the trash, as I
do with programs for ballet
recitals, football games, mud
wrestling matches, cock
fights, etc?
Divine intervention struck
me as I slept through
Sunday’s sermon - instead
of putting ketchup on a
hamburger, why not just
feed ketchup to cows? If that
wasn’t enough, I also came
up with: Why not have a
church program recycling
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
by announcing plans to hold
a vote on one in September.
Schools are hot items.
Most folks have children or
relatives in one of our
schools. Newcomers are
bringing new students into
the county at a rate equal to
- or more than - the popula
tion of an elementary
school.
If presented right, this
SPLOST should sail
through. It would replace a
SPLOST that will expire in
2007.
But what about the coun
ty commissioners? They say
they need more money for
roads and infrastructure to
deal with problems growth
has created. They will want
a SPLOST.
Will two SPLOST votes
conflict with each other?
You will have trouble find
ing anyone who does not
believe that we need more
classrooms or who do not
believe that we need more
and better roads and other
infrastructure improve
ments.
The same people complain
about “high taxes.”
It will be interesting to
observe how this all plays
out.
Understanding a subject is
the best way to learn how to
live with it or without it.
The voice of a parent might
do more good then the voice
of a teacher whom the stu
dent is not attached to per
sonally. A parent initiating a
dialogue about sex is prac
ticing a form of prevention.
Imagine a sexually ignorant
teenager who has formed
their own opinion about sex
from the media and every
thing else, listening to a
teacher they barely know.
How much impact can that
really make?
Parents and educators
should not be afraid or put
off with discussing the
“facts of life” with their chil
dren and students. The
“facts of life” must be
explained before they
become the “issues of life.”
Jessica Moore is a senior
at Warner Robins High
School.
bin at the church door? That
way, as you walk out, you
can discard of your church
program guilt-free and
restore God’s Green Earth
at the same time.
And while you’re walking
out, tell the preacher how
much you enjoyed the ser
mon, adding “that’s one
subject you just can’t talk
enough about... SIN.”
If he doesn’t recognize it
as a quote from “The Andy
Griffith Show,” I’m pretty
sure that’s a sin.
Len Robbins is editor and
publisher of The Clinch
County News in Homerville,
whose award-winning week
ly column appears in over a
dozen newspapers. A proud
University of Georgia gradu
ate, Robbins and his wife
have three young children.