This is a confession, of sorts, one of which I am not proud.

All through elementary school and through most of junior high, I was an A and B (mostly A) student. Beginning in the 9th grade, the grades began to slip — well, “plummet” would be a better word.

My coaches, teachers, and, especially, my parents converged on me from all sides demanding to know what was wrong with me. If drugs had been around at the time, I’m sure they would have suspected that I was doing drugs. They would have been wrong. Read More»

A story must have a beginning, middle, and an end. As much as I would like to lay claim such words of wisdom, they ain’t mine. They belonged to Mrs. Newsome. She was my 10th-grade English teacher at Briarwood High, home of the Mighty Buccaneers. Although she didn’t say what order the story should be in — just that it should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Here’s the end. On the first day of summer, The Wife and I ended the day at our local hospital — in Trauma Room One. See, this time you didn’t have to read the entire story to find out what happened. Read More»

My family has lived in Fayette County for 23 years. It is a great place to live, work, and raise a family. We have a great neighborhood with lots of variety from little kids to retired people. Some of our neighbors are native Georgians and some, like my wife and me, are from other parts of the country.

Religious diversity in our neighborhood includes Baptist, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, agnostic and more. There are both Democrats and Republicans. It is also racially diverse. Read More»

During the week before Memorial Day, radio host Herman Cain read to his audience an excerpt of what he described as the finest Memorial Day speech in American history even though it was given on Nov. 19, at Gettysburg, Penn., in 1863, four months after the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil. Read More»

The annual ritual known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee came and went last week with kids spelling words that, I suspect, many with graduate degrees couldn’t spell.

The winner was Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Bayside Hills, N.Y. Mahankali is the first boy to win the title since 2008.

There is a lesson to be learned from the success of these young people, including the ones who came close to winning but didn’t. It is the value of persistence. Read More»

One of the many sad signs of our times is the way current immigration issues are discussed. A hundred years ago, the immigration controversies of that era were discussed in the context of innumerable facts about particular immigrant groups. Many of those facts were published in a huge, multi-volume 1911 study by a commission headed by Senator William P. Dillingham. Read More»

Sir John Dalberg-Acton famously observed, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” No federal agency enjoys more power than the “absolute power” wielded by the Internal Revenue Service.

It’s little wonder, then, that under this power-drunk Obama regime, the IRS has become “corrupted absolutely.” It’s become the hammer to this president’s favorite nail: political dissent. Read More»

A major New York publisher sent a review copy of a much touted novel called “If Jack’s In Love.” Because I write about the South and because this book had won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, the book’s publicist followed up with an email.

Since this column runs in Yazoo City, Miss., hometown and burial site of Morris, I decided to give the book a look in deference to the Southern literary legend. Surprisingly, it was the author’s biography that caught my attention rather than the sprawling words between the pages. I must share it with you: Read More»

Her picture in the paper depicted her as a beautiful young lady. Bright eyes, cheerful countenance, a mischievous smile. Kirby was a good kid from a good, middle class family just like the families in our community. Her driver’s license was only four days old. She and about 40 other classmates from Shiloh High School in Gwinnett County were partying one Friday night several years ago. The midnight hour approached, and as she was rushing home to make curfew, she lost control of her mother’s car as she sped around a curve on a winding, hilly road. Read More»

Across the country, thousands of schools have experienced the graduation of millions of high school seniors. As I attended a graduation this spring, I thought back to my alma mater, Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tenn. Sometimes, people will ask, “If you could go back to high school, would you do anything differently?” My answer is, “You betcha!”

So, for the benefit and amusement of those who will be entering or returning to high school this fall, I offer the following musings about what I would do differently: Read More»