"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell

   This Orwell quote has been floating around Facebook Nation lately. I keep seeing it, again and again, which isn't particularly unusual. (That's what FB memes do; they multiply.) What is unusual is that the adage keeps popping up on the pages of people who have very different values and, frankly, very different ideas about "truth."

By Margaret Evans, Editor

It's Friday morning and deadline day for this sprawling thing I euphemistically call my column. It's also the second day of spring – March 21st – and all of creation has risen to the occasion. Outside my window, the "we need you, we need you" bird has returned to seduce me from my grim task. (My old pal Jim Tatum tells me that's the cry of the Carolina wren, and I have no reason to doubt him.)

By Margaret Evans, Editor

My husband and I were watching a news report from Ukraine the other night, and I said to him, "Having lived here in my American bubble all my life, this stuff seems almost unreal to me. It's like I'm watching a movie."