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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
Honey Boo Boo & BBQ sauce
he Monroe County sheriff’s office made state and
national news twice last week.
In Story A, a 4-year effort to solve a 1989 cold case
murder in Monroe County improbably paid off as
investigators used DNA genealogy to charge an Indiana track
driver with murder 34 years after he did it.
In Story B, Monroe County deputies stopped a couple of Ir-
winton dudes who had drags, had outstanding warrants, sped
away from deputies and had a troubled 17-year-old reality TV
star in the car.
“Guess which one the media called
about?” sighed sheriff Brad Freeman.
• ••
For 2 years the media and Democrats
(but I repeat myself) have wailed and
moaned about the Jan. 6,2021 “in
surrection” of Trump supporters who
“threatened democracy’ But new Speak
er of the House Kevin McCarthy
released all the security video from
that day to Tucker Carlsons show
on Fox in January. They revealed a
truer picture of what happened that
day, Carlson reported on Monday. Yes there were a few out of
control people vandalising the capital. But mostly there were
hundreds of middle-aged Republicans milling around the
capital in orderly and polite fashion. The infamous “Q-Anon
Shamon,” the guy who wore horns, was escorted by police
during the entire episode. There are suspected federal agents,
or at least informants, men like Ray Epps, littered throughout
the crowd encouraging them to enter the capital. There was
no danger to democracy. Jan. 6 is just the latest “Big Thing”
that the media has lied about. As with the Russian Collusion
hoax, the media has proven they are not a neutral observer of
the political scene. They are a participant, and they lie willingly
and purposefully to try to defeat and destroy Republicans and
conservatives. The good news is the media’s lies don’t happen
in a vacuum. We the people vote with our eyeballs. That’s why
Big Media outlets are dying, and upstart, conservative ones
(like this newspaper) are not. Shhhh! Don’t tell them!
• ••
Did you follow the Alex Murdaugh trial? My father, a
recovering attorney, loves nothing Better than a good trial
on TV The only way I could get his attention and get him to
respond to my emails in the last month was to write something
about the Murdaugh trial in the subject line. So last week, I
had to subject myself to the testimony of the wealthy, powerful
South Carolina attorney who killed his son and wife, and stole
millions from others. What struck was me was how Southern
the whole thing was, and how it must’ve elicited chuckles from
our northern friends. There were stories about Bubba getting
the chicken out of the dog’s mouths, stories about hunting,
fishing and riding golf carts to the dog kennel. As if that weren’t
bad enough, one time the prosecutor asked Alex Murdaugh
why his phone showed him moving around his house. “I was
probably getting my dip cup,” replied Murdaugh.
So not only did Murdaugh sully his family name and our
region by killing his wife and son, he also fulfilled every back-
woods stereotype of Southerners.
Murdaugh was such a throwback to the Old South that
he even gave big donations to Democrats like Joe Biden and
Hillary Clinton, just like the old days when slavery made the
South a Democrat stronghold. Talk about a stain on the South.
Well, at least you won’t hear the media talking about that!
• ••
Monroe County lost a legend recently with the death of Bully
Ham of Smarr. I had been fortunate enough to be invited to
several fish fries with Bully over the years. He was a character.
He was also one of the sole owners of a famous BBQ sauce rec
ipe. A friend gave me a jar taken from the last batch of “Bully
Sauce” that he made. But no, they will not give out the recipe.
It has been bequeathed to two Smarrtians to carry on the tra
dition. I didn’t see Bully often when I didn’t see his cousin Max
Ham by his side. They were lifelong friends and cousins, but,
like a lot of men, they were also competitors. About everything.
Even to the end. As they both suffered the health problems
that come with getting older, they even started razzing each
other about which one would get to heaven first. “I’m gonna
get there before you!” Bully told Max recently. And so he did.
Chalk up one more for Bully Ham. RIR
Will Davis is the publisher of The Monroe County Reporter.
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
OUR STAFF
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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
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Community Editor
news@mymcr.net
H Amy Haisten
Creative Director
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DRAWING ON THE NEWS by AF Branco
\ Americans for Limited
j Government
'©2023 Creators, com
SURE, BUT HE
Lives in china
TAKE ME To
YOUR LEADER
REECE’S PIECES by Steve Reece
The end of the world as we knew it
T he world today is vastly dif
ferent from what it was just a
very short time ago. Phones
have become cordless, cook
ing has become fireless, and cars are
becoming driverless. Food is fatless,
sweets are sugarless, and our labor is
becoming more and more effortless.
All this wonderful technology has
changed how we interact with each
other and how we approach mundane
everyday tasks.
From fat-free burgers fried by robots
programmed with AI technology to
virtual reality, things just ain’t what
they used to be. Yes, it is the end of the
world as we once knew it. The “good
old days” are gone forever.
Of course, if you’ve never lived in
the good old days, you can’t miss
them. People 40 years old have never
known a time without the internet.
Our jobs and most of our lives now
depend on computer technology.
Boomers didn’t use to need GPS.
They once knew where they
were going. I’m not sure what
happened.
Cell phones have been
around even longer than the
internet. Next month will
mark the 45th anniversary
since the first call was
made from a handheld
cellular mobile phone
that weighed nearly
four and a half pounds.
But all you could do was talk on it. By
comparison, today’s iPhone weighs
barely over six ounces, and you can
basically run your life with it. From
shopping and paying bills to chatting
face-to-face with anyone across the
globe. It was only recently that if you
wanted to “facetime” your girlfriend
you went over to her place.
If the good old days were so good,
why aren’t they still there? Those
days are often romanticized in our
collective memory, and it is easy to be
nostalgic for a bygone era. However,
as much as we may fondly remember
the good old days, the good old days
I recall weren’t all that good. A lot of
them pretty much sucked. The good
old days can look mighty different
depending on just who is telling the
story.
The good old days of the 1950s in
the United States were a time of eco
nomic prosperity, but many people
of color and marginalized commu
nities were still subject to systematic
oppression and discrimination. The
good old days of the 1960s meant civil
rights progress and social change, but
also decades of war, conflict, and vio
lence. Similarly, the 1970s and
1980s may have been a time
of relative peace, but they were
also when the feminist move
ment really gained traction and
society experienced significant
upheaval. These memories only
remind us how far we still
must go.
It’s odd to think that the
times we now live in will
once be referred to as the
“good old days” as well. Maybe much
sooner than we think. Technology is
growing at an exponential rate, and
the speed of growth is only increas
ing. In many sectors, such as artificial
intelligence, machine learning, and
computer hardware, new technology
advancements and implementation
are occurring at an unprecedented
speed. This is due in large part to
technological feedback loops, where
innovations in one area help drive
further advances in another, and the
cycle continues to accelerate faster
and faster.
When I was a young boy two of my
brothers and I spent a summer with
my grandparents who lived as if they
were still in the 19th century. Their
light was by kerosene. Their heat was
by wood. Their water was retrieved
in a pail carried by hand from a well
nearly a quarter of a mile away. Their
old wooden Georgia farmhouse
looked as if had never seen a coat of
paint. It was what you would call a
two-bedroom, no bath. The custom
ary outhouse was way in the back, but
it could still be smelled if conditions
were right.
Of course, there was no TV, and
reading materials were few around
my grandparent’s house so our
favorite place was to hang out on the
front porch where we would watch
the chickens rim around the grassless
yard. We would listen bored for hours
to my grandmother’s stories about our
relatives a long time gone. We were
still too young to be allowed to go off
on our own on any exploring expedi
tions and were the perfect captive au
dience for her tales about days when
she was young and beautiful. And
then suddenly she would remember
she was old and not so beautiful any
more and that it was time to load the
woodburning stove and heat up the
beans and fried potatoes.
Surely there must be some things
that will never go away. How will they
ever substitute my grandma’s corn-
bread recipe cooked in a black iron
skillet? And what can they possibly
make more delicious than a glass
full of sweet milk with a slice of that
cornbread crumbled up inside? What
fake ingredients and chemicals do
they have that can match the flavor
of a bowl of fatback-enhanced pinto
beans? There aren’t any. Yet.
Steve Reece is a writer for the Report
er and a known crime fighter. Email
him atstevereece@gmad.com.
CAROLYN S CORNER by Carolyn Martel
Its time to move forward with God
I ’ve been reflecting on a heartfelt
conversation I had with a friend.
He was coming out the door of a
local business, just as I was about
to enter. We struck up a
conversation, and he men
tioned how much he and
his wife enjoy reading the
Reporter (which seems
to happen just about
everywhere I go). He
also shared with me how
proud he and his wife
were of their son,
who had turned his
life around. He said,
“Our son’s future
could have been destroyed, because of
the bad decisions he was making. But
praise God, now he’s headed down the
right path, and he’s moving forward
with God.”
OUR CONVERSATION got me
to thinking about time and how we
use it. Jesus said, “As long as it is day, I
must do the work of Him who
sent Me. Night is coming when
no man can work” (John 9:4).
So what does this tell us? This
scripture reminds us that the
time for godly living and service
is now, while we have the op
portunity.
FOR ANYONE read
ing this article, who may
be experiencing grief and
regret for wasted years,
do not despair. Despite how you may
have misused your time in the past,
you can do something about your
future. The will of God is found for
us in the words of the Apostle Paul:
“Brethren, I do not count myself to
have apprehended; but one thing I
do, forgetting those things which are
behind and reaching forward to things
which are ahead; I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians
3:13-14).
I BELIEVE this is what Jesus is
saying to us: “Don’t lookback, look
ahead! It’s a new day! Place your hand
in mine. It’s time to move forward
with Me! It’s time to step into your
God-given purpose and destiny. But
there’s not moment to waste.”
Carolyn Martel is the long-time
former advertising manager for the Re
porter who writes a weekly inspirational
column. Email her at carolynmartell@
bellsouth.net.