How I See the World.

I am a Baby Boomer. For you young folks in the audience, that means I am old. Our generation currently makes up about 22% of the population with around 10,000 of us a day turning 65. That means we are getting really old. By 2030, all of us will be at least 65.

I retired from teaching in 2021. I was blessed to spend my 36 year career in my hometown. My father taught there for 38 years and my mother 41. We loved it. I have three adult children but only one of them chose to go into education as a career. This last year, 20 of my fellow teachers, out of a staff of around 50 at the high school, also either retired or went somewhere else. 

I share this to highlight that a crisis is looming in our state as the forewarned teacher shortage evolves to full bloom. It is well documented that in the next 4-5 years, there will be more teachers retiring and leaving the field than we currently have people enrolled in teacher education programs in Arkansas. We are also told that 4% of our teachers don’t currently hold a state teaching license compared...

Tags: arkansas, education, kevin shinn, teachers

I had a parent message me to say that her daughters had told her that if there was ever a shooting in our school like there was in Florida, they hoped that they would be near me because they knew I would do everything I could to protect them. At first, I had a great sense of pride and honor that they trusted me so much. Then, reality set in and I had a wave of sadness wash over me that our kids and grandkids were having to even think about such things. I don't want my granddaughters to worry a moment about some nut with a gun coming into their school. Unfortunately, this is the reality of our nation today. It must change.

I am a gun owner. I am not a hunter but I own weapons for two reasons: protection and just because I like shooting them. I consider my weapons as tools. Nothing more and nothing less.

When it comes to the issue of gun violence, as with many issues in our country, the loudest voices are from the looney right-wing gun owners who believe any restrictions on who can own weapons or how they can be...

Tags: gun violence, kevin c shinn

Vaping is promoted as a way to quit smoking but because of its unique design and delivery system it has spawned a new market for entertainment and social purposes. 

Vaping is a health hazard for the known ingredients included in its mix but is increasingly dangerous due to the illegal and unknown materials being used for reasons ranging from getting high to seeing how big a vape cloud one can make to simply wanting different colors of vape clouds.

However, it is not the mix content that is making it so difficult to stop the spread of vaping, it is the developing culture around it that is pushing its growth. 

A couple of years ago, I had a young man going through the probationary period on our fire department with a "Vape for Life" tattoo on his upper arm. As one might imagine, I found the sentiment behind the ink rather odd and questioned the motivation behind such a permanent display of devotion toward the product. His answers about a Vape Brotherhood sent me to Google where I found my own answers to this strange phenomenon. 

For those in society on the fringe of normal social interaction, there has always...

Tags: kevin c shinn, vaping

This is the second rescue of the day for our department.

Following numerous Swift Water calls during flash flooding around Madison County, the Huntsville Fire Department Swift Water Rescue was dispatched to the report of people trapped by rising water with more rain coming. On scene, the team was able to remove three people and their canine from harm's way.

Huntsville firefighters who were part of the operation: Chief Kevin Shinn, Captain Ian Burnett, Captain Corey Burnett, Lieutenant Kristyn Shinn Clark, firefighters Darren Clark, Dean Holowatsch, Lucas Myer, Kevin Patrick and Joseph Bontrager.

We would like thank the valuable contributions of the Forum-Alabam Fire Department, Madison County Sheriff's Office, Madison County EMS and members of the Carroll County Rescue Team.

Tags: huntsville arkansas, huntsville fire department, kevin c shinn

The Huntsville Fire Department Swift Water Rescue Team was paged to an incident Wednesday morning with a mother and small child trapped in their vehicle due to rising flood waters.

HFD personnel made their way to the vehicle and extracted them in the rescue boat.

HFD personnel were: Chief Kevin Shinn, Captain Ian Burnett, Captain Corey Podoll, Lieutenant Kristyn Shinn Clark, firefighters Darren Clark, Justin Tucker, Dean Holowatsch, Lee Grady, Kevin Patrick and Joseph Bontrager.

1st Rescue of the day

Tags: huntsville arkansas, huntsville fire department, kevin c shinn

It is the kind of rhetoric that is being spewed by Donald Trump and the extreme right-wing in this nation that is more dangerous to the United States than anything ISIS or any other terrorist group can do to us. Trump's simplistic yet harmful call to ban members of an entire religion plays right into the goals of our enemies and makes the nation less safe not more so.

Many are pointing to President Carter’s ban on Iranians traveling into the United States during the Iranian Hostage Crisis as a defense for Trumps bigotry. There is a significant difference between placing pressure on a nation for its policies and holding a billion people responsible for the actions of thousands. Jimmy Carter is an excellent man and took actions during the Hostage Crisis designed to pressure a government. Ultimately it failed but it was directed at a specific target not an entire religion.

Trump and the extreme right-wing of this nation are playing to the most extreme fears of our people and in doing so are helping our enemies to achieve what they could never achieve against us on their own. And that is to get us to abandon out most...

Tags: donald trump, jimmy carter, kevin shinn, radicals, republicans, right-wing

There is lots of talk about how America compares to other countries on a global scale, especially how the US lags behind other developed nations in education quality. However, when it comes to addressing the issues of education worldwide, there is more than just the supposed mediocrity of the US public education system to consider.

The idiocy of right-wing presidential candidates is a threat to our great nation. When you have charlatans like Huckabee preaching against service in our military and traitors like Tom Cotton appealing to our enemies to not negotiate with our President and fanatics like Ted Cruz championing the use of armed rebellion to overturn election results, the Republican Party has become the home of every fool in the nation who would prefer living in a political system like Somalia"s instead of the one created by our Founding Fathers and fine-tuned over time into the greatest nation in history.

Tags: kevin shinn, mike huckabee, republicans, ted cruz, tom cotton

Tags: catherine grove, cults