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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
Monroe County joins
nationwide BOE revolt
M onroe County voters joined those around the
country on Tuesday in electing a conservative
majority to its Board of Education.
After two years of COVID shutdowns,
mask mandates and exposes of school curricula featur
ing Hate America First and sexual perverted material, the
American people, and even those in Monroe County, have
had enough. And I am here for it.
That’s not to say losing candidates Melissa Mixon, Kristi
Varnadoe and Rick Lanford were flaming liberals. They
are not, and probably would all have been good school
board members.
But voters are not
looking for peace
time candidates. We
are at war, culturally
at least. The Ameri
can people did not
start this war. It
started in education
colleges and text
book companies.
It took root in the
minds of too many
public school teach
ers. And they, the
public school estab
lishment, declared
war on American
Greg Head and Eva Bilderback
celebrate their re-election to the
BOE on Tuesday night.
parents.
But there’s only one problem. The public schools do not
belong to the left-wing education colleges. They do not
belong to the bureaucrats in the Department of Educa
tion. They do not belong to the army of public school
“professionals” who make their living sucking off the teat
of enormous public education budgets. But they won’t give
up that war easily.
Victorious incumbents Greg Head and Eva Bilderback
(and Stuart Pippin too, though he was not up this time)
have been through bruising battles trying to keep schools
open, stop masking, and hold the public school “blob” ac
countable. Maybe the voters understood that, and wanted
to reward them. These 3 BOE members stood in the mi
nority in that 4-3 vote in August 2021 where the Monroe
County BOE voted to make ALL students wear masks,
even pre-K children as young as 3. It was insane. Finally,
the parents of Monroe County spoke
out and protested, and the BOE at last
V reversed course. And now, help is on
™ the way. That conservative minority
j will now be a majority.
It was two years ago, the night after
V ^ / , the last BOE election, that the school
Hk. superintendent announced he was go-
itf&tr ing to do something he had not done
before. He was going to j oin a Black
Lives Matter protest against a local
business owner and a parent of three
children in his school system. The su
perintendent had just seen his preferred liberal candidates
get elected, and was feeling a surge of power. Most people
in town knew what really seemed to be motivating the
superintendent. We had reported about the BOE hiring a
child molester as a substitute teacher. We had reported an
arrest in his own family. He was simply trying to seize an
opportunity to punish someone he saw as an obstacle. It
failed spectacularly because the people of Monroe County
are not stupid. Perhaps he realizes now that was a mistake.
I do not know what will be the priorities for this new
conservative majority. But I commend the people of Mon
roe County for putting people with backbone and courage
on the BOE. Yes Monroe County has a good public school
system. But for too long it has been governed by a closed,
good-ole-boy system. Sunshine, fresh air and a sense that
the schools serve the parents and students and not the
other way around will be a welcome change.
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
DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
REECE’S PIECES by Steve Reece
Living among the gators
T he other day I typed the
word “tall” into my phone
and it was immediately
auto corrected to “y’all”. I
guess it’s a Southern thang. There
are many things that make the
South unique other than the way we
speak. Even though we have a gift
for combining words into one such
as making “you all” into “y’all”, “are
not” into “ain’t”, and “y’all ain’t” into
“yain’t”, we are blessed in countless
other ways. We have grits, collard
greens, and peach cobbler. Then
we have our manners, our football
teams, and Waffle House. Limited
space prohibits listing all the advan
tages of living in the South.
A much shorter list would consist
of the negative aspects of southern
living. This list might include the
heat, hurricanes, and driving on
one inch of snow. There’s also taking
30 minutes to say goodbye, getting
stuck behind a tractor, and small
town gossip. And then there’s the
unlikely danger of an alligator attack.
There have been many movies
using thousands of alligators as
extras and even some as stars. There
wasn’t one Tarzan movie produced
that didn’t feature at least one gator
peering with yellow eyes just over
the waterline even though alliga
tors don’t live in Africa. They live in
Mexico, China, and the southeast
United States. Where we live.
Some say there are alligators living
in the sewers of New York City. Ac
cording to this urban legend, these
monsters were purchased by families
who went south for the winter,
bought a gator and once home
flushed the babies down the toilet.
Who needs an alligator crawling
around the apartment? Due to the
lack of sunlight, these subterranean
monsters are supposedly albinos and
grow to huge proportions because of
the endless supply of city rats.
Don’t be alarmed. These prehis
toric reptiles might appear scary, but
they aren’t as mean as they look. We
fear the things we know little about,
and the American alligator (alligator
mississippiensis) is one of the least
understood of all creatures. They
are usually thought of as aggressive,
life-threatening man-eaters but, they
just want to be left alone. Accord
ing to the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission, even
though Florida is home to more
than 1 million of these reptiles, the
state averages just six bite victims per
year. Between 1948 and 2020, gators
killed just 26 people in the state.
Having lived in Florida, I know
a little about this distant cousin of
the domesticated chicken. Florida
is not a place where you just jump
into any old pond or lake willy-nilly.
During my years there, I lived just a
few miles from the Wekiwa Springs
State Park. The kids loved swimming
at the park, but with my skinniness,
I could never handle the coldness.
As you would assume, it was also
a great place to fish, and we had a
special bank we would sit on just
across the bridge from the bait shop.
We were used to the gators that liked
to share the spot with us. They also
knew where the fishing was good.
Early one Saturday morning,
I loaded up my tackle box and a
couple of my young’uns and headed
to our usual spot with hopes of
catching some lunch. We were start
ing to get a few nibbles when the
quietness was rudely interrupted
by a woman excitedly yelling to her
friend in a Yankee accent to come
see the alligators. After
watching the sleeping gators
for a few minutes, one of the
ladies decided they looked
hungry and went back to
her car for a loaf of bread
and started tossing pieces
of white bread to the beasts.
One piece even landed on a
gator’s snout. Suddenly she
slipped from the bank down
into the water during one
of her hardest throws. Even though
the gators completely ignored her,
fishing for the next two weeks was
ruined due to her frantic screams.
Her friend was running around in
small circles, also screaming loudly.
There was no danger of her drown
ing, and the gators were utterly
bored with her, so I laid down my
pole and helped the terrified woman
back up the steep bank. Due to my
small size this was no easy feat on
my part with this particular sized
woman and although according to
her, I saved her life, I really didn’t.
In Georgia, a quarter of a million
alligators are lurking in our dark wa
ters, including rivers, lakes, and even
cow ponds. If you want to experi
ence the thrill of alligators swarming
completely around a rented motor
ized metal boat while you’re trying
to hook a bass, that can be achieved
at Georgia’s famous Okefenokee
Swamp which is only three and a
half hours from where I’m sitting
right now. There are an estimated
10,000 to 13,000 gators blending in
among the rotting plants, perfectly
camouflaged in the murky waters
of the 684 square mile National
Wildlife Refuge. Little dogs like my
Muchacho aren’t allowed near the
swamp for obvious reasons.
Gator courtship has already begun
and they’re out and about looking
for a date. Y’all better watch out!
Steve Reece is a writer for the Report
er and a known crime fighter. Email
him atstevereece@gmail.com.
OUR STAFF
Will Davis
Publisher/Editor
publisher@mymcr.net
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Business Manager
business@mymcr.net
Steve Reece
Reporter
stevereece@gmail.com
Donna Wilson
Advertising Manager
ads@mymcr.net
Diane Glidewell
Community Editor
news@mymcr.net
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Creative Director
mymcrgraphics@gmail.com
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Deadlines noon on Friday prior to issue. Comments featured on opinion pages are the creation of
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Publication No. USPS 997-840
CAROLYN S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
Find inspiration even on blah, boring days
Do you ever have a blah,
boring day? Sure we all
do, right? My hubby is
aware of all my moods.
When he notices that
I’m having a boring day,
he jumps into
action. For
example, he will
ask to read one
of my articles,
before it goes
to press. He
will read it out
loud with a
Hillbilly ac
cent, or like
an actor in a
Shakespear
ean play. He will read each
sentence with a dramatic
flair, adding emphasis
where it’s not needed along
with facial expressions
that crack me up. By the
way, he has a new
title for my weekly
column. Instead of
“Carolyn’s Corner,”
he has renamed it:
“Carolyn’s Digest-If
You Can Digest It.”
AT THE
end of the
day, my 100
pound yel
low lab can
sense when I’ve had a blah,
uneventful day. He parks
his big frame next to my
side and licks my face so
clean that there’s no need
to remove my make-up
before I go to bed. This is a
real time saver and seems
to work as well as some of
my expensive beauty regi
mens. Fear not Mary Kay
and Avon representatives.
I still need you!
LAST, BUT not least,
when I’m too tired to read
God’s word, I can listen
to an audio version of the
Bible. There are various
audio sources available
on the internet. Select the
Bible passage you’d like to
hear, then lean back, relax
and listen. Blah day or
not, there’s nothing more
rejuvenating than flooding
my soul with God’s uplift
ing word. “This is the day
that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad
in it” (Psalm 118:24 ESV
). Each day is a gift from
God. Enjoy it!
Carolyn Martel is the
retired advertising man
ager of the Reporter. Email
her at carolynmartell @
bellsouth.net.