Opinion Archive

Scrolling through Twitter late one evening ahead of my trip home for my father’s visitation and funeral, I came across a post I was tagged in by an athlete.

He posted a video of himself throwing a football to his dad in the backyard and mentioned me, stating that he would be dedicating his first touchdown of the 2022 high school football season to my dad.

“We locals call it ‘our Basket Full of Diamonds,’” said the guide as our tour boat glided past the lighthouse in Jupiter, FL in the diminishing light of evening.

My wife and I, both locals, gave one another an incredulous look and mouthed, “We do?”

Easter isn’t just a holiday (Holy Day) like other holidays.

It is a celebration of the most important day in history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, three days after his crucifixion and burial. The event was documented at the time by non-believing historians.

April 2nd was my “spiritual birthday.”

It was on April 2, 1984, that I was “born again” by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That term “born again” has gained some unfortunate baggage in recent years but it is thoroughly biblical. Jesus said to the Pharisee, Nicodemus, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Hey dad, if heaven had a newspaper subscription, I would ask God to pass this column along to you.

It’s been nearly two weeks since that heartbreaking Sunday morning I found out you were gone. Mom called just before 6 a.m. to let me know. I wasn’t ready for the kind of news that has changed my world forever.

Maybe I missed it, but I don’t remember hearing anyone talk about how well their brackets did for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

I also don’t ever remember a lot of talk about women’s college swimming this year, at least not until Lia Thomas came along and created controversy with her participation in an NCAA championship meet last month.

There’s a ticket stub attached to the inside of one of my binders that holds basketball cards from an era a long time ago.

We won’t get into just how long ago, except to say that every time I take a look at those cards, I swear I still smell the bubble gum that came with each pack of cards I bought.

A re-occurring theme in Navarre or Santa Rosa County for that matter is the number two. If one is good, then two is better.

We usually end up with two of something when within an organization there is a disgruntled faction and instead of working together to solve a problem, the disgruntled take their toys and create their own sandbox to play in.

The site work for Slim Chicken’s location next to the Navarre Post Office is moving quickly.

And, according to one of our avid readers, Mike Sandler, there are survey stakes where the proposed apartment complex is possibly going east of St. Augustine’s Church.