Philip Gailey
Will Georgia decide to raise a new flag over its future?
HOMER, Ga. -- On a holiday visit to my hometown, I drove past the school I attended in the late '50s and early '60s and let the years roll back in my mind. In the fall of 1966, when the clock finally ran out on segregated schools in the South, I was fresh out of the University of Georgia and working as an intern reporter in the Atlanta bureau of Newsweek magazine. Newsweek was planning a cover story on school desegregation in the South, and my editors thought I should go to Homer, a small town in the state's rural backwaters, to see how things went on the first day of school.

Bill Maxwell
See there, I told you so
RICHMOND, Va. -- At the end of each year, several syndicated columnists, with the felicity of Christmas vacation time on their hands, play a game of faux mea culpa. These big-time opinion makers drop (for one column only) their usual know-it-all smugness and acknowledge mistakes (factual, grammatical, stylistic) committed in their work during the current year.

Martin Dyckman
Speculating on the Florida governor for 2002
TALLAHASSEE -- To many Democrats (and not a few nervous Republicans) what happened Nov. 7 and afterward means they have a fighting chance to retake the Florida Governor's Mansion in 2002, especially if Attorney General Bob Butterworth, or Sen. Bob Graham, who is less likely, agrees to run.

Robyn E. Blumner
Ashcroft defending our rights is troubling
Former U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., must believe the Constitution is a work in progress. Why else would he have supported no fewer than seven amendments during his six years in the Senate, including a measure to make the Constitution easier to amend?

Editorials
A failed formula
The governor's commission on growth management wants to give cities and counties the freedom to make the kind of mistakes that created this mess in the first place.

Failing our mentally ill children
Most Americans probably assume that children with mental illness are more likely to get the help they need today than they were 20 years ago. After all, the stigma associated with mental illness is less pronounced now than in years past, and more insurers, public and private, are covering treatment. But the assumption would be wrong. When it comes to mental-health services for the nation's children, the unmet need remains as high now as it was two decades ago.

Letters
State worker protections are needed
Re: State employment guarantees must end, by Al Hoffman, Jan. 4.

Books
The sacrifice in becoming American
In the foreword of The Best American Short Stories of the Century, John Updike praised American literature's ability to capture the scope of the immigrant experience. Sometimes, however, the best literature about America comes from beyond its shores.

Cyberia
AOL on AOL: America Online likes to boast that it's one of the easiest online services for people to learn. But, for the stragglers out there, help isn't too hard to find. Wired in a Week, How AOL Can Improve Your Life in 10 Minutes a Day (Warner Books, $6.99) by Regina Lewis, AOLs online adviser, gives a seven-day outline to happier surfing, from getting started on Day 1 to e-mail, instant messaging and chat on Day 2 to shopping and other online activities. The book is only 150 pages, so fast learners may not take a whole week. And, of course, it comes complete with AOL software on a CD-ROM disc.

Mysteries
HIGH HAND, a Martha Chainey Mystery, by Gary Phillips (Kensington Publishing, $22). Ex-showgirl Chainey (don't call her Martha) is a freelance courier for the nouveau Mafia in Las Vegas. These aren't hoods who run numbers and babes in sharp-lapeled suits and who think spaghetti Bolognese is haute cuisine. They are Ivy Leaguers in "legitimate" business whojust happen to have family connections. Hired to deliver $7-million (in cash, natch) by the owner of a swank casino, Chainey is ambushed by a rival gang who steal the loot. It's uninsured (again, natch) and if she doesn't get it back, her life's not worth a sucker bet. The 72 hours she's given to find the missing funds are a zany pastiche that take her from gay raves to the ritziest addresses in Marin County. Chainey's debut is an entertaining and illuminating look at today's mob.

Book talk
Author appearances:

A new life in Tampa
OPRAH CALLING:Felecia Wintons, owner of Books for Thought bookstore in Tampa, has been Oprah-anointed. She is featured in this month's O: The Oprah Magazine under the headline "Hello, This Is Your Life Calling: Stories of Transformation." She and seven other women tell their stories of how they "got the message," took a risk in their lives and ended up happy.