Rich: Rudeness and courtesy

Sometimes, I have decided, rudeness works.Sometimes, it’s even called for.I had to do a lot of thinking on this because I advocate kindness and courtesy.But if someone is being abused publicly, I can see the need for rudeness to spare the victim.

Yarbrough: Bob Shaw, a man who made us better

My boss and mentor at Southern Bell, Jasper Dorsey, taught me a lot about the business world.He also taught me a lot about the world beyond business. One of his precepts was that we must leave this a better world than we found it. Otherwise, we have just taken up time and space and wasted a life.

Yarbrough: Becoming a Bulldog – forever

A lot is going on at my alma mater, the University of Georgia. Not all the news has been good.

Rich: Jesus was a Jew

In the modest country home where I grew up, prejudices were not allowed.However there was a serious bias against what Daddy called “no accounts,” men who laid up drunk and didn’t feed their families.

Yarbrough: Do politicians even care about the Okefenokee Swamp?

Between the time I write, and you read this, conditions can change.Particularly in politics.

Rich: How prayer works

This is how prayer works: Tink and I were one hour into a seven-hour trip home from Memphis.I’d been on a book tour for two exhausting weeks and had a stomach bug, very rare for me. Our good friend and house sitter, Kathy Lanning, is alert and doesn’t miss a thing.

Rich: Tellers of songs — part four

Several years ago, I cohosted a radio show that was recorded in a studio on Nashville’s famed Music Row.Top on my wish list of guests was songwriter Rodney Crowell. His songs range from light and fun to deep and thought-provoking.

Yarbrough: The state of this column can’t be overstated

My fellow Americans, my fellow Georgians, and my loyal readers without whom I would have to go get a real job! (Laughter and applause!)I come before you today to submit to you my annual State of the Column address.

Yarbrough: A reader’s reminder of the goodness within us

I get a number of suggestions from readers regarding topics for a column. For that, I am grateful. I also get suggestions from some readers about what I can do with the column and where I can go while placing it where they suggest.That, I will leave to your imagination.

Rich: Tellers of songs — part three

Dolly Parton is, unquestionably, one of music’s best songwriters. Arguably, she is the best writer of the “girl singers,” as they were called in the 1960s, to come out of Nashville.Loretta Lynn was smart and unique in her view of marriage and relationships.