Thanks for showing Pless’ spiteful actions

To the Editor:

Thanks to Scott McLeod for pointing out the inappropriate control Mark Pless wants to have in local affairs.

GOP should not politicize debt ceiling

To the Editor:

During the Trump administration, bipartisan votes increased the debt ceiling three times, without conditions. Now that a Democrat is president, the Republicans do not want to do what is necessary for our country. After the debt ceiling is passed, both parties can then negotiate to pass the next budget. The tax cut passed during that administration caused a significant increase to our national debt, but it did benefit corporations as well as millionaires. 

Thanks for the gift of music

The nicest thing my mother ever did for me was buy me a stereo I didn’t deserve. I was a sort-of-sophomore at N.C. State living in an apartment off campus, and man, I was in the weeds.  

What this old house remembers

I live in an old farmhouse that is literally falling apart. Each spring, clouds of termites rise in the bathroom and the bedroom, coating the windows and covering the kitchen stove and the mirrors in the bathroom with tiny wings — wings that clog my vacuum cleaner for weeks.

Serendipity during the Lenten season

This year for Lent I took on a challenge instead of giving up something. I challenged myself to communicate more with friends and family who are not in my daily realm.

When they come for the librarians …

As Americans, we’re banning a lot of books these days, perhaps 1,650 in the past year, censoring others, and coming after librarians and teachers. In North Carolina, too, at least six attempts have occurred statewide and here in the mountains, one in Waynesville and another in Macon County.

‘Papertown’ through the eyes of a lifelong resident, historian

The whistle at Canton’s paper mill talked to me daily, sending the reassuring message that the mill was producing paper and employees were busy at their jobs. Security. Dependability. Reliable employment. Income. Pride.

Faith in our beloved Papertown

“Americana”: noun. Things associated with the culture and history of America.

“Grief”: noun. Deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement; deep sorrow.

“Nostalgia”: noun. Pleasure and sadness that is caused by remembering something from the past and wishing you could experience it again; derived from the Greek language, with “nostos” meaning homecoming and “algos” meaning ache.

The mill’s legacy looms large over Haywood

“The mill.” In Canton, as in hundreds of other towns across America, that was the only description needed to describe the factory that drove a small town’s economy, which generations depended on for their livelihood and some for their very identity. 

When your child blossoms, all is good in the world

The earliest expressions of our daughter’s deep and abiding affection for cute, fragile creatures were frightening and very nearly catastrophic. When she was 4 years old, she liked carrying our helpless cat, Bubby Tomas, around the house with her arms squeezing his torso tightly as if she were performing the Heimlich maneuver, his eyes wide with panic, pleading for rescue. 

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