Ok, so now I'm joining the blog ranks. Big whoop, right?
I want to use this space to ramble on about things that I either cannot or will not write about in the newspaper for which I'm currently employed, The Times-Record.
In the three months or so I've been working for the newspaper, I have managed to stir things up on a couple of different issues. It's been somewhat of an eye-opening experience in that I never really thought people gave a rip about what I thought...or wrote.
The first example was when I wrote an editorial about the shenanigans surrounding a couple of allegedly Christian groups here in Alabama. The Christian Coalition of Alabama and Christian Action Alabama. These groups, who I'm sure have served a positive purpose at some point, have seemingly gone off the deep end. On one hand you have the Christian Coalition of Alabama supporting a bill (that recently died in the state legislature) that would allow gambling, while on the other hand you have Christian Action Alabama playing keep-away with records they took when they left the Christian Coalition to start the new group. That last ditty prompted a lawsuit, with CCA suing CAA. Keeping up here?!?
Well, in the article, I pointed out that one would think the head of an organization that alleges to represent Christians and monitor issues Christians should be concerned about, would actually be led by someone who was a Christian to begin with.
Trouble with that was that earlier in the article, I pointed out the the former head of CCA and the current head of CAA, John Giles, had converted to Catholicism. Some of my Catholic friends made the jump that by saying these two things separately, I was saying that Catholics aren't Christians. Nevermind that I was saying that both of these guys sure weren't acting like Christians. I'm not sure how many of those folks are still mad at me, but I hope they've gotten over it.
To quote one of my radio heroes, Paul Harvey, "Page Two."
Today, I receive an email saying that I single handedly put fireworks vendors in Fayette County out of business!
The back story of this one is an article I wrote talking about the Drought Emergency that has been issued for a large part of the state and also includes restrictions on certain kinds of fireworks.
After initially saying all fireworks were illegal to discharge during the Drought Emergency, the State Forestry Commission backed off some; allowing ground-based fireworks. The official line was something to the effect of sky rockets with sticks and any kind of rocket or missile with fins or rudders were still illegal to discharge. Now work with me here...if you read that, isn't it safe to say that any reasonably thinking person would take that to mean that if it's fireworks that fly, they were illegal...or banned from being discharged?!?
The person that sent the email said that because I wrote that "in other words, anything that can fly is still banned," I put the fireworks vendors out of business! Who knew I had that kind of power?!?
Never mind that the fireworks stand closest to my house has a sign out front saying "WE'RE OPEN!! BAN HAS BEEN LIFTED!!" Guess the operators think that folks just stay at home after reading something I've written and aren't smart enough to go see whether or not they can still buy fireworks. They never quit selling them...I didn't say they had...I just pointed out what the State Forestry folks said about what you could and couldn't legally shoot. Guess if somebody gets a citation for starting a woods fire because they read that I said some fireworks were still legal, I'll get blamed for that, too.
Just another day in my world. Had I known that I had the power to condemn an entire denomination to hell and shut down an industry county-wide, I'dve taken this job years ago. I'd surely be President by now!
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