They know - or, at least, the staffers who feed them their talking points know - that neither of their claims is true.īack when Republicans held their own congressional majorities, they ran up massive deficits, too, in part by enacting tax cuts without offsetting budget savings. They claim either that tax hikes on the wealthy can pay for it, or that adding trillions more to the federal debt will have no significant downsides. Democrats, fully cognizant of how tenuously they control Congress, are trying to shove through trillions of dollars in new federal spending before the 2022 election cycle begins. To be more specific, they don’t really mean what they say about debt and deficits. RALEIGH - Can I let you in on a not-so-little secret? The Democrats in Washington don’t really mean it. There’s a crowd of folks celebrating with us this time.ĭonnie Douglas the former executive editor of the Robesonian. It was John who is 1995 crafted this front-page headline as general manager of the Augusta Chronicle: “Atlanta, at last.” Even during John’s final days, he watched and rooted for the Braves, never giving up hope that not only would the Braves rally to win the World Series, but he would watch it. 22, and John Fish, my adulthood buddy and the only person I know who loves the Braves more than I do, who passed on Sept. It came during the year that we lost Hank Aaron, my childhood idol, who passed on Jan.
Probably be in diapers again.īut back to this year’s championship and its serendipity, which was rather perfect in one sense, but a bit tardy in another.
It’s clear to me that the Braves are the odds-on favorite to win the World Series again in 2047, which I will enjoy shortly after my 90th birthday. There is a bit of symmetry here that I stumbled upon, that being the Braves’ 1995 World Series championship – a long-awaited celebration that was not fully enjoyed by me because of life’s sorry circumstances at that time – came 26 years after I began rooting for the Braves.
It began in 1969, a year in which the previously hapless Mets miraculously dispatched of the Braves in the NLCS on their way to winning the World Series.Īt this point I could almost cut and paste last year’s column that detailed the ups and downs of being a Braves baseball fan for the past half century plus two years, but that would be cheating the readers and also those who pay me big dollars for fresh content. That said, I will stack my Braves bona fides – and scar tissue - up against most, a boast I am comfortable making largely because of the length of my allegiance to the team. What I was oblivious to and only realized through social media was just how big the Braves bandwagon has grown. This year I held my fire in an effort not to jinx the Braves and my restraint was rewarded: A team that four months ago was almost unwatchable became improbable world champs on Tuesday night, capping a 4-2 series win with a 7-0 win over the Houston Astros and putting a smile on such Atlanta Brave icons as Aaron, Phil Niekro, Dale Murphy, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Chipper Jones. But I spoke too soon as the Braves blew a 3-1 lead to those dastardly Dodgers and missed a chance to play in the World Series. I watched in diapers.īraves baseball and UNC basketball have remained fixtures in my sports-watching life, and a year ago in this column I detailed my affinity for the Braves. I listened from my mother’s womb but the game was blacked out.įorty-five days after my arrival the Braves, then in Milwaukee, finished off a 4-3 series win over the New York Yankees, led by Hammerin’ Hank Aaron’s three home runs. The timing of my arrival was that the University of North Carolina’s men’s basketball team was fresh off a 32-0 season that was capped with two triple-overtime wins in the Final Four, 74-70 over Michigan State and 54-53 over Kansas, which featured a fellow named Wilt Chamberlain. 26 an ounce shy of being a 10-pound bundle of joy, a gift that has just kept giving. The year 1957 was a very good year for me as I arrived on Aug.