Editorial

EDITORIAL - The world was shocked January 26, 2020, by the sudden death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others. A helicopter that spiraled through a California sky and crashed took the life of one of the world's greatest basketball players. During his career, Bryant had played 20 years for the Los Angeles Lakers leading them to five NBA championships and an amazing 33,643 points.  This is currently the fourth highest NBA scoring record.

Some of us remember exactly where we were when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We remember where we heard John Lennon had been murdered or where we were when Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered or when the Space Shuttle Challenger flight exploded in space. For years now we will remember where we were and what we were doing the day Kobe was killed.

EDITORIAL - The holidays can be glad, sad or bad. Take your pick and choose a direction.  I choose glad. Who wants to be sad and who needs bad? I don't want either one and neither do you. There is enough in life that confronts us every day that has the propensity to get us down.

Don't go crazy eating this holiday. I hear every year from people who say, "I'm going to eat whatever I want during the holidays and I'll change in January." These are the people who gain five to ten pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

EDITORIAL - Our country is over 22 trillion dollars in debt and growing. Reducing our spending is never easy especially for our government. We have a lot of obligations from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, Veterans, Infrastructure and more. 

There aren't that many places to cut spending on our nation's budget. Social Security eats up about 23 percent of our budget. Our government is supposed to start sending me a check every month in just over a year. After paying into it since I was 18 years old, I would like to collect it.   Medicare accounts for 15 percent of our federal budget. I just got my card in the mail so I'm not voting to reduce Medicare benefits. I know what medical bills can do to anyone financially. Over 65 percent of the bankruptcies in America take place over medical issues. 

EDITORIAL - Many Americans have cried foul against President Trump for pulling our troops out of Syria and abandoning the Kurds. Yet, I have to ask, do we ever really leave? While many of our troops are now in Iraq some will stay behind in Syria to protect the oil. 

Our military, from the United States, is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world with over 170,000 of our active-duty personnel serving in these different countries. We have 38 named bases with active duty, National Guard, reserve, or civilian personnel located in different countries.

EDITORIAL - I never wanted cancer - who does? Within four months I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and prostate cancer. Last October 26, my entire thyroid was removed with four malignant nodules.

I dreaded that surgery because I knew speech and singing complications could happen because of the proximity of the thyroid to the vocal cords. Some people end up with paralyzed vocal cords for a lifetime. The surgeon assured me he would take his time and utilize extreme caution in protecting my vocal cords but reminded me that the cancer had to be the priority. 

EDITORIAL -  Many have watched the powerful television report of Brandt Jean's act of forgiveness toward Amber Guyger who killed his brother Botham Jean. The scene of him hugging her and extending forgiveness toward her has been replayed over and again and invoked a sundry of reactions from across the nation and the Texas community. 

The former Dallas police officer Guyger testified that she shot her victim by mistake, in his own apartment while he was eating ice cream. She was sentenced to ten years in prison and many thought it would have been much longer. Allison Jean, the mother of the brothers wrote on her Facebook page to her son Brandt, "Your load is lighter. Regardless of the views of the spectators, walk with God always. Forgiveness is for the forgiver and it doesn't matter what the forgiven does with it. "