Editorial Archives

I had a recurring nightmare as a child. In that era of the Cold War, my nightmare was that the Soviets would eventually take over the U.S. and I would become a prisoner of government control. Freedom of speech would disappear and everything we said would be monitored as was common in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. [Full Story »] 

The recent vote by the Boy Scouts of America to end its ban on gay scouts won’t be the last word about that issue. While the new rule lifts a ban on the boys, it doesn’t lift the ban on gay leaders. That means someone can be a gay Scout, but when he turns 18, he can no longer be affiliated with the organization. That’s a problem that will have to be addressed by BSA sometime down the road because of the inherent inconsistency that represents. [Full Story »] 

A probe into the operations of the Barrow County Animal Control Department paints a very disturbing picture of what’s been happening. It verified many of the complaints citizens have been making about the department, including the fact that animals in the county’s shelter weren’t being taken care of very well. [Full Story »] 

Imagine for a moment that the Benghazi mess had happened under George Bush’s presidency, or that the Bush Administration had targeted opposition groups for special IRS scrutiny just before re-election, or that Bush’s justice department had secretly gotten the phone records of reporters under the guise of “national security.” Wouldn’t liberal commentators have gone crazy clamoring for him to answer for all of that? And yet, when those things really did happen under President Obama, those same liberal commentators are scrambling to excuse the president of any culpability. “He didn’t know,” they argue. [Full Story »] 

QUEENS, N.Y. — I’m standing in a car on the N train approaching the Queensboro Plaza station. The subway has just emerged above ground after zooming through a tunnel underneath the East River from Manhattan and we’re now clanging along an elevated platform above the road. It’s a Saturday morning and the subway is packed with weekend shoppers, teenagers and young families with strollers. [Full Story »] 

It’s been three weeks since the bombings in Boston and we know a lot more now about how it happened than we did in the hours after that horrific event.

What has amazed a lot of people in the bombing’s aftermath was the strong sense of resilience displayed by the people of Boston. It began the moment of the bombings when Bostonians ran toward the danger to help those who had been wounded. And in television interviews in the hours and days after the bombings, many Bostonians echoed the theme that they would never give in to the fear of terrorism.

Can you imagine any other American city standing as stoic and defiant? Would Atlanta citizens have run toward danger to help victims? Would people in Los Angeles have sounded so defiant against terrorism?

Hardly. The Atlanta chamber would have probably called on the national media to ignore the bombing because it might hurt the city’s PR “brand.” In Los Angeles, many would have immediately looked for a movie deal. [Full Story »] 

It’s no surprise that the Barrow County Board of Education is considering a millage rate hike. Every school system in Georgia is suffering from a budget crisis that has been building for the last few years.
But Barrow County is perhaps one of the hardest hit communities in that crisis. The collapse of Barrow’s local tax digest has been among the worst in the nation. A recent AJC story listed the Winder zip code as being in the top one percent of the nation with homes “underwater.” Over 63 percent of homeowners in Barrow owe more money on their homes than the houses are currently worth. That and the very high foreclosure rate places Barrow at ground zero of the housing collapse.
There has been a lot of pain from that economic downturn, but perhaps none has been as severe as its impact on public schools. Because schools have a very narrow source of revenue, any hit on income is dramatic. Public school systems only have local taxes and state revenues to pay for expenses while most other local governments have a variety of sources. [Full Story »] 

Political indoctrination has always been a part of our national discourse. Propaganda played a key role in fomenting anti-British sentiment leading up to the American Revolution. Later in our history, disinformation was one of the main reasons for the Spanish-American War. In the 1950s, anti-communist hysteria invaded the political conversation. By the 1960s, the growth in television gave a brand new avenue for the dissemination of emotional political rhetoric designed to sway public opinion. [Full Story »] 

I’m starting to wonder, am I becoming a social liberal? There is a growing sense that many other people are also asking themselves that question. Over time, public issues evolve and people’s attitudes change and the old labels often become obsolete. [Full Story »]