23 JAN 05: REGAINING YOUR "VOZ"
The fliers on South Lumpkin Road promote a new radio program called "Voz Del Valle" - Spanish for "Voce of the Valley." This slogan seems so fitting for a city like Columbus - so why has no station used it since I've lived here? Are other stations afraid the city of Valley, Alabama will sue?
Voz del Valle boasts it's on every Saturday morning on WSHE-AM -- and if you can't tell from the name, it broadcasts in Spanish. For you fans of the usual "Southern gospel" music on this station, think of this as even FARTHER south...
Voz del Valle is on the station which used to have "Ritmo Latino Radio." That old name is nowhere on the flier I saw. So when that play "Guilty Until Proven Innocent" comes to town in a couple of weeks, keep the indicted Jose Ricci in mind.
The flier for Voz del Valle shows a photo of host Sherley Castillo - a name I don't recall ever hearing in the Ritmo Latino era. "DJ Morrow" is on a poster for Ritmo Latino BALLROOM instead. I guess the woman who used to do interviews and read the horoscopes does this before the dancing starts.
By the way, the monthly newspaper "La Voz Hispana" seems to have vanished. The only paper I saw at stores on South Lumpkin Road Friday was a Caribbean publication from Atlanta -- and it didn't seem right, because every word of it seemed to be in English.
It will be interesting to see if Voz del Valle expands on the air the way Ritmo Latino Radio did two years ago. "Ritmo" was on all weekend long for awhile, and had big-name advertisers such as Bill Heard Chevrolet and Aflac. But after what happened in recent months, Voz del Valle may do well to get the new El Vaquero restaurant.
Speaking of food and internationalism, the church I attend had that "Italian Dinner" I mentioned the other day on Saturday evening.
I was asked to provide fitting music for the event -- and my pastor was disappointed when the only two Dean Martin songs I had were in English.
Someone in the congregation had a very creative idea for the Italian dinner. They brought a cake decorated to look like a giant plate of spaghetti and meatballs! By comparison, the Italian bread in my basket looked like I'd poured pine pollen on several maps of Long Island.
E-MAIL UPDATE: This was sent to several media outlets around town, so you may have seen this elsewhere:
This is a story you don't hear because I guess it isn't newsworthy:
On 1/19/05, Officer A. McCarty was working off duty at a school in Muscogee County when he was approached by a school official concerning a suspicious individual on the campus. An investigation by Officer McCarty determined that a 14 year old female left the campus and may have been with an unidentified male. Officer McCarty further determined that the juvenile and the suspect had been seen at a hotel in the area. Officer McCarty made and immediate broadcast for the two individuals and, on his own initiative, contacted the Columbus Airport requesting that personnel there be on the look out. A short time later, the two individuals were identified and detained as they were boarding an airplane bound for California. It was later revealed that the suspect was the uncle of the 14 year old female and had taken her from the school, in violation of several court orders. The suspect was charged with Interference with Custody and Criminal Trespass. If not for the quick response by Officer McCarty, this juvenile would have been on her way to California and very possibly never located safely. She was in fact only moments from leaving this jurisdiction. Officer McCarty's actions and quick thinking, in particular taking it upon himself to contact the airport, was the key factor that brought this case to a successful conclusion. Officers like McCarty are a credit to the department and a pleasure to work with.
Do you want Police Officers like Officer A. McCarty providing quality service to this community?
You better contact your city councilors and tell them to pay our Police Officers or else Officers like this will be leaving for better paying Police jobs. They will be replaced with "report takers" who would not have taken the initiative to call the airport and make a broadcast. If you really look at it, it's a life or death decision. This 14 year old girl may have ended up dead if it weren't for a quality Police Officer.
Thank you,
MayorHater
And OUR thanks to - hold on a minute. MayorHater?!?! What about the 60 percent of Columbus voters who turned down the one-cent sales tax, to provide public safety pay hikes? But then again, "60PercentHater" sounds kind of strange....
It could be we haven't heard this story from last Wednesday because local reporters haven't found it in police records yet. Remember, the Fraternal Order of Police DOES warn crime is increasing - so there are so many more reports to examine.
Assuming the writer's report is true (if it's not, please let us know), this is a curious case. Why would an uncle want to take a 14-year-old girl out of school, and take her to California? Hasn't he heard Tiger Woods became married a couple of months ago?
Officer McCarty apparently made the right call by alerting Columbus Airport officers to the suspect. That stupid criminal - thinking he could hide in the "crowd," at an airport which hardly ever has one....
We certainly would want an officer such as "A. McCarty" providing quality service to our community. And I'm sure city officials appreciate the fact that he did this while OFF duty, thus saving overtime pay.
What about the author's warning that police who leave for better salaries will be replaced by "report takers?" MayorHater expressed concern about officers taking reports in a prior e-mail to us [14 Jan]. Are there still "steno pools" somewhere to handle these things?
And what about those officers who go to other cities for more money? To read the Atlanta newspaper's web site, public safety personnel have the same gripe about pay as Columbus officers do. If money doesn't buy happiness for criminals, I doubt it can for police, either....
Now let's see what other things we can find on a midwinter weekend:
+ The forecast of a rainy Saturday never happened in Columbus, which was annoying enough. But which local TV weathercaster told his afternoon audience about this weekend, "not everyone will see the thunder?" I doubt anyone will see thunder at all - because you see lightning and HEAR thunder.
+ WFRC-FM's "Christian Home" broadcast used inauguration day and Friday for a two-day reading of an article - about General Stonewall Jackson! I realize Friday was Jackson's birthday, but is this a subtle statement against our President?
+ O'Reilly Auto Parts opened its first Columbus store on Veterans Parkway. Many people probably were disappointed to find Bill O'Reilly's books were NOT on sale....
+ WRBL checked police reports, and found the number of traffic collisions on Victory Drive went up sharply last year. Was that really because the I-185 entrance to Fort Benning was closed for construction? Or did those women in the "lounges" strip a little faster?
+ Instant Message to Tidwell Cancer Treatment Center: About your "Season's Greetings" sign, which was still up Saturday night - when will "The Season" end? With the Super Bowl in two weeks, Valentine's Day or Presidents Day?
BLOG CORRECTION: The Cottonmouths' fund-raiser game for tsunami survivors actually is NEXT Thursday, the 27th. Our apologies for the mix-up - and now you have extra days to decide if downtown beggars need the money more than Sri Lanka does.
COMING SOON: Who's that man with the strange writing on his.... well, it's not a car....
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