- VIEWPOINTS OPIN


 VIEWPOINTS & OPINIONS


 BIBLE VERSE

 "I lift up my eyes to the hills -
 where does my help come from?
 My help comes from the Lord, the
 Maker of heaven and earth."
 Psalm 121:1-2


 Suwannce Bemocrat
 MYRA C. REGAN Members of the Suwannee
 Publisher Democrat editorial board are Myra
 C. Regan, publisher, and Susan K.
 SUSAN K. LAMB Lamb. managing editor. Our
 Managing Editor View is formed by that board.


 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
 Dear Editor:
 POW/MIA Recognition Day is Sunday, Sept.
 17. There are over 88,000 American heroes classi-
.fied as prisoners of war or missing in action go-
ing back to the beginning of World War II.
Search and recovery continues ,by our govern-
ment, especially the Joint POW/MIA Account-
ing Command (J-PAC).
 J-PAC operates under extremely difficult and
hazardous conditions, but they continue their
work with the motto "Until They Are All
Home."
 It is up to us as voters to see that our elected of-
ficials continue to fund this program and others
like it that work toward the ultimate goal, "Until
They Are All Home."
 Please take a few minutes on Sunday, Sept. 17
to remember and: pray for our POW/MIA's and
their families and friends.'
 YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN!
 Flag protocol on this date, fly the flag from
sunup to sunset. Never leave the flag in the dark.
 Respectfully,
 Pat Lyngholm
 Patriotic Instructor
 LAFVW DST 14/Post 2206

 Dear Editor:
 I believe the water-safety article, published on
page 9A of Suwannee Democrat's July 28 edition
neglected to mention several safety considera-
tions. They include, but may not be limited to:
 1. Learn to swim and float yourself. The first
rule in lifesaving is to save yourself. The second
rule is, "Don't make it a double drowning."
 2. Complete a lifesaving course so you will
have the ability to save one or more of your chil-
dren (or someone else.)
 3. Non-swimmers must wear life vests when-
ever near, on, or in water, e.g., fishing, boating,
wading. Life jackets are not just for use in a boat!
 4. The boater should complete an approved US
Coast Guard safe-boating course; have on board
a marine radio; a weather radio; a personally reg-
istered, Category I or II, digital Emergency Posi-
tion Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB),
www.sarsat.noaa.gov/emerbcns.html;. a person-
al flotation device for each person that, for night-
time, has reflective material on its shoulders,
front and/or back; and when needed, cold-water
clothing (i.e., a wet suit or a dry suit) for each
person.
 5. Monitor both the current and forecasted
weather.
 6. Develop an emergency plan, and practice it.
Modify it based on lessons learned.
 7. Know that lightning travels in the ground
making it unsafe to be on ANY CONCRETE, no
matter how dry the concrete appears. Therefore,
simply being out of the water and on a pool deck
is not enough. Safety dictates people to be dry,
under cover, off the ground or floor, and wear-
ing dry shoes or sandals.
 8. Do not become dehydrated. Drink water be-
fore, during and after activities around water.
 9. Wear plenty of sunscreen, SPF 15-plus, and
any of the following ingredients: zinc oxide, tita-
nium dioxide or avobenzone; or the newly FDA-
approved [per ajc.com / news / content / shared-
gen / ap / Health_Medical / UVA_Sunscreen.html
] ecamsule/Mexoryl SX (brand name: Anthelios
SX).
 10. Avoid the sun during high-intensity, e.g.,
from 10 a. m.-5 or 6 p. m.


Thanks for listening,
 Tom Burnett


Please address letters to:
Letters To The Editor, Suwannee Democrat,
PO Box 370, Liv6 Oak, FL 32064.
Please include your name, full address and daytime
phone number. We ask this so we can varify your letter
and discuss any questions about it with you."


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 COMMENTARY

Gotta be smarter than your jeans?


 I Remember when a pair of
 jeans being "half off" meant
 that you were getting a good
 -'. deal on them, or when "losing
 your pants" meant you had in-
 vested heavily in Edsel stock or
 in double-knit futures. But now
 ., it means you can see a fellow's
 'R butt hanging out.
Dwain Walden In the past-year, many people
 have complained to me about
being offended in public because some males wear
their pants so low that most of their underwear is
showing.
 And it's not a regional thing. Today I read where
,a Dallas, Tex., school board member has asked the
city council to address this issue. And in Louisiana
and Virginia there were failed attempts at getting
state laws passed to prohibit baggy pants that pro-
vided such exposure. Constitutional. issues came
to bear or should we say "to bare."
 Personally, I find it disgusting when men and
boys wear their pants in this fashion out in public.
I guess we're just fortunate that they do have on
underwear. What I'm saying is,-it could be worse.
 Robert Jarvis, a constitutional law professor at
Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale,
said that for a criminal law to be constitutional, a
person of average intelligence must know what's
being prohibited.
 I think what he's implying here is that the peo-
ple who wear their pants below their behinds are
not intelligent enough to know. they look disgust-
ing. So basically attempting such laws might be
the equivalent of trying to teach a pig to sing. You
would just get a horrible noise and you would
only frustrate the pig.
 "And who's to say how baggy pants must be be-
fore they are too baggy," Jarvis asked.
 Now we are to a parallel of the question as to
whether a glass is half full or half empty. Does the
fellow have his pants half on or half off?
 Of.course that analogy is not pure. A glass being


half empty might only disgust the person running
out of beverage, or he could be disgusting to those
around him, depending on what he was drinking
from his glass.
 Like the law professor said, one has to have some
degree of intelligence to know what is being pro-
hibited. So we might ask ourselves if the fellow was
putting on his pants and just couldn't figure out the
rest of the process once he got them half way up..
 A truly funny sight for me one day was watching
a young man trying to shag fly balls in the outfield
while holding his glove in one hand and his pants
up with the other. He ran out about ten yards,
tripped .on his baggy britches and fell on his face.
The ball hit him on the head. He wasn't hurt, or I
wouldn't have laughed. Well, maybe I would have.
But I could be too harsh in this instance. After all,
one has to be smarter than his jeans or you just feel
sorry for him.
 I've always wanted my clothes to feel comfortable
on me and be decent looking at the same time. And
I had never considered that making these two
things happen at once required a high level of math
or even greater-than-average intelligence. It never
occurred to me that someone might have to take a
course in "remedial pants wearing."
 So now we have another national issue before us
- one of southern exposure, you might say.
 If wearing one's pants like this is freedom of ex-
pression, I'm not sure what one is trying to say. But
being in the business I'm in, I've always posed that
if we err, let's err on the side of freedom.
The other night on the television show "Cops," I
saw a suspect actually run out of his baggy pants.
And whether or not it impeded his speed, it sure
did make it more difficult for him to run into a
crowd and get lost in a sea of humanity. So maybe
in some respect, the baggy pants have a silver lin-
ing. Or maybe that was just the color of his under-
wear.
 (Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Ob-
server, 229-985-4545. E-mail:
dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)


WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2006


SSUWANNEE DEMOCRAP/LIVE OAK


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