There are signs that we are living in a world of emotionally charged, high anxiety. We are a glob of an emotionally entangled mess. We see this in the hyped-up presentation of news editorials. We see it in the “outrage” of people who have no idea of any facts, only the emotional content of a…

During a normal White House race, the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner allows the candidates to don formal attire, fire off snappy one-liners and make subtle appeals to Catholic voters.

I watched it. I watched the whole thing. I watched the worst example of public discourse (I know it cannot be called that) I have ever witnessed. There have been more colorful name-calling examples, mostly by newspaper editors or party spokespersons. One of the more famous was penned about J…

Christian history is fascinating in every century but the transition in the fourth century from persecuted to being the official religion of the empire is difficult to top.

I really hate to break this to all our young voters, but the current election cycle is not the most important one in our history. We are in no greater existential national crisis today than we were in the years immediately after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Or around 1812. Or …

Cole & Durham Insurance, A Lawton Insurance Agency, retains its Best Practices status, once again becoming a part of an elite group of independent insurance agencies around the United States.

I sure hope we can work through the next year together. The key here is “work.” It is one thing to have an ideal, it is another to work toward it with others.

There is a constant fight for who gets to tell stories of the past. It is a matter of perspective. I was taught the “received story” of the United States as a child. The telling of that story has changed some since then, but it is still basically the same story.

Silence

Take Time for Beauty

Do you remember the kid or the co-worker who never pulled their weight in group projects? They were quite happy to coast along and let everyone else do the heavy lifting and take an equal share of credit. But then, if something went wrong, because they had not done any work, they could quite…

Remember when it was socially acceptable to shake hands with others?

I do not write to pick sides, although sometimes it may be obvious which side I am on. Some people do write to pick sides. That is not my intention. I write to think on paper, and in doing so anyone that reads is carried along with my personal attempts to make sense of the world I am in. Agr…

It didn’t matter where Pete Buttigieg traveled in Iowa for the early Democratic Party primaries — voters kept asking similar questions.

There will always be “glass half full” and “glass half empty” people. Both will always be right. Personally, the thing that keeps me more on the half full side are all the half empty people that spoke and wrote in the past. It is those who accurately described catastrophic events or put thei…

“There is no lack in these days of captious listeners and questioners; but to find a character desirous of information, and seeking the truth as a remedy for ignorance, is very difficult. Just as in the hunter’s snare, or in the soldier’s ambush, the trick is generally ingeniously concealed,…

Because the United States has such deep and important roots in Christianity, it is always going to be difficult to separate the two. One can make an argument that the United States is the most Christian nation on earth. (A possible exception is the Vatican). One can also make an argument tha…

We have been arguing with each other from the beginning.

I am all out of words. I can say the same ones over and over, but they seem to vanish into thin air and have no effect whatsoever.

I have heard it said that it is not a good thing to mix religion with politics. The only problem with that is its impossibility. We may mean different things when we say it but, upon reflection, we know the two are inextricably locked together. What I attempt to do personally is not allow pa…

Eighty-seven years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln delivered perhaps the most famous speech in American History. In its text is the ironic line, “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.” This is, of course the Gettysburg Address, …

With my schedule disrupted like most of us, I decided to take the plunge and do something I have been putting off for years. You got it. I finally picked up War and Peace. It is my nighttime reading just before I go to bed, so it may yet take me a while to get through it. Yep. Just for fun. …

A bubbling stream, a few animals around, a partly cloudy sky, about 70 degrees and a wisp of a breeze- hopefully right after a rain. The birds are singing and there are absolutely no bugs anywhere. It is quiet. That poster says Psalm 23. (We forget about “the valley of the shadow of death”, …

In an era where theaters are closed and studios are pushing back their hottest movies until next year, Universal has made the bold decision to release its animated would-be blockbuster “Trolls World Tour” straight to On Demand so it can capitalize on an audience with dwindling entertainment …

This is how this always happens. This is how disaster overtakes us. We can never see it coming. We have learned to avert, be prepared, and predict a lot of things over the past centuries. But we are still surprised every ten or fifteen years or so by a disease, an attack, greed, or some othe…

As I write this, the citizens of our communities and our country have made significant alterations to their lifestyles. We are thirsty for answers and hungry for resolve. However, there remains great uncertainty over the course of the foreseeable future.

As your Circuit Court Clerk, I thank the citizens of Hopkins County for their patience and understanding during this difficult and challenging time. We are still doing our best to serve the public in the areas that we are able.

WASHINGTON — It was the last day of a 19-day period of daytime fasting for Baha’i believers all over the world. The Washington area’s Baha’i community would have ordinarily been looking forward to joining together at night to feast in celebration and welcome in the Baha’i new year.

Hopkins County Government Offices are closed to in-person traffic until April 3, 2020. All county solid waste convenience centers will continue normal operations and will be open regular hours.

In one of Hank Williams Jr’s songs, he says, “I never back down and I love a good challenge.” I feel the same, but I surely never thought I would face a challenge like this!

I want to start by saying thank you.