Opinion by Ken Herron:While I was working in Egypt in 2004 the only news I could get on TV was CNN International out of London and BBC out of London. Both of them were twisted and biased toward the Liberal Agenda and had me hollering at the TV in the evenings. I wrote a couple of letters to the editor of the Calhoun Times and emailed them to Mitch Talley who was the editor at the time. My wife told me that a lot of people commented to her about my letters. I came home for a couple of weeks and several people discussed the letters to the editor with me. When I got back to Egypt, I emailed Mitch Talley and asked if I could write some columns for the paper. He told me to send him one which I did. He emailed me right back and told me he was publishing that one and I could send some more. I thought I would send in about one each month but there was no schedule for them and I sent them in at infrequent intervals but more than one per month. As my writing skill improved, I began to write columns about my impressions and observations about the various cities around the world that I have visited and some of the people that I had met. Before the year was over I was sending one each week.

At one time in the 1960s and 1970s I knew the Presidents of every carpet and yarn manufacturing company personally. Over the years I have described some of these folks and told about my experiences with them. A couple of them that I wrote about were not totally honest and I had to use a factitious name to tell their stories. Most of them were great people and as creative and personable as they could be.

There have been a number of letters to the editor about my columns that were published by the newspaper. I always enjoyed reading them. One lady said she was going to cancel her subscription if the paper did not stop printing my column. She said that she tried not to read my column but somebody would call her and tell her what I said. She said that I was so conservative that I made Rush Limbaugh look like a liberal.

Politically I am a Constitutional Conservative. I vote Republican but I still have a number of friends who are Democrats. I am opposed to the policies, practices and positions of our President. His race is not a factor. I have worked closely with Africans in the Middle East and was very attached to them. I lived in Egypt which is on the African Continent for a year. I have a number of friends in Calhoun who are black and Jackie Beavers of Cartersville was one of my best friends. As far as I am concerned, I have no racial prejudice and my writing reflects this.

My writings also reflects my Christian values. I could carry several religious labels based on my history and my beliefs but the label that I prefer is to be called a Christian. Over the years I have worshipped in just about every denominational church from Catholic to Pentecostal and I have been comfortable in every one of them. I disagree with some point in the doctrine of just about all of them but the points are not essential to salvation and are not worth a serious discussion about them. It is not important to me that everyone believe every spiritual point exactly like I see it. During my lifetime, I have changed my opinion on a number of things including some biblical points. I try to do my own study and research to arrive at my opinions. Perhaps I should use the word conclusions but in many cases there are valid possibilities that I might be wrong and I am flexible enough to change.

I want to thank the Calhoun Times and their editors for continuing to publish my column. The 500 columns were printed just as I wrote them in probably over four million individual newspapers. There is no way to estimate how many readers that I have had over the years but most newspapers are read by more than one person. Most readers have specific items that they read each week and my column may not be on the must read list of many of them.

I have blessed to be able to do many things that most people never get a chance to do. Traveling internationally and working in foreign environments was exciting. Having a good marriage and family is a blessing I am forever thanking God for. I started and operated several businesses that provided for my family over the years. I enjoyed singing and I had the opportunity to direct singing for a number of years and sang specials in quartets, trios, duets and solos. My days of music are past. I enjoyed speaking and I conducted worship in Alabama State Prisons for two years. I ran for Congress and spoke and met people in all of the counties in the district. A lot of things are just good memories now but I can write them in my column and let you remember some of them with me. Thanks to all of you who read my column and tell me that you enjoy them when we meet.