Category: Opinion

Dear Editor, People occasionally will ask about my upbringing, family life and Appalachia roots. So, here is my song that I wrote and recorded titled Coal Miner’s Son. Maybe you can relate to some parts of the following lyrics.  Daddy slept all day, worked all night Got home early by dawn’s daylight. Mommy made gravy biscuits and eggs fried apples, we had it made. Worked in the fields, cut a little hay, Friday morning, daddy got paid. Cows in the fields, hogs in the lot, morning and the  evening we made a little slop.  Bought some food at Grandpa’s store,…

Dear Editor, It’s beginning to look like the Supreme Court is going to be tested in a couple of dicey situations looming on the horizon. Very soon, it will be expected to rule on whether the states have the right, under section three of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to decide who is eligible to appear on their ballots for elected offices. The court recently ruled, in the Dobbs decision, the states have the authority to decide a woman’s access to health care in the form of an abortion, no matter the circumstances, whether it is necessary or…

Dear Editor, It’s beginning to look like the Supreme Court is going to be tested in a couple of dicey situations looming on the horizon. Very soon, it will be expected to rule on whether the states have the right, under section three of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to decide who is eligible to appear on their ballots for elected offices. The court recently ruled, in the Dobbs decision, the states have the authority to decide a woman’s access to health care in the form of an abortion, no matter the circumstances, whether it is necessary or…

Dear Editor, 2024 is here and congratulations – you are here to celebrate! This is the time of the year when people are making New Year’s resolutions. Typically, the most common is to lose a few pounds.  I suspect you want to lose a couple of pounds. Maybe you need to lose a lot of pounds. Many of us do. From September 1 through December, 27 I gained 15 pounds. I know, that’s really bad. I wasn’t bad for four months but I had a few good spells of being bad. On September 1st, I weighed 198 pounds. Then on…

Dear Editor, Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. The cost of groceries, fast food, building materials, and most anything you can name has increased dramatically.  Millions of Americans are Social Security recipients. The modest increase coming in January will feel like a drop in the bucket. Every little bit helps and it will truly be a little bit compared to the financial needs of senior adult Americans.  Almost every day we see the national reports of the thousands of undocumented immigrants flooding our country, This does not make us feel very secure. Our government could stop…

Dear Editor, In the past 4 years, college enrollment in Arizona has fallen from 55.3% of high school graduates to 47.3%. In 2021, only 6.5 million male students enrolled in a postsecondary institution whereas 8.9 million women enrolled. Add in the absenteeism epidemic in America’s classrooms, which rose from 6.5 million to 14.7 million in just three years and the problem seems almost insurmountable. Yet, the value of education still holds. Professionals who have completed post-secondary education, whether a certificate, license, or degree, contribute to a more robust local economy, enjoy individual prosperity and see reduced social spending. For example,…