Editorial Archive

We’ve been calling it the end of an era for a long time now.

The weather was beautiful, the sculptors were enthusiastic and accommodating and the sights were incredible last weekend at the Navarre Beach Sand Sculpting Festival. Everything was perfect except for one detail: the damage to several sculptures done by vandals Friday night.

When an otherwise ordinary guy like Edward Snowden becomes a household name overnight, you know that his story is about more than whether he’s a good guy or bad guy for leaking information of U.S. and British government surveillance programs to the press.

The county recently held a public meeting asking for input on improvements the community would like to see made at Navarre Park. It was a smart, and necessary move. Now we’ll see if the county listened.

The responsibilities of a newspaper go much deeper than simply writing stories that entertain and inform. The words public service and watchdog are often tossed around, and rightfully so.

The selection process of the management of the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier is turning out to be much like a fishing expedition. Lines are cast, but you never know what’s going to come back.

Sometimes less is more. In business, supply and demand is a key factor in making money and paying bills – two issues that seem to a major problem for the Santa Rosa Bay Bridge, aka the Garcon Point Bridge, aka Bo’s Bridge (in reference to former Florida House Speaker Bolley “Bo” Johnson, a Milton politician who spearheaded the effort to build the bridge and then later went to federal prison for tax evasion).

Sinking ships take on water – it’s what they do. The half-sunken boat in the Sound near Juana’s Pagodas has been taking on water for well over a month now, but the boat isn’t the only one going down. The story and details of the owner are seemingly sinking as well.

The world in which we live today is one of instant gratification. Do first, think later. Gotta have it now.

While classrooms might not have yet been filled with students, school was most definitely in session last week. Shots rang out, smoke filled the air and fire alarms pierced the quiet that usually fills the halls of schools this time of year. First responders busted through the doors to find they had left the world of what they know and entered into a world where they have to rely on each other just as much as rely upon their training. The shots were, of course, blanks and the smoke from a machine rather than a fire. The “injured” were covered in makeup rather than blood, but don’t tell that to the first responders…they had those injured out of the building quicker than this reporter could snap more than a handful of photos.