Opinion Archive

For those of us of a certain age, OK, Baby Boomers, certain athletes marked our childhood.


Football had Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Dick Butkus and Roger Staubach. Baseball was Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Whitey Ford and Sandy Koufax.

My wife has a gift for making up rhymes. She will observe something interesting or unusual and a moment later some clever verse will spill from her lips, usually to an improvised tune. I think to myself, we should be writing these down, but the moment passes, and her verse is lost.

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.