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♦ THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2005
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President,
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Keep Up The Pressure
The crackdown on motorists in Warner Robins who
ignore the changing of traffic lights to yellow and actu
ally run through red lights has been successful.
Without fanfare, we believe, the police should contin
ue to emphasize enforcement where these infractions
occur. Though fines for these infractions add up safety
is more important.
At one time there was a brief discussion here of the
wisdom of contracting for installation of cameras at
strategic intersections to provide evidence that
motorists are running red lights and to act as a deter
rent.
After a brief discussion the subject seems to have
gone away.
Gwinnett County, where several intersections have
cameras, the results have been remarkable.
Motorists caught by the cameras running red lights
are sent bills for S7O for each violation. Within a period
of only three months at one intersection in Gwinnett
County more than $600,000 has been collected in fines.
This is almost double the contract with the company
that provided and installed the cameras.
Other intersections also are profitable, too, though, as
officials there point out, the purpose of the cameras is
to enforce the law, not raise money.
We doubt that intersections in Warner Robins are as
busy as some in Gwinnett County, but we do believe
that the revenue would be substantial. More impor
tantly, once motorists begin receiving bills for running
red lights they would become more willing to obey the
law, which would result in safer intersections.
Regardless of how you look at it, traffic in Warner
Robins will continue to increase. Motorists who hit the
accelerator to get through a red light to save a few sec
onds will increase.
Whether with cameras or officers monitoring inter
sections, we enthusiastically endorse the crackdown.
Blair's Response Admirable
We like Tony Blair, prime minister of Great Britain.
We admire him. We are impressed with his inflappabil
ity.
His reaction to the bombings by terrorists in London
last week was outstanding.
His comments and his demeanor reflected the “stiff
upper lip” reputation of the nation, which endured day
and night bombings by the Germans during World War
11.
Our sympathy goes out to the people of London and
Great Britain. They are the kind of people we want and
need as allies.
They are our friends and we are their friends and
both countries are better for it.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Rumsfeld needs to go
Editor:
Recent attacks in the
press on Sen. Ted Kennedy
over his congressional criti
cism of our Secretary of
Defense, Donald Rumsfeld,
are unjustified.
Mr. Rumsfeld lied to the
American people when he
said that this war would not
last more than six months.
He failed to plan for the
time after our initial, easy,
victory over a tinpot, inef
fectual dictator whose mili
Getting the 'bear' facts from the source
A few weeks ago, I dis
cussed slides of my vacation.
In passing, I happened to
mention the Bear from Big
Canoe. The column got a lot
of mail, but no one was the
least bit interested in my
vacation. Everybody wanted
to know more about the
bear. Go figure.
To accommodate my read
ers, I recently sat down with
the Bear from Big Canoe for
an in-depth interview.
Actually, I didn’t sit down.
He chased me up a tree and
then ate my tape recorder.
What follows is a rough
transcription of our conver
sation, given that I had to
gnaw my notes on the tree
with my teeth.
ME: Why did you eat my
tape recorder?
BFBC: I was hungry. They
have some very strict rules
here at Big Canoe about not
feeding the bears. We bears
Rex Gambill
Managing Editor
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
tary was pathetic. Then he
had too few troops since and
our casualties only increase
daily. Mr. Rumsfeld cannot
even get armor on all our
vehicles now!
His failure to plan and
execute this disastrous war
means he needs to go! Like
now! Public polls point to
his exit! It’s time for us to
declare victory and leave
Iraq!
Frank W. Gadbois
Warner Robins
Dick Yarbrough
Columnist
yarb24oo@bellsouth.net
find these rules both arbi
trary and discriminatory so
I called the ACLU to com
plain. They sent some wee
nie out to investigate the sit
uation, but my brother ate
him.
ME: Were you surprised at
the reaction that you
received from the column?
Children can be difficult to understand
The small boy played in
Warner Robins’ midget foot
ball program. His parents,
like most parents of children
that age, walked or sat on
the sidelines as their son
played.
When he was injured they
ran out onto the field to
check on him. It went on all
the time.
One day he told them,
“Don’t come out on the field
when I get hurt. You are
embarrassing me.”
They complied when he
was knocked unconscious
during a game a few days
later. They bit their finger
nails as coaches went onto
the field to check on their
son. But they remained in
their seats in the stands,
because this was a bowl
game.
After the game the boy
angrily told his parents,
“There I was on the field
unconscious. I could have
•been killed. You just sat
there in the stands and
laughed. You didn’t care if I
was hurt.”
It’s difficult - impossible -
to comprehend the thinking
of young children.
You look at them and you
know that their minds are
racing. You wonder what
they are thinking. They
don’t give you a clue. It
would be nice if you could
figure them out.
Happiness is like the weather
It’s always been confusing
for me when people ask,
“Steve, are you happy?” But
it doesn’t take much nowa
days to get me scratching
my head.
But when someone asks if
you’re happy or not, do they
mean that very second? Is it
possible that there are some
people out there that seem
to be in a permanent state of
perpetual happiness?
Anyway, if you do stop to
ponder your state of mind,
you may very well get run
over from behind by some
one that is not happy. Life
moves so fast there is hardly
time to reflect.
One of my favorite all
time favorite movies is “The
Shawshank Redemption.”
There’s this one scene
where a man that has been
in prison for decades finally
gets his freedom.
The first think he notices
is how fast life is moving
around him compared to
when he was first incarcer
ated. As he’s walking down
the crowded city streets he
thinks, “The world has done
gone and got itself in a big
hurry.”
And so it has. America has
lost her patience. From
instant oatmeal to instant
messaging, we demand that
things happen right now.
If you want a snapshot of
our society today, all you
have to do is slip into the
role of an observer the next
time you find yourself stuck
in a traffic jam.
Watch what happens
BFBC: To tell you the
truth, I was a bit uncomfort
able being in your column
because you are very contro
versial and just a little
weird. I would have pre
ferred Bill O’Reilly or Molly
Ivins, but when you are a
bear, you have to take what
you can get.
ME: Those are pretty
arrogant comments coming
from a dumb animal.
BFBC: If I’m so dumb,
how come I am on the
ground and you are sitting
up in a tree, gnawing this
interview with your teeth?
ME: That’s a valid point.
What would you like readers
to know about you?
BFBC: First, I think you
humans are very strange.
You crash airplanes into tall
buildings and blow up sub
ways and buses and kill
other humans for no good
reason. If a group of coyotes
Foy Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
All you know is that
behind their blank faces are
thoughts and opinions.
Though they cry easily and
often are explosive, when
they want to be they are
inscrutable.
• • •
Hundreds of books have
been written on how to cope
with young children.
Careers have been built on
telling parents how to be
parents. It is as if parents in
bygone days didn’t have a
clue how to deal with their
children.
The first guru in this field
to gain widespread attention
was Dr. Spock. In my opin
ion, he and his books set
parenting on an irreversible
course that led to many of
the problems with children
today.
His advocacy of parenting
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Steve Tesseniar
Columnist
writeronstorm@aol.com
when motorists are unable
to dictate the tempo and be
in control of a situation. It’s
ugly.
People in cars are banging
on the steering wheel,
exploding and going into
slobber-filled
tirades directed
at motionless
traffic lights, and
flicking one-fin
ger salutes to
anyone that dare
look their way.
Now what
would these
enraged
motorists say if I
rolled my win
dow down while
sitting through a
five-minute red
light and asked,
“Hey, man, are
you happy?”
I better have
an escape route
planned because
had done that to us bears,
they would be a sack of
bones and a distant memory
by now: You see, animals
have a concept called sur
vival of the fittest. Eat or be
eaten. Mark my words:
Those bad humans are going
to wipe you out, unless you
wipe them out first. You
dang sure ain’t going to love
that bunch of scum into sub
mission. Yet, a lot of you
seem to want to stick your
heads in the sand. You
either have the brains of an
armadillo or the backbone of
a guinea hen. I haven’t
decided which.
ME: Those are pretty
harsh comments.
BFBC: You asked for it,
bucko. While I am on the
subject, let me say that you
worry too much about what
others think of you. Take
France, for example. Why
does anybody care what
without punishment caught
on like wildfire. He became
a Pied Piper for the genera
tion of parents after World
War II and the trend toward
children’s dominance of par
ents began to flourish.
Dr. Spock preached that it
was evil to spank a child.
Old-fashioned parents did
not listen to him, but they
became a minority.
A few generations into the
Dr. Spock era and now most
children know that their
parents are not supposed to
spank them. I have heard
small children tell their par
ents that they will be in
trouble with the law if they
render a spanking.
Thank goodness, I also
hear parents say, “I don’t
care if DFCS comes knock
ing on my door I am going to
discipline my children and if
it calls for a spanking I will
give them one.”
All children are different.
Some respond to a mere rep
rimand. Some require
spankings or they can grow
up to be demons.
I was discussing this sub
ject recently with a group
close to my age. It was a con
sensus that in each of our
lives there was that defining
moment when a real whip
ping got our attention and
influenced our behavior
from then on.
I can recall two such inci
this guy is most likely com
ing over the hood of his car
to let me know he doesn’t
appreciate my role as the
“intersection psychologist.”
But that same guy might
be happy once he wrings my
neck, pulls into his drive
way, loosens his tie, nukes a
TV dinner, grabs a cold bev
erage, sits down in his
favorite chair, fingers his
remote, and changes the
channel every 4.2 seconds.
He could go from mad to
glad faster than you can say,
“Dr. Phil is full of it.”
Right now you may be say
ing, “You know, I was pretty
happy until I wasted five
minutes reading this stupid
article.” And your statement
would prove my theory
about this thing called hap
piness.
“No wonder they call them INCOME-bents..."
France thinks? I sure don’t.
As far as this bear is con
cerned, France is nothing
but a bunch of irrelevant
wine-suckers with the work
ethic of a three-toed sloth.
Oops! I shouldn’t have said
that. Now I will probably get
sued for slander by the
National Council of Three
toed Sloths.
ME: Don’t worry. My
teeth are worn down from
gnawing this interview on
the tree limb, and I’m not
sure how good my notes are.
Anything else you want to
tell the readers?
BFBC: I would like for
them to know that we bears
can be good role models for
you. We don’t go out of our
way to hurt anyone, but if
you mess with us, you are
going to get your fanny
kicked in a hurry. I must
admit that it’s pretty neat to
walk through the woods and
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
dents in my own life.
There was the time my
mother permitted my sisters
and me to sit on the front
row during Sunday morning
church services with several
other children. We started
talking and playing around,
to the annoyance of the
preacher and the congrega
tion.
My mother got up, came
to the front of the sanctuary
and took the three of us
home. There she adminis
tered a whipping that I
remember to this day. I
earned it. I got it. And it did
me a lot of good.
There was the time when
our family sat down to din
ner. I asked what was for
dessert. I was told to eat my
meal and I would find out
after I finished the meal. I
demanded to know what
was for dessert. I kept it up
until my father adminis
tered a whipping with a belt.
I earned the whipping. I
never again demanded to
know what was for dessert,
either.
Both incidents were defin
ing moments for me. I
always remembered who he
bosses were in our home and
my place in it.
If today’s children had
such defining moments in
their lives they would, in my
opinion, be better for it. So
would society.
Happiness is like the
weather. Sometimes it’s
sunny and life is a beautiful
picnic. Other times dark
clouds rumble overhead and
we just try to survive and
seek shelter.
I apologize for the weather
analogy, but as I write
Hurricane Dennis is doing
his thing and it is very gray
outside.
Anyway, if you’re a mem
ber of the Happy Police
Brigade, and you see me
stuck in traffic, please don’t
ask me for my membership
card.
I just may jump over the
hood of my Jeep and prove
that happiness truly is a
fleeting thing.
Steve Tesseniar is princi
pal of Parkwood Elementary
School.
hear the deer whispering,
“Here comes the bear.
Better stay out of his way.
He’s a bad dude.” You
humans could learn a lot of
good things from bears, if
you spent more time study
ing our ways and less time
watching MTV
ME: I really appreciate the
time you have given me
today. I have just one more
question.
BFBC: Fire away.
ME: Are you going to let
me down out of this tree?
BFBC: Sure, but you had
better watch out for my
brother. If he will eat an
ACLU weenie, he’s liable to
eat anything.
You can reach Dick
Yarbrough at
yarb24oo@bellsouth.net,
P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139, or Web site:
www.dickyarbrough.com.