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Today's Opinions

  • A television news icon passes on

    Slowly and steadily, the old school of television journalists is dying off, leaving the superficial stars of today, many of whom are chosen for either their ability to out-shout their foes, or because they look pretty on the tube.
    Another icon of the television news business left us on Easter Sunday, when Mike Wallace, best known for his “60 Minutes” segments, died at the age of 93.

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  • 1-4-2012

    In last week’s paper we covered the story of a Tea Party Solutions meeting in which a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ron McNeil, paid a visit and spoke.
    McNeil is one of about a dozen Republicans trying to unseat Democrat Bill Nelson.
    This was the major beginning of what will undoubtedly be a number of political gatherings and rallies as we prepare for the 2012 elections. We’ve already had some events concerning the sheriff’s race, but now things are starting to expand.

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  • Even kids know where the Southeast is

    When it comes to college football, some people need a geography lesson. Those kids on the show “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader? would put some of them to shame.
    In college sports, SEC stands for the Southeastern Conference, not the Securities and Exchange Commission (although an antitrust investigation might be nice). The sports SEC released its schedule last week for this year’s football season.
    There are two new SEC members, and the University of Florida plays them both, traveling to Texas A&M and hosting Missouri.

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  • Baseball strikes out

    One of the most moving ceremonies this past weekend remembering the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was the pregame event at Citi Field in New York before the Major League Baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets. ESPN did a great job covering all aspects of the remembrance.
    A group called Tuesday’s Children, made up of youngsters who lost a parent on 9/11, took part, with each player taking the hand of a child as they came out on the field, and other children displaying a huge American flag in the outfield.

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  • And the band played on ... we hope

    When I was a young sportswriter, I used to cover high school football games, and barely noticed the band. They were just something to listen to during halftime while I added up my first-half statistics.
    Then something funny happened. I became a band parent … for 12 straight years.
    No, it wasn’t one child who had trouble getting out of high school. I had three sons, four years apart, who were all band members, so when one graduated, there was another to take his place.

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  • Life lessons for $1

    “It’s only a dollar,” isn’t a statement that should fall easily from our lips when we are talking to youngsters.

    To a small child, $1 can buy the whole wide world – enough candy to make them sick, a new car for their mother, all sorts of toys and a large-screen television. A youngster doesn’t equate the $15 price tag as being more than the $1 burning a hole in his pocket.

    Recently, I overheard a father tell his child, “It’s only a dollar” as they shopped the Dollar Tree.

    Wrong lesson here dad.

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  • Giving back weed by weed

      Pulling weeds on vacation isn’t the laid back relaxing activity some may wish for during down time.

    Add in the fact that 15 people, myself included, traveled to New York City last week to attack those weeds in a park many residents don’t even know exists and it may seem even more bizarre.

    As they say around my office when I leave on such trips, “Better you than me.”

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  • Unite to help others

    United Way of Marion County has officially kicked off its 2010-11 campaign with fanfare and kick-off party at the downtown square and inside area stores with “flash mobs.”

    Coming with the kick-off is a gulp of realism as this year’s campaign continues to face an unsteady local economy; the loss of some pretty big contributing businesses from past campaigns.

    Yet there is a contagious spirit of optimism that always seems to revitalize that determination that caring for one another is never an impossible goal.

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