Like everything else in 2020, the election cycle seems to have been going on for WAY too long. In less than two weeks, the never-ending campaign will have ended. Read more

I was shopping with my wife this weekend when I was surprised to find myself face to face with an old friend I wasn’t expecting to see for several more weeks. Read more

Occasionally we all feel like we are living in a rut. Our days and weeks are filled with the same activities and schedules. We mow grass, rake leaves, clean the house, sweep out the garage and do the same jobs. We go to the same grocery store on a certain day, wash our car at the same place … Read more

“We all have two lives. The second one starts when we realize we have only one.” Read more

Between a pandemic, murder hornets, and so much more, it is perhaps little surprise that studies have consistently found that Americans are drinking more alcohol during quarantine. In states around the country liquor stores and small businesses that deliver alcohol have seen an uptick in sales. Read more

This week while working on an assignment for an orientation class for my specialist degree in education (Ed.S.), I was assigned to read an article titled “A Framework for Character Education in Schools,” published by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Values at The University of Birmingham… Read more

I remember those opening chords thundering off the roof of the Tupelo Coliseum as if it was yesterday. Read more

It has long been a matter of decorum, especially in the South, the apex of propriety and manners, not to interrupt someone when he or she is speaking. My elders reinforced this principle for as long as I can remember. However, this past week, after the initial vice presidential debate, the n… Read more

Lawmakers were stunned to recently learn from Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell that the state has the highest homicide rate in the nation. Read more

“Little Ray, folks is dying what ain’t never died before.”— Scottie Lee Miltoni Read more

STARKVILLE — The late New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra would love this one. Read more

I have been a little busy lately. Besides juggling a hybrid high school teaching schedule with about 75 percent of my students in class two days a week and the other approximate 25 percent of my students learning at home under my direction, I also inadvertently chose this semester to begin w… Read more

STARKVILLE — It’s difficult to think of Julia Reed without hearing her raspy, smoky voice – sort of an odd cross between Lauren Bacall and the sound a farrier’s rasp makes on the hooves of a draft horse. When she laughed, it was earthy, twangy, and honest. Read more

There’s dark and then there’s DARK. Read more

Since school halted back in mid-March, I will say that I’ve gotten used to the virtual world of work. I finished out the year with three classes of high school seniors in that way, and I’ve recently completed two months of work for my state department of education in the same vein. Read more

Mississippi voters will face the question of legalized medical marijuana use on a broader scale on the November ballot. Medical marijuana is already legal in Mississippi in the narrowest of senses. Read more

Over the past two decades, the number of homeschoolers in Mississippi – and in America – has more than doubled as this education choice has moved from the fringes of society to a practice that is legal in every state. Read more

The progress of humankind has been possible because people are curious and ask questions. From the beginning of time, people have asked why, how, and is there a better way? We have never accepted a situation as permanent. If we had, we would still be living in caves. The sea of knowledge is … Read more

Charles Evers, who died last week at the age of 97, changed Mississippi politics in ways that are profound and enduring. Yet Evers was for most of his life a walking contradiction in both his public and private lives. Read more

As a Republican House chairman waited outside Speaker Philip Gunn’s office one day in late June, another prominent member walked up and they began an intense, face-to-face conversation literally inches apart with no masks. Read more

A platitude often repeated in small Southern towns pertains to a wistful yearning to return to “easier” times. However, this idyllic view of the past perceived through the hazy lens of nostalgia is highly inaccurate, tainted by the stain of injustice. Fifty-six years ago this summer, a group… Read more

Mississippi has a ways to go before challenging some of the South’s strongest economies, and one key reason is more regulation and red tape than its neighbors. New legislation proposed this session could have helped rein in government red tape, but the most significant bills failed to gain e… Read more

Erstwhile DeSoto County state legislator and failed GOP gubernatorial contender Robert Foster is certainly entitled to his opinions about government mask requirements. He is also free to apply whatever overwrought definitions to freedom, liberty, and tyranny that he chooses. Read more

In May 2000, Ronnie Musgrove, coming off a razor-thin win the year before to capture the office of governor, had just enjoyed a successful legislative session where his teacher pay raise proposal, still the largest in state history, was approved. Read more

This week has been anxiety-provoking, as cases of the novel coronavirus are rising in the Mid-South, and fewer people seem to be taking precautions, based on what I observe those few times I must enter a store to buy goods. Fewer people seem to be wearing masks when entering businesses, whic… Read more

Mississippi’s tense and emotional public debate of removing the Confederate Battle Flag from the canton corner of the state flag evoked some of the more startling lessons of history regarding the evolution of racial views by individuals and by institutions. Read more

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden agree on one thing – the other side is trying to steal the election. Read more

A few months ago, I wrote with great hope and optimism that 2020 very well could be the “year for alcohol freedom.” Read more

How do you feel each day? How do you want to feel each day? Would you like to fill each day with joy? Joy is not just something you experience when things go well, joy helps you make things go well. Each day is worthy of joy. Read more

I’d give just about anything to talk to my father just one more time. Read more

Henry Olsen, a scholar from the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., has a well-deserved reputation for on-target analysis on politics and elections. Read more

Do you ever put yourself down with what you say to yourself? It’s not uncommon for people to put themselves down through negative self-talk. They will often say things more negative to themselves then they would accept from a stranger. Putting yourself down is a problem generating negative s… Read more

‘Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?” – Often attributed to Chico Marx, actually a paraphrase of a line the Marx brother spoke in a movie, “Duck Soup.” Read more

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 … Read more

Experiencing anxiety is a part of life. Anxiety is miserable. However, you have the power to minimize its duration and severity. There’s no need to be continuously anxious. There are numerous proactive strategies which help you effectively deal with anxiety. Read more

At Saturday’s Starkville Unity March and subsequent rally on the campus of Mississippi State University, I watched and listened. I saw local white merchants bringing cases of bottled water and local white-owned restaurants dropping off food for organizers and the police. I saw many white bus… Read more

Successful problem solving is not a chance or random occurrence. It’s an essential skill which you can master through practice. Just like any other skill, there are specific techniques designed to help you become more adept. Read more

Gov. Tate Reeves and his staff had to feel good last week when the Senate leadership was unable to get the two-thirds super majority needed to pass a House resolution that would allow the Mississippi Legislature to remain in session for the rest of the year. Read more

Nonviolent resistance is an important principle of the 20th and 21st centuries, central to most successful protest movements. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. drew upon this tactic as the basis for much of his work in the 1960s, gleaning ideas regarding civil disobedience from Indian anti-colonia… Read more

“Let us sit upon the ground Read more

If your car runs out of gas it will come to a complete stop. It doesn’t matter what kind of car you have, where you are going, or what your schedule is. The same phenomenon impacts you. If your emotional tank runs dry, you come to a stop. Read more

For the last couple of months, I have been staying in the house where I grew up, sleeping in the same bedroom that was mine for 18 years, before I went away to college. Back in December, I purchased a house that needs some restoration, and until a few items can be completed, I’m enjoying spe… Read more

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann recently warned members of the Mississippi Senate to wear their masks or risk being photographed or videotaped by media outlets without one. Read more

The struggle for peaceful school integration in Mississippi just over a half-century ago was a time that called for the emergence of quiet heroes – men and women of courage and good will from both the black and white races. Read more

“Two things are infinite: the universe and stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” – Albert Einstein Read more

On March 12, the Senate overwhelmingly killed a bill to permit direct shipment of wine in Mississippi. This vote didn’t age well. Read more

There has been more than a little media tut-tutting over the decision by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves to hire controversial former Louisiana corrections official Burl Cain, 77, to lead the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Read more

On March 24, President Donald Trump said he wanted the country and the economy “opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” Read more