Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

America is still great! In spite of ill-advised policies pushed by progressives from Woodrow Wilson to FDR, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and nowadays Barack Obama, America continues to be great because we have a solid constitutional foundation and patriotic citizens.

Progressives look at America and want “to improve” us, to “fundamentally transform” America into a nation with government more akin to Europe’s socialist democracies. Why? Because they honestly believe America has a history rife with imperialism, colonialism, racism, and a hundred other “isms” that fatally undermine their values.

Check your child’s history books. This Fall Mississippi will implement new history curricula focusing on the role civil rights has played from our founding to today. Considering how poorly American students have performed on standardized tests by National Assessment of Educational Progress, I suppose any change couldn’t hurt. In the case of changing curricula parents should trust but verify.

On this year’s test only 12-percent of high school seniors were proficient in their knowledge of history, while MORE THAN HALF of all seniors scored at the LOWEST achievement level “below basic.” Americans spend more money on education per student than any nation on earth. We deserve better results than this.

Unfortunately, too many of our school children don’t know America is great because they’re being taught about all the injustices perpetrated by our Founding Fathers and all those other white men through the centuries who suppressed freedoms of women and minorities.

Of course America has a history of injustices, but we also have a history of triumphs. We have nothing to apologize for. We are a light on a hill, a beacon of hope for people and nations around the globe. We are unique and we’ll remain unique in this world of nations until progressives in the classrooms, Congress, and the White House transform us into a nation of mediocrity.

Ask the hundreds of thousands of new citizens why America is great and they will inevitably compare advantages Americans have enjoyed for more than 230 years with disadvantages they have had in their native countries. A man in India told his American friend he wanted to become an American because “I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat.”

Consider how overwhelmed emigrants become when they walk through a Wal-Mart or grocery story. God has blessed America and Americans materially by ways and means unmatched in any other nation today. In fact, we are so materially blessed, that’s the charge our enemies and critics make against us – that we have become a decadent and immoral society drowning in our own insatiable lusts.

America is the only nation on earth where one can “become” an American. Will becoming a citizen of Germany make one a German? France a Frenchman? Korea a Korean? Only in America can anyone from any other nation on earth become an American!

With all our blemishes and problems, America is still great! We are the greatest nation on earth. Thank You, God, for blessing America!

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel Gardner

Guest Columnist

I love to read a lot of different kinds of books: fiction and nonfiction, books on faith and books on politics, biographies and philosophical treatises.

I’ve just read one of Dean Koontz’s books, Life Expectancy. Some of Koontz’s books are quirkier than others, and Life Expectancy could be one of those life-is-stranger-than-fiction books if it were true. But, it’s not.

The book is an autobiography of a primary character who at times philosophizes about his own significance in the broad scope of life. I’d bet Koontz himself shares this philosophy with his character.

In chapter 28 Koontz writes, “Sometimes, as I’m writing about my life, I get the weird feeling that someone is writing my life as I write about it.”

“If God is an author and the universe is the biggest novel ever written, I may feel as if I’m the lead character in the story, but like every man and woman on Earth, I am a supporting player in one of billions of subplots. You know what happens to supporting players. Too often they are killed off in chapter three or in chapter ten, or in chapter thirty-five. A supporting player always has to be looking over his shoulder.”

At the end of chapter 57 (obviously the “supporting character” survived chapter thirty-five) Koontz writes, “Maybe it’s our free will misdirected or just a shameful pride, but we live our lives with the conviction that we stand at the center of the drama. Moments rarely come that put us outside ourselves, that divorce us from our egos and force us to see the larger picture, to recognize that the drama is in fact a tapestry and that each of us is but a thread in the vivid weave, yet each thread essential to the integrity of the cloth.”

In the real life, true storybook, Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell tells readers of heroism, suffering, and overcoming all odds. Luttrell is the lone survivor of Operation Redwing, an operation by Seal Team 10 deep behind enemy lines in Afghanistan.

On page 359 Luttrell reflects on his own thread in the tapestry of life. “Look at me, right now in my story. Helpless, tortured, shot, blown up, my best buddies all dead, and all because we were afraid of the liberals back home, afraid to do what was necessary to save our own lives. Afraid of American civilian lawyers. I have only one piece of advice for what it’s worth: if you don’t want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place.”

Each of us is a “thread essential to the integrity of the cloth,” insignificant, but still essential. Both authors reveal the fictional and true issues and ramifications many of us face as we’re woven into the cloth of time. Who’s to say God is not the author of His Story and we’re supporting characters?

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel Gardner

Guest Columnist

After Weinergate, DC politicians are focusing their attention on the bigger picture. They’re still talking about deficits and debt, cutting spending, investing in America, jobs, the economy, pulling troops out of Afghanistan, etc.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) spoke opposite of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on CBS’s program Face the Nation saying the Democrats are going to focus on jobs, laying out a multifaceted proposal to increase the number of jobs in America through building infrastructure, a tax holiday for new employees, and trade deals.

Of course, Senator McConnell concentrated his comments on cutting out-of-control spending in DC and building some kind of entitlement reform into ongoing negotiations to raise the debt limit.

Evidently both parties intend to wrestle with debt limit issues before retackling any semblance of a budget. We’ve gone well over two years now since Washington had a budget. Hey! Who needs a budget anyway? Let’s just keep spending! We’ve got plenty of credit, right? What’s the worst that could happen?

The looming issues continue to be the economy and jobs with polar positions debating whether government can grow jobs or whether government actually restrains job growth. That job growth has been restrained for the past four years is a given. “Why” is the question. The answer: anything that “regulates” job growth by definition “restrains” job growth.

This summer we’re memorializing the one-year anniversary of the “Recovery Summer” which wasn’t. That’s on top of President Obama’s hallmark stimulus bill that touted – humorously – shovel ready jobs and spent nearly $1 Trillion leaving few remaining jobs behind. So much for that work program.

Economists and historians have to go back to the Great Depression to see unemployment numbers as bad as we’ve seen since President Obama took office. Nine percent unemployment has become the new normal. Unemployed workers are setting records for being unemployed longer than at any other time in American history. Only 54,000 new jobs were created in May. The “recovery” is stagnant.

Though polar opposites in DC can’t agree on how to improve job numbers in the private sector, they do agree increasing job numbers will raise more revenue, and would raise even more revenue if every worker had to pay at least one percent. This past year 51-percent of taxpayers paid no income taxes. Everybody needs to pitch in something.

Republicans want to lower taxes particularly on small businesses to encourage job growth. They also want to repeal Obamacare, the biggest burden on businesses in history.

Regardless of which side one is rooting for, we all want unemployment numbers to go down and job numbers in the private sector – the only real engine driving our economy – to go up along with a thriving economy a la Reagan’s post recession years.

As long as polar parties stick to their guns in DC, I don’t see any real resolutions coming down the party aisles. After breaking the economy, Washington needs to lift burdensome taxes and regulations off businesses’ backs and allow American businesses to lead the economic recovery.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel Gardner
Guest Columnist

October 9, 1789, George Washington addressed the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America with these words: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them.”

Perhaps this explains the dearth of political prosperity today. No number of laws or regulations can enforce morals on a society. We can’t even discuss morals in America today without being branded hypocrites, and surely we are all hypocrites when we violate our own standards and values.

The atheist Saul Alinsky advocated tearing down one’s opponents by holding them accountable to the values they espoused because he knew no one could live up to any set of moral values.

What happens when politicians have no moral values or standards? We elect real Weiners to office. Voters own standards for their representatives have sunk so low that a majority of Congressman Weiner’s constituents want him to stay in office. If Weiner had held any other office – schoolteacher, judge, law officer, journalist – he would have been booted out immediately.

Not only have voters become callous regarding any semblance of standards for representatives, party leaders hold party loyalties and success well above any so-called moral standards…whatever they are.

The problem is not so much the lack of moral values as it is the lack of shame. Tax cheats? No problem. Cheating on spouses? No big deal. Doing really perverted and weird things? Who’s to say what’s ‘normal’ these days and what’s perverted?

As a society we have cast aside moral values in favor of political correctness and tolerance for all things formerly classified as immoral. We don’t tolerate hypocrites who take moral stands because we know nobody can live up to moral standards. Perversion is the stuff comedians make their money from.

Nearly 2,000 years ago in his letter to the church in Rome the Apostle Paul noted the same lack of shame, “although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” We know how that civilization ended.

What does this say about our nation? We have evolved well above and beyond moral and religious values and principles. We have risen above accountability. Anyone who dares to question morals or values is backward, unenlightened, ignorant, and easily dismissed. “Who does he thinks he is?”

America’s descending into a celebration of immorality and perversion is just another round in the cyclical nature of history. Washington’s “political prosperity” laid the foundation for our nation’s becoming the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth. Our own prosperity has weaned us from reliance on any deity to self-reliance and unqualified self-esteem.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

Last week Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal about President Obama and the Debt Crisis. Her ending comments summarized Obama’s presidency to date: “Obama inherited financial collapse, deficits and debt. He inherited a broken political culture. These things weren’t his fault. But through his decisions, he made them all worse.”

What a letdown after campaigning on “hope and change.” Americans were so very hungry for real hope and change in 2008 and voters gambled on a likeable, charismatic personality with little if any track record of real world experience. Obama was a former community organizer with high ideals and even higher aspirations, and voters were willing to give him the chance to make positive and significant differences in Washington.

Obama’s campaign featured not only “hope and change,” but also the usual utopian political promises progressives propound to persuade masses of disenchanted voters. Among the promises: fostering bi-partisanship, C-Span coverage of healthcare debates, lowering costs of healthcare, restoring our economy, keeping unemployment below 8-percent, closing Gitmo, ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and bringing our troops home among other promises.

The facts speak for themselves. In May the U.S. economy created 54,000 new jobs, the lowest number in eight months and dismal at best. Unemployment rose again to 9.1-percent, and new weekly applications for unemployment stayed well above the 400,000 mark. Six-point-two million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months. Housing, manufacturing, and consumer confidence are all down.

In a speech touting the comeback of GM and Chrysler, Obama characterized the dim economic figures as “a bump in the road.” Got to love the automobile analogies! Especially when GM is sticking taxpayers with $14 Billion in defaults on their “loans” and an additional $12 – 13 Billion in future taxes. Taxpayers are being taken for a ride down a very bumpy road.

January 9, 2009, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein released a report for the incoming administration titled, “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.” The administration was demonstrating its laser focus on improving the economy.

President Obama touted the report as his plan to restore the economy with nearly $1 Trillion in stimulus (spending) to create “shovel-ready” jobs. Obama pointed to the infamous graph projecting unemployment would be held in check below 8-percent with the stimulus, but would rocket above 9-percent without the stimulus plan.

In January 2009, unemployment was 7.5-percent. Four months later unemployment had skyrocketed to 9.5-percent and well on its way above 10-percent. Another bump in the road? Today, we’re still above 9-percent unemployment. Nobody talks about the stimulus any more except to say it added nearly $1 Trillion to our unimpeded growing national debt.

And, what about that 2010 Summer of Recovery promised by the White House? Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate we had a net loss of 283,000 jobs.

Is the U.S. economy getting better? For the first time Moody says it may lower the U.S. credit rating. Politics-as-usual has paralyzed Washington. Hope never rides far on empty promises.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

CBS Sunday Morning stories this week included: Dazzling Jewelry of Van Cleef and Arpels, Extreme Golf Carts, Designing Intimate Lingerie, Sydney Opera House, and Doghouse Designs Rivaling Master’s Domain.

In every case viewers were treated to how the elite, well-to-do upper class around the world thrive in luxury. Frankly, the stories evoked liberal/progressive emotions. I wanted to take away all the money those featured in the stories were wasting on trivial pursuits and give it to those in need.

America is fortunate to have a middle class. Few nations in the world do. Most nations have two classes: a rich, elite ruling class, and everybody else who are poor. I know of no one in America’s middle class who could afford to purchase jewelry from Van Cleef and Arpels, much less purchasing a single piece of lingerie costing more than $200. Why would someone in the middle class purchase these when knockoffs are so readily available? Who would know the difference?

The one exception is that middle class folks could easily design and build doghouses or pet abodes rivaling or even superseding their own domiciles. I’ve seen that in my own home!

How do the wealthy in America compare with the wealthy in other parts of the world? For that matter, how do those in need in America compare with needy people in any other nation of the world? Answers to these questions add context to debates raging today between those on the left and the right.

Those on the left advocate redistributing opulent wealth to those less fortunate. Anyone with a heart desiring to help those in need could easily justify taking dollars from the filthy rich and redistributing aid to the least fortunate among us.

Those on the right advocate creating and maintaining an environment where everyone has equal access to opportunities to succeed. A few of us will always need help, but the vast majority of us will prosper on our own given a good work ethic and open-ended opportunities to succeed.

Before the federal government grew big enough to help anyone and everyone, communities, friends and families all pitched in to help those in need. We all worked together for the common good at the local level.

As our nation has prospered far beyond any other nation in the history of our planet, we’ve allowed the federal government to assume powers in practically every venue of our lives. Washington has assumed the role of universal helper-in-chief for all that ails citizens and aliens alike.

Thomas Jefferson said, “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”

Jefferson also said, “A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.”

We need a wiser and more frugal government today.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

Like many Americans I stayed up to watch President Obama announce we had killed Osama bin Laden. I didn’t revel or cheer, but just turned the TV off and continued reading my book.

The following morning’s talk shows featured spontaneous celebrations across the nation alongside military and political commentators as well as families of people who had died on 911.

My thoughts returned to that awful day nearly ten years ago, watching planes fly into twin towers, the Pentagon, and seeing smoke rising from that field in Pennsylvania. In the days following 911, I remember seeing celebrations in other countries. Why? What were these men, women, and children celebrating? The deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans?

And, I wondered how these same people would react to our celebrating bin Laden’s death.

We live in a hateful, hate-filled world. Can anyone deny that? I admit I wanted bin Laden and all his followers dead. By at least one account he died a coward, hiding behind a woman when Navy Seals attacked his compound. As far as I’m concerned they’re all cowards, killing innocents to terrorize populations, and then running back under the rocks from which they had slithered. May the rocks crush them and all who would zealously terrorize innocents.

Peace. Why can we not live in peace? Will al Qaeda retaliate? Probably before this column is published. The war continues.

Nothing rallies Americans more than disasters, man-made or otherwise. In the aftermath of hundreds of tornadoes across the South we’ve witnessed an outpouring of volunteers doing anything and everything they could to assist those whose homes, churches, and places of business were damaged or destroyed. Strangers rallied with other strangers to pull people from rubble that had once been homes.

All disasters bring sorrow and loss, and Americans share and bear the weight of such as well as any people on earth. The American way is to help any around us who are in need. We help by giving back that which we’ve been given. Most of us have been given so much we can never pay it all back.

America is unique in the world. Our economy is three times larger than the next largest economy. We are truly blessed. And, we have blessed the rest of the world, sharing with countless peoples and nations the fruits of our labors through missions, government aid, and beneficence.

And yet, there are those in the world who want death to America and death of Americans, who celebrate our tragedies and disasters.

No one should celebrate death, even that of the most despicable. We should celebrate living and pursue peace with all men. The Bible says vengeance is God’s, and He will mete out justice to the wicked. No doubt, eternal justice.

We, the living, go on. We’re all in this together regardless of what “this” is. We’ll suffer losses and victories. Sharing both, we can halve our sorrows, multiply our joys, and thank God together for blessing our nation and our homes.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

Last week S&P changed its economic outlook for the U.S. from “stable” to “negative.” Representatives from S&P said they believed leaders in Congress and the White House did not have the wherewithal to address our deficit/debt crisis before the 2012 elections.

S&P’s prognostication reminded me of Charlie Reese’s famous rant in the Orlando Sentinel. Reese wrote columns for the Sentinel for three decades from 1971 to 2001. I believe over that time he wrote and rewrote the famous rant two or three times.

One version begins: “Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?”

Reese places the blame squarely on 545 people: “One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices – 545 human beings out of the 235 million – are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.”

All jesting aside, blame does reside with those we elect to represent our best interests. We share the blame inasmuch as we continue to send them back to Washington expecting different results.

Last week Texas Congressman Ron Paul spoke on our campus at MSU. The day he spoke was one of the stormiest days on record in Starkville. We had no fewer than three tornado alerts, and repeated deluges that threatened to flood even hilltop houses. Many spent the bulk of their working hours in basements.

Paul was scheduled to speak that night in Lee Hall Auditorium. It was still raining and a bit blustery outside, but I decided to brave the weather.

Upon arriving, I found the bottom floor of the auditorium completely filled, as was the second floor balcony. The third floor balcony was filling fast, and I squeezed into a seat made for much skinnier patrons back in the day.

Congressman Paul is a libertarian who runs as a Republican. He told the enthusiastic crowd there were not two parties in Washington – there’s only one party in Washington regardless of which party is in power.

He should know. He’s been there off and on since the 1970s.

What happens to partisans when they cross over the beltway into DC? They become “somebody.” They attain power. They grapple with grave issues affecting the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. And, they lose the wherewithal to do anything worth noting “for the people” until the next election cycle when they dress up tired old campaign promises for an electorate who’ll surely believe them one more time.

It’s not a stretch to agree with S&P that Washington will not have the wherewithal to fix the deficit/debt problem before the 2012 elections. Those who can fix the problem are more interested in keeping their jobs than fixing what they broke in the first place.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.

Daniel L. Gardner

Guest Columnist

Why has President Obama begun campaigning for a second term? He has no opponent in his own party. Potential candidates in the GOP are still milling around with no front-runner in sight. And yet, President Obama has mounted his campaign to raise $1 Billion and is in full campaign mode making partisan campaign speeches almost daily.

We have real problems in our nation’s capital. While deficits continue to skyrocket driving our monstrous debt beyond our ability to repay, Progressives are turning blind eyes to the problem and stoking the fires of their worn out ideological arguments about “saving the poor.”

Here’s a memo: we have the same percentage of poor people today in America as we did when President Johnson launched the war on poverty. If all the programs passed over the past 50 years to rid America of poverty had worked, we would have won by now. We’ve thrown a lot of money at poverty and we’re still not winning.

We’re now throwing more money at public education per child than any other nation on earth, and yet our children continue to drop behind their peers in nations we’re competing against. We’ve thrown a lot of money at education and we’re losing ground against competing nations.

President Carter launched the Energy Department to wean Americans off foreign oil, and forty years later we’re more dependent than ever. We’ve thrown a lot of money at energy and what do we have to show for it?

What is President Obama doing? He’s campaigning for four more years! He’s calling Republicans “un-American” because they proposed and passed a serious budget attacking our fiscal problems. His own budget proposal increases the debt precipitously, mocking another $1 Trillion deficit as if it were Monopoly money.

While our nation is drowning in debt that our grandchildren and great grandchildren will have to repay – plus interest – President Obama is leading his loyal Progressive followers down ideological pathways toward staying in office, staying in power, whipping up divisive and derisive partisan rhetoric, and promoting class warfare.

Under President Obama the U.S. is spending 25-percent of our GDP, the most since World War II. In the face of mounting debt and runaway deficits President Obama wants to continue trillion dollar deficits driving us ever more quickly toward insolvency. Why? Because he wants four more years in the White House and he’s barely lived there for two.

When is President Obama going to step up and lead the nation against the biggest threat to our national sovereignty in 70 years – unsustainable crushing debt? Where’s the leadership? Sure, he’s asked sleepy-eyes Joe Biden to come up with a bi-partisan plan to address the debt issue by June. I guess that means he’s forsaken his own Debt Commission’s plan. That’s what we need: another committee to study the problem.

Excuse me, but we elected the President to lead, not to campaign. And, that goes double for all the yahoos on Capitol Hill. We need real fiscal leadership, not more campaign speeches.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger feature blog site http://www.clarionledger.com/section/blogs06. Gardner’s columns are also featured on http://dannygardner.opinioneditorial.com

His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.