Opinion Archive

While we know the agency is embarrassed by the recent body cam footage released showing a deputy’s use of deadly force after hearing a “pop” which turned out to be an acorn hitting the roof of his car, we are hopeful the entire agency takes a deeper dive in training and the sights, sounds and smells that can lead to deadly force – and situations like this.

Never in a million years did this old Gulf Breeze Dolphin imagine I’d be writing this, but the Milton boys basketball team was thrown under the bus by the Florida High School Athletic Association last week when the region tournament was released.

I am forever losing things – keys, wallets, shoes – you name it, I can lose it. So prone am I to losing things that one year for Christmas, my wife bought me a chip that attached to my key fob that would show the location of my keys on a map on my smartphone. Great idea, but I lose things at home and the mapping feature was not that precise.

And just like that two years have passed.

Yes, it was two years ago, Feb. 14, 2022, that I returned to the job in my work life that I have enjoyed the most, writing about sports for the Crestview News Bulletin. I will always be grateful for Sandi Kemp bringing me back to the area to do what I believe God created me to do.

Sixty minutes reported, on Sunday evening February 3, about a gap in our border wall. The gap is reported to be about sixty miles east of San Diego and is a global destination for migrants from around the world. The news source reported that during a four day watch they personally witnessed about 600 illegal entries come through the small gap.

There is an old news story that has been imprinted on my mind since I was a 4-year-old child. In July of 1960, a 7-year-old boy named Roger Woodward was swept over the edge of Niagara Falls and dropped nearly 200 feet into the roiling waters below. He survived.

Being snowed in for the last week, we watched a lot of documentaries. CNN did a series on the 60’s through the 2000’s by decade. It struck me as sad to see the way America could once trust the news.  But even CNN admitted that somewhere in the 1980’s, that all changed.

With all due respect for all the other sports, my favorite season starts preseason play on Monday and begins the regular season a week later on February 19.
Those of you that know me realize I’m talking about the start of high school baseball season. There’s just something about baseball that draws me to the diamond. Even as the years pass, the sweetest echoes of my youth were the chatter at a baseball game.

In the generational clash of Baby Boomers versus the “Young Folk” and the epic showdown of ideologies, work ethic, quirks, and peculiarities, let’s agree to disagree. The absurdities of our generational differences can be celebrated and laughed at. So here we go.

I had a short career in the animated film industry as an animator of such popular cartoons as Scooby Doo and The Flintstones. Every Saturday morning, I not only watched the cartoons I had animated, but also the credits that ran at the end just to see my name in them.