“I’m sorry.”
These are powerful words. Authentic apologies can work like a healing ointment on old wounds, dissolve bitter grudges, and repair damaged relationships. They encourage both parties to let go of toxic emotions like anger and guilt and provide a fresh foundation of mutual respect.
But authentic apologies involve much more than words expressing sorrow; they require accountability, remorse, and repentance.
On March 15, 1974, the Grand Ole Opry country music radio show closed its run at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, with Johnny and June Carter Cash leading the song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” After that final show, a six-foot circle of wood was cut from the Ryman stage and moved to the new Grand Ole Opry House.
The next night, Roy Acuff opened the first show at the new venue. A video of Acuff singing in the 1940s played before the screen lifted to reveal Acuff himself, singing live in the same spot. The message was clear: Though the stage had changed, the story continued. The circle had not been broken.
We need prisons. They should confine violent felons and people who steal, whether from a convenience store or a pension fund.
But by every legal, financial, and humanitarian standard, the Alabama Department of Corrections is a failure. By the most basic measure of prison operations, Corrections isn’t doing its job.
Before any other consideration, prisons must be safe for staff and inmates. And they ought to offer those in the cells an opportunity to reform, even if the incarcerated never step outside the barbed wire again.
Folks, 2026 is shaping up as one of the best political years in memory in Alabama.
The governor’s, lieutenant governor’s, and attorney general’s offices - and maybe one of our U.S. Senate seats - are up for grabs with no incumbent. The jockeying has begun in earnest for all these posts.
As the Trump administration continues to make significant cuts to NIH budgets and personnel and to freeze billions of dollars of funding to major research universities – citing ideological concerns – there’s more being threatened than just progress in science and medicine. Something valuable but often overlooked is also being hit hard: preventing research abuse.
The National Institutes of Health has been the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research. Its support helps translate basic science into biomedical therapies and technologies, providing funding for nearly all treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2019. This enables the U.S. to lead global research while maintaining transparency and preventing research misconduct.
It’s not just an excuse for a three-day weekend or a day for barbecue and beer.
Memorial Day is a time for Americans to connect with our national history and core values by honoring those who gave their lives fighting for this country.
In the years following the bitter Civil War, a former Union general took a holiday originated by former Confederates and helped spread it across the entire country.
The holiday was Memorial Day, and today's commemoration marks the 158th anniversary of its official nationwide observance. The annual commemoration was born in the former Confederate States in 1866 and adopted by the United States in 1868. It is a holiday in which the nation honors its military dead.
When Teresa, a widow with four young children, saw a notice that members of her church would gather to deliver presents and food to a needy family, she took $10 out of her savings jar and bought the ingredients to make three dozen cookies. She got to the church parking lot just in time to join a convoy going to the home that was to receive the congregation’s help.
This is what happened to a University of Alabama student targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and how the university reacted.
(Alireza) Doroudi, an Iranian national pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering (at the University of Alabama), was taken into custody by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit on Tuesday around 3 a.m… The University of Alabama has not provided further details about the situation. Spokesperson Alex House did not respond to messages Friday after initially stating that the university was cooperating with immigration authorities. House did not address whether the university was offering Doroudi any assistance. — Alabama Reflector, March 28, 2025
As Americans become more polarized, even family dinners can feel fraught, surfacing differences that could spark out-and-out conflict. Tense conversations often end with a familiar refrain: “Let’s just drop it.”
As a communications educator and trainer, I am frequently asked how to handle these conversations, especially when they involve social and political issues. One piece of advice I give is that “agree to disagree,” or any other phrase that politely stands in for “stop talking,” will not restore harmony. Not only that, but it could also do permanent harm to those important family bonds.
