He was told he was too small and should go back home. “Go home boy, you’re not 18.” They were right. He was barely 17, having celebrated his birthday just a few months before.

Lloyd Burns was a South Georgia boy who played football at Valdosta High School during the school’s glory days. But there was a new, more sinister, challenge awaiting him. His birth certificate was faked and he held to his story, so Lloyd Burns became one of the nation’s youngest soldiers in 1942. Read More»

In June of last year, as I reported in this column at the time, a Phoenix, Ariz., bishop received a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail and three years probation for violating a Phoenix noise ordinance because his church rang its bells hourly as a way of praising God. Bishop Rick Painter of the Cathedral of Christ the King (a man with whom I am personally acquainted) retained attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund to pursue legal options to defend his rights. Read More»

It has been said that the largest number of telephone calls made in a given year are made on Mother’s Day. It is also reported that the largest number of collect telephone calls are made on Father’s Day.

Often it is the Dad who buys Junior his first baseball glove, hockey stick, basketball, or football and spends countless hours in the back yard with said kid helping to hone those athletic skills.

Yet, if Dad’s pride and joy makes it to the big time, nearly always he will look into the cameras on the day of the big game, wave, and shout, “Hi, Mom!” Read More»

I have a problem. It’s time I own up to it and confess it. I’ve known about it for some time but only lately has it become a serious issue. This problem affects my communications with others, it hinders my ability to be effective at work and at home, and it causes me a good deal of anxiety and guilt. I have considered getting help for the problem but I don’t know where to turn. I suffer what may be an addiction.

I refer to it as ERD — email retention disorder. Read More»

I attended a funeral service last Saturday morning. I didn’t know the deceased or his family, although I know one of his very close friends. Robert W. Collins was eulogized, mourned, honored, and remembered at Fayetteville’s New Hope Baptist Church, possibly the only church in the county large enough to hold the massive crowd gathered for the service.

First Lieutenant Robert Collins, a 2004 graduate of Sandy Creek High School and a 2008 graduate of the United State Military Academy at West Point, was killed in Iraq on April 7. Read More»

There is a minority group of American citizens who, more than most, are feeling more and more oppressed. It’s not because of their race, their religion, or their sexual orientation. This group is made up of small business owners and the oppressor is the government of the United States. Read More»

This was the year I became a Butler University basketball fan. For me to become a fan of a non-Southern college sports team is quite out of character.
I was born and raised some 90 miles northeast of the University of Tennessee, and it is said that on a clear day during football season, you can hear the 109,000 Volunteer fans gathered at Neyland Stadium singing “Rocky Top.” I never heard them myself but somebody did say that once. Read More»

Every society incorporates certain times into its calendar as “new beginning” possibilities. New Year’s Day is one such day.

People look forward to a new year, unscathed by the scars, failures, and disappointments of the previous year. One fellow at the gym said that he dreads the first three weeks of January. “It takes about that long for all the new sign-ups who have made resolutions to ‘lose weight and to get fit’ to go back to their normal patterns.” Read More»

“Hey, Dave, would you be willing to help test my first group of students?” The request came in the early 1980s from a fellow karate instructor who was teaching his first class. I was about 30 and he a few years younger. I had been involved with martial arts since I was 15 years old and had my own class. Actually, I had taught karate at one place or another since I was 20, so, for a young man, I was relatively experienced. Read More»

When I first moved to Georgia nearly 27 years ago, a shopkeeper said, “Epps ... hmmm. Unusual name. Where are you from?”

“I moved here from Colorado,” I replied.

“No, no,” he responded, “Where are your people from?” Read More»