back to top

Columnists

BOB BROWN: The American Flag

All my life, I’ve loved the American flag. I was taught there is something special about our flag, that it is never trampled upon in war or peace, and...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: There Is No Need For A U.S. Ground War In Venezuela

The easiest way to overthrow Nicolás Maduro, the narco-terrorist dictator of Venezuela, is to finance an insurgency....

SCOTT DREYER: Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

Americans celebrate Thanksgiving today, and along with Canadians in October, are the only people on...

DAWN CUSTALOW: Pocahontas Reframed and Thanksgiving

I just returned from the 9th annual Pocahontas Reframed film festival 2025 in Richmond, VA,...

SCOTT DREYER: “Forgive Me When I Whine”

This poem, of unclear authorship, reportedly comes from the dark Great Depression days of the...

In the Mirror We Find Something of Elmer Gantry

by Lucky Garvin After watching Burt Lancaster portray Elmer Gantry in the 1960 movie based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis, I went to...

Ask the Nature Lady by Marlene A. Condon

New Guide to Frogs and Toads of Virginia Spring is the time of year when you can readily learn about frogs and toads.  Because...

This Week A Man Died On His 25th Birthday, After A Very Long Life

byMike Keeler When George Keller was a farm kid in St. Louis, he thought he was indestructible. His favorite trick was to lie on...

Lenten Living by Joe Lehman

Devotion, faithfulness, duty,  and love.  These virtues bring people do the strangest things.  Because of them, firefighters go into burning buildings and forests,...

More Than Choirs Come Together

by Frances Stebbins Fifty years ago, maybe even twenty, such an event could hardly have happened in traditional Salem, but at the end of...

A Nonagenarian Remembers …

by Mary Jo Shannon In October I discovered that Raleigh Court Presbyterian church had over 30 members aged ninety or above. Our Writers Group...