An interesting subplot in any legislative session involves the newcomers. Despite popular perception, “career politicians” aren’t very prevalent in the General Assembly: It’s a low-paying job with long hours and, increasingly, year-round demands. After a few terms, most members either seek h…

Despite their billion dollar balance sheets, large public corporations have the backbone of a jellyfish. Put enough pressure on them and they will fold like a tent. I offer into evidence S.B. 202, the voting rights bill passed by the General Assembly this past session and signed into law by …

As a parent, I’ve found I don’t particularly want my children to age anymore, but I am thankful they have grown out of, or matured past, some things.

Just as I was about to pick up my flugelhorn, the phone rang.  It was Skeeter Skates, owner of Skeeter Skates Tree Stump Removal and Plow Repair in Ryo, Georgia.  He sounded concerned.  That’s not like Skeeter. Of course, he would never admit it. I have found that those in the tree stump rem…

The 2021 legislative session is over, and the most-discussed legislation concerned election reform. While dozens of these bills were introduced, only Senate Bill 202 cleared both chambers. Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law March 25.

The community awards announcements may have been virtual again this year, but the Chamber of Commerce and other award selection committees certainly recognized the most deserving people. This year’s line up of our county’s finest includes some of the most dedicated, selfless and compassionat…

In memory of my beloved wife with whom I shared many joyous Easters.

As we strive to cultivate Christian Community, we must also turn our focus to the sharpening and building up of our brethren.

She’s back.

The federal money being dumped on states is already burning a hole in some pockets. And with $4.7 billion in play, it’s an awfully big hole.

We are winding down the first quarter of 2021 and I am holding my breath. After all, it was the first quarter of 2020 when the world as we know it became a world we didn’t know at all and one we are still trying to come to terms with.

Have you ever felt the need to pray, but didn’t know what to pray for? You may not have even had a particular need, but you felt like you should pray. That’s when I like to pray Scripture.

I am a Son of the South and proud of it.  Born here, raised here and, God willing, will be planted here.  The South is and always will be my home.

I always feel better after talking to you!

There were about two dozen of us — my sister and my brother, plus about 20 other first and second cousins.

Spring is in the air.  You can feel it trying to break through the on and off again frosty mornings. Robins are out in droves and the dandelions are in full bloom beckoning the bees to come and pollinate them.  

Have you ever awoken with a song playing in your head? Or as you are going through your day, a song won’t get out of your mind? It may be a hymn, a song from church, or one you heard on the radio. Next time that happens, take a moment and listen to the words; it might be God singing over you.

There was a momentous occasion in my family last week – one that just seemed to make the world wobble and the ground seem squishy under my feet.

As we were wrapping up our visit with air personality, Argo, of the Elvis Channel, he asked if we were staying at the Guest House.

In the midst of the cacophony over election reform, vaccination policy, sports betting, Trump’s grumps harrumphs and another unconscionable private school voucher scheme, a piece of much-needed legislation is quietly winding its way through the legislative maze this session and maybe will fi…

My six-month-old baby girl squirms and giggles constantly. Avery’s feet are always moving, socks never on for long, and her hair is tousled from those antics. She keeps her daddy and me laughing which somehow makes this new level of exhaustion worth it.

As I was picking up our Graceland passes, I was charmed to see a small boy dressed in a white, silver-studded Elvis jumpsuit, step up, with his parents, to the window beside me.

Will the events of the past year, including the pandemic, prove to be the spark that ignites a rural revival?

This month 212 years ago, in what is now LaRue County, Kentucky, in a primitive cabin during the dead of winter, a baby boy was born to an impoverished couple struggling for survival on the edge of the wild American frontier. They wrapped him in a buffalo hide and named him Abraham, after hi…

Whenever Tink and I visit Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home, we enjoy traipsing through every gift shop on the premises. There are many.

I blush as I write this (well, not really) but things are going well at the University of Georgia, the nation’s oldest state-chartered university, located in Athens, the Classic City of the South. UGA President Jere Morehead’s State of the University address notes among other positives that …

I just want to go home and snuggle with my baby.

It has been interesting in recent weeks to see the renewed faith some people have in government’s capabilities. To be helpful, I’ve compiled a partial list of recent headlines:

My column suggesting to Republicans that, like it or not, the presidential elections are over and for those crying ‘foul’ they might want to take out their anger on the Democrats and not each other brought some interesting and some predictable responses.

When Ruth Moore’s daughter, Ruth Marie, sold the Colonial Revival house her parents had built on a piece of land named after her great aunt (who bequeathed the land to Mrs. Moore), she surely never considered the possibility it would become the most famous home in America.

Tink’s jaw tightened to signal his determination. It tensed so much that it started to twitch.

Ephesians 5 teaches us man’s duties as part of the family unit.

I had just hung up from a robocall wanting to extend the warranty on a car I no longer own when the phone rang again. I assumed it was some helpful robot offering to consolidate credit card debts I don’t have or trying to sell me a back brace I don’t need.  You can imagine my surprise when I…

The dog ate my key.

One of the key data points from the General Assembly’s annual budget hearings had less to do with dollars than with people.

Democrat Joe Biden is now President of the United States.  Two Democrats defeated two Republican incumbents to represent Georgia in the U. S. Senate, swinging the balance of power in the Senate to the Democrats who already control the House of Representatives.   Therefore, you would think Ge…

It happened a year or two ago I read a magazine piece that moved me enough to reach out to the writer and compliment him.

A blessed child is raised up with a solid foundation of teaching that will undergird and carry that child down through the journey of life.

To Cameron Charles

I wear a face mask in public settings. My friend does not.

Someone wrote and asked a question that comes up from time to time, a question for which I stumble, even stutter, for answer.

She wasn’t thrilled when I told her I had been invited to write an occasional column for a local publication. After more than three decades in the Bell System and three arduous years as part of the staging of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, she thought it time to enjoy a long-awaited reti…

No resolutions for me this year.

When I was a child, my bedroom was twelve feet down a short hallway from my parents’ room.

As each year closes, I like to write a column sharing some headlines I would like to read in the new year. This year, I have just one. I envision it being in a sharp, fat, bold font at the top of the mast and reading simply: 2020 IS OVER!

Out with the old, and in with the new. I’m ready to give 2020 the boot.

Normally, I stay away from New Year’s resolutions but this past year has revealed a flaw in me so deep I have no choice but to face it and resolve to fix it.

Has there ever been a year that better informed what the next year’s work ought to be? Perhaps, but the to-do list for Georgia in 2021 clearly takes its cues from the mercifully ending 2020.

I could literally kiss liberty or hug freedom right now.

It’s hard to capture what went on at the three ethics board hearings/meetings held over the last month. I picked up my pen on several occasions to write what should have been a news lead only to set it back down and scratch my head.