Another quick-hits column coming right up…
Once the warm weather hits, it becomes more difficult to carry an editorial theme throughout a personal column. Well, it sure does for me. But that provides an incentive and opportunity to run an occasional “quick hits” column with short, succinct (i.e. half-baked) opinions.
Just before heading off to dreamland late Monday night, I had a flashing light-bulb inspiration for my next column in The Athens NEWS. I’d write a “quick takes” review of all 23 of the current Democratic candidates for U.S. president.
It seemed like a routine walk in our rural subdivision April 29 evening after dinner. That was until Jax the dog and I completed our lap around the circle and got welcomed back by a pulsating mass of honeybees about 25 feet from our front door.
Sometimes when I’m awed and amazed by the power, utility and reach of the internet and social media, I need to rein in my enthusiasm and remind myself to not act like a rube who’s totally blown away by that electric toothbrush.
It’s gratifying to see Nelsonville City Council bow to public pressure and table an amended ordinance that would have made life difficult for some of the city’s main attractions, including Stuart’s Opera House and its annual Music Festival.
Here’s a bunch of small opinions. Not to say they’re about small ideas or topics, but rather they’re just shorter than a regular column. (OK, the second one is sort of trivial.)
With all the talk of socialism lately, prompted by various Democratic Party presidential candidates proudly owning the term, I’m proposing something here that 1) has no logical counter-argument; and 2) has no prayer of ever becoming reality in this country.
My advice to Democrats who are getting all wound up about who their nominee will be against Donald Trump in 2020: Calm down. It’s too early to waste your worries.
Should I hum “Taps” as I stuff my cherished John Wayne lunchbox into the kitchen trash can? After all, this is a momentous occasion.
A meme popped up in my social media timeline the other day that, for me at least, crystallized the disconnect between fact and fantasy among many supporters of our president.
Open up those committee meetings!
When I start to think, “Hey, I’m not that old,” the one thing that will snap me out of that silly fantasy is the realization that I’ve been at The Athens NEWS for EVERY SINGLE ONE of our Best of Athens Readers’ Choice Awards. And there have been 30 of them, counting this year’s.
This is an update to my Jan. 17 “Wearing Thin” column, the one headlined “The Day LBJ Asked My Great Granddad for a College Loan.”
Not to boast or anything, but my great grandfather is responsible for the course of American history since at least the early 1960s.
