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SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 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’ll Demand More
The University of Georgia plans to make its cur
riculum more demanding. This will require stu
dents to be better qualified to attend college.
The outlook for some students may be bleak.
Already a large portion of students enrolling at
Georgia’s universities are required to take remedial
courses before moving on to college level curricula.
A demand is being made that high schools get
tougher with more semesters of core curriculum as
well as grading that leaves no room for social pro
motions.
Leading educators are even asking for the unbe
lievable. They want As, Bs, Cs, etc. tied to higher
scores than they have been in the past. In other
words, make it harder to get through high school
without learning more than is required currently.
This puts the state Department of Education,
which determines curriculum, between a rock and a
hard place.
There is a strong contingency that has no interest
in how much students learn as long as they are
given high school diplomas at the end of 12 grades.
Some parents demand that their children partici
pate in graduation exercises even though they are
not going to graduate. A diploma or the appearance
of having one, in their eyes, is supposed to represent
something special. What they have been able to
accomplish in the past few decades is make a diplo
ma itself relatively insignificant because employers
know they must look beyond the piece of paper
before hiring someone.
There also is a strong contingency that wants to
require students to work harder on difficult courses
so that when they graduate it will mean something,
and they will be ready to move right into college
without taking remedial courses. If our country is
to remain competitive with other countries, there
must be a revival of the significance and necessity of
high achievement.
Being caught between those two groups has to be
difficult, but if colleges and universities continue to
make their curricula more demanding the only
answer is for high schools to demand more of their
students.
Some educators fear that demanding more of stu
dents may result in more dropouts, which itself is a
serious problem in our country.
The choices and challenges and the tug of war
between people and institutions with divergent
interests and demands will be interesting to watch
as it plays out.
The University of Georgia, which long has been
acknowledged as one of the nation’s top party
schools, is on the right track. The president of the
university wants students to attend classes five
days a week, instead of four, and to graduate in four
years instead of five. This is a sensible demand. It
used to be that way, but through the years it has
become normal for students to take five or six years
to complete what should be a four-year college edu
cation. Going to college became as much a social
thing as educational.
On the surface, it appears that forces are at work
to make it more demanding, yet more rewarding, to
graduate from high school as well as college. The
winners will be the students.
Helping Al Franken find a swindler
The Bronx-based Gloria
Wise Boys & Girls Club has
been duped out of a reported
$875,000 meant for poor
children and elderly
Alzheimer’s patients. Evan
Montvel-Cohen, the former
chairman of the much
hyped liberal radio network
Air America, is at the center
of the erupting scandal. Air
America radio host Al
Franken, punctuating his
discussion with nervous
laughter, called Cohen a
“crook” on his show last
week and confessed to his
left-wing audience that “I
think he was robbing Peter
to pay Paul.”
(You can listen to
Franken’s odd discourse for
yourselves here:
http://www.audioblogger.co
m/media/33871/227055.mp3
)
Curiously, Air America
has shown little interest in
urging law enforcement offi
cials to track down Cohen
and hold him accountable
for “robbing” - Al’s word,
Michelle Malkin
Columnist
Creators Syndicate
not mine - an inner-city
charity in the network’s
name. Why is that? Franken
says the subject of massive
theft from one of the largest
nonprofit charities for
underprivileged residents in
New York City is “boring.”
Yes. “Boring.”
Even O.J. Simpson still
fakes occasional interest in
finding his wife’s killer
You just can't make some horses drink water
I know our school teachers
do all they can to put some
learning into the heads of
their students, but I just
have difficulty understand
ing how so many young peo
ple are so out of touch with
the real world.
Or should I be surprised? I
remember the old saying
that you can lead a horse to
water but you can’t make it
drink.
All of them are required to
go to school. Many of them
take advantage of the oppor
tunity. Many don’t.
I ordered an item that cost
37 cents at a fast food
restaurant recently. I gave
the order taker 52 cents.
She fumbled around a while
and then called on her
supervisor to tell her how
much change she should
give me.
I asked her if she had
graduated from high school.
She said yes. She must have
been gorging on rap music
while they were teaching
arithmetic.
Ask many of today’s
young people - and not so
young - some questions
about our governments.
Their answer, if they come
Police, politics, protest and protection
Sometimes perception is
just as significant as reality.
Many times perception is
much more believable than
reality.
For several years, resi
dents in the Shirley Hills
area along Arrowhead Trail
have had concerns over that
street’s intersection with
Todd Circle. The intersec
tion is an offset three-way
affair that came about as the
area grew in stages. The
intersection was not
designed poorly; it just came
to be that way over the
years.
Drivers along Arrowhead
tend to gather speed as they
travel uphill to the intersec
tion, and drive on through
with a swift glance, or with
out any glance whatsoever.
Over the years various of
the residents had called the
city for help with the prob
lem of speeding at the inter
section and running the stop
sign, but nothing had been
done.
A couple of months ago a
driver went through the
intersection without stop
ping and ended up colliding
with a tree, with fatal
results. The residents decid
ed this was the last straw
and gathered to gather to
purchase signs to put in
their yards asking Mayor
Donald Walker to come to
their aid.
The signs fall under two
different areas of constitu
tional protection. They are
protected under the right of
free speech as well as your
right to petition your gov
ernment for redress of griev
ances.
The signs did not accuse
the mayor of anything, nor
were they disparaging in
between his rounds of golf.
Franken and Air America
management, by contrast,
seem unusually eager to
sweep the entire financial
scandal under the rug.
Meanwhile, the Boys & Girls
Club hasn’t seen a dime of
the bilked money repaid.
Hearts aren’t the only
things that seem to be bleed
ing at Air America.
That is why I am volun
teering to help Al Franken
find the swindler and warn
others about him. Free of
charge. And I’m calling on
my always curious, never
bored, readers to fill the vac
uum of outrage and join me
in assisting The Search For
Air America’s Swindler.
Here are a few clues and
some helpful information
I’ve gathered for Franken to
share with his fellow Air
America sleuths:
Cohen reportedly told the
Gloria Wise Boys & Girls
Club executive committee
last year that he needed
Foy Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
up with one, will blow you
away.
I saw Jay Leno ask a col
lege student on his show
who was the chief justice of
the Supreme Court. She
stumbled and fumbled and
finally said it was Donald
Rumsfeld. Without hesita
tion she knew the name of
the chief judge on the
“American Idol” television
show. You gotta admit she
has her priorities in the
right place. That is, if she
wants to flip hamburgers all
her life.
Several other college stu
dents failed to answer easy
Timothy Graham
Staff Writer
tgraham@evansnewspapers.com
any way; they simply asked
for help in solving a problem
they felt had been ignored
by their city leaders.
The signs first went up
last Saturday, this reporter
called the mayor’s office
about them on Monday
morning and soon after,
Warner Robins Code
Enforcement Officer Beau
Weathers starting taking
down those signs he felt
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money to cover medical
expenses for himself and his
father - “a businessman in
Asia,” according to the New
York Sun, who was said to
be “gravely ill.” There’s just
one small problem with the
sob story about Cohen’s dad,
though. He has been dead
since 1991.
According to Fran
Magbual, a family friend of
the Cohens whom I inter
viewed this week from
Hawaii, Marvin Montvel-
Cohen was an art and
anthropology professor at
the University of Guam.
Magbual’s father also
taught at that school.
Cohen’s deceased father
“was a simple, nice man.
Well respected,” Magbual
told me. Another old friend
of the Cohens, Gail Stone,
also knew Cohen’s father in
Guam, where she grew up.
“I’m glad he’s not alive to
see this,” Stone told me by
phone from Hawaii. Stone
questions about their gov
ernment. Happily, one stu
dent actually knew an
answer.
A popular question is
what is the first thing you
would do if you were mayor.
One woman in the business
community said that she
would give pay raises to
members of the police and
sheriffs departments. A
major in government, no
doubt.
Sean Hannity has a regu
lar feature on his nationally
syndicated radio talk show
in which he asks people on
the streets of New York sim
ple questions about the gov
ernment. Things such as
who is vice president, who is
secretary of state, who is
governor of New York, etc.
Not many of them know the
answers.
Yet there are people who
say that efforts should be
made to get more people to
vote.
I’m of the opinion that too
many people vote without
any idea what they are vot
ing for or against.
Wouldn’t it be great if peo
ple were required to have at
least a little knowledge
were infringing on the city’s
right of way - which extends
25 feet from the center of
the street.
Weathers says he was in
the area on another call and
took it upon himself to
remove those signs he felt
violated the city code. He
said the message on the
signs had nothing to do with
his decision to remove the
signs.
But there is no need to get
into a “he said-she said”
debate or questions over
why just those signs were
removed when numerous
“For Sale” or “For Rent”
signs which obviously violat
ed the ordinance were left
up.
I personally do not think
that Mayor Walker ordered
that the signs be removed. I
don’t think he operates that
way. I perceive him to be
that type that, if you put up
a sign against him, he will
just come back with a bigger
sign against you. This all
may just have been an over
lived next to an accountant
who worked with Cohen the
younger at a Guam publica
tion called Latte Magazine.
According to Stone, her
neighbor was fired after call
ing attention to financial
irregularities involving
Cohen.
Last week, I heard from
another source in Hawaii - a
top executive at a large non
profit in Honolulu who pre
ferred to remain anonymous
but wanted to send a strong
message:
“Thought you should
know that Evan Cohen,
believe it or not, has relocat
ed to Hawaii and had been
applying for Development
Director positions at local
nonprofits. I was involved as
a part of an interview team
in which we interviewed
him a couple of months ago
... Fortunately, we did some
research on him, as he was
(obviously) not honest in his
resume, and eliminated him
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
about their government and
how it works before they are
permitted to cast votes on
the people who will be elect
ed to run the government?
Some people say voting is
a right. Some say it is a priv
ilege. I don’t know how to
describe it, except to say
that when people vote they
should be somewhat knowl
edgeable about the candi
dates and the jobs they are
going to perform.
Georgia has a new law
that will require that voters
provide one of five methods
of identification. It is
designed to block voter
fraud. Yet opponents of this
simple requirement claim it
is racist, prejudicial and
downright un-American.
In today’s hyped-up, elec-,
tronically driven society,
where voters respond to
images and hype rather
than information, we are
lucky the system works at
all.
I wonder what the results
would be if it took more
than a warm body (some
times the body does not
have to be warm in some
places) to cast something so
important as a vote.
zealous employee doing
what he wrongly thought
his boss wanted.
But the problem is that
the whole mess leaves the
perception that the city is
running some sort of
Gestapo plan to hush up
protest and cover up any
controversy. That is not
good. Warner Robins prides
it self on its ability to bring
people together to get things
done. If people think that
their voices will be covered
up, things will stop getting
done, and that will be bad
for business.
The residents of
Arrowhead Trail did discov
er one valuable fact. They
discovered that the best way
to get something done is to
go to City Council and tell
them your problems. They
did that Monday night, and
they will probably get some
new speed bumps out of it.
Tuesday morning there was
a police car patrolling the
offending intersection as
well.
from the process.... Chances
are, he has already moved
out of the state.”
Al Franken, who special
izes in blowing the whistle
on “lies and the lying liars
who tell them,” could pro
vide a helpful public service
by passing this warning on
to his vast audience of car
ing liberals. Cohen is out
there somewhere. Both he
and current Air America
executives know a lot more
about the liberal radio
money pit than the public
has been told - and not just
related to the victims at the
Gloria Wise Boys & Girls
Club.
But don’t worry, Al. We’re
on the trail.
You can wake up now.
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.