Is it a Taj Mahal or a wise use of tax dollars? 

I’m talking about the proposal to spend around $13 million to build a central office for the Haywood County School System that will bring administration, food services, transportation, teacher/staff training facilities and more all under one roof.

This is our annual Living Well issue where we offer suggestions and advice on topics related to fitness, nutrition and wellness. It’s always fun to brainstorm ideas and decide what content will benefit our readers or what’s the hot thing right now for consumers. Is it an eating program like the Keto diet? Is it an exercise craze like Crossfit? Or, perhaps it’s a product like CBD. 

By Kae Livsey • Guest Columnist

In the U.S., there is a common perception that there is a pill to fix everything. We are flooded with advertisements promoting pharmacological management for all kinds of conditions. There are even drugs that have been developed to counteract the side effects of other drugs, such as a pill to counteract constipation resulting from use of legally prescribed opioids. Substance use disorders may result from legally prescribed opiates, or from when people resort to opioid-based drugs as a way to self-medicate for chronic pain or mental illness that may be undiagnosed, or untreated, due to lack of access to treatment and support.

Every so often, she gets that feeling again. When she does, she scoots a little closer and begins tracing invisible lines on my forearm with her freshly polished nails, fire-engine red. She nuzzles me and sighs, as if being close to me like this is the answer to all of life’s most perplexing questions, as if this closeness is the very emblem of her contentment.

By Albert M. Kopak • Guest Columnist

You may have a story about Peter, while someone down the road has a similar story about Rose. Mine starts with George, my cousin who died at the age of 38 from an opioid-related overdose.

Such a tragic event will make anyone with a heart pause and reflect, but this is a special case. I am a criminologist who studies drug use in the criminal justice system, and I have thought long and hard about how George’s experience reflects our failure to implement practices designed to reduce crime, enhance public safety and strengthen our communities. We have opportunities to do a better job and change these stories.

Remember those old movies where submarines find themselves navigating through an underwater minefield, sometimes relying on skill to avoid what would be a sure death and other times surviving near misses on luck alone?

That’s what it feels like sometimes in the world of journalism as we try to make the right ethical choices. It seems almost every day we are discussing the right way to cover a story or whether some event should even be reported. Sometimes these issues are discussed at length, other times reporters and editors have to rely on gut instincts and past experience.

As a kid, I took the Blue Ridge Mountains for granted. They were always there in the background, but I never paid much attention. 

By Marsha Lee Baker • Guest Columnist

Somewhere, sometime, and in some way, each of us thinks about peace. We might not call it “peace,” but we think about it. We wonder where or what peace is with questions like “Why can’t we get along?” and “What is wrong with this family?” We sense peace each time we say, “What a wonderful time together!” and “I’ve never felt so whole in my life!”

Bob Savelson • Guest columnist

Thinking about Labor Day, it has been a national holiday since 1894. Consistent with the nation’s ambivalent feelings about whether organized labor should truly be part of its social fabric, the statute was signed by President Grover Cleveland — who earlier that year had dispatched federal troops to break a strike called to support Pullman car employees protesting wage cuts. 

One of the things I like the most about summertime is when the cherries begin showing up in the grocery stores, gallon-sized plastic bags filled to overflowing with Bing cherries nearly as big around as golf balls. It’s my own private version of the return of the swallows to Capistrano. The return of the cherries to Ingles.