Opinion Archive

It seems escape rooms are all the rage right now and Navarre is fortunate to have one. It opened recently and Navarre Press had the opportunity to visit and find out more about this entertainment business model. The trend started in Japan in 2007 and now they are worldwide – including Navarre. You can read more about it on our Business page. It would be a great team-building exercise for businesses. Maybe even for our county commissioners – it would require them to come together to create a solution to the puzzle of clues to be able to get out of the room. Hmmm…work together to solve a problem. What a novel concept.

Of the $2,398,948 collected last fiscal year in bed tax dollars in Santa Rosa County, the Tourist Development Office set aside $75,000 to use as grant money for local events that help promote tourism. A criterion was set that had to be met in order to qualify for the grant money.

So a certain county commissioner here in Santa Rosa County – he’s the political version of a crazy fan — opted to go on Facebook last week and call the Navarre Press a fake news media outlet.

A founding principle of the communist manifesto is if a lie is stated enough times then people will begin to believe the lie. We are experiencing this exact action against our current government. These lies are inciting discontent or rebellion against the government. If there was any truth to the anonymous accusations, then the seditious activity could be justified. An outsider was elected because the people were tired of the corruption within the government. Multinational corporations and special interest groups aided by the insiders within the government have promulgated policies and laws that serve the few not the many. Free market capitalism, not phony capitalism, provided our high standard of living and it will again if we have the foresight to return to its core principals.

God Bless the one wounded and three dead U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. This Afghani was vetted for being a terrorist by our military before ever being trained by the same military and given a loaded gun. If the military can’t vet someone for being a terrorist what makes you think our government can when any Sharia Law believing Muslim wants citizenship here? Nothing is perfect or a guarantee. But like those soldiers who turned their backs trusting this unknown Sharia Law killer we are doing the same with every individual let in our country from these Sharia Law Muslim countries. With just 10 Sharia Law believing terrorists among each thousand (just 1 percent) Muslims admitted to our country we face the possibility of 10 terrorist attacks and maybe our death, a family member’s death or our neighbor’s death. The odds of someone dying are better than if you buried 10 12- inch landmines within a 32 ft. by 32 ft. area and waited for someone to walk across it. At some point someone will die. 

Tourism is an important growth industry in our economy. Many citizens in our community make their living directly and/or indirectly from tourism. I respect the importance of this industry within our county. I support the new “Relax” branding campaign’s mission to create greater economic prosperity by targeting tourists within an 8-hour drive time of our county. I think the majority of the work Paradise Advertising created is excellent and elevates the image of our home town. The source of monies used to pay for this campaign came from bed tax generated by tourists, and these monies are allocated for tourism marketing in various forms by state law. I understand the budget for this campaign is not funded by locals or their hard-earned tax dollars.

Father’s Day is this Sunday.  Don’t forget to take your father to Oak Ridge Gun Range on Father’s Day for a BBQ in the parking lot and discounts on select fire arms. 

I’ve been thinking about the Navarre Beach sign this week and the passion behind those that want to keep a part of history of our area and those that are reluctant to speak up about their thoughts on the subject.

I have copies of “The world’s Meanest Mom”, printed in the Press Gazette on May 4, 1995, in another area paper on May 8, 1994, and where Ann Landers on October 22, 1983 wrote “Country Needs More Mean Mothers”. Amen to that!  For those not familiar with it, here’s the blessing! Many of us can relate to most or all of it, Praise God!

The NFL needed to make a change to the overtime rule about as much as Navarre Beach needed a new slogan. Both serve no purpose.