Opinion Archive

Over the past 20 years, I have lived in two different houses on Ortega Street. And now within a half-mile radius, we have the high school, the sports complex and the YMCA.

We have seen multiple deaths, injury and destruction of property due to speeding and reckless driving (IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA).  

The Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce continues to fulfill its mission while celebrating the successes of the last 12 months.

Although the annual gala last week looked a lot more like the breakfast it turned into, it was great to see so many business owners and chamber members in the same room.

In the six months I have been editor of the Navarre Press, I have met just one family who lost a loved one to COVID-19 in Santa Rosa County.

Evelyn Keating, whose husband Dennis was hospitalized for months before passing away, was known locally as the As You Wish Handyman. He died Sept. 15.

When the temperatures recently dipped into the 20s here on the Emerald Coast, I was robbed of a favorite seasonal pastime: flaunting our balmy weather before my family and friends living in the north.

Instead, they mocked me as I whined about temperatures they consider to be a warming trend. I have grown so soft that what little fashion sense I possess is lost in such weather.

I watched a lot of bad basketball four years ago during Abby Fogg’s first season as the head coach.

Don’t get me wrong. The Raiders competed hard that season. They just didn’t win very often. They won only seven times to be exact.

As February closes in on March, some are asking the age old question: “Is spring here?”

A few moderately warm days will stimulate interest in the topic for a variety of reasons.

This will be a big week for those who have been keeping a close eye on Santa Rosa’s battles over water.

Thursday night is when the Santa Rosa County Commissioners are expected to lay their Dec. 10 vote to rest, by voting against that plan to repeal some wellfield protections.

Several months ago, I wrote a column about deceased Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias and how I had benefited from his ministry.

Recently in the news I read that the accusations of sexual misconduct and sexual abuse leveled against him in recent years by several women have proven true.

Representative government or political interference with the law?

Like the Federal government functions on the principal of subdividing its lawmaking (the Congress), law administration (the Executive), and law interpretation (the Judiciary) duties to prevent abuses against citizens, so too must Santa Rosa County.

I was raised on a steady diet of platitudes. The early bird gets the worm. Every cloud has a silver lining. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Like so many things I told my children, phrases like these become meaningless – perhaps because they are said so often.