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Saturday, May 18, 2013
Good deed is icing on the cake (05/12/13)
What would you do if you found a wallet full of money? One 12-year-old student didn't hesitate to turn the money over to his bus driver. Seth Owens, a seventh-grader at Harris Middle School, sat down on the bus one afternoon recently for the ride home, and found a brown lady's purse, which had no ID....
Make sure character counts by supporting students (05/05/13)
Teaching children values. Hopefully most parents are teaching their children values. But when even some adults don't seem to know what a value is, it's good to know that elementary schools are making sure that students at least have heard about the concept. The state of Tennessee mandates character education in schools...
Life Line counselor sees bullying's effect on son (04/21/13)
Bullying is an equal opportunity destructive force. It's not just boys who pick on other boys or girls who pick on other girls or boys who pick on girls. Sometimes girls pick on boys. And, bullying does not affect only people who have no training, no idea, on how to handle it. Sometimes, bullying affects the families of professionals who help other people deal with personal crises...
Use compassion before judging parents (04/14/13)
Angie, a friend going back to my undergraduate days, raised a great point a week ago on a Facebook post. Angie's youngest daughter has autism. Her advice was to think before assuming the worst about the parent of a screaming child you encounter in public...
Some people have to fix others' messes (04/07/13)
"Cats, cats and more cats," as my wife Holly likes to say. My wife and I each had two cats before we got married. Now we have four cats. That's a lot of fur and a lot of meowing, more than I ever bargained for in life. Our cats live inside because that way is safer and healthier for them. It takes a lot of money to care properly for that many pets. Nevertheless, we take care of them because we try to be good stewards over this small part of creation. Besides, we love our pets...
Tell us your news,we'll pass it along (03/31/13)
When news happens, we'd love to hear from you. The Times-Gazette values reader news tips, whether it's your child participating in a charitable work at school or your company is hiring workers. But we need your help to learn about breaking news. On Monday, Nashville television stations reported that National Pen Co. is hiring 100 people as an expansion of its call center. Company officials failed to return repeated phone calls from the newspaper seeking confirmation...
Use that phone quietly, please (03/24/13)
"Can you hear me now?" a famous cell phone ad slogan goes. I'm often tempted to say "Yes, and you're too loud" to cell phone users. We've become a nation of cell phone-a-holics. Texting. Tweeting. Playing games. Web browsing. Listening to music. And that's not even using a cell phone for its most basic purpose. It's cool to play with a smart phone and the thousands of available apps. But with so many things in life, there is an appropriate time and place...
Hope springs from dark moments (03/17/13)
Christian rock musician Joseph Rojas should be dead. Instead, he's in a place he never expected to be. His band, Seventh Day Slumber, is gaining notice around the world. But the greatest miracle is that the man who once tried to kill himself is alive and has a family. He is using his band as a platform to help other young people, such as at the recent Reaching Our Kids (R.O.K.) Concert at Calsonic Arena...
Let's just get along, okay? (03/10/13)
Once upon a time I worked at a store. Retail is a job where you work your shift and go home. No after-hours phone calls or emails are involved for a peon-worker in that industry. You don't take any work home with you. It sounds low-stress, right? Not necessarily...
Spread messages of love, kindness (03/03/13)
What better role model could a young person have than another young person who is trying to make a difference? Unity, a band comprised of young women, traveled from Keller, Texas, last week to share a message of love and tolerance with Bedford County youths. Unity was here primarily to sing at the Rewarding Our Kids (ROK) concert at Calsonic Arena last Saturday. The band members spent several days before that event performing at local schools and talking to students about tolerance...
Civility lacking on social media (02/17/13)
What defines a wise guy? And what is it about using social media that encourages this trait? Instead of using the word "guy," I was sorely tempted to use the more common term that starts with the letter "A" and has three letters, but that would not be appropriate for print...
We've become a nation of wimps (02/10/13)
So sue me. That's one of the retorts an angry person makes during an argument. Although this idiom is not as old as the one about jumping in a lake, the fact that it has been around for a while indicates how much lawsuits have become a part of Americana...
Life's not just about us, so let's get along (02/03/13)
Why do we have to win? Why do things always have to be our way? Have you ever worked at a job where this one guy makes everyone else miserable because he won't cooperate? He spends much of his time and energy complaining about why such and such an idea is stupid and won't work, thus draining everyone else's energy from the project. ...
Clutter equates to crankiness (01/20/13)
Clutter. Americans let stuff rule their lives. That's true in how much stuff we accumulate over the years, in not being able to let go of mementos and knickknacks, and that's true in how many commitments we have. Parents' lives are cluttered with activities and to-do lists: day care, after-school care, PTOs, doctor visits, band practice, choir practice, Sunday school and more. ...
Lack of balance leads to bad behavior (01/13/13)
"Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys" was a popular country song in the late 1970s. I'd like to hear a song titled something like, "Mammas Don't Let Your Kids Run Around Like Banshees in Public." Mammas and daddies, however, are doing just that -- they are letting their children run out of control...
Jason Reynolds
Conflicts and Causes
Jason Reynolds, staff writer for the Times-Gazette, wants to hear your stories of good and bad behavior you have noticed for a possible mention in this column. Email him at jreynolds@t-g.com. Reynolds has observed a plethora of both good and bad behaviors over the years, and tries to rise above the bad to be a better person, with mixed results.