Columns/Opinions

A Patriot's Opinion

By Jim Snyder

Well, once again we are dealing with the aftermath of yet another attack on our homeland by a Muslim terror suspect. Last week, an 18 year old Somalian refugee drove his car into a crowd of students at Ohio State University, injuring several people. Then he exited the vehicle and started stabbing students at random with some type of machete-type knife. Fortunately there was a young campus police officer who responded within minutes of the attack and shot and killed the suspect before he could do any more harm. Altogether, 11 people received injuries but luckily no one was killed.

From My Perspective

By Toni Walker

Editor

news@steelcountrybee.com

I love the music of the holidays. No matter how old I get, I will always sing along with the Chipmunk’s Christmas Song. There are some songs that simply MAKE Christmas for me. You know, those songs that just have to be heard before it really feels like Christmas time. “Christmas Shoes” and “Mary, Did You Know” are two of my favorites. However, there is one that I heard today that has a little bit different meaning for me.

Boomer Musings

By J. Leslie Riseden

Okay, yes, I admit it. When I’m in a doctor’s office, or waiting to get my hair cut, I might pick up the latest issue of People magazine. About every other month or so, I find myself thumbing through the latest issue (which, often as not, is from May of the previous year.) Years ago, I even subscribed to People, and indulged my guilty pleasure of seeing what the rich and famous were up to lately. But, in recent years, I’ve noticed something that didn’t used to happen: I don’t know who these people are.

This summer, the wife and I were contemplating where to go for vacation. We had been to all the beaches in Texas and several other states over the years, so we were looking for something different to do. We said we wanted to go somewhere we had never been before. While sitting in the doctor’s office this past summer looking at one of the outdated magazines, there was an article about the Grand Canyon. The more I read and looked at the pictures I said, “That would be a cool place to go.” So we decided we would to go to the Grand Canyon. We made all of the flight, hotel and rental car reservations ahead of time and waited for September to get here.

A Patriot's Opinion

By Jim Snyder

I was seething with anger after watching the recent riots following this year’s presidential election. Young people took to the streets in cities all across this country to protest the election of Donald Trump. And while peaceful protesting is their first amendment right, destroying other people’s property is not. The disrespect for our nation has gotten so out of hand in the past several years. When the last president was elected in 2008 and 2012, there were 55 million people who didn’t like that result, either. But did they go out into the streets and destroy anything? No. Did they set fire to innocent peoples’ businesses? No. They took their medicine and went home and licked their wounds. As much as we disliked the outcome we respected the system. It’s funny how liberals always preach tolerance to the rest of us, yet they are the ones who are intolerant when things don’t go their way.

From My Perspective

By Toni Walker

Editor

news@steelcountrybee.com

Thanksgiving signals the start of one of the busiest times of the year. With three holidays in the span of a month, it is easy to get caught up in all of the hustle and bustle that comes with the season. But it is important to remember what makes the holiday season so special.

Hard to believe speaker phones were patented in the 1940s. For over 70 years, we had struggled with the “inconvenience” of holding a device up to the side of the face so as to both hear and speak to the party at the other end of the line. Housewives could be seen stirring soup with one hand and wrangling a two-yearold with the other, all while clenching the telephone receiver between their jaw and shoulder in a contorted death grip. Then, thanks to an ingenious device that fit over the shoulder like an ox harness (invented - - no doubt -- by those seeking to make office workers even more productive) secretaries could type, validate parking and talk on the phone all at the same time -- without risking permanent neck injury.

A Patriot's Opinion

By Jim Snyder

History was made on Tuesday, Nov. 8 when a man with no political experience was elected to the highest office in the land. Many Americans (mainly Democrats) were baffled on election night as to how this could have happened. However this American was not. I know exactly why it happened. The reasons for this phenomenon have been brewing for years. So let’s look at the reasons for Mr. Trump’s successful election.

A Patriot's Opinion

By Jim Snyder

Well, once again the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is in the news, and the news isn’t good. In the famous words of Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.”

Prices for insurance through the ACA are going up again. It was just reported that the average increase in premiums for 2017 will be 25 percent. Now that is the average. Some states are seeing much higher rate increases. Arizona’s ACA rate increase is projected to be 116 percent, Oklahoma’s will be 69 percent, Alabama 63 percent, Pennsylvania 53 percent, Minnesota 59 percent. Those are the highest ones but many others are still ridiculous increases. North Carolina is 40 percent, Kansas 42 percent, and Montana 44 percent. These increases are more proof that Obamacare is a disaster. So let’s take stroll down memory lane, or in the case of Obamacare, nightmare lane.

From the foundation of this great nation, it has not been the politicians or the businessmen who have given us the freedoms we enjoy. We owe all of our freedoms to the American soldier.

From the country’s inception, men have left their homes to fight for what they felt was right or true. And it is not only limited to our country. Nations from all over the world have used armies of like-minded individuals to protect the country’s best interest. By like-minded, I am not talking Stars Wars Clone Army similarities! No, I simply mean that those in an army for a specific group or country have the same goals, beliefs, and such. If they do not, then the army will be rendered useless.