A recent kerfuffle over residents’ right to speak at a nearby county commission meeting got us thinking about public forums and their place in our representative democracy. It started when new Santa Rosa County Commission Chairman Colten Wright, at his very first meeting in charge, announced he was moving the public forum from the beginning of the meeting to the last spot on the agenda.

We! We believe! We believe that we can win!

(At least, we hope we did….)

We’re writing this the day before the United States’ men’s team plays Iran with a berth in the knockout round of the World Cup at stake. Look, America’s not a soccer country – not yet. Many curious onlookers and casual fans complained vehemently about the Yanks’ 0-0 tie against England’s Three Lions the day after Thanksgiving, days after a 1-1 draw against little Wales in their first group-stage match.

I love social media.

                They keep me in touch with dozens of friends, whom I might otherwise have contact with just every few years, or every few decades.

As America regulates and vilifies capitalism while also using the brute force of government against opponents, Dole and Chiquita are looking to make America their top supplier.

It’s almost impossible to understand it if you weren’t here then. One April morning in 2010 the Gulf of Mexico exploded. Hundreds of millions of gallons of oil roared up out of an undersea volcano and smeared across 70,000 miles of ocean. Destruction swept closer and closer to the world’s most beautiful and fragile beaches. The economy buckled. Governments panicked. For 80 days it got wider and worse. Then it stopped, sort of.