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Columnists

A Life Well-Lived: Shirley Padgett Lester (1947-2025)

Shirley Padgett Lester of Vinton went to her heavenly reward October 4. Below is the powerful eulogy her daughter Kelly Kiser wrote and calmly delivered at the memorial service...

BOB BROWN: How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden “Presidency”

Permit me to think out loud as an old-fashioned person who respects authority, history, and...

JOHNNY ROBINSON: The Gratitude Perch

On the old road up Mill Mountain, part of Roanoke’s fabulous greenway system, there’s a...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Sometimes President Trump Needs To Think Before He Speaks – Part II

Contrary to what President Trump believes, I think that Lakanwal was adequately vetted before September 2021,...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Sometimes President Trump Needs To Think Before He Speaks – Part I

I read an article in the New York Post written by Ryan King on November 27 entitled...

BARBARA LEACH: COVID-19 Lessons from the Garden

These times are unlike anything in recent history and have challenged us to reevaluate and reinvent ourselves.  Those of us who are already gardeners...

CONGRESSMAN MORGAN GRIFFITH: Congress Amid the Coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak has upended many of the ways we go about our lives. As a Member of Congress, I believe it must not...

STUART REVERCOMB: Paving The Road To A Different Kind of Hell

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to...

MIKE KEELER: Pandemic Special – A Story of Dark Times and Enlightenment

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born just outside Madrid in 1547 - about a half century after the discovery of the New World -...

LUCKY GARVIN: One Wintry Morning [from some years back]

Beyond doubt this has been a strange, an unpredictable season. ‘Tis the first day of Spring, and we’ve three inches of snow on the...

H. BRUCE RINKER: At First, I Tried to Like Him

At first, I tried to like Donald John Trump, a game show host who ended each episode with a grotty acridity: “You’re fired!” After all,...