HEY, YOU! Yes, we have opinions. And we know you do too. So why don't you send us your thoughts? We want to hear your takecon the issues. CTEDITOR COMTECK.COM BLOG OF THE DAY ACCIDENTAL AUTHOR testimony from James Morris set the bar. high.
had left his successful business career to run United: Nations World Food Program, the largest relief agency in the world distributing billions of dollars worth of relief annually. In 2003, his team fed 27 million Iraqis from 44,000 distribution points with the. help of 3,200 agencies. Jim has seen poverty at a .1 mass level that few can fathom. He warned by that 2012 there will be 20 million orphans in subSaharan Africa alone.
In many countries, the hus-. bands have died from either civil wars or AIDS and 12-year-old women are oftentimes raising communities." Read more and weigh in at http://extra.chronicle tribune.com/blogs/ accidentalauthor HOW OLD ARE Christmas carols? A. Christmas carol is defined as a song or hymn whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season. The tradition of Christmas carols goes back as far as the 13th century. In 1833, the book Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern was printed and including such favorites as The First Noel.
Have a question? Tell us about it, and we'll check around. CTEDITOR COMTECK.COM SPEAK UP. Cast your vote in the daily online poll at www.chronicle-tribune.com, then check out the next day's print edition of the C- Tto see the final results. Today's question: Should the world be wary of the Iranian president? What you said Friday: Are you a last-minute holiday shopper? Yes (55.2%) No (44.8%) 634 votes total (as of 7 p.m. Friday) NOTE: The C-T's informal Web polls should not be considered statistically or scientifically reliable.
Chronicle Tribune editorial board Neal RONQUIST president and publisher David editor Sherie SMITH managing editor. Patricia GIBSON presentation editor Andrea SMITHSON night editor MARION CHRONICLE COM Viewpoints THE POINT: YOUR POINT: E-mail Mail Fax Some pats on the If you have an Viewpoints, 1.668- back and a rap on opinion, we'd like comteck.com P.O. Box 309, 4256 the knuckles. to hear from you: Marion, Ind. 46952 OUR TAKE Cheers and Boos A CHEER for the annual A CHEER for Shoe City, which is Your efforts are tremendous and Christmas party put on by the the newest downtown business do not go unnoticed.
Grant County Sheriff's owner. A BOO for bad behavior. Department chaplaincy program. The business name is obviously In northwestern Indiana, South The event is for the children of familiar to Marion residents, but Haven to be specific, the fire chief jail inmates to make sure those now this long-time: establishment has resigned and faces criminal children receive something at the has new digs in downtown Marion. charges after a fight at the departholidays.
We're glad to see the empty ment's Christmas party. We applaud the efforts. building at Fifth and Washington It seems the fire chief got into an A CHEER for Eastbrook and streets filled. argument with two firefighters Oak Hill high schools. 60 A CHEER for the annual Grant who left the party that night.
The two were named Best Buy County Care and Share event. The two firefighters, who were schools by the Indiana Chamber of It is sad that so many families on duty, returned to the fire staCommerce, meaning they keep need help at this time of year, but tion. About 20 minutes later, the taxes relatively low for the test: it's nice to know that events such firefighters returned to the party scores and upper -level classes they as these are there to help. where, according to witnesses, an offer. They were among 136 We also give a cheer to all the argument began between the fire schools in Indiana to receive this organizers and volunteers who chief and the two men, with the distinction.
help with this event not only on dis- chief threatening their firing. We are pleased to see them get tribution day but throughout the Please try to behave responsibly the recognition. entire year. at your holiday party. WANT ANOTHER YIKES BIG 'OL HUG? ENDORsem*nTS BIKER JOE SYNDICATED COLUMN Have we stepped back into the 1970s? Presidential politics is certainly looking that way these days WASHINGTON In a political season that has become a '70s show, a Richard Kennedy: "Experience Counts:" But is it prudent of her to invite remembrances of things past? She had two experiences of wielding power regarding important matters for her husband's administration.
One concerned the selection of his first, second and third choices to be attorney general all in just 50 days. The decisive criterion would be chromosomes: The attorney general had to be a woman. The first selection, Zoe Baird, crashed because a slipshod selection process did not discover that she and her husband had employed two illegal immigrants as domestic help and had not paid Social Security taxes. Then Kimba Wood failed because she once an illegal immigrant before such hiring was itself illegal, a nonoffense magnified the Baird debacle. The third choice was Janet Reno, whose eight-year tenure was notable for three things.
One was the botched assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which 86 people died, 17 of them children the assault was supposed to rescue. Another was seizing, at gunpoint, 6-year-old Elian Gonzales from his Nixon revival infects both parties' primaries. Even Spiro Agnew Nixon's Nixon is being reprised. Hillary Clinton attacks Barack Obama by recycling a slogan Nixon used in 1960 against John www.chronicletribune.com SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22. 2007 A6 ap LETTERS Thanks A helping with blood drive The Grant County Chapter of American Red Cross conducted its second annual Donorama holiday blood drive on Dec.
13. Among the donors there were seven first-time donors, including an 81-year-old man. There were also three donors: able to donate "double reds." This drive could make a difference for up to 81 people. The Grant County Chapter of American Red Cross wishes to thank all of the donors and all others who attempted to donate but couldn't. Please try again.
We also would like to thank the Indianapolis Colts for their donation of an autographed football as well as the following local businesses for other donations: Elder-Beerman; Family Video on Fourth Street; Family Video on Washington Street; Home Depot; Icehouse; Kay Jewelers, Lowden Jewelers; Lowe's; Papa's Murphy's Pizza; Payless ShoeSource; Pizza Hut Bistro; Staples; and Wal-Mart. These donations for our gift drawing made the event very special and helped to draw in donors. In addition, we want to thank both Marion Subways, Walgreen's and Starbucks for assisting with food and drinks, as well as the management and staff at Hotel Marion for donating the location. Blood drives are held'in Grant County on a regular basis. Please consider making a resolution to donate in the new year and make a difference in someone's life with only an hour of your time.
For more information, please call 662-7600. DiAnna Saylors, Grant County Chapter of American Red Cross, Marion Consider this idea My mother graduated from. Fairmount High School. She hoped the building could be renovated and not destroyed. Today's editorial (Dec.
10) is a wake-up call. Perhaps the solution lies in considering a new idea that will make the project workable, productive and profitable. It would address the uniqueness of Fairmount. It would be an asset to the community. Turn this large historic building into an artfully restored, year-round destination resort hotel.
It would honor James Dean, Jim Davis and Phil Jones. It would include the following amenities: The James Dean Theater for the Performing Arts offering live theater, other live entertainment and a movie theater. The Jim Davis Art Gallery honors all three men, the residents of Fairmount and Grant County through statues, photos, paintings, writings and other memorabilia. It would provide an exhibit area for county residents to display their original works of art. The Phil Jones Television Studio would provide world-class broadcasts and classes and hands-on experience in broadcast journalism.
The area with the fallen roof becomes a glassdomed, atrium A dazzling park a and gardens, with a tranquil pond, fountain, seating area and brick walkways This is not a pie-in-the-sky idea. Numerous communities throughout the country have successfully undertaken similar projects. Several economic benefits have accrued to these. communities. Renovation has fostered substantial job creation, as has the completed hotel.
Some of the county's elected officials have talked about bringing major events to the area. The problem is insufficient hotel space for large events. The Fairmount Resort would help alleviate the problem. Think about it. Mary Etta Ruley, Gas City WRITE AWAY: Length: Letters should be 400 words or less; all may be edited for brevity and clarity.
Letters of thanks should be 200 words or less. (Thanks to private businesses for services should be sent to the businesses.) ID: Each letter must include the writer's name, address and telephone number for verification. Because of space considerations, please limit the number of signatures to a maximum of four people. Fact vs. opinion: Publication is not an endorsem*nt of the opinions of the writers, nor is publication of letters a validation of facts or statements contained in the letters.
What's not allowed: Private solicitations, poetry, personal attacks, unfair criticism of private individuals, businesses or tions or inappropriate language will not be considered. Rights: Letters to the editor, columns and other material submitted to the Chronicle- Tribune become the property of the newspaper and may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms. TRIVIA What happened on this date in 1775: Esek Hopkins was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy. 1864: During the Civil War, Union Gen. William T.
Sherman wrote a message to President Abraham Lincoln which said in part: "I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah." 1944: During the World War Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe rejected the Germans' demand that the Americans surrender, writing "Nuts!" in his official reply.
1963: An official 30-day mourning period following the assassination of President John Kennedy came to an end. Birthdays: Former House Speaker Jim Wright (85). Actor Hector Elizondo (71). Baseball Hall-ofFamer Steve Carlton (63). ABC News dent Diane Sawyer (62).
Baseball All-Star Steve Garvey (59). Singer Robin Gibb (58). Actor Ralph Fiennes (45). Actress Lauralee Bell (39). Country.
singer Lori McKenna (39). Actress Heather Donahue (33). Actor Chris Carmack (27). Singer Jordin Sparks 3 George Will Washington Post Miami relatives and deporting him to Castro's Cuba, from which he and his mother had fled in an escape in which she drowned. The third was the optional appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the Whitewater land deal, an investigation that led.
to Paula Jones. When Hillary Clinton adamantly opposed a financial settlement with her, the investigation meandered to Monica Lewinsky and impeachment. The second of Hillary Clinton's important experiences was the drafting, in secret, of a national health care plan. 61 It was so dauntingly baroque and ominously statist that a Congress controlled by her party would not bring it to a vote. Her experiences that should matter most to primary voters reveal consistently bad judgment.
Her campaign's behavior radiates bad character. Mark Penn, a senior campaign official, served as her Agnew after Bill Shaheen, co-chairman of her national campaign, made a Nixonian observation. Nixon specialized in mocksolemn tropes such as, "It would be wrong to say" this or that, thereby getting this or that into the political conversation. Shaheen theatrically worried that if Obama, who in a book published 12 years ago acknowledged using drugs as a teenager, is nomwhen inated, he Republicans will ask him. last used drugs and if he ever gave or sold them to others.
Penn then kept the story bubbling by talking about how rested the Clinton campaign is in talking about it: "The issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising." On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee's role in the '70s show. involves blending Jimmy Carter's ostentatious piety with Nixon's knack for oblique nastiness. "Despicable" and "appalling" evidence of a "gutter campaign" that is how The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, characterized this from the New York Times Magazine profile of Huckabee: "Don't he asked in an innocent voice, 'believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" Imagine someone asking "in an innocent voice" this: "Don't Jews use the blood of gentile children to make matzoth for Passover?" Such a smarmy injection of the "blood libel," an ancient canard of anti-Semitism, into civic discourse would indelibly brand the injector as a bigot with contempt for the public's ability to decode bigotry. Huckabee's campaign actually is what Rudy Giuliani's candidacy is misdescribed as being a comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs. Giuliani departs from recent Republican stances regarding two issues abortion and the recognition by the law of same-sex couples.
Huckabee's radical candidacy broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America's corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity. And consider New Hampshire's chapter of the National Education Association, the teachers union that is a crucial component of the Democratic Party's base. In 2004, New Hampshire's chapter endorsed Howard Dean in the Democratic primary and no one in the Republican primary. Last week it endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary and Huckabee in the Republican primary. It likes, as public employees generally do, his record of tax increases, and it applauds his opposition to school choice.
Huckabee's role in this year's'70s show is not merely to attempt to revise a few Republican He represents wholesale repudiation of what came after the 1970s Reaganism. "George Will writes for the Washington Post. His e-mail address is 2.
