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♦ THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2005
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President,
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Summer Can Be Dangerous
It’s summertime and the living is supposed to be
easy. But summertime can be very dangerous, too.
Only this week a 4-year-old boy died after riding
one of the more intense rides at Disney World in
Orlando.
The ride is so intense, according to a spokesper
son, that nausea bags are included and some pas
sengers in the past have complained of chest pains.
Recreation parks across the country try to come
up with more exciting and dangerous rides every
year. The public demands it.
Despite the fact every effort is made to make rides
safe, incidents do occur. Usually it is because of a
malfunction.
However, as rides become more exciting and chal
lenge the law of gravity there is more opportunity
for individuals whose bodies cannot stand the strain
to become ill or die.
It matters not how dangerous one of these rides is
there will be people anxious to ride them. The chal
lenge of new and dangerous excitement is too strong
for them to ignore.
Other summer activities have potential for danger,
too.
The most obvious is water sports. It is hard to
believe but there are many adults who cannot swim
yet ride in speeding boats on lakes and in the ocean
without wearing safety equipment. They are asking
for trouble because occupants of boats can be - and
are - thrown out in choppy and crowded waters.
Already this summer there have been stories
about small children drowning in swimming pools
with adults present.
Being present is not enough. Adults should keep
their eyes on small children, whether they can swim
or not, as a safety measure.
One accident can take all the fun out of summer.
One accident, which might be avoided with proper
caution, can change the lives of families for the
worse forever.
It’s a long time before the formal end of summer -
Labor Day - and we hope we enjoy it.
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Would I
Willis Forrester is a regu
lar reader of this space and a
frequent critic. He, like
many others, does not
approve of the Iraq war. I,
on the other hand, would
nuke anybody in the Middle
East who even looked cross
eyed at us, until somebody
apologized for what hap
pened on 9/11 and promised
to help us catch the scum
bags responsible. Clearly,
Mr. Forrester and I are not
on the same page about the
war.
Recently he asked, if I am
so gung-ho on the war,
would I encourage my
grandsons to go fight in Iraq
- Mr. Forrester’s implication
being that it is easy to be
hawkish when someone
else’s son or grandson is
being shot at. I briefly con
sidered the kind of glib reply
he has come to expect from
me, but he asked a good
Rex Gambill
Managing Editor
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
encourage my grandsons to go to war?
Dick Yarbrough
Columnist
yarb24oo@belkouth.net
question, and since it
involved my grandsons he
deserves a sincere response.
If my grandboys were pon
dering military service and
asked if our country was
worth going to war for, I
would say yes. It is the
greatest country on earth.
No other country enjoys the
Education should remember these students
Some of my friends and I
have been going through the
tortuous experience of mak
ing purchases at some fast
food restaurants.
The inability of many
grown young men and
women to do the simplest
form of mathematics is
embarrassing to watch.
Even when a computer does
the math for them, they
seem hesitant to believe
what they see. Or just con
fused.
If this was unusual we
would not be so concerned.
But as we look at these
young people, most of whom
have finished high school,
we wonder what kind of
future do they have in the
world?
They’re minimum wage
now and not worth it. Their
value as employees isn’t
likely to improve, either.
Among ourselves we won
der if our schools would be
more relevant if the goal
was to prepare young people
Once a custodian, always a custodian
I worked as a part-time
school custodian while earn
ing my teaching degree.
Now I’m an elementary
school principal, but some
things haven’t changed.
As a custodian, I spent a
lot of time in the boys’ bath
room. I can tell you with the
stench still in my nose, that
boys actually hitting the uri
nals is strictly a hit-or-miss
affair. A 50/50 proposition at
best.
I have many responsibili
ties as an elementaiy school
principal, but I still have to
spend time in the dark
recesses of school bath
rooms.
“Mr. T,” the urgent call
blares over my constant
companion, the walkie
talkie, “we have a kinder
gartner locked down in a
bathroom stall and he refus
es to come out.”
I murmured to myself -
principals do this - another
dangerous search-and-res
cue mission that you will
never read about in the local
freedoms we do. But I would
remind them that our
unique freedoms allow a
despicable pile of dog doo
like University of Colorado
professor Ward Churchill to
publicly disparage the inno
cent people killed in the
World Trade Center attacks
and be treated like a hero by
his smug supporters. Our
unique freedoms mean that
our citizens can treat the
American flag like a cheap
dishrag and burn it whenev
er they are feeling cranky.
The boys must be willing to
put their lives at risk for
people who think publicly
trashing our country and its
leaders is an act of selfless
patriotism. It might make
them wonder if we are
worth the effort.
Should they ask about the
War on Terror, I would tell
them it is a very frustrating
war for all Americans. The
A § SJ| IIA
Mr ■
Foy Evans
Columnist
foye vans 19@cox.net
for the outside world. The
one-size-fits-all educational
system - powered now by
No Child Left Behind - fails
so many young people who
never will attend college but
need to know the basics of
working in the real world to
survive financially.
Locally, I know, nothing
can be done about this.
Curriculum and tests that
are required to advance
from one grade to another
m * j?*w| j
Steve Tesseniar
Columnist
writeronstorm@aol.com
papers.
I race into the lower-grade
bathroom, not sure what I
will find.
“OK, young man,” I growl
in my meanest principal
voice, “the game is over.”
A small voice, barely audi
ble, speaks from deep within
the bathroom stall.
“But, Mr. T, I’m not fin
ished.”
I mull over that possibility
and decide that you can do a
lot of things in 20 minutes.
Life without Viagra
Editor:
Your editorial on Friday entitled “We agree
with Perdue” on our governor’s view that “the
government should stop paying for erectile dys
function drugs such as Viagra” is all wrong, as
well as unfair.
Sonny Perdue receives more federal farm sub
sidies than any other company in America. I
resent this blatant misuse of our federal taxes to
a millionaire who doesn’t need federal subsidies
to survive. Plus Mr. Bush’s federal tax breaks
went mostly to our super-rich and corporations
while the rest of us got peanuts! “Let them eat
cake!”
The nerve of our governor to dare to tell us
seniors and the poor that we cannot take these
sexual enhancement drugs in our later years! To
criticize those on Medicaid for daring to improve
their quality of life while Sonny has his hands out
for farm subsidies is the height of hypocrisy! Our
seniors and our poor deserve everything they can
legally get to make their lives better. Shame on
our hypocritical governor for meddling in our
personal lives!
terrorist attacks on Sept. 11,
2001, were as reprehensible
as Japan’s unprovoked
attack on Pearl Harbor 60
years earlier. But it was easy
to identify and punish the
perpetrators then. Today,
terrorists lurk throughout
the Middle East and beyond.
President Bush evidently
thought Afghanistan and
Iraq were good places to
start weeding out terrorists,
and he knows more about
the situation than I do or
Mr. Forrester or even the
New York Times, for that
matter. Maybe the president
got bad advice and weapons
of mass destruction didn’t
exist in Iraq. Or, maybe
because of this war, democ
racy will take root in the
Middle East and the world
will change for the better.
History will make that final
judgment.
If the boys did decide to
come from people who,
apparently, are not in touch
with the real world.
The bureaucrats who say
what education should be
ought to recognize some
thing that is heresy to liber
als - not all children and
not all people are alike.
I have repeated my belief
that a good education is the
most important thing that
we can give to our children
many times. The question
remains: What is a good
education?
The differences in young
people’s interests should
determine the kind of educa
tion they receive and the
expectations we have for
them.
Not everyone is college
material. But many are tal
ented in ways that do not
require a college education.
Nourish the brightest.
Don’t seek to pull them
down to the lowest common
denominator. Encourage all
to do the best they can with-
You could vacuum an entire
house, wash a car, or even
mow a small yard.
I understand about need
ing some alone time, but
this was hardly the time and
place for contemplation and
meditation. This child was
missing valuable instruc
tional time.
And let’s not forget that
whole No Child Left Behind
thing. I wasn’t about to
leave this child behind.
I waited outside the rest
room for what seemed like
an eternity, murmuring to
myself - principals do this
frequently - that no amount
of schooling could have pre
pared me for this kind of sit
uation.
Boys Bathroom 101
should be mandated for any
one going into education.
The kindergartner finally
emerged five minutes later,
smiling, and ready to join
the rest of his classmates.
Mission accomplished.
I walked him to his room
and gave the teacher the
thumbs-up sign. As he
walked back into his class,
LETTERS TO THE BHTOR
join the military, I would
pray harder than I have ever
prayed in my life that they
be kept from harm’s way. I
would remember that
almost 1,700 young people
have died so far in the war.
I’m sure their families
prayed for them, too. I
would think of Ist Lt. Tyler
Brown, killed by a sniper in
Iraq last November. He was
graduated from Woodward
Academy, where both my
kids went to school, and
from Georgia Tech, which
everybody south of the
Arctic Circle knows that my
grandson, Zack, will be
attending this fall. Lt.
Brown’s death hit close to
home.
If my grandsons were to
show up at my house in
their uniforms, I would be so
proud I would pop my but
tons. When they left, I
would cry a river. If some-
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
in the limits of their intelli
gence, energy and determi
nation.
Emphasis, in my opinion,
should be on admitting the
differences and give up on
the idea that all young peo
ple are from the same mold.
All young people, though,
should be given the tools
needed to survive, regard
less of their interests and
potential. This radical talk,
but more in touch with real
ity than pretending that all
young people can learn at
the same pace and can make
similar scores at any given
time, regardless of their
genes and environment.
Perhaps some of them
could even do multiplication
tables in their heads or
make change without the
use of a calculator.
Survival in the market
place depends on prepara
tion combined with perspi
ration. And perspiration
without preparation is wast
ed.
without thinking, I said,
“Give me five, man!”
And so he did.
“Lord, please let that be
water on his hand,” I
thought.
I had forgotten rule num
ber one regarding school
bathrooms - never, ever,
shake hands or give high
fives to students coming out
of the bathroom. »
I raced to my restroom
and scrubbed my hands
twice with soap and water. I
gave serious thought to bar
ricading myself in the bath
room.
Just then my radio went
off again. “Mr. T, what’s
your location? We have a sit
uation on the playground.”
I murmured to myself -
principals so this frequently
- and raced into the blinding
sunlight of a typical humid,
Georgia afternoon.
“I am the instructional
leader, I am the instruction
al leader,” I repeated, trying
my best to convince myself
as I approached the monkey
bars.
Frank W. Gadbois
Warner Robins
Itme to bnt letters?
Editor:
I believe it is time for the HHJ to adopt a poli
cy that is in place at many other newspapers,
namely one that puts limits on the number of let
ters to the editor from a single writer. No more
than one per week, two per month, and ten per
year seems a reasonable starting point.
The constant contributions by a very limited
number of writers provides little in the way of
information or general interest; they consist
mainly of self-aggrandizing pronouncements
from the extremes of the political spectrum or
ongoing counter-arguments to their critics.
HHJ is a local paper that properly focuses on
local issues. As these pontiflcators rarely touch
on anything of local interest, limiting their input
can only enhance this journal’s benefit of its
readers.
Dan Knauer
Warner Robins
thing bad happened to them,
I don’t think I could survive.
Would I encourage my
grandsons to go to war?
Never. But neither would I
encourage them to run off to
Canada to avoid military
service or to desert if things
got rough. There is nothing
noble about cowardice, and I
wouldn’t want them to have
to live with that feeling for
the rest of their lives.
What my grandsons
decide to do with their lives
is not up to me. It is up to
the boys and to their par
ents. I hope going to war is a
decision they never have to
face. War is hell. On that,
Mr. Forrester and I can both
agree.
You can reach Dick
Yarbrough at
yarb24oo@bellsouth.net,
P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139, or Web site:
www.dickyarbrough.com.