Lower corporate taxes won’t create jobs
 

Lower corporate taxes won’t create jobs

To the Editor: In the ongoing debate about job creation, much misinformation is being bandied about in an effort to…
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Comment

Legislators need some time in the desert
 

Legislators need some time in the desert

To the Editor: After recently returning to North Carolina from three years in the Southwest, I am saddened to learn…
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Comment

Macon County needs to use landslide maps
 

Macon County needs to use landslide maps

To the Editor: The North Carolina Geological Survey landslide hazard map prepared for Macon County is a valuable resource for…
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Comment

We don’t need Rep. Phil Haire in office
 

We don’t need Rep. Phil Haire in office

To the Editor, Rep. Phil Haire’s recnt letter contains the pathetic non sequitur: “to place (the Defense of Marriage Bill)…
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Comment

Winter garden success come those who labor
 

Winter garden success come those who labor

I cut my first fall salad this weekend: baby kale, tatsoi, mizuna, baby mustards and more. Following a summer of…
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Comment

A witness to the Cherokee renaissance
 

A witness to the Cherokee renaissance

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has a resilient, independent spirit. When the U.S. government forced the majority of the…
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Comment

Riding the Parkway for a cause
 

Riding the Parkway for a cause

Seconds after I heard the doorbell, my little feet hit the stone floor landing that served to separate the front…
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Comment

Horn removal task best done early and well
 

Horn removal task best done early and well

I have learned, yet again, the virtues of doing something right the first time. My sloppiness was a bloody and…
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Comment

CuRvE wants to build on WCU’s strengths
 

CuRvE wants to build on WCU’s strengths

The article about the Western Carolina University Strategic Planning Commission caught the attention of the Cullowhee Revitalization Endeavor (CuRvE), a…
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Comment

Attacks on Tea Party inaccurate
 

Attacks on Tea Party inaccurate

To the Editor: The gangland-style, fist pounding threat to “take out the sons of b_____s shouted by union leader Jimmy…
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Comment

Do we really want leaders like this?
 

Do we really want leaders like this?

To the Editor: At the Republican presidential debate on Sept. 12, the moderator posed a hypothetical question to Representative Ron…
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Comment

Bothwell supports health care for all
 

Bothwell supports health care for all

To the Editor: Last March, I realized everyone’s worst nightmare when a doctor diagnosed my 44-year-old husband, Ben, with a…
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Comment

New Franklin Wal-Mart is a blight on landscape
 

New Franklin Wal-Mart is a blight on landscape

To the Editor: Last week I had the great misfortune of seeing first-hand the results of wanton destruction of acres…
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Comment

Is our region a threat or an opportunity?
 

Is our region a threat or an opportunity?

To the Editor: It was exciting last week to read of Western Carolina University’s move to re-open its strategic planning…
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Comment

Rep. Haire votes against same-sex ban
 

Rep. Haire votes against same-sex ban

To the Editor: Recently my office received more than 125 written requests from Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties requesting that…
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Comment

WCU’s future important for entire region
 

WCU’s future important for entire region

Once you hit the Haywood County line after heading west on Interstate 40 out of Asheville, Western Carolina University is…
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Comment

Haywood closes in on deal to privatize landfill
 

Haywood closes in on deal to privatize landfill

Haywood County is inching closer to exiting the landfill business, with plans to hand over the county’s White Oak landfill…
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Comment

Farmers are almost always willing to lend a hand
 

Farmers are almost always willing to lend a hand

Tammara Talley, while gracious in her acknowledgments during the shower of verbal high-fives raining down upon her at Saturday’s farmers…
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Comment

Tea Party wants to restore America
 

Tea Party wants to restore America

To the Editor: In a Quinnipiac University polling (8/16-8/27), 29 percent of Americans responded that they couldn’t formulate an opinion…
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Comment

Let’s send Obama to unemployment line
 

Let’s send Obama to unemployment line

To the Editor: We need a plan that will help grow jobs in our district. The message to the world…
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Comment

Kudos to Haywood for landslide mapping
 

Kudos to Haywood for landslide mapping

To the Editor: It’s good to see Haywood County leaders talking sense about landslide hazard mapping instead of stoking the…
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Comment

Harrah’s should not have a monopoly
 

Harrah’s should not have a monopoly

To the Editor: Regarding the editor’s article, “It’s time to approve dealers at Harrah’s casino” (SMN, Sept. 7-13), I agree…
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Comment

More media is almost always beneficial
 

More media is almost always beneficial

I don’t listen to local radio so much anymore, but the story in last week’s edition about the demise of…
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Comment

It’s tough to grow your meat and slaughter it too
 

It’s tough to grow your meat and slaughter it too

I was pleased to see quite a few people selling meat this past Saturday at the local farmers market in…
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Comment

Protecting public lands protects quality of life
 

Protecting public lands protects quality of life

To the Editor: Last week, North Carolinians joined citizens from all over the nation to celebrate Great Outdoors Week to…
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Comment

Third-party certification can help forest owners
 

Third-party certification can help forest owners

To the Editor: The best way to keep private forestlands in forests is to have an economic environment that makes…
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Comment

Social Security has been robbed by politicians
 

Social Security has been robbed by politicians

To the Editor: For more than 25 years after the 1983 amendments to Social Security, the federal government collected more…
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Comment

Time to reduce our dependence on oil
 

Time to reduce our dependence on oil

To the Editor: We traveled to Clayton, Ga., last week to attend a presentation featuring “The Transition Movement.” This movement…
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Comment

Hell hath no Fury like a guilty conscience
 

Hell hath no Fury like a guilty conscience

One night last week, when I was watching what must have been the 500th recounting of the Casey Anthony trial,…
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Comment

It’s time to approve dealers at Harrah’s casino
 

It’s time to approve dealers at Harrah’s casino

Been to the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino? Even if you don’t gamble, I’d encourage a walk through. My bet is you’d…
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Comment

Beware of cardboard coyotes
 

Beware of cardboard coyotes

I consider it a good thing when you meet someone new from a very different background that provides a chance…
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Comment

That awful smell, yeah, that’s me. Seriously.
 

That awful smell, yeah, that’s me. Seriously.

There is nothing that smells quite as bad as a male goat in rut. During the mating season, excited billy…
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Comment

Eichenbaum’s flip-flops can’t be ignored
 

Eichenbaum’s flip-flops can’t be ignored

To the Editor: In response to Dr. Dan Eichenbaum’s announcement that he is running for Congress again in the 11th…
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Comment

Democratic Party opposes rate increase
 

Democratic Party opposes rate increase

To the Editor: At the July meeting of the Jackson County Democratic Party Executive Committee, the executive committee voted to…
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Comment

Insurance mandate is not unconstitutional
 

Insurance mandate is not unconstitutional

To the editor: If mandatory health insurance is unconstitutional, as the Republicans hope the Supreme Court will rule, what about…
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Comment

State GOP leaders following a script
 

State GOP leaders following a script

To the Editor: I found it curious that the slew of bills rushed through the first session of our new…
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Comment

The wheels of justice got stuck in the mud
 

The wheels of justice got stuck in the mud

I’ve loved rock and roll music all of my life. When I was a teenager, I listened to Fleetwood Mac…
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Comment

When it comes to stings, all aren’t created equal
 

When it comes to stings, all aren’t created equal

A number of readers have informed me that the agonizing sting I described in last week’s column was the work…
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Comment

Lake issue raises complex questions
 

Lake issue raises complex questions

To the Editor: Thank you for the thoughtful, informative and balanced article on Lake Emory in Franklin. I would like…
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Comment

Park proposals add insult to injury
 

Park proposals add insult to injury

I recently wrote in the Swain County newspaper about a singularly misguided proposal by Great Smoky Mountains National Park leadership…
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Comment

Leading by example creates lasting legacies
 

Leading by example creates lasting legacies

Many people who lead exceptional lives never break an arm trying to pat themselves on their own back. They just…
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Comment

The insect sting that launched a frenzy of pill popping
 

The insect sting that launched a frenzy of pill popping

If I overdose and you have to take me to the emergency room, I told a friend Friday night, please…
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Comment

Skateboarders treated unfairly, especially by police
 

Skateboarders treated unfairly, especially by police

What if we treated all athletes like skateboarders? I ask this question because I am a skateboarder. I grew up…
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Comment

SCC does not need this kind of road
 

SCC does not need this kind of road

To the Editor: After reading a recent article in The Sylva Herald, I feel it is time to further explain…
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Comment

Keep N.C. artifacts on N.C. side of the Smokies
 

Keep N.C. artifacts on N.C. side of the Smokies

To the Editor: For the last two weeks I have been hearing about artifacts donated to the Great Smoky Mountains…
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Comment

Restoring earth before the end of the world
 

Restoring earth before the end of the world

I have some good news. But first the bad news. The world is ending. Evangelist Harold Camping has predicted it.…
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Comment

One Katahdin ram, two sheep and three really good lessons
 

One Katahdin ram, two sheep and three really good lessons

Turkeys, I’ve learned, are curious animals. That curiosity was on full display for company this past weekend when Kirk Hardin…
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Comment

Free Press in Cherokee? Not now anyway
 

Free Press in Cherokee? Not now anyway

To the editor: In this recent atmosphere of mudslinging, it’s all too easy to lose focus on what’s important. What…
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Comment

New state abortion rules seek to coerce women
 

New state abortion rules seek to coerce women

To the editor: I am writing to thank NC Representative Phil Haire for his courage and integrity in voting against…
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Comment

Life seems so good that nostalgia sets in
 

Life seems so good that nostalgia sets in

“It’s like floating on a cloud,” that’s what the man in the booth said about his nifty adjustable hammocks. We…
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Comment

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