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Columnists

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Bring Back The War Department

President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a prescient and heartfelt speech in Chautauqua, New York, on August 14, 1936, about the tragedy and horrors of war.  Reflecting upon his own experience as...

FRED FIRST: Changing of the Guard

The theme for the Lenoir Words Writers Group this month is AUTUMN. And since I...

BOB BROWN: The Truth About Lying

Everyone lies! That’s the truth. Most people are relatively honest most of the time. The average...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Hurricane Erin Is Our Future – Part II

Unfortunately, the U.S. is not the only country experiencing climate change. It is a global...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Hurricane Erin Is Our Future – Part I

I read a prescient and depressing article in the Associated Press written by Danica Coto on August 16,...

BOB BROWN: A Virtuous Life

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) described virtue as the habit of choosing the mean between two extremes: excess and deficiency. For example, courage is the habit...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Putin Has Turned Trump Into A Chump

Russia fired a massive 367 drones and missiles on thirty Ukrainian cities and villages after sundown on May 24. It was the worst aerial onslaught on...

FRED FIRST: Gaggy Veggies I Have Loathed

I figured I might as well get another use out of the short personal essay I read recently at out little writers’ gathering here....

BOB BROWN: The Human Spirit

The human spirit is that which leaves the body at the moment of death. In this sense, the spirit is life itself. It is beyond...

DAWN CUSTALOW: Virginia Tech Graduation – One for “The Books” and Service

Virginia Tech held its 150th yearly graduation with commencement on the field at Lane Stadium for all 6000 graduates on Friday, May 16. The...

SCOT BELLAVIA: That Awkward Moment

In the true crime book The Onion Field, Joseph Wambaugh describes a moment between two characters: “Sometimes the boy wished they could sit and...