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& EDITORIALS
Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not. - Jeremiah 50:2
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 winner: Editorial Page excellen
2019, 2018 winner: Best Headline Writing
2019 winner: Best Community Service
2019 winner: Best Layout and Design
2019 winner: Best Serious Column - Don Daniel
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
Inflation have you
thinking ‘stay-cation’?
I hear a lot of Monroe Countians saying that steep
price increases in gas and groceries are making spring
break and summer vacations simply unaffordable
for their families this year. Yes, the stay-cation of the
Obama Era is back. I was only 6 when the 1970s ended
but I feel like were re-living the Carter Malaise Days. Then
as now, skyrocketing inflation and economic stagnation
hurt middle class families and the poor more than anyone.
I’ve had a pit in my stomach about the coming pain
ever since Biden was “elected”. After 15 months in office,
it seems my fears were justified. In both the domestic
economy and foreign affairs, each month seems to be
worse than the previous one. “Never underestimate Joes
ability to % A 8C things up,” said none other than Barack
Obama, who would know. He inexplicably chose the self
same Uncle Joe as his Vice President for 8 years.
Fortunately Monroe County is growing and that takes
some of the pain off of rising costs and supply problems.
Growth brings opportunity.
But then I hear a lot of people in Monroe County, espe
cially the many moving from Henry County, say they don’t
want Forsyth to become McDonough. And neither do I.
But anyone who’s lived in a community that is shrinking or
dying off knows that even with increasing traffic and the
problems of growth, it is still better to live in a community
that is growing than to live in one that’s dying.
• ••
The economy is important but it’s not everything. In fact
the most important job humans do is not making a living,
but raising the next generation. How are we doing on that
mark? Well our rotting and corrupt establishment made
little kids wear disgusting face diapers to protect them
from a virus that didn’t threaten them for the past two
years. Then there was a video last week
that made the rounds of the “husband”
of Pete Buttigieg, our secretary of
transportation, leading teenagers in the
pledge to the transexual flag. Mean-
I I while, Democrats are outraged that
L ^ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed
Wk. a bill forbidding teachers in grades
K-3 from indoctrinating children into
Yx homosexuality and trans issues. Read
that sentence again. Democrats WANT
to use public schools to confuse and
convince children to explore sexual
confusion. Thank God for the brave and unafraid Gov. De
Santis who fired back at these sickos, including the head of
Disney. Democrats want to wreck families and make them
poor and broken so that the only ones left with any power
or money or control are them. I live for the day that
the Democrat Party dies a well-deserved death in America.
And I like to say so. America will be much, much better off
without a viable Democrat Party.
• ••
In happier news, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards
tells Yahoo Entertainment that after 55 years as a smoker,
he successfully quit about two years ago. Richards, 78,
conceded he’s “probably getting on a bit” and doesn’t really
miss his smokes. Fellow band members say Richards is
even singing songs in the original key better now that he’s
given up the habit.
Glenn Reynolds at www.instapimdit.com notes with
Richards’ turn toward health indicates: “We need to start
worrying about what kind of world we are going to leave
for Keith Richards.” Indeed!
• ••
Speaking of bad habits, Mike Tyson, yes THAT Mike
Tyson, has a marijuana company that has released a new
brand of pot edibles in the shape of — you guessed it — an
ear. Tyson of course infamously bit Evander Holyfield’s ear
during a 1997 fight. The edibles are called — what else?
— Mike Bites. With many grocery store shelves empty,
will more families have to resort to eating Mike Tyson’s
marijuana ears? Thanks Joe!
is published every week by The Monroe County Reporter Inc.
Will Davis, President • Robert M. Williams Jr., Vice President
Cheryl S. Williams, Secretary-T reasurer
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Publication No. USPS 997-840
DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
REECE’S PIECES by Steve Reece
If it wasn t for bad luck
• ••
D epending on how you
look at it, a Croatian
man known for escaping
death, Frano Selak can
be described as either the world’s
luckiest or unluckiest man. It has
been claimed his luck began in 1962
when he was on a train that crashed
into a river, and he was pulled to
safety while 17 of his fellow pas
sengers perished. The next year, he
was somehow blown out of a plane
door and miraculously landed in
a haystack while 19 of his fellow
passengers crashed to their deaths.
Three years later he was able to swim
to shore after a bus he was riding
ended up in a river in an accident
that took the lives of four others. In
1970 he survived a car fire by man
aging to escape before the
gas tank exploded. In 1973, a
broken fuel pump shot flames
through the vents of his car
leaving him completely bald.
And it gets better. Or worse...
After he was hit by a bus
in 1995 sustaining only
minor injuries, he avoided
a head-on collision with a
truck on a mountain road
by crashing into a guardrail that
failed to stop his car. Fuckily, Selak
was driving without a seatbelt and
was ejected out of his car onto a tree
branch where he watched his car
tumble 300 feet down.
Then, two days after his 73rd birth
day he won over a million dollars in
the lottery. It could be argued that
this good fortune was negated by the
fact that he also married for the fifth
time on the same day. Sadly, Selak’s
luck finally ran out in 2016 when he
died at the age of 87.
I’ve had my own share of luck play
ing the lottery. All bad. I’ve played
poker with my soldier buddies while
in the army and learned early on
R
>
* y
that unless someone’s cheating, luck
goes around the table. And I’ve been
both unlucky and lucky in love.
An incredible stroke of good
fortune happened to me back when
I was working in Orlando building
props and sets and I was overdue
for a vacation. It was finally sum
mertime and I had been planning
on taking a 2,000-mile road trip
with my family to Guadalajara for
months. Even though we had saved
as much as we could, we still
needed my last paycheck be
fore we would be able to go
on our dream vacation. The
plan was that we were going
to leave at 6 a.m. on the first
Saturday in July after I got
paid the day before.
I’m not sure why I did it,
stupidity I suppose, but for
some reason, after I got paid that
Friday, I tossed my hard-earned
check onto the dashboard as op
posed to putting it in the glovebox as
any sane person would do. Back in
those days, my then-wife drove the
nice car while I drove the beat-up
pickup truck with no air condition
ing which meant my windows pretty
much stayed down.
You may not know about Inter
state 4 in Orlando, but I can tell
you it sucks, especially on a hot
Friday afternoon. I was approach
ing downtown, feeling pretty good
about everything even though it was
stop-and-go traffic when suddenly I
got a lucky break and was able to hit
the speed limit, but my luck quickly
changed when the wind from my
speed caused my check to fly off my
dashboard and out the window. I
watched it in my rearview mirror
spin around a few times before it
disappeared beneath the car behind
me.
I immediately pulled over to the
shoulder, but my check was gone. I
finally gave up and sadly drove home
to face my eager family with the
depressing news that we wouldn’t be
able to leave until the next Monday
afternoon at the earliest.
I escaped my wife’s disappoint
ment in me by doing what I usually
did: I went to take a nap. Just as I
was dozing off, I was interrupted by
her handing me the landline phone
saying it was “some woman”. I could
tell by the tone in her voice she was
still upset and I didn’t blame her. The
woman calling asked me if my name
was Steve Reece and said if I could
give her the address on a check she
found floating down in her yard, I
could have it. It turned out that the
check had somehow got caught in
an updraft and traveled 12 miles
from downtown Orlando to less
than two blocks from my house. I
rushed to the lady’s house, and she
told me while she was pulling into
her driveway, the check landed right
in front of her car, and she looked
up my name in the phonebook. My
wife was still glaring at my lucky self
when we left for Mexico on time the
following morning.
All in all, I still consider myself to
be extremely lucky and blessed to be
free, doing what I love to do in the
greatest country in the world.
Steve Reece is a writer for the Reporter
and a known crime fighter. Email him
at stevereece@gmail.com.
CAROLYN S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
How bad before we finally seek revival?
M y husband and I take
our shoes off as soon
as we enter our house.
Many of you probably
do the same thing. But, I don’t want
to talk about the habit of taking off
our shoes when we come home.
However, I do want to share a fasci
nating story about people who felt
a compelling urge to take off their
shoes, after entering the
city of Wilmore, Kentucky.
Curious? Want to know
why? Read on for the
answer.
IN 1970, at Asbury Col
lege in Wilmore, Kentucky,
college students had
been praying for
three years for God’s
mighty presence
to move on their
campus and in their city. 52 years ago,
in a Tuesday morning chapel service,
the prayer of these faithful students
was answered in a miraculous way.
The glory of God filled the chapel, the
college campus and impacted an entire
city. The revival was so powerful,
major newspapers wrote about it and
NBC News did a segment about it in
one of their nightly broadcasts.
AN UNUSUAL occurrence hap
pened during the revival. Visitors
driving through Wilmore said
the atmosphere of the city was
so charged with the tangible
presence of God, that they felt
the urge to take off their shoes.
Their experience reminds me
of a supernatural encounter
Moses had with God, when
he saw a bush ablaze
with fire, but it was not
consumed. As Moses
stood before the burn
ing bush, the Lord said
to him, “Take your sandals off, for the
place you are standing is holy ground”
Acts 7:33. Taking off one’s shoes was a
sign of reverence, humility and respect
for God.
IF EVER this country needed
another powerful revival, it’s now! In
studying about revivals, I discovered
that there were more revivals in the
1800s than there were in the 1700s.
There were more revivals in the 1900s
than in the 1800s, and there were more
revivals in the 2nd half of the1900s
than in the previous 1900 years. Is this
the generation that will see one of the
greatest revivals in history? It’s possible.
I’m convinced that God will never do
less today, than He did yesterday! It’s
my prayer that this nation will return
to God on unprecedented scale! If
we will repent, and humble ourselves
before God, there will be an “open
heaven” over our towns, churches and
individual lives. Come Lord Jesus,
revive us again! Amen!
Carolyn Martel is the retired advertis
ing manager of the Reporter. Email her
at carolynmartell @bellsouth. net.