Opinion

The build up of military forces in Saudi Arabia was code named Desert Shield. This build up was remarkable as troops from countries that had previously been sworn enemies teamed up to throw the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. The Dhahran airport had been packed with people trying to leave Arabia and Aramco did not want the expat labor force …

When I read the obituary for Hulk Hogan recently, I didn’t expect to be struck by the writing. But there it was – one of those rare, unforgettable descriptions that I would have clipped out and carried with me to my classroom.  From People magazine: “A perennially tanned and oiled-up Florida boy with peroxide hair and a matching handlebar mustache, …

The morning of the invasion of Kuwait was surreal inSaudi Arabia. I drove into the Arab town of Abqaiq andit was business as usual. It was the Muslim Saturdayand the town was sleepy with very little activity. Therewas no expanded security at the gate as I returned tocamp and I started to question if I had reallyheard that there had …

Do you ever reflect on the past and say to yourself,“where has all the time gone”. We seem to say it morefrequently as we age and the distance of time in the pastwe reflect on seems to be longer and longer. Though theyears go by, certain events never age and remain fresh inour minds. One such point in time happenedthirty-five …

My AI friend and I have calculated that since mycamping experiences in the 1960s and 1970s, approximately150 million American children have attendedsummer camp. Perhaps you were one of them.If so, I hope your experience was as amazingand life-changing as mine was.I attended Camp Ch-Yo-Ca (a Christian YouthCamp) in Calhoun. It’s easy to list some of themost-remembered aspects of those days, …

Fifty Eight years. That’s how long ago it’s been sinceBrother Jimmy Swaggart’s father, also a minister, cameinto my small Ferriday law office where I was a sole practitioner,and asked me to incorporate his church. Hetold me about his son who had recently been ordained asa Pentecostal minister in the Assemblies of theLord Jesus Christ branch of the church.Young Brother Swaggart …

Fear of failure is one of the biggest fears peoplehave. Ironically, failure is an integral component of thesuccess process. There are two distinctly different typesof failure. Absolute failure is when you give up. Successfulfailure is when you get back up.Of course, not everything you attempt works outas planned. When striving for a goal, you will likely discovermany ways which don’t …

It seems that the costs of living have been increasingfor some time. This phenomenon is not new, and theseincreases seem to be a norm within our culture. Yearafter year regulations enter our lives. They may be smallsubtle changes and occasionally something is implementedthat rocks the way that we live. Thenwe stop, take a big breath, look back and askhow did …

I’ve spent much of my life thinking of punctuation asone of the great gifts of modern-day written language. Imean, if you study most of the classic languages, punctuationas we know it barely existed – and I’ve often wonderedhow tricky that must have been.That kind of wondering? I guess I came byit honest. After all, I taught journalism for 34years, including …

One of my most favorite holidays is Independence Day, the day that we celebrate as the signing of the doc- ument that Great Britain viewed as an act of tyranny but viewed by Americans as the document that threw off the yoke of tyranny. At the time of the signing the colonist were divided. One third of the citizens believed …