Opinion Archive

Last week, nearly every media outlet in the region met at the Santa Rosa County Emergency Operations Center to get prepared for the upcoming hurricane season. And if you haven’t seen the forecast for hurricane season in 2024, just know it ranges from bad to really bad. (Let’s hope forecasters are wrong this year.)

Somewhere the Beach Boys are crying.
The theme of one of their classic songs from 1963, “Be True to Your School,” is now an afterthought.

The news of professional golfer Grayson Murray’s death by suicide hit the news cycle Memorial Day weekend.

Murray was 30 years-old and seemed well on his way to a successful career in professional golf. He had a caring family and a devoted fiancé. On the surface, everything seemed so right for Murray, but it wasn’t.

The Prayer of St. Francis continues, “Where there is injury, [let me sow] pardon;”

There are all kinds of injuries that take place in a person’s life. An “injury” can be physical, mental or spiritual. Unfortunately, it seems we live in a world where getting even is the first reaction when an injury occurs. Make the other person suffer as much as the victim has been made to suffer. Sue! Go for the deep pockets and get all kinds of money. Don’t get even – get more than even!

Nobody wants to deal with construction.

Most of us will go an alternate route if we can avoid a construction zone, just so that we don’t get held up.

I’m learning new traditions and entitlements as my children get older, and I find myself having conversations with them that weren’t even a topic when I was their age. My daughter’s husbands have brought up evaluating jobs on how long they will have off for paternity leave when they start have babies or continue to do so. Really? I was lucky my husband was in this country when I had babies.

You think you’ve seen the world until you’ve seen it as a parent.

Every day adventures are suddenly dangerous.

Sometimes the rumor mill is true, and a coaching search ends up as a winning situation for all involved.
Within a few days of Baker School and former head football coach Barry Gardner agreeing to part ways, I heard a rumor that never went away in the coaching search.

In my previous article I shared with you a little bit about the man we know as St. Francis of Assisi. As a young man he became disillusioned with his family’s wealth and all the trappings that went along with it. His heart was changed by the living Christ, and he became an advocate of the poor, living in poverty himself, and answering the call to “fix” Christ’s broken church.

Covering a breaking news story, especially a tragic one, is one of the hardest parts about being a journalist.

Everyone has heard the phrase, “If it bleeds, it leads,” but the truth is 99.9% of the journalism community would rather go their entire career without covering a tragic event. Probably 100%. And that old saying really applies to readership, because unfortunately, in general the public would rather read about something horrible that happened than someone uplifting someone else.