Opinion Archive

North Florida in January can be cold, as recent weeks have demonstrated. However, by the standards of latitudes farther north in the United States (and Canada), the month can be considered quite balmy.

As such, those who reside in the seasonally frozen geographic regions are inclined to visit this state when circumstances allow.

From early on in our marriage, my wife and I wanted to get a dog, but with full-time jobs, it didn’t seem wise.

Seeing people walking dogs in our neighborhood and cute dogs in TV commercials relentlessly threatened our resolve.

Although my editor just shared with me that a recent survey indicated that each Floridians drank an average of 813 alcoholic beverages in 2020, this week’s Navarre Press has a lot more to do with drinking water.

However, it is related because we need good drinking water to make alcoholic beverages.

If you have not seen the news, the East Milton Wellfield Protection issue is about how three commissioners (Bob Cole, Sam Parker and James Calkins) voted to remove “existing” water protection rights for the citizens of South Santa Rosa and East Milton.

Let me repeat that, remove an “existing” water protection right.

Thank you to Commission (Dave) Piech and Commissioner (Colten) Wright for voting NO regarding lifting protections for the borrow pits and our drinking water!

To Commissioners (Bob) Cole, (Sam) Parker and (James) Calkins:  Please, at least one of you reverse your vote.  You are taking absurd chances with our drinking water.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of COVID changing our lives in almost every way possible, we could focus on the negative.

We have all lost something in the last 12 months. Some have lost people they loved, including one of their parents.

It’s been a little over 20 years, but I still remember the buzz inside the press box at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh the night North Carolina State played Georgia Tech.

All the excitement on a warm night in mid-September centered around some freshman quarterback named Phillip Rivers.

The effects of January’s cold weather in Santa Rosa County have many characteristics.

In addition to the realistic possibility of the occasional subfreezing thermometer readings and frosts, there is the quiet.

Forrest Gump told the lady at the bus stop, “My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get,” then he popped one into his mouth.

Clearly, that was before candy companies put key cards in the boxes because, Forrest, you can know exactly “what you’re gonna get.”

For all the teachers and educators in this county who work hard every day to make a difference in children’s lives, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you.

Reading is a fundamental skill that isn’t easy for all children to acquire. We celebrate those efforts and that skill during Literacy Week.