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Letters

  • Ice rescue had heavenly hand; thanks for sharing

     I just wanted to say a big thank you to the Roane County News and  Damon Lawrence for doing such an amazing article on the story about the boys who had  fallen through the ice.

    Thank you for telling it as Neil Crass told it.  So many interviewed him, but chose to cut out the parts where he gave the glory to God, but Lawrence didn’t.  

    Thank you for allowing Crass to share his faith in  the media, because we all know that if God had not been in the midst of all this, those boys would not have made it.

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  • Laws are not answer to curtail drug abusers

    Pain pill adiction is epidemic. That’s what some leaders in Harriman want the rest of us to believe.  

    And J.D. Sampson thinks he has the answer. Obviously the well-meaning councilman has better ideas than the AMA, FDA, DoJ and countless other three-letter acronyms that proliferate our pyramid of government. He had heard of a pill that could not be ground up — maybe on the Internet — therefore, it must be true.

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  • Family wrongly cuffed, roughed up by police

     

    Recently, you published an article about the good job police did apprehending the robbers of Rocky Top Market No. 37 on Bluff Road on Sept. 27, 2013.

    You forgot to mention the family that was stopped and harassed on their way home from a football game because they were driving a car of the same color as that used by the robbers.

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  • Legislators should approve Haslam’s education program

    Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposal to establish a program he called “Tennessee Promise” gives hope for higher education to many high school graduates who might not otherwise have the means to enter college or technical school.

    The governor plans to use monies from the state lottery reserve fund to pay for this program.

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  • Studying robins’ arrival for clues to changing weather

    On Jan. 19, 2013, I saw a group of four or five robins in the yard. I had never observed robins in January.

    I wondered if I would see them this year, then on Jan. 12 I looked out the window and saw a robin about 20 feet from the house.

    He was hunting for food, as robins do, and was there for 20 minutes.

    About 12:30, he was there again. I looked for others, but did not see any.

    Last year on Jan. 27, one daffodil blossom was opening. I am watching to see when it will be this year.

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  • Shooter’s cruelty lamented by man who rescues strays

    I live in the Walnut Hills subdivision in Harriman.

    I have rescued and cared for many starving cats. I have helped neighbors get their cats shots and with spaying and neutering to help control the pet population.

    Around Jan. 20, someone in my neighborhood shot a female black cat with a pellet gun. Before she was struck, I had taken her into the vet to get her rabies shots and other vaccinations. I would let her come and go in my basement since she was a feral cat.

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  • Many tried to help Ray Knight, but were prevented

    I am writing in response to Tina Pemberton’s recent letter to the editor regarding the life and death of Ray Knight.

    Ms. Pemberton is certainly welcome to her opinion, and I will not tell her that she is wrong to have it.  

    On some level, I agree that society failed Mr. Knight.  

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  • Prayer is better when not linked to government

    This is regarding the story “Official wants prayer at games” that ran on Page 1 in the Jan. 22 edition of the Roane County News.

    Our Constitution prohibits government officials making rules that require religious practice.

    I very much believe in prayer.  

    It is a privilege God has given to us, and I believe that it is because of Jesus Christ that God hears and responds to prayer.

    Prayer is too special to be regarded as a kind of spiritual charm.

    I know that many of my fellow Americans do not believe as I do.

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  • Ray Knight, sadly, really was the Forgotten Veteran

    To write calmly about this is one of the most difficult things I have ever done.

    I remember Ray Knight, a handsome clean-cut, proud man, as a gentle spirit who graced the streets of Rockwood just with his presence.

    He would look at me with kind eyes, enough to make a lasting impression.

    He was a friend of my father’s — a fellow veteran.

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  • Harmon blames school funding mess on high property evaluations

    The county executive and commissioners want to know why the state considers Roane County the 14th richest county in the state and allegedly able to put more money in the schools.

    The answer is because the property in Roane County is evaluated so extraordinarily high.

    It is re-evaluated in five-year cycles, and for the last 25 years it has increased in value each time, although we have gone through recession and depression.

    Roane County is a rural county, but the state sees us as equal to the more urban Shelby, Davidson, Hamilton and Knox counties.

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