Opinion Archive

Believe it or not – this is the last Thursday of August. The next Navarre Press will be dated September 1. Time flies when you are having fun – and even if you aren’t. Lucky for us – we are having fun!

Sometimes things are just so ridiculous that one must comment.  I am speaking specifically about the current attempt to gain a share in the $35 million windfall for contractors in Escambia County.

Having moved to Navarre from Wisconsin this past December, I was looking forward to learning more about the local political races by attending the debate for the state Senate race between Mike Hill and Doug Broxson. Unfortunately, Mr. Broxson had better things to do and was a no-show, only a week before the election. Maybe he was coordinating with special interests or something, I don’t know. But I do remember that my grandfather always said “half of life is just showing up.” So I will be voting for Mike Hill, who made time to answer questions from the voters of this district.

Do you know the easiest way to tell when you are getting oh so close to the truth?  When the company you are making nervous files an injunction against you to attempt to silence the truth.  It happened last week.  Holley-Navarre Water System filed an injunction against Navarre Press and Sandi Kemp to prevent us from talking about certain things.

We saw a lot of discussion of last week’s editorial on Facebook but we do not have any letters to the editor regarding their discussions. People do not realize that Facebook isn’t real. People say things they wouldn’t say otherwise and assessing your worth or your opinion’s worth by how many likes someone gives you is superficial at best and at worse – a psychosis. What is said on Facebook – does not count. I’ve gone up to people and asked them to repeat to me what they have said on Facebook and they can’t – or won’t. Some are very brave behind their keyboards, but not in person. We stand behind what we write. We did get one item regrettably wrong in the editorial. Tony Alexander was fired in 2015 not 2014. We will be sure to make the official correction. We already corrected our online versions which will last – a lot longer than Facebook.

The Navarre Press had 10 articles attacking Tough Mudder this year.  The Navarre Press had 0 articles attacking Tough Mudder last year.

Running for office is not always an easy task and your decision to run to serve the public is much appreciated by many in the community.

Never a dull moment in Navarre. I leave town on a Wednesday and on Thursday there is a coup attempt at the Navarre Chamber – by starting another chamber – in Navarre? Funny, I heard about this three months ago and thought it was a stupid juvenile move by a former Chamber employee.

It is as juvenile and immature as what you would see on a playground with children, only most of the children on a playground are better behaved than this.  The two Tony’s (Alexander and Hughes) seem to be taking their frustration out on the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.  Alexander was fired in 2014 and threatened a wrongful termination lawsuit that never happened.  Hughes, president of Beach Community Bank withdrew himself as the Chamber representative for his business.  He filed an individual  membership application and he says he was “expelled” from the Chamber.  And now, lo and behold, they want to start their own chamber while touting the need for unity.

This weekend is tax-free weekend in the state of Florida to assist with back-to-school needs. You will find all of the back-to-school supply lists, information on orientations and more in this issue. School begins a week from Monday – believe it or not. My experience lately has been that a lot of people felt that back to school snuck up on them. I’ve heard of businesses like hair cutters, eye doctors and orthodontists have been a little slow until this past week – when the panic sets in.