Tom Barton
SavannahNow
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Past articles by Tom:
OPINION: Savannah music man Tommy Holland hits high notes for kids
This is a column by retired Savannah Morning News Editorial Page Editor Tommy Barton. Subscribe to his blog at iamnotoldnews.com.Tommy Holland was 14 years old when his father died. That was also when he got his first guitar and learned how to play.Holland, an indifferent, undisciplined and somewhat unruly teen at that time, believes this guitar and his newfound love for music kept him grounded… → Read More
OPINION: Free swim lessons prevent child drownings
On a hot sunny afternoon on Aug.18, a 3-year-old boy got away from his caregiver near the playgrounds on the west side of the city’s Daffin Park. → Read More
OPINION: Keeping the faith at Savannah’s Asbury Memorial Church
My wife, Suzana, has always been proud of the fact that her paternal grandfather, Rev. Clinton Ward, gave the dedication speech when the 9-foot-tall bronze statue of John Wesley was unveiled in Savannah’s Reynolds Square in 1969.This distinctive statue shows Wesley, the founder of Methodism, at age 33 and dressed in clerical robes and holding an open Bible.These lofty words attributed to Welsey… → Read More
OPINION: In wake of drowning tragedies, make swimming lessons mandatory
The older I get, fewer things shock me – except for the number of people here on the Georgia coach who do not know how to swim.Two weeks ago, a 3-year-old boy drowned in the shallow, murky water of Savannah’s Daffin Park lake. Police investigators said there was nothing "suspicious" about the death. Authorities also reported that an adult male apparently saw the small child in the pond a few… → Read More
OPINION: Ten rules for being a better granddad
I’ve been a new grandfather for one year and 31 days. But who’s counting. The newness hasn’t worn off and I’m still fumbling round → Read More
OPINION, Tommy Barton: Adler was a true friend of Savannah and Massie School
The Massie School at 207 East Gordon Street off Calhoun Square ceased being a public school in 1974 because it was deemed too small to support a viable → Read More
Tommy Barton: Mayor guilty of selective sports enforcement with virus
This column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Savannah Morning News. We welcome a diversity of opinions.To → Read More
Tommy Barton column: Hard choices mark 2020 St. Patrick’s Day
The canceling of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Savannah is disappointing on many levels – to Irish families who look → Read More
Tommy Barton column: Girls on the Run program strides forward with $10,000 gift
It’s normal for talented Savannah harpist Kristin King to impress fans and make new ones every time she performs. But that wasn’t fan mail → Read More
Tommy Barton column: Save Oglethorpe Lane, don’t sell city’s heritage
The current aroma oozing out from under the gold dome at City Hall is not the smell of City Manager Rob Hernandez’s proposed fire fee being burned → Read More
Tom Barton: A bittersweet farewell and a thank you from a long-time editor
When I walked into the Savannah News-Press building at 111 W. Bay St. for the first time on June 23, 1978, as a freshly minted graduate of the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia, my goal was to last at least two weeks on the job so I could collect a full paycheck and have enough to put down for a deposit on a downtown apartment — $175 a month for a one-bedroom… → Read More
Tom Barton: Give the gift of reading for Christmas
I recently bumped into a friend who was out shopping for Christmas gifts downtown. → Read More
Tom Barton: ‘Day of infamy’ triggered burst in patriotism
The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that killed more than 2,400 servicemen and civilians 76 years ago today wasn’t just a day that will live in infamy, as then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared. → Read More
Tom Barton: William Adamcak, the passing of a war hero
William Adamcak spent the last days of his long life fittingly, as a true American war hero should — lovingly surrounded by the women in his life. All five of them — his wife, and their four daughters. → Read More
Tom Barton: Former Savannah mayor gets overdue recognition
Former Savannah Mayor Malcolm Maclean was a rarity — a white Southern politician who chose to lead from the front during the tumultuous and violent struggle for civil rights during the 1960s. → Read More
Tom Barton: Fear and loathing in the land of Confucius
Editor’s Note: Editorial Page Editor Tom Barton recently returned from Taiwan, where he traveled on a fellowship with the East-West Center and its partner, Shih Hsin University. → Read More
Barton: Epic love that survived World War II, saved from the dumpster
Their epic love story survived jump school, World War II, the armies of the Third Reich, and the U.S. military censors who seemed to read every letter that went across the Atlantic between France and Georgia. → Read More
Tom Barton: 165th Airlift Wing does Georgia proud in missions to Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — It wasn’t the last airplane out of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan in hurricane-lashed Puerto Rico on Thursday afternoon. → Read More
Tom Barton: Keeping the faith, and picking up car keys
Students go off to college to get advanced degrees in the three Rs. In the process, many of them are tested in the fourth R — religion. → Read More
Barton: Keeping the faith, and picking up car keys
Students go off to college to get advanced degrees in the three Rs. In the process, many of them are tested in the fourth R — religion. → Read More