Columns

The Banner won a bunch of awards last week; one of them was for the late Billy Colman's opinion column. This Saturday marks one year since Billy died suddenly, and we felt moved to acknowledge, once again, what he and his work meant to us and to our community. So we are reprinting below the column that won him the Sam Hanna Award for Best Regular Column. It originally appeared in the February 22, 2024 issue of the Banner. It's signed – as all his columns were always signed – with his long-time slogan: 'But, hey, that's just my opinion.' Co-publisher Cassie Condrey won second place in the best regular column category for her story about Billy just after his death in our May

I never valued the significance of jury duty until I found myself the victim of a crime. This was many years ago when I worked at a local video store during the evenings, and commuted to Louisiana Tech during the day. One night, as I locked the doors to the store and was walking to my car behind the building, a man wearing a mask came out of nowhere holding a gun, demanding the money bag from the store.

The blank spaces in the paper are the stories Billy would’ve written for this week. They are holes in our coverage for the week. They speak to expanding circles of holes in our knowledge, our connection to our community, and to the writing and work that he would have done, that he will no longer do, now that he is gone. Knowledge he would have given you that you will no longer have, not in the same way, now that he is gone.

Did you know that according to the National Institute of Health, a person’s brain does not fully mature until the age of 25? It explains a lot, but it’s complicated. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for complex thinking and decision-making, is the last part of the brain to fully develop.

For Our Health By Amy Hale In a world buzzing with digital distractions and fast-paced living, there’s a quiet revolution happening right in our backyards. It's not powered by apps or screens—but by soil, sun, seeds, and sweat.

Several times over the past couple of weeks I’ve heard the phrase deferred maintenance. They were all in reference to buildings – new homeowners realizing the extent of what they have to do; workers putting a new roof on an old building explaining how it got so bad; a newcomer lamenting how much work there is to be done on the property he oversees.

My heart has been burdened lately for our youth. We hear so much about children who make terrible choices and face a life of ruin and despair. From a medical and neurological perspective, children and teens are just wired to make impulsive or risky choices simply because their brains are still under construction.

In my social living colum in the newspaper, I sometimes put what special day or week it is, and it’s usually something real comical. But this week I want to address National Telecommunicators Week. This is the week that is set aside to honor dispatchers, our unseen and sometimes unsung heroes. I have been thinking about what I can do to honor them. I try to show them as much as I can how much I appreciate and respect their professionalism, their work ethic, and their commitment to making East Carroll Parish safer.

At certain points during a March special meeting of the Lake Providence Board of Aldermen regarding the issues with the town’s police department, many voices talked over each other, not necessarily saying anything directly to anyone else, but just commenting to the room at large. “It’s wrong... they’re doing us wrong…I know where that money went, uh-huh…you got that right…it ain’t right, no way.” There was no shouting, just raised voices, loud talking, murmuring. Forcing others to have to raise their voices to ask questions.

DEAR EDITORS: I compliment the local newspaper for publishing, and Debra Hopkins for writing, the two very excellent articles which appeared in the April 3 edition of the Banner. These articles concerned Transylvania, and the benefits of growing up and going to school in a small community.