Early Tuesday morning. Sitting in the dentist chair, I stared blankly out onto the parking lot, only to then notice the bustling traffic on nearby U.S. 276. It was at that moment when the nice dental hygienist asked if a date and time in mid-September 2025 would be ideal for my next teeth cleaning.  

In the 26 years we’ve been publishing this newspaper, I don’t think we’ve ever had the onslaught of letters to the editor as has been happening since November.

The looming 1980 presidential election was all over the news, the unpopular incumbent Jimmy Carter facing the charismatic former actor and California Gov. Ronald Reagan.  A college junior in Boone walked into the Watauga County Board of Elections sometime in September and registered to vote in his first presidential election.

Editor’s note: Bob Clark coached the Tuscola boys and girls discus and shotput athletes for the past three seasons. Prior to that he coached the boys and girls throwers for four seasons at Waynesville Middle School. Six of those seven years he was a volunteer.

This spring Tuscola High School’s principal, accompanied by the athletic director (AD), threw $30,000 of taxpayer money away to change the color suggested for the new Tuscola track.

A recent town hall in Cullowhee laid out a heartbreaking problem in our public schools, as well as a sensible solution. The problem is hunger. The solution is to provide free meals to all students in our public schools. But, how do we get there? 

How do you have safe communication during relational conversations where defenses and triggers happen because of past hurts? How do you effectively communicate core issues instead of their symptoms?