Opinion & Editorial

From the Desk of Phil Hudgins: Please hold your applause

Have you ever felt like you received more credit for something than you deserved? Well, I have. About 15 years ago, I came across a recipe for pancakes in a little book of breakfast specialties. I made those pancakes for my family. Everybody loved them, and I’ve been making them ever since.

YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Thankful and prayerful for all who serve To the Editor: In reading the editorials lately, seems to be a lot of negative things said and thought. This week, with school starting back I just want to take a moment to say something positive.

Love Thy Neighbor: What is it like to live in a perfect community?

Forget how you feel about where we are as a society today. Instead, close your eyes and picture the perfect community — a community where everyone’s needs are met, everyone’s voices are heard and everyone feels safe. How would people work together?

Bear with Me: The little armored one

I didn’t pay much attention to the dug-up pine straw on my slope out back. Deer sometimes do that.  Squirrels too. Then I noticed disturbed red clay under my deck stairs. I poked my head under the stairs. Uh oh. I brushed the pine straw away and saw a six-inch hole in the corner.

YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A team of winners   To the Editor: In a time and place far away, there was a certain high school that had a very unpredictable football team. When they were good they were champions and when they were bad they were losers. Each year the first game told the story.

From the Desk of Phil Hudgins: Lesson in human decency can be learned in grammar school

When I was in elementary school—it was either the sixth or seventh grade—my classmates elected me to fight a boy named Johnny because he supposedly was picking on smaller kids. It was almost an honor. The fight took place down at the railroad tracks near the school.

Paul’s Perspective: Shall not perish

Author’s disclosure: I am “resubmitting” an article I wrote three years ago. Perhaps the lazy days of summer have overtaken me; but I prefer to think that what I wrote over three years ago has as much, or even more, poignancy for us now as it did then.

YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Accident or choice? To the Editor: I am grateful for the outpouring of thoughts and prayers from our wonderful community in the aftermath of my son being struck by a drunk driver who left at the scene. Many people have said “so sorry to hear about your son’s accident.”

Paul’s Perspective: The Lord’s Prayer

Gracious, we’re living in a political whirlwind right now, aren’t we? It’s easy to consider writing a column and creating a “perspective” dealing with all that swirl. Easy, perhaps, but not terribly productive. So I won’t!

From the Desk of Phil Hudgins: Me and Myles: Good times together

Myles Robert Godfrey and I were in diapers the first time we met. I think Myles had soiled his, but I didn’t say anything. After all, he was just a month-old. I was a year old. It was inevitable that Myles and I would see a lot of each other over the years.