Columns

DEAR EDITORS: Congratulations to the paper on the excellent articles celebrating Black History Month and especially to Frededreia Willis-Dunham for her revealing account of the Farm Security Administration’s egregious actions in Transylvania in 1938 and their ongoing repercussions. As she explains, this was essentially a racially motivated landgrab by the federal government.

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.

Almost 28 years ago on February 29, 1996, a baby girl was born in what is referred to as a leap year. She became a part of my life when she was about eight months old. That bond has only grown over the years to the point that she could not feel more like my daughter even if she was my biological child.

I’ve been seeing pictures on Facebook of 4-H kids at all the schools in East Carroll doing projects, creating things, and having a great time. I have to admit that I’m a little envious.

The last few weeks have reminded me of how things that seem simple and fun as a child can change and become headaches and complicated as an adult. Suddenly, you begin to understand things your parents were saying that didn’t make a lot of sense when you were a child.

These might well be the most important words that I write this year... our kids are not reading anymore.

Everyone says there is a crisis when it comes to our children in today’s world, but are they really the problem? Could it be that adults are the primary problem leading to disruptive behaviors among our kids? The disciplinary problems that exist at homes and schools across our community and the nation as a whole start in the home. Many of us have abandoned the values that we were raised with, instead adopting the standard of “well, everybody else is doing it this way.” Trying to raise our children like this is wreaking havoc in our homes.

I drove slowly through town Friday night. My husband was away for a work trip. My one-year-old who has a pretty devastating case of hand foot mouth disease was asleep. My fiveyear- old was watching Beethoven, a movie from my childhood, with the babysitter. All was okay.

Last week, we were trapped in the house due to the snow and extremely cold weather that came through our area. We only see this type of weather once every few years with the last one in February 2021. It was the first time in my lifetime that I can remember the mailman delivering mail on a Sunday.

We’ve experienced a lot of negative events here in East Carroll over the past few years, some originating from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, some from ongoing systemic issues like poverty, poor physical and mental health, disinformation.