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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,...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: A $1 Trillion Defense Budget Could Soon Bankrupt The U.S.

Rich Lowry, the editor of the National Review, wrote a column in the New York Post on April 11, entitled “Unless we spike military spending —...

FRED FIRST: The Bitter-sweet Memory of Smells

This bit of writing (which was also a radio essay on WVTF) comes from February 2007. And why, just now: I proposed “Smells and...

BOB BROWN: Anger, Forgiveness, and Atonement

Every poll from Gallup to Pew Research Group confirms that anger is engulfing America. We are angrier now than ever before, and what makes...

FRED FIRST: Small Wonder

This is all I’ve got: a few unremarkable images and some brief words about them. My recent field notes are scant thus far in...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Stop Bullying Denmark and Greenland

The last time that the U.S. seriously wanted to purchase Greenland from Denmark was in 1946, when President Harry Truman occupied the White House....

FRED FIRST: I Think That I Shall Never See

I signed up for a four-session poetry class through the OSHER Life Long Learning program at Missou. It starts this afternoon. So I’m trying...