Sometimes it takes a long time before you’re able to pay forward a kindness. This one took me 12 years to repay.

When my momma was alive, she was a walking repository of our family’s history, not only hers but my dad’s as well. She could rattle off the names of great-aunts and not-so-great uncles, cousins, the good, the bad and the ugly.

After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, investigators discovered that the lone man assigned to guard the president, John Parker, had abandoned his post to watch the play from an adjacent box at Ford’s Theater. Worse, at intermission, Parker adjourned to a nearby saloon to have drinks with some friends. It was during the second act that John Wilkes Booth entered the president’s box and shot him.

First, in the aftermath of these horrific atrocities, finger-pointing is not helpful and only more divisive.

This story starts many years ago. Most good stories do.

Dear Georgia Public Schoolteachers:

What happens to our children has great ramifications both for our children and for us.

Former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has urged President Trump and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD to stop exchanging insults over conditions in Baltimore.

A couple of years ago, Tink and I had the opportunity — which turned out to be an honor and a privilege — to work with Dolly Parton on a television project.

Calling someone "racist" has become the default position for liberal politicians and certain members of the media who wish to deflect attention from real problems.

I know he is a longtime reader of this space and should he be doing so this week, I want Sen. Johnny Isakson to know he is in our prayers (assuming mine gets past the ceiling.) The senator is currently rehabbing after a fall at his residence in Washington, breaking four ribs. In the current dysfunctional political environment where each side is trying to out-scream the other, Johnny Isakson is one of the sane voices in Washington and one of the most respected. Also, the Woman Who Shares My Name loves him better than apple dumplings. You say something negative about her friend and she will put a skillet against your skull. Don’t even think about it. Get well soon, Senator. ...

The Washington Post, which has done everything in its dwindling power with articles, editorials and columns denouncing, demeaning and attempting to destroy President Trump, appears to have temporarily — but only temporarily — raised the white flag. A headline following former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appearance before two House committees said: “Democrats struggle to figure next move against Trump after Mueller Hearing falls flat.”

There’s something awful special about seeing the South from the pavement of asphalt back roads mostly forgotten by the majority of population. It is there among scrub pines, pecan trees and cattle watering in a nearby stream, that you will behold a sight that soothes the soul.

Really now, where would we be if it were not for the long suffering patience of God in dealing with us difficult human beings?

For the past six years, Rob Philyaw has seen what most of us will never see. He has heard stories we will never hear. The Hamilton County (Tennessee) Juvenile Court judge conducts hearings behind closed doors to protect the identity of children. But that does not prevent him from speaking out about the problems that plague our present and future.

The Founders of the United States of America warned against massive federal debt, but, to our detriment, their political descendants are not paying attention. The Founders speak to us from their graves to condemn and warn of the consequences now that President Trump and Congress have come to an agreement about lifting the meaningless “debt ceiling” and increasing already massive federal spending and the debt, which is at $22 trillion and growing rapidly.

Gov. Brian Kemp has made some crackerjack appointments since taking office in January, but none better than naming Atlanta real estate executive Sam Holmes to the Board of Regents, which oversees the University System of Georgia.

For safety reasons, fire marshals control the number of people who can occupy a building at any one time. We’ve seen what happens when crowds get too large and a fire breaks out, causing panic and often death. So why not control the crowd illegally entering America?

In the summer of 1986, it might have been hard to choose who was more miserable: The farmers of the deep South or me.

The initial characteristic of a nation’s greatness is its sense of spiritual destiny.

I’m not much of a handy man. Or as we say in the south, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Summary here

The phrase “America, Love It or Leave It” has a pedigree dating back at least to the McCarthy Era. In the ’70s, the phrase was employed again against those protesting America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The left has its own version, vowing to leave the country if a Republican is elected president. They rarely do.

Before going any further, let me say that success means different things to different people.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!“Folks, may I have your attention, please! My name is Figby and I have been asked to convene a short meeting of members of the General Assembly this morning.”

You had to be there 50 years ago, and I was. As a young reporter for a local TV station in Houston, I frequently visited NASA (“the space base,” we dubbed it), met many of the astronauts and reported on their exploits.

This past Christmas Eve, we had just returned from a candlelight church service back to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis to have dinner at the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Cappacio’s.

PLYMOUTH NOTCH, Ver. -- Rep. Justin Amash has left the Republican Party and will now represent Michigan's third congressional district as an Independent. In a Washington Post op-ed, he wrote: "I've become disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions."

I called them the Three Wise Men. They came not bearing gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense. They brought service, dedication and integrity. And as with all wise men, they lived their example.

As often I say, it is enlightening to see the South from a non-Southerner’s perspective.

One day a little girl decided she would give soccer a try.

The notion of history repeating itself is usually viewed as a negative statement, but some history is worth repeating because we might learn and be guided by it.

I don’t know a lot about a lot of things, but I know quite a bit about naming companies. That is because I had a major role in naming one.