Stories from Thursday, December 27, 2007

There are times as a reporter that a story leads you in a different direction than what you intended to originally write. The story I am about to share with you I was going to do as a news story but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed a bit personal to me. A reporter has to distance him or herself from the story but sometimes I can't. That is why I going to tell you this story in a column rather than a news story...

I have taken notice lately of a very-very disturbing trend - people handing over their freedom one ballot at a time. I'm not referring to us -- our freedom is protected by the US Patriot Act. I'm talking about the alarming events in Russia, Pakistan and Venezuela where attempts have been made to allow presidents to stay in power after terms are up or, in the case of Chavez in Venezuela, be declared "President for Life." That attempt failed by a narrow margin...