Crisis Center Walk-A-Thon.

A Walk-A-Thon for the Carthage Cirsis Center is planned for April 27, at 1 p.m. at the Carthage Junior High School athletic field. This new venture is the effort of the OFJ (Ones For Jesus) Singles group of Fairview Christian Church.

Several local businesses are underwriting the expenses. T-shirts will be given to walkers who raise $100 or more in total donations. Drawings for additional prizes are also planned. OFJ has set a goal of raising $10,000. Walker donor envelopes can be picked up at the Crisis Center located at 320 Lyon, the Fairview Christian Church and several other churches and local businesses. Those wishing to walk or sponsor a walker should call 358-3533 or 358-3912.

The Crisis Center, now in its sixth year of community service, provides shelter and meals for persons with short term needs including transients, burn-out victims, troubled fgamilies, persons released from incarceration and those in substance abuse recovery programs. In 2001 7,343 meals and 3,209 nights were provided. Those staying more than a night or two must be job-hunting or into some self-improvement program.

Capital fund grants have been provided by Steadley Trust, Jasper County Association of Social Services, and the Boylan Foundation. Operating costs are totally depandent upon support of churches, businesses, civic organizations, the United Way, and individuals.

Commentary

Martin "Bubs" Hohulin
State Representative, District 126

I am going to start off this column with some excerpts that were written about me by a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the student newspaper. The editorial was written about me in response to my taking money out of the university budget because of the directive of a professor by the name of Stacy Woelfel prohibiting students from wearing anything patriotic following the September 11 tragedy. These comments were written by a student named Tom Wyrich.

"No, Woelfel’s policy isn’t embarrassing. What’s embarrassing is that a grown man would allow himself to be called Bubs."

"But seriously, Bubs has exposed himself in the past week as uneducated."

"I sometimes forget Missouri is part of the Bible Belt and that it is the state that gave us Branson. I sometimes forget there are people like Bubs."

"It’s not like Bubs is a professor, lawyer, or even a professional curler. He’s a grain farmer. I understand that someone like Bubs is on the General Assembly because, as much as I don’t want to believe it, there are a whole lot of people like Bubs in Missouri."

"Pretty snotty for a guy who didn’t go to college."

"I thought unbridled patriotism died during the Vietnam War, but I guess I was wrong."

"Bubs has turned the Missouri General Assembly into a circus and a laughing stock for the journalism industry."

"I just don’t understand why people listened. He’s just a grain farmer from Lamar."

I am going to let these comments from a student at Missouri’s largest university speak for themselves. You can decide for yourself as to what they are learning over in Columbia. What struck me this week are the parallels between the University system and our failed welfare system.

In both cases, the people paying the bills are automatically considered to be the bad guys. In the welfare system we, (and when I say we, I am talking about the productive, taxpaying citizens and businesses of Missouri) are expected to fork over money to pay for food stamps, medical care, housing, childcare, and whatever else can be thought of. However, we are not allowed to have any say in how the system should be run. If we start to demand that people on welfare should quit having endless streams of babies, look for and obtain jobs, or quit clogging emergency rooms for things like sore throats and colds, we are immediately labeled as right wing extremists.

Apparently we are also expected to cough up money for students’ housing, meals, and classes without any input into how University business is conducted. If by some chance we, the citizens that are paying the bills, start to demand that things that are taught at state institutions in some way reflect the values of our citizens we, again, are the bad guys. Is it any coincidence that one scenario has followed the other into our society?

I have received many, (upwards of 500), emails and letters from students and professors telling me what a horrible person I am. Many were laced with profanities and threats. I have also received an equal number of emails and letters of support for what I have done from the taxpaying citizens of this,(and other), states. I guess I tend to put more stock in the letters from the taxpayers, but what do I know? I am ‘just a grain farmer from Lamar’.

As usual, I can be reached at House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO 65101, or 1-800-878-7126, or mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions, comments, or advice.

I’ve never been in a greased pig catchin’ contest, but I’ve heard tell by those who know there is a trick to greased pig catchin’.

Most inexperienced will try to grab a hold a the pigs body and carry it. The trick, I’m told, is to grab the hind legs of the critter and pick it up that way. I’m guessin’ the pig knuckles give ya a little extra grip.

‘Course this advice assumes that at some time or another ya actually get close enough ta reach the hind legs in the first place, and ya don’t mind lookin’ at a pigs rear end as ya cross the finish line.

I personally look at pig catchin’ in much the same way I look at professional football, strictly as a spectator sport for me. I don’t think I wanna be on the field with a three hundred pound linebacker either.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

HEALTH NOTES

by Judith Sheldon

HEALTH LINES: It’s been 25 years since a vaccine was developed against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles). In recent years, there has been some public resistance voiced against vaccinating children for these diseases as well as polio and whooping cough. The detractors point to tragic instances that affected some youngsters. As a result, they’re trying to change the laws so that mandatory vaccination will no longer be required.

These people have a right to be concerned when a child is injured or even dies because of any type of medical treatment. But vaccinations have saved untold millions of children around the world from crippling, blindness, or other complications - some of them fatal - from these diseases.

Some medical authorities see these protests as part of a move to return to a less medically intense period when nature took its course, and you took a chance with nature. (The movement also includes a backlash against circumcising male babies unless it’s done for religious reasons.)

The sad fact is that before the Salk vaccine was made available, polio killed thousands of people - mostly children - every year, and crippled many times that number.