Benny Hornsby | HubCitySPOKES

At the close of 2020, there were an estimated 2,132 Southern Baptist churches in Mississippi, not counting a few that were in the process of splitting up over quarreling piano players, construction projects, or antics of the pastor’s children. During the past two years, I have spoken in 51 of these churches.

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OPINION: STORMY WEATHER

By Benny Hornsby, 1,098 Reads

As of this writing, the container ship, Ever Given, of the Taiwanese Evergreen Line, is now lying to for inspection in the Great Bitter Lake, part of the Suez Canal. Authorities are trying to figure out whether it’s fit to sail and what to do with its cargo if it’s not.

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The Last Ship Leaving

By Benny Hornsby, 1,450 Reads

While some mistakenly blame the Trump administration for China’s meteoric rise to economic and military hegemony around the globe, it’s not a recent phenomenon.

Where there is a vacuum, China will fill it.

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A life at sea can bring loneliness and perhaps a bit of insanity, but rituals and rites of passage, like the line-crossing ceremony that accompanies one’s first crossing of the Equator, helped bring the author a sense of belonging and the contentment found in camaraderie. The ceremony is referred to as being an initiation into the court of King Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. The pictured Neptune statue is the city of Lviv, the cultural center of western Ukraine.

Into the Mystic

By Benny Hornsby, 818 Reads

Many years at sea tend to make you a little lonely and crazy. You begin to wonder if anyone knows that you are alive. If you aren’t careful, you can become so isolated that you become a seagoing hermit.

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DOOMSDAY COUNTDOWN

By Benny Hornsby, 1,899 Reads

In early 2021, the Doomsday Clock, maintained since 1947 by members of the Atomic Scientist’s Science and Security Board, was set at 100 seconds until midnight, or nuclear Armageddon, the closest it has ever been.

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"Being a public school teacher in Mississippi reminded me of a conundrum I felt as a junior officer in the Navy: responsible for everything but in charge of nothing." - Benny Hornsby

Blackboard Jungle

By Benny Hornsby, 1,370 Reads

I read that our state Legislature is mulling over a minuscule teacher pay raise and, as a retired, 25-year combat veteran of teaching in Mississippi public schools, including two Lamar County high schools, I feel strongly that salaries need to be raised to at least the southeastern average, especially since our faithful Mississippi teachers are

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FUNNY MONEY

By Benny Hornsby, 1,498 Reads

All across the United Kingdom, Brits are breathing a sigh of relief today that a “hard” BREXIT (British Exit) from the European Union will not occur on Jan. 1, 2021. Such an exit from the group of 28 countries making up the European Union would have resulted in trade barriers, travel restrictions, tariff issues and general chaos.

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Christmas at Sea

By Benny Hornsby, 1,898 Reads

I was thinking the other day that I’ve spent at least 10 Christmases underway at sea or on a ship in a port so far away that even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer couldn’t find it. It’s probably more than 10, but I rounded it off.

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FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS

By Benny Hornsby, 1,685 Reads

I’m sincerely trying, but I just can’t get my head wrapped around our new state flag. It seems jumped up, contrived – put together by a committee of overwrought west coast art students who know more about Matisse than Mississippi history.

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Sea Stories

By Benny Hornsby, 1,625 Reads

When you go to sea feeling like an orphan, books become your family. Sitting here on the balcony of my rented condo in Orange Beach, overlooking the blue waters of the Gulf, listening to the pounding of the waves whipped up by Tropical Storm Eta, and looking out to sea, some of those books, those long-ago friends, come back to mind.

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