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Today's Opinions

  • Kingston city manager a good example for all

    The headline of your recent editorial, “A Good City Manager Well Worth the Money” spurred me to express my gratitude and commendations to Kingston’s City Manager Jim Pinkerton and his staff.
    Without doubt Kingston is the best-run city in Roane County, and I attribute this to the staff, department heads and employees who serve under Jim’s steady leadership.
    When first elected to city council, a few people bent my ear about Jim —  that he needed to go.

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  • WBUD ‘policy’ ridiculous and wrong, man says

    I am a resident of Roane County and a Watts Bar Utility District customer.
    Recently, I encountered problems with a WBUD policy.
    Being a senior citizen, I sometimes have a problem understanding how the concept of right and wrong is so hard for some people to get.
    Back in the day, when one party damaged another party’s property, the party causing the damage was expected to make restitution.
    Evidently that has changed.

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  • Counterprotests best way to deal with Westboro ilk

    By GENE POLICINSKI
    First Amendment Center
    Whatever your thoughts about the controversial Fred Phelps family and their Westboro Baptist Church — and for most Americans, those thoughts are negative — the group continues to find ways to grab headlines and public attention.
    In the wake of the death June 20 of Ryan Dunn, a star of MTV’s “Jackass” programs, in a traffic accident, Westboro promised to appear yesterday in Dunn’s hometown, West Chester, Pa., at public memorial service.

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  • LOOSELEAF LAURATE: Tomatoes help keep the memories alive

    If my mother were to have a Facebook page, I believe she’d have to check the “It’s complicated” response on relationships.

    Dad, her lifelong mate, died nearly five years ago, and Mom has made it clear that she’s not seeking another man in her life.

    But it is funny, even in a bittersweet sort of way, how she continues some of the rivalries with him, even when he is gone.

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  • A View from Lick Skillet by Gerald Largen: It’s time to rein in UT’s Cheek and trustees

    Faithful readers know by now that the old curmudgeon loves reading, especially older books.
    The other day we picked up a volume that had resided peacefully on our shelf for close to a quarter of a century, the exact time it is hard to state with certainty.
    It was published in 1972, but we did not acquire it for some little time, possibly 10 to 15 years. We do this quite often, buying a book that looks interesting, which we for some reason cannot read just at the time of purchase, but which we think we may at some time get around to reading.

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  • WBUD’s policy causes one man to cry foul

    I am a resident of Roane County and a Watts Bar Utility District customer. Recently I have encountered problems with a WBUD policy.
    Being a “senior citizen,” I sometimes have a problem understanding how the concept of right and wrong is so hard for some people to get. Back in the day, when one party damaged another party’s property, the party causing the damage was expected to make restitution. Evidently that has changed.

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  • Disrespectful acts to late husband are shameful

    This letter is intended for the person or persons responsible for the June 6 incidents when you took used motor oil and washed my late husband’s chalkboard, and for spraying the little vegetable garden with weed killer.
    You disrespected my late husband’s property with such childish acts.
    The chalkboard has been cleaned and the quotes will continue. Of course the vegetable garden is destroyed.
    Shame on whoever put youngsters up to such a disrespectable act.
    Connie Kirkland
    Rockwood
     

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  • Judge’s ruling on copyright not so creative

    By KEN PAULSON
    First Amendment Center
    A federal judge in Nevada is dissing editorial writers.
    In a lawsuit filed by Righthaven, a Las Vegas company that specializes in suing alleged copyright infringers on the web, Judge Philip Pro ruled that a 19-paragraph editorial from the Las Vegas Review Journal could be freely reposted in its entirety because the writing was not significantly creative.

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