Tag: No Second Thoughts

It was Tommy Smith who stood out the most for me. He said things no other on-air personality dared to say, and I knew this fact even as a boy. He did things his way and didn’t worry about the backlash.

Reporting fatal car accidents or any sort of incident where a life is lost is not a task I take lightly. The real victims in these scenarios are the surviving relatives and friends. Sometimes, in the worst case, these same people learned of the death from the media.

I’m a wallflower. I watch, listen and observe while doing my best to avoid drawing attention to myself.

My cotton-headed 5-year-old gripped my hand as I helped her leap from the back seat of my pickup onto the covered walkway of Perritt Primary School. I grabbed her backpack and slipped it over her shoulders. We were both nervous.

An officer dies in the line of duty just about every day across our nation. Statistically, that doesn’t seem like a large number given the number of municipalities in the U.S.

By Joel PhelpsThe Arkadelphian The last time I wrote a regular column, back in my college days when I really…