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May 9, 2025

Franklin County Times
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    Franklin County Times
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    OPINION: My Thoughts
    FILE PHOTO - Bart Moss is a freelance writer and photographer for the Franklin County Times and principal of Phil Campbell High School.
    Bart Moss, He Says, My Thoughts, Opinion, Z - Top, Z - TOP HOME
    Bart Moss For the FCT
     By Bart Moss For the FCT  
    Published 6:06 pm Tuesday, March 4, 2025

    OPINION: My Thoughts

    He Says

    What a week it was! Where do we start? Geopolitical? State? Local? Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first …

    Cheerleader tryouts have been going on across the county for the past couple of weeks. This is an argument my mom (who was a cheer coach for 40 years) and my sisters (both cheerleaders and cheer coaches) have had for a long time. Cheer coaches should choose who they want to be cheerleaders at their schools, or at least have a majority of the say …

    Why we allow outsiders to have an oversized say in who is, or is not, on our cheer teams is absurd to me. If you told a football, basketball, baseball or volleyball coach they would have to hire an outside consultant to choose their team they would laugh at you and resign. And don’t tell me it is different. It is not. If someone doesn’t have the ability, right attitude, can’t be at practice or games, can’t be a team player, etc., you cut them. And the best person to know the answer to those questions is? The cheer coach … Never mind the easy stuff …

    Auburn dismantled Kentucky on the road at Rupp Arena to claim a share of the regular season SEC championship. A few hours later, the Tigers, with much thanks to their rival, claimed the outright title. How Alabama let that game at Tennessee get away from them is crazy! With just a few seconds to go in the game there is fourpoint play by Tennessee to tie the game, a jump ball, a five-second violation on an inbounds pass by Alabama, and inexplicably, Alabama lets Tennessee dribble the length of the court and take a clean look at a gamewinning three pointer for the win. March Madness is upon us …

    The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) held its state championships in Birmingham’s Legacy Arena this week. The official attendance count was 58,759 for the 42-game tournament that spanned six days. Saturday was the most attended day, which was the finals of the Class 6A and Class 7A games — 13,027 people showed up to watch those games …

    According to the Wall Street Journal, school districts around the country are spending tens of millions of dollars to expand and revamp high-school shop classes for the 21st century. They are betting on the future of manual skills, offering vocationaleducation classes that will give students more career prospects with or without college …

    In geopolitical news, if ever the genius of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton was on display, it waslastweek.TheFounders warned America of foreign entanglements. Russian President Vladamir Putin is a bad, bad man. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is worse. He is arrogant and ignorant — a dangerous combination, especially when fighting a nuclear power like Russia. The reality of the whole situation is Russia could end this war with the drop of one or two bombs like the U.S. did in Japan. Trump is right. Zelenskyy holds no cards. Time to end the war!

    This war is one of the main reasons we’ve had runaway inflation. Remember back when Joe Biden told us we would just have to sacrifice. I think we’ve sacrificed enough! And for those who have knee-jerk reactions to anything Trump, I didn’t say I like Putin. I don’t. I just know Zelenskyy is operating on what amounts to liquid courage. He is drunk on power and uses other people’s money and weapons.

    Have a great week!

    Bart Moss is a freelance writer and photographer for the Franklin County Times and principal of Phil Campbell High School.

    Read LAST WEEK’s column HERE.

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