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Today's Opinions

  • Watch where you're jumping...now and in the future

    Leon said you couldn’t truly qualify to graduate unless you had passed the “initiation” test. “They can give you the paper but it won’t mean a thing unless you can prove you are ready,” is exactly how he put it.  He was the oldest brother and naturally a lot more worldly than the rest of us.

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  • This could actually work

    In the months that followed Hurricane Katrina, I had the opportunity to interview several people who had fled New Orleans. None of them planned to return.

    I can’t say that I blame them.

    But it would be very difficult to leave your home, especially if it’s all you’ve ever known, and move elsewhere to start all over.

    I’ve seen coverage of New Orleans and other areas since that storm proclaiming the fact that many of those areas have been slow to recover, particularly the Big Easy.

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  • She's quit and I'm a happy camper

    Listen guys, I got the break of the century this past week. My wife quit teaching! After 35 years, she retired. I was never so happy in my life. You have no idea what I have had to live through.

    She taught fifth grade for years. I would sit down at the dinner table after a long day ready to just relax and eat my peas and cornbread in the solace of my own home. “I’m worried about Johnny. He’s falling behind in math. I’ve tried to help him after school but he seems distracted.”

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  • We're not going anywhere...but what if we did?

    I was recently watching one of those news programs on cable, and they had a live call-in bit going. The question they posed was this: “If your local newspaper went away, would you miss it?”

    People called in, e-mailed and twittered their responses. For the most part, at least while I was watching, people were saying they would definitely miss their local paper.

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  • If you're not doing anything wrong, the ordinance won't affect you

    I don't see anything wrong with the proposed youth protection ordinance. In essence, the ordinance calls for a curfew and does not allow minors (people under 17 years old who have not been emancipated) to hang out between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

    The ordinance is partially the result of citizen complaints about kids roaming the streets at night, fighting and loitering around businesses. Police chief Ferman Richardson said the ordinance is also intended to protect minors from victimization and criminal activity as well as promote parental control and responsibility.

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  • Take a great big whiff of the best month of the year...June

    I discovered the wonderful month of June when I was 7 years old. We finished cutting out George and Abe’s heads in Miss Carolyn Blades’ first grade class in the middle of February. That was OK. But March must not have been a good month for presidents. We just did arithmetic and reading, and every Friday we lined up for those gosh-awful spelling contests. May was no better and it began to get insufferably hot in that small class room.

    “When does this thing end?”

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  • How different my life would have been

    I was thinking the other day about how different my life would have been had my mom not married my stepfather.

    What is a stepfather anyway? It’s just a new dad...not a replacement for the old one. Maybe, more like a supplement or an enhancement to the previous situation.

    Whatever.

    But in my case, my mother, my brother and myself were just getting by. Being a single mom is not an easy task, and it’s even harder when your “ex” is no help whatsoever. I can’t imagine what my mom dealt with on a daily basis.

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  • We appreciate all the dads out there doing their jobs

    My sister and I took one of our friends out to lunch Saturday. He doesn't have family here and during a recent conversation we thought it would be a nice idea. He selected the restaurant and we set out for a nice afternoon. First thing I noticed was that there weren't a lot of people out beating the rush, as they do for Mother's Day.

    We also stopped by a few shops and the shoppers were scarce. No one seemed to be planning a big day for Sunday.

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