Articles by Section - Columnists
You only live once
Last month, I got caught in the massive hail storm while teaching in Stockbridge. I took a picture of the larger than a golf ball-sized hail that pummeled the houses and cars in the Monarch Village neighborhood.
Morgan: Authors turn lives into fiction
Take a life, any life, even your own. Write down all the known facts and documentation of that life, much but not all of it taken from public record: birth, parents, hometown, siblings, education, college transcripts, career, titles, marriage, children, divorce, volunteer positions, achievements, military service, address, church membership, diaries, daybooks and perhaps old letters retained by the sender or recipient.
Cushman: Goodness over evil
My sister Kathy texted the news of the Boston Marathon bombing not long after it happened.
Random thoughts on random topics
It turns out that you can go home again. I recently established a chair in crisis communications leadership at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at my beloved University of Georgia. UGA President-elect Dr. Jere Morehead, along with Dink NeSmith, chairman of the Board of Regents came for the ceremony and both made my family and me feel warmly welcomed on campus.
Spring into the yellow season
I suppose it is never a normal spring. But it does seem like we have gotten more rain than usual this spring. Not that there is anything wrong with that as Seinfeld would say. I am sure we will be hearing dire predictions of drought soon enough, and all the rain we have had lately will be forgotten.
Spring fever mind games
I wish the weather would stop playing games with us here in the South. It wasn't more than a few weeks ago that I slipped into a pair of short pants for puttering around the house.
Gun debate highlights voter distrust
Gun control advocates sound puzzled by congressional resistance to relatively modest gun control legislation. Many cite a poll showing 90 percent of Americans support more background checks and suggest the National Rifle Association is the only reason Congress won't implement the will of the people.
The mortgage complaint window is open
Got a beef with your mortgage company or loan servicer? Lots of people do, and thousands of them have been turning to a federal complaint hotline for action - or at least a quick response from the lender.
Black unemployment
A couple of weeks ago, Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, speaking at The National Press Club, said the nation "would never tolerate white unemployment at 14 and 15 percent." Black unemployment has been double that of white Americans for more than 50 years. The black youth unemployment rate is more than 40 percent nationally. In some cities, unemployment for black working-age males is more than 50 percent. Let's look at this, but first let's ...
Carter: For all who persevere
This isn't as easy as it looks - this putting together of ~750 words with a coherent thought every week.
Morgan: The astronaut and the fire truck
An imaginative sort who spies a bright red fire truck parked outside a church might think one of two things: Either the congregants are burning up with the Holy Spirit and keep a fire truck on hand to cool things down once in a while, or the truck is a warning the fires of hell are close unless they toe the line.
Thatcher's death marks end of an era
When Margaret Thatcher was elected England's first female prime minister in the spring of 1979, I was 12 years old and my father had been a congressman for less than four months. To me, it seemed as if it would be only a short while until my own country followed suit and elected a woman to serve as president.
Yarbrough: UGA's best-kept secret
They are the best University of Georgia athletic team you have likely never heard of.
The dumps of home improvement
My husband and I have lived where we are now living for more than 40 years. More than half my life.
Carter: Bike for your health
I enjoy my bicycle. There's nothing like the freedom of rolling through the countryside propelled only by the power of my own legs, feeling the warm sun on my skin and the cool wind moving over my body, engaging the world with all five of my senses.
Archive By Section - Columnists
The wrong time for SPLOST
Fall's all but gone and winter's coming on and for Newton County it promises to be a hard one. There's not much letup in the drip, drip, drip of the Great Recession. And the political greed of local miscreants can only make it worse.
A good man is hard to find
The executive director of the Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation visited the Floyd Street library last week. A guest of Newton County Friends of the Library, Craig Amason presented an interesting overview of ongoing preservation efforts at Andalusia, Connor's home just north of Milledgeville. More fascinating were his insightful comments regarding one of Georgia's truly amazing authors.
Christmas a time for belief
I believe in Christmas. I believe as a Christian that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Son of God. The Messiah. I believe you have the right to disagree with me, but I know what I believe in my heart. I believe no Christmas is official until someone sings "O Holy Night" (no crooning, please) on Christmas Eve. I will accept the "Hallelujah Chorus" from ...
Bundle up and wait out winter
I tried to check out the Geminid meteor shower before dawn on Tuesday.
Chimney Park about community
It was the coldest night of the year. Even long johns and layers weren't enough to protect against the frigid temperatures, and when the wind blew, you couldn't help but pine for an electric blanket and the comforts of home. Failing that, there was always a place at the roaring bonfire where you could roast marshmallows for s'mores. The woods sparkled with thousands of lights and unique features: a line-up of hula hoops ...
Live life well to honor fallen
December elicits wide ranges of emotion from me: Fury, melancholy, joy, greed, thanksgiving and heart-rending, soul-wrenching, unspeakable sorrow. An ineffable expression springing from gratitude deep within me. A groaning too deep for words.
First Amendment responsibilities
I am a rabid supporter of the First Amendment. For 40 years in the broadcast news biz and half a dozen teaching, I have exercised that right and taught it with vigor. But this "right" of free speech carries with it some obligations.
Agents train to keep us safe
Two things that keep me awake at night: The threat of terrorism and wondering what, if anything, our federal government is doing about it.
Palmer-Stone more than a name
The Newton County School System is building a new, massive (1,500 student capacity) elementary school on Ga. Highway 142 and Airport Road. Consequently, Palmer-Stone Elementary School, one of the last in-town schools, will be closed; its students are within the proposed district for the new school. Ficquett Elementary School will transition into the theme school
Communication breakdown
"What we've got here is a failure to communicate," said the warden of the rural Georgia prison as he stood looming over Luke, the prisoner who he had just knocked into a ditch.
Feeling insecure about the TSA
Have you noticed we are becoming like the Taliban? First, facts don't trouble us. The Transportation Security Administration has yet to stop a single terrorist. You read that right, not one. Even so, the TSA assures us that the "terrorist threat" is real. If terrorists are everywhere, you would think even the TSA would have run across at least one by now. But we are supposed to ...
Sonny’s disposition not so bright
The year 2010 came in on winged shoes and never stopped running. It dashed past us in a flash, and here we sit, disbelieving this year is almost at its end but grateful for the sweetness that always brings a year to its close. It is the season when we turn out attention to others, be they our own family and friends or those we do not know - but yet ...
Effort required to be positive
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states clearly that nobody can infringe on my right of free speech. You can get in serious trouble for that.
Thankful for great leaders
With Thanksgiving this week, I have been reflecting on the many things for which I am thankful: family, friends, pets, home, church and school. But I am also thankful to be a citizen of the United States, and am thankful for the leaders that our country has had throughout our history: President George Washington, President Thomas Jefferson, President Abraham Lincoln, President Theodore Roosevelt, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Ronald Reagan, to name ...
Clean old-fashioned hate
Yesterday's gridiron tilt between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Georgia Bulldogs provided, I hope, another chapter in a great book of stories. Deadlines being what they are, this column was submitted well in advance of the game; I can only hope the Dawgs whipped the Humble Bumbles. The late Lewis Grizzard was the quintessential Georgia Bulldog fan. Among his many colorful contributions to Southern literature, he coined the phrase "clean old-fashioned hate" describing ...
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