Today's Opinions

After the recent football state championship game I found myself strongly compelled to write my first ever letter to the editor.
Putting my thoughts to pen is a struggle for me. However, I must express my deep and sincere appreciation to the coaching staff and the team of Galax football.
As a proud parent of two sons on the team, Woody and Joseph, I greatly appreciate the attitude of Coach Dixon and his staff to approach the game of football as a means to an end and not an end in itself.

Betty Perkins of Fries wrote this poem several years ago, when both her sons and her son-in-law were law enforcement officers. She says she has "spent many Christmas Eves wondering if they were alright."
When Perkins lived in North Carolina, The Wilmington (N.C.) Star News published this poem on Christmas Eve for several years. This year, she is sharing it with The Gazette.

Like many older people, I have seen much of the world, witnessed history in the making, observed many dramatic changes and events — some good, some bad, and many that are still undecided.
To my fellow seniors I point out that we can sit around and reminisce about “the good old days” and the things we used to do, see, hear, feel, and so forth, but we are, in a sense, walking libraries in possession of a tidy sum of unwritten history.
We have in our memories things that will be lost upon our passing.