America’s Founders regarded a free press as so vital to the new nation that they took care to include that right in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

When it happened, I was out of town on business, hundreds of miles away. It was a terrible feeling of helplessness.

Where is it written that the left gets to control the political and cultural agenda and conservatives must bow to its ideology when, in fact, it is liberalism that has brought the nation to near cultural ruin?

Things seemed much simpler once. Right now it seems all we hear about is sheltering at home, a raging pandemic, scaled back public gatherings , fewer celebrations, face masks and protests.

A myth says lightning never strikes twice in the same place. President Donald Trump appears to believe it can when it comes to replicating his narrow victory in 2016.

Of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, only one now exists. Most of these priceless Wonders were destroyed by people who found them to be offensive.

In the times in which my parents grew to be adults, they had what they would hither forth, until the day they died, refer to as “the home place.”

Here’s one good thing about the COVID-19 pandemic: Bike sales are booming. I hope that means kids will begin riding in big numbers again.

Another Independence Day is here. It is hard to believe I have managed to hand around long enough to celebrate another of my birthdays.

In providing the crucial fifth vote to strike down a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals, Chief Justice John Roberts has re-enforced a longstanding theme: there is no guarantee a judge nominated by a Republican president will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution.

From time to time I like to play golf. I play golf badly, most of the time. Even though Mark Twain once called golf “a good walk spoiled,” I still like to play. And I ride in a cart. I don’t walk.

What did we think would happen once boundaries were destroyed?

In the latest of many cynical and highly political moves, the House of Representatives last week passed a measure that would transform the District of Columbia and make it the 51st state.

President Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan to make reforms in police departments and acknowledged for the first time the existence of "systemic racism." He also promised to meet with some African American families whose relatives have been killed by police officers.

Two years before Mama died and awhile before Tink, she and I were having breakfast for supper one night at a Waffle House.

Sheltering in place for months doesn’t bring with it a whole lot of excitement. What is exciting about trips to the mailbox and hauling out the garbage?

Here we all are on the cusp of the strangest summer in my memory, which is, of course, following the strangest spring in my memory. 

President Trump's speech Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a toxic stream of consciousness that ignored a great opportunity to speak words of healing and unity to a divided nation.

Two or three years ago, Vince Dooley and I made a trip to Poland to study some of the history of that nation during World War II. I don’t like to drop names, but I will drop that one, because he is one of the best people I have ever known and an astute scholar.

Legislation moved slowly this week as the Golden Dome deals with the foreign virus.

This was definitely the most unusual legislative session in living memory. It was also the most divisive. But I am happy we produced many good results.

When I was 13, I begged Mama to let me have a Tupperware party. It took some work but finally she agreed.

Well now we are down to moving from removal of Confederate statues to removal of the names of Confederate officers from city street signs.

My first-grade teacher, Miss Ruby Jordon, taught me that “history” means “his story,” the story of mankind — and even though this was 1958, she assured the girls that by “mankind” women were included, too.

Over the past three months, our school system, our local community, and our nation have experienced periods of great uncertainty and tremendous stress.

The General Assembly is back at the Gold Dome this week to finish our work on the 2021 budget.

As Father’s Day approaches, I find myself thinking more and more about my own, although he has been gone from this world for 32 years.

It is a gift, as Robert Burns wrote, to see ourselves as others see us.

Almost 40 years passed without Dwain Easley and his friends ever mentioning to each other what they had experienced in that Mississippi swamp on Oct. 20, 1977.

Those living along the Rockdale County speedway, better known as Oglesby Bridge Road, see the need for our local government to help in ensuring a clean, safe neighborhood.

The Minneapolis City Council has passed a measure to dismantle the city's police department and replace it with what Council President Lisa Bender calls "a transformative new model of public safety." This is supposed to better protect people in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a now-former Minneapolis police officer.

The world has totally lost its collective mind.

Like many of you, I have worked from home for the past three months, and it has given me a chance to familiarize myself with my new surroundings. It turns out that this place I’ve slept and watched ballgames on weekends for thirty years needed a few repairs. My wife says she has informed me about these problems in the past, but I was apparently distracted by the Braves and SEC football.

On March 12 I returned from Israel and dutifully sequestered at home for two weeks. Far be it from me to spread a virus I might have picked up on a 10-hour flight. I checked my temperature several times a day and smelled rancid cheese every time I opened my refrigerator. I spent most of those 14 days glued to the television, being fed conflicting information at every turn concerning what was certain to be the worst global pandemic since the Black Plague.

What is needed now is a Contract with Black America.

This is the third of a four part series on the plane crash of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band.

Mary Thornton, a critical care nurse at Southwest Mississippi Regional hospital in McComb, where Lynyrd Skynyrd band members were taken following a crash in nearby Gillsburg, and Lisa Dickerson hurried from the car we were exiting, toward a friend standing at the band’s tribute site.

After Pearl Harbor, in 1941, our country was in an anti-German, anti-Japanese mood, and World War II impacted everyone.

The man probably just wants to retire and be close to his son.

What is important in this continuing debate is not each "side" getting in its talking points but listening to how the other reached the conclusions that created their worldview.

I am asking for all public officials, community leaders, ministers, mothers, fathers and people who love this community and believe in the power of prayer to join me for seven days of prayer.

In the midst of the strangest five months most of us have ever experienced I almost overlooked the fact that this past Monday was the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation.