This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The current industrial park is not full

Yesterday we received a letter from one of my husband's previous employers letting us know thieves swindled money from numerous employees' retirement accounts. The letter discussed the measures the company was taking to protect these funds as well as measures we should take to protect ourselves.

There was no data breach. The thieves had simply sent "phishing" emails and gotten personal information.

Phishing is sending legitimate-looking emails alleged to be from one's bank, credit card company, IRS and so forth. These fake emails specifically request log in information, passwords, credit card and Social Security numbers.

Deter online fraud

Just as one should never give financial or personal information over the phone, don't assume an email is legitimate, especially one that asks you to click a link to log in or to confirm your password.

People who receive such an email should call the institution, and apprise them of the email.

To contact the company by email, look up its website and type in the address yourself. A secure website will have "https" in the website's address line.

Emergency responses 

Installing a lock box outside your home with a house key is a smart alternative for emergency personnel to gain access to your home without breaking down the door or a window, especially for those living alone. Lock boxes are available at Lowe's for about $30 to $45 each.

Once the key is placed in the lock box, memorize the code, and have it written next to the phone. If you have a medical alert system, make sure they have the code so that it can be given to the 911 operator. This code should also be given to a trusted neighbor in case of your incapacitation.

Vacation tips

When planning your vacation, don't mention it on social media as that tips off burglars that the house is empty.

●Put lights on a timer throughout your house and vary the times they turn on.

●Stop the newspaper and mail or have a trusted friend/neighbor pick them up.

●Make sure that the grass gets mowed.

●Set your house alarm.

●Take an inventory of valuables before you leave, and lock up what you can.

Both the Crestview Police Department and the Okaloosa Sheriff's Office offer vacation security checks to help ensure the safety of your home while on vacation.

The forms may be downloaded from their respective websites: http://www.crestviewpd.org/index.php/community-service-programs/vacation-home-checks/ or http://www.sheriff-okaloosa.org/resources/crime-prevention/vacation-security-check/.

Janice Lynn Crose, a former accountant, lives in Crestview with her husband, Jim; her two rescue collies, Shane and Jasmine; and two cats, Kathryn and Prince Valiant.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: More ways to safeguard personal information

The conflict on the Mexican border is continuing and about to get worse.

While a problem for decades, everything may ratchet upwards with a new president of Mexico.

For the past decade or more, the focus has been on drugs and illegals. Most of those killed have been in Mexico, whether tortured, dismembered, hung from bridges or simply shot by cartels.

The statistics are staggering. Mexico had over 29,000 murdered in 2017 with some estimates much higher, mostly cartel induced. But Brazil and Columbia also had much higher murder rates, nearly double.

While in the U.S., combined with opiate drug use, over 60,000 were killed in 2017 from overdoses. Unfortunately, the situation is complicated by some legitimate pharmaceutical firms like Purdue, contributing massively to the opiate problem.

Drug smuggling Central and South American countries are considered the most dangerous in the world with Mexico more dangerous than the world’s war zones.

The growing, refinement, and shipment of drugs includes marijuana and more lethal crack-cocaine, pure heroin, opiates and a list of methamphetamines and derivatives which flood the U.S.

But the election of Lopez Obrador will change the dynamics dramatically and should raise the problem at the border to a whole new level.

With Enrique Nieto as president of Mexico, the fight continued against the cartels with a cooperative spirit with U.S. authorities. But the results were disappointing.

Obrador, an avowed leftist, says he will take a different approach.

He will end the war against the cartels and legalize drugs. He says he will attack corruption and may offer amnesty and support to farmers. He will support any person from any country to pass through his country to the United States as he believes it is a natural right of all humans to do so.

Borders be damned.

Can you imagine a Mexico with legalized drugs?

Recently the news has been consumed by as many at 50,000 illegal immigrants coming across our southern border costing the U.S. over $1 billion a year for housing and food for them in detention camps.

Imagine facing an increase by five or tenfold?

Broadcast news media and liberals in the U.S. have been screaming about children torn from mothers by ICE. Nobody wants to admit this is about to get worse.

Currently, the cartels make thousands of dollars for each person who is smuggled into the U.S. It is as profitable or more so than drugs. The recent desire to keep the families together encourages cartels to pair up children with an adult to cross the border. We are dealing with a sophisticated human trafficking problem that cannot be addressed by hyper-exaggerated claims aimed to stir emotional outrage.

Democrats call for an end to ICE.

Some in Mexico now say that the U.S. will have to do its own dirty work. Obrador’s team says, "Let the U.S. defend their own border if they don’t like it."

The Obrador strategy is to lend aid to farmers and the extreme poor to pull them out of poverty. That is well intentioned but not likely to change much in the next few years. In the meantime, the cartels will grow in force, influence and power.

Cartels and other gangs are focused on raising revenue in the billions from drugs, human trafficking, sex trafficking, robberies, kidnapping, and extortion. The money flowing is more than enough to ensure continued massive corruption of the military, police and politicians.

Obrador wants to create a new law enforcement organization by removing the military from police type work and combining some military with police to create a new kind of National Guard.

If the army and police are famously corrupted, how can a new National Guard avoid it?

Obrador says Mexico’s disabling problems are poverty, cartels and corruption.

Obrador appeals to voters’ "hope and change" expectations, but dealing with widespread, intransigent problems in a broken society by being more tolerant and less committed to fighting drug cartels is more than wishful thinking.

Without security and the rule of law, who will invest, create jobs, take market risk and focus on innovation?

Dramatic approaches might include having the U.S. military and CIA join forces with select Mexican forces to attack the cartels en masse on the ground, air and sea.

No way it will happen.

What if we eliminated trade barriers to support employment and investment in Mexican factories?

Not likely.

What if we created a new treaty organization with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Columbia, Brazil and others to focus on fighting gangs/cartels and provide safety for their citizens with a consequential rule of law?

Call it the Continental America’s Security Action (CASA).

Wishful thinking.

The U.S. has invested trillions in the Middle East.

Maybe it’s time to spend time and resources aiding our American friends.

Right now, instead, it seems the border war will explode.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The real border war is just beginning

The latest in the left’s shrill attempt to undermine Trump is showing pictures of Obama-era detention centers with kids in chain-linked areas. Then they wax sanctimonious about how it is so cruel and that Trump is evil. They feel that acting with fake outrage gives them virtue.　

The media, which is the Democrat Party now, have tried this tactic for two years to undermine Trump. But he stands up to withering, misplaced blame and lies, and he just grows stronger. The jackals in the media, "deep state" and academia have become unhinged.　

Dems in N.Y. most recently went after the Trump Foundation, saying it is so bad it is almost as corrupt as the Clinton Foundation.　

Now this fake "Auschwitz-like" detention of illegal-immigrant kids has made them act  all hot and bothered. But it's not working. If the left is going to get their　Jaws　around Trump, they are going to need a bigger porn starlet.　

Strengthening the border, post-Obama "Deporter in Chief," has not been easy. Trump  wants the wall he promised us, and Dems go out of their way to deny him everything. Trump says in speeches, " The Great Wall of China worked!"  Which is true; you hardly see a Mexican in China.　

So without "the Wall," he has done everything legally (all of which Clinton/Bush/Obama did) to deter illegals at our border. Few of these kids come in with their parents; most are taken on the treacherous trip across Mexico by coyotes. The kids are used as shields to protect traffickers; most are not related, as they often claim. Putting kids in a very nice government facility with AC, cartoons on TV, good food, health care, hygiene classes and education is somehow Auschwitz?? My dad was a Marine; when he saw the facility on TV he said his barracks were not nearly as nice. Hell, Chicago housing projects are not that nice.　

I bet if we make these kids from war-torn areas go to Chicago, they would prefer to go back home for safety.　

In reality, illegals are costly to taxpayers. Schools, welfare, hospitals, crime,　etc. end up costing us. Currently, DHS and FBI estimate that 32% of  U.S. prisoners are "known or suspected" aliens. Each one costs us about $40,000 a year to imprison, and countless more to arrest and prosecute.　

We need an immigration policy that works. I am pro-immigration…legal immigration. The left conflates any desire to control immigration with hatred of foreigners – one of the  many false premises that fuel their rhetoric.　

If you think unchecked immigration will not change a country, ask our Native Americans. My ancestors did not come here from England in 1752 just to see this country overrun by foreigners!  They came here legally, seeking a better life than they had in Europe and to get away from having to watch soccer.

Europe is a disaster because of immigration issues. London had so much immigrant crime (odd given England's strict gun control laws) that Mayor Saddiq Khan had to outlaw knives. There is an object lesson for America: If you don’t regulate your borders, you will eventually have to regulate your cutlery.　

Chain migration should end. It’s a system where only the children of parents and grandparents who are already here are admitted, no matter how bad they are. Government adopted the policy from Piedmont Driving Club.

It always ends an argument and creeps me out when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Attorney General Jeff Sessions start using the Bible to make their immigration political points. Maybe they feel the presence of Jesus all around them. If so, they must be in a Home Depot parking lot.　

It is important that we maintain fair trading arrangements with Mexico. It produces oil, tequila, Corona beer, spring break venues and a lot of weed. Mexico is also the top producer of Arizonans. Liberals in California do not have to worry too much about poor migrant workers invading LA.  They have a built-in wall that keeps them out: $4500 a month rent for two-bedroom apartments.　

The truth is border protection is a complex matter, full of government confusion that only the coyotes understand how to manipulate. They show up and get arrested.  Deportation hearings can take years, so they just disappear into America and don't show up. It is so confusing when they do show up. Two illegal Mexican men appeared for a deportation hearing in a Los Angeles court and the judge instinctively married them.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Media Fake Outrage over Trump…oops…Obama-era Immigration Policy

The FBI, long given immense, unaccountable powers to arrest and ruin American lives on a whim, is finally facing some real consequences of its own hubris. During the Obama Administration, the hallways of FBI management were filled with hyper-political Democrat bureaucrats, willing to break the law to garner favor with "shoo-in" for president Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

Trump loved the 560-plus-page Inspector General’s carefully nuanced, CYA report. Making American Read Again!

After one of the weakest and most cowardly responses to the IG report, FBI Director du jour Christopher Wray (a man who runs an agency that does not respond to Congressional subpoenas) offered his solution: anti-bias training for agents. It’s just now occurring to FBI management that they should not be biased. All employees know how effective one-day, anti-anything workshops are. Maybe Starbucks can help. 

When FBI agents break laws that they arrest others for, they will get the most severe punishment a government employee gets: a lateral transfer with full benefits. 

These FBI folks, with their pretense of moral superiority, were having affairs at the office —"Feds with benefits." When they lie under oath, it's called "being less than forthcoming" or "lacking candor." When we do it they bust down our doors, perp-walk us and ruin our lives, and, as in Michael Flynn’s case, cause us to have to sell our house to pay legal defense bills. Over nothing. 

And Comey, with his pious and sanctimonious view of himself, was the ringleader. Comey seems like an agent who would get a warrant to kick down the door of someone he didn’t like over a bounced check, enter the wrong house, shoot the man’s family, and then sit outside the house and say, "I think we can all learn something from this."  

Comey is a melodramatic megalomaniac. There has not been a drama queen like him running the FBI since J. Edgar Hoover hung up his high heels. 

Because of all of this, the FBI and DOJ have lost immense credibility and exposed law enforcement for what it is. Most Americans, like me, were conditioned to respect them. I have to admit, maybe African-Americans have it right in not trusting law enforcement. They tend to be early to every trend. 

The FBI’s approval numbers are so low now, you’d think Jimmy Kimmel was hosting. And as I have warned the left, when you set out to "get" a president, you might be surprised which one you get. Richard Nixon famously said, "I am not a crook." By comparison to the Clinton/Obama era weaponization of our government for their political purposes, Nixon was not. Maybe for the sake of symmetry they will combine the Nixon and Obama Presidential Libraries. 

As Russia intended in sowing fear and hatred, our legal system has been unleashed on our own. Now everybody on Facebook has a legal degree.

Special Prosecutor Mueller is now investigating obstruction of justice on a "Russian collusion" crime that never happened. The "investigation" has morphed into a TMZ-like joke. Stormy Daniels is raking it in; she just introduced her new perfume, "Collusion." You put it on, rub your wrists together, and you smell just like you tripled your appearance fees at strip clubs. 

Mueller’s pre-dawn raids on Trump associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, indicted on non-violent charges, should scare us all. Manafort is jailed to pressure  him to tell the Mueller team what they want to hear on Trump. I guess if you are going to get a political figure to roll over on you, you should be thankful that it’s not Chris Christie. 

Mueller has hired all Democrat partisans and so far has spent $20 million to hurt Trump. Ok Mueller, we get it, Trump digs hot chicks. We knew that; it was in his brochure. We sent him to D.C. to get rid of unaccountable bureaucrats like you. 

The "deep state" is now exposed for what it has become, and our trust in government has never been lower. Entrenched political-class hacks like John Brennan of the CIA and Comey/McCabe/Strzok, et al of the FBI used their best deceptions attempting to kill Trump's presidency. Now they are desperate and might have to go back to their old tricks. Next they might suggest he take in a play at Ford’s Theater or enjoy an open convertible ride through Dallas.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: FBI: Trying to Separate Trump from His Kids

Recently, my pastor, the Rev. Barry H. Spencer, preached a sermon based on Matthew 15, which includes the story of a Canaanite woman seeking help from Jesus to heal her sick daughter.

By law, Jews weren’t to have anything to do with Gentiles.

This edict did not deter her in the least.

Her audacity serves as a reminder that you’ll do, say and try anything to help your child.

Despite being rebuffed by Jesus not once, but twice, she wouldn’t shut up and she wouldn’t go away. It isn’t hard to imagine she might have tackled him to the ground had he refused her a third time.

Why? Because there’s nothing, nothing, most parents wouldn’t do to save their kids.

Mothers and fathers do the impossible, the unthinkable, even the miraculous, if that’s what their children require.

What would you do for your child?

Would you walk 500 miles? Endure degradation? Become a criminal?

To what lengths would you go to ensure your child had a chance in life?

Leaving everything

This is not an endorsement of law-breaking, but rather an understanding of why some Central Americans risk danger, imprisonment and even separation from their children to escape the corruption, chaos and death that has decimated their countries.

We love to whine and hand-wring about America’s decline, but how many of us would leave this country and everything we have known, with our children in tow, to take a chance on the mercy of strangers?

On May 7, the government announced it would criminally prosecute anyone who tried to cross the border, even those seeking asylum. Because kids can’t be charged, 685 were taken into federal custody in the first two weeks and reclassified as unaccompanied minors.

The vast majority of Central Americans fleeing their homelands are not violent criminals or card-carrying members of MS-13 — most of whom are American, by the way. They’re running from such people, who have turned their countries into killing fields in a bid to control the bottomless drug trade.

And because everything is connected, guess which country is their best customer?

The new policy, and the near-elimination of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program, are clear efforts to reduce certain types of immigrants from certain places, including those who have been deemed “insufficiently” skilled.

Answer to prayer

It’s surely an answer to prayer for all those Americans who have been clamoring to recoup those hotel-cleaning, tomato-picking and meat-packing jobs.

A nation that lays claim to being Christian and the epicenter of family values cannot possibly reconcile itself to a policy of separating them. It is the antithesis of a faith that literally compels its adherents to “welcome the stranger.”

Christians who point to the law have to pretend they don’t remember how Jesus frequently upended the law by interacting with Romans, lepers, fallen women, even going so far as promising a convicted criminal eternity in paradise.

He healed for free, and on the wrong days. He mixed it up with sinners far beyond what was proper for a so-called holy man.

He enjoyed having little kids underfoot.

As a sovereign nation, the United States has every right, an obligation really, to maintain its borders. The problem is not with that sovereignty, but with the deliberately cruel and cynical misuse of children as pawns to uphold it.

Any policy that requires terrorizing and traumatizing a toddler or pulling a preschooler from her mother’s arms is a wrong that can never justify the right.

Anyone who thinks that separating desperate parents from their children will serve as a deterrent misunderstands the power of love.

There’s virtually nothing most people wouldn’t do to save their kids.

Even if it means giving them up. 

Reach Charita M. Goshay at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: How far would you go to save your child?

Donald Trump has become quite the worldwide diplomat. We needed one. There was no place in the world the U.S. was better off after the Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry era. In fact, Secretary of State John Kerry (who applied James Taylor diplomacy) was so sadly inept that he could not break up a ketchup fight at a Heinz family picnic if he had to. 

Enter Donald J. Trump, who brought nations to the bargaining table that were previously running all over us. Last week he even brought home Josh Holt, an American kept in solitary confinement in Venezuela for two years. Trump surprised him at the airport when he landed. Josh saw Trump and thought, "Cool, President Hillary Clinton sent that guy from The Apprentice to welcome me." 

Surprising many, Trump even put a woman in charge of the CIA. The thought was that we have tried every form of punishment from "black sites" to waterboarding to break our enemies. Now, with a woman in charge, we can try the silent treatment. 

The next Holy Grail for our unlikely world diplomat is North Korea. It is run by 34-year-old ruthless dictator intern/trainee turned "Dear Leader" Kim Jung-Un. Un was thrown into power by his father right before he died. Kim Jung-il must have seen ruthlessness early in the young Un, passing over his two older brothers Kim Jung-Tito and Kim Jung-Jermain to succeed him. (Sorry for long-time readers; that joke never gets old.)  

Trump calculates that this young leader, with a bad haircut on par with his own, is a man he can do business with. Un is a billionaire who enjoys cognac and the NBA, snorts cocaine off the rear-ends of his young harem of women, and pops Cialis like mints. Trump reasons: Is there a 34-year-old in the world who has more to lose by dying in a nuclear holocaust than this Un? 

For millennials in America, the existential threat of a nuclear war falls on "like, like, really, literally, like" deaf ears.  If the mushroom cloud comes, this poorly educated and self-absorbed generation would run outdoors for the first time in months and try to take a selfie with the cloud in the background. 

We know North Korea has nukes on missiles that can reach California and Washington State and that, at some point in the future, they will have some that can reach some of our good states, the ones with SEC football teams. We must act before then. 

These talks were almost derailed because of comments from Ambassador John Bolton.  The hawkish Bolton, whose mustache is loaned out on weekends to Civil War re-enactors, is playing bad cop to Trump’s crazy cop.  

As a libertarian, the view I have stated for years now is just to let these isolated military dopes alone.  They pin medals on their chests for feats worth less than a Cub Scout merit badge and have technology from a 1980s Radio Shack. Let them keep monkeying around with nuclear weapons in their countries the size of Maine while we sit back and just let Darwinism take its course. 

What is bringing North Korea to the table is not nukes.  It is, as it always is, economics, and the fact that communism always ends up starving its citizens. Socialism and communism, like Democrat politics in America, only work for those in charge of them. 

And Trump’s new "frenemy," Chinese leader Xi Jinping, does not want regime change, which would cause tens of millions of North Korean refugees to stream into China. Remember the first law of illegal immigration: America is the only jerk country that wants to control whom we let in — never other countries. 

The reality is, Kim Jung-Un is scared of Trump. Since Trump took office, North Korean dry cleaners have made customers pay in advance. 

If Trump’s shrewd peace plan works, it will kill the left. Nancy Pelosi would rather have all-out nuclear war than see Trump get a Nobel Peace Prize by making the world safer. And the media reacts predictably. Fox News is encouraging his accomplishments in talking to communist North Korea.  MSNBC and CNN are covering it as the latest twist in Trump colluding with Russia.

Should Trump meet with North Korea, it is the mainstream media’s sincere hope  that Kim Jung-Un is cooperating with Robert Mueller and is wearing a wire.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The Off and Un of North Korean Diplomacy

It was hot and humid with red dirt coloring my sweat.

My platoon was guarding one end of an old Special Forces airstrip that was overrun during the Tet Offensive two years earlier by thousands of NVA soldiers. We had returned in a massive air assault aboard dozens of Huey’s.

While teams were digging for the remains of Americans left behind during the horrific firefight in 1968, the Company Commander issued my orders. I would be taking my platoon on patrol east of the airstrip, deep in enemy territory to determine enemy activity.

After just three months of field experience in Vietnam as a Lieutenant, I was considered a “veteran.” I was with Bravo Company, 2/1 Battalion, of the 196 Light Infantry Brigade for the American Division that was organized at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Now we were just a few miles from Laos and at the entrance to the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Checking the maps, this was not going to be easy. We needed to have all the right equipment for such an operation. It would load down each man. The terrain involved steep hills, thick jungle, rivers and streams.

Early the next morning, we departed the perimeter in a single file into the jungle. We hiked downward several hundred feet to a river that was wide and in sections quite deep.

I agonized over the prospect of being ambushed while my men were crossing the river. We would be sitting ducks. Fortunately, we picked an area where the river’s depth was not over our heads.

Loaded down with heavy rucksacks, ammo, weapons and more, we used a thick rope to keep from falling under. Later, movement in tributary streams would also be dangerous but they would be a fast move considering hacking through thick jungle was exhausting.

On the first night, we set up Claymore mines with trip wires (called Mike Alphas or mechanical ambushes) on the trails leading past us. We tried to sleep, but just before dawn, the explosion was deafening in the quiet jungle setting.

We took pictures of the young NVA soldier, stripped the body of weapons and papers, and left on patrol with our eyes wide open and nerves on end.

For the next several days we would discover signs of the enemy everywhere we went.

We marched silently over treacherous terrain, took short breaks due to the heat, and set up Mike Alphas at night. More explosions would rock us. Over these days and nights, we had caught half a dozen unwitting enemy soldiers too eager to move fast down the trails, including one Chinese officer.

At one point, in an unusual area where the jungle was not so thick, massive explosions were hitting so near us that shrapnel pierced the M-16 of one of my soldiers as we were running out of the kill zone. As it happened, it was friendly fire from an ARVN (South Vietnamese) artillery battery. I was yelling in the radio handset to get them to stop.

That night, after calling in my position coordinates and double checking that they knew where we were, I remember squinting in the darkness to see the bugs crawling around me. I hated leeches as you could not feel them until they filled up with your blood. I doused myself in “bug juice,” the Army’s incredibly effective insect repellent.

I could not see the night sky. The jungle canopy ensured total blackness. We would not dig in this night. We just slept on the ground with the platoon in a circular position with our fatigues soaked from sweat and using our rucksacks as pillows.

“Noise discipline” was obvious and needed no reminder from me.

I remember wondering how alone we were even with 22 men in my platoon. I worried what would happen if we ran into a hundred or more enemy. We were a day or two away from the airstrip with a river between us.

We had found and mapped the trail locations and captured weapons and documents that might be helpful to headquarters. It was time to return.

While we were gone, over 20 enemy sappers attacked the airstrip. With satchel charges on their backs, they tried to sneak past the concertina surrounding the 155mm howitzers. As the enemies rushed toward the artillery positions, the big guns opened up and shot point-blank into the attackers. It was a slaughter.

Apparently we had killed some of the NVA who were rushing to join their team for the surprise morning attack on the artillery battery set up next to the airstrip, near the positions held back in 1968.

I saw the pictures of a front-end loader with its bucket filled with enemy bodies for a mass burial. I was thankful it was not Americans in that bucket.

War is about killing and surviving. As brothers in arms, we lived to protect one another and survive another day.

Unfortunately, some would come back to an unwelcoming world, some with wounds that did not heal.

I am grateful most of my men made it back safely.

Such are the memories on Memorial Day and every day.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Combat memories on Memorial Day

Summer is just around the corner, our children will be finished with school on Friday May 25, the last day of classes for Okaloosa County Schools.

If you haven't thanked your children's teachers, please thank them now. Most of our teachers go above and beyond for our children and deserve our gratitude and thanks. If you can, a little token of appreciation, homemade cookies, or a gift card and a note of thanks go a long way. I know that when I taught, I very was appreciative of every thank you card I received, they meant a lot. Teachers have a lot of stress these days, let's tell them we appreciate their efforts.

What wonderful plans do you have for the summer? Are you taking a nice vacation to visit relatives? We are so fortunate that we live in the beautiful state of Florida that has so much so offer, whether we stay here in Crestview or travel to other parts of our state. Do you plan to visit Walt Disney World, Sea World or Busch Gardens? Or do you plan to visit our beautiful beaches? Perhaps you want to take your kids to the Gulfarium, Big Kahuna's, or the Emerald Coast Zoo. We have many wonderful places to visit here at home. Perhaps you would like to volunteer at the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge, SOCKS (Save our Cats and Kittens) or PAWS (Panhandle Animal Welfare) or some other worthy organization. There are many organizations that would love summer volunteers from responsible youth and adults.

The Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin AFB is a wonderful place that features all types of military aircraft, from World War II forward and a MOAB on display, (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the "Mother of all bombs." For those interested in military history, there is plenty to see and learn. I could spend two or three days there.

We have many lovely parks all over Crestview and Okaloosa County; two of those parks are Twin Hills Park in Crestview and Turkey Creek Park in Niceville. We also have wonderful rivers, so many things from which to choose.

Jim, my husband, and I would like to thank all of our hardworking teachers for another year of dedication to our children. We would also like to thank all of the substitute teachers, please know that you are very much appreciated. 

Janice Lynn Crose, a former accountant, lives in Crestview with her husband, Jim; her two rescue collies, Shane and Jasmine; and two cats, Kathryn and Prince Valiant.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Summer in Crestview