Editorial Archive

Santa Rosa County is fortunate to have a committed group of citizen advocates, small but vocal, who monitor local government to protect the interests of “We the People.”

This newspaper is dated Dec. 7, 2023, the 82nd anniversary of the devastating surprise attack by the Japanese against the U.S. Navy’s facilities at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i. Most Americans know today is Pearl Harbor Day, that the attack precipitated the United States’ entry into World War II and that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in condemning Japan’s aggression, called Dec. 7, 1941, “a date that shall live in infamy.”

Everyone would agree that it’s important to help and protect the truly needy and vulnerable in our society. How best to provide that service is a much more contentious issue. On one extreme, people argue that only the state has the wealth and power for such a mission; on the other, people object to government taking any more money from the public (in the form of taxes) and suggest government bureaucracy is too inefficient and wasteful.

We at Sandpaper Publishing have much to be thankful for, beginning with our members and readers. You fuel the passion we have for publishing three newspapers each week for three communities. We work hard to report and write the stories the matter most to you. We are your voice and are privileged to be in that role. Thank you for choosing us as your news and information source. We hope you stay tuned because we have so much more work to do for you.

It was a statement we heard at a national business conference and that wasn’t the only remark we heard about our industry. “Journalists go to journalism school to learn how to ask stupid questions.” This particular speaker had been the subject of “gotcha” journalism in the past. Every time an employee left his company it made the front page of the local newspaper. They referred to him as a cult leader and worse.

Speak up. Talk to your children, your siblings, your friends. Tell them until they’re sick of hearing it: “One pill can kill.”

By now, most people know the United States is plagued by opioid addiction, overdoses and death; most people have heard of fentanyl, know that it’s dangerous even in miniscule doses; know it’s combined with other drugs to increase drug dealers’ profits….and still, fentanyl-related overdoses are on the rise.

Inevitably, debates over helping the needy come down to who should provide services. Conservatives argue families and churches should bear that burden, NOT taxpayers; liberals retort that families and churches can’t or aren’t doing enough and it’s up to government.

Is anybody wondering what God’s thoughts are about Hamas’ inhumanity to man in this “wicked and perverse” generation?  Of course, some are, in light of Biblical warnings of wars and rumors of wars occurring.  Some know, most don’t that nothing needs to happen before the rapture, the next event on God’s calendar.  The rapture is the “catching-up of the church,” only God knows when!

Ray Eddington has a thick Tennessee drawl and a sensibility that pairs well with a solid work ethic and growing reputation as a practical problem solver.
But his common sense failed him last month when he suggested keeping all Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioner meetings in Milton, the county seat.

As the 2024 presidential election looms, the FBI has decided to classify supporters of former President Donald Trump as potential “domestic extremists,” a Newsweek investigation has found.