Opinion

I’d like to take this opportunity – that is, a big blank white space on tomorrow’s editorial page - to thank everyone for being so kind to me since my arrival in Washington County. I rolled into town like a Beverly hillbilly from West Virginia a couple weeks ago with my two beloved dogs and a trailer full of camping gear and clothes. I broke camp at my mountain hideaway and got down here as quickly as I could, because I knew The Sun needed an editor right away, so some folks could get some time off.

Most of us know what it’s like to laugh at the wrong time.

The character Ray Barone in the sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, got himself in a peck of trouble when his wife Debra confided in him that her parents were getting a divorce. Typical of Raymond, instead of being empathic, he found the situation laughable and couldn’t restrain his snicker. Debra made him pay severally for his faux pas.

I’m guilty of a grievous breech of southern etiquette.  I fail to wave back to people when driving down the road.  
If you’ve ever waved to me when you’ve seen me driving then please don’t take offense if I didn’t wave back. I never see anything except those white and yellow lines while driving down the road. I never look into other people’s cars while driving. I didn’t even know that people were waving to me until my kids mentioned it one day.  

St. Dominic Elementary School will host its inaugural “Night of Knights” alumni celebration on Feb. 9 at St. Dominic Parish Community Center. I’ll give you a little more information about this at the end of the column.
But first, as in all good schools, let’s have a history lesson.

Thank God everyday you live here in the United States.   

For all our problems, I believe it is still the most free country in the world. We may not follow the Bible very well but we do have the right to read — or not to read it — and then use our God-given free will to do what we please.

In many other countries, people are so threatened by the Bible that you would be shot down where you stand if you professed a faith in Jesus Christ. Forgive me, but if you don’t believe this to be true then you are most incredibly ignorant or naive.

Although the Republicans have been going at it for several months, we are not yet into the heat of the presidential race, and already some Christians are praying for the early demise of President Obama.

When I say, “demise,” I mean death.
At least that’s the implication of the recent email sent by Mike O’Neal, the Republican speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives.  That email followed a previous one in which O’ Neal had referred to Michelle Obama as “Mrs. Yomama.”

We are now a quarter way through session.  Bills are flowing through the committee process and arriving on the Senate floor for consideration before the entire chamber.

Three bills won passage this week and will now head to the House of Representatives. Senate Bill 55 allows for interstate mutual aid agreements among first-responders and other emergency response personnel. That is to say, that if an emergency occurs near local or state borders, emergency personnel can respond regardless of their home base.

Years and years ago, I knew an adult that was extremely difficult to work with. 

They had a tongue like a bullwhip and would lash out at anyone and everyone that remotely “offended” them in any way, shape or form whether the “offender” meant to or not.

Tom, our black lab dog, exploded from his bed on the front porch after midnight in a frenzy of excited barking. 

The coyote pack on the hill, responding to some unknown signal, were in full chorus.  Wild high-pitched yells echoed back and forth under the winter wolf moon, then stopped as abruptly as it started.