When I moved to Navarre, I was amazed to hear how popular and wide-ranging youth sports are in this area. Having young kids, I had not yet been exposed to the sports mom life. Here, our children play sports year-round. Often, that’s the same sport throughout the year. It requires a lot of time, travel, money and more.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand something just because you’re not familiar with it. When we moved here I was slightly annoyed that there was no one for my young kids to play outside with because they were all somewhere else playing “organized sports.” At 4 years old. I make fun of the word organized because if you’ve ever seen 4 year olds play soccer you know it’s about as organized as herding cats.
As temperatures dropped below freezing and snow fell in parts of Santa Rosa County last week, people without a home or a reliable heat source were able to stay warm thanks to the county’s cold weather shelter.
I covered Trump’s visit Friday. I was in the media section – which I later regretted. My husband was in general seating and he had great seats and was in a better position than I was to get great photos. However, I had my super-duper long lens – and a ladder. I only had a ladder because another photographer brought two ladders and he could only be on one at a time. Therefore, I was the guardian of the ladder he wasn’t on. The atmosphere was electric and positive. There were some protestors outside – but not very many. We had someone call our office on Friday and invite us to go protest with them. For the record, media doesn’t protest – or shouldn’t protest – though they do it all the time – in their own pages. But, that is another topic. The civic center was full rafters to floor. There were even rows of people two deep in front of the media pit – where they weren’t supposed to be. Thankfully – I had the aforementioned ladders. Every time Trump mentioned fake news or the lying media, some in the crowd in front of us would turn around and sneer and snicker – a little. They were trying to be as polite as possible while sneering – but I felt like I was in a cage at a Zoo and we were the attraction. However, they quickly forgot about us – in between jabs from Trump. Of course, I knew he wasn’t talking about Navarre Press. I even had someone tell me later that every time they heard Trump call out the fake news media he thought – “except Navarre Press.” He must have been reading my mind – because that is what I was thinking. When I was with Matt Gaetz on Open Gaetz Day in Navarre even Gaetz told me that he has never had an instance when Navarre Press has misrepresented him. And, for good reason, we don’t. We aren’t perfect and don’t pretend to be. We own up to our mistakes and fix them. But we don’t take news out of the paper because it is derogatory to our friends and we don’t put slants on stories. There isn’t anyone that we would go out of our way to compromise our core values or our mission for. There just isn’t – because there is no one worth compromising ourselves for. And, there is a lot of salacious “news” we know that we don’t print because it really isn’t news.
To say that the media is knee-jerk and irresponsible is to make the understatement of the millennium. To say that the American people are gullible to their knee-jerk is to speak a sad truth. On no other subject is this more relevant than the matter of sexual harassment claims.
Trump was not my first choice for president; however, he is our best choice. Finally, we have a president who does what was promised during the campaign. Typically the election is won by someone who tells you what you want to hear then when elected does what the establishment directs.
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, the world changed forever. Pearl Harbor was bombed in a surprise attack by the Japanese, thrusting the United States into World War II. A total of 2,403 lives were lost in the attack.
Cold rain is falling from the dark sky above. The wind is blowing just enough to chill your bones. Outside is the last place you want to be on this December night.
The weather outside is frightful, but inside the Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center (NBSTCC) it was delightful Saturday as children played and learned at the first ever Sea Turtle Shell-a-bration.
