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Today's Opinions

  • GUEST OPINION: Public needs to see Gitmo proceedings

    By GENE POLICINSKI
    First Amendment Center
    As things now stand, Americans will not be able to see TV coverage of upcoming 9/11-related trials from Guantanamo Bay.

    The situation is regrettable — but easily remedied.

    A military judge this week said he had no authority to override an earlier decision by the Department of Defense that denied requests by the defense attorneys for the accused and by and news-related groups to televise the trials.

    Click here to read more...
  • A VIEW from LICK SKILLET: Lick Skillet: Why we have a Second Amendment

    Well, gentle reader, we return to the barricades after our short hiatus. We trust that you and yours had pleasant holidays.

    As this is written, we are right in the middle of the “fiscal cliff,” so we will await some more definitive outcome of this bizarre exercise in statecraft before writing further about it, but there are a couple of things that we wish to go into.

    First is the subject of guns, and the Newtown massacre.

    Click here to read more...
  • Lack of lights at The Wall deepens pain over war

    Editor’s note: This letter was originally addressed to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Duncan.

    I don’t know if either of you were in the Vietnam War, but I want to tell you about a visit that Jim Henry and I had at the Vietnam War Memorial in November.

    Years ago we went to the memorial, and I can still see Jim with his head against “The Wall” and crying.

    A few days ago, we revisited the wall listing the names of dead soldiers, and Jim was deeply moved that he had been spared when around 60,000 soldiers were not.

    Click here to read more...
  • GUEST OPINION: Misfire over publishing gun-holders

    By KEN PAULSON
    President, First Amendment Center
    When The Journal News, a suburban New York newspaper, published the names of gun-permit holders late last month, the backlash was immediate.

    Click here to read more...
  • Volunteer officers could make schools more safe

    When I was young things were a lot more different.
    If you lived less than two miles from your school, you couldn’t ride the bus, you had to walk.
    There were crossing guards at every intersection within a few blocks of our school. Most of were retired policemen who worked part time, protecting the children who had to walk to school.
    I was one of those unfortunate children who happened to live 1.9 miles from Lime Street Elementary School.

    Click here to read more...
  • More guns carried means attacks less likely

    Amid Connecticut shootings’ chaos, heroic adults died to save children. 
    The nation needs to wake up, realize that once more we’ve been sneak-attacked, and seize the attitude and material to prevent such future disasters.
    Attitude: Mass killers appear anywhere and stop when killed themselves.
    Material: Firearms drawn and triggered with quickness and accuracy practice develops.

    Click here to read more...
  • Resolutions, sure, but why be so formal?

    Jan. 1 looms.
    Many of us are stuffed full from Christmas treats and are already planning how to shed some extra weight.
    We’re also promising ourselves we’ll finally clean out the basement, get more organized, get out of debt and paint that hall — the one with six doorway frames that will all need special attention.
    In other words, we have started on our New Year’s resolutions.
    Just talking about New Year’s resolutions makes some of us weary.

    Click here to read more...
  • We’re really looking for more bang for tax dollars

    By LEE HAMILTON
    We are locked in a seemingly permanent debate over the proper size and scope of government. It was a centerpiece of the recent presidential campaign.
    It features heavily in the ongoing maneuvering over the “fiscal cliff” and the upcoming vote on raising the debt ceiling.
    And it surfaces regularly in the speeches and comments of politicians and opinion leaders who either take the government to task for growing too large or argue that it needs to play an even more active role than it does now.

    Click here to read more...

Copyright © 2013

The Roane County News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Roane County and Kingston, Tennessee, and the surrounding area.