Opinions

Americans refer to autumn as fall because of the falling of the leaves. Riding to work on U.S. 60 West, I can see the subtle transform ation begin as the green leaves on the trees change into their fall finery.

As we pointed out in last week’s editorial about the start of this year’s United Way campaign, there are a lot of neighbors in our community who need the help that United Way agencies provide.

Oct. 2, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: As a retired classroom teacher, I believe that school boards function best when people with teaching experience serve on them. Lenna Ojure not only has that experience (at the elementary, middle and high school levels), she also earned a PhD in curriculum and instruction at Virginia Tech. With that expertise, she advanced to teaching at the college level at both VMI and at W&L, where she directed the Teacher Education Program for 11 years.

Sept. 28, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette I am a flaming liberal and against book sequestering. However we can support children’s sexual identity without stooping to vulgarity. The book in question, “Kiss Number 8,” offered to youngsters at Lylburn Downing Middle School, inflames the lowest common denominator and appears absolutely inappropriate as a learning resource.

Sept. 27, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Our community has suffered as big a civic loss as any can imagine when Matthew White Paxton Jr. died Saturday at Kendal. He was 96, and spent his entire professional life as owner, editor and publisher of The News-Gazette (and of the Rockbridge County News before the 1962 merger with the Gazette).

Oct. 2, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Voters looking to improve Rockbridge County’s board of supervisors have a clear choice this fall: Mack Smith, farmer, businessman, and public servant to represent the Buffalo District.

Sept. 27, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: If you have been involved with a large, old organization, whether a business or nonprofit organization, you know how important it is to know what has preceded you. Who made what commitments to whom? How much did we agree to pay? When did we agree to build it?

Oct. 2, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Vote Michele Clark for Rockbridge County treasurer!

As it does at the beginning of each autumn, the United Way of Rockbridge, Lexington and Buena Vista has launched its annual fundraising campaign, a campaign that has become ever more crucial in the lives of many of our neighbors.

“The public, you know, thinks that a man on a newspaper is valued because he knows what to write, but the truth is, he holds his job because he ordinarily knows what not to write.” - Isaac Erwin Avery, city editor, Charlotte Observer (19001904) Simple recording of history as it happens, with a minimum of hyperbolic or vitriolic opinion and spin control, occurs less and less these days. What a renegade figure skater ate for breakfast has become front page news, relegating the reporting of the public record to the inside pages of the newspaper and the latter half of the network news broadcast. We seem to have become absorbed and fascinated by tragedy, intrigue and soap opera behavior, as though another misfortune might somehow elevate us from the oft-times humdrum rhythms of our individual lives.

Sept. 22, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: A Republican candidate for the Virginia’s legislature has sent out fliers announcing that he supports the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Supreme Court decisions have guaranteed a very permissive view of the right to keep and bear arms, so that campaign plank doesn’t require much courage. Meanwhile, in Washington, Republicans in Congress are seeking for evidence that Hunter Biden discusses his legal troubles with his father.

Sept. 25, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: I am writing to thank you for the second “For Your Consideration” column in this past Wednesday’s paper.

Sept. 22, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: We are blessed in Rockbridge County with many medium- and small-scale farms that produce a wide range of nutritious food – beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, rabbit, and a large assortment of vegetables and herbs.

Sept. 20, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: The LDMS administration has begun banning books from its middle school library, starting with the novel “Kiss Number 8,” because a parent made the vile accusation that the school is “grooming” children.

Sept. 25, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: The city of Lexington and Rockbridge County citizens … call to action!

Sept. 21, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: What Hitler and his minority party admired about the U.S. of his time was referred to as “the U.S. model”: voter suppression, gerrymandering, immigration restriction of non-Aryans, mixedrace marriages outlawed, propaganda as education. It was hate wrapped in the flag.

As summer gives way to fall this week, Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista continues to be a happening place. The refurbished and expanded campground is filling up to capacity with recreational vehicles driven by folks who are here for the 21st Nothin’ Fancy Music Festival being held Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With additional camp sites now in place, the park is likely to have the most campers it has ever had this weekend.

50 Years Ago

“To anyone that thinks the protests are ‘extreme’ or ‘not the answer’, this is America getting off LIGHT. The country deserves far worse considering all the lives destroyed and stolen in the past decade, let alone the past 400 years. Wake Up” — Jade Harris, Democrat Senate candidate in a Facebook post during the riots in 2020 that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.