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Today's Opinions

  • Letters to the Editor for 11/2/09-11/4/09

    Buy local, build economy

    I was pleased to see Patrick Butler's letter asking readers to "bring change and buy local," supporting our local business owners. I would like to emphasize another reason to do so: the multiplier effect.

    When you spend a dollar at a locally owned business, that dollar is likely to circulate several times in our community, multiplying its impact on the local economy, while a dollar spent at a large chain business will likely leave the area after that one transaction.

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  • Don't call it grassroots

    Letting people have their say in the appropriate venue is always a good thing.

    If thinking about a certain topic — say an electric utility's requested rate increase in recessionary times — creates a burning feeling in the pit of a citizen's stomach, it's that person's right to speak up.

    This especially applies if that regular joe needs to express those thoughts to government bureaucrats.

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  • Letters to the Editor for 11/9/09

    Easy solution for illegals

    I had said that illegals get a free ride on health care because they get free service from hospitals that insured patients pay for with hidden administrative charges on our bills.

    A Hotline caller asked if those illegals should be allowed to die in the parking lot by being refused service. They also asked for a solution.

    No, and that’s the most ridiculous question anyone could ask.

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  • All gave some, some gave all

    Well done good and faithful vet,

    You have served faithfully day by day,

    And honored our precious nation,

    That we proudly call the USA.

    You left your home and loved ones,

    And all your dreams and plans,

    To protect the freedoms we hold dear,

    At home and in foreign lands.

    With a heroes heart you went forth,

    To do all that you could do,

    As you offered your life to protect us all,

    Under our old red, white and blue.

    No glory did you seek for self,

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  • Letters to the Editor for 11/16/09

    GHS sportsmanship applauded

    This letter was addressed to Galax High School Principal Bill Sutherland and was copied to Galax school leaders.

    I am writing to share something that occurred after the Nov. 6 football game at Galax High School … because what happened is nothing I had ever experienced at any high school event.

    As I was leaving the field with three Narrows High School football assistant coaches, we walked up the steps through the lingering home crowd that had just watched a great performance from their Maroon Tide players.

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  • Expected to rise

    Everybody’s looking forward to the end of our Great Recession, but at least one bad thing will come along with the good — higher prices.

    Many construction projects have come in under budget around the country, leading consultants to point out the decreasing cost factors to localities with needed infrastructure projects.

    But the nation — with the stock market clawing its way back and federal stimulus funding causing many infrastructure projects to heat up — may soon see an end to construction discounts provided by the soft economy.

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  • Letters to the Editor for 10/19/09

    Bring Change, Buy Local

    To be certain, these are perilous economic times.

    As consumers, we still are frightened by high unemployment figures, a roller coaster stock market, bailouts of major corporations, and a general feeling that the worst may not yet be over.

    With worry comes hesitancy to spend and discretion about items we do purchase. We’ve become a nation of picky buyers and rightfully so.

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  • GUEST EDITORIAL: Celebrating our textile heritage

    During the coming days, communities across the South will celebrate Textile Heritage Week — this year exploring how our mill hill ancestors survived the Great Depression.

    Many references have lately been made to the Depression because it remains the nation’s yardstick for deprivation and mass insecurity.

    Chronicles usually begin with the October 1929 stock market crash. The South’s mill hills were not only far from that Wall Street epicenter, they were, in so many ways, a world apart. Isolation can be awful, but it can sometimes be an asset.

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