When I opened a letter from a cousin last week, out dropped a photocopy of a hideously scarred old photograph. It was a formal studio portrait, dated December 1892, of a woman and a man of indeterminate age, with an infant and a small boy. I sat for a long time looking at that dim picture.

It was the first time I had ever laid eyes on a likeness of my grandparents.

Haven’t brought up my genealogical data lately; I get so wrapped up in it that nothing else happens when “Mom’s doing genealogy stuff.”

My daddy's family was what we'd call today dysfunctional. Read More»

The drop in the stock market (now about 1,000 points on the Dow) is a graphic indication of the stark fact that we are entering the infamous double dip of the recession, long feared and predicted. The economy is not in a V after all (down and then up) but in a W (down, up, down again and then, finally, up). And the cause of the second dip is not the recession itself, but the cure administered to it by President Obama and the Democratic Congress.

Consider the indications (data provided by New America Foundation, analysis by Sherle R. Schwanninger and Samuel Sherraden): Read More»

At the invitation of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a dozen American policy wonks from differing perspectives traveled to Germany in December 2009. The Foundation was interested in our observations of the German social health system. My interest was how consumerism and individual choice worked in Germany.

We listened to federal and state officials, doctors, hospital executives, members of the Bundestag (German parliament), a health journalist and German policy experts. Read More»

One year ago this month, President Obama addressed the “Muslim world” from Cairo, Egypt. Some saw that speech as unnecessary groveling.

Critics — and I am among them — think such displays communicate weakness and only encourage those who wish to damage our economy and kill our people.

Supporters of the president’s speech think he did the right thing and that his attempt to reduce tensions between the U.S. and Muslim world can only bring positive results. Read More»

Too often in recent times, death has visited itself upon my family, its intrusion bitterly unwelcome.

When my cousin Jacky, one of the younger members of our sprawling clan, received his personalized calling card to meet the Lord, we all discovered something that we never imagined was possible – happiness in death. His dying, in fact, was pure joy. Read More»

Answers to your questions about life, religion and the Bible

Pastors get some of the most interesting questions from people they meet and people in their congregations. Here are a few that I have gotten over the years and recently via email for this column.

Dear Father Paul: Why do some churches practice infant baptism while others do not? — Eric Read More»

June 14 - Another busy week ahead, with a Planning Commission meeting tonight, Council Budget workshop tomorrow night, and the regular Council meeting Thursday.

Planning Commission meeting tonight Read More»

Where should Peachtree City spend (or not) your tax dollars next year? There will be a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, June 10, 6:30 p.m., at City Hall for residents to ask questions and provide input as Council and staff put together the FY 2011 budget. Read More»

My first car was a green Ford Maverick with the shift on the column and a broken gas gauge. I had to keep up with my miles between gas purchases so that I would not run out. I can’t remember, but I think it was a 1971 model.

I bought it for $500 with my grass cutting earnings. When I was ten or eleven years old, I decided it was time to make some money. I hung a poster in the convenience store down the highway that read “Will mow lawns in Allenwood. Call David Chancey at . . .” Read More»

In Pensacola, Fla., where I grew up, where the crystal white sand reflects the mid-day sun to make a glow along the beach you can see from the roadway even when the water is hidden by dunes, where the double-dose of sunlight will force your eyes to mere slits without sunglasses, where as a high school student I often swam to the offshore sand bar to snorkel at low tide, where turquoise is a special water color telling me the winds are onshore and the water calm and snorkel-friendly, where my siblings and 86-year-old mother still live, where I always drive to the beach when I visit family there Read More»