Article was like those found in tabloids
To the Editor: It was shocking to read the article entitled “Crossing the Line” published June 1 in The Smoky…
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Minick’s reviews are a great part of paper
To the Editor: Jeff Minick has always provided informative and insightful book reviews. His review of Till We Have Faces…
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Of mice, Ming and my seed stash
When planting season is upon us, gardeners and farmers of all stripes are making plans and counting seeds. As long-time…
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Rooster 1, Farmer 1 – a first-round draw
There are two puncture wounds decorating my left leg, courtesy of a rooster who has taken an inexplicable but pronounced…
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Really, we just have to get out more often
(Atlanta, GA) — We don’t get out much. Unless “getting out” means running out to Taco Bell because the fish…
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Appreciating good stories, civic engagement
A week before this week’s dedication of the new Jackson County Library complex, this newspaper’s 12th birthday passed almost unnoticed…
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Protect wilderness before legislation makes it too late
When Congress passed the Wilderness Act back in 1964, it immediately became one of the most important pieces of conservation…
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Education cuts will harm student, schools
To the Editor: Republicans are cutting off education from beginning to end in North Carolina. The new cuts will take…
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Profit motive should not be driving education
To the Editor: It appears that the radical Republicans in control of the N.C. legislature are starving funding for public…
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Radical Senate budget crippling NC’s future
To the Editor: The fact that Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, refers to the radical budget being proposed down in Raleigh…
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Junaluska garden is indeed a gem
To the Editor: This letter is further comment on Quintin Ellison’s column about the Corneille Bryan Native Garden at Lake…
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Commissioner right to question SCC road
To the Editor: Jackson County Commissioner Jack Debnam’s recent comments on the proposed SCC spur road are valid and show…
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Just where are all the promised jobs?
To the Editor: Republican Sens. Ralph Hise, R-Spruce Pine, and Jim Davis, R-Franklin, promised “jobs, jobs, jobs” and “better times”…
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Life lessons learned in the barnyard
Goats view a gate left open as a passageway to excitement. And it is exciting, too, for the goat keeper,…
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Six pints of Guinness and a glass of milk
What do Barack Obama and my son have in common? They both visited Ireland in May. Obama, though, was proud…
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The rise and the fall of outdoor recreation
Maybe it’s the fear of snakes, mountain lions, or Bigfoot. Or the perceived boredom of time spent unplugged. Perhaps it’s…
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A thank you to our elected officials
To the Editor: I’d like to thank the state House of Representatives for putting rich white kids first in North…
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As engaged citizens, we must vote priorities
To the Editor: Do you think more of your car than you do of your children? If something is wrong…
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Transportation plan won’t help economy
To The Editor: I attended the recent public hearing on the Comprehensive Transportation Plan and came away confused. First, according…
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Bryan Garden is a true treasure for the region
To the Editor: I’d like to thank Quintin Ellison and The Smoky Mountain News for Ms. Ellison’s excellent article about…
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Road is in best interest of SCC and students
To the Editor: Having served for more than a decade as president of Southwestern Community College, I was dismayed by…
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Taking the sting from a wasp, and finding peace
Last night, lying in bed on the screened porch reading before darkness fell, I looked up from my book and…
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SCC road gets mired in questions about motives
A planned new access road that will provide an exit and entrance into Southwestern Community College in Webster should not…
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Don’t rush by this little Lake Junaluska treasure
I traveled over the Balsams this past weekend from Sylva to Lake Junaluska for a native plant sale, and I’m…
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Leadership Institute can solve problems
To the Editor: The Natural Resources Leadership Institute is a multi-faceted instructional and community service program of North Carolina Cooperative…
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House budget proposal goes down wrong path
To the Editor: The House in Raleigh recently passed a budget with deep spending cuts. According to Forbes.com, House Speaker…
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US policy on killing is confusing
With its unending contradictions, life is at best confusing and at worst inexplicable. The U.S. is in the minority of…
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Common sense loses to ideology in House budget proposal
North Carolina is facing a budget crisis. I get that. What I don’t get is the proposed slashing of so…
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TDA picks bad time to open visitor center
To the Editor: Regarding the monument to the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, these two headlines are just too much…
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Waste in education lies with many bureaucrats
To the editor: Oh yeah, then there are the children. How many bureaucrats does it take to educate a child?…
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Don’t jump on the nuclear bandwagon
To the editor: With the recent rapid rise in gas prices, the hype about nuclear as an alternative source of…
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Winnowing through the homesteading sites for the cream of the crop
Some years ago, confined to an office through work obligations but dreaming of farming, I spent more time than I…
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Classrooms, like the rest of us, forced to make do
For both teachers in the classroom and local administrators, this is shaping up to be the most challenging budget year…
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Revaluation now was just a bad idea
To the Editor: Now that you have received the re-evaluations of your Haywood County property, are you pleased county commissioners…
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Weedeaters teach lesson in overkill
Just a few minutes into weedeating and I feel lobotomized. Perhaps the heady roar of the little engine that can…
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Make Haywood whole in redistricting
To the Editor: On Saturday, April 30, the Republican Party of Haywood County submitted a resolution to the Redistricting Committee…
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Where are the GOP-promised jobs?
To the Editor: Where are the real jobs? During the 2010 election season, an organization named Real Jobs NC targeted…
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Is Great Smoky Mountain Railroad serious?
To the Editor: At first the shakedown to the county was over $817,000 in grants and loans. Then, seeing that…
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Downtown Sylva deserves the support of the town board
We’ve written before about how important the downtown business districts in our mountain towns are to their communities, but it…
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If you need bees shaken out of a tree, here’s your man
The next time you are standing about the yard scratching your head in confusion about which tree climber in Jackson…
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Government-education complex is self-serving
To the Editor: What if you knew that your state senator or state representative knew there were proven ways to…
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Those who protect children deserve thanks
To the Editor: For almost 20 years I have found myself involved in the concern of child abuse either professionally…
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Our representatives forget who is boss
To the Editor: Here we go again. Our two state representatives, both of whom are Democrats, fail to see the…
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With care, many hemlocks can survive
To the Editor: With all due respect to Mr. Ellison — who wrote in his “Back Then” column a few…
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I know the game is rigged, but I’m still all in
The crane games are beautiful beasts, shiny and brightly lit, with a glass belly full of forlorn and lonely stuffed…
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Macon County needs to clean up litter
To the Editor: Circumstances have prevented the organization of the annual county-wide litter pick-up/recycling event to celebrate Earth Day here…
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GOP Medicare plan is totally off-base
To the Editor: The Republican design on Medicare comes straight from that dubious chapter of the Vietnam War in which…
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Will McCoy Bridge become a memory?
Once more the Department of Transpor-tation will come to Macon County, in the name of listening to community input, when…
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Accepting federal rail money a bad idea
To the Editor: In the April 6-12 issue of The Smoky Mountain News, Carole Larivee wrote a letter to the…
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Recession makes McCoy Bridge rehab an even better idea
Governments at all levels and all across the nation are broke. At every county courthouse and state house, money taken…
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