Will it take another 9/11 to fix our borders?

The next time the illegal immigration advocates start whining about the poor Mexican workers coming into the United States to "do jobs we won't do" and to "make a better life for their families," please inform them that the porous borders between lawless Mexico and the U.S. are also letting in drugs at a scale almost beyond description and that Atlanta is a major distribution hub for the hombres.

It's a good feeing to be all prayed up

Now, understand before I get started that I'm not trying to ram anything down your throat and I'm not one of those kinda guys who wants to convert you to my way of thinking. The one thing that drives me up the wall is some guy trying to convince me that his way of thinking is the only way.

Lives depend on trauma care funding

What happens when a life-or-death issue is raised and put on the ballot but fails? Does the issue go away? Do we continue to look for answers or just accept the failure and retain the status quo?

U.S. always has been land of abundance

"There came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden." - John Winthrop, off the New England coast, 1630

Hinesight: Why so few at veteran parade

Random thoughts on random stuff

Let's hold off on dissecting the general elections until the political pundits have had their say. They don't know any more than you and I do - after all, we are the voters - but they think they do, and telling them otherwise might offend them. Political pundits can be very sensitive ...

Amendment 2 would have served purpose

On Election Day, Georgians rejected Amendment 2, which proposed an annual $10 car tag fee to help fund a statewide trauma care system. $10 per year - the cost of a pizza.

NPR apparently closes its mind

We should have known about Juan Williams long ago. The signs of a simmering bigotry were always there. The political commentator wrote the book "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965." He followed that up with an admiring biography of Thurgood Marshall. Then, more books on the African-American religious experience, historically black colleges and black farmers.

October's over; keep thinking pink

It's easy to think pink in October. During National Breast Cancer awareness month, business and shop owners haul out the pink decor, athletes sport pink uniforms, people everywhere pin pink ribbons to their shirts.

Superintendent should champion public education

In my house, the contest for state school superintendent is as important as the governor's race. I have a son, son-in-law and now a grandson who are public school teachers and they - and all the other teachers - deserve a draw-a-line-in-the-sand advocate.

Vote no on Amendment 1

In 40 years of practicing law, I have never seen such a misleading ballot question or such an unfair proposal as Constitutional Amendment No. 1.

Get to a pollice place right away

Unless you spend all your time in a hole in the ground and have been spared the political advertisements of the past few months, it's no great surprise that election time is once again upon us.

Texas must be doing something right

Texas already looms large in its own imagination. Its elevated self-image didn't need this: More than half of the net new jobs in the U.S. during the past 12 months were created in the Lone Star State.

Coastal residents may be a bit behind

The greatest place on earth is the coast. Now, mind you, I love the Georgia coast better than about anywhere I can think of, but we're not the only place on earth with a coast. Every coast has its qualities - good and bad. My coast has it all.

A rush to educate

"But further, we err, not only in religion but in philosophy likewise, because we do not know or believe 'the scriptures.' The sciences have been compared to a circle of which religion composes a part. To understand any one of them perfectly it is necessary to have some knowledge of them all. Bacon, Boyle and Newton included the scriptures in the inquiries to which their universal geniuses disposed them, and their philosophy was aided by their knowledge in them."

It shouldn't take years for city to act

"What I am saying is, we spend too much time, we waste time, the city's time that the people have us up here to do. We waste that time. We looked at it the first of October and November and December, we're still going over the same stuff. Why don't we go on and do what we're supposed to do? Get it approved and move on to the next issue that this council is supposed to be doing".

Congress' spending bill seems anti-conservative

When thinking about the $1.1 trillion spending bill passed by Congress last month, one might ask, "What does Congress have against conservation?"

Elder passes advice to great-grandson

Dear Cameron Charles Yarbrough: For the past 15 years, I have taken the opportunity at the beginning of the New Year to share some advice - first with your dad and his cousins and now with you, my great-grandson. I hope you don't mind and will bear with me. You probably would rather be playing with your Legos and I understand that but maybe something in this letter might make a difference in your life in years to come. I pray that will be so.

Wounded Warrior Project is like a scam

Editor, I've been seeing a lot more commercials for the Wounded Warrior Project on television recently, requesting that I send in my $19 per month.

Southerner's, welcome newcomers from start

A few years ago, the magazine I have long loved - Southern Living - changed. Like most Southerners, I have an aversion to change, which is why our traditions have such stranglehold. We never let go.

Rules hard to enforce on the road

There's nothing like a good, old-fashioned road trip to ensure that good parenting habits and ground rules are not only broken, but stomped to smithereens and tossed out of a (moving car) window.