Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 5

Bill Lair Managing Editor Harry J. Reynolds Editorial Page Editor Anna Cook Office Manager Tammy Jordan Advertising Director JGT-C Editorial Board Carl Walworth, Publisher Bill Lair; Managing Editor Harry Reynolds, Editorial Page Editor Beth Heldebrandt, Features Editor Penny Weaver, News Editor Journal Gazette SintES-Courier LEE PUBLICATIONS, INC. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2 00 8 WWW.JQ-TC.COM lA5 Carl Walworth Publisher Editor Bill the war against terror to Iraq and Afghanistan The bloody drift's bill was paid in the blood of Sphinx-like Lincoln THIS REflUTT SHOW COULD HARRY REYNOLDS YJSSfL 1 HAVE YOU A EVER OF 9Am. lion (Saudi Arabia) out of a combined total commitment of $1 billion. That's still pocket change compared to the hundreds of billions it is costing us.

This is beyond outrageous. Here we are spending near record amounts on gasoline and home heating oil money that goes to those nations that sell us the oil and they in turn refuse to pay more to help win a war who's victory would help repel the same fanatics who also hate them. Rep. Gary Ackerman, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East, -makes the point: "They're charging $100 per barrel of oil, making record Back I sib WAS Since 2001 when "the war on terror" began, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reports $649.9 billion has been appropriated for Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). In the budget President Bush just submitted to Congress, there is a request for an additional $108.1 billion for 2008 and $70 billibn for 2009.

ThcostofJhese wars has been lafgelyborne by the American taxpayer, while the benefits of success in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach far beyond the borders of those countries to the world. If Islamic extremist can be quelled in Afghanistan and Iraq, people the world over will literally breathe freer. Since so many will benefit, isn't it fair to ask them to help subsidize the effort? USA Today reported last week that America's "allies" in the war on terror have provided what amounts to chump change Countries that made large commitments to rebuild Iraq have paid just 16 percent of what they had pledged. According to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, other countries committed to contributions of $15.8 billion during and after a conference in Madrid ur October 2003. The countries that have given the least are the ones that have the most resources to give and possibly the most to lose, as some are targets of al-Qaida's efforts to replace Arab governments with Taliban-like leaders.

The largest shortfalls in pledges by 41 donor countries, according to USA Today, are from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who spent 17.4 percent and 27 percent of the $500 million each had pledged, according to a separate report released last month by the Government Accountability Office. These are countries we saved in the first Gulf War. So far they have paid just $135 million (Kuwait) and $87 mil- Glancing 100 to Ago (1908) MATTOON While the controversy is up about the Lincoln-Douglas joint debate, I will tell what I know about it. In September 1858, 1 was in Charleston and heard every word of both the men. The debate taking place in the fair ground.

I never understood there ever was any joint debate in J. M. -According to farmers coming into the city, the roads are next to impassable, and with a single team a wagon can not be drawn over them. With small loads it is necessary to attach two teams, and then it is all the animals can do to perform the task assigned to them. The warm spell of the past few days has brought about this MAT-TOON Today is Lincoln's birthday anniversary was not observed by the public schools of the city, although on Washington's birthday anniversary February 22 exercises appropriate to the anniversaries of Washington, Lincoln and Longfellow, the poet, will be given and rendered by the various grade schools of the MAT-TOON Graver Laudermilk, the lanky twirler of the champs who has been spending his winter in digging coal at Odin, writes to Secretary Snyder of the local club asking when the club is to be WINNOW fortunes, lecturing everyone else, and then they stiff everybody, including their cousins who they contend to be so very concerned about." The figures back him up.

According to the Department of Energy, "from 2003 through 2006, Saudi Arabia exported about $95 billion in crude oil to the United States, as its average price doubled from $25 to $56 a barrel." During his visit last month to the Middle East, President Bush obtained more promises from several leaders of Arab states to do more. We'll see if those pledges have any more currency than previous unfulfilled promises. The under-responsiveness has not just been in the Arab world. Money and other forms of assistance have been lacking from countries that are also threatened by Islamic extremists. Spain seems to have come closest to fulfilling its pledge.

The GAO says of the $248 million Spain promised, it has paid $213.7 million so far. And Japan, according COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY ALICE raise of $500 per year. Teachers who have taught less that two years will receive a raise of $400. The new salary schedule provides that teachers with a Bachelor's degree and no teaching experience will start at $4000 per year and have a maximum salary of $5,200 after 13 years of The temperature dipped to five degrees above zero here again today with no relief from the continuing cold wave in MATTOON Members of the cast of "Kind Sir," second Community Theatre production of the current THE POLITICAL FIELD. to a recent report to Congress, has pledged and disbursed more assistance to Iraq than any other individual country except the United States.

At a minimum, we should send Iraq and Afghanistan a bill for what we have done and are trying to do for them, or ask for price cuts on Iraqi oil. Thousands of American lives have been lost and the financial cost is enormous, as we seek to advance freedom for others. While a freer world is also in America's interests, the people of Iraq and Afghanistan stand to benefit the most. To have these and other nations in the region receive what amounts to welfare while charging us top dollar for oil and using some of those profits to underwrite radical Islamic extremism is doubly offensive. Cal Thomas is a Los Angeles Times columnist whose work is distributed by Tribune Media Syndicate.

LARRABEE season, rehearse a scene from the play at the Burgess-Osborne auditorium. The play directed by O. C. (Pete) George will be presented Feb. 18,19 and 20..

25 fears Ago (1983) MATTOON The Illinois Central Gulf clean-up project is nearly done. But work on project involving the installation of 3,000 feet of new drainage tile along the north-south line is not expected to be completed until the end of March. Bill Duggan, ICG track supervisor, said the drainage project was necessary because the existing tile can no longer handle the storm water during heavy When Abraham Lincoln christened the city that was named for him in 1853, he told residents they had made a poor choice since "nothing named Lincoln had ever amounted to much." History proved him wrong and this town is now full of memorials to the man who would be 174 years old MATTOON When Mike Chen (Sui-Yang Chen) serves egg rolls to his customers at House of Chen restaurant on S. 17th Street Saturday, It will have a special meaning to him. According to the Chinese calendar, February 12th is New Year's Eve, and to the Chinese egg rolls are really spring rolls.

WHTTTRA- PfflONAU A SMALLTOWN IN HIS NAME-. ITS A 6HBAT HONOR! and The Associated Press. The war came, tearing families asunder, ripping hearts and bodies and minds. It put men to rotting in slender graves. Many, gone unburied in the wake of battles, waited.

The war came and it took pride, dignity and hope. The war came and in the end, it claimed a complex, often haunted Creature. The war as much as the bullet, (killed Abraham Lincoln. The bloody drift's bill paid. Lincoln's mind flashed dark in Ford's theater to the applause of a bullet his body, hauled to and sprawled on a short bed, took longer.

A worn-out, gaunt man long with death on his face. Tad's screams in Graver's Theater, no greater nor sadder song. Lincoln lay dead, his ship to a distant shore; Walt Whitman's lilacs, in bloom mocking death. The bullet brought myth and myth's legions. Those who knew Lincoln, knew little of him.

The treasure behind those compelling eyes, yet discovered. They paraded him from Washington to Springfield. To the cadence of the wind, Gen. Joseph Hooker, led the commander in chief on the march to the cemetery outside Springfield. In a fitful slumber, rudely interrupted in 1876 when machination foiled the presidential election and put Rutherford B.

Hayes in the White House, they came for Lincoln, but were foiled by A plot of ridiculous proportion, nearly equaling Edwin Booth's consideration of kidnapping the powerful 6-foot-4 president. The man of wit and awkward grace would have found humor in this comedy. He would have found humor and a "That reminds me had he, like a hovering ghost, witnessed ensuing efforts of friends to hide his body. A shell game only ended when the mausoleum stood granite tall. The final move mandated a final look.

A workman cut a rectangle in the coffin, the assemblage gazed on the leathery face. A boy arrived at the scene in time to take a look. He took it through his long life, dispensing the memory. Down deep, the 16th president sleeps, framed by a metal cage, encased in concrete, there is little fear he'll disappear. He'd slap his knees, stomp his feet at this joke, caught in the light transcending the sad mask.

As president, Lincoln found refuge in the telegraph office. There, seated on a stool, he would hone speeches, declarations, filing his musing in the drawer. He would be there to receive dispatches from the battlefields of disasters and victories. Reports that wrought pain, or satisfaction. Sometimes, they were twins.

Lincoln had a strong man in his secretary of war, a singular man of high anxiety and emotion. A man of delicate health and iron will, Edwin M. Stanton could be cruel, and kind, in measure. Stanton frequently quarreled with his boss, winning minor skirmishes. In the lid- MALLARD FILLMORE Ono by Khp Mm ON THE SQUARE ded, intelligent eyes, in the president's tone, disagreement on major issues were settled.

It is doubtful, Stanton, blind to humor was aware of the pleasure Lincoln derived from the feared secretary of state's tantrums. Still, Lincoln respected few men more. More than once did Stanton throw a man in jail out of pique. He had no mercy when it came to military executions, willing to send a young man to his grave for sleeping on duty, or fleeing the field. Lincoln saved many of the wretches; grasping for excuses, he put pen to stay.

And yet, he could be cold-hearted, sending a slaver to the hangman. A century, decades, years, months, days, minutes and seconds Lincoln and the war receding. The real man got lost in the mist. He emerged as myth, a figure shrouded, a face unseen. Widespread outrage greeted publication of a book by Lincoln's Springfield law partner, Billy Herndon.

Herndon was a man with weakness for drink and weakness for causes. As mayor of Springfield and reformed alcoholic he embraced temperance. Herndon, author of a "Herndon's Lincoln," published in the 1880s, ushered in the great debate over Ann Rutledge. Herndon, gathering most of his information from friends, relatives and those versed in rumor all much advanced in age asserted Ruthledge was the great love of Lincoln's life. Rutledge died young.

She haunted Lincoln until he died, Herndon hinted. The poet, historian, journalist Carl Sandburg, who wrote of the Civil War and wrote well took up Herndon's baton. Until recently, historians dismissed the Herndon and Sandburg accounts. Understandable. While the dispute is tipping toward Rutledge-Lincoln, the larger point may be the fact Herndon though not a trained historian contributed immeasurably.

Herndon, one of the first to separate myth from the man, died in poverty, a failed farmer, a drunk. His legacy his book. As mysterious as the Sphinx, Lincoln. The measure of the man will remain in his deeds. That's all we can reasonably expect.

But, then a puzzle once solved is soon set aside. As long as Lincoln remains a puzzle we won't forget him. We still mourn Lincoln. It wasn't fair the bullet in Ford's theater. Sacrifice never is.

Harry Reynolds is editorial page editor of the Journal GazetteTimes-Courier. Contact Reynolds at or 238-6861. Syndoate, he. WW ftf mmd KOW TO GET YOUR VIEW ON THE OPINIONS PAGE To submit a letter to the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier, please Include your name and address and send It to Editor, Journal Gazette, 1 00 Broadway, Mattoon, IL 61938, or Times-Courier, 2110 Woodfall Drive, Unit No. 10 Charleston, IL 61920.

Or send by e-mail to Letters should be limited to less than 400 words. AH letters must be signed. Letters should also include the writer's home address and telephone number, which win NOT be published. Letters are restricted to one per person in any three week period. HOW TO GET THE PAPER AT YOUR DOORSTEP EACH DAY The Journal Gazette (USPS 143-600) and Times-Courier (USPS 121-160) are published Monday through Saturday at 1 00 Broadway, Mattoon, 1 61 938, by Lee Publications, Inc.

a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises. Periodical postage paid at Mattoon, IL. Editorial and advertising offices at 100 Broadway, Mattoon, IL 61938, and 2110 Woodfall Drive, Unit No. 10, Charleston, IL 61920. Telephone: 1-800-453-2472.

E-mail: Postmaster Send address changes to Journal Gazette, 100 Broadway, Mattoon, IL 61 938, or to Times-Courier, 2110 Woodfall Drive, Unit No. 10, Charleston, IL 61 920. called together and say he is anxious to get back to Mattoon. Laudermilk wants to return a little early so as to secure some rooms for light housekeeping during the summer months and intends to bring his bride to this city to live. 50 Years Ago (1958) MATTOON The Board of Education unanimously adopted a recommendation of the budget committee to raise teachers' salaries.

Teachers with over two years of teaching experience will receive a DOONESBURY HIS FOAP ARE ALREAW PLANNING TH PIKERS' IKAtPWONAL. Ai -tj. At i 'Mi. farbubll' saluted ni The Mattoon Journal Gazette and Charleston Times-Courier are members of the Southern Illinois Editorial Association, Illinois Press Association 4-.