Libertarians alive and well in Haywood County
To the Editor: I would like to respond to the article in the Oct. 30 issue of The Smoky Mountain…
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Affordable Care Act a blessing for my family
To the Editor: Today I visited healthcare.gov on the internet, and thanks to the Affordable Care Act, also known as…
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The horse ‘network’ warmly welcomes a stranger
I was trying to sell myself to my prospective new boss, Scott McLeod. I may not know anyone in the…
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WestCare employees excited about changes
To the Editor: Recently, we the employees of WestCare learned of an exciting decision that we are entering into a …
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Righting what’s wrong means making changes
We are now — officially — barreling into the holidays. Thanksgiving is already a fading, drowsy memory of turkey carcasses…
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Gov. McCrory is leading a turnaround in N.C.
To the Editor: For the past few months some of the people in Western North Carolina who write letters to…
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Who are the real job creators?
To the Editor: As I write this, the stock market is hovering around record highs. The Federal Reserve is keeping…
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Zoning advocates had predictable response
To the Editor: The response from zoning advocates — to my letter that was printed two weeks ago — was typical.…
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Freedom versus limited government
To the Editor: Limited government was ridiculed in a recent Smoky Mountain News article. Most Americans are strong believers in…
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Resilient living on a different planet
By Doug Wingeier • Columnist In early October we spent two weeks in our 150-year-old log cabin situated on a corner…
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Once we did it, dancing with the Mouse was well worth it all
We had talked about going to Disney World for so long that it had become an abstraction, so distant and…
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Civility begins with us
By Doug Wingeier • Columnist The cover story in the Oct. 30-Nov. 5 issue of The Smoky Mountain News described divisions in…
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Community help needed to save education
I’ve heard all the speeches and read all the legislative fantasies, and I’m still not satisfied with what I’ve heard…
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Enough of unbridled growth in Cullowhee
To the Editor: Cullowhee is the fastest growing community in Jackson County. After several years of effort and well-attended community…
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Planning in Cullowhee is a community effort
To the Editor: I attended last week’s open forum sponsored by the newly formed Cullowhee community planning group where local…
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Cullowhee planning will help community
To the Editor: As a retort to the concerned citizen who wrote a letter to the editor about the intent…
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Improving patient care is priority
The last couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of news about Haywood Regional Medical Center and its…
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Turkey drive helps many needy families
To the Editor: It’s that time of year again. The Maggie Valley Lodging Association is making plans for its 16th…
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Don’t let Cullowhee planning steal rights
To the Editor: Historically, the citizens of Jackson County have been overwhelmingly against zoning outside the city limits. After failing…
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We are headed down the wrong path
To the Editor: What has been happening in Washington is more than a catastrophe. Congress is allowing unshared economic growth…
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We should have seen ACA red flags
To the Editor: Red flag warnings that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, is a flawed bad law have…
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Meadows will be held accountable for vote
To the Editor: I read with great interest The Smoky Mountain News’ Oct. 23 Op Ed page and particularly the…
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Legislative actions suck life from public schools
By Dawn Gilchrist-Young • Guest Columnist If I could create for you an apt metaphor for public education, it would…
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Legislators pass judgement on the poorest among us
I am writing this in my classroom on a Friday evening in the hours of quiet before the kickoff for…
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The return of the sharecropper state
To the Editor: When Reconstruction came to the South after the Civil War, big plantations were worked by nearly destitute…
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Replace Tea Party with rational Republicans
To the Editor: With the government shutdown fiasco, we have learned what TEA in Tea Party really stands for “Totally…
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Learning to compromise would restore hope
To the Editor: I would like Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Cashiers, to realize that there was a time when opposing parties…
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Dependency is what leads to vulnerability
To the Editor: I once asked a gentleman why he placed so much reliance on government and he replied, “Because…
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Let’s learn to live with black bears
To the Editor: As a better solution to the proposed “killing” of more black bears being advocated by the North…
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Zeb sincere about helping Canton
To the Editor: Have you Canton folks taken a good look at the candidates for the four seats on the…
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Canton has had a lot of recent accomplishments
To the Editor: This is my first ever letter to the editor. I feel I must respond to comments made…
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Let’s send Rep. Meadows home
To the Editor: On Tuesday, Oct. 15, I delivered to Rep. Meadows’ office in Hendersonville more than 32,000 signatures of…
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Shutdown ignites strong feelings about public lands
By Sarah Kucharski • Columnist The government shutdown went into effect on the first night I arrived in Yosemite National…
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Give chance a piece, or something like that
By John Beckman • Guest Columnist There’s a lot to be said for making careful plans in our lives, crafting a…
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Constitutents angry with Rep. Meadows’ actions
To the Editor: This is an open letter to Rep Mark Meadows, R-Cashiers. Rep. Meadows, your actions have already denied…
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More Medicaid lies from McCrory
To the Editor: In my business, I deal with many people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder.…
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McCrory’s efforts paying off for state
To the Editor: In most of the Western Carolina newspapers’ letters to the editor section, we can count on one…
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Meadows, Maniscalco did not attend forum
To the Editor: I attended the Maggie Valley aldermen candidate forum and read with interest your coverage of this event.…
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Citizens should not tolerate shutdown
To the Editor: My name is David Monteith and I oppose the government shutdown. We Americans have given enough. When…
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GOP shouldn’t blame this on Democrats
To the Editor: The Republicans, including our own Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Cashiers, who have repeatedly stated dislike for the federal…
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Please explain what is so bad about Obamacare
To the Editor: I do so hope that Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Cashiers, read the Oct. 2 issue of The Smoky…
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Rep. Meadows is proud of poster boy status
To the editor: In a Sept. 27 CNN article, Congressman Mark Meadows, R-Cashiers, was identified as “the architect of the…
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Meadows playing up to Tea Party
To the Editor: Regarding a recent op-ed piece by Doug Wingeier on Congressman Meadows, R-Cashiers, and his feigned interest in…
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Shutdown particularly bad for our region
To the Editor: The federal government shutdown is probably the most counter-productive action that Congress could have taken during this…
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The system isn’t broken, it’s fixed
To the Editor: If we hadn’t figured it out by 2008, we should have at least gotten a clue. The…
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Jackson’s new tourism logo is lacking
To the Editor: Neither of the logos considered by the Jackson County TDA convey the proper message for tourism development.…
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‘We have met the enemy, and he is us’
To the Editor: Does John Boehner like what he’s seeing in the mirror these days? Maybe not, but the problem…
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Why is McCrory’s approval rating so high?
To the Editor: Governor Pat McCrory’s approval rating stands at 35 percent. Given the way he’s stuck it to the…
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Lawmakers in denial about plight of poor
By Dawn Gilchrist-Young Of the 120 or so 12th-graders I teach each year, about two-thirds have jobs outside of school.…
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First United Methodist Church to celebrate 125th anniversary
First United Methodist Church in Sylva will celebrate its 125th anniversary with a Homecoming on Sunday, Oct. 6. Bishop Larry…
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