Fifty years ago, in Cincinnati, places like Mount Adams and Walnut Hills were rebuilt by brave individual pioneers who bought 50- to 75-year-old row houses and mansions. They took the risks of rebuilding these residences on their own and it paid off. This happened in other cities as well.

There are many reasons to be discouraged by the America of today, especially if you follow the news media and the politicians. Encouragement is found in the countryside.

Always be aware of your surroundings, and use your brain. Others doing the same thing you are doing is no assurance of safety. Your life may depend on it.

We just returned from our annual mission construction trip to Guatemala. Well, it was annual up until 2019, then we skipped three years due to COVID. It sure felt good to go back.

In today’s world, it feels like many are coming at us telling us what to do, how to think, and throwing a guilt trip at us if we don’t do as they tell us.  

On Saturday, July 15, I drove across Atlanta to Austell, Ga., about 40 miles. I was going to the Atlanta Corvair Club meeting, so naturally, I drove my Corvair. I arrived without incident. The trip back home was a different story.

Despite Congress’ thin interest in sports from a lawmaking and regulatory standpoint, they just can’t help but stick their nose into them. Last week, it was the LIV and PGA merger that was more important than the southern border.

Someone once asked Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, when civilization started. She responded with an event, not a time. She referenced the discovery of one of our ancient ancestors whose bones showed a fractured femur that had been set and healed. Her reasoning was that this is the first evidence of one human being caring for another, hence the beginning of civilization.  

F = MA is an equation from physics. It means Force equals Mass times Acceleration. You use it every day, even if you never took physics.  

Last week, the attempted rescue of four playboys and a youth in a private sub off the wreckage of the Titanic pushed most other things – even Donald Trump – out of the headlines. We sucked in information with great interest; the news pundits and their experts weighed in. I may have missed it, but I didn’t hear anyone questioning the expense of the rescue nor ask who is paying the bill.  

I woke up the morning of June 18 with a surprising thought. The Hillsboro High School class of 1968, of which I am a member, had its 55th reunion the previous evening, June 17 at the Orpheum in uptown Hillsboro. The thought was this: How are you supposed to feel when your 55th reunion is now in the rearview mirror? Old? Over the hill? Washed up?  

How convenient. On the day when the headlines should be “China building secret listening post in Cuba,” the U.S. Justice Department pushes Trump to the headlines with some specious charges concerning classified documents.  

We should never forget that very brave people made the world what it is today.  We may not think it is perfect, but it is far closer to perfection than defeat in World War II would have brought us. Our debt to those who sacrificed their lives and their families is beyond our ability to pay.

Cities have become a breeding ground for dissent and violence and are a very costly place to live. People packed in like sardines are angry and in a constant state of turmoil.

He was sitting there in the white rocking chair on the front porch at the Cracker Barrel in Cookeville, Tenn. about 1 p.m. on May 16 of this year. That is where he said he would be, and as always, he had done exactly what he said he would do. A small, unassuming old man, about 80 years old, baseball cap, blue T-shirt, with a nice blue and white striped dress shirt over it, open as if it were a light jacket. Jeans and sneakers completed the ensemble. No one would know he got shot up badly in Vietnam and was awarded the Silver Star.