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Columnists

BOB BROWN: Journey to the Promised Land of Health

Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr., also known by his initials RFK Jr., is the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is a member of the Kennedy family, a...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Iran Is Playing Trump Like A Chump

Since Ayatollah Khomeini seized power on February 11, 1979, after the exile of the Shah of Iran the...

FRED FIRST: Lonesome Highway: Hurry Up and Wait

If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there? We...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: The CBS Evening News Made Me Cry A River Of Tears

I was watching the CBS Evening News, co-hosted by John Dickerson and Maurice Dubois on April 17,...

DAWN CUSTALOW: American Travelers – A Cautionary Tale

My cultural underpinnings were first rooted in my Indian reservation in Virginia, yet my world...

FRED FIRST: Lonesome Highway: First Steps

Sunday 6 Apr 2025 2:18 a.m. What I want to write about here over the coming months will be harder than anything else I have...

BOB BROWN: The Spiritual Mind

It is challenging but informative and even encouraging to discuss what some have called the “vague term of spirituality.” William James (1842-1910), anAmerican philosopher...

FRED FIRST: Sapsucker Economics

This longer-than-usual piece was bound for “book three” that Covid extinguished. The working title was going to be “One Place Understood” with a dozen...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Tesla Terrorists Should Do Hard Time In Prison

There are presently only five Tesla dealerships in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The closest one to Roanoke is located in Richmond, which is 189...

DAWN CUSTALOW: Language Learning in an Expat’s World

Ex – “out of”; patria – “country.” Expat – I didn’t even know this expression until I had left my native land of Virginia,...

BOB BROWN: Good Teachers

My Mother and Dad were Good Teachers My mother (1898-1971) had six children. I’m the youngest. She was 14 when she married my father (1892-1985);...