The Perkins Journal January 5, 2012: Page 4

January 5, 2012 The Perkins Journal
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A4 - THE PERKINS JOURNAL, Thursday, January 5, 2012 Opi ® nlons The Way I See It Ihad a most interesting conversation with a young man from Viet Nam today. I asked if he'd had a good Christmas. He said, "Yes." Kn0wing .that he was from another country, I asked what he celebrated. He asked me, "What is Christmas?" I said, "It is when we celebrate the birth of Christ." He responded," Christmas is celebrated around the world ma'am. It is a holiday about family and is especially for children." "Around the world," I thought. And he gives no thought to Christ and is not offended that this holiday shares Christ's name. The way I see it, Christmas has "gone viral." It is not merely a religious holiday any longer. It has become an international, world holiday and should be respected as such. Only American progressives and socialists find harm in keeping Christ in Christmas. Fran C. Miller Perkins Consider Adoption Happy New Year! Now that the excitement and hustle and bustle of shopping, having guests visiting, and the kids have opened their toys, I would like to remind you about cat fostering and adoptions. I have always made returning a pet an option with my adoptions. It is worthwhile because it allows the pet to intermingle and bond with their new pet parents, and find out what the re-actions are towards other pets and possibly children and unfortunately allergies, which I had happen only once. I personally do not favor trying this over the holidays because this is not normal circumstances to put the new pet or people through because the adjustment is more difficult. I have at present 10 adult cats 2 years or over, and 3 under 6 months. Everyone that called me over the holidays wanted kittens under 8 or 10 weeks that they could pick up immediately. I like most shelters have an adoption pro- cess, including minimum age and medical attention first. All of my cats have been spayed/neutered, vaccinated, wormed and are micro-chipped before they are allowed to go their new home, and are litter box smart. These adult cats are tame, love attention - they were kittens once and deserve a chance to spend the rest of their adult life in a loving, caring, environment. Yes, they may be shy at first but that is expected going into a new situation, especially if their are other animals or children. After all, they were once homeless and never had a chance as a kitten. If I didn't think they we worthy of this, I would not have kept 10 of the,., '-i'arious .,pecial needs when ,;most -)eo e would nay, ?honized 'them. They have given as )ears of joy. I do offer special fees for certain adoptions, otherwise my adoption fees are $45.00, including all above services, including micro-chipping. Call me at (405) 547-1224 or go to www.petfinder.com. Also, check out my article in the latest issue of Oklahoma Health & Fitness. Betty Ottaway, C.A.T.S. !iii iliiii!i!i! ¸ ;iiii !ii ;iiii# i : Pers; loma by Pns POblishing L,E,C:, and entered at t Peins Post Office tlodlcal postage paid at PerkJsi OK, Printed at The lahoman by OPUBCO Communtcahs Mlehe le Charles 'Sheets, ' Patti Weaver, Contributin 9 Writer .......... ..... i)iiiiii!iiiiiiiii!;iiiiiiiii;iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiii!i!i!iiiiiii -, -. m m qiiiiiiiii!iiiii!iii TO SUBSCRIBE BY MAIL, fill outthisform and mail with :''''';;: !i!iiiiil remi00ance to: The Perkins Journal, aO. Box 667, !i!i!ii!!;iiiilili Perkins, OK 74059-0667 .... 00iiiiil li!iiiiii!iiiiiii ;!;i;i;ii;i:! Name ,:,,, i:iiii:ilil Address liiii!i!iii!i!ii;iii ........ ii!i!iiii!:;!! iiii!:: ili i!iii![!iii!iiiii!!l City StateZip iiiiiiiiiiii!! iiiiiiiiiiiiiil Ret.'Oneyear00nOk,ahoma...0 ;;;:;i;i;i:::; " One year out of state ...... $35 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiil A A ,R,E,O a sub,c.0000on and I i iiiii off of the rates listed above if you are a current paid subscnber. ,!! !! Use the form above for your'riend" and list your name here: l:i ii!!!!ii!! :,iiiiiiiiiii:ii iiiiiill ;: iiiiiiiiiii00 iiii!i iiiiii00 00,00iiii !ii By Cecil Acuff Do left handed people in sports have an advantage? Or perhaps it's only specific sports playing certain positions. The latest Southpaw in women's professional tennis is Czech Pelra Kvitova, who will become the first No. 1 ranked lefty since Monica Seles in 1996. There's a scarcity of Portsiders in tennis, only 7 playing in the WTA's top 70. It's simple physics. When a righty plays another, his spin on the serve causes the ball to go to the dominant forehand side of nearly every tennis player. But When a southpaw serves, the opposite happens. The ball spins to the weaker backhand side. making returns more difficult. Some of the righties have developed high kick serves - slicing the ball viciously - but even the best cannot duplicate what a lefthander does naturally and more powerfully. The benefits of being leflhanded is so undeniable that Uncle Toni, Nadal's long-time coach, said forced 8-year-old Rafe to hold his racket in his left hand. Now, Rafe's scorching lefthanded forehand is the one shot that can consistently break Roger Federers's perfect one-handed backhand. Roger is 6 foot 1 inch, yet by jumping, he must retum a ball over his head. Petra Kvitova has two advantages Nadal doesn't have; She was bom a lefty, and she's tall - 6 feet. Petra has climbed from No. 34 at the close of 2010 to No. 8 at Wimbledon's start this summer. The Australian Open starts early this Spring. In baseball, the story oflefthand catchers reads, "Left Handed and Left Out." Some 21 ye .ars ago, Benny Distefano was a hanging-on major league catcher who caught in a major league game. No one has done so since. Major league baseball has its own preferences for right or left hand players. Not one lefty has played shortstop for 100 years. Second basemen lefties can't turn a double play. There have been a few lefihanded third basemen in 1984, 1986. There are different theories why people are left or right and what that means in their lives. One; the handedness is deter- mined in the womb, and lefties use both hemispheres, therefore, they are better in processing language. ABC News, in 2005, said statistics show lefthanded people are more likely to become alcoholic, delinquent, dyslexic, have Crohn' s disease, ulcerative colitis, and mental disabilities. So if it's a survival of the fittest, why do so many lefties exist? So, let each family grow, love each other, and don't lose much sleep trying to bend the twig into something which might cause later pain and hardships. Worry not that Lad and Lassie aren't clones of Dad and Mom. Let the little tykes make some mis- takes, and thereby create their own agenda? ii[ 'i !i ii i!i! By Superintendent Janet Barresi Resolutions Like everyone else, I find myself taking stock this time of year. I look at all that's transpired in the year behind me, and I look forward with anticipation at the year to come. This year has been particularly Iransformative for educa- tion in Oklahoma- from the date that I took office as the first new State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 20 years to the sweeping suite of education reforms passed by the state Legislature. Now it's time to implement those reforms. Our overall strategy is to pursue what I'm calling the C plan, which will ensure each student graduating with a diploma from an Oklahoma public school will be ready for college or career without the need for remediation and will be citizen ready, meaning they will know something about our government and the history of our nation. Implementation of this strategy will rely on several major components: 1. In 2012, I will be focused on implementing the Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Evaluation systems approved recently by the State Board of Education. The board chose to allow districts to choose among several options approved by the state for this first pilot year. This will be a crucial year as we evaluate the effectiveness of each system and gather criti- REVIEW ca! feedback from teachers and principals as they utilize the system in their individual schools. These systems will help us recognize the state's best teachers and identify those who need more help. Our goal is to have an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective administrator in every school. 2. We also will continue working to implement new third- grade graduation requirements. We are focused on training teachers on the use of optimal strategies to help children learn to read. As we roll forward with these changes to the Reading Sufficiency Act, we are working to identify children as early as kindergarten who might be struggling in this area. We're putting programs and teachers in place to help these children so that by the time they reach third grade they are reading on grade level. 3. This year, we also will put into place our new A through F grading system for every school in the state. This new system will help parents and community members better understand how their school is performing. 4. Our ongoing work through the REAC3H Network will assist dislricts as they Iransition to the Oklahoma 0 standards, which combines our work with the Common Core State Stan- dards and Oklahoma's updated Social Studies standards. We will learn soon if we are to receive our flexibility request from No Child Left Behind. There is reason to be hopeful that our waiver request will be granted. If so, we will be devoting much of our time to implement the reforms we've outlined in our application, all of which tie back to my 0 plan. We will work closely with schools to make sure they have every- thing they need to improve so they can meet accountability standards in preparing each child to be college, career and citizen ready. W e have lofty goals for 2012, but I know that success is within our grasp. The future looks bright for Oklahoma's children! Continued from Page A1 with the first three miles from the Cimarron River east towards Perkins being opened for traffic. Construction to finish SH33 from Western to US177 should begin in February 2012. Laughter and music filled Vassar Community Center Tuesday evening, Oct. 18, as the Friends of the Library hosted its annual Evening of Enter- tainment. The' group served pies and pastries to an estimated crowd of at least 65 people. The free event'featured enter- tainment by Kari Rains, andBobby and Dayna Simma. About 500 children turned out for the 26th Annual Monster Mash sponsored by the Perkins Community Chamber of Commerce Monday eve- ning, Oct. 31. November The Perkins area was rattled by several earth- quakes. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the first large quake occurred at approximately 2:12 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6. The quake, rated at 4.7 on the Richter scale, was cen- tered six miles southeast of Sparks, Okla. in Lin- coln County. That earth- quake was followed by several aftershocks, then a much larger quake at approximately 10:53 p.m. Saturday evening. The 5.6 R quake set a record for the strongest earthquake in Oklahoma's recorded history. It also was cen- tered in Lincoln County, five miles northwest of Prague, Okla. Perkins First United Methodist Church and the Neighborhood Min- istry Foo Bank filled an delivered 95 Thanksgiv- ing dinner boxes to area families Tuesday, Nov. 15. The boxes contained a complete Thanksgiv- ing meal with food being donated by Oklahoma Food Bank, Harvest II, the local Girls Scouts, and the P-T 4-H and FFA. Josh McFee, 7, and Colter Hogue, 6, decided they wanted to help the residents at Red Bud Assisted Living Center have a Merry Christmas, so they planned a book fair to raise money. The boys, members 'of Educa- re's Kids Klub, organized the book fair on their own, with teacher supervision. McFee and Hogue dropped by Red Bud Monday after- noon, Nov. 28, to present $189.50 that they raised December Santa Claus made his annual visit to Perkins Thursday, Dec. 8, during the Old Fashioned Coun- try Christmas celebration. A variety of entertainment and activities were held throughout the evening at the Oklahoma Territorial Plaza, including "A Night in Bethlehem," an interac- tive mini-village featuring a live Nativity, animals, games, foods, and handi- crafts that date from the time of Christ's birth. Santa's helpers from the Perkins Lions Club, the Cimarron Starlite Cruisers Car Club, and the Cimar- ron Christian Motorcycle Association met at noon Saturday, Dec. 17, to dis- tribute Christmas gift and food packages to area fami- lies in need. Lynn Kinder, Lions Club coordinator for the Christmas package project, said 50 families, including 123 children, in Perkins and Tryon received the gifts. ,'