opinions
Hicksploitation — By Tommy Purser
Barnie O’Quinn mentioned in his column this week how the 55 mph speed limit through Jeff Davis and Telfair counties along the Golden Isles Highway (US 341) was a hindrance to progress for the two counties. Not so much for the speed, perhaps, but rather because speed enforcement cars sit along the side of the…
Read MoreUnintended Consequences — By John Reed
Unintended Consequences Right up there with Boyle’s Law and all the other scientific rules are some social patterns that seem equally valid. Murphy’s Law says anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And the Law of Unintended Consequences is similar to Newton’s third law about opposite reactions. Let’s look at a couple of examples…
Read MoreLook Up! — By John Reed
Look Up! Last week, anyone looking into the western sky soon after sunset was treated to a celestial dance of planets. The annual conjunction of Venus and Jupiter was closer than usual, and was dynamic enough to be seen almost in real time motion. Even to those who don’t ascribe every event to divine intervention,…
Read MoreTrash — by Tommy Purser
I was looking back at some old issues of the Ledger when I ran across a column I wrote some 25 years ago. I said up front in that column that it would be about trash. It was. On that particular day, I was short on ideas for a column which today, 25 years later,…
Read MoreDancing Danny — By Tommy Purser
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my childhood friend Danny. Danny was a year older than I was. Maybe two years older. He was one year ahead of me in school but, since Danny didn’t appear to me to be all that interested in school, or grades, or learning — at least not learning…
Read MoreGnats — By Tommy Purser
I’ve often said that I consider Burke County, the place where I grew up from the age of 12 to adulthood, is the Gnat Capital of the World. The county’s claim to fame is actually The Bird Dog Capital of the World due to the fact that, for many years, Burke County’s Berol Plantation has…
Read MoreTaps — By John Reed
Taps Another Memorial Day has come and gone. Another gathering of veterans at the courthouse to honor the fallen. Speeches. Songs, flowers, salutes. Taps. And then folks have gone back to their routines. It’s nice to have a day to honor those who have died defending the rest of us. But it would be nice…
Read MoreWhose Fault Is It? — By John Reed
Whose Fault Is It? It’s all my fault. The current months-long drought happened because I planted pine trees last year. It must be true because ten years ago, the last drought happened right after I planted pine trees. This got me to thinking about how blame gets assigned elsewhere. It seems like many times folks…
Read MoreWedding Story — By Tommy Purser
FOX HILL PLANTATION, HAHIRA, GA — Miss Kaitlyn Michelle Purser and Mr. Matthew Gavin Reed were united in Holy Matrimony Saturday, May 2, 2026, at Fox Hill Plantation wedding venue near Hahira, Ga. The double-ring ceremony was held in the plantation’s open-air, covered pavilion nestled amidst a forest of moss-covered oak trees. A capacity crowd…
Read MoreArt History — By Tommy Purser
At Saturday’s Three Rivers Arts Festival, I was taking a look at some of the paintings on display inside the heritage center at the Towns Bluff Park when I was reminded of my first foray into the world of art. I was a pre-teen, maybe 9 or 10 years old when my parents signed me…
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