Scott County Times from Forest, Mississippi • Page 4

-CS. The Times Page 4A, September 20, 1995 Letter to the Editor Clay Jones Consumers should have right to chose where they do business If KfJwstJHTVisiweiT iJHlBift THBISeaiFORDKE. Hi ON CNWPN6N SPOTS DOTED 1 NIEBEGCHHKSTOP rS PUBLIC SERVICE Sl.fSi3 showed the average price of a prescription is lower at independent pharmacies than at chain drugstores.) Yet we are not being allowed to compete. In just the past year, approximately four million people have lost their independent pharmacy because it was forced to close its doors permanently. Each week, about 80,000 more consumers are losing their pharmacy.

A day of nation Noon for Your Local being staged on September 20 to illustrate to consumers how the ill-conceived policies of health insurers are adversely affecting them. Quality pharmacist care is now being lost by millions of consumers in neighborhoods large and small across America. If insurers arc allowed to continue such unfair policies, the number of independent pharmacies closing their doors is sure to in-crease-with the ultimate loser being those whom we have served for so many years. The time has come for consumers to stand up and say no. No longer can we allow the health and welfare of millions of Americans to be jeopardized by the unfair practice of many in the health insurance industry.

BRIAN McCUSKER Forest EDITOR: In survey after survey, consumers have repeatedly stated that they want to have the right to patronize the neighborhood pharmacy of their choice. However, for several years how and with increasing regularity, many health insurance companies have been taking that choice away from millions and millions of consumers. The companies often force consumers to abandon the local pharmacy that has served them well for years. Patients are told either to patronize another pharmacy or to obtain drugs from unregulated mail order companies located hundreds of miles away. Even when patients are allowed to continue with their local pharmacy, many insurers are dictating which drugs the pharmacy may use to fill a prescription influenced primarily by which supplier gave the insurer the best deal, rather than by what is best for the patient.

The upshot of these and other ill-advised practices of many insurance companies is many consumers suffer the ultimate elimination of choice: their local pharmacy goes out of business. Independent pharmacies are every bit as competitive as mail order companies or the pharmacies being designated by the insurers. (A 1995 study by Drug Store News, for example, Legislative Insight Improving quality of life in rural America is Whitten's legacy Raymond's wailing whistle faded out of hearing I S. Gale Denley jl Syndicated Columnist far-between. Jamie set out to change that.

He won a seat on the Appropriations Committee and quickly became chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee, a post he held for 44 years. From that powerful position, Jamie championed programs such as the Rural Electrification Administration, Farmers Home Administration and Appalachian Regional Commission. These programs helped bring to rural America the modern conveniences previously enjoyed only in urban areas. Electricity and running water surely enhanced the quality of life, but just as important, these improvements brought economic development and job opportunities as well. Jamie held one of the most powerful positions in the country, but he always understated his ability to get things.

Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi tells the story of visiting Jamie about a funding project during the first few months of Gene's tenure. Jamie I really don't have a lot of influence around here, but I will see what I can do to help. Typically, the project was approved. Jamie Whitten's career was not one of flash and flamboyance and he never sought a lot of publicity, but he accompanied more for farmers, for rural America and for the development of our natural resources than any lawmaker in our nation's history.

That will be Jamie Whitten's ending legacy. By REP. G.V. MONTGOMERY Former New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig died in 1941, two years after setting what the experts called an "untouchable" record of 2130 consecutive games played. That same year, Former Mississippi Congressman Jamie Whitten was firsYelected to the U.S.

House, beginning a record-setting S3 years and two months in the House of Representatives is a mark that will stand forever. The black and white newsreel footage of President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech should be required for every student in American history class. It is perhaps the most historic event to ever take place in the House chamber. It is still hard to imagine that Jamie Whitten was sitting in that chamber as Roosevelt condemned the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was only the beginning of a remarkable career of service to his rural Mississippi district and to the nation.

When Jamie's name is mentioned in the future, people will likely refer to his service record in the House. But Jamie's greatest accomplishment may be his half-century of work to improve the lives of rural America. When Jamie came to Congress, many people in his district, and throughout the country, didn't have electricity or running water. Automobiles and telephones were rare. Manufacturing plants and other industries were few and BRUCE When they buried my old friend Raymond Bailey earlier this month I was glad to see that he was wearing hit overalls.

That was the way he would have wanted it, for his overalls had become a lifelong trademark in politics and business. When Ross Barnett was inaugurated as governor, back in 1960, Raymond was in the state senate. On inauguration day Barnett spotted him along the parade route and had the driver to stop and ask Raymond to ride with him. He made national news that day, in his overalls. For his usual senate attire he added a blue blazer along with a white shirt instead of denim.

It wasn't a matter of money, for Raymond was a very successful businessman and landowner. It may have been that he just preferred to wear overalls, but I suspect that he also enjoyed the attention he got when he wore them in a more formal crowd. Raymond was more at home at his service station in a complex he dubbed Baileyville in the no man's land between Calhoun City and Derma. Or at his old home church at Loyd, where in his younger days he went to church on Sunday and to fox hunt during the week. One of the highlights of a political year was the July 4th fox hunt and stew which attracted a myriad of state-wide candidates and politicians, the most loyal of which was Ross Barnett.

Raymond's political aspirations not only included the state senate, but he also made a run or two at highway commissioner, driving all over the district in his overalls in an old white pickup with a loud speaker attached to the top of the tours I took along a tape recording of him and his harmonica to play as we passed by his servict station and the turnoff to Loyd. For Raymond was really in his element tt Loyd. Supervising the guys with boat paddles stirring the stew that simmered in big black iron wash pots over open fires, telling tales of fox hunts past, and entertaining all in hearing distance with tunes on his harmonica, which became as much of a personal trademark as his overalls. He played the old favorites, with a few of his own specialties including "Fox Hunt At Loyd and The Last Train Through Vardaman." I never heard him play "Last Train," which memorialized the final run of the Calhoun City to Okolona line in the late 1930s, without remembering how they were instructed to "Put on (11 you can boys, because it is going to be the last run." If he was at Loyd he would point south to where they loaded from their sawmill onto the siding at Hollis Switch. As he began a slow seesawing on the harmonica, creating the sounds of a steam locomotive coming alive, you could close your eyes and almost smell the coal smoke.

He called off the stations as the train picked up speed, "Vardaman," Thorn," Tyland," "Houston," making its final eastern run. The further it got the softer he played until the clack of the wheels and the wailing whistle faded out of hearing. That's kind of the way Raymond went. But we were glad that one of his daughters had placed his harmonica in his hand as he lay in state at the funeral home in Calhoun City. cab.

Always a friend of the truckers, he would attract a crowd with his harmonica and then tell of hit plan to close down all truck scales in the state "and plant flowers in them." Another political footnote was added by the recent retirement of Jim Buck Ross as state agriculture commissioner. Recounting his political career to a Jackson reporter earlier this summer Ross said he had never thought about public office until two fellows from Calhoun County came by where he was driving a tractor and talked to him about running for commissioner. Ross told the reporter he couldn't even remember who they were. My daughter, Lisa, read the piece and asked me who I thought it might have been. Raymond Bailey was one of three people who came to mind, but since he was in such bad health I told her to call Russell Shipp.

"He will know if anybody does." "I know who one of them was," Shipp admitted, but she had to use some of her reporter skills to find out the other man was Raymond. In his later years Raymond has not been well. Until two years ago I had included him on the tour for Faulkner scholars we did in Calhoun County. But he got too feeble and on the last Letters Policy The Times welcomes letters to die Editor. All letters must be signed by the author.

No unsigned letters will be published. Please include a telephone number for verification purposes. The Editor reserves the right to edit or reject any letter. Misfortune provides a learning experience fOvid Vickers Guest Columnist The Times -A Scott Publishing, Inc. Newspaper-(USPS 485-440) Published Weekly on Wednesday from 311 Smith Street Forest, MS 39074 Sidney Salt PubfisherEtftor Lallan) H.

Pop, Managing Edtor Dsarma Adam, Associate Edlor Dot LeorAccourto Services Jam) Woods, Advertising Manager Danm Jonas, Production Kathryn Forshsa, Office Manager Morton Wanda Smith, Circulation Ifeybeth Ormond, Society Edlor in the Coopers' back yard. One day, while Jennifer was walking around in the yard with a bird on each shoulder, a female woodpecker came to a nearby tree. When she flew away, the two young birds, perhaps recognizing the bird as a kinsman, flew away with the woodpecker. These two young woodpeckers have exploded two myths relating to birds, dogs, and people The Coopers own a large black Doberman. When the birds got large enough to flutter about and cling to objects, Jennifer placed them on the dog's back.

To the amazement of all, the dog placidly paced around the back yard providing transportation for the two birds. When ready to dismount, the two birds walked down the dog's nose and hopped to the ground, proving that all dogs are not ready to gobble up any bird that comes along. There is also a common notion that birds removed from a nest cannot be successfully brought to maturity by human beings. These woodpeckers apparently formed some kind of parental attachment to Jennifer. She would place them on the ground and take a few steps away.

The birds would hop to her, walk up her body, and perch on her shoulders. They first tried out their wings by flying from her shoulders to the ground or to a nearby shrub. Perhaps Jennifer Cooper learned more in her dass in ornithology than the professor realized. She not only learned about birds; she learned how to be a surrogate mother to two young woodpeck- Alcatraz had its Bird Man. Thomas Hardy gave us Rema the Bird Girl in Green Mansions.

Alfred Hitchcock directed the film The and East Central Community College now has a surrogate "bird mother." Her name is Jennifer Cooper. She is a teacher, basketball coach, and the wife of East Central's boy's basketball coach Marty Cooper. The story of this lady and her birds began several weeks ago. In fact, it all started with the winds and rains of Hurricane Erin. The afternoon that Erin swept across Mississippi making its last gasp at being a real hurricane, a dead tree, filled with holes where woodpeckers had searched for insects or made cozy homes, was blown over in the yard of Eddie and Charlotte Smith.

In falling, the tree split. Charlotte, having observed a pair of woodpeckers flying to and from the dead tree, knew it must contain a nest of baby birds. In the midst of the wind, Charlotte made her way through the stinging rain, falling pine cones, and drenched underbrush to search for the little birds she felt certain were in the area. Sure enough, she found them, three little woodpeckers. They had fallen out of the nest, and the mother bird was nowhere to be seen.

Picking up the wet birds, which were about the size of a walnut, Charlotte called her neighbor Ann Burkes with a question. What does one do with three wet birds, not yet old enough to fly or search for food? At this point, they thought of Jennifer Cooper. Jennifer, in addition to all her other interests, is a bird person. She loves birds. After a phone call to Jennifer, Charlotte wrapped the three birds in a dry towel, and the birds found themselves on the way to the Cooper home.

Having just completed a Master's Degree in Biology at the University of West Alabama, Jennifer had learned in a course in ornithology that woodpeckers eat soft worms and insects and will also eat legumes like peanuts. The two birds that survived now began consuming a daily feast of worms and crickets. Every time Jennifer touched the box which had now become a home for the birds, they opened their mouths, made chirping sounds, and fluttered about They were rewarded with crickets, worms, and sometimes a special treat of peanut butter covered crickets. Young woodpeckers consume an inordinate number of insects; therefore, McElhen-ney's cricket and bait farm began doing a spirited business. After three weeks, the birds were ready to fly.

They either teamed to fly from pure instinct or by watching other birds come to the two bird feeders SUBSCRIPTION RATES Forest and Forest RFD Route, Lake and Lake RFD Route, Conehatta and Routs One, Sevastopol HarpsrvUts, Walnut Grove and Routs One, Lena and Lena RFD Routes, Hlllsboro, Ludlow, Homewood, Morion and Morton RFFD Routes, Pulaski and Routs Ons, t1 per ysar AH other postal destinations ki Mtoalaalppl. $24 par ysar $27 per year Outskte Msslssippi. POSTMASTER: Sand changes of address to: Scott Publishing, he, P.O. Box 80, Forest, MS 39074.