This is an opinion column.

Fear isn’t free; neither is foolishness. Each can be expensive.

Together? Get out your calculator.

Fear may cost you an opportunity. It may cost you peace. It may cost you joy.

Foolishness? Man, get out the calculator. Or follow the headlines coming out of Washington. D.C., out of the White House, out of Congress.

Pair them and they may break the bank. And make you look like a fool. Or worse.

Earlier this week, Wayne Reid, executive director of Alabama Public Television, calmly and efficiently laid out the cost of fear and foolishness. Laid out — like me scrutinizing a restaurant bill — just how much it would cost Alabamians if the Alabama Educational Television Commission capitulated to the fear and foolishness of a few.

To the fear and foolishness of a

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