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♦ SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 2006 4A If Houatmt Idmru? if vEl }t 4)mmtal OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Charlotte Perkins Foy S. Evans News Editor Editor Emeritus Keeping up appearances The comic poet Ogden Nash once wrote: I think that I shall never see A billboard, lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all. We support business growth, and the rights of businesses to advertise, but we were glad to learn that Mayor Donald Walker was able to work out a way to reduce the number of bill boards on the beautiful new stretch of Russell Parkway, and that the developer involved was satisfied with the compromise reached. It is a real challenge for any community to keep pace with growth, and more of a challenge to do it in a way that is pleasing to the eye. This is an ongoing balancing act for local elected offi cials who must respect property rights and still consider the good of the community as a whole, and the benefits of having attractive entrances to a city. The city council has also approved amending the city’s sign control ordinance for more flex ibility in dealing with inappropriate signs on property annexed into the city. We hope that they remain vigilant on the mat ter of keeping our Houston County landscape - so recently characterized by orchards, farm fields, trees and country homes - will not fall victim to urban blight. Let's hear it for Die ladies! Sometimes a little thing leads to big things, or a bright idea keeps on going like the Everready Bunny. Seventy years ago, in the depths of the Great Depression, a group of young ladies from Perry - mostly the wives of businessmen - decided to form a little club with the goal of socializing, and also bringing some culture to Perry. They called their club “Sorosis,” which means “sisterhood,” (Believe us, they heard the jokes about the liver disease by a similar-sounding name!) Ten years later, they formed the Delphian Club, which is also still going strong. The trend was underway, with one club forming another every few years. Today we have the Sorelle Club, the Akikta Club, the Beltista Club, the Idaka Club, the Sogadera Club, the Balvaunuca Club, the Tahseria Club - and the very young est, still with babies and toddlers at home, the Mahala Club. The impressive thing is that all of these clubs with the surprising names, which seem to be unique to Perry, are both social and hardwork ing. They have given many thousands of dol lars to community service and charity over the years. This coming Saturday, you’ll see many of them at the Beltista Club’s Home and Garden Show at the Georgia National Fairgrounds, which is one of Perry’s premiere events. Let’s hope that these clubs, and others like the Perry Business Women’s Club and the Pilot Club, keep on forming new clubs and doing good works for the community for another 70 years. Who will save Abdul Rahman from death sentence? Abdul Rahman is a man of faith. “I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in Christ. And I am a Christian,” he declared this week. Unfortunately for Rahman, he was originally born a Muslim in Afghanistan - and he has been forced to defend his religious conver sion in his home country’s court, where he now faces the death penalty for turning to Jesus. Despite the defeat of the totalitarian Taliban and the existence of a U.S.- backed “moderate” demo cratic government, it is a capital crime for Afghanis to openly embrace any religion other than Islam. Sharia law, embedded in the Afghan constitution, overrides its human rights provisions. Rahman’s family has denounced him as mentally ill. Afghan officials are thirst ing for his blood. “We will cut him into little pieces,” jail employee Hosnia Wafayosofi told the Chicago Tribune, as she “made a cutting motion ■ 'tlH; ***> Ik jjT WRBL He —.... 1 Michelle Malkin Columnist Creators Syndicate with her hands.” The Tribune reported that prosecutor Abdul Wasi demanded Rahman’s repen tance and called him a traitor: “He is known as a microbe in society, and he should be cut off and removed from the rest of Muslim society and should be killed.” The coun try’s attorney general says Rahman should be hung. The judge handling the case, who has been photographed School vouchers would be a disaster here Efforts to get the govern ment to issue school vouch ers will not go away. The idea is one of nation al prominence and some people prominent in gov ernment and education sin cerely believe that school vouchers will solve any problems—alleged or oth erwise—with this country’s educational system, which is under attack. Supposedly, if schools vouchers are distributed to parents who then can go out and enroll their chil dren in schools of choice we will suddenly have a nation of highly trained, highly motivated students. No child really would be left behind if only we had vouchers, according to them. First of all, not all children are alike. Not all children have the same intelligence. Not all children have the same level of motivation. Not all children have par ents who give children sup port at home. Not all homes even have parents who have enough education to know what an education is. But, assuming that all children can approach \e> W fKIENP,! KTWmm ■ T O AM F &OT US AND U!£ fAMILV ARE 1 H oth6houStv»tml J CC-—ll mow part, njd we couldJ Sr,Du” 6 _iA really lp>e their. A K tow MANY PEOPLE W* I r ABOUT Y THAT WFINITELY^ An Open Letter to supporters ol the SPLOBT We of the Citizens for a Greater Houston County wish to express our sincere appreciation to you for your support preparatory to the SPLOST 2006 referendum. It gave an impetus to our team in focusing complete ly on educating the public concerning county needs. And, it was instrumental in the SPLOST receiving wielding Rahman’s Bible as evidence against him, threat ens: “If he doesn’t regret his conversion, the punishment will be enforced on him. And the punishment is death.” This is a watershed moment in the post-Sept. 11 world. The Taliban are out of power. And yet today, an innocent man sits in the jail of a “mod erate” Muslim nation pray ing for his life because he owned a Bible and refuses to renounce his Christian faith. Rahman, who converted many years ago while work ing for a Christian aid agency in Germany, “is standing by his words,” fellow jail inmate Sayad Miakel told Canada’s Globe and Mail. Another cellmate, Khalylullah Safi, reported: “He keeps looking up to the sky, to God.” As of Tuesday after noon, left-wing Amnesty International had nothing to say about the case. But nei ther did President Bush, a man of faith and a Christian Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox.net school equally prepared and endowed by God with the same talents, will vouchers be the answer? Advocates of vouchers say that parents could take their children and vouch ers to the best schools and enroll them, leaving behind schools that do not measure up. Okay. Assume that some schools in Houston County are better than others. Parents could take their vouchers to schools that are believed to be the best and seek to enroll them. Wait a minute. Every school in Houston County already LETTERS TO THE EDITOR a favorable vote of citizens of Houston County and in making an even Greater Houston County possible. Again, thank you for your outstanding support. We extend best wishes and espe cially for exceeding all of your expectations. Sincerely, Jack Steed, Chairman Citizens for a Greater Houston County Fonda Jane Editor: brother. During his extensive White House press confer ence on the War on Terror and the defense of freedom overseas, Bush spent plen ty of time describing what life was like for Afghanis before Operation Enduring Freedom: “There was no such thing as religious freedom. There was no such thing as being able to express yourself in the public square. There was no such thing as press con ferences like this. They were totalitarian in their view. And that would be - I’m referring to the Taliban, of course. And that’s how they would like to run govern ment. They rule by intimida tion and fear, by death and destruction. And the United States of America must take this threat seriously and must not - must never forget the natural rights that formed our country.” President Bush, who will defend Abdul Rahman’s natural rights from being is overcrowded. How can some schools that might be considered superior accept students with their vouch ers when already they are overcrowded and are hold ing classes in temporary buildings? They couldn’t. Let’s assume that it would be possible for par ents to take their vouchers all over the county, enroll ing their children in schools of choice. Would the school system still be expected to bus the students to school? How could they? Parents would be unhap py if they had vouchers and their children could not get into their school of choice. So they would blame the school board. You can be sure there would be law suits and claims of discrimi nation. In my opinion, in Houston County alone school vouch ers would be a disaster. From what I read, school systems all over the coun try are overcrowded and in need of more classrooms. Advocates of school vouch ers are not looking at the logistics involved nor are they looking at the chaos I am really disappointed in our state senators who voted down a resolution honoring actress Jane Fonda during National Women’s Month! After all that she has done for our citizens and the money she has donated to our colleges,etc. Especially her work to pre vent teen pregnancy. Jane Fonda did not always practice discretion when she was young and when she went to North Vietnam for which she has publicly apologized for countless times. Yet she has usurped and terminated by Afghanistan’s Islamic execu tioners? Tony Perkins at the Family Research Council raises the unpleasant question Bush evaded and no one in the White House press corps bothered to ask: “How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by Islamists who kill Christians? President Bush should immediately send Vice President Cheney or Secretary Rice to Kabul to read [Afghan President] Hamid Karzai’s government the riot act. Americans will not give their blood and trea sure to prop up new Islamic fundamentalist regimes. Democracy is more than purple thumbs. Embarrassingly, the gov ernments of Italy and Germany have already stepped forward to make direct appeals to Karzai to save Rahman’s fife. Hamid THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL that would result from all parents receiving school vouchers for their children. They are theorists out of touch with reality. In my opinion, if any school is underperforming, then school boards should take a look at them and bring them up to standard. That sounds more like a solution to any inequity than to tell parents that they can leave certain schools for another with a voucher. Any improvement with public school education in America will come through these, if not more, actions: • Tougher curriculum. • Homes where students are encouraged to excel. • Parental support of dis cipline in schools. • Parents’ willingness to accept the limitations of. their children and support holding students back when they fail a grade. • A weeding out of less competent teachers in school systems where there are any. I’m sure our educators can improve on my list. But that is a start and certainly more realistic and less cost ly than school vouchers. been a public scapegoat so many times. Our frustrated Vietnam veterans need to get a life and pick on some one their own size! There has never been any proof/ evidence that her visits to North Vietnam hurt a sin gle U.S. soldier or POW or that she caused the war to last longer. Richard Nixon and LBJ are the real cul prits in all this. It’s time to move on, folks! Frank Gadbois Warner Robins Karzai has ducked the issue so far. Our feckless State Department is “monitoring” the situation. If we sit on the sidelines and watch this man “cut into little pieces” for his love of Christ, we do not deserve the legacy of liberty our Founding Fathers left us. How about offering Rahman asylum in the United States? Perhaps Yale University, proud sponsor of for mer Taliban official Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, can offer Rahman a scholarship. Where’s the Catholic Church, so quick to offer sanctuary to every last ille gal alien streaming across the borders? And how about Hollywood, so quick to take up the cause of every last Death Row inmate? Hello, anyone, hello? Michelle Malkin is author of the new book “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. ” Her e-mail address is malkin@comcast.net.