Friday we were honored to print the story and philosophy of Ezell Brown, our newly elected sheriff.

Sheriff Brown is the type of person, who upon meeting him, who will grip your hand with the strength of confidence, look you straight in the eye and make you feel that he surely is glad to be talking with you.

He also has a sense of humor, as we found out recently when we toured the sheriff's office along with his new Chief Deputy Jerry Carter.

We were impressed with his open honesty and his humility.

We also felt that the concern for his staff and people of Newton County was genuine.

He recently proved this by providing the final key in county budget cuts that saved the employees of our county from furloughs or salary cuts.

He did this with a positive outlook and made it clear that his cuts were not going to affect his or his staff's protection of the citizens of our county.

Sheriff Brown was the ninth of 15 children, who always wanted to be a law-man. He followed his father's admonition to him to reach his current position as the sheriff of one of the largest counties in Georgia.

His father told him "Son, while traveling this ‘ole earth, shoot for the moon, wrap the stars up and create your own Milky Way."

The apple apparently hasn't fallen far from the tree.