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♦ SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2005
I Houston 4
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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
The Boom Will Continue
If anyone has the idea that growth in Houston
County is slowing down, all they have to do is look
at the results of hearings before planning and
zoning commissions.
Warner Robins, Centerville, Perry and Houston
County planning commissions are hearing zoning
requests for new residential developments at
every meeting and most of the requests are sent
on to the governing bodies with a recommenda
tion to approve them.
The new neighborhoods coming on line are
creeping closer to Perry each month and even
jumping past Perry in some instances.
One would be inclined to believe that so many
residential lots going on the market all of sudden
would flood the market. So far the demand has
kept up with the supply and there is nothing to
indicate that it will not continue that way.
While all this is going on, there are rumblings
for the governmental bodies to put the brakes on
growth. This would be unwise.
It isn’t as if someone is going out and recruiting
people to come to Houston County with wild
promises. The demand for new homes is being
created by people who voluntarily come here and
this is a healthy sign.
Who are they?
Where do they come from?
Businesses are creating new jobs all over
Houston County every week. It takes people to fill
these jobs.
One source of newcomers is being overlooked by
most observers.
A whole generation of workers at Robins Air
Force Base is reaching retirement age. Most of
these retirees already live in Houston County and
will continue to live here after they retire.
There is a need for new workers at the base to
fill jobs being vacated by retirees.
Most of the new workers at the base will come
from counties other than Houston. They must
have a place to live. Most of these newcomers
want to live close to their jobs. So they are becom
ing a steady stream of potential homeowners to
fuel the demand in Houston County.
This trend could continue for years.
With Robins Air Force Base off the BRAC list
for closure, and expectations that more jobs will
come to the base, the potential for a booming
housing market far into the future is there.
We like it that way.
LETTERS TO THE BUTOH
HHJ development
covepage excellent
Editor:
We thank you for the
excellent coverage in
today’s paper on all the new
planning and zoning deci
sions going on around us.
We are constantly amazed
at all the development activ
ity in the county and do not
hear often enough about
what planning we are actu
ally looking at. Keep up the
Send your Leners to die Editor to:
The Houston Home journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or
Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
Cancer awareness is important for everyone
AHUr!
w 1
Saxby Chambliss
U.S. Senator
R-Georgia
great work and a pat on the
back to Timothy Graham
for his most informative
article.
On a lesser note, please
keep the “petty politics” to a
minimum, if you would. A
little more southern gentili
ty would improve the paper
even more. Seems like there
are always “little digs” here
and there, every week that
are quite unnecessary.
Bob Burns
June is National Men’s
Health Month, and I would
like to take this opportunity
to encourage all men,
regardless of age, to visit
their doctor regularly. It was
a year ago this month, that I
was told I have prostate can
cer. My cancer showed up
during a routine physical,
and I am now fighting and
winning this battle with the
help of professional detec
tion and treatment.
Because early detection
can be the key to survival,
the best tool to fight cancer
is to consult your doctor reg
I still miss my lather after 72 years
My father died 72 years
ago. I was 13. I still miss
him.
I was lucky to have him so
long. It was long enough to
instill in me principles
which have guided me ever
since.
He was not an educated
man. He attended a country
school in rural Alabama
only a few years. He grew up
helping work a farm, break
ing up land with a single
blade plow behind a mule.
He knew hard work.
When he was 18 he moved
to Macon, where he went to
work for the railroad. This
wasn’t easy work in those
days, but it beat the kind of
farming he had done back in
Alabama.
Before he died in 1933, he
said that he prayed his son
never would have to farm or
work for the railroad. He
equated both to backbreak
ing, poorly rewarding labor.
Though he lacked a formal
education he was anxious to
educate himself. He read as
much as he could. He was
proud of his handwriting
and would have been
ashamed to scribble some
thing on a piece of paper and
The snobs on 'The View'
Have pity on Barbara
Walters. Barbara Walters is,
after all, Barbara Walters.
And Barbara Walters should
not be made to suffer the
gross indignity of flying in
first class while a common
woman breast-feeds her baby.
Barbara Walters, for those
few of you left on the remote
islands of Fiji who don’t know
who she is, is a world-famous,
Very Important Person. She
has, according to her official
bio, “arguably interviewed
more statesmen and stars
than any other journalist in
history. She is so well known
that her name and a brief
biography is (sic) listed in the
American Heritage
Dictionary.”
Barbara Walters is the pro
lific profiler of Hollywood
stars. She and she alone pos
sesses the papal-like power to
anoint the world’s “Most
Fascinating” celebrities and
render the rest to the base
ment of dullard-dom. Barbara
Walters has interviewed
“such world figures as
Russia’s Boris Yeltsin,
China’s Premier Jiang Zemin,
Great Britain’s former Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher,
Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi
and Iraq’s President Saddam
Hussein.” And every
American president and first
lady since Richard Nixon.
And Fidel Castro. And, uh,
Monica Lewinsky.
So when Barbara Walters
gets on an airplane accompa
nied by her hairdresser -
what world-famous, Very
Important Person doesn’t? -
you can imagine the distress
of being seated next to an
ordinary mom who had the
nerve to nurse her child in
Barbara Walters’ presence.
The nerve! (Or, rather, the
newve.
“It made me very nervous,”
Barbara Walters complained
last month on “The View,”
her ABC morning talk show
hosted by a klatch of elitist
women posing as your chatty
best friends next door. (If,
that is, your door happens to
be located in Manhattan or
ularly about your prostate
health. Recognizing symp
toms, getting routine check
ups, and regular screenings
are just a few ways you can
increase the chances of early
detection. With Father’s
Day right around the corner,
we are reminded how impor
tant it is to look after our
own health and the health of
our family and friends.
According to the American
Cancer Society, over 700,000
American men will be diag
nosed this year with some
form of cancer. Nearly
20,000 men in the state of
Foy Evans
Columnist
foye vans 19@cox.net
call it his signature.
He was unsophisticated in
the world of finance. All he
knew about money was that
you put in a day’s work and
you were paid for it. With
this pay you paid your hon
est debts. He did not believe
in credit beyond the end of
the month.
He was a natural negotia
tor. He did not believe that
the asking price was the sell
ing price. He liked to bar
gain with anyone wanting to
sell him something.
I wish I had inherited this
trait. When I was mayor
Warner Robins I found it
easy to haggle for the best
* Jilliii
Michelle Malkin
Columnist
Creators Syndicate
the Hamptons or Beverly
Hills.)
Barbara Walters attacked
the offensive nursing mom
further: “She didn’t cover the
baby with a blanket. It made
us uncomfortable.”
How dare that hungry baby
make Barbara Walters and
her hairdresser feel “uncom
fortable”? Selfish child. Don’t
you know who Barbara
Walters is?
After being forced to endure
the insufferable sight of a
woman providing nourish
ment to her child, the femi
nist icon Barbara Walters
(winner of the International
Women’s Media Foundation’s
Lifetime
Achievement
Award, the
Women’s Project
and Productions’
Lifetime
Achievement
Award, and the
New York Women
in Film and
Television’s Muse
Award) reportedly
pronounced it
“gross and dis
gusting.”
Alert viewers of
“The View” note
that Walters’ co
hosts have
expressed similar
disdain for nurs
ing women on
prior shows with
Star Jones
Reynolds making
puerile faces when
Georgia will find out they
have the disease. It is the
second leading cause of
death in our state, account
ing for one in four deaths
each year. Despite these
alarming numbers, male
only cancers, like prostate
cancer, have high survival
rates, and more than half of
those diagnosed will end up
beating the disease.
New research shows that
we are capable now more
than ever of stepping in and
preventing deaths caused by
cancer. New forms of treat
ment are providing quality
bargain possible in the
interest of taxpayers. But
when it comes to something
I want for myself, I listen to
the price and either buy the
item or walk away. I have
troubling bargaining for
myself.
My father loved his family.
My mother, my two sisters
and I were the center of his
universe. He was not home a
lot because in those days the
railroad often would work
employees up to 16 hours a
day. His only hobby was his
family.
He was a strict disciplinar
ian. He was tender and lov
ing, but his standards for
discipline were high. I still
remember a couple of whip
pings that I received. I
earned them. And they
taught me important les
sons.
To him, his word was his
bond. Today people write
contracts and then go about
finding a way to break them.
If my father told you some
thing, you could go to the
bank with it. I believe he
would rather have died than
be anything less than honor
able in his dealings with
other people.
the subject arises.
As you may have heard, 200
women from across the coun
try and from many different
backgrounds held a highly
publicized “nurse-in” at “The
View’s” studios last week to
protest Walters’ breast-feed
ing bigotry. I’m not the
biggest fan of the radical “lac
tivists” - the whole La Leche
scene is a bit too much for me
- but having breast-fed both
my children (one for 13
months, the other for six), I
completely sympathize with
their outrage at Walters’
remarks. Nursing a child
takes time, dedication and
selflessness. No mother
should be made to feel
ashamed of that.
Which reminds me: When
millions of parents com
plained about the outrageous
ly inappropriate exposure of
Janet Jackson’s breast during
a sexually explicit Super Bowl
performance last year, they
were immediately branded as
“prudes” by elite liberals in
the media. Why aren’t those
same supposedly progressive
commentators bashing the
ridiculously priggish Barbara
Walters and company now?
Barbara Walters, naturally,
cannot comprehend what all
*1 don't know which is worse - doing without Mom's cooking on
Mother's Day or eating Pop's cooking on Father's Day!"
patient care to many
Georgians who have been
affected by cancer. With
modern screenings and
tests, we can increase the
chances of early detection,
and prevent one of the dead
liest diseases in our country
from reaching advanced
stages.
I am pleased with
Georgia’s efforts in battling
the effects of cancer in our
state. Through the hard
work of institutions such as
the American Cancer
Society, the Division of
Public Health in the Georgia
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
He never preached at me
about how I should act. I
learned from him by exam
ple. I learned to respect
other people. I learned to lis
ten to my elders and keep
my mouth shut unless spo
ken to. I learned to be fair in
dealing with others but
stand up for myself.
I learned to be gracious in
victory, as well as defeat.
In the last year of his life
he was in terrible pain.
Doctors gave him morphine
to relieve the pain, but it
didn’t work. He suffered
numerous convulsions. It
was painful to watch him
waste away and to see how
he suffered. But I learned
the lesson of courage and
graciousness in the face of
death, which he knew was
the only way he could be
relieved of his pain.
I remember him every day
- not just on Father’s Day.
But it does seem appropriate
on this special day to pause
and remind myself how
important a father is and
how important it is to have
one from whom to learn les
sons that can lead to a fruit
ful and worthwhile life.
the fuss is about: “Nobody
here is against breast-feed
ing,” she says with conde
scending bewilderment. It’s
all a “misunderstanding.” She
is now reportedly blaming her
hairdresser for the mess. And
she has comforted herself by
retreating into her sycophan
tic coven. New mother and
“View” co-host Elisabeth
Hasselbeck was wildly
applauded by Walters’ coterie
when she announced she was
giving up nursing her new
born daughter and switching
to bottle-feeding.
No doubt seeking approval
from her world-famous, criti
cally acclaimed mentor (who
are we to argue with a woman
who is listed in the American
Heritage Dictionary), the
young Hasselbeck confessed
on the show that she was
“uncomfortable breast-feed
ing in general.”
Working around the nose
crinkling Barbara Walters
and her squeamish hairdress
er, who wouldn’t be?
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.
Department of Human
Resources, and the Georgia
Cancer Coalition, we are
fighting and winning the
battle against cancer togeth
er.
This June, let’s continue
working hard to reduce the
number of cancer-related
deaths in Georgia and in the
United States of America.
Once again, I encourage all
Georgians to pay close
attention to these important
health issues. For more
information regarding these
and other men’s health con
cerns, see your doctor.