Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

Opinions

Let there be light

Article Image Alt Text

Before venturing to our community’s Downtown Christmas Celebration, I halfway decorated the Christmas tree in our family room.

We are among the purists who, for as long as we’re able, will enjoy the smell of a fresh evergreen tree. I can see—in the distance—a year when that will no longer be possible, but this year it was possible.

That might be Miracle No. 1.

Thwarting voter fraud

Article Image Alt Text

Cheating. It was former pro wrestler Eddie Guerrero who once said, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.” On the other hand, if it weren’t for cheating, there’d be no country music.

When it comes to cheating in elections, while often mentioned, it is rarely proven. Crying foul was screamed by Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000. Though he narrowly won the popular vote, he came up just short in Florida. As a result, their 25 electoral college votes were awarded to Republican candidate George W. Bush, who had just enough to win the race.

Lost class-time not easily replaced

Article Image Alt Text

There once was a day when getting good grades could be assured simply by sitting behind the smartest person in the class.

Now days things are different. Considerably. While the idea of having students learn from their homes, watching lessons online, the temptation, especially when kids had no parents or adults to make certain they actually watched, listened and took notes, was greater to watch television, You Tube, focus on social media, play video games or a combination of them all.

Christmas from the straw beneath the manger

Article Image Alt Text

Inevitably, there comes a Christmas when “holly, jolly” just doesn’t seem to capture the mood.

This is particularly difficult for me to acknowledge because I’ve always been a big advocate of Christmas—the sacred observance and the secular one, too. I like them both.

I grew up believing Christmas really was the most wonderful time of the year--that those words were not just lyrics to a song--and I have spent my life trying to convince others of the joys of roasting chestnuts on an open fire or dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh.

Smash-and-grab mindset

Article Image Alt Text

Why are hordes of people blitzing stores and cleaning them out in minutes? Because they can.

We’ve seen what mobs of people have done throughout history, and its seldom ever good. When coordi nated, crowds - bent on or engaged in lawless violence, overload a facility or setting, the desired result can be accomplished. We’ve seen it at the White House on January 6 and in big city protests.

Along the Avenue

Article Image Alt Text

Counting the throngs on both sides of West Ennis Avenue on Thursday night would have been a challenge. Suffice it to say, the annual Lights of Ennis Parade was a huge hit.

Fire Marshall Chad Wester said he has never seen a crowd larger than what he witnessed. Other than counting sheep in one’s sleep, estimating the attendance at 10,000 or more would not shock anyone. Let’s face it, everyone loves a parade, and considering the number of starry-eyed children on hand, it continues to be a family-friendly venue.

City Leadership did it again! Another home-run.

Give thanks

Article Image Alt Text

There are times when Life moves along at a pretty predictable pace--so much so that you get rocked into some sort of complacency about the goodness which surrounds you.

When immersed in this complacency, you have time to look at that greener grass growing next door, or those Joneses who are retired and having a fabulous time in Hawaii, or that dear friend’s Christmas card where every relative is either a Harvard lawyer, found the cure for cancer, performed in the U.S. Olympics or painted a mural for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Why can’t that be my family?

Thanksgiving traditions

Article Image Alt Text

We know from elementary school craft projects that Thanksgiving started as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the many blessings of the harvest during the previous year. It began as an expressive harvest festival.

Who among us will ever forget round-edge scissors, construction paper and glue? We used them to make pilgrim hats with buckles. We also drew around our hands to create the border for coloring-in turkeys.

The unthankful heart overlooks life's blessings

Article Image Alt Text

I’ve always enjoyed Thanksgiving but many times I become distracted from the intended purpose. I confess that between football, conversations, and the delicious meals I often forget how much I have to be grateful for. Let us once again be reminded of the history of human suffering that is associated with the Pilgrims.

Parents as domestic terrorists

Article Image Alt Text

Domestic terrorism has become a term that recently has been tagged on some questionable targets, chief among them being parents of students who disapprove of either policy or teaching curriculum.

Parents? Yep. Soccer moms, PTA members, cupcake makers? That’s them, but this group sees a bigger picture, and understand the process involved about curriculum. They are aware of how traditional values are gradually being replaced with a mindset that is ripe for upheaval.

Some of them are teachers or homeschoolers. They’re educated. And they don’t take dictation.