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Today's Opinions

  • ANOTHER VIEW BY LEE HAMILTON: Add civility and civic skills to new year goals

    This is a season of giving, good cheer, and forbearance.
    Too bad that, as the political season begins in earnest with the turn of the year, all those fine sentiments will become just a memory.
    So maybe, as we jot down our New Year’s resolutions, we could add this one: “Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.”
    And then let’s hope that our political leaders add it to their lists, too.

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  • Right to petition an oft-forgotten freedom element

    By TIFFANY VILLAGER
    First Amendment Center
    The “right of the people … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” the last freedom of the First Amendment, is the most forgotten freedom.
    Each year when the First Amendment Center commissions its State of the First Amendment survey, petition is the freedom few can name (only 6 percent in 2010).
    Why is the right of petition the forgotten freedom when it has deep historical roots?

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  • Christmas spirit alive and well in Rockwood, Roane

    As a pastor, I believe in publicly acknowledging acts of kindness. This especially must be done when those random acts of kindness come in a cluster.

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  • HUB billing ‘scam’ has writer hot under the collar

    A couple of months ago my local utility decided that I should pay my bill a few days earlier.
    My utility bill is the biggest bill I have, and I have struggled to pay it on time for 22 years.
    I do that because it offends me to pay the extra fee for being one day late.
    It only amounts to about 4 percent, but if you extrapolate that to the 30-day billing period it adds up to 120-percent interest. Isn’t that usury?

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  • Accounting of TVA’s ash spill money missing something

    Wow, wow, wow … great to read the recent article about TVA working with Roane County Executive Ron Woody to facilitate the correct accounting and distribution of TVA’s $43 million, an “example of the agency’s commitment to helping the area recover.”

    Here we are three short years later. Time sure flies.

    Let’s see, Ron, when you have the accountants set up the spreadsheets to track this money we’ll need to have accounts for:

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  • Obama is in agitator/dictator mode, and it’s not pretty

    This month, President Obama blamed capitalism, the foundation of this great country, for our poor economy. 
    He actually stated, “Capitalism doesn’t work, it has never worked.” If you really think about that one statement, you will begin to understand why this country is in the shape it is in today.

    Our president has, for three years, been conducting a full-blown assault on out capitalistic system.

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  • GUEST OPINION: Supreme court got it right 70 years ago

    By DAVID L. HUDSON JR.
    First Amendment Center
    In the United States we possess the right of political speech, including the right to criticize our political leaders and institutions. Seventy years ago — in December 1941 — the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that fundamental First Amendment principle in Bridges v. California.

    The case consolidated two separate cases involving different parties and circumstances — labor leader Harry Bridges in one, and the Los Angeles Times in the other.

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  • LOOSELEAF LAUREATE: Christmas glow comes from heart

    Ahh, Christmas.
    When I was a child, it was all about decorations and presents.
    Back then, in the days before Christmas, I sometimes would fall asleep on the couch beside the Christmas tree and its twinkling lights.
    There I would dream of all the gift possibilities.
    The truth is, I did not then nor have I ever gotten a Christmas present that knocked my socks off.
    My parents seemed at a loss when choosing gifts for me.

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