I guess I missed it. National Eat Together Week, a promotion that encourages families having meals together, was held Sept. 20-26. I grew up eating supper together as a family. I thought everybody did. That time was a highlight of the day, and a great time of building memories.

The October 2009 edition of Healthy Cells magazine featured an interesting article on sexual addiction. Nashville resident David Kyle Foster, a minister of my acquaintance who deals with a plethora of “sexual brokenness issues,” has stated that, on any given Sunday, seated in a 16-person pew are 12 people who are having issues with some form of sexual dysfunction or brokenness.

One element in last summer’s Obama ruckuses — there’s always an Obama ruckus going on, it seems — was a few placards at tea party rallies comparing the president to a certain A. Hitler. Both the comparisons and the ensuing ruckus they caused were rubbish. Couldn’t we all just see Obama heil-ing huge crowds to fury over national enemies and the like? Nope. Not a bit of it.

Friday morning was like any other at the fire department. I arrived at work about a quarter to eight and opened the door to the station ready for another day of saving lives and protecting the citizens of our great county.

During the Cold War, the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe were among the broadcast entities that effectively penetrated the Iron Curtain to deliver truth to the “captive nations” that were being fed a steady dose of propaganda by their communist rulers.

Americans are harder workers, more philanthropic, individualistic, self-reliant, anti-government than people in most other countries. We’ve turned what was an 18th-century Third World nation into the freest and most prosperous nation in mankind’s entire history. Throughout our history, United States has been a magnet for immigrants around the world. What accounts for what some have called American exceptionalism?

Could Fayette voters ever be induced to vote for a 100 percent sales tax?

Sure, they could. Here’s how to do it.

I am proud to tell everyone that I belong to two “gangs,” the Waffle House gang, and the Gold Wing motorcycle gang.

People of Fayette County, I want to object to your terms of political argument. The truth will set you free, but you need to be able to identify the truth.

By Ken Mitchell

One of the hallmarks of the current healthcare reform debate has been the continuous stream of misinformation and misunderstandings about the various proposals – and organizations – in the discussion.

Our Samuel. Autistic?

Or just smart, always on the move, a spark of sunshine?

In his parents’ eyes, maybe a bit slow in speech and in social development.

Mark 10:35-45: “James and John came forward to Jesus and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’”

Worse, perhaps, than the terrible sound made by fingernails on a blackboard is the sound of a child screaming. Of course, parents don’t view the sound the way that bystanders do.

Young or old, male or female, everyone without exception has gotten into trouble and tried to lay the blame at someone else’s feet. With four brothers and one sister, I could lay the blame at multiple feet. While growing up, it was good to have so many other siblings to blame. I was always in trouble for something.

Back in the days of the Soviet Union, two Russian economists who had never lived in a country with a free market economy understood something about market economies that many others who have lived in such economies all their lives have never understood.

College education is a costly proposition with tuition, room and board at some colleges topping $50,000 a year. Is it worth it?

Will a young, healthy, childless individual or couple buy health insurance costing 7.5 percent of their income as required by Obama’s health legislation?

Plutarch tells us that, back in the fifth-century B.C., when the citizens of Athens were voting on whether to ostracize — i.e., throw out — Aristides the Just, one sourpuss explained his emphatic yes vote: “I am tired of hearing him called ‘the Just.’”

Who do you call when life throws you a curve? We are fortunate if we have a couple, maybe a few, people in our life who are so solid we know we could count on them in a crisis or to watch our back. Just a few. Earning that trust takes some time, and it takes a lot of character.

Let’s get specific regarding the upcoming election, starting with community participation on issues of importance.

Historically, Cyndi Plunkett has been involved in the community and was on the Peachtree City Recreation Commission prior to her council service.

The preparations for flu season are here. Some local schools, with parental sign-offs, are set to begin administering FluMist. The first shipments of vaccine for the “novel H1N1 flu” are coming in for higher risk people, with more on the way for much of the remainder of the population.

Poet and I were having one of our hour-long conversations. I was driving somewhere, with a wireless piece tucked into my ear, catching up on Poet’s stories and sharing a few of mine.

Mary accompanied us by train to Sarrebourg, France, the closest town before we set out by taxi to Niderviller where we were renting a small barge for a two-week self-driven canal cruise.

On Sunday, Nov. 15, here at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, we will celebrate our 25th Anniversary and Homecoming with worship at 10 a.m. followed by a luncheon for all our members, former members, and guests. We invite all our former members and any of our friends in the community to attend and celebrate and reminisce with us.

North Fayette United Methodist Church will host The Nashville Writers Group in concert Saturday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m.

Last Thursday, I emailed political position questions to all candidates in council races for Peachtree City, Fayetteville and Tyrone.

Deadline for email responses to questions is 5 p.m. this Wednesday, Oct. 14.

“So where are you from?” the lady asked as she was cleaning my hotel room in Florida.

“I’m from near Atlanta,” I responded. “And where are you from?” I inquired.

Gas can kill! Trust me. I know. After Twin Brother Mark ate broccoli at dinner, by bedtime he was deadly.

When I was young, I thought that was the worst gas one could possible smell, but as a firefighter, I know that’s not the case. There’s one gas even more deadly than what was produced by Mom’s broccoli cheese casserole and Mark at bedtime. A gas you can’t even smell: Carbon monoxide.

Recent videos of American children in school singing songs of praise for Barack Obama were a little much, especially for those of us old enough to remember pictures of children singing the praises of dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Mao.

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” — William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”

Why won’t we listen to what used to be called sage advice before the Internet made too many of us think we are re-inventing the world and nothing we think or try has ever been thought or tried before?