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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,...

FRED FIRST: Where You’re From

In the very early years of writing, I was exposed to a poem called “Where I’m From” by Kentucky poet, George Ella Lyon; and...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: I No Longer Watch Baltimore Orioles’ Baseball Games

I no longer watch Baltimore Orioles’ baseball games. I now only watch innings, and if I do I watch maybe two or three. I prefer...

ANDY PITZER: “Look Mom! No iPhone!”

A very interesting visually recorded interview showed up on my feed the other night. In 1966, several British adolescents were interviewed about their vision...

FRED FIRST: There And Back Again

RECAP: I would be able to visit southwest Virginia again–home for almost 40 years, and the place I wrote about as if I would...

SCOT BELLAVIA: Am I Proud to Be an American?

How proud are you to be an American? I posted that question on Facebook a few years ago on the Fourth of July. I wasn’t...

BOB BROWN: “Portraits of the Human Person”

On the night of June 21, 2025, President Donald Trump said all seven B2 Bombers had safely returned from an unprecedented successful attack on...