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♦ SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 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
Program Can Be Big Help
You have to give the Houston County school board credit
for implementing a Student Crime Stoppers program in all
public middle and high schools.
Apparently it is needed.
The program will encourage students to report incidents
of vandalism and other unlawful acts, including the pres
ence of guns and other weapons at school anonymously.
Students reporting such incidents can be eligible for cash
rewards.
Crime Stoppers has been a very effective program in
Middle Georgia in recent years. It has led to more than 800
arrests.
Hopefully, the mere fact that a Crime Stoppers program
exists in Houston County schools will be enough to dis
courage students from actions that could lead to suspen
sion, expulsion or even arrest.
Though Houston County has not had the kind of inci
dents that are plaguing some other school systems, there is
no reason not to take precautions and set in place a method
that will make it easy for students to report problems with
out being singled out as snitches.
Principals already have met to discuss implementation of
the Crime Stoppers program at the beginning of the 2005-
2006 school year.
You hate to believe that times have changed so much that
police officers must be placed in schools and programs such
a Crime Stoppers are necessary.
But we must be realistic. Times have changed. Many
young people today are different. They see the world and
everything around them differently than their parents did.
There can be problems. They can be held to a minimum
by alertness and decisive action when problems arise.
Student Crime Stoppers can serve a good and important
role.
Safety Steps Are Taken
It isn’t what most parents would want, but it is bet
ter than nothing.
We’re talking about action the Georgia Department
of Transportation probably will take to help protect
the lives of students at Houston County High School
who must cross busy Ga. 96.
The school’s Parent Teacher Student Association
had requested that traffic lights and a crosswalk be
installed for the school.
The Houston County Board of Commissioners have
approved a traffic signal study and agreed to supply
electric power if the Georgia DOT will approve flash
ing signs at the school.
The DOT probably will go along with the flashing
signs.
A crosswalk is not completely out of the question. A
spokesman for the Georgia DOT says a crosswalk can
be installed, but some improvements must be made
for proper utilization.
Of course, if a crosswalk is approved there will be
the question of who pays for it.
Send your Letters to the Editor to:
The Houston Home Journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or
Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
Atheist hardly
on 'high ground'
Editor:
I am writing in response to the
letter April 5 titled “Liberals have
moral high ground.”
First of all, Mr. Gadbois is a self
proclaimed atheist, so I do not
understand his concern for who is
morally correct or not. His state
ments concerning morals would
seem contradictory to the atheist
way of thinking. I mean, from a
Christian’s viewpoint there would
be concern about morality and
beliefs to determine eternity, but
an atheist really has nothing to
worry about either way, right?
Second of all, his references com
paring Terri Schiavo’s death and
the liberals appearing “morally
superior” are also contradictory.
Michael Schiavo, who was the full
force behind having his wife’s
feeding tube removed, so that she
may meet a slow and torturous
demise, was actively engaging in
bigamy (i.e. adultery) while his dis
abled wife lay in a hospice. Is this
the morally superiority that Mr.
Gadbois hopes all will strive for? It
sounds a bit backwards to me.
Mr. Gadbois goes on with pro
abortion and anti-Iraqi war senti
ipents. As a woman I do not need
Mr. Gadbois, nor his political
crowd, to speak for my “right” to
choose, because I choose LIFE.
And from what we are hearing
from the active military, they do
not want the cowards who sit here
on SAFE American soil, in their
comfy armchairs, to speak for the
“NEED” to get them out of Iraq.
What they want is to do the job
they’ve trained all of their military
careers for without interference
from the anti-war zealots “speak
ing on their behalf.”
When Mr. Gadbois’ beliefs reach
a “moral high ground,” we better
all get on our knees and beg God to
save us.
Kellie Day
Fort Valley
Concerned about
victims' rights
Editor:
During Victims’ Awareness
Week, the probation officers of the
Houston Judicial Circuit would
like the public to know that we are
very concerned about victims’
rights. Working in unison with our
Superior Court judges Honorable
George Nunn, Edward Lukemire,
L. A. McConnell and District
Attorney Kelly Burke, we may pro
vide the court with valuable victim
information if a pre-sentence
investigation is requested. After
Their knowledge and experience is valuable
You can wonder why any
one trying to hide illicit
drugs in their mouths would
do so. Then you consider
that anyone with drugs is
dumb enough to do any
thing.
• • •
Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld wants to extend
the careers of armed forces
personnel. It makes sense.
Compulsory retirement of
personnel at the prime of
life is a waste of experience
and knowledge. He should
receive support for this pro
posal from members of
Congress.
• • •
Gun owners would be wise
to take advantage of free
gunlocks that are available
from Centerville, Perry and
Warner Robins police
departments and the
Houston County Sheriffs
Department. It could save
someone’s life.
• • •
Can you remember when
a little knife cutting could
result from a late night
altercation between drunks?
Now they unload a volley of
Pandering to the crackpot left
It looks like Teresa Heinz
Kerry is rubbing off on her
husband. And on Sen.
Hillary Clinton. For the
Republican Party, this, is a
very good thing.
You’ll recall that last
month, Mrs. Heinz Kerry
put on her shiniest tinfoil
hat and blamed the
Democrats’ loss in
November on rigged voting
machines. As reported in the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Mrs. Heinz Kerry openly
questioned the election
results and fixated on areas
of the country where optical
scanners were used to
record votes. “Two brothers
own 80 percent of the
machines used in the United
States,” Mrs. Heinz Kerry
intoned, and it is “very easy
to hack into the mother
machines.”
Cue the “Close
Encounters of the Third
Kind” soundtrack. And keep
the mashed potatoes away
from Mrs. Heinz Kerry.
Asked for evidence of her
“mother machine”-hacking
theory, the ketchup heiress
refused further comment.
Glitches happen. And no
technology is foolproof. But
unhinged Democrats have
obsessed on the fact that the
chief executive of Diebold,
the leading vote machine
manufacturer, is a Bush sup
porter in order to turn
inevitable errors into a
nefarious Vote-Swallowing
Grand Master Plan.
The mother machine theo
rists also cite the discrepan
cies between exit polls and
vote tallies to bolster their
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
sentencing, we notify the victim of
the restitution amount, verify the
victim’s address, then collect and
disburse restitutio# monies to the
victim on a monthly basis. If the
probationer becomes delinquent in
payment, we enforce the Judge’s
orders through graduated action,
up to a warrant and incarceration.
We protect victims in numerous
ways. We carry out the judge’s
orders to insure that all probation
ers follow the court’s instructions.
This often includes drug and alco
hol testing, treatment such as
anger management, and surveil
lance through office and home vis
its, plus we monitor police reports
for violations. In this effort we
work as a team with Sheriff Cullen
Talton, WRPD Chief Brett Evans,
Centerville Police Chief Ernie
Pardo and Perry Police Chief
George Potter and their dedicated
officers.
If the judge has ordered a “no
contact with the victim” condition,
we strictly enforce it by closely
monitoring the probationer’s
behavior and taking swift action if
the victim reports a violation.
With sex offenders on probation
in the community, we provide very
close supervision and surveillance
to ensure there are no new vic
tims. We provide the GBI with
offender information and a photo
for inclusion on the sex offender
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Foy Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
bullets at each other.
• • •
As they say, “You ain’t
seen nothing yet” until the
new middle school, which is
located between Wellborn
Road and the railroad
tracks, opens. Wellborn
Road is unsuited for the
huge amount of traffic it will
attract, and it is too late for
anything to be done to alle
viate the situation before
school opens next fall.
• • •
They hold a golf tourna
ment at the International
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Michelle Malkin
Columnist
Creators Syndicate
suspicions. But as liberal
journalist David Corn point
ed out, “screwy exit polls do
raise questions, but they are
not proof of sabotage. And
left-of-center accusers have
promoted contradictory the
ories.”
On the one hand, they
accuse Diebold and other
vendors of “put(ting) in the
fix via the paperless touch
screen machines.” On the
other hand, they claim that
conspirators in Florida
rigged “optical-scan voting,
not electronic touch-screen
voting.” Or is it both?
A Unified Mother and
Father Machine
Convergence Conspiracy?
Back on planet Earth,
Corn notes that scholars at
Cornell, Harvard and
Stanford dismissed the
Florida fraud allegations as
“baseless.” And the Voting
Technology Project, a coop
erative effort between the
California Institute of
Technology and the
Massachusetts Institute of
Web site (www.ganet.org/gbi) and
we encourage its use to the public.
Probation Officer Tim Jackson
provides strict supervision of all
sex offenders, including next-door
neighborhood notification in the
immediate area where the offend
er lives. Tim also insures that the
offenders participate in sex offend
er counseling, which includes poly
graph testing, and the probationer
pays for both. We also enforce the
new law that ensures that regis
City Golf Club (formerly
Sandy Run Golf Club) annu
ally commemorating the
memory of Lou Burnett,
who built the course. It
seems appropriate to me for
the city to mount a plaque at
the course reminding folks
that Lou provided golfers in
Warner Robins their first
local golf course. It would be
sad if the passing of time
wipes out memories of those
early days and Lou’s contri
bution to the community.
• • •
When Alan and Jeannie
White opened The Landings
Golf Club, they took the
Sandy Run membership
with them and I was among
them. I remember the day
Alan and Jeannie came to
my office, when I was mayor,
and told me they planned to
purchase Sandy Run. They
have been a great addition
to our community ever since
... Now that The Landings is
owned by a group of
investors, mainly members,
I understand that some big
plans are in the works ...
The few of us who were
members when Lou started
Technology, found “no par
ticular patterns” relating to
voting systems and the final
results.
Immediately after the
election, John Kerry avoided
the deepest fever swamps of
the crackpot Left. But
Teresa’s kooky pillow-talk
has apparently taken effect.
On Sunday, Sen. Kerry
dredged up allegations of
Republican trickery and
voter scare tactics in a
speech before the League of
Women Voters: "Last year,
too many people were
denied their right to vote,
too many who tried to vote
were intimidated.”
Kerry activists made
much hay about the long
lines and shortage of voting
machines in swing districts.
But their lawsuit in Ohio
based on those claims was
dismissed. And as Mark
Niquette of the Columbus
Dispatch told ABC’s
“Nightline,” “if you talk to
the election officials here in
Franklin County, they’ll tell
you, the main problem was
there just weren’t enough
machines overall, that even
Republican-leaning
precincts had long lines.”
Not a peep, by the way,
from Kerry about the far
loonier intimidation tactics
of Democrats Gone Wild -
from the drive-by shootings
targeting GOP headquar
ters across the country, to
the union mobs who
stormed the offices of
Bush/Cheney volunteers, to
the anti-Bush thugs who
burned swastikas onto
Republican homeowners’
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THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
Sandy Run have seen some
big changes through the
years ... Including, of
course, the deterioration of
our playing abilities.
• • •
Pony League baseball took
a big turn for the worse in
California this week when a
13-year-old boy beat a 15
year-old to death with a
baseball bat after his team
lost a game. Parents are ask
ing, “What did we do
wrong?” Who knows? ...
Nobody should take losing a
baseball game that seriously.
• • •
Some parents have been
asking if this newspaper will
print pictures they take of
their soccer, baseball, soft
ball, football, etc., teams.
The answer is yes. Just be
sure to identify people in the
pictures accurately and pro
vide a way to get in touch
with you. You can even go by
the office in Perry with your
digital camera and they will
download pictures to print
in the newspaper.
lawns, to the paid
Democratic staffers charged
with slashing the tires of 20
Republican get-out-the-vote
vans on Election Day.
Singing from the same
hysteria-promoting hymn
book in Minnesota this
week, Sen. Hillary Clinton
further stoked Democratic
madness. Sarcastically
praising the elections in
Afghanistan and Iraq, Sen.
Clinton pounced: “I believe
that the right to vote and
the obligation to count all
the votes should be promot
ed not just in the Middle
East, but in the Middle
West! And in the Northeast!
And in the Southeast! And
in every. Corner. Of. The.
United. States. Of. A-MEH
rica!”
The crowd went wild. Sen.
Clinton continued: Too
many minorities and college
students have been “denied
an equal right” to vote, she
exclaimed. (Her “moderate”
solution? An election reform
bill that allows illegal aliens!
And felons! And people
without IDs to vote!)
The Democrats now seem
to believe that the road to
the White House is paved
with paranoia. Well, let
them keep babbling about
“mother machines” and
stolen votes. The evil genius
Karl Rove himself couldn’t
have come up with a better
plan.
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.
tered sex offenders cannot live
within 1,000 feet of a school, day
care center, or other place where
children congregate.
If you are a victim or concerned
about victims’ rights, our staff
would be glad to assist you in any
way possible, please call us at (478)
929-6832.
John Trussell
Probation Officer
Houston Judicial Circuit