To the Editor:

Political leaders are claiming they want to unite Americans. What they suggest is a top-down system which they can take credit for, rescuing millions of people all at one time.

To the Editor:

I made granola today. I know that doesn’t sound like news, or even worth a letter to the editor. But it’s pretty significant for me because my anxiety has been so high, that I haven’t been able to do the everyday things I should be doing — like making the granola I’ve been out of for the last two weeks. 

To the Editor:

Democracy thrives on rules that balance power and protect freedom. But recent actions by this new administration are tearing down those "guardrails," putting our democracy in real danger.

Did anyone else watch the inauguration? I mean, I’m sure it was the biggest, best and most-watched inauguration in the history of America, right? My eyes and ears were glued to my computer screen. It was unbelievable, more like a campaign rally speech where promises one knows they can never keep are bandied about like leaves falling from a tree.

I know that many people are so upset with the state of politics and division in our country that they struggled with the idea of celebrating the Fourth of July this year. Patriotism is and always has been a slippery and problematic thing. We’ll get back to that. 

Hello from the writing desk in my humble abode apartment in downtown Waynesville. It’s warm and sunny outside on this Monday afternoon amid Memorial Day Weekend. I’ve just returned from a 2,678-mile out and back trip to the North Country.  

I’m no extremist. I like discourse with people who hold opposing viewpoints. You can sway me with sound arguments. I feel enlightened when coming away with a better understanding of why people think the way they do. 

To the Editor:

Our Constitution was formulated by our Founding Fathers with the purpose of making America a nation free of the oppression and tyranny they had endured under the rule of an English king. 

In her classic novel “Little Women,” Louisa May Alcott has her character Margaret gaze bitterly at the family’s frostbitten garden and proclaim that “November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year.”

Right after Labor Day, my friend John and I traveled to Virginia’s Historic Triangle: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. A paper for which I write had commissioned me to do some pieces on each place, and though I had visited there earlier in my life, that was long ago.