Opinion Archive

The Book of Acts describes an encounter between Phillip, a newly minted deacon, and an Ethiopian court official, who was sitting in a chariot reading Isaiah 53. The Spirit of God directed Phillip to ask him if he understood what he was reading. “How can I, unless someone guides me? About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or someone else?” Phillip told him from the Scriptures the good news about Christ Jesus, and that man put his faith in Christ.

Last week’s column was a re-run from 2019’s Independence Day paper. I didn’t receive any complaints, and I thought it was still interesting and I hoped you would too. It was, after all, verified history from more than 200 years ago so…it wasn’t stale. It is always good to reminder during Independence Day celebrations.  

Last week, Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman said that the U.S. Air Force and local and regional governments are moving closer to making a Hurlburt Field bypass road a reality.

Good news for Navarre. The Raider baseball and softball programs now have their coaches in place.
I’d like to think everyone is happy with the two who have been chosen to fill those roles, but this is high school sports we are talking about, so maybe not.

Happy July 4!

We need to be reminded occasionally that freedom isn’t free, and we know that only too well in our military community. Most of the signers of the declarations signed their lives away with the stroke of a pen. I recently ran across this on singer Michael W. Smith’s website, and it is a message that we all need to hear, regardless of the time of year.

I did something last week that I had not done in decades – I tested a 9-volt battery by touching its posts to my tongue. Have you ever done that? My friends and I used to do it for kicks when we were kids. The unpleasant tingling sensation I felt told me that the battery was still good. Afterward, with a brain that may have just received a 9-volt kick start, I pondered that age-old question, “Why?”

Election years are always a very polarizing time in the United States. In today’s social media focused world, “unfollowing” a long-time friend because of their political views, beliefs or opinions is as easy as the click of a button.

Some athletes are clear-cut, no doubt about it Division I type of athletes. You look at one of them and you are like ‘that kid is going to be big-time special at a place like Alabama, Florida State, LSU or Georgia.’
I’ve seen a handful of those athletes over the years.

Every day for the past two weeks, I have received an email claiming to be from Sirius XM, warning me that my subscription is about to be terminated due to lack of payment. All I must do to correct my perilous situation is submit my payment information to the sender. It is a scam, that fact validated by their atrocious spelling, and by the daily emails I receive from Sirius XM informing me of musical programming I might like.

I’m visiting a prison later this week in Blountstown and I was required to submit information for a background check before I got permission to go inside.  Let that sink in.  I totally understand, but the irony wasn’t lost on me. I heard that the prison is training inmates on how to operate a piece of machinery that I’m interested in knowing more about. And, because there is always a story, there is a story. However, I don’t have permission for the story yet. They have vocational programs and when the inmates that are in the program are released, they leave with a vocational certificate. I’ll have to see if we have any subscribers there. We have quite a few in prison. One time a paper was sent back to us because inside that issue was a story about how someone got in trouble for breaking someone out of prison. The note we received back from the prison office was that the story was too descriptive and gave details on how to sneak certain items into prison. The person that didn’t receive their paper missed it, so we cut that story out of the paper and sent it back to the prison. It was very appreciated. We appreciate our subscribers that happen to be in prison. At least it helps the prison guards read newspapers – because apparently, they are reading them before they are passed on to their rightful owners. My mom used to go to a maximum-security prison for women in Orlando every Sunday evening to lead a Bible study when she was in her 80’s. She was always nervous that she would make a mistake and not be able to go back. There were very strict rules about what she could wear and bring with her. Pens were not allowed, or sharp pencils. I’ll follow her lead when I visit the prison.