CenLamar | Est. 2006

  • It’s a Celebration

    On a personal note, on Saturday night, my brother Mark and I walked our little sister down the aisle. For nearly nine years, I had anticipated that exact moment, knowing, after my father had died, my brother and I would likely have to perform his role whenever she got married. And I had feared that our presence would underscore his absence, that it would somehow be bittersweet and awkward. When a member of a young family suddenly dies (and dies at a young age), it can take several years before you don’t sense their absence during every birthday party, every…

  • Our Kids at Risk?

    Recently, I received the following e-mail from Robert Luhn, Communications Director for the National Center for Science Education. H/t to Mr. Luhn and to Ryan at the Daily Kingfish, who posted about this issue earlier today. Here’s the letter: There’s a big story brewing that you should check out. At first glance, it looks pretty humdrum: a pair of board meetings devoted to a raft of obscure agenda items. But these could be the most contentious, bitterly debated meetings of 2009. What’s at stake? How millions of kids in Louisiana will be taught science and evolution, and ultimately, how competitive…

  • The Obama Jacket

    With all due respect to the fine men and women who serve on the Rapides Parish School Board,  I have always believed that the school uniform policy is, in a word, stupid. When I was a senior in high school, I wrote (and The Town Talk published) a 2,500 word missive on the subject of uniforms. Hilariously, instead of crediting me as the author, the paper credited Lamar Alexander, the Republican politician from Tennessee who believes in eliminating the Department of Education. I thought the paper’s mistake was awesomely ironic. Regardless, the policy is still stupid. It was implemented because…