Opinion

Remember in It’s A Wonderful Life when George Bailey says he’s going to “lasso the moon”? It gave us a sobriquet for what later became the cliché “reaching for the stars.”

Well, on Monday, we could celebrate two men who did reach for the stars, one of whom did lasso the moon in a manner of speaking and another who just missed.

One gave us a moment to study the past and what it has meant to the present and our future.

The construction project for the Shelbyville Bypass has skidded into a mountain of mud at the end of a dead-end street. What has appeared obvious to anyone who has taken a look at the empty roadbed and the lack of action is true: Gridlock has emerged on the construction of a highway that is supposed to prevent just that. There have been many questions from local residents and officials about the lack of progress they were seeing on a road that many hoped would completed soon, and now we learn that the contractor, Kay & Kay Construction of London, has worked

 A letter featured in The Sentinel-News (“Problems exist”, June 17) was, itself commenting on the proposed energy plan of President Barack Obama.  I generally do not agree with most of the views of the aforementioned contributor, thus, my grievances are less with that writer than with the newspaper itself.  

One of the most basic facts a newspaper tries desperately to have correct is the spelling of a name. It’s a one of those slap-your-wrists fundamentals we learned at journalism school, because our errors endure in ink on paper.

Even if every other fact is wrong, we want that one to be right. And, frankly, when it comes to cops and courts, we have to be extra careful. You wouldn’t want to have a wrong name in an arrest report of a serial killer.

We know we sometimes err, but we sweat the small stuff all the time.

Word spread by e-mail, phone and Facebook. It was a bolt of lightning, and each of us simply wanted to touch it and pass it along. Thursday night before the sun was close to the horizon, we learned that Michael Jackson was dead. If you’re younger than 25 or older than 65, you may not care so much.

This weekend as we celebrate the 4th of July, millions of Americans will have cookouts, go swimming, play corn-hole, and watch fireworks.  A few of them will actually pause for a moment to reflect upon what the day is all about.

Of course, the 4th of July is our national Independence Day, memorializing the day our Founding Fathers declared their independence from Great Britain.

Law enforcement officials in six counties worked together recently to arrest a man they believe is responsible for dozens of burglaries.

We shall see if their arrest carries through to conviction, but we are buoyed by the teamwork we saw from the Shelbyville Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Simpsonville Police and agencies from around the region.

We would like to offer an entirely new plan for how to expand state revenue and subsidize the ailing horse-racing industry.

Instead of installing slot machines at race tracks, how about we simply set odds on the actions of our state legislators?

They seem to be more fickle than a filly, and you don’t necessarily need to know the pedigree or quarter-mile time to pick a winner.

A $2 wager on any piece of legislation likely would return a handsome payout, and with each delay, amendment and revision, your betting options continually expand.

The City of Shelbyville’s plan to do an extensive study about its East end is an appropriate step toward fulfilling the city’s potential as a destination for both residents and visitors.

This most historic area, somewhat preserved in the blocks from 2nd and 3rd Streets between Main and Washington, has an unexploited opportunity to become the eastern gateway into a thriving and eclectic downtown.

And the timing for this new study could not be more appropriate.