As we celebrate Women’s History month, we should pay homage to a resolute group of women who deserve recognition during Sunshine Week, another March event. Sunshine Week (March 16-22) calls attention to journalists who courageously brought to light information that governmental and other authorities prefer to keep hidden. Their notable ranks include women who have insisted for nearly two centuries on their right to cover the nation’s capital in spite of prejudice against their gender.

I found it pretty interesting that out of all the things Jim Bakker said when he came back to Fort Mill for his Restoration Celebration preaching series, none of it included an apology.

Over the last few weeks, as the deadline for the congressionally mandated budget cuts known as the “sequester” came and went, we got a taste of how difficult cutting federal spending actually turns out to be. The news is disconcerting: thousands fewer food safety inspections, some 70,000 fewer kids in early education programs, people with mental illness losing access to treatment, civilian employees of the military furloughed, ships and aircraft going without maintenance. It’s a long and dispiriting list.

The recent experience with the sequester in Washington, D.C., revealed in many ways what is wrong with Washington. But it also contains a silver lining I hope bodes well for the future.

Budget sequestration is as modest a step toward cutting Leviathan as one can imagine. Further progress will be difficult as long as people believe that slashing the size of government conflicts with reviving the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The state legislative session is moving along, and the Republican Caucus is making great progress on the bills important to you.

Crocodile tears are flowing again for low-income people. In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour. A debate is shaping up between those who support the proposal and those who favor keeping the wage where it is today. But there are good grounds – for the sake of the poor – to repeal the minimum wage altogether.

My generation likes to poke fun at the latest group of youngsters for growing up in the Participation Award Era. It’s a time when many points are giving for trying and losing as they are for winning.

Valentine’s Day was taken over long ago by cards and flowers, candy and dinners accompanied by gifts. It is now a cash-cow holiday for merchandisers. In addition, for many, it has become a day to honor women and girls in a fresh way. V-Day, introduced to the world by Eve Ensler in 1998, demands an end to violence against women and girls.

A few weeks ago, the survey firm Public Policy Polling made headlines when it released a poll comparing Congress’s standing to a variety of unloved things. Respondents did prefer Congress to the ebola virus, but otherwise the news was grim: Americans, the survey suggested, have a lower opinion of Congress than of head lice, Genghis Khan, used-car salesmen and root canals.