Columnists
  • Where is the protection of rural America and the people that seek its solace? Are we all doomed to carry the weight of the expanding exploits of the city?
  • Peace talks can bring an end to the immediate violence and deaths but remain only 'talks' when extremists on both sides have the goal of destroying the other.
  • The idea of a trek along the Red River to find out more about the reach of the river, its wildlife, and the Native American tribes that lived along it had been conceived not long after Louisiana had been purchased from France.
  • Quanah Parker spent much of his life caught between two worlds.
  • He was called "Prince John," but he was far from royalty. Gen. John Magruder was part of two losing wars but was popular among his troops.
  • Almost every year, a student would ask me, in my course Comparative World History (Africa/Middle East): "Are God and Allah the same God?"
  • He was best known for a short pen name, "O. Henry." The man behind the stories, William Sydney Porter, was a complicated character with a sharp imagination. Porter wrote hundreds of stories in his short career and became one of the best-known short story writers of the twentieth century.
  • On January 1, 2025, the citizens of Fannin County were stunned by the news that one present and two previously elected county officials were indicted for theft of more than $150,000 but less than $300,000.
  • Louis Wigfall, an attorney, legislator, and later U. S. Senator from Texas, had many advantages in his life. However, his short fuse and alcoholism eventually wrecked his own life and brought disaster for Texas during the Civil War.
  • Naming this area the Gulf of the Americas would be a major step in understanding our neighbors and sharing a geographical understanding of our interrelatedness.
  • One person with the world in ways no one can imagine. One invention, coming from one person tinkering in a lab or workshop can go from science fiction fantasies to an indispensable part of modern life in only a short time now. Some of these remarkable devices, such as the integrated circuit and the hand-held calculator were largely the result of the dedication and imagination of one man, adopted Texan and Nobel Prize winner Jack Kilby.
  • It is time for us all to reflect on where we, Fannin County, find ourselves. Is the glass half empty or half full? What did we accomplish in 2024, what remains to be accomplished in the new year? We have an opportunity to guide the inevitable tide of development sweeping over our County, and structure our future accordingly. It is time for us to come together resolute to make Fannin County a better place.