Opinion Archive

The past two weeks have been truly tragic for police officers, the protectors of our communities.  In the most recent highly publicized cases, the force as a whole lost five officers in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge.  But the total loss for the month of July nationwide so far is 17.  We know about eight of those, but what follows are the names you probably haven’t heard. 

Regarding the “Pokemon Go” craze – I guess you can tell that we incorporated the theme throughout. The first I noticed something was going on was when I saw people walking down Palafox in Pensacola Friday night with their heads in their phones barely looking up to cross the many crosswalks. Then I noticed some young men walking around the yard at our office with their heads in their phones. They were very excited when I asked them to come inside the office and talk to me about Pokemon. And then, I realized, that was too easy. What if I were a weirdo? OK – I know what some of you just thought…that I am a weirdo.  OK – I’m just abnormal – and proud of it.  Who would want to be normal anyway?  Back to Pokemon Go…I liked one Facebook post that said – how about…”Pokemon Go…do something useful, Pokemon Go pick up trash on the beach and more.  And then there was a text I received this morning from my daughter at 12:15 a.m. that said that she and her husband were in Navarre Park playing Pokemon Go.  You will read in the story how Navarre Park is the Pokemon Go place to be.  Some lucky businesses were able to be special places for the game such as Johnny Huston’s and Lewis Funeral home. We had a few jokes around here about how people would show up at funerals to catch characters in Pokemon – but then they didn’t sound so funny.  When you have to write stories about perps, creeps, and offenders on a regular basis – your humor does get a little warped. We did take a family walk last night to try to catch some Pokemon characters – so there is a positive side to the game. I haven’t downloaded it to my phone – and I don’t plan to. But, that’s just me.  I just will be busy keeping my eyes open for gamers who aren’t looking at where they are going.

Nicely written opinion on 7 July, “Trespassing on peace?” Your response was well-reasoned and reasonable. Christan Bowen’s primary problem was poking at a straw man – a weak but very flammable target.

The United States of America has been in precarious positions before, but it seems lately things are not turning as they should.  Something is out of balance, or as we would say in the south, out of whack.  The list of what is out of whack is long and disturbing.  To name a few, a satanic group will deliver a satanic invocation at the next City of Pensacola meeting in an effort by the council to be fair across religious boundaries, a spotlight shines on law enforcement and their use of force and sometimes deadly force with black lives (not all lives), a sniper shot and killed five police officers in Dallas during a Black Lives Matter rally in what appears to be retaliation for black people who have lost their lives at the hands of deputies, former secretary of state and now presidential candidate sent classified and top-secret emails on an unsecured server at her house and is deemed reckless by the head of the FBI yet no charges are filed and no consequences are delivered, we are at war with Islamic extremists in our own country and abroad.  We are a nation under siege by both ourselves and others. 

The FBI describes finding a terrorist rooted amongst our population similar to finding a needle in a haystack. Common sense states if looking for that needle you don’t add hay to the stack. Common sense also states that if the hay-eating animals are being hurt by the needles you don’t add more hay that contains more needles! This action only complicates the problem of not just having to find one needle, but multiple needles in a much larger haystack. If the educated Liberal Left Democrats can’t understand this simple common-sense concept of thought should they really be running for any office within our government? Of course their solution to any problem is to spend more of our borrowed money to correct the problem. Has government recently corrected any of our problems by spending more money?

Santa Rosa’s roughly 130,000 voters will have the opportunity to cast their ballots for a variety of state candidates, county officials and local-option sales taxes Aug. 30 in the county’s primary election.

The following arrived in our inbox as a letter to the editor, and the opportunity of a response should not pass:

Monday is July 4, one of my favorite holidays. As a child, I liked it because I knew it was 20 more days until my birthday.  As I have grown older and wiser, I’ve discovered that July 4 is hugely more significant than my birthday.  In my humble opinion, July 4th is a miracle. It is a miracle that men from all walks of life (and the women behind the scenes) were able to come together to accomplish the Declaration of Independence and all that it signifies.

My prediction is our next immigration problem will come from Cuba. With the action of the Obama administration to normalize relations with Cuba, without any legitimate insight (none by Republicans / thought out very well by Democrats) in regards to immigration and the new commercial flights (Cuban government-owned airline) from Cuba, the following will be next. Our U.S. immigration policy known as “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” will be subverted to allow any Cuban into our country. They will need a Cuban passport only issued by the Cuban government. The government itself will decide who leaves Cuba. They may or may not need an entry visa (if so, visas will be fast tracked) from the Obama administration to gain entry to our country. Once here the “Dry Foot” portion of our immigration law will kick in and the Obama administration will issue, at a minimum by law, a $1,500 dollar tax payer-paid check to all who arrive and are wanting citizenship.

Our flag has many names, the most popular being “The Stars and Stripes.” No one knows whence that name came. In 1814 Francis Scott Key called it “The Star Spangled Banner.” Ten years later William Driver, a sea captain from Salem, Mass., my birthplace (FYI Salem is the ancient name for Jerusalem which Obama and Kerry advocate dividing – sacrilege, but that’s another story!) named it “Old Glory.” I love it! My heart is stirred whenever I see her displayed, often bringing tears to my eyes! Would to God all Americans felt the same. Sad to say, some are still disrespectful, burning it even recently at political events. Shame, shame!