The passion surrounding the 2024 election was monumental, and as I observed my fellow Americans, the overarching emotion that simmered to the surface, no matter the party affiliation, was fear.

To the Editor:

Since we have recently celebrated Martin Luther King Day, I thought it good to reflect on how far we have departed from his vision for America. 

A study conducted by the scholarly journal, Science, found that lack of human connection can be more harmful to your health than obesity, smoking and high blood pressure. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of humans and animals suggested that social isolation is a major risk factor for mortality from widely varying causes. 

Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly won my admiration long ago. I purchased my copy from Asheville’s Reader’s Corner Bookstore, now closed, and tore through this narrative of Bourdain’s adventures as a prep cook and then as a chef. For anyone who has served in the food business — in my 20s in Charlottesville I worked in an upscale restaurant serving French cuisine and in another medium-ranked restaurant called by the name of its previous tenant, The Hardware Store — Kitchen Confidential brought back all the hustle, chaos, gaffes, and drive for excellence that goes into the making of food and a pleasant dining experience for customers. In his memoir, Bourdain wrote lines like this one “Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” Not exactly in keeping with the Biblical injunction, but hilarious. (To judge from appearances, many of us have taken far too much pleasure from that ride.)

Christian Perspective

The Rev. T. Anthony Spearman hadn’t even started his talk from the Christian perspective, and already there wasn’t a dry eye in the Harrell Auditorium. More than 200 people listened intently as a black man on the projector screen sang “Make Them Hear You” from the Broadway musical “Ragtime.”