Opinion

Homecoming

Eric Reece
Thursday, October 5, 2023
Over a year ago, my colleague Matthew – pastor of the church I served from 2001-05 – contacted me about preaching at homecoming. I told him I was covered up and offered to come next year. Well, next year rolled around, and he contacted me and reminded me I was coming this year.

Never stop asking questions

Ruby Annas
Friday, September 22, 2023
When I was a child, I was always asking questions. I asked so many questions that my dad, like many parents, would get tired of it. Now, as an adult, I am a journalist – and my curiosity and drive for answers has not faltered.   I am Ruby Annas, the newest staff writer at The Graham Star.

Land transactions had a lot of ‘Caractor’

Marshall McClung
Friday, September 22, 2023
Some areas of our local mountains have names that sound strange to some folks and are often mispronounced, causing certain places to wind up with different names – or at least different spellings. Such a place is Caractor Cove in the Santeetlah area.
These three wooden crosses tower over Tallulah Road, near the county’s department of transportation office. Photo by Eric Reece/The Graham Star

These three wooden crosses tower over Tallulah Road, near the county’s department of transportation office. Photo by Eric Reece/The Graham Star

Tale of the 3 crosses

Eric Reece
Friday, September 22, 2023
Have you ever traveled on a southern road and saw three mysterious, tall, colored crosses on the side of the highway? The center cross is taller and colored gold and the two on each side are light blue. I used to see many of these crosses traveling across the southeast.

Give me liberty, or give me death

Scott Kamps
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Sept. 17 is Constitution Day. It’s a great time to reread our Constitution and remember the freedoms we enjoy and the responsibilities of our political leaders.

Does religion grow through life?

Eric Reece
Thursday, September 7, 2023
As a person grows older, do they get more religious? One reason I asked is Graham County is growing older -- and the projections are it will continue. Our friends at the U.S. Census Bureau have our median (midpoint) age as 46 years old, as compared to 39.4 in North Carolina.
Former staff photographer Art Miller took this photo on my first official day as editor of The Graham Star: Aug. 8, 2019. I wish 2023 me would go back and tell my 2019 self to be prepared for the onset of gray hair just 1 ½ years later; local elections director Teresa Garland told me after the fact that her first impression of meeting me was simple: “He’s just a kid.”

Former staff photographer Art Miller took this photo on my first official day as editor of The Graham Star: Aug. 8, 2019. I wish 2023 me would go back and tell my 2019 self to be prepared for the onset of gray hair just 1 ½ years later; local elections director Teresa Garland told me after the fact that her first impression of meeting me was simple: “He’s just a kid.”

4 years (and 1 month) later

Kevin Hensley
Thursday, September 7, 2023
My 4-year anniversary over The Graham Star came and went without a single thread of recognition: no candle, no cake, not even an “attaboy.” Oh, I thought of it, no doubt. “How on Earth … four years?

Pintos and cornbread out west

Marshall McClung
Thursday, September 7, 2023
I recently wrote a column about a 1974 fire detail in Utah and meeting a Romanian shepherd (“Summer with a Shepherd,” Aug. 24). Any time I was in a place I had not been before, I always watched to see where the home folks ate. It turned out to be just across the street from where I was staying.

Sex, drugs and COVID

Scott Kamps
Thursday, August 31, 2023
An article written by Adrianna Rodriguez appeared on the front page of the Aug. 21 edition of USA Today, about sending kids back to school. This revealing journalistic piece communicates a lot about where our society is and where the cultural elites want to take us.