Another Christmas has come and gone. Thanks be unto God for Jesus, the reason for the season, making it possible for all who choose to live eternally in Heaven with the Lover of our souls. He loves each one of us more than anyone else ever could. He shed His own blood for us all. He alone deserves the pre-eminence in our lives!
Christmas is a time to relax. To open presents, enjoy quality time with family and friends and savor a getaway from the grind that is this business we call journalism.
It seems like President Donald J. Trump hasn’t had a day of peace since he was elected. I marvel at his stamina which has to be God–given. The border wall has probably been his worse nemesis.
Today Time Magazine named four journalists and a newspaper as its 2018 Person of the Year for what the magazine said was standing up for the truth in the face of persecution and violence.
Christmas season is here – and it seems that election season is upon us as well with the water board election which will culminate on January 15 with an in-person vote if you haven’t requested an absentee ballot. We wrote all about that last week in the paper – and it is online if you need to know how to vote when you get to the end of this column.
What blessings Bush 43 and British Brian Mulroney’s eulogies of Pres. Bush 41. The latter ended with “There are wooden ships, There are sailing ships, There are ships that sail the sea, But the best ships are friendships, and may they always be”
By now, the sting of Navarre’s 49-27 loss to Crestview has worn off ever so slightly. It probably won’t ever go away entirely. That just comes with the territory of losing in the postseason.
I think it was a nice gesture for Trump to give Federal and Government workers the day off as a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush – but now we have set a precedent and there will be more impromptu closings in the future. Pragmatically – it won’t happen very often, but when it does happen it will not be predictable. Take for instance, this week it falls on a Wednesday and it wasn’t announced until Monday afternoon. Since we mail our papers, we have to have them to the Post Office on Wednesday to be delivered on Thursday. We work around known holidays – like Thanksgiving and get them done early. However, we could not do that this week because it was not predictable. Our post office is under a lot of scrutiny and stress to make sure you receive your mail in a timely manner. We recently wrote an article about the addition of entire routes due to the growth of Navarre. I spoke with a representative at the Post Office regarding our Thursday delivery dilemma and found out that HBTS receives 500-600 packages a day. That is a lot of packages – and that doesn’t include the regular mail. They have had carriers out until after 7 p.m. trying to get all the mail delivered and now they will have twice as much mail on Thursday – during the holiday rush. We are just one example – I’m sure they are many more. One team member here wanted to know if they got the day off and I said, “if you want to take a day off to mourn President George H.W. Bush” that is your prerogative, but it will be on your own time. Apparently, that was funny because it got a lot of laughs. Bottomline, please be patient with our postal service. They have a job to do…rain, sleet, snow….except during the day we thought Michael was coming this way, or that time we had ice on the roads, and now, when a former president dies.
With the holidays we can say “Happy Thanksgiving” as we all give thanks for all we have in our lives, and not question what is missing in our lives. We are now allowed, and appropriately so, to say “Merry Christmas” again without being attacked in public. Yet there is always someone who hates the evolved idea of Santa Claus, Christmas, and religion.
