Columns

It is so inspiring to watch the people rush to rescue the flood victims in Houston; yet so painfully disturbing to see them come out to the boats and trucks with only what was on their backs or some with small white garbage bags of items and some carrying their pets.

The fear and disbelief on the faces of the young and the old was so heartbreaking to me. They were obviously disoriented.

Who wouldn’t be? They were leaving everything they held dear, and some were watching their homes and vehicles being submerged as they left.

Chuck Fleischmann says constituents won’t find his name on lists of U.S. Congressional members scheduling town hall meetings.

The Ooltewah Republican contends he’s not trying to duck contentious sessions that his fellow GOP lawmakers have faced in the months after a controversial Donald Trump rose to the presidency.

Nor, he said, is he avoiding discussions of hot-button topics like health-care reform, possible government shutdowns, immigration or gun control.

On Aug. 26, 1920 — 97 years ago — women’s right-to-vote became law after Tennessee’s pivotal ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Although it is not well known, Aug. 26 of each year since 1971 has been proclaimed Women’s Equality Day as a day of commemoration by U.S. presidents to celebrate the anniversary of women winning the right to vote and to serve as a “symbol of the continued fight for equal rights.”

By Gene Policinski

Let them march in Charlottesville. Let them speak.

Hate-propagating neo-Nazis and bottom-dwelling white supremacists — the dregs of our open society — have and should have First Amendment rights to speak and march in public.

We need to see them for what they are: a disappointing collection of the disaffected; some parading around in silly costumes, often ignorant of the real meaning and history of the symbols they display, carrying torches meant as much to intimidate as to illuminate.