Opinion

Qualifier: I am an independent. I have been elected to public office as an independent (city council post) and as a Democrat (justice of the peace) and announced for state senator as a Republican (forced to drop out after a medical issue).

As the new year begins, let’s talk about the pros and cons of the Electoral College, shall we? Pros: There aren’t any. Cons: Where to start? As a former history major and a reader of all genres of historical literature, I thought I knew a thing or three about the hows, whys and so-forths of the Electoral College.

The year is at its end. Ergo, our quarterly examination of the mail, cyber and surface. Reader feedback — complimentary or, more often than not, critical unto condemnatory. For example, writing about the cost of being “tough” on crime, as is occasionally done in this space, invariably brings a zinger or nine.

As 2023 begins, it’s a time to look forward and think about some of the things we’d like to accomplish in the next 365 days. With that in mind, here’s a look at some of my New Year’s Resolutions, in no particular order. Some of them are more serious than others, but I’ll leave that for you to judge.

Sunday will mark the beginning of a new year and, in many ways, a new start for this newspaper. The Carroll County News has been owned by out-of-state corporations for decades, but Sunday will be the official beginning of its return to local ownership.

The first time I got paid for writing a newspaper story, I was 16 years old. I wrote sports stories for a weekly newspaper in Pine Bluff that has long since closed its doors. I was paid 25 cents per column inch — about $15 to fill up half a page.

Martin Luther King Jr. has been quoted as saying, “Whatever your life’s work is, do it well.

A few weeks ago, I joined 20 of my fellow governors in a letter to Congressional leaders asking them to repeal the Biden administration’s COVID vaccine mandate for our military, and today I’d like to provide an update on our request.

Dear readers, Perhaps nothing that has ever been published in any newspaper is as well-known as the piece I’d like to share with you today. Although it was written more than 120 years ago, its message is timeless and perhaps even more important today than it has ever been.

People generally want to know that the job they are performing in order to earn a living, where they spend the bulk of the hours in their day, has purpose and meaning. They want to know that their work makes a difference.