Opinion

I received an email last week from a reader who said he was “a little surprised” to see a follow-up report on state Sen. Bob Ballinger finally settling his debt for advertising in the Agriculture Appreciation Days program, especially “since the election is over now.”

Golf is the simple, yet complex, game of gentlemen. It is a game of respect and sportsmanship — a civilized sport played with propriety. Our society could learn a great deal from the basic etiquette of golf. It is a game of skill rooted in respect for others and for the course. My husband, Bobby, loves golf and he used to play every day. In fact, he used to make golf clubs for himself and other players. In the last year he has started playing again and is having fun trying to get his game back on track. Two of my nephews hit the links with him when they can.

Gogle and Facebook have enormous economic and political power in society — especially over the news industry. Many ask if they have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free press and plagues our democracy.

I started kindergarten a few weeks before my fifth birthday. I wasn’t an immediate academic success.

Every four years, the National Intelligence Council provides a forecast of the world for the next 20 years. In March 2021, the council released the latest National Intelligence Forecast. As we could have predicted, the next 20 years looks turbulent. It appears we are living in the best of times, and we need to enjoy our way of life while we can. The future of the world will hinge on whether we allow technology and social media to unite us or divide us. So far, as a society, we are failing in the area of unification. The freedom that the internet allows has spurred some to create division and hate. And I don’t think many of us want to know the evils going on behind the scenes or underground on the World Wide Web.

The ability to read well is one of the most crucial skills we can give our students, and today I’d like to encourage you to join in our efforts to build a culture of reading in Arkansas. Reading is not simply one skill of many that we choose to master.

I’ve been in the newspaper business for more than 30 years and in three different states at papers both big and small. One thing I’ve learned is that no matter how many subscribers there are, you generally don’t hear from them unless they disagree with something you wrote in an opinion column or you made a mistake.

I love Arkansas. It’s the only place I’ve ever lived, saved for three long months in my then-mother-in-law’s home in suburban Milwaukee in the summer of 1993. That’s an old story best left untold.

A couple of years ago I watched the late Robert Osborne interview the actress and singer Liza Minnelli on Turner Classic Movies. Liza’s parents, as many know, were Judy Garland and the director Vincent Minnelli. During the interview Liza was discussing her father’s skill as a director. She remembered a film

L ifetime appointments are hard to come by. Unless you’re the Pope.